But Dionia's absence from signing an agreement with Tarantum at this time made Heatiavis uneasy, and he reluctantly reminded: "So you are already confident in defeating Syracuse?!" I have heard that until now, the army of Dionysius still has absolute superiority on land! ”

"Isn't Syracuse defeating us exactly what you wanted!" "You will no longer have to worry about the safety of the city-state or the lives of the captured citizens," said Kunogorata. ”

Histiaves was speechless for a moment, and then he couldn't help but ask: "If this war continues for a long time, won't we in Tarantum keep sending food to Turiyi, knowing that our food reserves are not abundant." ”

"Since this is the case, you still dare to tear up the covenant and start a war with us!" Kunograta scoffed.

Ansitanos chimed in: "A war of this magnitude, which has happened several times throughout the history of Greece, is simply not likely to last. ”

Histiavius hesitated for a moment, and finally said, "Well, I will convey Dionia's proposal to the Senate, but I want you to understand that Tarantum is a substate of Sparta. ”

Kunograta and Ansitanos glanced at each other, and Kunograta said lightly: "So what? Was Sparta also ready to go to war? ”

Histiaves stopped talking, and he found that the Dioonians were not afraid of any threat, and perhaps as the other party said, Tarantom could only hope for the victory of Syracuse......

…………………………………

While Kunograta and Ansitanos were negotiating post-war matters with the Tarantum emissaries, Davers was also discussing the food issue with Bachilipi, Kapuz, Marigi, and Mersis.

"Your Majesty, the grain in the Turiyi granary has been being delivered to the troops in the south for some time, and it is almost empty now. The Cosenza Granary, I estimate that it still has half of the stock, but its transshipment is somewhat difficult, and the assault on Laos is about to begin, and the supply of food will need to be supplied from the Cosenza Granary. I don't know much about the current state of the Grummentum granary...... "Bajilipi, the agricultural officer, told Davers about the current state of Dionia's grain.

"I know the situation of the Grummentum granary, the previous war with Samonai ended relatively quickly, and there were some captures, so there was not much consumption. However, Grummentum's grain production was already low, and the reserves were not very good, but the quantity of livestock was huge and the price was low, which could barely support the Third Army's counterattack on the Samonai region. Therefore, it is unlikely that the Lucania region will squeeze out grain to supply the Turiyi, and transportation is also a big problem, so we should not fight the idea of the Grummentum granary. Davers gave a briefing on what he had learned about his army through Grummentum.

"Your Majesty, it seems that if we want to organize a campaign of more than 50,000 people against the Syracudan people, food is an urgent problem for us!" Kapos said worriedly that during this time he took over the affairs of the quartermaster in place of Shiros, and he also had a detailed understanding of this: "Three days ago, Aspraustum and Crimesa sent back news that their food was a little tight. In the past few days, fearing harassment by the Syracuse fleet, the baggage brigade has been busy increasing its escort to avoid being attacked by enemy sailors, so it has not yet been transported grain on a large scale to the two cities where the legions are stationed, and it is not known what their current situation is.

Moreover, now there are three legions of the first, second, and seventh, as well as the baggage convoy, and the 6,000 men newly gathered by Your Majesty, which is nearly 32,000 men, and the daily consumption of grain is a huge number, and if the food problem cannot be solved, even these troops of Turiyi will have to be disbanded in a few days because of the lack of food. ”

"Don't forget, there are also the captives of Syracuse and Tarantum, I'm afraid there are about 25,000 people!" Merses reminded everyone loudly: "Even if only a little food is given to them every day to maintain their basic survival, it is not a small food consumption, and I think it is better to treat them all as slaves and sell them for money." ”

Davers looked at Mersis with a look of impatient greed, he did not feel disgusted, because of the consumption of the war, the shutdown of the port market, the money in the treasury was only out and not in, and it was already bottomed out, so he could fully understand Myers's eagerness.

It's just that he shook his head and said: "Tarantum's captives can't be sold, that's the most important tool for us to control Tarantum, by them, Tarantum will obediently and continuously send food, plus yesterday's capture in Heraclia, I think it can at least alleviate the shortage of food in Turiyi." As for the sailors of Syracuse...... Mariji, now that the blockade of our port by the Syracuse has been broken, and I believe that trade will slowly resume, will these Syracuse sailor captives be sold? "In his previous life, Davers, who was a modern man, had always hated the slave trade, but for the sake of Dionia's survival, he couldn't care much more.

After Davos finished speaking, Mersis also looked at Marigi eagerly, contrary to his previous attitude of hating Marigi.

Marigi nodded to Davers, and then said slowly: "Your Majesty, although we have defeated the Syracuse people at sea, we have not completely swept away their power at sea, and our most important trade route, the Strait of Messina, is still controlled by the Syracuse navy.

The situation is better in the eastern Mediterranean. Tarantum's fleet has been completely annihilated, and Sparta's combined fleet, an ally of Syracuse, is now suppressed by our friendly Athenian fleet, so if the blockade of the Strait of Messina is not broken quickly, we will only have to resume sea trade to the east of the Mediterranean for some time to come, but the trade to the east will not occupy a major position in our Dionian market. ”

The commercial officer, Mariji, did not speak first of the slave problem, but gave a brief estimate of the situation in the port market.

Davos then said: "I understand what you mean, I will urge Secrean to lead the fleet to seize control of the Strait of Messina as soon as possible!" But with the arrival of merchant ships, can our ports be guaranteed to operate normally? ”

Davos got to the point, not just the arrival of merchant ships during the war, but the operation of the entire port required a lot of managers, a large number of porters and sailors, and a patrol to maintain law and order...... And so on, the more prosperous the port, the more manpower is needed. And now that Dionya has been in charge of the war, a large number of young and middle-aged laborers have been recruited, not only full citizens, reserve citizens, freemen, and even unregistered freemen have also been recruited, and the once bustling port and market are now very depressed, and more women, the elderly, and even children are busy in the market stalls, and their lack of labor can be seen.

Marigi, of course, knows that there is an abundance of labour – and this is also an important issue. In this regard, he had no better way, so he could only reluctantly say: "Your Majesty, I will find a way to solve this problem...... As for the large number of Syracuse captives, it is indeed rare to find a city-state that can afford it in the short term, and is not afraid of Syracuse, and dares to take over...... Well, I have a goal. Marigi said in an aggravated tone: "We can try Carthage, and even exchange these slaves for Carthaginian grain." ”

As soon as the words fell, Merses began to mutter: "Carthage, they have been frightened by the Syracuses, and they refused to ally with us before, and I don't think they will agree to buy these captives." ”

Marigi ignored him, waiting for Davers' reply.

Carthage! After Marigi's reminder, Davers's eyes lit up: before the war, Carthage was against an alliance with Dionia. But the war has continued until now, whether the Carthaginians will maintain their previous attitude, but it is not necessarily, after all, Syracuse and Carthage have always been mortal enemies, although this period of peace has been maintained, it does not mean that the Carthaginians will watch Syracuse continue to expand their power in Greater Greece, and even turn Greater Greece into Syracuse's backyard. Because then the more powerful Syracuse would only be a greater threat to Carthage's sphere of influence in Sicily.

Thinking of this, Davers made up his mind, and he said: "It seems that we need to send another envoy to Carthage at once to find out the attitude of the Carthaginians towards this war, and if they are willing to buy this batch of slaves, we can make some further demands on Carthage, such as the grain trade." I don't know how long this war will last as much as the survival of our Dionya and the rise and fall of Syracuse, so the food in Tarantum alone is not enough to ensure that the Dionian army is being formed with sufficient food! And Carthage, known for its abundance of grain, is not far from Dionia, and can meet our war needs, otherwise where else can we go to buy food? Yuke Xinghai? Or Egypt? These places are too far away from us to be protected in time, and accidents are prone to happen......"

"Your Majesty, there is still Cyrenaica to consider." Marigi added.

Cyrenaica? Davos was stunned, he really did not think of this Greek city-state located in Africa, adjacent to Carthage and Egypt, and Dionya had never had contact with it before, but it is said that Cyrenaica had good relations with Sparta (because it was a sub-state of Sparta, but it had always remained neutral among the Greek city-states, and it was a city-state dominated by agriculture and animal husbandry, and Silphion grass was only one of its characteristic commodities, in addition to horses, cattle and sheep, wheat and flax.