"So you refused?"

"How is that possible!" Sostatus' eyes widened: "Those officials of the Ministry of Commerce have been ordered by the consul to negotiate with me!" Crotocátáx, that is the next king, do I dare to refuse! For the past two days, I've been busy convincing the unsympathetic guys in the Turriyi Chamber of Commerce, and I've been talking about it dry, so that they can make some concessions......"

"Although you have suffered some losses, but let the Archon remember you, and the Ministry of Commerce still owes you such a big favor, I think it will be more beneficial to your business in the future!" Pebarichius said with some envy.

"Who knows what will happen in the future, His Majesty Davos still knows about me for a long time, but I can't rely on my own efforts to develop." Sostatus shrugged, said self-deprecatingly, and then looked at Pebaricius: "I envy your Chamber of Commerce, unlike us who have so many troubles, not only did the profits rise during this Games, but also got everyone's praise!" ”

"Profits have skyrocketed?!" Pebaricius shook his head: "I'm afraid you haven't been in the carriage of our Chamber of Commerce during this time, don't you know that when the demand for carriages is extremely strong now, the fees we charge are the same as usual, but they are much more tired than usual, especially for those athletes and foreign dignitaries and envoys, we have to get up early and be greedy for timely pick-up...... These are all agreements reached in advance between our carriage chamber of commerce and the Ministry of Commerce. ”

Speaking of this, Pebarichius's expression became extremely solemn: "But we, as citizens of the Turiyi and Dionia, should contribute our part at this critical time, as long as the kingdom can successfully host this sports meeting, this is the pride of all of us!" ”

"That's it! Is that! Sostatus replied repeatedly, he knew very well in his heart that many officers who had been in the regular army for a long time, even if they had retired, spoke a little like this, so he quickly changed the subject, called Heskrus, and said: "Introduce you to a friend, Heskraus, the Peleus merchant with whom I work!" ”

Then, he introduced Hesklaus: "There is a big man in front of you!" His father was one of the founders of the Dionian Cavalry Legionnaires, a famous hero of the kingdom! He himself was an officer of the 1st Cavalry Regiment of Dionya, and now he is in charge of the vast Turriyi Carriage Chamber, and you must obey him when you travel in Turiyi! ”

Hesklaus immediately bowed respectfully and saluted: "Lord Pebaritius, it is my honor to meet you!" ”

Hearing the word "Peleus", Pebarichius's heart moved, since the Greek War, many of the upper echelons of Turiyi knew that King Davos was born in Peleus of Thessaly, so he hurriedly supported Heskraus, and asked with interest: "Don't listen to the boasting of Sostatus, I'm just a merchant like you, what are you doing?" ”

"Hesk and I worked together on the pottery business, and the 'Athenian pottery shop' in the Great Market of Turiy was his property." Sostatus answered: "Before this sports meeting, His Majesty personally sent someone to the store to order pottery!" ”

"Your Majesty has received you?" Pebariceus looked at Hesklaus with a longing in his eyes.

"I didn't ...... Not ...... yet," Hesklaus lowered his eyes.

"Although not, but His Great Majesty knows everything, which is why he will send Lord Ribazol to personally deliver the order to the store." Sostatus smiled and interjected again.

Pebaricius groaned slightly, and also smiled: "Since you can be favored by Your Majesty, it means that the quality of your pottery is very good, if you have time, I will introduce a member of our Chamber of Commerce to buy your pottery." ”

Hesklaus thanked him repeatedly.

Although Sostatus looked calm, he was quite happy inside: in the past few days in various arenas, he had successfully sold Hesklaus's pottery to many high-ranking people in this way.

"Dad, the game is almost here!" Behind him came the urging shouts of Lirias.

In the noise of the surrounding audience, the three of them, like other spectators, quickly saw: at the railing of the high royal grandstand next to them, at some point stood King Davers wearing a golden crown, his right hand stretched out in mid-air and grasping a red cloth towel, which was very eye-catching. Suddenly, he let go of his right hand, and the red cloth fluttered and fell......

On the east side of the arena, the eight starting gates bounced open at the same time under the action of the mechanism, and the eight chariots rushed out.

The entire arena suddenly erupted in thunderous cheers.

The 32 horses, who had been impatient for a long time, raised their hooves, the wheels spun, and the carriage rumbled forward. Eight well-equipped riders, with their reins in one hand and their whips in the other, shouted loudly and whipped the horses, and the reason why they let the horses run forward at the beginning was mainly to get a good position.

It is necessary to know that the 8 starting gates are distributed in a fan shape next to each other, and their qualifying has a greater impact on the start of the car, the position closest to the middle ridge of the field (that is, the strip separation belt) is the most favorable, and the position closest to the spectator seat is the worst, although the Dionian Games emphasize fair competition, but it is inevitable that there will be a biased situation, which is human nature, for example, the racing cars in the Turiyi area on the field are arranged in the starting gate closest to the middle ridge, relying on the relationship with the kingdom to row out in turn: Bruti area, Po River area, Sinumipia, Egypt, Thebes, Macedonia, and Cyrenaica are at the bottom of the list, after all, they and Dionya are only friendly neighbors, not allies.

So at the beginning of the race, the eight cars rushed to the track at a high speed, and soon separated the front and rear, and Tourii's Proclis took the lead.

Procis was just a child when Soberx died in battle, but Saubex had already laid a solid foundation for his family during his lifetime, his carriage shop had more than a dozen carriages and dozens of hired men, and he himself was already the president of the newly established Turriyi Carriage Chamber of Commerce, and he had a lot of fame throughout Dionia (at that time, the kingdom was not established, it was only an alliance, and the territory included was not large).

After his death, the eldest son, Pebaricius, was not very careful about the carriage business, but devoted his passion to cavalry, so he was promoted to the captain of the first regiment at a young age. Unfortunately, he was unlucky, Wolsey was injured, and unfortunately his leg bone was broken by the horse, resulting in permanent disability, and he had to choose to retire, so he devoted all his energy to the carriage industry. Because he was a retired veteran, and his meritorious service, coupled with his father's Yu Ze, he received support and help from many parties, and his career rose as well as the expansion of the kingdom, not only did the family's carriage shop expand from Turiyi to other towns, but also began to get involved in the manufacture of carriages, which also made Pebaricius have a lot of prestige in the carriage industry throughout the kingdom.

Compared with his bumpy, shrewd and capable brother, Proclis is naturally dwarfed, he has always lived a worry-free life under the protection of his father and brother, and there is no amazing performance, but because he inherited his father's hobby - he likes to drive, and from time to time quietly acts as a coachman and drives for the people of Turiyi, and becomes a joke of the upper-class young people of Turiyi.

As soon as Davers announced that he was going to host the Dionian Games, Procles decided to compete in one of the racing competitions and prove himself with the glory of the championship. He was supported by his older brother, who not only collected the best horses from all over the Mediterranean, but also hired a former champion to coach him. Prokris has been training tirelessly for two years, and it is for today......

At the moment when the starting door popped open and the carriage sprinted out, countless thoughts flashed through Procles's heart, which soon turned into a firm and high-pitched shout: "Drive! Drive! ……”

A moment later, his carriage had already charged ahead, and the corner of his eye swept to the field staff standing on the platform of the middle ridge with buckets in their hands, and the excited mood cooled down a little, and immediately remembered the coach's advice, and began to pull the reins back a little harder, so that the horses who were also excited slowed down some of the speed of the forward run, after all, this is not a single short race, but a long race of more than 14 miles to run 7 round-trips, a total of more than 14 miles, requires continuous endurance, can not be fierce at the beginning, but in the second half of the time is unable to accelerate the sprint.

Just as he was trying his best to control the speed of his horse, a shout of "Whoa" suddenly sounded from outside him, and he turned his head to see that a carriage had caught up, and the rider wore a horned helmet and roared at him with a fierce face.

"Damn the Gauls!" Proclis also shouted at him not to be outdone, without worrying that the other party would attack him angrily, not to mention that both parties were Ionian citizens, and the referees repeatedly emphasized to the competitors participating in the racing race: "To ensure the safety of the race, you must not maliciously infringe and hurt the opponent in the race, otherwise you will be disqualified from the race!" ”

The Gallic player's approach was nothing more than a psychological tactic, and Proclius was unmoved by it and was preoccupied with steering the carriage...... The statue of Poseidon on the platform of the middle ridge and the equestrian statue of King Davers flashed out of the corner of his eye, and three pillars stood in front of him, and he knew that he needed to turn.

The 500-metre distance on the straight takes a little time for a runner, but for a four-horse race car running at full speed, it's just a matter of a few blinks of an eye.

But turning at high speed was a great test of the driver's ability, Proclis did not dare to let up the slightest bit, and tightly controlled the reins, so that the carriage was close to the middle ridge platform, and the four white horses drove side by side, almost simultaneously around the stone pillars.