Chapter 442 Rebuttal

"Not only are you slandering me in front of everyone, you are also deliberately using your dirty words to alienate the close relationship between me and Augustus, Sir Fitanius." Luca said in a deep voice, raised his head, and his eyes became cold.

Luca now understands that it is time for him to express his position. Everyone may doubt what Fitanius said and wonder what Luca is thinking at this moment. He must stand up and give a reasonable explanation!

He looked at Fitanius, clenched his fists, and looked around at the people around him. Luca patted his chest and said loudly: "In the decisive battle with Sassanid Persia outside the city of Edessa, the Persian kerosene could melt armor and burn flesh until it turned into ashes. It was with this kerosene that I saved Augustus as if with divine help. I am my adoptive father Theodosius. He accepted me as his disciple and became his adopted son, a member of the Flavius ​​family. In Valentinian, I fought desperately against the Vandal Gaiseric and stopped him from advancing and getting involved in Atlantis. "I followed the footsteps of the Romans and the Romans, and then I defended Rome, Naples and even Ravenna. These are all my great military achievements. What is more worthy of boasting is that I recovered Gaul and Britannia, and pushed the defense line back to the Hadrian Wall built hundreds of years ago. No one can match my great military achievements. However, with so much honor, am I lost? Have I chosen to betray? No, the answer is no. I have always been loyal to Rome, Augustus, and the Flavius ​​family. It has never happened, it is not happening now, and it will never happen in the future!"

Luca's remarks caused a lot of discussion among the people present. They began to hesitate. Whose opinion should they support? This became the most important question facing everyone.

"Are you proud?" When Luca said this, Fitanius not only did not feel the slightest bit of shame, but instead sneered at Luca. But he could not find anything to refute. He had just said a lot of words, but was blocked by Luca's self-boasting. In other words, he seemed to have no interest in refuting Luca. He lowered his head and thought, as if he heard all kinds of other meanings from Luca's words.

Everyone nodded in agreement, and now it seemed that everyone supported Luga secretly in their hearts. After all, in an era like this, people with great military achievements would always be more recognized by the public than those who only knew how to slander others.

As everyone nodded in approval, Fitanius chose to remain silent. He did not seem to have any intention of being refuted. He just looked at Luca and said seriously, "Anyway, His Majesty Augustus needs to eat, and he needs taxes to fill the treasury. But you have arbitrarily cut off the Purple Room's source of money. What do you mean by this? Do you want to use this money to satisfy your ambitions?"

Fitanius was not intimidated. He knew that he was looking at this issue from the perspective of the Purple Chamber and the court. Obviously, a captain of soldiers actually reached out to the finances. This was no longer a small issue that could be ignored.

"If you need to maintain the army, we can do our best to support the general, but you are so careless in using the taxes for your own benefit. Isn't that too disrespectful of the Purple Chamber and Augustus? Is the loyalty you keep talking about just words?"

"You must be responsible for what you said, Mr. Fitanius." Luca glared at Fitanius and shouted, "The soldiers on the front line are fighting bloody battles, and their military pay and food are barely enough to sustain themselves. Now you are furious because you don't have new clothes. I really don't know why we are fighting so hard?"

At this point, Luka still suppressed his anger and didn't say anything more ridiculous. This was a test with ulterior motives. No one knew what kind of loss they would suffer from a casual word. Diseases come from the mouth, and all kinds of disasters come from the mouth. The speaker was unintentional, but the listener was intentional.

Fitanius didn't say anything. He just glared at Luca, then stood up and left.

"Ridiculous! Extremely ridiculous!" Seeing Fitanius leave, Luca was not happy at all. On the contrary, Fitanius' arrival and the questions he raised had proved that a rift had appeared in the relationship between him and the Purple Room.

"As I expected, they don't understand my intentions after all." Lu Jia thought to himself, and couldn't help but sighed, then shook his head, endured the pain in his legs, and walked out of the hall without changing his expression. At this time, the nobles and officials who were standing in the hall watching the excitement left one after another.

When Luca returned to his room, he saw a familiar figure. He looked closely and saw that it was his old staff officer, Sebastianus. He was wearing a dark robe. It had been nearly three years since they parted in Luduga. At this time, Sebastianus had a few more strands of white hair on his head.

"Why are you here?" Luca said, and hurried to meet him, and then said: "Ludug Gaul is not close to here."

"I came here with the special envoy's delegation." Sebastianus said slowly, "Luca, I don't know why you are here, but what you are doing now has caused strong dissatisfaction from the Purple Chamber, the Senate, and even Aetius. No one has the courage to issue an order requiring the jurisdiction to stop paying taxes to Central Ravenna."

"Are you also trying to stop me, my friend?" Luca felt very frustrated when he heard Sebastianus say this.

Sebastianus said hurriedly: "No, Luca, you must now make clear the difficulties you are facing. You can't mobilize all the resources to start a war. You must give a way out to the noble officials in Ravenna, Rome, Naples and other places. Even if you don't embezzle taxes like this, it is not difficult for the nobles to figure out that you have other plans. I am warning you, don't let them catch some handles at that time. At that time, even if you don't have any intentions, they can slander you to the point where you can't defend yourself. You must understand that their words can blind God's ears!"

"People's words are scary." At this point, Luca couldn't help but think of the sneer on Fitanius' face, which made him shudder. He was afraid that while he was charging in the front, the guys behind him would join forces with Aetius and Augustus Valentinian III, who was not yet able to distinguish right from wrong. In this way, as long as Augustus said that his position as a soldier was illegal, a new civil war would break out. With his current strength, he could foresee his failure.

"I am still so weak, too weak to even protect myself!" Luca gritted his teeth when he thought of this. He thought of Hannibal, whom he had read about in the books before. He was a military genius, a political dwarf, and ended up being killed. He was just a political bargaining chip.

Luka was afraid that he would end up in such a situation. He couldn't die, so he had to make appropriate compromises. He had to find a way to survive, which could not be exchanged for victory.

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(End of this chapter)