My XX deal with Sister Nero

Compared to ordinary people, Rosa's appearance can only be described as good-looking but not handsome, and Nero's first criterion for choosing a spouse is good looks, so Rosa...how did she make Nero care so much about her?

Even if he and the Heroic Spirit Tony met Nero together, even if the Heroic Spirit Tony was there to endorse him, logically speaking, Nero would only treat him as his brother's friend, right? But Nero's attitude towards Rosa had obviously long exceeded the limit of "brother's friend".

In short, all of this reveals two words: weird.

But now it seems that Alexei can no longer provide any new help to me. Instead of wasting time here, I might as well ask questions to someone else, such as... my sister.

After a brief chat with Alexei, Tony said goodbye to Alexei.

As emperor, Nero was currently dealing with military and political affairs in the city.

Although the rebels' attack was repelled, the 25th Legion responsible for guarding the city also suffered heavy losses.

The number of people in a legion of the Roman Empire was about 4,500. In this battle, three walls of the 25th Legion were lost, and the casualties had already exceeded half. Currently, there are only more than 2,000 people left in the entire 25th Legion, and at least two-thirds of these 2,000 people are injured. Nero is very worried now, and he doesn't know what to use to fight this battle tomorrow.

"Your Majesty, I think our army should take advantage of the period when the enemy has just retreated. We should withdraw from Caesarea and leave the Jewish province on warships. Then we should go to the Egyptian province or the Asia Minor Peninsula, gather troops and wait for an opportunity to retake the Jewish province." The legion commander stood beside Nero and said with his head down.

"Escape?" Nero frowned and looked at the legion commander, his tone somewhat unkind: "You mean to let me abandon Caesarea and the more than 100,000 civilians in the city?"

"Your Majesty, that's not what I meant." Seeing Nero's gloomy face, the legion commander said in panic, "What I meant is..."

"What he means is that the military strength we have now is not enough to defend the city. After all, the gap is too big." At this moment, Tony's voice suddenly came from outside the gate.

"Brother~" Looking at Tony who was walking in slowly from the outside, Nero took two steps forward happily and came to Tony, rubbed his head and said, "Brother, why are you here?"

Tony looked up at Nero, smiled happily and said, "Because I miss my sister~"

"You little guy, you're really good at talking~" Tony's words made Nero as happy as a child under twelve years old. Nero touched Tony's little face lovingly and said, "Okay, talk to your sister, what's the matter?"

Nero was not a fool. She certainly understood that her brother was not here to chat with her. Tony came here because he must have something to talk to her about.

"Well... Actually, the commander's concerns are correct. We have too few soldiers. If we still defend the city tomorrow, then... we may not be able to hold on for long. But sister is also considering that there are civilians in the city that we cannot take away, so both sides have concerns. However... Regarding whether we should retreat or continue to defend the city, I think... I should be able to tell you my thoughts, right?"

PS: Let me talk about the updates during the Chinese New Year first. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve. I'm going to my hometown in the countryside. Yes, it's the kind of rural area without Internet. Because there is no Internet, I don't plan to bring my computer with me. This means that from tomorrow until the second day of the Chinese New Year, which is the day after tomorrow, my updates will not be very stable. There may be a break of two or even three days. I hope everyone can understand. I estimate that I will return to Chongqing in the afternoon of the second day of the Chinese New Year. If I am not very tired, there may be an update in the evening. There have been too many things in the past year, which has led to a significant decline in the quality and updates of this book. This is my fault. I can only promise that this book will not be abandoned. The new book... The new book is kept secret for now~

Finally, I wish you all a happy new year in advance~

Chapter 644: Stay? Or retreat?

"Of course!" Nero nodded.

"Sister, although you said you wanted to stay, I think if it was you, you wanted to stay because there are still countless citizens of the empire in Caesarea. You want to stay for these citizens. Of course, you are the head of the empire, the emperor, so this is understandable, but... sister, if I tell you that I also want to stay, what will you do?"

"How can this be possible?" As soon as Tony finished speaking, Nero waved his hand and objected: "Brother, listen to your sister. It's very dangerous here. You should return to Rome first to help your sister get some reinforcements to come to the aid of Judea."

Oh, stupid sister!

Tony sneered in his heart, does his elder sister really think of him as a fool?

Tony knew that his sister cared about him very much. He had sneaked off to suppress the Pontic rebels and rescue Simon Cefa. Then what happened? His sister gave him a good beating on the grounds that he was in danger. So, what was the point of returning to Rome to get some reinforcements? To put it bluntly, his sister wanted him to leave this dangerous place as soon as possible.

Yet there was no way Tony was leaving.

Just as Nero cares about Tony's safety, Tony also cares about the safety of his sister.

If Tony wants to leave, Nero will definitely not be at ease letting him go alone, and will certainly transfer some troops to protect Tony. But in this way, the already small number of Caesarea defenders will be even more stretched. At that time, the rebels will use the same old trick to capture the dock again to cut off Nero's retreat. What should he do then?

"As a prince of the empire, I naturally cannot abandon the people and flee alone." Tony looked at his sister who was worried, and said with a meaningful smile: "We don't have many defenders now. If we only rely on the troops we have now, I'm afraid we can only hold out for one day at most. So, I must stay. At least... my treasure can help us defend this city."

"Noble Phantasm?" Upon hearing this word, Nero was stunned at first, then he suddenly understood.

After her brother led his troops to support the west city wall, she heard that his troops encountered servants of the rebels near the central square and were basically wiped out. However, her brother finally recaptured the west city wall by himself.

Because there were so many things happening before, Nero had no time to think about how his brother recaptured the west wall. Now it seems that the fundamental reason why his brother was able to recapture the west wall was that he used his own treasure?

"Yes, the Noble Phantasm." Having said that, Tony thought for a moment, and then tried to describe his Noble Phantasm to Nero in concise language.

"Is it similar to a Noble Phantasm that summons an army..." Nero nodded. If that was true, then his brother's Noble Phantasm was indeed suitable for protecting this city.

But the problem is, if my younger brother wants to stay to defend this city, his situation will be very dangerous, but if my younger brother doesn’t stay, then... this city may really not be able to be defended.

On one hand, there was his own brother, and on the other hand, there were tens of thousands of civilians in the city of Caesarea. For a moment, our Majesty was in a dilemma.

"I don't know what's going on with General Vespasianus." Nero suddenly sighed, looked up at the sky outside the door, and muttered to himself.

According to the previously formulated strategies and tactics, after confirming that a rebellion was about to break out in the province of Judea, Tony and Nero successively ordered Vespasianus to lead the troops retreating from the front line to rush to the aid of the province of Judea. After receiving the order, Vespasianus immediately led ten legions totaling 50,000 troops to travel day and night to rush to the aid of the province of Judea.

However, they did not expect that halfway through the journey, they encountered an ambush by Raum. In addition to the death of General Leius, thousands of his soldiers were also killed. And most importantly, as a subordinate of the Magic King, Raum naturally understood that the most important thing for an army is logistics. Before leaving, this guy actually burned all the food and grass of Vespasianus and his men, leaving them with only the choice of raising food and grass in a short period of time, unable to reinforce Tony and his men in time.

In order to rescue the little prince as soon as possible, before the food and grass were collected, Vespasian ordered Titus to lead two thousand cavalrymen into the territory of the Jewish province first. As for the food and grass problem of this cavalry, the solution given by Vespasian was very simple.

"When the time comes, you can just resupply on the spot."

Local supply, these four words are simple to say, but in fact, the so-called local supply refers to plundering all the materials within the enemy's forces to supplement one's own needs. The enemy here refers not only to the military supplies in the hands of the enemy army, but also a large number of material resources in the hands of civilians.

When Tony personally led his first expedition to Parthia, he also issued such an order, ordering the Roman army that raided Babylonia from the Persian Gulf to adopt a strategy of local supply, and then... then the Parthian Empire surrendered.

Although the fundamental reason for their surrender was that the appearance of Cefalu caused their own gods to tell them to stop fighting and to unite to fight the foreign enemy, it is undeniable that this army did make the Parthian Empire pay a very heavy price.

But generally speaking, this method is mostly used in wars between countries. After all, no matter what, the rebels are still residents of the country, and few generals will use this method on their own people.

But now, Vespasian could no longer care about so much.

The people are important, but compared to the people, the safety of His Highness and His Majesty is more important!

Titus understood this, too.

As the second monarch of the Flavian dynasty, Titus, who came from a military family, was young, but he understood the importance of the incident at this moment. Therefore, he did not raise any objections when he received his father's order. After gathering two thousand cavalry, the young general led his cavalry, carrying two days' rations, and marched towards the Jewish province.

"Pass the order. Although our army has been ordered to resupply on the spot, this Jewish province is, after all, the Jewish province of the Roman Empire. So even if our army resupplies on the spot, it is best to avoid harassing civilians and borrow food in a negotiating manner as much as possible. If the other party does not resort to force against us, then we will not do it. Do you understand?" Titus turned his head to look at the several lieutenants behind him and suddenly spoke.

Although his father's order was to resupply on the spot at all costs, Titus knew that this was just talk. If he really did so, the outcome would probably not be good.

Your Highness and His Majesty are both people who love their people like their own children. Although they will not make things difficult for him or punish him because he came from afar to help, Titus's career... is probably over because of this.

PS: I went back to my hometown to visit my ancestors’ graves on New Year’s Eve, and originally planned to come back this afternoon, so on the 29th I said that I might update today, because if I came back late I probably wouldn’t have time to write.

Then my mother woke me up early in the morning and told me to go back to Chongqing as soon as possible, because the entire county in my hometown was under lockdown at ten o'clock, and if I didn't leave now, I would never be able to leave.

What can I say? I can only wish Wuhan peace and hope that experts can develop relevant drugs as soon as possible.

Chapter 645: The Sadducees’ Thoughts

Although Titus was young, he had been fighting on the battlefield for several years and was somewhat wise. Through the spies hidden in the province of Judea, he understood two things. The first was that the number of rebels was large. According to the spies, there were at least more than 600,000 rebels in the entire province of Judea. Although the combat effectiveness of these rebels was far inferior to that of the Roman legions, just looking at the number... it was still quite scary.

As for the second point, there are several rebels whose combat capabilities far exceed those of ordinary people.

As far as Titus knows, the most powerful fighter in the Roman Empire...or in other words, the most powerful fighter on the surface is Prince Tony's personal guard, Zero. Although this personal guard is now staying in Rome to establish Prince Tony's spy agency, she was the one who accomplished the feat of slaying a dragon before.

Although most people thought that it was His Highness who slayed the dragon, the nobles knew that the one who actually slayed the dragon was His Highness's personal guard named Jie Luo.

The strong men in the rebel camp seem to be even more powerful than Jie Luo.

The number of rebels was hundreds of times greater than his own, and their top combat strength was much stronger than the few lieutenants under his command. Titus knew that if he went straight to Caesarea, it would undoubtedly be like an egg hitting a rock with the existing forces he had. Not only would he lose his majesty and his highness, but he himself might also be killed there.

Instead of fighting with an egg against a rock, it would be better to take advantage of the emptiness in the rebel rear to adopt harassment tactics to attract the rebels' attention so that they cannot attack Caesarea with all their strength.

……

the other side.

Tony didn't come to Nero to offer any advice. His original purpose was to ask Nero what he thought of Rosa, but when he reached the door, he suddenly gave up his idea.

the reason is simple.

According to Rosa and Alexi, the biggest secret of the Executioner Organization can only be known by the executors. Of course, there are some exceptions, and these exceptions are undoubtedly those who Rosa has determined can keep secrets, such as Nero.

Rosa and Alexi are unwilling to tell Tony the secret of the organization because Rosa wants to use this secret to recruit Tony, and Nero does not tell Tony the secret of the executor organization... there may be other reasons.

From Nero's point of view, the biggest possibility is that Nero...maybe wants to protect Tony and prevent him from getting in touch with this secret?

Anyway, no matter what, since my sister is already engaged to me and doesn't have much contact with Rosa, then... I'll just observe for a while.

Because his own Noble Phantasm could be used as an army on its own, at Tony's suggestion, the 25th Legion adjusted its previous strategic deployment. The remaining troops of the 25th Legion were mainly responsible for monitoring. Once they found that the enemy was preparing to attack, they would choose to give an immediate warning, and then Tony would activate the Noble Phantasm and use it to repel the invading enemy.

But in this way, Tony might have a little harder time, after all, he is the only one who can use the Noble Phantasm as an army.

……

On the other side, inside the rebel camp.

"Mr. Archimedes, what should we do next?" In the central military tent, Salome looked at Archimedes standing in front of her and asked in a tender voice.

"After today's battle, we have at least figured out the situation of the defenders in Caesarea." Archimedes stroked his chin and analyzed, "Although there are not many defenders in Caesarea, there are several with strong individual combat capabilities. I have preliminarily determined that there are at least three Servants and Heroic Spirits, and one whose strength is almost equal to that of Harpas."

"Is the strength almost equal to that of Harpas..." Salome nodded slightly. As a Jew, she grew up listening to the legend of Solomon. She was not unfamiliar with the names of the seventy-two demon pillars in the legend of Solomon. In her opinion, Raum and Harpas who joined her camp were undoubtedly messengers of God, and messengers of God whose combat power was several times stronger than her, the heroic spirit.

Then these two messengers of God disappeared.

So now, Salome also understood one thing, that is, it would be difficult to capture Caesarea with the troops she currently had.

While Salome and Archimedes were discussing what to do next, in another tent not far from the central military tent, several middle-aged men in robes were whispering around a small table.

"Everyone, what do you think of today's battle?" A middle-aged man whispered in a low voice after carefully glancing at the door of the tent not far away.

"This battle... really made me sweat." Another middle-aged man with a bald head laughed bitterly. "To be honest, when the Jewish army under Salome attacked the city wall, I really thought it was over. You should understand that when the besiegers attack the city wall, it basically means the victory or defeat of the battle. Especially after I heard that they had entered Caesarea, I was really panicked at the time."

Hearing this, almost everyone present had the same expression.

【+~

They were the Sadducees, the Jewish priestly class, and in theory, the most loyal group within Judaism.

But the problem is, they went the wrong way.

The Sadducees never thought of overthrowing the rule of the Roman Empire and restoring the Jewish Kingdom. They had only one idea, which was to cooperate with the Roman Empire to ensure their own transcendent status.

Therefore, if Nero and others were defeated, Salome would certainly take Nero as a hostage and force the Senate to announce the cession of the Jewish province to the Jews. Once the Jewish province was revived as the Jewish Kingdom, the next thing Salome would do was to liquidate people like herself who had gone astray!

What? You said that the Herodians, led by Salome, went further astray?

Are you kidding? The victors are the kings and the losers are the bandits. Not to mention that the Herodians had gone astray before, even if they had previously advocated that the Jewish kingdom should be destroyed, as long as Salome led everyone to successfully restore the country, the Herodians would be heroes.

So in today's battle, their hearts were like a roller coaster with ups and downs.

"Salome's army was able to be pushed out after entering the city, which means that Your Majesty and his men may have some hidden cards in their hands that we don't know about, such as... the man who fought against the Demon Pillar." A middle-aged man with a big beard analyzed calmly.

Speaking of the man who fought against the Demon Pillar, everyone present's eyes suddenly lit up!

Like Salome, they also grew up listening to the legend of King Solomon. They had nothing but worship for the king who was comparable to a god, and the seventy-two demon pillars under his command... In the eyes of these middle-aged people, perhaps only gods from other pantheons could rival him in this world.

Then the mysterious man, the mysterious man in red armor, actually killed two demon pillars in one breath!

I'm afraid only gods from other pantheons can do this?

Chapter 646 Martha and the Sadducees

The Sadducees have a lot of AC in their hearts.

In the eyes of most Jews, the Romans were evil invaders who should be resisted. However, the upper class, especially the Herodians and Sadducees, had different views. The Herodians believed that the Jewish revival should be achieved by relying on the Romans as vassals, while the Sadducees believed that cooperation should be reached with the Romans in order to obtain corresponding autonomy for Judaism.

What happened now? The Herodians, who had promised to walk together for life, suddenly chose to stand with the majority of the Jewish people to resist the Romans, leaving the Sadducees alone. The Sadducees now had only two choices: either to rise up and resist the Romans like the Herodians did, or to continue to be neutral on the surface but actually siding with the Romans as they did now.

As mentioned before, the members of the Sadducees mainly came from the Jewish priest class and wealthy businessmen. These people were educated and had some brains at that time. If they thought about it a little, they would know that they actually had no other choice.

The Herodians represented the royal power of the Jewish Kingdom, and the Sadducees represented the theocracy of Judaism. After King Solomon, the originally powerful United Kingdom of Israel split into two countries, namely the Jewish Kingdom and the Kingdom of Israel. From this time on, the Jews have been in an era where theocracy is higher than royal power, and a king with a little ambition would never allow such a thing to happen.

It would be fine if a mortal became king, but now the ruler of the Herod sect is Salome, a heroic spirit, a being who knows what "God" is. So if Salome wants to be king, she will definitely not allow the power of God to be greater than the power of the king. If she fails in this war, it will be fine. But if she wins and really re-establishes the Jewish kingdom, then her next step will definitely be to purge the Sadducees!

Therefore, the Sadducees had only one way to go, and that was to submit to the Romans. Only in this way could they save their lives.

"So... in this case, Caesarea actually still has the strength to fight Salome, right?" asked a white-haired old man.

"Of course." The middle-aged man with a big beard nodded and said, "At least judging from the current situation, Caesarea has enough strength to ensure that its defense will not be breached. Moreover... the longer this war drags on, the more advantageous it will be for Caesarea. Don't forget that there are countless Roman reinforcements outside the province of Judea."

"Then we..." The white-haired old man glanced at the door of the tent cautiously: "Then should we help His Majesty and the others? For example, provide some intelligence, or... provide some other support?"

"Provide the information first. As for the resources, don't touch them for now. I guess Salome knows that we are not on the same page with her." said the middle-aged man with a big beard.

"So, is this the reason why you betrayed Salome?" At this moment, two muffled "bang bang" sounds suddenly came from outside the door of the tent. A woman holding a cross-shaped scepter lifted the door curtain and entered the tent. She looked at everyone present and said with a smile.

"MARTHA?!" The middle-aged man with a big beard stood up subconsciously and exclaimed in surprise.

Of course he knew Martha.

Christianity itself is a new religion that split from Judaism. In this war, in order to resist the reinforcements from the Roman Empire, Salome naturally won over all the objects that could be won over, such as Christianity, which was one of the objects that were won over.

But Salome did not fully trust Martha and others.

After all, Christianity and Judaism have always been hostile to each other.

So during the previous war, Salome had only one order for Christians, which was to stay in the camp to prevent Roman troops from other regions from attacking the camp.