"Tell me quickly, let's hear how much appetite Crotone has, and wants to take advantage of our Dionia!" Amintas, Scombras and some other elders began to shout, and the feelings of guilt that had been a little felt just now suddenly became the same hatred.

Lycias glanced at Davers: This young man should not be underestimated!

He cleared his throat and said loudly with a normal expression: "The Crotone Alliance and Crimesa demand that Dionya compensate Crimesa for five hundred Talientes in order to compensate Crimesa for the great losses it has suffered in this battle—"

"What! Five hundred Talient!! You're crazy about money!! Mersis shouted.

Lycias ignored it, looked around at everyone, and continued: "Secondly, in order to prevent the aggressive Dionya from encroaching on the neighboring city-states again, we demand that Dionya dissolve the alliance, allow Amendolara and Niutum to become independent, and abolish the alliance!" ”

"What?! Did I hear me wrong?! What right does Crotone have to dictate to us! ”

"We will never agree, this is a humiliation to Dionia!"

"Get out! Dare to go to the Dionian Senate and say such things, are you crazy! ”

"A fool would agree to such a request! And only a fool would make such a request! ”

……

The meeting room exploded, and the elders scolded one after another, and the grumpy ones such as Amintas and Scombras even wanted to go up and beat Lucias, but were stopped by Kunograta, Cornerus and others, and became a mess.

Lucias and Antaoris looked at all this indifferently like outsiders, as if they were not the cause of this mess, until Davers stepped forward and said, "Do you hear that? That's our answer! ”

He said aloud, word by word: "No-answer-yes!" ”

"That means war, because you broke the agreement first." Lucias said solemnly.

"Then war, isn't that what you're really here for?" Davers had seen through their approach, and he didn't bother to argue with him anymore, and he wanted to add to the crime.

His understatement attitude made Lucias not see the expected reaction, as if he had punched an empty fist, and subconsciously said: "War! I'm talking about the war between Crotone and Dionia! ”

Davers smiled slightly, turned around and said, "Are we afraid of a war with Crotone?" ”

"Great! It's finally time to fight again! ”

"I can't wait to beat Crotone!"

"If we defeat Crotone once, we can defeat it a second time! This time we're going to burn down the city of Crotone! ”

……

Facing the high-spirited veterans, the unexpected Lucias felt a little uneasy.

"Kunogorata, please take note of Klotone's request just now, and it will be useful in the next negotiation." Daves said suddenly.

"Next negotiation?" Lycias wondered.

"Yes, when the war is over!"

Lycias's heart sank, and he saw the fighting spirit burning in Davers's eyes......

……………………

After sending off the envoys, the atmosphere at the venue was still warm, and compared with the former mercenary veterans with high fighting spirits, the veterans of Amendolara and Turriyi expressed more worries about the imminent outbreak of war.

Kunogorata's words are typical: "Your Excellency, are we sure that we will go to war with Crotone?" Crotone has been a great power in Greater Greece for decades, and has a powerful alliance that can raise an army of thirty or forty thousand! And it has twenty-five three-sculled ships, and we don't even have one, so if the war starts, Crotone can easily blockade our port. This time, I'm afraid it won't make the mistake of underestimating the enemy's negligence again......"

Davos listened attentively, looking around at the people in front of him, and he could feel their fear of Crotone, especially the Turiyi, the power that Crotone's three destruction of the city had accumulated in their hearts. He thought for a moment, and just as he was about to answer, a voice suddenly interjected: "I said a long time ago that I would drive away those damn mercenaries, and you didn't listen, and now it's Crotone's revenge!" We should hold some people accountable for their indulgence in the first place! "It was Polyxis who spoke.

Agacia glared at him.

"Am I wrong?" Not to be outdone, Polyxis glared back.

"Now that the war has broken out, there is no point in arguing about it. All of us should unite and get through this together, and we must not create divisions and weaken our strength! Bulkos persuaded his friend.

"It is precisely because of this incident that it led to the war that we must find out the problem so that similar things do not happen in the future!" Polyxis stubbornly retorted.

At this time, Antonios stood up and said: "As the procurator, many people have recently reported to me that when rebuilding the city of Turiyi, Burcos, Plesinas and other senators often went to the people's homes to express their apologies, but some people, as the main assistants of Neoses, had a considerable responsibility for the burning of Turiy, but they swaggered in and out of the Senate every day, and did not have the slightest remorse for the people of Turiyi, and asked us to conduct a thorough investigation to prevent similar things from happening again......"

Polyxis's face changed dramatically.

But Davers asked, "Polyxis, do you think you should get this into the question?" ”

"I ...... I ......" Polyxis trembled slightly under Davers' sharp gaze.

"Antonios, as Burcos said, we should now unite in this life-and-death war, and leave everything else on hold." Davers's calm voice penetrated into Polyxis's ears, and as if he had been pardoned, he suddenly relaxed, and lay limply on the stone bench.

Antonios glanced at Polyxis with disdain, turned back and said, "Yes, Lord Archon. ”

Davers said with a relaxed expression: "I'm sorry, I was interrupted just now, I want to say, my lords, you are all busy with your own affairs during this time, and I am afraid that you don't know much about the military strength that the alliance has now. Scombras, do you think the number of citizen soldiers in our alliance is still more than five thousand? ”

The stubborn old man of Scombras touched his beard and smiled: "Definitely more than that!" Now there are more than 6,000 citizens in the city of Amendolara alone, and I don't know much about the rest, but there are certainly a lot. ”

"Let's let the military officer Philippius tell us exactly how many citizen soldiers there are." After Davos finished speaking, Phellisius stood up: "My lords, the number I am announcing below is the number of people who participated in military training and were incorporated into the army, and this number is lower than the total number of people counted in the household registration of Lord Rafias, because citizens over the age of forty-five and citizens in some special professions under the key protection of the city-state, such as doctors, engineers, scholars, etc., have not been added to the military training system of citizen soldiers. ”

The senators nodded, all turning their attention to Phellisius.

"There are about 5,500 citizens of Amendolara who have participated in military training for more than three months, about 4,300 in Niutum and 14,800 in Turiyi." Seeing the exuded expressions of the patriarchs, Phellisius continued to explain in detail: "Among them, there are seven thousand official citizens, and the rest are all reserve citizens. At the end of last December, the Archon ordered me to carry out a preliminary reorganization of them, which were organized into three legions.

The First Legion, composed mainly of Amendolara veterans and reserve citizens, was the most combat-ready unit, and its commander was the Kaps.

The Second Legion consisted mainly of citizens and reserve citizens of Turiyi, with the regimental commander Drax.

The Third Legion consisted mainly of citizens and reserve citizens of Niutum, with the commander of the regiment being Hieronymus and the first brigade being Bagul.

The number of regular combat soldiers in each corps is now 7,000, and the total number of the three corps is 21,000. In addition, there was a reserve of 3,600 men, making a total of about 24,600 men. In addition, there was a cavalry corps of three hundred men, led by Ryders......"

"Phellisius doesn't mention the registered freedmen, in fact we can organize one to twenty thousand trained freedmen to fight as light infantry. In addition, Laos can provide us with reinforcements of two thousand to three thousand, and Castron can provide not many troops, but at least fifty cavalry ......" Davers looked at the crowd and said in an impassioned voice: "If the whole army is pressed, we can shoot at least nearly fifty thousand troops!" Considering that the ports of Niutum and Turiyi need to be guarded, the actual number of troops sent is definitely far less than this number, but it is not too different from the strength of Crotone! Ladies and gentlemen, rest assured that since the inception of the Alliance, there will be no more with less, and we will be able to compete with Crotone on land! Davers's words lifted the spirits of the senators, and Amintas shouted confidently: "In the past, when there were few people, we were not afraid of Crotone, and now Crotone is not our opponent!" ”

"As for the sea." Davers looked at Kunogorata and said, "We really can't do anything with Crotone, but what can Crotone's fleet do other than blockade our port. If it dares to enter the mouth of the Corati River, we will annihilate it all! And our cavalry will keep an eye on the beach from Amendolara to Castelón to prevent the Crotone from landing quietly. I believe that the people of Crotone would not have done such a risky thing if they were in their right minds. Dionia and Crotone are so close that the only way to decide victory is to fight on land! ”