Rome Must Fall Chapter 28: Maximus’ advice

“It should be that the road ahead is narrow and the carriages can’t get on.” Hamilka thought for a while and explained: “Besides, the people in the baggage team are all old people, women and children, and they can’t protect these carriages. Being able to bring it up the mountain is already my best effort.”

“Indeed, it is not easy for Maximus to organize his own baggage team to transport these supplies safely up the mountain when we lost the battle and were pursued by the Roman army. You let him take over the baggage truck The team is right!”

Spartacus finished praising Maximus, then turned to look at the other gladiators: “Volsiris, you stay here with your brothers and guard our food.”

Worsilis was a Thracian gladiator who had always believed in Spartacus and immediately obeyed his orders.

The other gladiators stayed behind, while Spartacus and Hamilka continued to walk upwards. After a while, they saw a dozen people coming down from above.

Spartacus recognized the leader at a glance as the gladiator Pheasalus. He once suffered a leg injury while escaping from the gladiator school. He recovered after twenty days and was in Altonix. When he saw Spartacus, his tired eyes suddenly lit up, he stopped on his own initiative, and shouted respectfully: “Chief Spartacus!”

Behind him were all slave recruits. They had their heads lowered and looked depressed, and they didn’t even bother to look up at Spartacus.

Spartacus saw this and asked: “Where are you going?”

“Maximus implores everyone to send someone to guard the food in the carriage below, but no one has been willing. Only I-” Pheasalus said helplessly: “Who told me that I still have a relationship with Maximus? Not bad, sorry to refuse.”

It seems that Maximus didn’t think carefully… Spartacus subconsciously looked at Hamilka, and then said: “You don’t need to take people down, I have asked Volsiris to guard It’s there.”

When Pheasalus heard this, he immediately became energetic, turned around and said to the others: “Brothers, we don’t have to go down anymore, go up and have a rest.”

The others turned around and walked away in relief, but no one bothered to respond.

Spartacus frowned even more.

After passing a turning point in the mountain road, Pheasalus said loudly from the front: “Chief, the road ahead is steep, so be careful. We were too panicked when we came up… Some brothers fell… ”

After the rebels were stationed at the wine farm, Spartacus personally surveyed the surrounding terrain. He also walked on this mountain and did not find it difficult to walk. However, Fesalus’ words shocked him, and then he Then it turned into sadness. He silently followed Pheasalus and his party through the “steepest” mountain road and came to the habitat of the defeated rebel soldiers.

This is a piece of land at the top of the mountain, surrounded by large rough rocks, with thick dark brown soil deposited in the center. Coupled with sufficient sunlight, it is no wonder that it was opened up into a vineyard.

It’s just that the wooden sheds that blocked the mountain wind have been demolished, and the grape trellises have all disappeared. There are no lush green leaves and heavy grape bunches, only densely packed rebel soldiers. They sat crowded on the ground, some leaning on each other and falling asleep from exhaustion, some covering their wounds and moaning, some looking depressed and sobbing softly… They were all depressed and demoralized. When Spartacus When Si entered here, most of the people were like wooden sculptures, still motionless, as if the leader of the rebel army did not exist.

Only the three leaders Cross, Enomui, and Altonix who were sitting on the edge of the land stood up. Maximus, who was in the innermost part of the land, saw this and squeezed through the dense crowd. .

“How many more people do we have?” Spartacus first asked the question he was most concerned about.

“Maximus did a rough count for me just now. There are about 1,400 people here, including a baggage team of 170 people.” Even Cross, who has always been highly motivated, can’t help but feel a little frustrated at this moment. : “More than 200 of these people are injured, and I’m afraid they won’t be able to fight again in a short time…”

Spartacus felt sad: Before the war, the rebel army had more than 4,000 people. After the battle, there were three-quarters less. Those who were not on the mountain either died in battle, were captured, or fled to him. At…

Spartacus shook his head, temporarily putting aside his sad mood, and asked seriously: “How many casualties did the gladiators have?”

“Including Wallslis and the others you left on the mountainside, there are still 163 people here…” Cross, a Gallic man with a strong personality, also showed sadness at this moment: “Bozovel, Nige Er, Weibert… they all died in the battle with the Romans… I saw it with my own eyes…”

The names of the people Cross mentioned were all Gallic gladiators, and they were closely related to him.

Spartacus patted his shoulder hard to express comfort.

“Spartacus, the Romans are building a camp at the bottom of the mountain and trying to trap us on the mountain. What should we do now?!” Altonix interjected somewhat eagerly. They can see it from the top of the mountain. The situation at the foot of the mountain.

“Why don’t we rush down together before the Romans dig the trenches, and launch a surprise attack on them? We will definitely be able to break through their siege!” Enomui said loudly.

“Although we have some food on the mountain, we don’t have enough water. If we are surrounded by the Romans for three or four days, we will all die of thirst. It is better to do what Enomui said and wait for everyone to rest. After that, go down the mountain and fight with the Romans!” Cross said through gritted teeth.

Althonics did not speak, but his expression clearly expressed approval.

It seems that these three people have reached an agreement in advance… Spartacus was a little hesitant: the Romans were not unprepared when they built the camp at the foot of the mountain. Their regular troops were standing guard on the side. The previous charge of more than 4,000 people was We failed to overwhelm the enemy, and now we have to carry these more than 1,000 defeated troops with low morale down the mountain. This is simply gambling with our lives! …But if you don’t do this, you will be besieged on the mountain by the Romans and wait for death? ……

Spartacus was in a dilemma. He was about to say: “Let me think again -” when he heard Maximus, who had already rushed over, say: “The Romans can’t block us, we can Go down the mountain quietly.”

“Go down the mountain quietly? How?!” When Cross heard this, he became very angry: “Except for this side of the mountain, it is surrounded by cliffs and there is not even a place to stay. What do you want? Climbing down the mountain quietly is just a dream! If you hadn’t led the baggage team up the mountain first and attracted the soldiers to follow ~IndoMTL.com~ we wouldn’t be trapped on this mountain at all!”

“Cross, if Maximus hadn’t led the panicked soldiers up the mountain, we would still be on the run, and there would be no way we would still be discussing how to break out of the encirclement.” Hamilka immediately helped Maxim Si defended.

“That way at least we can escape, instead of waiting to die like now!” Cross retorted.

“Stop the quarrel!” Spartacus roared irritably, then looked at Maximus and asked in a voice that was both hopeful and nervous: “What did you just say? What does ‘quietly go down the mountain’ mean? Is there another way down the mountain?”

“Of course!” Maximus looked at everyone with confidence, and finally his eyes fell on Cross, and said in a deep voice: “What you just said is right, except here, this mountain is surrounded by cliffs , it is too high from the ground, it is indeed difficult to go down the mountain, but it is not impossible! I brought several bundles of strong ropes. Although they are not long enough when connected, there are grapevines everywhere, and some old vines are very strong. Put them with the ropes Connected together, you can hang from here to the ground, and——”

Maximus pointed to the cliff to the east and said with emphasis: “I checked the terrain here before. There are two mountain shuttles over there that reach the ground vertically. Some of the mountain walls between the mountain edges are just right for us to branch off. With both feet supported, we can pass through the cliff over there, hold on to the rope and slide down while stepping on the mountain wall slowly. We should be able to reach the bottom of the mountain smoothly, and there is a mountain separated from the camp that the Romans are building. , it is difficult for them to detect our actions.”

Maximus’s words made Spartacus doubtful, but the new hope made him re-energized. He turned to several leaders and said loudly: “Let’s go and take a look!”