When he was in the southeast city, the megaphone once tested Zhang Heng with the teachings of the Blade of Balance, and Zhang Heng also told Otrus about it, so now he can't lie about it in the dungeon.
At the same time, Zhang Heng also realized that the reason why Commodus named him and Klinde to interrogate the captured assassins was probably not accidental, in order to let him, an "insider", expose the existence of Balance Blade.
And this also means that the assassination by the bridge in the afternoon was not caused by the Blade of Balance, but a double reed sung by Ortrus in collusion with Commodus.
Otrus never thought of launching a stand-in to stand in front of him to do things for him, but just used it as a consumable, and successfully blamed the assassination on the balance blade, so that he could use the power of the state machine Come to encircle the Blade of Balance.
But the truth is even more exciting than what Zhang Heng guessed.
After he and Klinde reported the information they got from the female assassin to Commodus, His Majesty the Emperor immediately issued a wanted order for all the members of Balance Blade. One hundred thousand gold coins were offered as a reward in the treasury.
The Senate also expressed concern about this matter. A group of nobles headed by Dior immediately expressed their condolences for the assassination of Ortrus, because it was against the rules to use the funds in the treasury to pursue the murderer, and they even used donations. Way to collect another 200,000 gold coins and add them to the reward, but in private, many people are actually gloating.
Because Otrus is a member of Commodus, and has always been hailed as Commodus's right-hand man together with Klinde, and now Otrus' death is equivalent to making Commodus lose a hand, so the young emperor is in In the future, they will have to rely even more on the Senate.
Such a situation is undoubtedly what a group of nobles headed by Dior would like to see, but their happiness only lasted for less than half a day, and then they were all dumbfounded, because they found that they seemed to have underestimated the young emperor.
Taking advantage of the death of Ortrus, Commodus began to purge the senior generals in the Imperial Guard.
Except for Saibutur, a military tribune who escaped inexplicably because of his escort, the other officers from the great nobles were either transferred or abolished, and replaced by a group who fought with Commodus and the Germanic tribes before. Officers, regardless of their origin, have one thing in common, and that is loyalty to Commodus.
In the end, except for the Supreme Commander of the Praetorian Guards, Commodus, who did not move for the time being, all other middle and high-level generals were replaced, which meant that Commodus actually completely controlled the strongest armed force in the city of Rome.
When the Senate reacted, everything was settled, and Dior and others could only look at each other.
However, Zhang Heng doesn't have much time to care about these political turmoil for the time being. It has been five days since Ortrus was assassinated, and the Balance Blade still hasn't contacted him.
In the past five days, the situation around him was still calm, and Commodus summoned him just this morning, because he performed well in the previous assassination by the bridge, killing three assassins, Commodus decided to reward him with another A large piece of land, so far Zhang Heng's territory has even surpassed many noble families that have been in business for several generations.
The only disadvantage is that it is a bit far away from Rome. If there is a war in the future, it will be easy to become the front line. However, even so, many people envy him. After all, even if they are both consultants, there are differences.
Now anyone with a discerning eye can see that, if there is no accident, Klind will take over the position vacated by Otrus and become the chief consultant of Commodus, and Zhang Heng will become the next Klind. Of course, the premise is that he will I can find a way to repair the small conflicts with Klinde caused by persuasion.
Klinder is now waiting for Zhang Heng to bow his head. Although he still feels that Zhang Heng is a threat, this does not prevent him from enjoying the victory at this stage first, but what makes him embarrassed is that Zhang Heng did not respond in the next few days. Come to him, and the latter doesn't know what he is busy with, and often stays away all day.
But tonight, it was rare for Zhang Heng to go home for the night. He stretched out his hand and opened the door, and walked into the front hall, but Zhang Heng stopped in his footsteps.
The little slave girl had been sent away by him almost a month ago, and now there are only Zhang Heng and the two servants that Commodus came with the house in this Domus. It's long, and there are no noticeable features, but the job is done well.
In the past, when Zhang Heng came home at this time, someone would come out to greet him, but now the whole Domusili is very quiet, without a single sound, until Zhang Heng stood still in the front hall, and the water waves in the Chengyu Pool were reflected on the wall by the moonlight. Shake slightly.
And Zhang Heng's ears also caught the sound of something sharp cutting through the air.
Almost as soon as Zhang Heng moved his front foot, an arrow with his back foot hit the place where he was standing before. Without looking up, Zhang Heng knew that the archer was hiding on the second floor. Truth's assassin.
Zhang Heng was also impressed by the opponent's previous arrow technique, so Zhang Heng didn't think too much, and just dodged behind a marble column beside him. However, when he was about to approach the marble column, there was no sign at all. He stopped again.
At the same time, a scimitar stretched out from behind the column and slashed at his face. If Zhang Heng hadn't held his ground just now, he would have been cut in two by the scimitar.
But at this moment, Zhang Heng's crisis has not passed. Although he escaped this premeditated ambush by relying on his superhuman hearing and prediction, he did not forget that there was a sharp archer on the second floor. Letting go of such a good opportunity, and the fact is exactly as he thought, at the moment he turned from movement to silence, the sharp archer on the second floor caught this fleeting opportunity and let go of the bowstring.
Therefore, Zhang Heng now not only has to face the scimitar in front of him, but also has to deal with the second arrow coming towards him.
Zhang Heng made his choice without much hesitation, because the scimitar had already cut to his chest, and he was bound to deal with the imminent crisis first, so Zhang Heng swung the Persian short sword in his hand, and at the same time One hand also quickly pressed on the hilt of another Persian dagger.
Almost at the same moment when Zhang Heng blocked the scimitar, the deadly arrow also flew in front of him. Zhang Heng had to use the skill of drawing the sword to pull out another Persian sword before the last moment. , Then he used the method he used to deal with the bow and arrow gladiator at the Flavi Amphitheatre, and knocked the feathered arrow that was aimed at him into the air.
What is certain is that the two assassins in front of them have never seen Zhang Heng's performance, so when they witnessed this scene, they were inevitably in a trance.
Because this is really not like an action that humans can make.