Chapter 880 Trap

In history, after Commodus succeeded to the throne, his only remaining relative was his sister Lucilla.

But this does not mean that he did not have other brothers and sisters. In fact, Aurelius had quite a lot of children, but most of them did not survive to adulthood. In the end, only two children were left after his death.

If those children who died in infancy are included, Commodus had many brothers, and among them, the ones closest to Zhang Heng’s inferred age were Commodus’ twin brothers, who died at the age of four. Reliu held a funeral for him, and the Senate at that time adjourned for a day to express their condolences.

Even ordinary citizens in Rome who were not too young remembered this incident.

Therefore, on a social level, Commodus's twin brother is indeed dead.

This is also the reason why Zhang Heng didn't think of this aspect at first. Of course, these are just Zhang Heng's guesses now. If he really wants to prove that Otrus is Commodus's dead twin brother, Zhang Heng still needs to collect more evidence.

Considering the special nature of the palace, almost all political forces will secretly place their personnel here, so there are no secrets in this building complex. It is obviously impossible for a prince to continue to live in the palace for so many years after he "dies" None of them were discovered, so for whatever reason, if Aurelius wanted his child to continue to live secretly in the world, he could only send him away from the palace. A safer option would be to send Aurelius away. Si was sent directly out of the city, and the farther away, the better.

Just like Zhang Heng sent his little slave girl on a long journey.

The good news now is that given the disease Autelius suffered from, it was impossible for people in the place where he lived and grew up to have no impression of him at all, and as long as we find out who Aurelius trusted the most sixteen years ago, And find out the nobles whose fiefdoms are relatively remote. A visit there can basically easily confirm Zhang Heng's conjecture.

But the bad news is that Zhang Heng found that he didn't have time to do this.

Especially when Zhang Heng went to the perfume store again and found that the owner had changed and the clerk who had previously received him was also missing, Zhang Heng knew that he had been abandoned.

This abandonment does not mean that the Balanced Blade threw him to the Hound, but that the war between the Balanced Blade and the Hound has probably begun. Both sides have become tense, and the Balanced Blade is obviously interested in Zhang Heng, the alternate core member. Because of his lack of trust, coupled with the appearance of a traitor in the organization, at this critical juncture, he was simply put aside for the time being as an unstable factor with little faith and left to play on his own.

If that was just the case, Zhang Heng wouldn't be too concerned, because his original plan was to paddle, and it wouldn't be a big deal if no one paid attention to him. But the problem was that Zhang Heng heard new news immediately. Commodus planned to inspect a military camp twenty miles outside Rome. Among the people accompanying him, besides him and Clinde, there was also the name of Otrus.

You must know that the aristocratic politicians in Roman politics are not unfamiliar with this name, but no one has seen the true face of Otrus. In the past, the owner of this name has always lived in darkness, but to put it bluntly, Otrus He is probably the second most powerful person in Rome now, second only to the emperor Commodus.

Under normal circumstances, he would be easily wary of His Majesty the Emperor, but Commodus seemed to have incredible trust in his chief advisor and did not doubt him at all.

This also made other advisers such as Clinde extremely envious and jealous. This time the emperor's high-profile announcement that Otrus was among his companions seemed to mean that Commodus was preparing to gradually push this man who had been behind the scenes. came to the stage, so this originally routine inspection became particularly eye-catching.

Not only did the nobles and senators want to see the true face of the emperor's most powerful official, but Klinder and other advisers also became nervous and felt a sense of crisis. Behind the scenes, Otrus had already become so... Once he comes to the forefront, he begins to use his power and influence to make friends, form his own force, and may even control the Senate and even the entire country in the near future.

What Clinder and others didn't understand was why Commodus would watch this happen. No matter how much he trusted Otrus, doing so would undoubtedly damage the imperial power.

Klinde even gathered a group of people who had a good relationship with him and prepared to go together to persuade Commodus.

Naturally, he did not forget about Zhang Heng, a newcomer that Commodus liked very much recently. During this period, Zhang Heng's rise was unprecedented in the entire history of Rome. He went from being a slave to a commoner to an advisor, and then to becoming a veritable fief. Noble, this triple jump that other families had to complete in several generations actually took Zhang Heng just over half a year to complete. It was so fast that even Klind regretted bringing him to Commodus. .

It's just that now Klind has a more troublesome opponent to deal with, so he doesn't have time to suppress Zhang Heng.

However, when he left Zhang Heng's Domus, his face was so gloomy that he was almost dripping with water. Klind never expected that Zhang Heng would reject him, although he did not really regard Zhang Heng as his political ally in the first place. But the last cooperation between the two was quite pleasant, and Zhang Heng also showed some intentions of joining forces with him to deal with Otrus.

It was precisely because of this that Klind agreed to help and asked Zhang Heng to tear off the tiger skin of the Imperial Guards to scare the big forces in the southeastern city. As a result, not long after this, Zhang Heng tore up the alliance agreement and made it clear whether He planned to take part in the fight against Otrus led by him.

Klein almost failed to maintain his usual gentle image and stood up by slamming the table. However, he obviously did not want to make new enemies at this juncture. In the end, he just gave Zhang Heng a cold look and turned away.

In fact, Zhang Heng really hopes that Clinder and his gang can succeed, because this matter is clearly a trap to deal with the Blade of Balance. Zhang Heng is one of the few people who knows the physical condition of Ortrus. , knowing that it would be impossible for him to show up in public at all, but Zhang Heng also knew very well that there was no chance of success for Clinder and others in admonishing him this time.

The final result was indeed not what Zhang Heng had expected. Klinder and others failed to dissuade Commodus. His Majesty the Emperor still insisted on taking Ortrus with him during the inspection two days later, as if to tell the world how much he trusted him. Same as my consultant.

And Zhang Heng also realized that he had to meet with the priestess before this inspection.