DLERB -Chapter 184 Rome Mobilizes for War! Great Qin: “Time to Eat — Start by Stewing a Pot of Meat!”

The descendant of the Gongshu clan bowed deeply and withdrew.

The night was long.

For the people inside Rome, every second was torment.

At dawn—

The first rays of sunlight illuminated the enormous twisted metal sphere before the city gates.

“Trophy No. 1.”

It looked like a gigantic scar branded onto the face of Rome.

The city walls were packed with people.

Caesar stood at the highest point, clad in his most magnificent golden armor.

Behind him, the senators all looked pale, as though they had just crawled out of graves.

“Do you all see that?!”

Caesar drew his sword and pointed toward the metal sphere below the walls.

His voice was hoarse from shouting.

“That is the masterpiece of those Eastern barbarians!”

“They know nothing of honor! Nothing of mercy! They only use this witchcraft to twist our brave warriors and warships into a heap of scrap metal!”

He tried to turn fear into hatred.

“They think this can frighten us?”

“No!”

“It will only ignite the deepest fury of the Roman people!”

“Behind us are our homes! Our wives and children!”

“Beneath our feet stands Rome — the eternal city built over centuries, a city that has never fallen!”

“We still have the Golden Legion!”

“The finest warriors of the Empire!”

“Take up your weapons!”

Caesar pointed his sword toward the weary soldiers who had not slept all night.

“Show them what real war is!”

“For Rome!”

His roar echoed across the walls.

Some of the younger soldiers were stirred by his words. Color returned slightly to their faces.

They tightened their grips on their spears.

“For Rome!”

Scattered responses began to rise.

Caesar let out a quiet breath of relief.

At least morale had stabilized a little.

Then—

Outside the city, the black Qin camp began to move.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Deep drumbeats echoed like the heartbeat of a giant.

The gates of the Qin camp slowly opened.

Rows upon rows of black-armored soldiers pushed enormous objects forward.

The chatter atop the Roman walls stopped.

Every Roman held their breath.

They stared fixedly at those strange machines.

The “big thing”—

had arrived.

Those objects were pitch-black and bizarrely shaped.

Round bases. Huge openings.

Like gigantic overturned bells.

Each one required more than a dozen strong soldiers just to push.

There were hundreds of them.

They were lined up neatly before the Qin formation, directly facing Rome’s walls.

“W-What… what are those?”

A Roman centurion’s voice trembled.

No one could answer him.

But every Roman remembered yesterday’s terror.

That invisible force.

That twisted steel.

“It’s sorcery! Weapons for the same sorcery from yesterday!”

“Are… are they going to devour the city walls?”

“Gods above! Those cauldrons… those cauldrons are black! Just like those stones!”

One senator screamed while pointing at the massive iron pots.

“They’ll suck all of us into them and turn us into a second iron ball!”

Panic exploded once more.

The tiny spark of morale Caesar had just reignited was instantly extinguished.

Soldiers began retreating, dropping spears onto the ground with loud clatters.

Caesar’s face turned white.

He had to grip the battlements just to steady himself.

Even he thought those were some terrifying new siege weapons.

He could not imagine their purpose.

And the unknown—

was the most frightening thing of all.

He saw the eight-year-old marshal riding a magnificent black horse slowly toward the front of the Qin lines.

The child stopped before the hundreds of gigantic black cauldrons.

Then he raised one small hand.

Every Roman atop the walls felt their hearts leap into their throats.

Was the attack beginning?

Ying Ziye’s hand lowered gently.

No command.

No roar.

He merely turned to Wang Li and said something.

Wang Li immediately bowed to receive the order, then turned and shouted toward the soldiers behind him.

His voice carried clearly across hundreds of meters to the Roman walls.

“By the Marshal’s command!”

“Set the cauldrons!”

“Cook the meal!”

On the walls—

Caesar froze.

Every senator froze.

Every Roman soldier froze as well.

What had they just heard?

Cook?

Before battle?

Right before a siege?

They thought they had misheard.

Then they witnessed a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives.

The Qin soldiers pushing those fearsome black cauldrons did not load them with stones or flaming oil.

Instead—

they pulled out shovels.

Thunk! Thunk!

They began digging pits in the ground.

The gigantic iron cauldrons were firmly mounted into place.

Another group of soldiers pushed cartloads of firewood over and piled them beneath the cauldrons.

Yet another group carried massive water sacks and began filling the pots.

Splash… splash…

Clear water poured into what the Romans had imagined to be horrifying killing weapons.

Everyone atop the Roman walls was dumbfounded.

One Roman soldier muttered blankly,

“T-They’re really cooking?”

The centurion beside him slapped the back of his head.

“Shut up! This is an Eastern trick! They’re trying to confuse us!”

But even his own voice was trembling.

Then—

something even more incomprehensible happened.

Cart after cart of bloody meat, chopped into huge chunks, was pushed forward.

Mutton.

Beef.

Piled like mountains.

The Qin soldiers grabbed the massive slabs of meat weighing dozens of pounds and tossed them into the cauldrons like stones.

Splash! Splash!

Then came baskets of radishes, potatoes, and all sorts of vegetables the Romans had never seen before.

Everything was dumped into the pots.

Caesar’s body began to sway.

One senator beside him clamped both hands over his mouth.

He finally understood.

This was not a trick.

This was not deception.

This was humiliation.

Naked, undisguised humiliation.

What did they think Rome was?

Thin air?

And what did they think of the tens of thousands of Roman soldiers standing ready atop the walls?

Spectators?

Pfft!

The senator could no longer endure it.

He spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed backward.

“Light the fires!”

Wang Li’s roar rang out once more.

Whoosh!

Beneath hundreds of giant cauldrons, blazing flames erupted simultaneously.

Fire licked the black iron bottoms.

Not long after—

Bubble… bubble…

The water began to boil.

An indescribably rich aroma spread through the air.

The smell of meat.

The scent of boiling fat.

The overpowering fragrance of spices blending together.

The wind blew from the Qin camp toward Rome.

The aroma drifted effortlessly over the towering city walls like an invisible hand.

It spread into every corner of Rome.

Into the nostrils of every Roman soldier.

The city had been sealed all night.

Under the panic, food had already been strictly rationed.

Ordinary soldiers had received nothing but a hard piece of black bread since yesterday.

Their stomachs were already growling with hunger.

And now—

this dense, irresistible aroma of meat was the cruelest torture imaginable.

One soldier swallowed hard.

Another’s stomach growled loudly in the silence atop the walls.

More and more soldiers began unconsciously sniffing the air greedily.

At some point, the spears in their hands had lowered.

Their minds no longer held thoughts of “For Rome.”

There was only one thought left.

Meat.

Such delicious-smelling meat.

Caesar looked at the expressions of his soldiers.

His entire body turned ice-cold.

He knew—

it was over.

His speeches.

His inspiration.

All his efforts—

had become a joke in front of a pot of meat stew.

The battle had not even begun.

And yet—

they had already lost.

On the hillside—

Ying Ziye looked at Rome as unrest began spreading through the city beneath the drifting scent of meat.

He yawned lazily and spoke to Meng Tian behind him.

“Pass down the order to the entire army.”

“Eat.”

“Let them smell it…”

“…and enjoy one more night of pride.”