While Zhang Heng was still investigating Altrus's true identity, he did not expect to receive a gift from Altrus first.
This was the gift that Altrus had promised to give him when they first met.
However, nothing happened after that. Zhang Heng thought that Altrus had forgotten about the gift. After all, Altrus also said that Zhang Heng would probably forget about the gift after drinking the wine containing scopolamine alkaloids.
So in theory, even if he did not fulfill his promise, no one would know.
However, people like Altrus obviously didn't like to go back on their words, even if the person he made a promise to might not even remember it. Two weeks later, Zhang Heng received a card at noon. There was no signature on the card. It only said, "Your gift has been delivered. I hope you like it."
In the afternoon, the Senate suddenly released shocking news that Senator Divo Braille was suspected of taking bribes, and the amount was not small. Bribery was a very serious crime in Rome. Depending on the amount of money involved, it could even lead to the death penalty and exile. Although this kind of crime usually happened to low-level officials, Divo Braille was a very serious crime.
The real nobles basically had a way to clean themselves after receiving money, let alone a big shot like Divo Braille. He would never personally accept bribes. Even if something went wrong, he could only trace it back to his subordinates. Otherwise, the Jewish gang, Lockheed, and the others would not have to worry about Divo Braille getting greedier and greedier. At most, they could report this to the Senate, and both sides would die.
In fact, Lockheed could not do anything about the vampire in the Jewish gang. Otherwise, he would not have made an agreement with Zhang Heng. He was willing to let the patrol team, Soap, and the others develop in exchange for Zhang Heng to help him solve this problem.
But this time, Zhang Heng learned from the news that Divo Braille's situation was very bad. The evidence that was exposed was very detailed, and there were many witnesses. At the same time, the most terrible thing was that all the corruption happened when Divo Braille was the financial officer.
The largest amount of money was related to a new park in the city of Rome.
The park was built by the former emperor Aurelius in memory of his late wife. The royal family was responsible for most of the funding. Other than that, many nobles donated money. As far as Zhang Heng knew, Divo Braille secretly took one-third of the money. And if he used this money, it was tantamount to offending the royal family and many nobles who later donated money. The situation was very serious.
However, those who could enter the Senate were not easy to deal with. Anyone with a discerning eye could see that someone was trying to make things difficult for Divo Braille. The evidence that the other party presented was too complete and perfect. It was obviously premeditated. Even so, the Senate had to admit that the other party was indeed powerful.
Even if it was a forgery, the fact that the other party was able to falsify the evidence to such an extent showed that the other party was very powerful. Generally, the senators would choose to stand behind Divo Braille. After all, if the other party could use this trick to deal with Divo Braille today, he could use the same trick to deal with them tomorrow. Nowadays, no one who could enter the Senate had a completely clean background. Not to mention that Divo Braille had never offended anyone. He had always been very popular in the Senate.
To everyone's surprise, only a few people came out to support Divo Braille this time.
On one hand, the incident happened too suddenly. No one could get any information about it before this. The evidence and accusations were suddenly presented by a young senator who did not have much of a presence in the Senate. For the time being, no one knew which force was behind him, especially the nobles who donated money in the park. Knowing that their money had fallen into Divo Braille's pocket, they would not be in a good mood. There was no reason for them to stand up and support him immediately.
On the other hand, Divo Braille sided with the young emperor in the Binota Mine incident. This had also caused dissatisfaction from the other party. His neutral image had been weakened. It was only because there was no conclusive evidence that no one came to trouble him during this time.
On the contrary, some senators who were close to the royal family stood up and said a few words for Divo Braille at this time. However, this seemed to confirm that Divo Braille was siding with the royal family.
However, Divo Braille had no other choice now. With his connections in the Senate, no matter what kind of waves someone was planning to make, he would always get some information in advance. This time, the waves were coming for him, but he knew nothing about it. He was completely kept in the dark, which was a terrifying thing in itself.
…
Zhang Heng was probably one of the few people in Rome who knew who was behind this. At the same time, he knew very well that Altrus was trying to be friendly to him. At the same time, it was also a warning from Altrus.
Altrus played his hand very well. Not only did he fulfill his promise to give Zhang Heng a gift, but he also used this incident to show Zhang Heng how powerful he was.
In just two weeks, Altrus was able to unearth so much dirt on Divo Braille, causing an influential senator in the Senate to be so embarrassed. Altrus's planning and execution ability were top-notch, and he deserved to be Commodus's chief advisor. Clint had always regarded Altrus as his competitor. However, in Zhang Heng's opinion, the gap between the two was probably bigger than he imagined. They were not on the same level at all. Although the outside world called the two Commodus's right-hand men, their influence on Commodus was completely different.
When Zhang Heng thought of this, his expression suddenly changed. He realized what he had left out earlier.
In fact, this was something that could not be more obvious. However, because Zhang Heng had a certain understanding of Rome's history, he ruled it out immediately.
There was only one possibility that someone who came from a noble family would not arouse Commodus's suspicion. Instead, Commodus was willing to trust him unconditionally.
That person was Commodus's relative.
The relative here was not a distant cousin like Clint, who had a thin blood connection with Commodus, but a half-brother like Lucilla who shared the same father and mother with Commodus. At the same time, unlike Lucilla, Commodus's biological brother could never replace Commodus because of his physical disability. He could only live in the dark and assist Commodus.
Only when all the above conditions were met would Commodus trust Altrus so much.
Zhang Heng soon thought of a person — Commodus's twin brother.
Le Wen mobile version of the fastest updated website:
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
