Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

But Polidorus didn't know. After the order was issued, Polifron, who was in the front team, had a pale face, and the horse under his hip was severely pulled off by him with a mane, and his pain continued to scream...

Late at night, Thessaly army returned to the camp outside Philae, and the exhausted soldiers soon fell asleep.

Polidorus, who was troubled by the tension in front of him, tossed and turned and struggled to sleep.

Suddenly, he heard a few loud noises outside the door, and subconsciously sat up and shouted: "Filox (guard on guard at the door), what happened outside?"

No one responded, but then he heard the footsteps of "Dong Dong Dong", and a tall figure suddenly appeared in front of him, but it was Polifuron, with a hideous face and a shimmering dagger in his hand. .

Polydorus was taken aback, and immediately shouted: "Third brother, you are—"

Polyfuron's eyes rounded, and he swung his dagger quickly and forcefully, and made a bloody mouth on Polydurus’s face. The blood and pain stopped his shouting abruptly, and he fell on his back. On the bed.

Polyfuron didn’t hesitate to pierce his elder brother’s chest with a dagger, blood splashing on his face, until Polytorus stopped struggling, he stood up, staring down in a pool of blood Brothers, whispered viciously: "Coward, you should have died long ago! Then I will let Jason know that only I can save Thessaly!"

……………………………………………………

At dusk that day, the messenger of Oropus rushed to Athens on horseback.

The General Executive Committee of Athens soon called an emergency meeting on this.

"Everyone, I just got news from the Oropus people." Calistratus said with a serious expression: "Their crew found a large number of Dionian ships and troop carriers entering Mariakos. Bay and Pergaça Bay, and stay for a long time..."

The other eight generals were shocked when they heard the news. Some people couldn't help but exclaimed: "The Dionians are going to land in Thessaly!"

Some people also worriedly said: "Not only is it to land in Thessaly, if the Dionians are allowed to successfully land in Mariakos Bay, they can completely capture Heraclea and Hot Spring Pass, and then continue south to attack the Buddha. The city-state of Keith..."

"Since the start of the war, we in Athens have been prepared for the possible landing of the Dionians. Thessaly should have been prepared as well. The Dionian army may not be able to successfully land." One general was uncertain. Said.

"The key is to see how many troops the Dionians send?" Kabrias asked: "Did the Oropus say about how many Dionian troop carriers there are?"

"I asked." Callistratus replied, "They can't tell a specific number, but they are convinced that the number of Dionian warships and troop carriers they saw must have exceeded Thousands of ships."

"Thousands..." Cabrias estimated: "If the entire fleet of Dionia is counted as 1,000, even if the troop transport ships account for half, there will be about 25,000 soldiers. And we It is very clear that the number of warships and transport fleets is mixed, and the number of warships often only accounts for 14 or even less of the entire fleet. After excluding some ships that transport supplies, I estimate that the Dionian army that is landing at least There are 30,000 people..."

"30,000!..." Several other Athenian generals looked at each other, and one of them said with a fluke: "It is reported that there are more than 30,000 Dionians in the Peloponnese defending our Greek coalition attack. Could it be that they transported the main force of Dionia defending in Messenia and Sparta to the north?"

"It should not be!" Kabrias said affirmatively: "If the Dionians drew off the army in Peloponnese, then the remaining soldiers would definitely not be enough to resist the Greek coalition attack. Once Messene The recapture of A and Sparta by us is equivalent to cutting off the back of their army that had just landed in the north. I don't think the Dionians would make such a big mistake!

Besides, 100,000 troops were dispatched during the war between Dionian and Carthage a few years ago. The landing army of Dionian in the north is probably the new army just sent from their country..."

"The news that Dionia dispatched 100,000 soldiers to fight Carthage is only a rumor, and it is not certain that it is true. Who knows if Dionia deliberately exaggerated the facts and used it to frighten the surrounding forces." The general still remained. Perseveringly retorted: "Even if it is true, it is only because they were fighting on the mainland at that time, and now they are carrying tens of thousands of soldiers from Dionia to the landing of Sesali, which is hundreds of miles away. And how expensive it is, you should be very clear in command of the navy these years, I don’t think Dionia has the strength to redeploy troops from their territory!"

Cabrías said seriously: "During the Peloponnesian War, we in Athens could send 40,000 troops to expedition to Syracuse. Now the territory controlled by the Kingdom of Dionian is larger than we were back then. They are certainly more able to do it."

The general sneered: "The territory of the Kingdom of Dionia is indeed much larger than ours in Athens, but most of them are barren and barren. How could it be as wealthy as Athens at that time, but at that time we controlled the entire Aegean Sea. Trade!—"

"Don’t quarrel, everyone!" Callistratus persuaded with a serious look: "It doesn’t matter whether the Dionian army that landed at Thessaly was drawn from the Peloponnese, or from Dioni again. Transported from the territory of the Kingdom of Asia, the current problem is that the defenses in the territory of Sithesali should be very empty. I am afraid it is difficult to resist such a large army. What should we do about this?!"

"Immediately send people to inform the city-states of Phokes and Locris of the “Dionians’ landing in Thessaly, so that while strengthening the city’s defenses, they will send people to find out that the Dionian army is in Thessa as soon as possible. The movement in Lili region.” Cabrias said calmly: “At the same time, we should immediately send people to Peloponnese to tell Jason the news. He will definitely lead his army back to Sesali and defeat Dai. The Onia army eliminates the hidden dangers in the north, and we should send reinforcements when necessary."

"Cabrias, I can only agree to half of your proposal." A slow voice came from the corner. The speaker was a gray-haired old man. He had been closing his eyes and rested before. This opening immediately attracted everyone's attention.

His name is Agul Rios, an Athenian nobleman, and one of the former leaders of the democratic party. He has been elected general of Athens many times, and worked together with Serasibulus to gradually get Athens out of the shadow of defeat with Sparta. He began to regain his former strength, and he pursued the principle of "city-state interests first", which directly contributed to the creation of the drama-watching allowance system, so he was very much loved by the people of Athens.But in these years he no longer participates in the election of the Generals of Athens. He is too old for just one reason. More importantly, he is the father of Callistratus. He wants to make way for his already famous and ambitious son. .

Two months ago, a democratic general was seriously ill and unable to be a director. He recommended him to replace himself. The Citizens Assembly finally passed this somewhat absurd resolution. The possible reason is that Calalistratus and Sparta successfully signed The contract, squeezing out Thebes, was a great benefit for Athens, which earned him a huge reputation.In addition, in the face of great changes in the local situation in Greece, such as the invasion of the Dionian army, the decline of Sparta, the rise of Thebes, and the ambitiousness of Thessaly, the Ago who had experienced the Peloponnesian War and the Corinthian War Errios sitting on the General Executive Committee is expected to reassure the Greek people, so there is an anecdote of a father and son serving as Generals of Athens at the same time, which has never happened since Athens adopted a democratic system.

"At present, the Greek coalition forces are aggressively attacking Messenia and Sparta occupied by the Dionians. They are in an absolute advantage. It may take a few days or ten days to break through the defenses of the Dionians. , To completely drive him out of the Peloponnese... If we tell that Targus at this time that'Thessaly was attacked by the Dionian army', he will definitely lead the army back to Thessaly immediately, At least two or three months later will it be possible to rejoin the Greek coalition..."

Agul Rios scanned the crowd with a deep gaze, and finally fell on his son: "It is even possible that he will not lead the main force to go south again to avoid another attack on Sesali! According to the return of Iphikrates, Sessa Not only did the Lebanese army account for half of the Greek coalition forces, but it was also very powerful. It was the main force for the coalition to attack the Dionian army. Once the Thessaly army left, the coalition forces' combat effectiveness would be greatly weakened and other Greek city-states would be shaken. The confidence of the army, by then the Greek coalition will not only no longer have the advantage, but may also suffer defeat!"

Callistratus felt hesitantly and said hesitantly: "Father, what do you mean...we will not tell Jason this news for now. But in this way, Thessaly is in danger. Onia occupied Thessaly. Not only can they threaten Central Greece from the north, they may even threaten our Subbangan Fipolis in the north of Macedonia... In the long run, we are not worth the loss!"

Agul Rios did not immediately respond. He looked forward with his muddy eyes, with a few memories, and said unhurriedly: "You all know that I was the battle of Amphipolis (Peloponnese) A key battle in the War of Saskatchewan, the defeat of Athens, which caused its food passage from Yoke Xinghai to Athens to be cut off), but you don’t know that I was in Thessaly before that battle. After a while, I have a certain understanding of Thessaly...

The land is flat and vast, the population is large, the city-states fight all the year round, and the surrounding mountains are mostly fierce and combative natives, and there are constant wars with the Sesari... Jason was actually able to unify them, which actually surprised me.A unified Thessaly is the main force against Dionia, but it is also a threat to Athens. I think Jason has fully demonstrated his ambition before!

I don’t think that, as a foreign race, Dionia can completely conquer Thessaly and its surrounding areas with only these 30,000 soldiers. It is more likely that they will arouse the anger of the xenophobic Sesari, just like Before Sparta invaded Piosha, he was completely plunged into the quagmire of war.And a Cesali who has fallen into chaos again is no longer a threat to Athens..."

Note: According to historical records, after Jason was assassinated, his brother Polydurus took over as Targus. He and Polyfuron were killed on the way to Larissa, and then he was killed by Polyfuron. Take over as Cesare Tagus.Since Polydurus died suddenly and there was no sign beforehand, many people thought that Polyfuron killed Polydurus while he was asleep at night.