Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Printoles continued, "But according to recent information, the Persian king has not fulfilled his promises well, so there is a great deal of resentment in these city-states, and it is highly likely that a future Greek alliance fighting in Asia Minor will be supported by them.

More than 20 years ago, Agesilaus led a mercenary-based Spartan alliance into western Asia Minor and held a long-term advantage. And now that the situation throughout Asia Minor is more favorable to the kingdom, our legion-based allied armies attacking Asia Minor are more capable of being invincible-"

"Wait a minute, I think there's a problem here." Bakul couldn't help but interject, "I've seen the map of Persia, the territory of Asia Minor is very vast and mostly mountainous, and even if we have the advantage at first, as the army pushes eastward, food supplies will be a big problem, the land lines are too long, and transportation from the sea- --

The Persians will never sit idly by, they also have a powerful fleet and will surely attack our transport teams and cut off the sea routes, which will put our army in a difficult position..."

"Lord Bakul is right!" Printols replied with a serious look, "But the fact is that the attack on Asia Minor is only the 1st step in our military plan, the 2nd and most important step that follows is to defeat and destroy the Persian fleet!

The kingdom and Persia are thousands of miles apart, separated by the vast Eastern Mediterranean, and if we want our armies to fight on Persian soil and suffer less from logistical supply problems, we need to take control of the Eastern Mediterranean, especially the dominance of Persian waters.

Therefore, we need to gather the first, second, third, and fourth fleets, and merge the warships of the allied states as well, to form a huge fleet, stationed at the port of Piraeus or Philae, once the Persian fleet moves west, into the Aegean domain, and comes to attack the transport fleet of the Greek allied forces that landed in Asia Minor, then our combined fleet can take advantage of the opportunity to attack and start a decisive battle with the Persian fleet, once they are defeated, the combined fleet can then take advantage of the situation to move east-"

Haka coughed loudly a few times, interrupting Printorse's speech, and then asked slowly, "As powerful as the Persian fleet is, may I ask Lord Printorse why the Ministry of Military Affairs is so confident that our fleet will be able to defeat them?"

Printoles said confidently, "Your Majesty! Gentlemen! After much analysis and deduction, our Ministry of Military Affairs has precisely concluded that the absolute superiority of the Dionysian army compared to Persia is not in the army, but in the navy!"

This statement surprised some of the ministers.

Printoles replied with a chesty voice: "Persia, whose chief dominion was inland, was never a seafaring people, and its fleet consisted chiefly of ships and crews supplied by Phoenicia, Cyprus, Syria, Asia Minor, and the Greek coastal city-states within Persia.... cobbled together. Due to its complex origins, language and cultural differences, it is not easy to form a unified fleet that is completely subordinate to the command and dares to fight to the death, which is why in the past, the Greek fleet led by Athens was always victorious even though it had far fewer ships than the Persian fleet. This is why the Greek fleet, led by Athens, had fewer ships than the Persian fleet, but it was always able to win many times. Our fleet, on the other hand, was more powerful than the Greek city-state fleet, because it followed strict military law and had a long history of military training, flexible tactics and courage.

Secondly, the Persian fleet has hardly participated in any major battles for decades, and lacks experience in naval warfare. Also, the main force of the Persian fleet is Phoenician-"

Printols looked at Haka, who was in deep thought, and then said: "We had a naval battle with the Phoenician fleet more than 10 years ago, and eventually the Phoenician fleet that rescued Carthage was almost wiped out. However, according to the information we have obtained, the Persian fleet did not learn the lesson of this defeat, and their naval tactics have not changed much over the past 10 years, nor have their ships improved much.

On the contrary, several of our fleets have been using Persia as an imaginary opponent for the past few years, conducting targeted training, and also working with the Dionysian Academy and shipyards to improve our warships... With the small difference in the number of warships between us and Persia, the well-prepared Kingdom Navy has a definite advantage!

The only thing that's missing is - the Persian fleet's main station is too far away from us, so we'll have to rely on the Greek alliance attack in western Asia Minor to lure the Persian fleet into the Aegean Sea and then defeat it once and for all!"

Printols waved his fist vigorously and his voice became impassioned: "The victorious Kingdom fleet can seize the opportunity of a greatly weakened Persian navy, continue eastward, or use our ally Egypt as a temporary naval base, or seize the island of Cyprus with Egyptian support and completely blockade the coasts of Syria and Carthage. Egypt is therefore of great importance to us, and we must preserve its friendship to the Kingdom and secure its domestic order.

Once we have control of the Eastern Mediterranean, the kingdom can send its main army, consisting of a dozen legions, eastward by ship without fear, or land in Egypt, or in Canaan, capture Phoenicia and Syria, enter Mesopotamia, and press on to Babylon....

If the Persian army was still fighting against the Greek allies in Asia Minor, it would not have been able to return in time to rescue them. Even if the main body of the Egyptian army had not been sent to Asia Minor and was able to intercept it in time, there was still the question of whether the Greek army would come around to its rear from the north and join the kingdom's main army in a pinch. Under such an unfavorable situation, a decisive battle with our army, which was in high morale, was practically impossible for the Persian army to defeat-"

"It is also possible that the Persians will choose to hold on to Babylon rather than engage in a meeting with our army." Asistus reminded, "I've heard that Babylon is a giant city with unusually high and sturdy walls, and the wide Euphrates River as a barrier, which can by no means be conquered in a short period of time. And once the siege lasts too long, our supplies will be tight, and the Persians may slow down and cause the situation to change against us."

"Lord Asistus, you are right, if Persia adopts a defensive strategy, it will indeed cause us more trouble." After a tactful response, Printoles changed his tone, "However, it would cause even more trouble for Persia. Because although Persia is a large country with vast lands, it is not like a kingdom that is able to govern various regions powerfully, its rule is not too solid, and many regions rely on the local races to take care of themselves, thus there was the Egyptian independence, then the Dukean riots, then the Asia Minor rebellion... and Altaxerxes was ineffective in suppressing it. It will result in less prestige and less credibility with the nobles and the populace.

Once our army enters the heart of Persia, the Mesopotamian Plain, and the Persian army hides behind walls and watches us destroy villages and farmlands, it will surely disappoint the local populace against Artaxerxes, which could lead to new rebellions and divisions. The only way he can regain the trust of the Persian citizens is to gather a large army and repel us, so I think a decisive battle is inevitable!"

After Printols finished his rough speech of the plans drawn up by the Military Affairs Department, there was silence in the Great Hall, as the ministers looked at me and me at you, silently communicating with each other with their eyes, but no one spoke up.

After a moment, Davos spoke, "Clotokatacus, what do you think of the plans of the Ministry of Military Affairs?"

Although a few years earlier, on Greek soil, Plintoros had actively assisted Clotokatakos in eventually winning the war, and since then the two had struck up a friendship, and had corresponded frequently since their return to Thurii, at this point the consul of the kingdom glanced at Plintoros, then faced his father and said frankly, "Sire, this plan drawn up by the Ministry of Military Affairs sounds very The reasoning was that we possessed a great advantage over Persia, and to carry it out as such would seem to be an easy victory. But - to use troops to fight a thousand miles away, itself implies great risk, both the transportation of military supplies, and the transmission of news will suffer greater difficulties than ever before. Moreover, the attack was on a vast country, which was completely unfamiliar to generals and soldiers alike, and the situation was so complicated that accidents could happen at any time.

Just like during the Greek War, we wanted to conquer the Greek city-states one by one, starting with Sparta, and eventually control the whole of Greece. Who knows, the Greek city-states soon united to form a Greek alliance to fight against us, forcing us to commit more troops, thus expanding the war rapidly.

The reason the kingdom was able to change its plans in time and respond correctly at that time was because Greece was close to us. But now Persia is too far away from us, and perhaps by the time we receive the news and are discussing contingency plans, the armies in Persia will encounter new difficulties or even suffer defeat, and if they fail, they will face the danger of total annihilation, so I feel that we should be cautious in using troops against Persia!

Also, although the political situation in the kingdom is more stable now, Lord Haka has just said that the Gauls outside the mountains to the north are threatening our territories, as well as the natives of northern Iberia who also attack our southern territories from time to time, and the natives of the mountains on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea are likewise threatening our Thessaly region and our Greek allies....

There is still so much insecurity within the Kingdom's sphere of influence, in other words, so much land in the vicinity of the Kingdom that we need to conquer to ensure the peace and tranquility of the people of the Sacred Kingdom of Dionysia, and we should focus on doing that first, rather than being tempted by the wealth of Persia to go near and far."

Even if we defeat the Persian army, it will be difficult to conquer the people there and integrate them into the kingdom, as they are a powerful race with a completely different culture and splendor than ours, they will not be willing to be ruled by us, and perhaps we will need to invest huge amounts of manpower and resources to maintain our rule in Persia, but will it be worth it? After all, the root of the Holy Kingdom of Dionysia is in the Western Mediterranean, in Italy-"