Zhang Heng rushed to the palace before dark, and now the guards outside the palace are also familiar with him, knowing that he is the celebrity in front of Commodus, seeing that he no longer stops him.
Of course, with a secret passage leading directly to the study like Otrus, Zhang Heng probably will never have such treatment.
Commodus's trust in Ortrus has reached a level that no one can match, and it has already surpassed the relationship between the emperor and the consultant.
From this point of view, Zhang Heng can understand why the Balancing Blade, which has considerable political resources, must get rid of Otrus, because there is basically no way to separate Otrus and Commodus except for assassination.
But in this way, Zhang Heng also became a little curious about the position of the Balance Blade. He didn't know which side they were on. The purpose of killing Otrus was to weaken the emperor's power and leave Commodus alone. Available, or that he does not want Commodus to continue to be bewitched by Ortrus.
Of course, this kind of thing has nothing to do with Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng just thought about it on the way here in the carriage. He handed his Persian dagger to the maid on the side, and then followed another maid into the palace. middle.
There were quite a few people in the hall at the moment, but His Majesty the Emperor hadn't shown up yet, and Zhang Heng didn't see anyone suspected of Otrus.
On the contrary, Klinde arrived early and was walking through the crowd. It can be seen that his popularity is quite good. Basically, everyone respects him. Klinde also saw Zhang Heng and patted him. The back of a young man who was talking, then walked over.
"Welcome, I heard about the mine. You handled it very well, allowing the batch of bronze statues to be delivered on schedule." Klinder said, and then lowered his voice, "Have you found out who is behind it?"
Zhang Heng shook his head, "I don't know. I asked the elder Divobraye, hoping that he could provide me with some help, but he refused me, but the matter was resolved after that."
"Divobraye?" Klinde raised his eyebrows, "That old fox, it's not surprising that he rejected you, because that guy is a fool, and no one wants to offend, but why did he help you secretly Is it to show our favor by solving this matter?"
Klinder seemed a little incomprehensible.
"I heard that you have also encountered some troubles." Zhang Heng helped Divobraye get another wave of attention and changed the subject.
"Oh, some people wanted to obstruct the launch of the new copper coins. I killed some people, so the rest of the people were honest." Klinder said disapprovingly, "Some people in the Senate seem to feel that they are too comfortable. I forgot where the power in their hands came from. His Majesty’s father was too tolerant of the Senate when he was in power, which made some people get carried away. We need to change this situation. If there is no accident, this is what we will do next. done."
Klinder inadvertently revealed some future plans to Zhang Heng, which was also one of his little tricks to win over political allies.
After the two chatted for a while, Klinder didn't talk about politics anymore, but changed the topic to eating, drinking and having fun. He recommended several famous restaurants in Rome to Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng wrote them down and planned to bring his little girl someday Slave to try it together, firstly, to make a card at the online celebrity shop in Rome in the second century AD, and secondly, to see if we can get some points by the way.
After a while, Commodus finally walked into the hall.
Everyone stopped talking and saluted the young emperor. The latter seemed to be in a good mood tonight. He waved his hand and said, "Today's dinner is to welcome a new friend. There are no outsiders here, so don't be too restrained. .” After speaking, he looked at Zhang Heng.
Seeing this, Zhang Heng walked up to Kang Maode, and was embraced by His Majesty the Emperor. Kang Maode said happily, "Next, I will introduce my new consultant to you grandly. I believe you are no stranger to him. Because no one in the entire city of Rome does not know his name, and all the women are crazy about him. He is the gladiator champion of the Flavian Amphitheatre, and he can subdue a bison with his bare hands. He is Zhang Heng from another distant eastern empire!"
His Majesty the Emperor deliberately raised the volume when he pronounced Zhang Heng's name, so there was a round of warm applause in the banquet hall afterwards.
When the applause subsided, Commodus continued, "I bet, all of you together may not be Zhang Heng's opponent, but don't think that he is just a reckless man. In fact, his wisdom also amazes me. You know the southeast city area, the public security problem there has existed for one or two hundred years, and it has caused headaches for successive emperors, but most people have no good solution for it, but Zhang Heng spent two months and only spent two In just one month, he has greatly improved the security situation there. Compared with his force, his intelligence is more precious to me, because my father often said that in governing a country, the brain is always more important than the brain. A sword is useful."
Everyone nodded after hearing the words.
Commodus took two glasses of wine from the waiter, gave one of them to Zhang Heng, and then raised the glass in his hand, "Let's pay respects to this magical oriental who will never disappoint, welcome him to join Come to our cause, let us make Rome great together!"
Hearing this, Zhang Heng also raised his wine glass and added, "To our Majesty, Rome will be full of glory under his leadership."
"Respect Your Majesty, respect our new friend, Zhang Heng!" Everyone raised their glasses and shouted.
After that, Commodus asked Klinde to take Zhang Heng to meet the people who attended the dinner.
Zhang Heng shook hands with all the guests one by one. Hearing Klinder's introduction, his heart sank gradually, because he found that his target Otrus had not appeared.
For tonight's dinner, almost all of Commodus's basic boards are available, except for the most mysterious Ortrus.
In this way, not only Zhang Heng's previous plans were all abolished, but he also found that he couldn't find a way to get close to Ortrus in a short time.
If Otrus is so cautious that he will not even attend such a dinner party with his own people, it means that no one can see him except Commodus, and the difficulty of assassinating him will become very high. Not to mention handing him over to the priestess for a while before killing him.
Zhang Heng didn't bother to meet any new friends after that. His purpose was different from that of everyone present. After all, he was just a passer-by to Rome in the second century AD. It doesn't make much sense either.