At this time, Melisanda asked: "I see on this map, the distance from Egypt to Cyprus seems to be farther than the distance from Crete to Cyrenaica. After our fleet arrives in the waters near Cyprus, will it still have the ability to fight? ”

Calcides replied earnestly: "I have carefully consulted the Greek merchants who often go to Cyprus to trade in Naucratis, and they have all told me that there will be no storms in the Near East during this season, and that it will only take three or four days to reach Cyprus as long as there is enough water on board and sail day and night (one of the important reasons why ships sail faster than land marches is that they can sail 24 hours a day, as long as they know the route and use the sails), And we can hire these Naucratis merchants as guides to guide us.

As for the Navy...... I remember that they made a long trip from Sicily to Carthage and finally crushed the Carthaginian fleet, and they must have been very experienced in this area, although it was up to them to make their own judgment. ”

"What about the defense of the island of Cyprus? How many troops are there? Mattonis was a little moved, and his tone became eager.

"A few decades ago, Cyprus was only a dependency of Persia, and the king of Cyprus had united with the Greek city-states of Asia Minor several times to gain independence, and Persia had to suppress them. From then on, the Persians learned their lesson, abolished the king of Cyprus, divided Cyprus into several city-states, and did not allow them to build tall and thick walls, otherwise they would have a dislike for Persia.

While I don't know exactly how many forces Cyprus will be able to muster against us, it is clear that they are not very well defended, and that one of their largest city-states, Nicosia, is located in the middle of the plain and is easily captured...... Moreover, just now you all felt that it would be difficult to attack Cyprus from the sea, and we all had this thought, and the Cypriots would not have thought of this, and our surprise attack would be successful! ”

After Calcidis finished speaking, the eyes of the legion commanders lit up.

Davers coughed lightly, attracted the attention of the generals, and then said in a deep voice: "It is indeed a good idea to attack Cyprus from the sea, but this is more to gain dominance at sea, not the main way for us to attack the Persian Near East, after all, except for the Gulf of Issus, there are no other regions that do not have the conditions for large-scale landing......

According to intelligence, the Persians have already gathered a large number of troops in the valley of the two rivers, and once we capture Cyprus, it will inevitably arouse the vigilance of the Persians, who will definitely strengthen the defense of the coast of Issus, and our main forces will undoubtedly take great risks if they want to carry out landing operations in the Near East, so the focus of our offensive will still be on land.

As long as we occupy Cyprus and destroy the Persian fleet, the convoy will be able to sail boldly along the coast, ready to supply the troops marching by land. Even with the security of transportation by sea, our army can completely advance north without attacking Gaza—"

Davers looked down at the small narrow area of the sea north of Gaza City on the map, and his expression was a little complicated: "Calcides, do you know anything about the Jerusalem of Canaan? ”

"Your Majesty, I have inquired that the Jews living in Jerusalem were a weak people, who had been slaughtered by the Assyrians and had imprisoned the survivors in Babylon, and although the Persians later released them and allowed them to return to their homeland, they were still few in number, decades later......

I heard that a few years earlier they had sent people to the king of Persia to beg for some money to rebuild their dilapidated temple. The king of Persia granted their request and even appointed his trusted wine officer, Nehemiah, who was also Jewish, as governor of Jerusalem.

As a result, when Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem, he came into conflict with Samballat, the governor of Samaria to the east, and the conflict continues to this day...... Therefore the weak Jews are powerless to hold off our army, and we can even occupy it—" Calcides pointed to an icon on the map: "Jaffa, a port town in the Jerusalem region, for our fleet to anchor ......"

"Good!" Davers took his eyes off the map, looked around at everyone, and said solemnly: "Ladies and gentlemen, I see that everyone agrees with the suggestion put forward by Calcides, so I will summon Secrean, Midorades and Stefacas as soon as possible to have another military meeting to discuss the feasibility of attacking Cyprus and annihilating the main force of the Persian fleet......

Regardless of the outcome of the next military meeting, the attack on Persia will be launched in a short time, and I hope that you will use this time to allow the legionnaires to learn and adapt to marching, camping, and fighting in the desert as soon as possible! ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!" The crowd responded in unison.

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The next day, Davos took Assistes and the high priest of Amenhotep to the temple of Ptah and Osiris, where he was warmly welcomed by the temple priests, and he also had a close encounter with the temple's sacred cow Appis.

The fat ox, which was black and had only a little white spot on its forehead, behaved very kindly to him, flicked its tail, and quickly ate the forage he handed over, much to the admiration of both the priests of Ptah and the priests of Orisses (Apis was first thought to be the embodiment of the creator god Ptah, and later evolved into the incarnation of Osiris): "Pharaoh Davers is worthy of being the son of Amun, and even the comfortable sacred cow does not dare to slack off!" ”

Davos then went to the temple of Knight, the goddess of wisdom and war, and even promised Amenhotep that he would make time to worship at the temple of Karak in Thebes, but he rejected another suggestion from the Egyptian high priest: to go to the temple of Amun in Siwagreen to obtain an oracle.

Siwa Oasis is located in the desert of western Egypt, where the Temple of Amun is quite old and revered, and its oracles are famous not only for Egyptians, but also among Greeks, especially in Thessaly and Macedonia in northern Greece.

Davers refused not because it was very difficult to get to the Siwa Oasis, although he remembered that Alexander in his previous life had gone to the temple of Siwa Oasis to worship after conquering Egypt, and that there were great dangers on the way, but Amenhotep repeatedly explained that although the Siwa Oasis was located in the desert, it was very safe because of the frequent pilgrimages.

The problem that Davos considered was that many Greeks who went to worship in the oasis of Siwa regarded Amun in that temple as the incarnation of Zeus in Egypt, and that Alexander claimed to be a child of Zeus in history, and of course he wanted to go to worship, but Davers, who was a descendant of Hadis, was obviously not suitable.

………………………………………………………………

At the same time that King Davos arrived in Egypt, the allied forces of central Italy, led by Wolsey, Herniki, and Sabine, also landed in Asia Minor by ship, and by this time all the Greek forces under the command of Leoticides had been gathered.

During the period when the Greek coalition forces arrived one after another, he did not wait quietly, but was always in an active offensive posture, not only successively forcing the towns near the Hellespont, but also taking advantage of the victory in the naval battle of Samos, leading the main force to leave the coastline and penetrate deep into the interior of Mysia, and at the same time sent part of the army south into the territory of Lydia.

Due to the inability of the Persian army to resist, the Greek coalition was shocked for a while, and not only the Greek city-states along the coast, such as Bosworth and Caius, surrendered one after another, but even some towns in the interior of Misia and Lydia also submitted to it.

An interesting incident occurred during this period, when the commander of the 10th Army, Stephorus, made a request to Leoticides: he wanted to be able to lead a force across the strait and force Byzantium to surrender.

Thirty years earlier, the Persian mercenaries, the forerunners of the Dionian army, had been humiliated in Byzantium, including King Davos, and Leoticides knew that this request was not of Stephorus's own will, but from his father Amintas, and perhaps even from many of the veterans of the army.

Leoticides, of course, would not refuse, and even since there was not much military pressure at the moment, he generously approved: Stephorus could lead the entire Tenth Army there.

Stephorus led his army to land on the beach near Byzantium, and as soon as he set up camp, the Byzantine envoy arrived and humbly told him that Byzantium was willing to serve the holy kingdom of Dionya!

The incident that happened a few decades ago is not remembered for the Byzantines, which has almost changed a generation, but the Byzantines know that Athens and Sparta, which they once attached to, and even the entire Greek mainland, are prostrate at the feet of Dionia.

Of course, Stephoros did not take the initiative to rehash the troubles of the year, but put forward some harsh requirements, such as providing a large amount of food, tribute, and a fleet and labor to provide support for the army...... Byzantium accepted it all.

The Byzantines were so interested that Stephorus could not afford to be vexatious, so he led 8,000 heavily armed soldiers to march around the Byzantine city, and finally demanded that the Byzantine government build a memorial column in the port, on the top of which must be inlaid with a statue of King Devos riding a horse and wielding a sword.