"Your Majesty!" Three of the Dionian king's immediate cronies, Martius, the chief of the palace guard, Henipolis, the clerk, and Aristiras, the herald, were already standing respectfully at the checkpoint.

"I've kept you waiting." Davers jumped off his horse, looked at Maltius, and asked, "Have the guards of the palace and mansion been arranged during my absence?" ”

"As I reported to you last time, half of the soldiers (i.e., 250 men) were left behind, under the command of Xenophanes, to ensure the safety of the palace and the king's hill, as well as the princess and princes." Maltius replied.

Davers nodded, walked to Xenophanes, who was standing behind the three of them, and said sincerely: "Next, the safety of my family will depend on you!" ”

"Your Majesty, please rest assured, I will successfully complete the task you have given!" Xenophanes gave a confident and powerful military salute.

Davers unconsciously glanced at his left hand.

Xenophanes is a military salute with the left hand. He was a member of the Persian Expeditionary Force, a senior officer of the First Legion, and a close friend of the current commander of the Ninth Legion, Tegatinos. More than a decade ago, he was severely wounded in his right hand during the fierce battle between the First Army and the Syracuse coalition forces that landed in Sicily, and he became disabled due to ineffective treatment. In this case, he should have retired from the army, but he himself strongly expressed his desire to remain in the army, and after many setbacks, Davers finally selected him as an officer in the palace guard. After all, the chances of the palace guards going into battle to kill the enemy are very small, and it does not require him to kill the enemy himself, but he needs to bring his rich combat experience and strict legional discipline to the palace guards. So far, he has performed very well, which is why Davers agreed to hand over the remaining duties to Martius.

Davers tapped him on the shoulder in anticipation, then turned to Aristiras.

Although Davos stared at him and did not speak, Aristilas understood what the king expected of him: during his personal expedition, he would closely monitor the entire kingdom, work closely with the palace guards and the inspection department to ensure the stability of the royal power and the safety of his family, and report anything unusual to him in Ladinm immediately.

Aristias solemnly saluted Davers again, and everything was silent.

Davers finally looked at Henipolis and asked softly, "Heney, are you ready to write a wonderful book of Latim's Wars?" ”

"Your Majesty, I have prepared enough papyrus and pens." Henipolis replied cleverly, causing Davers to laugh.

"Let's go." He said in a deep voice.

Martius led 250 court guards and surrounded Davers. Davos, accompanied by Crotocatax and Henipolis, galloped towards the northern gates under the watchful eyes of Aristiras, Xenophanes, and the remaining palace guards.

"Salute!" The garrison officer at the north gate shouted excitedly.

The sentinels hurriedly turned the noose, opened the city gates, and stood straight on either side.

"Good work, Timias!" Davers called out the garrison by name and gave a military salute on his horse, much to the excitement of the garrison officers and sentries.

The reason why Davers set off so early was because some of the residents of Turiyi had just gotten out of bed during this time period, and the streets of the outer city were few pedestrians and almost unobstructed.

The sound of horses' hooves shattered the silence of the outer city, and by the time curious residents came out to check, the cavalry was gone.

"It's the palace guard!" The populace made an accurate judgment based on the attire of the soldiers: "His Majesty Davers must be inside!" ”

"His Majesty Davos went to the barracks so early, let's not be delayed, hurry up and finish breakfast, and rush to the barracks to see off the army!"

……………………………………

This time, because there were too many soldiers on the expedition, it had exceeded the capacity of Victory Square in the city of Turii, so the final assembly and departure place of the army was set at the Turriyi military camp.

As soon as dawn came, Davos rushed to the Turriyi barracks, and at the commander's mansion he summoned several ministers of the Ministry of War, as well as the commander of the Second Legion, Matonis, the commander of the Fourth Legion, Oliver, the commander of the Fifth Legion, Giogris, the commander of the Sixth Legion, Trotilas, and the leader of the Mountain Reconnaissance Group, Izzam, to ask them about the conscription of the various units, the morale of the soldiers, the weapons and equipment they carried, whether they had carried five days' rations, and whether the auxiliary units of each legion were fully staffed. The maintenance of siege and defensive equipment, and the adequacy of the pack teams equipped......

When Davos and the generals discussed the expedition, under the leadership of Tolmid, Klotockatuques also met with the staff team assigned to Davers by the Ministry of War, they were basically officers with excellent performance in various legions, and then transferred to the staff office of the Ministry of War to study for a year or two, so the age was basically around twenty-five or sixteen years old, Klotockatuques stayed in the Ministry of Military Affairs for more than a year, and most of them knew each other, although he was a prince, but his personality was friendly, and he soon talked and laughed with them.

Everyone chatted excitedly about the anticipation of the war, and in such a lively atmosphere, Klotocatax completely forgot that he was going to visit his eldest brother Adoris at the garrison of the Second Legion before he set off.

But in fact, even if he went, he could not speak to Adoris, for the soldiers in the barracks had already been awakened by the sound of the trumpet, and after they had eaten their breakfast quickly, they were very skillful in breaking the armor and rations into a package, tying them on special wooden staffs, carrying them on their shoulders, wearing only short-sleeved linings, and short swords around their waists, and handing over their long shields, bayonets, and javelins to the Legion's baggage battalion for transport, so that they could climb the mountains with less effort and speed during the rest of the march.

At dawn, most of the senators of the kingdom also rushed to the barracks, and some of them, led by the five rotating presidents of the senate, Cornerus, Sedorum, Veesba, Lucias, and Antaoris, came not only to see off King Davers and the army, but also to express to him that they would do their best to ensure the smooth operation of the kingdom's government during his expedition.

A small number of senators, such as Arcistes, Antrapolis, Nicomarcus, Triphias, etc., were ready to lead many of the kingdom's officials who came voluntarily to follow the expedition to Latium, in fact, they could have taken the large number of grain convoys that had departed from the port yesterday to the south, bypassing the Strait of Messina, and heading to Walsey, but even the most noble King Davos had to march with the army, and of course they could not show fear of hardship and hardship, leaving a bad impression on the ruler of the kingdom, so they will follow the baggage procession that has dragged along to the north.

At dawn, Davos held a pre-departure oath meeting in front of nearly 40,000 soldiers on the large playground of the Turiyi barracks!! Kingdom of Dionia!! ……”

And when the army began to set out of the camp, the people of the kingdom, especially the people of Turiy, were already waiting on both sides of the road, as usual, to send their relatives into battle with cordial shouts and pious blessings, to win a glorious victory for the kingdom, and to win them glory and rich rewards. The procession stretched all the way to the small town of Yamaguchi, cheering all the way, even accompanied by flower petals sprinkled on the ground, as if they had returned victorious.

"That's why the kingdom is so strong!" Davers, who was riding in the middle of the procession, whispered to his son, who was following him.

Klotocatax looked at the cheering crowd on both sides of the road and nodded with deep feeling.

At the beginning of March of the 14th year of the Kingdom of Dioonia (that is, in 379 BC), King Davers personally led the 2nd Legion, the 4th Legion, the 5th Legion, the 6th Legion, part of the 1st Cavalry Legion, and a mountain reconnaissance brigade, a total of 40,000 men, marching westward, passing through the mountains, reaching Laos, and then taking ships in batches to the Latium region. In fact, this team also included some of the senators and about 200 low-ranking officials of the kingdom, as well as engineers, craftsmen, and blacksmiths drawn from Turiyi...... The whole team was large and bloated with a team of about 600 people, as well as a baggage transport and pack caravan that consisted mainly of countless reserve citizens.

In addition, the merchants of Turiyi and Ligem, in their own fleets laden with military rations, passed through the Strait of Messina and made a detour to the west coast of Italy, preparing to join King Davers' army at Latium.

……………………………………

While Davers's army marched on Latim, the Spartans in Greece were gathering troops to regain control of Thebes, and the Council of Elders was surprised and worried by the news that the Athenians had been directly involved in the Theban revolt, since the Spartans' plans to regain Greek domination would be greatly hindered if the two great states of Central Greece were reunited.

As a result, the two Spartan procurators immediately rushed to Athens and asked the Athenians fiercely whether they were ready to tear up the peace treaty of the Great King and start a war with Sparta.

Although the Athenians were dissatisfied with Sparta and secretly helped the people of Thebes to rebel, but in the past ten years, Sparta has not only recovered its strength with the support of the Persians, but also after they stopped the war in Asia Minor and poured all their strength into the hegemony of Greece itself, the Greek city-states have felt great pressure, and the Peloponnese has been completely controlled by it, even Corinth and Argos obediently did not dare to make any unusual moves, and the northern Greek city-states became its allies, Central Greece was a mess of it. ()

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