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

Chapter 612 Collapse
Rome, the once eternal city is still bathed in sunshine. The mottled city walls make it look even older. The afterglow of the setting sun shines on the city walls and scatters throughout the city, making the entire city look gloomy.

The aristocratic area of ​​the city is still extremely luxurious, with nobles enjoying a lavish life here, while on the other side of the city, there live a large number of poor people.

These people work hard every day, but they still cannot get enough food or clothes. Even in the center of the empire, there are still a large number of slums.

The coming to power of Valentinian III did not bring any improvements here; on the contrary, life seemed to have become more difficult for these people.

In the past, many people could work near the army to earn money, and Aetius paid soldiers salaries, allowing them to afford consumption.

Now all that is gone.

The soldiers were very dissatisfied with the fact that they had not received their salaries for three consecutive months. After the death of Aetius, the army's treatment also plummeted, which made the army very dissatisfied with Valentinian III.

This situation also attracted the attention of some nobles, including Petronius.

As a member of the Roman Senate, he had some rights, but they were nothing compared to the Speaker and the Executive. He put in a lot of effort in this coup, but in the end he didn't get enough of the cake.

This made Petronius very unhappy.

As someone who had been elected consul twice, he had a strong desire for power.

After failing to gain the power he wanted, he would be reminded of the power Aetius once had.

At the beginning, Aetius relied on the power of the army to suppress the Roman Senate and the emperor. However, Aetius was too stupid to abolish the emperor, which was the main reason for his failure.

If I were in Aetius' position at that time, I would definitely depose the waste on the throne. Only he is qualified to be the emperor.

Petronius was well aware that Valentinian III's throne was unstable, especially after he reduced the army's pay. These dissatisfactions had reached their peak, but had not yet erupted.

Now that Petronius had discovered that he could not obtain higher powers, he decided to seize them himself.

Since you won’t give it to me with nice words, I’ll take it from you myself!

As one of the richest men in Rome, he had a lot of money in his hands, and it was not easy for him to bribe those troops.

That evening Petronius invited the generals of the army to a banquet at his palace.

Soon after three rounds of drinking, the atmosphere became very lively, and when Petronius saw that the situation was almost ready, he smiled and said, "How have you been lately?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the faces of the people who were drinking suddenly turned ugly.

"Petroni, you don't know that in recent months, His Majesty has cut military pay to only one-third of what it used to be."

"Not only has the military pay been reduced, but also most of the logistical supplies have been reduced."

"The brothers below are also full of complaints. If we hadn't suppressed them forcefully, they would have started making trouble long ago."

"We are lucky enough that we can bear it, but the brothers below all rely on military pay for their livelihood. We really can't delay this much."

For a moment, everyone was complaining.

"Sir, you are a member of the Senate. Why don't you talk to His Majesty the Emperor and ask him to pay the military salaries of our brothers below?" A general said at this time.

"Don't even think about paying the army. Not only me, but even the Speaker of the Senate can't do anything about it." Petronius waved his hand and said. The empire's finances were not strong enough to pay the army. But he didn't plan to tell them.

"After all, you are Aetius's old subordinates, and His Majesty the Emperor is very dissatisfied with you."

"Not only does he not intend to make up for the military pay, he is also planning to replace you with his cronies!"

"The Emperor is worried about you now. I think you should find a way out and leave as soon as possible."

Petronius pretends to be concerned about you, but in fact he is not trying to persuade these people to leave, but is secretly fanning the flames.

It was difficult to get these people to give up their power, not to mention that there was no compensation. Therefore, after hearing what Petronius said, the faces of the people around him suddenly changed.

One of them quickly asked, "Sir, we are fighting for our country, so why is His Majesty treating us so harshly?"

"Fighting for the country? Haha, didn't the Protector of the Country also fight for the country? What's the situation now?"

"Is the contribution of the Duke of Protector of the Country less than yours? In the end, wasn't he killed by him? If you don't leave on your own initiative now, do you want to wait for the Emperor to kill you?" Petronius sneered.

After hearing this, everyone could no longer sit still and stood up and said, "Damn it, do you really think we are made of mud?"

"We didn't avenge the Duke of the Protectorate and go looking for trouble with him, but now he's looking for trouble with us!"

"No! We can't just leave like this!" "If we really leave, others who want to kill us only need to send a few soldiers, and we will have no choice but to surrender!"

"Revenge for the Protector of the Country!"

"Yes, revenge for the Protector of the Country!"

It only took a moment for these generals to decide to give it a try.

"Do you really want to do this?" said Petronius, who was sitting next to them calmly.

"Sir, what do you think we should do?" said the general.

"The Protector of the Kingdom has made great contributions to the country. He has defeated the Germanic barbarians many times, forced the Visigoths not to invade the empire, and united other countries to fight against Attila, saving the empire from danger."

"As a result, he was hostile to Valentinian, suppressed, and later assassinated by conspiracy!"

"When the Huns invaded, he abandoned the city and the people and fled. Is such a person worthy of being the emperor of the empire?"

Petronius asked.

"Unworthy!" several generals said immediately.

"Bah, with his ugly appearance, he still wants to be the emperor of the empire? This kind of bastard should be killed and let someone more capable be the emperor of the empire!"

"Yes, kill him!" These generals were stimulated by alcohol and their blood was boiling. Their dissatisfaction with the emperor of the empire had reached its peak.

Seeing this, Petronius was overjoyed and said immediately: "In this case, let's change the emperor!"

"Sir, we will do whatever you say!" It was still the general who spoke first.

Several other generals also agreed.

"Well, since you all listen to me, let's make a plan first." Petronius was well prepared and told the plan immediately.

These generals also agreed. Then Petronius ordered people to prepare a large amount of wine, meat and money, and transported them to the military camp with hundreds of carriages.

The soldiers in the barracks were very happy to see such a rich feast. In this case, Petronius began to reimburse all the soldiers and told them that all the money was given to them by Sir Petronius.

This greatly increased the favorability of the army towards Petronius, as it had been through several months of hard times.

Then Petronius entered the palace again and said to Valentinian III: "Your Majesty, you have been the emperor of the empire for decades, but you have never really controlled the army, which is not conducive to your majesty."

"In the past, the army was controlled by Aetius. The army only knew Aetius, not Your Majesty. Now Aetius is dead, but your prestige in the army is still not high, which has a serious impact on your authority."

"If you can't control the army, how can you suppress those nobles in the Senate?"

Valentinian III thought for a moment and said, "Petronius, your reminder is very timely. I almost forgot that I didn't have control of the army!"

"I wonder if you have any good ideas?"

"It's very simple. Your Majesty, hold a military parade and let those soldiers see you in person. As long as they can see your supreme majesty, I believe they will be awed by your majesty and become your loyal supporters!"

"Hahaha, Petroni, your idea is great. Let's hold a military parade in three days and let the soldiers pay homage to their great emperor!" Valentinian III was so pleased with Petronius that he immediately decided to let him handle the military parade.

Petronius naturally agreed without hesitation. Looking at Valentinian III who was still immersed in self-absorption, Petronius secretly sneered in his heart.

After obtaining the right to prepare the parade, Petronius immediately took action. He then began to arrange Valentinian III's route and where to strike.

In order to kill Valentinian III, he specifically found the soldiers who had been cared for by Aetius before and told them the whereabouts of Valentinian III.

These people had deep feelings for Aetius and almost rioted that year, but Valentinian III lived in the palace, and there were guards outside, so they could not approach. Finally, they were appeased by Petronius and waited for the opportunity to come.

Now the opportunity has come. Although these people know that Petronius is using them, they don't care at all.

As long as they could kill Valentinian III, they didn't mind these trivial matters.

Petronius was not only preparing to deal with Valentinian III, but also some nobles in the Senate. He needed to remove all obstacles to his ascension to the throne.

After everything was ready, Petronius began to report to Valentinian III. When Valentinian III saw that all preparations were made, he was very happy and immediately ordered to go to Chengdu for a military parade the next morning.

(End of this chapter)