My XX deal with Sister Nero

Because they themselves were quite influential, both the Jewish rebels and the Roman Empire, at least on the surface, gave the Sadducees enough respect and did not cause trouble for them.

Until Tony took the initiative to find them.

Members of the Sadducees are probably the easiest to find of all the Jewish sects.

The members of the Sadducees mainly came from three parts. The first part was the priests of Jewish temples in various places. The second part was the former Jewish nobles except the Herod family. The third part was the various Jewish wealthy businessmen. Therefore, it was very easy to find the members of the Sadducees. You only needed to find the Jewish priests and wealthy businessmen in the city of Caesarea, and you could follow the clues to find the core members of this faction.

"Your Highness." When Tony returned to the study, he found that several core members of the Sadducees were already in the study, holding a glass of grape juice, quietly waiting for his arrival.

"Sorry, I had to go out for something just now, so I was delayed for a while. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting." Tony pulled out a chair and sat behind the desk. He waved to the leaders of the Sadducees and said with a smile.

"No, no, your Highness has worked hard for the country, so it is only right that we should wait a little longer." One of the old men, who was wearing a black robe and looked like a clergyman, stood up from his chair somewhat stiffly and said to Tony in a flattering manner.

How dare they offend His Highness now?

It's not so bad on weekdays. Although their stance appears neutral, they are actually more inclined towards the Roman Empire. It's just that compared to the Herodians, their Sadducees have a slightly better reputation.

We are cooperating, not surrendering.

So normally, no one would mess with them.

But this is not peacetime, this is wartime.

When the people below told them that Prince Odeni wanted to meet with them, these core members of the Sadducees were stunned. The Jews had launched a rebellion, and they happened to be Jews, and they were also the upper class of Jews. Why did His Highness look for them? Was he going to target them?

These people first surrounded the place and finally found that they could not figure out what was going on, so they simply gritted their teeth and stomped their feet and came to the residence of the governor of Caesarea. They planned to meet this legendary prince in person, and if possible, it would be best to save their lives from him.

"Don't be nervous." Seeing that the people present were almost shaking with polio, Tony coughed twice, and waved his hand at them while trying to suppress his smile, saying, "I have no special intention in calling you here. I just want to ask you a question. I think you should know that yesterday, the Jews in the province of Judea raised the flag of rebellion and betrayed the empire."

“Your Highness!” Upon hearing the young prince mention this matter, the people present trembled even more violently: “Your Highness, please understand. Although we are also Jews, we have always adhered to the principle of neutrality and did not participate in this rebellion. Even within the empire’s rule, we took the initiative to participate in maintaining local public order. We…we…”

"It's alright. Of course I know your loyalty." Tony waved his hand at them with a smile, "I called you here not to question your loyalty, but to ask you something."

"Ah... Please speak, Your Highness." The middle-aged men looked at each other and felt a little relieved.

Since their loyalty is not questioned, it means that they are temporarily safe and will not be killed by His Highness for this reason.

"My question is very simple, that is... do you know Salome?"

"Salome? Your Highness, are you referring to Princess Salome, the granddaughter of King Herod the Great?" a wealthy businessman asked subconsciously.

"Of course." Tony replied to the rich businessman, his eyes fixed on the priests sitting next to the rich businessman.

As Tony expected, when he said the name Salome, the faces of the priests sitting next to the rich businessman showed a trace of panic.

"It seems that the priests seem to know something? For example... the last princess of the Jews, Her Highness Salome, has been resurrected? Or she... has become younger?" Tony touched his chin and asked the group of Jewish priests with a smile.

Although her exact date of birth is unclear, if Tony remembers correctly, Salome should be a contemporary of Jesus. If she lived a long life, it should not be a problem for her to live to this day.

"Your Highness..." Hearing Tony's words, a priest stood up subconsciously with a panicked look on his face.

Your Highness...how did you know?

"Is it true? The leader of the rebels is Salome, and you... know this." Tony sighed, looked at everyone present with a look of great regret, and said slowly.

“Your Highness!” Seeing Tony’s regretful expression, the wealthy businessman’s body softened, and he slid down from the chair with a plop. He remained on his knees and cried out loudly, “Your Highness, spare me, I really don’t know anything!”

The rich businessman certainly knew nothing, and he might even know less than Martha, but it was different for the priests.

Although Martha is a core member of the rebels, she is a Christian saint after all. To Judaism, Martha can only be regarded as a partner and not one of their own. Therefore, there are many things that Martha is not very clear about. However, the Jewish priests are different. Even if they remain neutral, in this era of theocracy, even if they are passive, they can receive a lot of information that they do not need to know, such as... the leader of the Jewish rebels this time is Salome, who has been dead for more than ten years!

PS: Ahem, I was too tired yesterday so I fell asleep. I will update twice today to make up for yesterday’s update.

Chapter 608 The rebels are coming!

The priests were puzzled as to why a person who had been dead for more than ten years could be resurrected and regain his youth. They were also puzzled as to why His Royal Highness the Prince could say the name Salome.

According to the intelligence they have, His Highness is not a learned man. He wandered outside in his early years. Two years ago, he was discovered by His Highness and brought back to Rome. Judging from the little prince's knowledge, he has barely mastered Latin in the past year or so. Not to mention anything else, even if he wants to issue any documents now, as long as it is something slightly complicated, he can only rely on others to do it for him.

As for the war... Although this child has some wild imagination, the generals under him are the ones who actually command the war. So, logically speaking, how could this little prince, who can only be considered an "illiterate", know the name Salome?

"I've said, don't be nervous, I don't mean to blame you." Seeing that these people were almost shaking like Wu Laoer from the next village, Tony waved his hands quickly, "I have my own channels. At first, I just suspected that even the Herodians, who could be said to be loyal allies of the Roman Empire, chose to rebel, but you, the Sadducees, still maintained a neutral position. This shows that a high-ranking Herodian wanted them to participate in this rebellion, and the current Herodians don't have such a prestigious person, so we can only look for it among the ancients."

Tony paused for a moment before continuing, "I think you all know that two tombs were dug out outside Jerusalem not long ago. The reason was not tomb robbery, but the owners of the tombs were resurrected. These two were King David and his son King Solomon, the monarchs of the ancient Kingdom of Israel. So, I suspect that it is very likely that an ancient person who could lead the Herodians was resurrected. According to the information I have, the most likely one... should be Salome."

To be honest, the most famous person in the Herod family is definitely King Herod the Great, but King Herod the Great and his sons were all ruthless ruling machines. They knew who gave them the power, so to put it bluntly, they were the ultimate running dogs of the Roman Empire. They could ruthlessly exploit the Jewish people, but they would never betray the Roman Empire. So even if King Herod the Great and his sons were resurrected, they would not be able to lead the rebels to betray the empire.

Among King Herod the Great's grandchildren, only a few are famous, and the most famous of them is of course Salome.

In addition, Salome is the only heroic spirit belonging to the family of Herod.

So when Tony first learned that the Jews were about to rebel, he suspected whether Salome was involved. After all, in order to repeat the story of Cefalu and Tiamat, the restraining force might have resurrected Salome as a heroic spirit. However, due to insufficient information, he had not been able to verify his guess. But now... his guess has been verified.

The leader of the Jewish rebels was Salome, the granddaughter of King Herod the Great!

"So everyone, do you know where Salome is now?" After thinking for a while, Tony decided to try his luck here first.

If these people knew Salome's whereabouts and were willing to tell Tony, he would definitely bring people to find trouble for Salome himself, but if they didn't know or told him false news, then... we'll have to talk about it later.

"This... Your Highness, it's not that we don't want to say it, but we really don't know." One of the old men in black priest robes stood up with a bitter look on his face: "After all, we don't want to participate in this rebellion, so we didn't take the initiative to collect their intelligence."

"That's right." Tony nodded.

Although these priests spoke nicely and said that they were on a neutral position, in fact, they were just waiting for the price to rise, wanting to see which side had a better chance of winning, and then they would stand on that side.

Although the Roman Empire seemed to be extremely powerful, what if something unexpected happened? For example, if the little prince was captured, and the Jewish rebels held him hostage and asked His Majesty to order the independence of the Jewish province, His Majesty would definitely agree to this, right?

So they have never taken the initiative to collect intelligence from both sides. Of course, this does not mean that they cannot.

Now they are in front of Tony, and their lives are in the hands of this young prince, so these core members of the Sadducees can only defect to the Roman Empire and order their men to collect intelligence on the Jewish rebels.

Compared to Tony's spies, the Sadducees are much more efficient.

Although the Sadducees did not have specialized intelligence personnel, as a class composed of Jewish priests and former Jewish aristocrats, they had conveniences that Tony did not have, such as... there were quite a few of their people within the rebel army.

While Tony was chatting with the Sadducees, on the other side, in Jerusalem, south of Caesarea.

In the world where Tony lived in his previous life, the situation in the Roman Empire's Jewish province was somewhat complicated. After the death of King Herod the Great, the Roman Empire did not completely occupy the Jewish region, but chose a cooperative model, handing over the area to the Herod family and the official Roman Empire for joint management, while Jerusalem belonged to the Jews.

But this world is different.

After the death of King Herod the Great, the Roman Empire quickly sidelined the Herod family and became the actual ruler of the Jewish province. The Romans even established their administrative capital in Jerusalem. The reason for this was simply to give the Jews a feeling that "the Roman Empire is the legitimate government of the Jewish region."

After all, Jerusalem is a holy city in the hearts of the Jews.

There are both advantages and disadvantages for the Roman Empire to set up the capital of its Jewish province here. The advantage is that for the Jews, a provincial capital in Jerusalem is more authoritative than a provincial capital in Caesarea. As for the disadvantages... there is no doubt that when the Jews are about to launch a rebellion, Jerusalem will become their main target of attack!

"Like now."

"Your Excellency the Governor, there are at least 150,000 soldiers gathered outside the city, and we have... less than 2,000 people." On the wall of Jerusalem, a young general in armor leaned on the arrow slit, squinted his eyes and glanced at the dark crowd outside the city, and said to Florus who was standing beside him.

"150,000?" Hearing this number, Florus subconsciously took a half step back, then quickly stabilized his body and coughed lightly, saying, "Why are you panicking? Isn't it just 150,000 people? Although the enemy is numerous, you see, their equipment is varied, and the soldiers basically have no armor. Moreover, the most important thing is that they don't have large siege weapons and have no way to break through this city. I will write a letter for help to His Highness now. Everyone just needs to hold on for a few days until the reinforcements arrive!"

Chapter 609: When in doubt, act cool

Having said that, you would be lying if you said Florus wasn't afraid.

No matter how poorly their equipment is, there are at least 150,000 troops outside the city!

Fifteen thousand, what does that mean? Even if there were no siege weapons, they could just use ladders and no tactics. If they all rushed forward, it would be enough to flatten Jerusalem, which had less than two thousand defenders!

"Governor, they... don't seem to intend to attack us. It looks like they are setting up camp." On the city wall, a young general suddenly pointed at the enemy in the distance and shouted.

"Camp?" Florus' heart sank when he heard the word.

The army came from afar, and the soldiers were tired and their morale was low. Unless the enemy had an empty city or no city defense at all, generally speaking, the army coming from afar would choose to recuperate, build siege weapons such as ladders, and take a night's rest to restore the soldiers' strength and morale.

Yes, that's what most generals do.

But the problem is, logically speaking, the rebels should be just a group of rabble, but now the leader knows to stop and rest before attacking the city, which shows that the other party is at least familiar with military affairs and is not a person who knows nothing.

If the other party knows something about military affairs, it will be troublesome.

If I had known this earlier, although the Marius reforms in this world were not thorough enough to lead to the coexistence of the National Army and the Field Army, the role of the National Army in peacetime was basically to maintain public order, so these National Army generals basically had no military qualities, not to mention that now the National Army in the province of Judea had all been transferred to the front line, and Florus couldn't even find a decent general.

He estimated that the general under his command was about the same as the one on the opposite side.

The generals on both sides are of similar level, and the other side's military strength is far greater than his. His only advantage may be that he has such a city and can rely on the city walls for defense.

"I hope your Highness's reinforcements can arrive a little faster." Floru sighed, smiled bitterly and muttered to himself.

……

An hour later, Tony received a letter from Florus asking for help.

"One hundred and fifty thousand troops?" Looking at the number of enemy troops written on Florus' letter, Tony really had the urge to throw the letter away as if he had not received it.

Florus had 2,000 men, and even if his side went out in full force they could only gather less than 7,000 men. The total number of both sides was less than 10,000. Even though among them there were the powerful Dimen monks, his own cavalry guards, and a reorganized Roman legion, the number of people was really too small. If the two sides really fought, the odds would be 50-50 at best, and neither side would be able to do anything to the other.

But if Tony wants to resolve the crisis in Jerusalem, he must use the least number of troops and fight the most beautiful battle!

"Sister Mary, order the 25th Legion to dispatch 300 cavalrymen. At the same time, order the monks of the Earth Gate to follow me after lunch to rush to Jerusalem to help!"

"Rush to Jerusalem's aid? Your Highness! Are you kidding?!" Upon hearing this order, Mary was stunned at first, and then she exclaimed in surprise.

Three hundred cavalrymen plus the Dimen monks, plus Tony's cavalry guards, these three teams together have less than a thousand people, while the other side has an army of 150,000!

What does a 150,000-man army mean? Even if they stand there and let us cut them, and we cut our swords until they are blunt, there will probably still be a large number of them left.

"Don't worry about me." Tony waved his hand and said, "I know there are 150,000 troops on the other side, and I know that my troops are less than a thousand, so I didn't think about a direct fight between soldiers and generals. Even if my men are all elite who can fight ten to one, the number of the other side is too large, so... this time, I plan to focus on harassing and bombing the camp. I want... to let them kill each other!"

Harassment and bombing of the enemy's camp, this is a standard night attack tactic, but harassment is very simple, but to harass the enemy to the point of bombing the enemy's camp... that is not an easy task.

But...besides harassing the other party, do I have any other options?

"But Your Highness, this is still too dangerous. There is no need for Your Highness to take the risk." Mary shook her head. As the captain of the guard, her top priority is of course Tony's life safety.

"Danger is inevitable, but... as long as we defeat them, won't it be safe? Okay, Sister Mary, stop talking. I've made up my mind. Pass the order down. We'll set out after lunch. Our destination is Jerusalem!"

Looking at Tony's determined look, Mary opened her mouth but said nothing.

She knew that His Highness would not listen to her, but as for His Highness's safety... forget it, she could only report it to His Majesty and let Him handle it.

Before Tony set out from Rome to the Jewish province, Nero secretly summoned Mary and told her that if Tony dared to take the risk, then she, as the captain of the guard, should fulfill her duty and persuade His Highness. If His Highness did not listen... then she would report to her!

As for the consequences of the report, Mary certainly knew that His Majesty would surely come to the Jewish province in anger, and then... His Highness would definitely be beaten again.

……

Tony didn't know that Mary had secretly told Nero in Rome about her risky life. After lunch, he excitedly led his mixed army out of the city, preparing to march south to Jerusalem to fight against the 150,000 rebels.

"So, senior, you already have a plan in mind? Do you know how to deal with these 150,000 enemy troops?" Alexei rode his horse to Tony's side, rubbing his hands excitedly.

For Alexei, this senior who was the only one to die was a rare legend in the Executioner Organization.

As mentioned before, the core members of the executor organization are more than fifty executors, and among these fifty executors, more than half are useless and can only lie on the pile of money as parasites. Among the remaining executors who have some ability, Tony can naturally be ranked in the top ten.

So Alexei has a little bit of admiration for Tony, especially when it comes to war command. After all, it was this that made Tony famous in the organization.

So when Tony led his army to the battle, Alexei's first reaction was that Tony had a great idea! A great idea that could defeat the enemy!

Otherwise, this young prince would not have gone to war, right?

However... Tony really didn't have any ideas. He even wanted to wait until he got to the front line to see the specific situation!

But there was no way Tony could say this openly.

"Yes, that's right. I do have a way to repel the enemy. Although there are many enemies, they are just a mob that has not received much training. Although we have fewer people, we are all elite. So... it is not difficult to defeat them if we use our brains a little."

Chapter 610: Did I travel back in time?

Caesarea is not far from Jerusalem.

After half a day's forced march, Tony and his nearly 1,000 men finally arrived at a high ground three miles away from the rebel camp late at night. Under Tony's arrangement, after everyone set up the camp, Tony sent out scouts. He wanted to find out what the situation was in Jerusalem after half a day's battle, and whether it had fallen into the hands of the enemy.

Soon, the scout delivered back the message Tony wanted.

"Jerusalem has not fallen yet, and there are no obvious signs of damage on the city walls. It seems that the rebels do not have large siege equipment for the time being, but I think this problem should be solved soon."

As Tony spoke, he reached out and tapped the table in front of him. After about five seconds of silence, he suddenly turned his head and looked at Mary beside him and said, "Sister Mary, you heard it just now. The enemy doesn't seem to have any scouts roaming outside except for the sentinels. I was wondering, do you think this is a scam, or do they really not understand military command?"

"Although I believe that the leader of the rebels is not knowledgeable about military affairs, I cannot rule out the second possibility. If this is a trap to lure the soldiers defending the city out, Your Highness, I hope that it is not Your Highness who joins the trap." Mary replied seriously.

...?

Tony blinked and looked at Mary with a confused look on his face.

How should I put it? Should I say at this moment that it is you who deserves to be my name?

Tony did plan to launch a night attack, but because it was a forced march, Tony's troops only brought three days of food and did not establish any supply lines, so he only had three days.

And the most important thing is that if he wants to defeat an army of 150,000, the easiest way is to take advantage of their characteristics of being a motley crowd and let them kill each other, and the simplest trick to kill each other is "camp roar".