"Just friendly exchanges?" Pharaoh Nektanib sat down again, his eyes gleaming.

Nestanib's rhetorical question stunned Ansitanos, but he listened to Pharaoh continue: "Why not form an alliance? ”

Ansitanos was really stunned at this moment, he didn't expect Pharaoh Nektanib to speak so directly.

Pharaoh Nektanib didn't care about his surprise, and said seriously: "As far as I know, the citizens of Dionya are mainly Greeks. Egypt and Greece have always been friendly, and the city of Naukratis is a testament to that! And over the decades, the Greeks have helped Egypt against the tyrannical Persians, and there are still many Athenian graves outside the city of Memphis, which was the sacrifice made by the Greeks and our Egyptians 70 years ago to fight against the Persians, and it is necessary for us to continue this friendship! Pharaoh Nektanib said with a little emotion, apparently ignoring the fact that the Athenians had been hired by Persia to attack Egypt a few years earlier.

It turned out that the Egyptians wanted to form an alliance with Dionya and help them defend themselves against the Persian attack! Ansitanos was no longer surprised why Pharaoh Nektanib spoke so urgently about the alliance, even though this diplomatic choice was in his and Davers' plans.

But Ansitanos would never have known that, in the eyes of Pharaoh Nektanib, the Persian threat to Egypt was by no means a latent danger, but a real danger.

In the first six months of this turmoil, some Egyptian officials in the towns of the Nile Delta secretly sent secret messages to the Persian land of Canaan, which was adjacent to the eastern border of Egypt, in an attempt to surrender to Persia and reoccupy Egypt, including some people in Memphis. Although the Persians had been defeated from Egypt for more than 20 years, they had never stopped dividing and seducing the Egyptians. The Persian governor of Asia Minor, Phanabazos, had been rebuilding warships and gathering soldiers for several years.

Although the spies reported that this year, the Persian governor Phanabazos, summoned by the king of Persia, had already led his troops to Babylon.

But Nektanib has not forgotten that a few years earlier, it was the same Persian governor who had led his army to burn and plunder in Egypt, and although he was finally defeated, he had suffered little damage and could have come back at any time.

If it weren't for the fact that after Nektanib raised his army, he put forward the slogan of "preferential treatment for monks" (Pharaoh Hakau's reign of more than ten years, restricting monks from owning too much land and hired farmers), which was supported by the priests of the vast number of temples in Egypt, so that Nektanib's army would have been so powerful that even the troops stationed in Memphis surrendered to him, and it was only a few months before he quickly stabilized Lower Egypt. As for Upper Egypt, centered on Thebes, it was still the domain of the priests.

When Ansitanos realized what the pharaoh was really worried about, he immediately said solemnly: "Although Persia is far away from Ionia, it also has its minions in the western Mediterranean - Carthage, a Phoenician sub-state, has been sending a steady stream of gold and silver dug from the Iberian Peninsula to Tyre for decades, thus providing the Persian king with funds for expansion and invasion, and thus has become extremely wealthy.

As a new kingdom, Dionya signed a friendship agreement with Carthage more than ten years ago with the principle of harmony with its neighbors, but we did not expect that it would secretly support the surrounding forces of Dionya and constantly oppose Dionia. And after its plots were foiled one after another, the Carthaginians actually tore up the friendship agreement with our Dionya and threatened to wage war against it. Therefore, Dionya was willing to form an alliance with Egypt to help each other and defend against the aggression of Persia and its vassals! ”

Pharaoh Nektanib was surprised, because this had just happened, and he had not yet received the news. He knew about Carthage, which was a powerful city-state established by the Phoenicians in the western Mediterranean, and their merchant ships often passed through the Egyptian seas, and even often traded with the towns along the coast of Egypt, and the Egyptians even knew for a long time that some Carthaginian ships carried gold and silver, but they never had the intention of intercepting them, because the Egyptian army was not strong, and the navy was even weaker, except that the Egyptians did not like to sail, the lack of dense forests in Egypt was an important reason, so the Egyptians could only make small papyrus boats, If you want to have a large wooden warship, you can only buy it from abroad.

Therefore, Pharaoh Nektanib immediately asked with concern: "I have heard that Carthage is very strong, and has a strong navy, if Dionya goes to war with Carthage, will you be able to win?" ”

"Venerable Pharaoh!" Ansitanos smiled and said, "More than ten years ago, Syracuse, the Greek overlord of the Western Mediterranean, defeated Carthage one after another, forcing it to sign a humiliating peace treaty. But the Syracuse, who defeated Carthage, suffered a crushing defeat in the attack on our Dionia, and we crushed the powerful navy of Syracuse through a frontal naval battle, and we routed the powerful army of Syracuse through a frontal battle, and finally made Syracuse an ordinary city-state on the island of Sicily.

Now that the land and population of our kingdom of Dionya have increased several times more than they did more than ten years ago, how can Carthage be our opponent! The cunning Carthaginians only dared to declare war because they saw that we Dionya had suffered a drought this year and did not have enough food to supply the army! ”

Ansitanos's words were emotional, and his words also secretly highlighted the predicament that Dionia was currently experiencing.

Pharaoh Nektanib was muttering, and the minister who had spoken to him before suddenly interjected: "Egypt and Dionya have become an alliance, if one day, the Persian army invades Egypt, will Dionya send an army to Egypt thousands of miles away to fight the Persians?" ”

Ansitanos replied with a proud gesture: "When we were first founded in Dionia, we were willing to risk our destruction because of the invasion of our allies, and declared war on a powerful enemy. In the short history of Dionya in its nearly 20 years, most of the wars that have taken place have been caused by the invasion of the allies, and Dionya has had to fight against powerful enemies again and again in order to fulfill the covenant, and fortunately, they have all been victorious.

If you were to ask a man from the Western Mediterranean, what was the greatest merit of the Kingdom of Dionia? He will surely tell you, 'Dionia keeps his promise and never turns his back on his allies!' ’”

"I have heard this phrase from the Greek merchants in the city of Nauclatis...... "Pharaoh Nektanib spoke, and he had heard of this rumor when he was a general, and it was only after learning of the arrival of the messenger of Dionya that he moved to form an alliance. The Egyptian army was not strong, and a few years ago it was with the help of more than 2,000 Greek mercenaries that it was able to hold the line. And to form an alliance with a country that is militarily stronger, more faithful to its promises, and far away from Egypt, he believes that Dionya is the best choice for Egypt to form an alliance.

What King Devers had been insisting on and preaching had blossomed into brilliant flowers in distant Egypt, which Ansitanos had not expected, but he rejoiced in it.

Pharaoh Nektanib threw his power on the ground and said loudly: "In return for King Davers's generous gift, I will give you a hundred boatloads of wheat in return!" Moreover, after Egypt and Dionya form an alliance, Egypt will continue to provide Dionya with free grain to solve the suffering of the Dionian people who lack food! ”

Ansitanos, who has always been self-contained, could not control the joy on his face at this time.

And for the pharaohs and ministers present, they did not feel that it was a great loss. Grain, Egypt is abundant. With the protection of the Nile, Egypt had a lot of abundant crops, and the vast number of Egyptian farmers had to hand over most of the harvest, and the barns and temples of the towns were full of collected grain, and even moldy because it had been piled up for too long.

After finalizing the alliance, Pharaoh Nektanib invited Ansitanos to lunch in the gardens of the palace.

After arriving at the garden, Ansitanos's eyes widened, showing in front of him a huge artificial lake, the lake surface is vast, lotus leaves are fluttering, lotus flowers are blooming, the shore of the lake is a lush garden, everywhere you can see all kinds of strange flowers and plants, rare birds and beasts collected from abroad......

Pharaoh Nektanib took Ansitanos to dine on a huge wooden boat in the middle of the lake, eating and drinking delicious food, talking about the past and the present, and dancing with beautiful maids......

For a while, the guests and hosts were happy.

…………………………………………

At the same time that Dionian Foreign Minister Ansitanos arrived in Egypt, an important meeting was taking place in the town hall of the city of Catanay, Sicily.

Among the participants were Prosus, Commander of the Eighth Legion of Dionya, Leotizides, Commander of the Navy of the Third Fleet, Vlarios, Governor of the Third Fleet, Sipros, Administrator of Catana, Milon of Naxos, Administrator of Messina, Amicles, Administrator of Sikuli, Apirosia, Governor of Hena, Governor of Hebita...... In addition, the chief generals of the two allied city-states, Leotini and Tounis, participated.

It stands to reason that all of you are the heads of the cities, and there is not much difference in position, and one of the clever ways in which King Davers has done this in his many previous innovations in dealing with government affairs is to introduce round tables, so that there is no distinction between superior and inferior. However, in the meeting, Sipros was in the first place, and Prosous was close to his left, which made the chief executives who were familiar with Sipros's character mutter, but even if they were a little dissatisfied, they did not show their faces.

Sipnos looked around at everyone and said with a straight face: "Ladies and gentlemen, you all know that a few days ago our First Legion had gathered north to help the Wolsey people and defend against the Romans. If the Carthaginians fulfill what they said when they tore up the agreement, then they will soon declare war on us, sending troops to Sicily. And in fact, all the signs that came back from Carthage indicate that the Carthaginians were really preparing for war! In order to be able to understand the state of our preparations for war in Sicily, so that His Majesty and the Senate could control the overall situation of the war and formulate a better strategy, His Majesty sent Lord Felicius of the Ministry of Military Affairs to Sicily to inspect it. Now, please welcome Lord Felicius! ”

The chief executives were stunned: Felicius had come to Sicily, and they had not been notified in advance!