Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Davos was listening attentively, and was delighted, when he suddenly saw Malachi plunge to his knees, and with a guilty face said, "Your Majesty ...... I am in fact a Babylonian, and I was only trying to make myself useful to you. ...... to appear noble, so I kept calling myself a Persian, and then I wanted to confess, but I thought that if the people of the kingdom knew that I had lied, it would be detrimental to the authority of the Ministry of Commerce and the implementation of the decree, so ...... asked Your Majesty to forgive me for my sin of long concealment. !"

Davos laughed, reached out, pulled him up, and said loudly, "You're not Persian, that's great! I was worried that beating Persia up and having Persia lose too badly would do you some harm, but now I'm relieved! After the decisive battle with the Persian army, I will appoint you as an emissary of Deionia to go and persuade your countrymen to return to the kingdom and share the fruits of victory."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Marigi bowed deeply to Davos with a happy face.

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The next day King Davos held a military conference, which not only required the participation of all generals and officers above the army commander, but also invited Alexis, Felicius, Tormid, Amyntas, Epithenius and other retired veterans of the former mercenary army to attend. ,.

Almost at the same time, a military council was held in the city of Tapsacu by the Persian king Artaxerxes. Although his army outnumbered Dionysius, only a few candidates were chosen to participate: Terebasus, the king's trusted advisor, Halpergus, the governor from Susa, and Mardonius, the commander of the army from Persepolis (both of whom had been the leaders of Darius, the great king who had rebuilt Persia). (Descendants of six allies, of great honor), Orontas, the governor of Armenia and son-in-law of the king of Persia, and Tirteos, a young general leading an immortal army, also of great honor, who was born into Achaemenid royalty, although a distant descendant, but married a daughter of Artaxerxes and was close to the king of Persia.

Last but not least, Marktonos, the chief royal spymaster, who at the moment is speaking aloud about the information about the Dionysian army: "...... From last September, when there was unrest in Egypt, the Dionysian army landed in Egypt. The Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth (Po River region, predominantly Gallic) and Twenty-first (Afrikaner region, predominantly Phoenician and Numibian) legions ...... total 144,000 men, based on the fixed combat strength of 8,000 men in each of the Dionysian legions.

In addition, the banners of five Dionysian cavalry legions, numbering more than 10,000 men, appear in the Dionysian army. ...... The total number of men in this army, led by the Dionysian king himself, is more than 150,000, which corresponds to the total number of the Dionysian army, as determined by our spies who observed the Dionysian army in Syria for a long period of time. ...... "Maktounos spoke freely and knowledgeably about the Dionysian army, and he was able to obtain such accurate information thanks to the department he was in charge of - the Royal Persian Espionage Agency.

Cyrus created Persia, but Darius made Persia a true empire, perfecting the Persian political system, establishing a complete administrative and bureaucratic hierarchy, reforming the Persian financial and monetary system, and establishing Ahura Mazda as the dominant figure in popular belief. He also established a vast system of roads within the borders of the country, which made it easier to travel between the center and the regions. ...... Of course, with such a vast territory and even some autonomous regions, it would be difficult to rule the subjects more effectively and prevent a repeat of the great rebellions of the Gambyses period. The need for more detailed and accurate information about officials and citizens in various places so that they could respond in a timely manner led Darius to establish the Royal Secret Service for the King, more than 100 years before the Ministry of Intelligence of the Kingdom of Dionysia.

Although the intelligence agency had become bloated and inefficient after more than 100 years, it remained the king's most trusted eyes and ears, monitoring not only the movements of his subjects at home, but also the situation in neighboring regions like Egypt and Greece, making Deionian troops in Egypt and Asia Minor an immediate target of his attention. After such a long period of time, and within its own borders, the Royal Espionage Agency was able to get a clear picture of the situation of the Dionysian army.

"The Dionysian army is only 150,000 men, and our army is twice as large as it is, with such a huge advantage, I don't understand why we don't take the initiative to attack the Dionysians, but instead cowardly cower in Tapsacus!" Not only because his ancestor Gobryas was the closest of the six conspirators of Darius who usurped the Persian throne, his family had always been trusted by the royal family, but also because he was the first of the top Persian nobles to support Artaxerxes during the Judgment of Cyrus Minor, and thus assisted the Persian king. He was embraced by the native Persian aristocracy, survived the crisis of his early accession, and was trusted by Artaxerxes to hold the real Persian capital, Susa, at arm's length.

Artaxerxes was somewhat embarrassed by Mardonius' accusations. Although he expressed his contempt for Dionysia, the "barbarian kingdom," in many public forums, the fact is that the Persian king's military performance during his long reign had become almost a joke among the Persian nobility, and his only success was when he put down a rebellion by Cyrus Minor, who was a respected member of the Persian nobility. He knew in his heart that in that decisive battle, he was at a disadvantage in the battle, even though his army was outnumbered, and that the outcome would have been completely different had not little Cyrus been foolish enough to lead the charge himself and die.

Therefore, when the aggressive and almost unbeaten kingdom of Dionysia in the Western Mediterranean attacked Persia, he was a bit guilty, so he stayed in Babylon for more than half a year, watching Canaan and Phoenicia being taken one after another, and waited until all the armies from all the regions were assembled, so that he had enough strength to make a move. But when he was about to face the army of Dionysia, he felt a little panic in his heart, and the experience of repeated defeats in the past wars surfaced before his eyes, so he did not dare to make a rash decision.

As the most noble King of Kings, Artaxerxes, of course, would not reveal his cowardice in front of his ministers, and he looked at Trebassus, who was beside him.

He looked at Trebassus, who immediately understood, and said, "The king had wanted to attack the Dionysian army for a long time, but I dissuaded him from doing so. Lord Mardoneus, although our army is large in number, you have been here for a long time, so you should have a lot of experience about how powerful it is. The natives and barbarians, who make up half of our army, look fierce, but they can only fight blindly, they do not know how to form up, they do not know how to follow orders, and they do not know how to cooperate with our Persian army.

So we need to spend some time to train them and make them our helpers as soon as possible. Lord Mardoneos you have also commanded several such training, you should also feel their progress, I believe it won't be long before they can cooperate with our army and launch an effective attack on the Dionysian Army."

Maldonius snorted, unable to think of how to retort.

Halpergus sneered and interjected before anyone else, "They say that Lord Trebassus is wise, but I see nothing more than that! We are wasting our time here just to make the barbarians behave a little better. But don't forget that the Greek allies in Asia Minor are on their way here, and once they join the Dionysian army in Syria, the strength of the Dionysian army will certainly increase, and it won't be easy to defeat them, so we can't waste any more time, and we must defeat the Dionysian army in front of us as soon as possible!

"Phanabazos is doing his best to stall the advance of the Greek allied forces, with good results, and according to the information we have now, the Greek allied forces have not yet entered the region of Silesia, so we still have enough time to deal with the Dionysian army in the region of Syria."

When Trebassus mentioned Phanabazos, Artaxerxes frowned unconsciously: in fact, through the intelligence of the spies, he already knew the real situation of the battle in western Asia Minor. Phanabazos could sustain the situation, and Iason's scapegoat was just a step down for both sides. Of course, he would settle the score with Phanabazos after the war.

And because he knew that Phanabazos' claim that "the Greek mercenaries led by Iason had defected to the enemy" was a lie, he vetoed the proposal of some Persian officials and did not take offense at the Greek soldiers he hired, but was grateful to the Greek mercenaries for it.