At this time, Senior Judge Crito Demos spoke out loud: "According to the laws of Dionia, citizens are obliged to perform military service, but there are no strict regulations on the length of military service at a time. However, the citizens of the kingdom were predominantly Greeks, and according to Greek military tradition, citizens rarely went out to fight during the busy agricultural season, and generally did not fight for more than a month, except in case of critical situations.

Mercenaries who are able to fight for long periods of time are usually mercenaries who have no other income and live only on combat, and when the battle is too long, the citizen soldiers may gather to protest to the general, or even demand to be withdrawn...... The citizens of the kingdom could not have been as scattered as the citizens of other Greek city-states, but this aspect had to be carefully considered. ”

Trito Demos finished speaking, and the ministers were silent for a moment.

Alexis looked at Davers and said earnestly, "Your Majesty, I am attending the Kingdom Executive Council today, and I was originally going to report to you on another important matter. For several years, our territory in Iberia had been plagued by Lusitanians and a few Celts, and since this year the frequency of these indigenous raids has become so frequent that the Eighteenth Army has had to gather its troops all the time (the Eighteenth Army was established after the end of the Western Mediterranean War, and its military camp was established in the central town of Sisi, now in the southern region of Iberia, and its soldiers are mainly Ionian citizens from this region, and half of the soldiers are Phoenician and Carthaginian, and a few are Greeks, and a very small number of Iberians) to resist, where the citizens were demoralized and weakened by the prolonged inability to return home, resulting in a decline in combat effectiveness and many casualties...... And because of the large number of young and middle-aged citizens in the Iberian Territory who were sent to fight, and the lack of labor affected other affairs in the region, the Iberian Governor, Lord Haka, complained a lot about our military department......

The Iberian invasions were similar to those of the Gauls, and if we had responded in the same way, I fear that we would have repeated the mistakes of the Iberian territories. I am not against the Kingdom sending troops to aid Etruria, but on the contrary I hope that Your Majesty, you and your Excellency will find a better way to defend against the enemy's invasion and at the same time avoid the problems I have mentioned...... Then we can apply this method to the northern borders of Etrua, to Iberia, and to the borders of the kingdom that need to be defended to ensure the stability and development of the kingdom. ”

Davers nodded solemnly, then looked around at everyone and said in a deep voice: "Alexis's words are good, and they need to cause us all to think deeply. Now the territory of the kingdom is getting wider and wider, and the vastness means that we can no longer be like before, the enemy is ten or a hundred miles away, we gather our army, we can rush to the battlefield in a day or two, and after four or five days of fighting, we will not even eat the rations we carry.

Now that the borders of the kingdom are far away from Turiyi, Alexis, tell me how many days it takes for the army to march from Turiyi to the northern border of Etruria? ”

Alexis immediately replied: "If you go by sea and have a good wind, it will take about five or six days, but this is almost impossible, at least seven or eight days; By land, considering that there is no road to the north of Campania, it will take 15 days to walk; A combination of land and sea routes takes at least 10 days.

The journey from Turiyi to southern Iberia takes 15 days, mainly by sea, but the sea route is long and there is a danger of storms.

And the journey from Turiy to Carthage, also mainly by sea, takes at least 10 days, again taking into account the risks at sea......"

"Alexis, I only asked one question, and you answered so much." Davers said jokingly, but none of the ministers laughed, they were all thoughtful.

"It's just a march, it takes so much time, and to fight, until the end of the war, it takes even longer." Davos restrained his mind and said solemnly: "Now that our kingdom is already the most powerful country in the Western Mediterranean, like Syracuse and Carthage, the matter of daring to lead a large army to directly attack the territory of the kingdom will basically not appear again, and the forces hostile to us are afraid of our strength, I am afraid that it is more to adopt tactics like the Lusitanians and Gauls to avoid a head-on decisive battle, and to take the method of raiding to destroy our territory and exhaust our soldiers, which will lead to the prolongation of the war process......

Ladies and gentlemen, we must not be indulging in past successes, but realize that as the kingdom's strength changes, so does the surrounding environment, and some of the previous successes may no longer be adapted to the new situation.

You have just reached a consensus that aiding Etruria is also protecting the security of the kingdom, but how to rescue is also a big problem. You must understand that the solution is not only to deal with the problems of Etruscan and Iberia for the time being, but to find a new way to improve the military system of the kingdom and to protect the kingdom's territory for the sake of the kingdom's growing territory! ”

Although Davers's voice was not very loud when he spoke, these words echoed in the hearts of every minister, and suddenly raised their level of view of the problem a lot, and also made them feel pressure, and the expression on everyone's face became solemn and excited, and the hall suddenly became extremely silent.

Davers no longer urged, leaned back in the seat, and seemed to close his eyes to recuperate, but in fact his mind was also full of thoughts: the Etruscan envoy had been here for two days, and the diplomat was in charge of receiving him, and in fact he had already roughly ascertained the envoy's intention and reported it to him. After thinking about it, he already had some ideas in his heart, after all, unlike the ministers who had to cross the river by feeling the stones, he had thousands of years of Eastern and Western historical experience in his previous life as a backing, and he also knew some of the military development processes of ancient Macedonia and Rome, which he could refer to, learn from, and absorb...... It's just that the solution he thought of involved several thorny problems, which needed to be discussed, reached a consensus, and worked together with the ministers to solve them, so he deliberately guided them, and of course he also hoped that the ministers could come up with a better way to solve this problem......

After a long time, the rotating chairman, Sipros, asked, (In the second year after the Western Mediterranean War, Cornerus became ill and was bedridden. At the suggestion of Davers, the Senate unanimously elected Sicilian, the wartime governor of Sicily, who had contributed greatly to the war and had distinguished himself, to temporarily replace Cornelus, but not long after Cornelus died of illness, and Cipros was able to correct him): "May I ask Lord Alexis, when the Carthaginians opened up the territory of Iberia, they must have encountered the difficulties we encounter today, and how they managed to resist and conquer the natives for a long period of 10 years. At the same time, what about the stability and development of the territory? ”

Alexis thought for a moment before he pondered, "The details of the past in Iberia may only be answered by Lord Haka, the governor of Iberia, and what I have learned is ...... Margo, the governor of Iberia in Carthage at the time, had an army of nearly 50,000 men, and they were all mercenaries, so they were free from labor, so they could be thrown into battle with the natives at any time, which gradually completed the suppression of the natives, but even so, the Carthaginians paid a great price for it, and it is said that most of the income of the Iberian territory and 1/3 of Carthage's annual tax revenue was used to support this army——"

"It's too expensive! The kingdom couldn't have done it this way, otherwise nothing else would have to be done! "Finance Officer Archibides spoke out loud.

Although he felt that his voice was a little noisy, many ministers agreed with him.

Ciblos said in a deep voice: "Of course, we can't spend a lot of money to feed a mercenary army, but we can follow this method. ”

Davers' eyes lit up.

"I remember that it took at least five or six years for Gentiles to become Ionian citizens, from registration to probationary citizenship and then to full citizenship, during which time they had to work in the kingdom, renting land, working as hired laborers, as low-level municipal handymen, as wharf laborers...... Sometimes, they even responded to the kingdom's call-ups, participated in public works, or became auxiliary laborers in the army, rotating with the soldiers...... And during this long period, they must also abide by the law and pay taxes regularly...... It is very hard and you have to live carefully in the kingdom to become a citizen, which is not easy to say.

Sipros sighed lightly, "Then why don't we amend the decree on 'making Gentiles and freemen citizens of Ionia'?" As long as it is declared that those who want to become Ionian citizens in the future, they must first serve for the Kingdom of Dionia, go to the borders of the Kingdom, and wait for 5-6 years of service before they can become full citizens of Dionia, and can enjoy the various rights granted to citizens by the Kingdom......"

Sure enough, as Davers expected, the method proposed by Sipros was roughly the same as he thought, the only difference was in the length of service: Davers's idea was to serve for 10-15 years, which happened to encapsulate the period when a young man was at his most physical and energetic.

But after thinking about it, Davers had to admit that Sipros's suggestion was more operational, because it only took about six years to become a citizen of Dionya at this stage, and suddenly this time was extended to more than 10 years, and at the risk of life and death, these Gentile freedmen would definitely be dissatisfied.