Agosilaus was overwhelmed by Ipamironda's sonorous words and fearless look on his face, and he was stunned for a moment.

Callistratus saw that the situation was a little bad and was about to open his mouth to resolve it.

But he heard the Persian envoy Datis say sharply: "If you have signed a contract, you must act according to it, stop all wars, and restore peace in Greece, this is the desire of the people of the Greek city-states, and it is also the urgent demand of the great Persian king to you!" After that, if any city-state dares to provoke another war and invade another state, Persia will strongly support the other city-states that signed the contract to form a coalition and punish them severely! Thebans, I advise you to obediently fulfill your contract! ”

Ipamironda sneered a few times, looked directly at the Persian envoy, and the cold light in his eyes was compelling: "It was because we believed your Persian words that we signed the Great King's Contract and dissolved the Piosia Alliance, and the result!" As a result, the Spartans broke the contract, attacked Thebes, captured our acropolis, and enslaved our people! What did you Persia do for this shameless violation of the contract? Nothing was done! So...... Oh, what peace! What independence! To hell with them all! We Thebes now only believe in ourselves! ”

Ipamironda said that he was excited, and even clenched his fist, causing the Persian envoy to subconsciously take several steps back.

However, instead of slamming the fist in the face of the Persian envoy, Ipamironda turned around and walked out of the hall, followed by several other Thebans.

The envoys of Thebes marched away, and no one stopped them, and for a time there was silence in the venue.

"Is this signature of the Thebans still counting?" Calistratus' voice broke the silence.

"Of course not!" Agosilaus had a calm face and said angrily: "Since the Thebans have no intention of signing a contract, there is no need for us to force them in, I suggest that this signature be deleted!" ”

The envoys of the various city-states agreed, as did the envoys of Athens.

"The Thebans are arrogant and unreasonable, I am afraid that they will continue to wage war after they return, and the king of Persia will never allow such a thing to happen!" At this time, the Persian envoy Datis shouted angrily: "We in Persia will strongly support you in raising an army and punish Thebes to maintain the sanctity of the peace treaty!" ”

"Datis is right, we should do it!" Agosilaus immediately looked at Calistratus: "What do you Athenians think?" ”

Callistratus did not hesitate to say: "We in Athens also support this decision, if Sparta wants to punish the Thebans, we will provide naval support, just as we helped the Thebans." ”

The Thebans did not have a navy at all, and the navy provided by your Athens was completely useless...... Agosilaus knew it in his heart, but he did not raise any objections, because he felt that regardless of whether Athens provided the navy to Sparta or not, the very act of Athens was of great significance, so that the other city-states of Greece could see that Athens was on the side of Sparta, and with this first support, there would be a second and third ...... The days to come are still long.

So Agosilaus immediately thanked the Athenian envoys.

While the envoys of the city-states continued to negotiate the treaty, the Theban envoys rode out of Sparta and headed straight for the seaside port.

At this time, one of the Theban envoys had time to complain: "Ipamironda, although your speech at the meeting just now is exciting, it will inevitably provoke Sparta and intensify the attack on our Thebes!" ”

Ipamilonda looked back at them and said in a deep voice, "Some of us had some illusions about this peace talk before, and I believe that now they can completely die!" Our ally Athens betrayed us, who, like the Spartans, did not want us in Thebes to unite the whole region of Piosia! ”

"Ipamironda, you're right!" Another Theban envoy said angrily: "Although the contract says 'to ensure the independence and freedom of the city-states, and to dissolve the alliances or alliances that have been formed', it also says that 'the city-states can voluntarily help each other', even if Athens and Sparta dissolve their alliance, with the influence and strength of their city-states, those original allies will still voluntarily attach themselves to them and be driven by them, and once we dissolve the Piosia Alliance, it will soon become a mess!" ”

"Athens and Thebes are worried that we will be able to confront them after the integration of the Piosia region, so they will try their best to stop us, and we must not give in!" Ipamironda's tone was resolute.

"But this time Sparta has the support of Athens and Persia, and the attack on us will be even more fierce!" The Theban envoy said worriedly.

"We are not alone, the Thessalians will fully support us, and we can also ask for help from the Kingdom of Dionia." Ipamilunda comforted them.

"Dionyas have been friendly with Sparta for more than ten years, and they will choose to help us?"

"I have discussed this issue with Peropidas, and we have agreed that there must be a grudge between Persia and Dionia, and since Sparta has now reached a treaty to break the friendship agreement with the kingdom of Dionya and choose Persia, then it is very likely that Dionya will accept our suggestion and make an alliance with Thebes."

Ipamironda's words sent the remaining Theban emissaries into deep thought.

"But no matter who we ally with, we in Thebes will have to rely on our own strength to become stronger!" Ipamironda's gaze was resolute.

……………………………………

Two days later, the Athenian envoys also left Sparta and returned to their home country.

On the way, Calistratus was complacent and said to Calias: "In this peace talks, we in Athens have gained the most benefits and gained the most. ”

Kalias was a little puzzled: "Under the favor of the Persian envoys, we had to assist Sparta in attacking Thebes, which was actually to re-recognize Sparta's alliance status, and it should be Sparta who gained the most." ”

Although Calistratus somewhat despised this mediocre Athenian envoy, as the bearer of the Elaceus Secret Rite, Callias also had a lot of influence not only in Athens but also in the Peloponnese, otherwise this contract would not have been named after him: the Kallias Contract.

Since Callistratus agreed to assist Sparta in attacking Thebes, after returning to Athens, he would definitely be attacked by some political enemies, and he needed to be fully defended by Calias, so he patiently explained to him: "Since the Peloponnesian War, our Athens has been completely weakened, not only under the control of Sparta, but also forced to dissolve all the allies, which is undoubtedly an extremely important blow to Athens, which is prosperous by maritime trade. It wasn't until the Corinthian War that our Athenian power was restored, but the signing of the King's Contract forced us to dissolve our allies again until this time—"

Callistratus said in an accentuated tone: "Sparta has recognized the existence of the Athenian Maritime Alliance, and in fact has put Athens on an equal footing with Sparta. As for our agreement to assist Sparta in the war, it is only a false name for Sparta, in fact, there is no need to use a navy to fight against Thebes, and even if Sparta wants us to send an army in the future, we can find a way to do it.

Sparta is now our ally, but it will also have competing interests with Athens in the future; Thebes was once an ally of us because of Sparta, but let's not forget why it was an enemy of Athens for so long.

This time Thebes did not sign a contract in the end, which will inevitably lead to the continuation of the war between them and Sparta, which is a good thing for us. Thebes now has a great increase in national strength, Sparta will not defeat it so easily, the continuation of the war will consume the strength of both sides, and when the right time comes, we Athens will intervene in it to decide the final victory or defeat, so as to earn the greatest benefits! ……”

Kalias was persuaded by him.

When the envoys returned to Athens, Callistratus received an urgent notice from the council: secret information had come from the city of Thebes, and they had sent Peropidas as an envoy to Dionya in an attempt to form an alliance with them!

Calistratus was taken aback.

……………………………………

Despite his many years as king, his experience, and his meeting of many famous people, Davers could not suppress his curiosity and looked at the Theban messenger standing in the center of the palace hall, because this man was so legendary.

When Sparta conquered Central Greece and Northern Greece successively, and almost all Greek city-states were subjugated by the Spartans, this young man, who was still unknown at that time, with a few like-minded friends, bravely sneaked back to Thebes, assassinated the puppets supported by the Spartans, and called on the people to drive away the Spartan army in Thebes; When many Greeks thought that Thebes' rebellion was short-lived, the Theban government led by him not only did not fall in the continuous attacks of the Spartan army, but Thebes gradually grew in the war, and in the end even competed with the Spartans.

Peropidas ...... Devers had the name in his mind, he didn't know much about the history of ancient Greece in his previous life, and he remembered only one Epamironda of Thebes, and now he thought that the man in front of him was also a great person.

Peropidas also looked at the king of Dionya with curiosity, and he thought that he had done a great job so far, but compared to the one in front of him, he was too far behind: when he was just coming of age, and was still keen to participate in banquets, competitions, and theater, this man had already led the mercenaries through many dangers and returned from the heart of Persia, and won great fame; Then he went to Great Greece, repelled the natives with an army of less than 1,000 men, occupied Turiyi, created the Kingdom of Dionia, defeated Crotone, defeated Syracuse, defeated Carthage, and made this kingdom the true overlord of the Western Mediterranean in just over 20 years!

He had been to Persia and had seen the prosperity of Babylon, and when he set foot on the land of Dionia, he looked closely all the way, especially the grandeur of the city of Turi'i and the prosperity of the port, which made him feel no worse than Persia, so he was both surprised and excited, and thought that he had come to the right place.