"In this way, I am already weak in Syracuse, and it is very likely that I will be ousted by these rioters led by Jerolis! For me, this is a terrible thing! And for Sparta, this was not good news either! Phoebe Das, I need your help now! Dionysius had a rare look of begging.

"Tell me, what do you need me to do?" There was no emotional fluctuation on Phoebeidas' blank face.

Accustomed to it, Dionysius pleaded earnestly: "I hope you will meet the leaders of these rebels, such as Herolis, as you did last time, and persuade them not to engage in infighting with me in the event of Syracuse's danger, which will only give the Dionians an advantage and threaten the survival of the people of Syracuse!" We should unite and get through this together! For this reason, as long as they can re-admit me as their general plenipotentiary, I am willing to share power with them and meet their demands......"

"Okay, I'll give it a try." Phoebidas simply agreed, and said, "Do you need to tell them that you're back?" ”

"No, you don't! I'll show up in due course. Dionysius immediately refused.

Seeing Phoebidas leave, Dionysius had a few doubts in his heart: this time, why did Phoebidas agree so quickly?

…………………………………

At the Syracuse City Hall, the Executive Committee of Wartime Generals, composed of the Interim Chief General, Herolis, and several other generals elected by the population during the riots, is in session.

As a poet, Philosanus was already very famous among the people, and because he repeatedly confronted Dionysius in front of him and was imprisoned, the people trusted him and elected him to be a general. At this moment, he unceremoniously questioned the representative of the harbor sailors and paupers, Tessitis: "Tessitis, why haven't you seen the blockade of Ortigia Island with warships?!" This was discussed yesterday! ”

"Yesterday...... Yesterday we were tasked with clearing out the rout of Masias, and now there are thousands of sailors in the mountains looking for their traces, where can we still spare the manpower to blockade the island of Ortigia! Ctesitis looked bitter.

"Don't quibble, Tessites, you have enough men in the port area to clear out those mercenaries and blockade the island of Ortigia. This is an order issued by the committee after deliberation together, and you have accepted it, but you have not carried it out yet, do you think that the people elected you as this general just to let you come here for fun! Another nobleman from the city, a good friend of Jerolis, and the newly elected general Kuzias, spoke out in his criticism.

Although Tessitis is a novice in the political arena, he has been at sea for decades and has rich life experience, and he is not annoyed in the face of reprimand at this moment, but spreads his hands and says helplessly: "There are few people in your city, and you can't unite to do things together, and you can't gather enough people to build a city wall for a few days, and you still need us to provide manpower, not to mention that our port area has a large population and complex sources, how can you completely obey my words!" If you have a problem with me, you can take my position. In order to be this general, I have to talk about it every day, and I have to be misunderstood by the people of the port, where is there to be a sailor when I am comfortable, I have long thought about it! ”

Tesitis threatened to resign, and several generals immediately did not stop criticizing, because they understood that Tesitis was already a very good speaker among the port poor, and if he had been replaced by someone else, I am afraid it would never be so easy to cooperate, and now that the Great Greek War had drained a large number of urban citizens, they urgently needed the strength of the port poor.

"Master Tessitis!" Herolis broke the silence in the room, and at this time he was much more haggard than before the riot, and his voice became hoarse, but his eyes became sharper and sharper: "What difficulties are you encountering now, let's discuss and solve them together." ”

Tessitis was still respectful to Herolis, and he no longer said long-winded, and said directly: "The people of the port want to be able to participate in the citizens' assembly and discuss the various bills decided by the council, and the land you promised to allocate to the people of the port has not been moved, and they suspect that the General's Executive Committee is deceiving them. In addition, they have already taken on a lot of tasks before, and they feel unfair compared to the people in the city, so now they are not willing to obey my orders......"

"How unfair! The paupers of the port were meant to be—" Another general, Stasikos, heard this, and couldn't help but want to argue again, but Jerolis interrupted him, thought for a while, and said seriously: "Lord Tesitis, we overthrow the tyranny rule of Dionysius and will implement a democratic system, but Syracuse is not Athens, not all citizens can participate in the citizens' assembly, but ...... To put it simply, only citizens who can afford at least one set of heavy infantry equipment and can serve in the military at any time are eligible to participate in the citizens' assembly, which is a long-standing political tradition in Syracuse, and we will not change it easily! Not only the poor people in your port area, but also in the city, there are many citizens who are also unable to participate in the citizens' assembly. ”

"But last time—" Tesitis still wanted to argue.

Herois waved his hand to stop him, and said seriously: "You listen to me first!" I promised you that you would distribute the land, so why didn't you do it immediately? Because we don't know how many of the Syracuse who fought in Greater Greece will come back alive, we are not sure how much land will be vacated for the time being, and we need someone to re-measure the land before it can be fairly and equitably distributed to the landless citizens in the port and the city.

But now that 'land' has become the most important concern of the people of the port, it has also affected our unity. Know that we have not captured the island of Ortigia, and that Dionysius and his mercenaries could return at any moment and re-shackle the freedom we bought with blood! ”

At the end of the day, Herolis's voice became shrill, and he reminded Ctesitis, as well as several other generals, including Philosanus: "Therefore, I propose that the land owned by the 5,000 mercenaries led by Masias and the 1,000 mercenaries stationed in the city be distributed to the people of the port (these mercenaries are already citizens of Syracuse, but Herolis who succeeded in the rebellion considers them loyal lackeys of Dionysius and refuses to recognize their citizenship of Syracuse)!" ”

"Those mercenaries occupy a lot of land!" Ferosanus reminded loudly.

"I think this proposal from Herois is acceptable." Stascikos agreed. Unlike the outspoken but apolitical Philosanus, as soon as Herolis's proposal came out, Stasikors realized what the chief general meant: the village founded by the 6,000 mercenaries was not actually within the traditional territory of Syracuse, but the territory that Dionysius had expanded outward after his conquest of southeastern Sicily, including, of course, the lands of the neighboring city-states that he had forcibly occupied. The village of 6,000 mercenaries was located southwest of Syracuse, adjacent to Acre, a small state of Syracuse, where the city-state armies of the south coast had to pass to reach Syracuse. Herolis placed the port poors there, not only to allow these greedy and death-fearing people to continue to fight the mercenaries who fled into the mountains for the land, but also to guard against the possible hostility of the southern coast city-states to the nascent Syracuse regime, and that land was far away from Syracuse, and that allocation would not allow the urban population to protest their injustice, and it would also dispel the discontent of the port civilians and make them feel the sincerity of the General's Executive Committee.

Thus, it was not only Stacikos who realized the benefits of Herolis's proposal, but several other generals also agreed.

Herolis continued without being surprised: "However, in order to entrap the mercenaries, Dionysius gave them too generous conditions, and each mercenary had a share of ten acres of land, which was too much. I hope that the people of the port will be temporarily allocated five acres of land each, and that only the poor who have taken an active part in this rebellion against tyranny will be eligible. What do you think, Lord Tessitis, that you will provide the list, and after the city hall personnel verify that it is correct, the distribution will begin immediately? ”

Tessitis didn't think much about it, and he was overjoyed that the committee had promised to allocate the land immediately so that he would not have to be questioned and blamed by the people after every return to the port, so he said with relief: "I agree! ”

Herolis took the opportunity to say: "If you own the land, the port people will be able to accumulate wealth, buy weapons and equipment, serve as heavy infantry, and participate in the citizens' assembly, so what you just said, Lord Tessitis, you just said that the 'port people ask to participate in the citizens' assembly', as long as the land is allocated, this is not a problem at all, are you right?" ”

"That's right! Right! You're right! Tessitis agreed.

"Now that the problems have been solved." Herolis's expression became serious: "I want you to immediately let the rotting warships moored in the Great Harbor sail out of the harbor again, and completely block the entire Ortigia Island, and do not allow any ships to enter or leave this island!" Although we will not be able to storm the island of Ortigea for the time being, as far as I know, the grain stored on the island will last at most three or four months for the two thousand mercenaries and its inhabitants, at which point they will have to open the city and surrender. ”

"Lord Herolis, you can rest assured that with the promise of allocating land, the people of the port will enthusiastically participate!" Tessitis immediately agreed, and met the eyes of several generals: the port poors are really a group of snobs!