Chapter 201 Persuading to Surrender (2)

Speaking of this, Publius was also aching for a while, he sighed lightly, and then said loudly: "Therefore, King Dionia wants you to surrender!"

The venue suddenly boiled again, and many elders stood up angrily and said to Publius, "The Romans would rather die in battle than surrender!" and so on. Of course, some elders were there. Depressed and whispered, "How come even Phedene and Gabi were occupied by the Dionysians?!..." and so on.

"Is the king of Dionia too confident!" Portitus sneered: "Even if what you just said is true, it's not that we didn't experience it when the Celts invaded, and that time The situation was worse than this time, and in the end we won!"

"The invasion of the Celts is completely different from the invasion of Dionia. I believe that although you are trapped on the mountain, you should be able to feel it!" Publius retorted loudly: "Kyle They burned, killed and looted in Etruria and Latium, causing all races to oppose them, and their atrocities were punished by the gods, causing them to be infected with the plague, and finally by Camelus defeated by the led, united Latins, but now—"

Publius shook his head and pointed his finger at the foot of the mountain outside the gate of the temple: "Not only did the Etruscan city-states successively allied with Dionia, but the Latin city-states such as Prinister and Bonnet also successively surrendered to Dio. Nearly all the Roman civilians in the city have become citizens of the kingdom of Dionia, except here, the city of Rome has completely become a city of Dionia, but you have become the isolates of the Latinum area!—”

"Fake! What you say is false! Dionia is an invader, and the Etruscan and Latin city-states cannot ally with it, they will only be loyal to Rome!" In the riotous venue, Elder Lucretius roared hysterically.

Publius turned to look at him, and there was only pity in his eyes: "I don't need to lie, you can ask Desimus and Domigius later, they will tell you the truth, it's time to wake up from the dream!"

Portitus, Marugineensis, Ambustus, Scipio the Great, and others looked at each other, and Publius' words confirmed their worries.

In the end, Portitus coughed lightly and said, "We already know your intentions, we want to discuss this matter, you go out and wait for our decision."

Publius saluted, and in the process of turning around and walking out of the temple gate, the faces of his former colleagues lost the arrogance of the past, but more of a kind of fear and hatred, which made him feel indescribably happy. , He raised his head and stepped out of the hall door step by step forcefully. When he left the dark apse, he also saw Desimus and Domigius being brought into the hall by the guards.

A few hours later, he was led into the apse again, and there was only Ambustus left in the apse.

"Have you made a decision?" Publius asked directly.

"Sit down and talk, Publius." Ambestus did not answer immediately, but pointed to the seat prepared for him next to him.

Publius was not polite, he sat down and folded his hands on his chest: "Based on what I know about the Roman Senate, your decision must be to refuse to surrender, right?!"

Ambestus looked at him without speaking.

"I'm actually very happy to see that you don't surrender, because you are all a group of selfish, arrogant and cruel people, and it is best to die on this mountain!" Publius said sarcastically, and then changed the subject: " But on this mountain, besides you, there are your family members, and other people, especially those civilians. They are already lying on the ground so hungry that they can't even make a sound of screaming. Do you have the heart to let them come with you? Burial, there are thousands of people! Do you really want the Roman aristocracy to be completely wiped out?!"

Ambostus twitched his face a few times, he did not respond directly, but said softly: "Publius, when Marcus insisted on helping the civilians, he almost provoked civil strife, and the Senate made that decision too. There's no way-"

"It turns out that what Marcus did was right. If the senate had passed his recommendations at that time, the Roman commoners would not have taken refuge in Dionia, and you would not have fallen into the predicament you are today!  … "Publius vented out loudly the dissatisfaction with the Roman Senate that he had stoked in his heart over the years.

"Maybe we have made some wrong decisions over the years..." Ambustus sighed, stared at him, and said in a heavy tone: "As one of the oldest clans in Rome, the Manlius clan has been around for generations. You have lived here for generations, and there are many relatives on this mountain that your families have married, some who have given you favors, and some people you have helped... Don't you have the heart to abandon all of this, including Zhu, who you believed in since childhood Pitt and Juno—"

Publius raised his brows and interrupted him: "What are you trying to say?"

Ambostus looked at him sincerely and said with a sad expression: "We underestimated this war with the Dionians, we thought that even if Rome was captured by them, as long as the army of Camelus returned , we will be able to retake Rome again, so we brought so many people up the mountain, but according to what you said, the army led by Camillous has been defeated, so the plan to return to Rome is far away, and our food It's already very tight... Alas, the tragic state of the people, I believe you have seen it when you went up the mountain, and in a few days, they... may starve to death on this mountain because they have no food to eat... "

Speaking of this, Ambostus' eyes flashed with tears: "You guessed it right, we are not ready to surrender, but we hope to allow them to surrender down the mountain so that they will not become food for crows..."

Publius was stunned, and Ambustus’ request made him feel very embarrassed: the Dionysians forced the Romans on the mountain to surrender by besieging the Capitoline Mountain and running out of food. But Stus hoped to arrange most of the people who caused their biggest food consumption to go down the mountain, so that he could continue to hold on. It is impossible for the shrewd king of Dionia to let the wise proposal of the Roman elders succeed. !

Seeing that Publius was silent, Ambostus immediately put his hands on the ground, bent down, and slammed his forehead on the ground.

Publius was startled, and hurriedly got up to avoid: "Ambustus, what are you doing?!"

"Please! Save these compatriots of yours!" Ambustus begged.

"I... useless, King Davos will not agree!" Publius shook his head vigorously.

Ambestus did not speak, but kept lying on the ground.

If Portitus and Malujinsis did this, it would only have the opposite effect, but Ambestus used to have a good relationship with Publius. After a long time, he sighed helplessly, and finally responded: "Okay, I will try my best to try to convince King Davos."

"Thank you, thank you! I thank you for the whole mountain!" Ambestus sat up and said gratefully.

"I don't need to mention thank you, you can stop cursing me a few words, and I will be content." Publius said with a self-deprecating sentence.

Ambestus coughed awkwardly.

"But... you don't have too much hope, King Dionia is very dissatisfied with the Roman nobles, and now you are making this suggestion again, even if they are finally allowed to go down the mountain, I am afraid there will be no good results!" Pubu Lius warned.

Ambestus smiled bitterly: "There is hope in life, we can't ask for more."

Publius was silent.

"By the way, have you seen my youngest daughter and son-in-law in the city? How are they doing now?!" Ambestus asked eagerly.

"Your son-in-law and daughter were imprisoned in your own house, but they did not suffer any harm. King Davos seemed to be a little interested in Stolo, and yesterday he asked him to meet the captured Minusius... "

"Minusius was also captured?!" Ambustus was surprised.

"That's why I came to persuade you to surrender, because you have no hope." Publius took the opportunity to persuade again.

Ambestus did not speak.

……………………………………

"Is this the condition put forward by those Roman elders?!" Davos looked directly at Publius with neither anger nor joy.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Publius didn't dare to make eye contact with Davos, he lowered his head and said respectfully: "After I went up the mountain, I have been patiently persuading them, and even brought them with me from the previous battles. The captured Roman nobles just hoped that they could recognize the facts, but they never compromised...I can only bring back their proposal..."

"You've worked hard!" Davos praised, and then said in a flat tone: "It seems that these stubborn Roman elders still won't give up."

Publius was so nervous that he did not dare to answer.

Davos took a few steps in the center of the Senate meeting with his hands on his back, and suddenly asked, "How many Romans are there on the mountain?"

"About 6,000 people."

"6,000 people..." Davos pondered for a while, and then asked: "After the Celts captured Rome, how many people were there on Capitoline Hill?"

Publius didn't understand why Davos asked this question for a while, and he answered truthfully: "532 people."

Davos thought for a while, turned to face him, and said decisively: "I agree to their request and allow those Romans to come down the mountain, but they can only be the public servants of the kingdom, and only 500 people can remain on the mountain. people."

Henipolis on the side listened and hurriedly persuaded: "Your Majesty, this is a conspiracy of the Romans! They want to—"