Chapter 886 Arrows and Scimitars

When he was in the southeast city, the microphone used the teachings of the Balanced Blade to test Zhang Heng, and Zhang Heng also told Otrus about this matter, so now he cannot lie about this matter in the dungeon.

At the same time, Zhang Heng also realized that the reason why Commodus named him and Clinder to interrogate the captured assassins was probably not accidental, in order to let him, an "insider", expose the existence of the Balanced Blade.

And this also means that the assassination that took place by the bridge in the afternoon was not instigated by the Balanced Blade, but a double act sung by Ortrus in collusion with Commodus.

Ortrus never thought about launching a substitute to stand in front of him to do things for him. He just used it as a consumable and successfully blamed the assassination on the Balanced Blade, so that he could use the power of the state machine. Come to encircle and suppress the Blade of Balance.

And the truth is even more exciting than Zhang Heng guessed.

When he and Klind reported the information they obtained from the female assassin to Commodus, His Majesty the Emperor immediately issued a wanted order for all members of the Balanced Blade. In order to avenge his most trusted advisor, Commodus even obtained information from his personal One hundred thousand gold coins were taken out of the treasury as a reward.

The Senate also expressed concern about this matter. A group of nobles headed by Dio immediately expressed their condolences for the assassination of Otrus. Because it was against the rules to use funds from the treasury to pursue the murderer, they even used donated funds. Fang Fang collected another 200,000 gold coins and added them to the reward, but privately, many people were actually gloating about his misfortune.

Because Otrus is a member of Commodus, and has always been known as Commodus's right-hand man along with Clind. Now the death of Otrus is equivalent to Commodus missing a hand. Such a young emperor will In the future, we will have to rely even more on the Senate.

This situation was undoubtedly what a group of nobles led by Dio wanted to see. However, their happiness only lasted less than half a day, and then they were all dumbfounded because they found that they seemed to have underestimated the young emperor.

Commodus took advantage of the death of Otrus and began to purge the senior generals in the Praetorian Guard.

Except for Sebutur, the military tribune who miraculously escaped due to his merits in escorting the troops, the other officers who came from the great nobility were either transferred or dismissed, and were replaced by a group of people who had previously fought with Commodus and the Germanic tribes. Officers, regardless of their origins, all had one thing in common: loyalty to Commodus.

In the end, except for Commodus, the supreme commander of the Praetorian Guards, all other middle and high-level generals were replaced. This meant that Commodus actually completely controlled the strongest armed force in Rome.

By the time the Senate reacted, everything had settled, and Dio and others could only look at each other in shock.

However, Zhang Heng did not have much time to care about these political turmoils for the time being. Five days had passed since the assassination of Ortrus, and the Blade of Balance still did not contact him.

In the past five days, things were still calm around him, and just this morning Commodus summoned him. Because he performed well in the previous assassination by the bridge and killed three assassins, Commodus decided to reward him with another one. A large area of ​​land. The area of ​​territory owned by Zhang Heng has even exceeded that of many noble families that have been operating for generations.

The only disadvantage is that it is a bit far away from Rome. If there is a war in the future, it is easy to become a front line. But even so, many people envy him. After all, even if he is a consultant, there are some good ones and bad ones.

Now anyone with a discerning eye can see it. If nothing else goes wrong, Klind will take over the position vacated by Ortrus and become Commodus' chief advisor, and Zhang Heng will become the next Klind. Of course, the premise is that he He could find a way to repair the minor conflicts caused by the remonstrance between him and Klind.

Klinde is now waiting for Zhang Heng to bow his head. Although he still feels that Zhang Heng is a threat, this does not prevent him from enjoying the victory at this stage. But what makes him embarrassed is that Zhang Heng did not show up in the next few days. Come to see him, and the latter doesn't know what he is busy with, and is often away from home all day long.

But tonight, it was rare for Zhang Heng to go home for the night. He reached out and pushed open the door and walked into the front hall, but Zhang Heng stopped immediately.

The little slave girl had been sent away by him almost a month ago. Now there are only Zhang Heng and two servants who came with the house in this Domus. These two people did not live with Zhang Heng for a long time. He's long and doesn't have any eye-catching features, but he still does his job well.

In the past, when Zhang Heng came home at this time, someone would come out to greet him, but now the entire Domusli was quiet, without any sound, until Zhang Heng stood still in the front hall, and the water waves in the rain pool were reflected on the wall by the moonlight. Shaking slightly.

Zhang Heng's ears also caught the sound of some sharp weapon cutting through the air.

Almost as soon as Zhang Heng moved his front foot, an arrow from his back foot hit the place where he was standing. Zhang Heng knew that the archer was hiding on the second floor without raising his head, and it was very likely that he had killed "Ou" with an arrow by the bridge before. "Truth" assassin.

Zhang Heng was also impressed by the opponent's previous archery skills, so Zhang Heng didn't think much and ducked behind a marble column beside him. However, just when he was about to approach the marble column, something suddenly happened without warning. Stopped again.

At the same time, a scimitar stretched out from behind the column and slashed towards his face. If Zhang Heng had not kept his pace just now, he would have probably been cut into two pieces by the scimitar.

But at this moment, Zhang Heng's crisis has not passed. Although he relied on his superhuman hearing and prediction to escape this planned ambush, he did not forget that there is a sharp archer on the second floor. The opponent obviously will not He missed such a good opportunity, and the fact was exactly what he thought. The moment he turned from movement to stillness, the archer on the second floor caught this fleeting opportunity and loosened his bowstring.

Therefore, Zhang Heng now not only has to face the scimitar in front of him, but also has to deal with the second arrow coming towards him.

Zhang Heng made his choice without much hesitation, because the scimitar had already reached his chest, and he had to deal with the immediate crisis first, so Zhang Heng swung the Persian dagger in his hand, and at the same time, he One hand quickly pressed on the hilt of another Persian short sword.

Almost at the same moment when Zhang Heng blocked the scimitar, the fatal arrow also flew in front of him. Zhang Heng had to use his sword-drawing skills to pull out another Persian sword at the last moment. , and then he knocked away the arrows shot at him using the same method he had used to deal with the bow and arrow gladiators in the Flavian Amphitheatre.

What is certain is that the two assassins in front of them have never seen Zhang Heng's performance, so when they witnessed this scene, they inevitably looked dazed.

Because this is really not like an action that humans can do.