"I am Liu Bei, and I have come here with ten thousand soldiers on the orders of Governor Pecney, to obey Your Majesty's commands!"
Liu Bei adopted a very humble attitude in front of Kang Maode, giving him ample face.
"Haha, Brother Liu, no need for such formalities!"
Kang Maode also stepped forward happily and helped Liu Bei up.
Looking at Liu Bei, Kang Maode also smiled and said, "When I was an envoy to the Han Dynasty, I was summoned by His Majesty the Emperor of your country."
The wisdom and martial prowess of your emperor, as well as his regal bearing, remain vivid in my memory to this day.
In my eyes, only your Emperor is the most honorable person in the world!
"Your Majesty is right. Your Majesty is indeed the greatest emperor of all time."
However, I believe that with Your Majesty's abilities, you can certainly make Rome a nation like the Han Dynasty!
Liu Bei replied with a smile. He could also see that this Kang Maode seemed to greatly admire his emperor. Of course, this admiration stemmed more from the emperor's supreme authority.
"I hope so. Even if I can only achieve one-tenth of what your emperor has accomplished, I will be content!"
Upon hearing Liu Bei's praise, Kang Maode waved his hand modestly.
After exchanging a few pleasantries with Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Gao Shun, and others, Commodus led the group into the city of Rome.
That night, Kang Maode held a banquet in the palace to welcome Liu Bei and his entourage.
In addition to the Roman nobles, those invited also included representatives from various provinces.
During the banquet, Kang Maode also introduced Liu Bei's identity and the troops sent by the two provinces to everyone in a high-profile manner.
His intention, aside from using this to warn others, was primarily to demonstrate his close relationship with the Han Dynasty.
After all, with the increasing trade between Rome and the Han Dynasty in recent years, more and more Han Dynasty goods have been flowing into Rome, greatly stimulating the prosperity of Roman commerce.
Today, more than half of the Roman nobility are engaged in commercial dealings with the Han Dynasty.
It is no exaggeration to say that the current attitude of the Han Dynasty can, to a large extent, influence the political situation in Rome.
Therefore, Liu Bei's status as the younger brother of the Han emperor was not only useful in the Egyptian province, but also highly sought after in the city of Rome.
Those nobles and representatives from various provinces, regardless of their relationship with Kang Maode, all surrounded Liu Bei and tried to get close to him.
Throughout the banquet, Liu Bei undoubtedly became the main character.
Commodus seemed pleased with this situation.
Because Liu Bei's disguise was so perfect, whenever someone came to talk to him and the topic of politics came up, he would always bring up Kang Maode.
This also led Kang Maode to regard Liu Bei as his most loyal ally.
On the surface, it seems that, through Liu Bei's mediation, both the Roman nobles and the representatives of various provinces have accepted the fact that Commodus is the new emperor of Rome.
But what Commodus didn't know was that Liu Bei had unknowingly increased his influence among the nobles and various provinces.
The time came to February of the seventeenth year of the Kaiyuan era.
After several months of preparation, ten provinces responded to Commodus's call and sent troops to Rome.
These troops numbered a total of 90,000, of which 30,000 came from the Imperial Guard and 60,000 came from various provinces.
After careful consideration, Commodus decided to divide the army that was going to conquer Gaul into two parts, with the Praetorian Guard led by Penes.
The armies of the various provinces were integrated into an alliance, with Liu Bei in charge of command.
The army of 90,000 was divided into two routes. Pennis led 30,000 guards by land to attack the northern part of the province of Gaul.
Liu Bei led a coalition of 60,000 troops from various provinces by sea to attack the southern part of the Gaul province.
March 1st.
On the azure sea, Liu Bei led a coalition army of 60,000 troops from various provinces to the southern coast of the Gaul province.
The governor of the Gaul province had received news long ago that Commodus had sent a large army to attack, and forcibly recruited 80,000 troops, of whom 50,000 were deployed to the southern coast to block the naval attack.
On the deck, looking at the Gallic camps stretching along the coastline, Liu Bei couldn't help but smile slightly.
This defensive strategy of the Gallic army might be effective in preventing small boats from landing, but it became a sitting duck for the giant ships of the Han Dynasty equipped with crossbows.
Liu Bei then instructed Gao Shun, "Gongren, it's time to let these guys see the might of our Han Dynasty's warships!"
Gao Shun nodded, then climbed the watchtower, waved the command flag, and began to arrange the battle.
Two hundred ships carrying Egyptian and Arab soldiers also hoisted their sails and began to adjust their positions.
Under the astonished gaze of the provincial allied soldiers, two hundred ships quickly lined up on the sea and seized the T-shaped horizontal position, making way for the ballistae on the right side of the ships to aim at the Gallic camp three hundred meters away.
Seeing the strange formation of the provincial allied forces, the Gallic army that had already assembled on the coast was completely bewildered, not knowing why the other side had turned all the ships sideways.
Of course, this cannot be blamed on the Gallic army, because apart from the Parthian navy that was destroyed, no one has ever seen a ship equipped with ballistae.
Meanwhile, Egyptian and Arab soldiers were silently and busily making their final preparations before the start of the war.
Under the tutelage of Gao Shun, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei, the soldiers from the two provinces far surpassed other soldiers in both combat effectiveness and execution.
Therefore, the soldiers from the allied provinces, who were also on the ships behind, watched in astonishment as the soldiers from the two provinces moved in an orderly manner.
The soldiers carried many large stones, about the size of a human head, and wine jars filled with kerosene out of the ship's hold and put them into the ballista's scoops.
Soon, the ballistae on the two hundred ships were loaded. One hundred of them were loaded with stones and aimed at the Gallic army that had gathered on the shore, while the remaining one hundred were loaded with oil and aimed at the Gallic army's camp.
"emission!!"
Standing atop the watchtower, Gao Shun roared and waved the command flag in his hand.
With a series of dull thuds, one hundred stones and one hundred burning oil canisters were launched.
They whistled through the air, tracing a precisely calculated parabola before falling into the ranks and camps of the Gallic army.
Seeing the whistling stones and the oil canisters with their trailing flames, the Gallic army realized the threat posed by the enemy.
Faced with this unprecedented blow, they immediately panicked.
Although only a very small number of stones hit the Gallic army, causing fewer than twenty casualties, this terrifying method of attack still terrified the rest of the Gallic soldiers.
In an instant, the Gallic army within the range of the ballistae's fire was thrown into chaos, frantically fleeing to both sides.
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