"At sea, the Pompeians are indeed less vigilant than on land because you don’t have a fleet or control of the port, so they don’t think you can threaten their safety from the sea. In fact, these coastal towns in Campania haven’t faced an attack from the sea for one or two hundred years, and their harbor defenses are extremely weak.
Take Pompeii, for example. Its port area has five harbors; the two built early on even have water gates. Later, due to the prosperous sea trade, the original harbors were insufficient, so two more were built, but those were constructed for the sake of convenience, without water gates or iron chains for interception, and not even a patrol ship around the harbor. The only warning system relies on the lighthouse keeper, but if ships are disguised in advance, he might not immediately notice anything unusual."
"And what about the other port?" the attentive Maximus asked.
"That’s the private port of the Vidius family, allowing only their merchant ships and those with trade relations to enter," Quintus said coldly. "This private harbor is equipped with a long breakwater and water gate, with watchtowers on top, making its defenses quite complete. But, unfortunately, protecting just this one harbor is of no real use..."
As soon as the old man mentioned the Vidius family of Pompeii, a rancor seemed to emanate from him, and Maximus quickly shifted the topic: "We’ve solved the issue of entering the port, but there’s another problem—we don’t have any ships."
Quintus looked at him with a peculiar expression, as if to say: Young man, are you joking?
The middle-aged man Oluus chimed in: "I heard that a large number of sailors and dock laborers joined your ranks, leading to the near-abandonment of those ports outside Napolet City. Some sailors, when fleeing the port, directly stole port ships and rowed them to the beach near this camp, where the ships got stranded. Later, you set up another camp close to the coast, and the Napoletans didn’t dare to reclaim those stranded ships..."
With this reminder, Maximus suddenly remembered: The camp near the coast belonged to Attutmus’s Fifth Battalion, who once mentioned wanting to send soldiers out to sea to fish and help the rebel army increase their meat reserves... But this proposal went nowhere, and he didn’t inquire further, but this at least indicated that the Attutmus camp had ships.
Maximus stroked his chin, pondered for a moment, and then smiled, saying: "You are truly impressive! Upon realizing the limited number of my troops, you devised such a detailed raid plan so quickly, which I greatly admire!"
Quintus caught the meaning behind his words, maintained his expression but his tone grew heavy, tinged with slight agitation: "For these years, we’ve been thinking of revenge without a moment to spare, envisioning the plan to break through and kill the enemy over ten thousand times in our hearts. However, considering Rome’s might and our few numbers, fearing the implications for loved ones, we always lacked the courage to act... Until you appeared and gave us hope. Originally, I intended to propose this naval raid after you decided to attack Pompeii through discussion, but unfortunately—"
Breaking off, Quintus changed his tone: "But fortunately, Leader Maximus, you, despite your youth and few forces, dared to lead a lone army against Pompeii, showing great courage. If this plan is carried out and we successfully capture Pompeii, everyone in your troops will surely be awed by your fame!"
Quintus’s words struck a chord with Maximus. His reason for taking the risk to meet these Lukaiya people was to see if there was an opportunity to single-handedly capture Pompeii. Although Pompeii had high walls, its few troops and weak combat power were obvious, giving the Supply Camp a chance.
Maximus’s interest in such a notion mainly arose because of the mockery from Cross at the meeting earlier, making him realize that despite controlling the Supply Camp and greatly aiding the rebel army, without any military performance, it would be hard to play a decisive role in the rebel army’s Military Commander Conference and in military-related topics. Therefore, he wanted to capture Pompeii on his own to prove his military capabilities to Cross and the others.
Maximus didn’t indulge in self-satisfaction from Quintus’s flattering words. He gathered his smile, sat back on the wooden chair, and solemnly said: "I have one last question about this raid plan of yours—how can you make me believe this isn’t a scheme you’ve designed to annihilate my army?"
"Nonsense! We would never cooperate with those enemies in Pompeii to trap you!" shouted the middle-aged man Oluus loudly.
Another middle-aged man, Scapula, responded sincerely: "It’s easy to prove whether we are deceitful. You just need to ask any Lukaiya person, and they can tell you about our past grievances with the Pompeians."
"Leader Maximus, this time I brought fifty-four people, plus our families, totaling one hundred and fifteen. We’ll all stay in your camp, and if you ultimately discover this is a plot, you can kill us and let your soldiers avenge us!" Quintus spoke with determination, shocking everyone.
Scapula immediately exclaimed: "Quintus, what if—"
Quintus sternly interrupted what he was about to say: "Scapula, since we’ve already decided to join their ranks after revenge, wouldn’t it be better to come here a little earlier to adapt!"