Chapter 422: Doubts

A week has passed since the barbarian attack. During this time, Luca sent John Anthony to investigate. After all, the power of intellectuals is considerable!

This attack made the people of Tarraco panic and fall into a highly tense situation. Because the main target of the attack was the nobles, and it is well known that the place where the nobles gathered was the Governor's Palace, which was the most heavily guarded place in Tarraco. It was attacked by so many barbarians, so where else could the barbarians not attack?

So much so that the surviving nobles hid in their houses all day long, and then hired a large number of mercenaries to guard their mansions. It was difficult for them to trust anyone, especially Andres and government officials of the Tarraco authorities.

The number of guards on the streets was doubled, and Andres had to hire some mercenaries to guard the city. The order of the streets was well stabilized, and the lives of the citizens were stable, but the nobles. Andres, who had lost his credibility, might really have no way to explain to them how this tragedy happened.

"Subi! Subi!" Luca had been very worried about this issue for a while, because he was not sure what the purpose of these guys was. In short, such a situation just after arriving in Iberia really caught him off guard.

"I had been planning to tour the Spanish provinces, but this beginning makes me lose all my face!" He thought to himself, his eyes fixed on the map on the table.

Yes, there is no reason at all! Because the distance from the Suebi territory is too far, because there is Caesar Augusta in the middle, and there are countless fortresses on the Tarraco Avenue. How can they come here? And there is also the Gothic territory. They are all enemies. How can they allow the enemy's troops to pass through their territory? "I will never allow these barbarians to do whatever they want in the current territory." Luca said to himself, feeling that the current situation is very different from other areas in the past.

"It's a complicated situation. I can't tell who is the enemy and who is the ally!" Lu Jia said, slumped in his chair, feeling that it was a big joke to be looking for answers in such a closed-door manner. This is not my problem. Asking about my own mistakes is an ideological mistake.

"Then let's go out and relax!" Luca thought so, and slowly stood up and walked out of the tent. At this moment, he saw from afar that the camp gate was slowly opened, and a carriage hurried in, covered in dust and seemed to be in a hurry.

"Why, some damn emergency?" Luka looked at the carriage coming towards him, and naturally knew what would happen? He was already busy and happy, and now he had new troubles without dealing with the old ones. He sighed and sat in front of the door, silently telling himself that this might be fate, and then he looked like a dead man and watched the carriage getting closer and closer.

"Luka! Luka!"

Look, before the person got out of the carriage, the voice reached Luga's ears.

"Call me Soldier Captain!" Luca sighed again and watched the curtain of the carriage being lifted. John Antiochus jumped off the carriage, pointed at a cloth bag with his right hand, and trotted towards Luca holding his robe in his left hand. The way he ran was very funny, but Luca was so tired that he couldn't laugh.

"Oh, it's John. Why, let me see what you brought?" Luca said weakly, looking at John Antiochus.

"Luca, check it out! They are all Goths!" John Antiochus said, taking out a piece of cloth from his pocket, on which was a very crude bird. The bird's body and wings were red, but its head was blue, and it looked somewhat similar to the eagle used by Rome.

"They are the unique symbols of the Visigoths, I am very sure of that!" John Antiochus continued, "This thing was found in the arms of a guy who looked like an officer."

Seeing Luca's puzzled look, John Antiochus added, "The soldiers patrolling the city caught a guy who wanted to run away but failed. After being tortured, the guy confessed that he was a subordinate of Theodoric, the leader of Visigoth. He was humiliated by an arrow shot outside the city of Durocortolam. They got the news that you were coming to Tarraco, so they sent assassins. They bribed the guards and ambushed in the venue before you entered. Maybe they were afraid that the news would leak out because there were too many people, and they were not sure that it was you, so they rushed out and killed you when they felt the time was right."

"It's really amazing, these barbarians!" Luca said, stretching his legs and then asked John Antiochus: "We have issued an order requiring that the tithes to be paid by various regions should be paid to us!"

"Yes, sir."

"Set aside a portion of the money and check the casualties at the time, and then distribute the money to the families of the nobles who were killed at the time according to the pensions for the fallen officers." Luga said with a long sigh.

"Sir." John Antiochus also had a serious expression on his face. He then asked, "Do you think they will accept this little money?"

Luca was a little unhappy and asked John, "Why? Are we going to give them lots of gold?"

John shook his head quickly, and Luca continued, "It is very rare that our military took the initiative to take responsibility for this matter. It is very kind to treat the victim as an officer, for God's sake. Now it has been dragged on. I hope that this matter will be concluded within a week, because I will soon go to New Carthage in the south."

"What? Are we going to start a war?" John Antiochus asked, and he looked a little reluctant, as if he had something to hide.

"What? You don't seem to be looking forward to the war." Luga said, dusting himself off, and then continued, "I'm numb to war, but this is the only way for us to regain our old territory."

"But our military rations and money are simply not enough to support the army's attack." John Antiochus shrugged and said, "The finances are stretched to the limit now. Most of the taxes paid by the provinces are used to repay the pensions of the soldiers who died in the Britannia War. In addition, although there is a lot of property taken from pirates at sea, it is only enough to maintain the status quo. The money hoarded by the northern territories for development is not reliable at all. The military rations are far from enough. If we don't buy food from the local nobles, we will have a hard time holding on."

"What about the military expenditures provided by the central government?" Lu Jia asked, "They can't let their soldiers starve to death like this!"

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"Not even a denarius." John Antiochus shook his head and said, "Since you asked the provinces to stop paying tribute, the central government has stopped supplying our army. We have not had any extra property for at least the past few months."

"Okay, okay. Actually, I have no intention of starting a war at all." Luca smiled at John Antiochus and stopped talking.

(End of this chapter)