Chapter 30 Maximus’ Advice

"It should be that the road ahead is narrow and the carriage can't get on." Hamilka thought for a while and explained: "Besides, the people in the baggage team are all old people, women and children. They can't protect these carriages and can take them up the mountain. I have tried my best.”

"Indeed, it was very difficult for Maximus to organize his own baggage train to transport these supplies safely up the mountain when we lost the battle and were pursued by the Roman army. You are right to let him take over the baggage train. of!"

Spartacus finished praising Maximus, then turned to look at the other gladiators: "Volsiris, you stay here with your brothers and guard our food."

Volsilis, a Thracian gladiator who had always been convinced by Spartacus, immediately obeyed the order.

The other gladiators stayed, while Spartacus and Hamilcar continued to walk upwards. After a while, they saw a dozen people coming down from above.

Spartacus recognized the leader at a glance as the gladiator Pheasalus. He once suffered a leg injury while escaping from the gladiator school. He recovered after 20 days of recovery and was in Altonix's group. As a captain of ten, when he saw Spartacus, his tired eyes suddenly lit up, he took the initiative to stop, and shouted respectfully: "Chief Spartacus!"

Behind him were all slave recruits. They had their heads lowered and looked depressed, and they didn't even bother to look up at Spartacus.

Spartacus saw this and asked, "Where are you going?"

"Maximus implores everyone to send someone to guard the food in the carriage below, but no one has been willing. Only I-" Pheasalus said helplessly: "Who told me that I have a good relationship with Maximus? No Sorry to refuse."

It seems that Maximus didn't think carefully... Spartacus subconsciously looked at Hamilka, and then said: "You don't need to take people down, I have already asked Volsiris to guard there. ”

When Fesalus heard this, he immediately became energetic, turned around and said to the others: "Brothers, we don't have to go down anymore, hurry up and have a rest."

The others turned around and walked away in relief, but no one bothered to respond.

Spartacus frowned even more.

After passing a turning point in the mountain road, Pheasalus said loudly from the front: "Chief, the road ahead is steep, so be careful. We were too panicked when we came up... some brothers fell..."

After the rebel army was stationed at the wine farm, Spartacus personally surveyed the surrounding terrain. He also walked on this mountain and did not find it difficult to walk. However, Fesalus' words shocked him, and then he turned into Heartbroken, he silently followed Pheasalus and his party through the "steepest" mountain road and arrived at the habitat of the defeated rebels.

This is a piece of land at the top of the mountain, surrounded by rough and large rocks, with thick dark brown soil deposited in the center. Coupled with sufficient sunlight, it is no wonder that it was opened up into a vineyard.

But now the wooden sheds that blocked the mountain wind have been demolished, and the grape trellises are all gone. There are no lush green leaves and heavy grape bunches, only densely packed rebel soldiers. They sat crowded on the ground, some leaning on each other and falling asleep from exhaustion, some covering their wounds and moaning, some looking depressed and sobbing softly... They were all depressed and demoralized. When Spartacus When Si entered here, most of the people were like wooden sculptures, still motionless, as if the leader of the rebel army did not exist.

Only the three leaders, Cross, Enomui, and Altonix, who were sitting on the edge of the land, stood up. Maximus, who was in the innermost part of the land, saw this and squeezed through the dense crowd.

"How many more do we have?" Spartacus first asked the question he was most concerned about.

"Maximus did a rough count for me just now. There are about 1,400 people here, including a baggage team of 170 people." Even Cross, who has always been highly motivated, can't help but feel a little frustrated at this moment: "These There are still more than 200 people injured, and I'm afraid they won't be able to fight again in a short time..."

Spartacus felt sad: before the war, the rebel army had more than 4,000 people, but after the battle there were three-quarters less. Those who were not on the mountain either died in battle, were captured, or fled elsewhere...

Spartacus shook his head, temporarily putting aside his sad mood, and asked seriously: "How many casualties did the gladiators have?"

"Including Wallslis and the others you left on the mountainside, there are still 163 people here..." Cross, a Gallic man with a strong personality, also showed sadness at this moment: "Bozovel, Nigel, Wei Bert... they all died fighting the Romans... I saw it with my own eyes..."

The names of the people Cross mentioned were all Gallic gladiators with whom he was closely related.

Spartacus patted him firmly on the shoulder as a sign of comfort.

"Spartacus, the Romans are building a camp at the bottom of the mountain and trying to trap us on the mountain. What should we do now?!" Altonix interjected eagerly. They can see the situation below the mountain from the top of the mountain. .

"Why not, let's rush down together before the Romans dig the trenches and launch a surprise attack on them. We will definitely be able to break through their siege!" Enomui said loudly.

"Although we have some food on the mountain, we don't have enough water. If we are surrounded by the Romans for three or four days, we will all die of thirst. It is better to follow what Enomui said and wait for everyone to rest. Go down the mountain and fight the Romans!" Cross said through gritted teeth.

Although Altonix did not speak, his expression clearly expressed approval.

It seems that these three people have reached an agreement in advance... Spartacus hesitated: the Romans were not unprepared when they built the camp at the foot of the mountain. Their regular troops were standing guard on the side, and the previous charge of more than 4,000 people failed to defeat them. The enemy now wants to take these more than 1,000 defeated troops with low morale and kill them down the mountain. This is simply gambling with their lives! ...But if we don’t do this and are besieged on the mountain by the Romans, will we just wait to die? …

Spartacus was in a dilemma. He was about to say: "Let me think again -" when he suddenly heard Maximus who had rushed over and said: "The Romans can't block us. We can go down the mountain quietly." go."

"Go down the mountain quietly? How?!" When Cross heard this, he became very angry: "Except for this side of the mountain, it is surrounded by cliffs and there is not even a place to stay. You want to climb quietly? Going down the mountain is just a dream! If you hadn't led the baggage team up the mountain first and attracted the soldiers to run up the mountain, we wouldn't be trapped on this mountain at all!"

"Cross, if Maximus hadn't led the panicked soldiers up the mountain, we might still be on the run, and it would be impossible for us to still be here discussing how to break out." Hamilka immediately defended Maximus.

"That way at least we can escape, instead of waiting to die like now!" Cross retorted.

"Stop arguing!" Spartacus roared irritably, then looked at Maximus and asked in a voice that was both hopeful and nervous: "You just said 'quietly go down the mountain' What do you mean? Is there another way down the mountain?"

"Of course!" Maximus looked at everyone with a confident face, and finally his eyes fell on Cross and said in a deep voice: "What you just said is right. Except here, this mountain is surrounded by cliffs, which are far from the ground. It is too high, so it is indeed difficult to go down, but it is not impossible! I brought a few bundles of strong ropes. Although they are not long enough, there are grapevines everywhere, and some old vines are very strong, connecting them with the ropes. , you can hang from here to the ground, and—"

Maximus pointed to the cliff to the east and said with emphasis: "I checked the terrain here before. There are two mountain shuttles over there that reach the ground vertically. Some of the mountain walls between the mountain edges are just right for us to spread our feet. With support, we can pass the cliff over there, hold on to the rope and slide down while stepping on the mountain wall slowly. We should be able to reach the bottom of the mountain smoothly, and there is a mountain separated from the camp that the Romans are building. It’s hard to detect our actions.”

Maximus' words made Spartacus doubtful, but the new hope made him re-energized. He turned to the leaders and said loudly: "Let's go and take a look!"