The Great Arcanist Who Traveled Through the World of American Variety Shows.

Chapter 607 Shadow
The Roman Empire had actually reached a dead end, and it would be more difficult and quicker to rise again through reform than to start over.

At this time in the Roman Empire, almost all upper-class positions were monopolized by the nobles and monotheism, and the lower classes did not get any benefits.

If Aetius wanted his reform to succeed, he had to kill a lot of people, but Aetius had no such intention, so his failure was inevitable.

Rome, in a luxurious aristocratic manor.

The huge manor covers an area of ​​dozens of acres. The manor is home to gorgeous Roman-style garden buildings. In the center of the huge flower bed is a rockery fountain. The floor of the palace next to it is paved with white marble.

Maids with graceful figures were coming in and out.

At this moment, a grand banquet was being held in the palace, and the bigwigs of Rome were toasting each other.

There was a wide variety of delicious food and wine, and each person was served by four or five beautiful female slaves.

A group of beautiful women dressed in gauze and with slim figures are dancing to the music.

The palace was filled with decadence and extravagance.

Soon the banquet came to a break, the dancers and musicians had left the stage, and the middle-aged nobleman sitting at the head seat put down his wine glass and said.

"My business has dropped by 70% in the past few months. How is yours?"

"Senos, yours is still good. My caravan has suffered losses!" A man dressed as an aristocrat next to him put down his wine glass and said angrily.

"My workshop's profits have also dropped by 70%!"

"mine."

"mine."

All of a sudden, the nobles in the hall started to complain at once.

The nobles sitting in the upper seats looked at each other and nodded slightly, saying, "Ever since the Duke of Protectorate implemented the new policy reform, our business and caravans have been affected!"

"Our Lord Protector of the Country took the opportunity to make a fortune! I heard that he reimbursed the army! He even wanted to rebuild the fortress in the north!"

"Haha, rebuilding the fortress? Will it work?" Thanos, who was sitting in the first seat, sneered.

"Did the Northern Fortress work during the last Hun invasion?"

"The entire fortress was breached by the Huns before it could even be used!"

"Then the Scourge of God, Attila, drank the Mabo River and threatened Rome, if Pope Leo and the President of the Senate had not come forward."

"We went to the Po River in person to dissuade Attila, and now we are prisoners of the Huns!"

"And where is the Protector of the Country?"

"He hid in the north and watched us get caught!"

"We spent money and effort to finally deal with Attila, but he came back and started to bully people again!"

"And now he's even started to impose heavy taxes on us! My beloved brothers, he's trying to completely cut off our family!"

"Yes, the Duke of Protectorate has gone too far!" another nobleman nearby echoed loudly.

The nobles around nodded one after another. They all paid a lot of taxes because of the new policies implemented by Aetius.

For these nobles, this was simply cutting off their flesh.

Originally, because of the army under the control of Aetius, they could only endure it, but they did not expect that Aetius would make more and more reforms and divide up more of their wealth.

If they don't resist, and things continue at this rate, they will soon be divided up into even more wealth.

"We have to make a choice!"

"But he is the Duke of Protectorate!"

"Without him, how could Rome stop the Huns in the north? And the surrounding barbarians?"

"Haha, can he stop it?"

"What is he doing when the Huns invade? I'm afraid you don't know yet, but our Protector of the Country is a good friend of the Hun Emperor Attila!"

"Besides, I heard that the Hun emperor seems to be in poor health recently. He might die someday!"

"Okay!" Senos waved his hand and said, "We can't count on Aetius, but we can ask the governor of Gaul to come!"

"The last time the Governor of Gaul came to Rome, you all saw how strong his army and horses were. I heard that he defeated the Germanic barbarians in the north so much that they dared not go south to plunder. With him here, it will not be difficult to stop the Huns."

"In that case, what are we waiting for? Let's get started!"

"I told you that you are brainless, and you really are!" Another noble sneered, "Why are you really planning to send someone to assassinate Aetius?"

"Aetius is now in control of the army, and he has guards to escort him when he goes out. Are you seeking death by assassinating him?"

"Then what do you think we should do?"

Everyone was silent for a while. Ever since Caesar was assassinated by the senators in the Senate, the Roman emperors had developed a tradition of having guards to protect them. Later, the guards also rebelled and killed the Roman emperor, and the Roman emperors after that began to recruit barbarian soldiers as guards.

This fine tradition has continued to this day, and although Aetius is not an emperor, he is also protected by a personal entourage.

More importantly, Aetius was very popular among the soldiers. You know, he paid the soldiers their salaries without any deductions, which directly made the army very supportive of him.

During this period, it was normal to collect empty salaries and suck the blood of soldiers. Often the army's food and salary supply was insufficient, and being able to get half the salary was considered good. If you were unlucky, you wouldn't get paid for several months.

Many armors and weapons in the army were stolen and sold. It can be said that although there were various problems after Aetius took charge of the army, the army no longer owed military pay.

This made all the soldiers willing to follow him. If these nobles dared to assassinate Aetius directly, whether they succeeded or failed, the soldiers would definitely avenge them.

By then, these nobles will be in trouble. So direct assassination is the best option!

"I think we still need our Majesty to take action!" After a moment's silence, a noble suddenly spoke.

"We can't assassinate Aetius, but the Emperor can!"

When everyone heard this, they were slightly stunned, and then they thought of something. Although Aetius was always accompanied by guards, when he entered the palace, the guards would guard outside the palace.

Aetius did this to show respect for Valentinian III. In fact, with his current power, he could just bring people in and Valentinian III would not dare to say anything.

After all, the current emperor has been abandoned by almost everyone. He is now a lucky lake, the product of a compromise between the nobles and Aetius.

Aetius did this to maintain the stability of the empire, but these nobles knew more about political struggles and the emperor.

Valentinian III, an ambitious but incompetent man, would not remember Aetius' kindness. He now blamed Aetius for all his failures.

He believed that it was all Aetius' fault that he was in this situation.

If he had the chance, he would have torn Aetius into pieces.

"Good idea!" The nobles around immediately figured it out.

This was something that only the emperor of the empire could do. After all, the emperor was still the emperor. If Aetius was killed by the emperor's order, even if the soldiers were angry, they would only hate the emperor.

After killing Aetius, the emperor was useless and was killed directly by the army. They could easily establish a new emperor.

By then, all power in the country will be in their hands.

Thinking of this, everyone smiled at each other and started to plan what to do.

"But I'm afraid that His Majesty the Emperor doesn't dare to kill Aetius!" someone else said at this time.

"We can support him, just as we have supported him in his reign of power."

"Not enough, you forgot about the Hun emperor Attila!"

"Let's try it. We can replace Aetius with the governor of Gaul."

Everyone said.

At this moment, Aetius did not know that there was such a group of people plotting against him. He was busy implementing the new policy. Since he made up his mind to implement the new policy and levy taxes on the nobles, the financial problems of the empire were immediately alleviated.

After levying taxes on the nobles, he discovered that these nobles were really rich.

After obtaining taxes, Aetius began to pay the army and let his cronies take control of the army.

The other side is to rebuild the northern defense line.

Although the tax revenue increased a lot, there were also many places to spend money, which made the empire's finances still stretched.

At the same time, part of the tax revenue was taken by Valentinian III for his own enjoyment. Thinking of Valentinian III, Aetius shook his head slightly.

The current Emperor no longer controls government affairs, nor does he confront him anymore. He just hides in the palace, living a life of drunkenness and debauchery every day.

Aetius thought this was a good idea. Without the emperor's interference, he could do many things directly, and the Senate was also suppressed by him.

In his view, as long as it could continue for a few more years, the Roman Empire would be able to overcome the crisis and prosper again.

At that time, Richard would guard Gaul, and he would go north to defeat the Huns, and then lead his army across the sea to attack North Africa.

The colonies in North Africa were very important to the empire. After being occupied by the Vandals decades ago, the empire lost a large granary. If Aetius wanted to restore the Roman Empire, he had to get this granary.

In the Hun Empire, the ambitious Attila is marrying his bride.

After attacking Rome, threatening the Pope, and obtaining huge amounts of gold, Attila's prestige returned to its peak. His beautiful wife was a German.

This was a German noble girl sent by the Germans to please him.

Attila was very pleased with the girl, so he held a grand wedding. Attila had planned to attack the Roman Empire again after civil unrest broke out in Rome.

As for the peace treaty signed with the Pope and the Roman Empire, he didn't care. He could ask the Romans to invite him when the time came.

(End of this chapter)