Although Marcruz was shocked and angry now, he had no ability to stop those booing people in the stands, and he didn't dare to stand up to interfere with Commodus' decision, so he could only sit in the stands and blow his beard and stare.
Now he can only hope that Commodus will be more fair and will consider his loss. After all, he still owns Zhang Heng's ownership right now, and he just borrowed the gladiators under his command to perform in the Flavi Amphitheatre. The organizers of the festival have the right to decide the life and death of the gladiators and whether to grant the gladiators freedom, but after doing so, they must compensate the schools behind the gladiators.
The question is how should Zhang Heng set his price now
In the eyes of Marcruz, Zhang Heng is priceless at all. After Cisnatus, he is the strongest gladiator in the entire history of Rome. How much is this worth
But the problem is that this is just his opinion, and generally this kind of compensation standard is determined based on the price of the gladiator when it is purchased and with reference to the performance years of the gladiator, but Zhang Heng has very few of these two items.
According to Gabi, buying Zhang Heng only cost an average price. This is because the other party has an oriental identity, and the performance years are even worse. Zhang Heng's rise is too fast, almost overnight. An unknown person became a household name. According to this standard, even if Commodus is kind, if Zhang Heng is released, he only needs to pay him a few thousand sesterces.
But this time Marcruz has lost money to his grandma's family. Even if it is conservatively estimated, Zhang Heng can bring more than 30,000 gold coins to the arena a year. Even if he only works for three years, it will still be 90,000 gold coins. Such a large amount of money with only a few thousand copper coins left is simply cutting off Marcruz's flesh.
So Marcruz is now the most nervous person in the entire Flavi Amphitheater, but the little extravagant hope in his heart was shattered with Commodus's next move.
The young emperor held this gladiatorial performance to win the hearts of the people. How could he go against the voice of the people? Besides, Commodus himself was worrying about how to take Zhang Heng away from Marcruz. It is rare to have such a good opportunity now. Turn Zhang Heng into a free man, and then he can naturally take this oriental man into his pocket.
Of course, if he lets a gladiator become his confidant, it will definitely arouse the protest and dissatisfaction of the old antiques in the Senate, but this is not the first time he has done such a ridiculous thing. Isn't it good, and he recruited newcomers in a big way just to fight against those old guys and old forces.
The empire is like an old man entering his twilight years, just in need of fresh blood to rejuvenate it.
Commodus has always believed in this, so he doesn't care about the mood of the poor owner of the gladiator school.
The young emperor took the training sword symbolizing freedom from his entourage, threw it in front of Zhang Heng, and at the same time announced loudly, "You have won this for yourself."
His actions also triggered a new round of cheers. The people seemed to be happy that their voices were taken seriously. The empire ushered in a good emperor who loved the people like a son.
However, this good emperor who loved the people like a son knocked Marcus out of anger with just one sentence. When he opened his eyes again, Zhang Heng had already picked up the wooden sword.
This also means that the latter has gained freedom and has nothing to do with Victor Arena from now on.
So Marcruz, who just opened his eyes, fainted again.
Obviously one second ago he was the biggest winner of this wrestling performance, looking forward to the new future of the Victor Arena with great ambitions, but the next second he fell from the clouds, and in the blink of an eye he became the biggest loser.
Even Satonillos and the others, who somehow behaved poorly, survived for the most part. After this battle, their reputation will definitely be severely damaged. Dashan is gone, and they will still have a chance to regain the throne in the future. As for Marcruz, it was miserable. He won the performer but disappeared.
There are no more ups and downs in life than this.
Perhaps the only thing that can comfort him is that the Germanic Bach performed well in this gladiatorial performance, and his performance was stable, second only to Zhang Heng and Telyphilos, but how could a Bach compare to Zhang Heng's popularity.
...
Zhang Heng was also a little surprised when he picked up the wooden sword, because he also knew the rules of the arena, and there were almost no gladiators like him who were freed after only a few matches, because the audience would also think about the beloved gladiator. To see more of their performances.
And the timing of the call for his freedom is ingenious. While everyone was discussing what should be rewarded to him, the weight of those rewards continued to increase, and the crowd fell into a state of frenzy. At this time, the most valuable freedom was thrown out.
So the crowd also subconsciously shouted together. In other words, this was actually a premeditated guide and use of public opinion.
The question is who is behind this. Zhang Heng looked at Commodore first. Of course he knew that Commodore wanted to pull him into his team. This is what Zhang Heng has been deliberately guiding Commodore to do, so He is undoubtedly the beneficiary of this matter, but Zhang Heng's understanding of the young emperor is also deepening through the previous relationship, and Kang Maode's rank should not have reached such a high level.
This thing was done very cleverly, and it could be said that there was almost no trace of it. The planner behind it had quite superb political skills, and was good at using force to make a difference.
Such a person should obviously not be a political newcomer like Commodus.
After thinking about it, Zhang Heng thinks that the only possibility is probably the political forces behind Balance Blade. According to the agreement between the two parties, Zhang Heng will help Balance Blade to do things, and Balance Blade will guarantee his freedom in the end, although it is after the matter is completed. , but it does not rule out that Balance Blade saw the current opportunity and paid part of the reward in advance, which also facilitated him to get closer to Commodus.
If this is the case, I am afraid it also confirms some of Zhang Heng's previous conjectures. The Blade of Balance is not as pure as it claims. It is to maintain the balance of the world and so on. The members in the group did not realize this, or some members like the old Persian trainer did not realize this, thinking that this political force was their help, but they did not know that the service relationship between the two parties was actually reversed.
In addition, Zhang Heng also received two long-lost system prompts. One of them is a 100 game point reward for winning the gladiatorial performance, and there is also a 50 game point reward for restoring the status of a free person.