This great news made Alexis completely free of worries.

At this time, the Campanian League to the north sent an emissary.

In such a big war between Samonai and Portentia and Dionia, the city-state of Campania, which was Samonai's enemy, had been silently watching until the victory was divided and the Dionian army had approached Campania, and they finally sent an emissary.

The city-state from which the envoy came was just over 40 miles away from Enona on the small Sorrento Peninsula, next to Mount Vesuvius, which was Pompeii.

This messenger came to find out if the Dioonians had any intention of threatening Campania.

Alexis did not hesitate to tell him that the Dioonians were only fighting back against the invasion of the Samonians, and that they had a desire for friendly relations with the Greek city-states of Campania, and had no malicious intent to invade them.

The Pompeii envoy returned happily, taking with him a small request from Alexis: to exchange Samonai's spoils for grain.

………………………………

Micarelsus was a citizen of Syracuse, a native of Syracuse who had lived here for generations, and he owned ten acres of land, two fishing boats, and had his own shop in the city's market, which was used to sell fish, and if it were not for the high war taxes that Dionysius had levied every year in recent years, his family would have been quite wealthy.

When the news of the victory of the great army of Syracuse in Greater Greece came again and again, and was announced in the Apollo Square, the populace cheered with mixed feelings, and he always felt a little regretful that when he had mobilized the citizens to go on the march in the square, the lady luck had not favored him, he had not been picked, and he had lost the good opportunity to plunder the spoils of war in Great Greece in order to improve the situation of his life in recent years. In his opinion, no hostile force would be vulnerable to an attack by such a large force in Syracuse.

But things have changed these days. After the bad news that "the Syracuse Navy had suffered two heavy defeats and almost all the warships were lost," a jar of cold water was poured on the excited people of Syracuse.

The Ionian fleet, which had never been heard of, actually defeated the Ionian navy that was rampaging across the Ionian Sea?! The people of Syracuse could not believe their ears, and they scolded the commander of the navy, Reptines, angrily believing that it was his stupid command that led to the fiasco! After the defeat in the naval battle with the Carthaginians, this defeated general should have been replaced!

As a result, some people shifted the blame for the defeat to Dionysius, believing that it was Dionysius' cronyism that kept his mediocre brother from being replaced!

Compared with the indignation of the people in the city, the port is a different scene. You must know that more than 400 warships require a huge number of 80,000 or 90,000 sailors, more than half of these sailors come from the allies of Sicily, and a smaller half from the poor and freedmen of Syracuse.

When the bad news came, it affected almost every household in the port and the bay, and out of fear for the safety of their loved ones, these poor people wept and resented Dionysius who oppressed them. In the past few months, some discontent against Dionysius has been circulating in the port and in the city, such as: "The reason why we are so poor is because those outsiders have taken away the land that should belong to us and occupied the office of the city-state that should belong to us!" ”

"No matter how much drachmas we earn, we can't keep up with the speed at which Dionysius collects taxes!"

"Dionysius likes mercenaries more than citizens of Syracuse, he should not be the general plenipotentiary of Syracuse, he is more suitable to be the leader of mercenaries!"

……

But in the past few days, a new rumor has quickly spread in the port: "The people of Dionica only hate the tyrannical Dionysius, and as long as his dictatorship is overthrown, Syracuse and Dionya will reach a peace agreement, and the 14,000 Syracuse sailors imprisoned in Dionica will return home safely!" ……”

This rumor was so eloquent that many of the porters believed it, and it soon spread throughout the bay, and it was said to have spread to the neighboring city-states.

When Micarelsus heard this rumor, he was shocked: this is an open demand for the overthrow of Dionysius! I'm afraid it's the Dionians who are playing tricks on it!

Even he could see that the intelligence department in charge of Hiparinus would not be indifferent, not only increasing patrols in the port, but also sending many spies to roam the entire Gulf region to interrogate the people...... This further exacerbated the resentment and anger of the port populace towards the upper echelons of the city-state, and they looked at the patrolling soldiers with undisguised anger that made them terrified, and they always patrolled in groups of more than 20 people, not daring to wander alone lest they attract death.

The quiet antagonism of the port people towards the city-state gradually began to appear, most notably the efficiency of the port laborers was decreasing, the unloading of merchant ships was slowing down, and the cargo piled up at the docks and took a long time to be moved to the warehouse, resulting in the accumulation of goods and almost clogging the docks, and the merchants did not dare to get angry, because it was likely to anger the poor people who worked with resentment, leading to a conflict, and in the end it was they who suffered.

Of course, Mikalesus did not have to worry about this, he had been going between the port and the market for many years, he was a humble man, and he had a good relationship with the fishermen of the port.

His fishing boat, which was left to the hands of the fishermen he hired, went out early in the morning to catch fish, and by the time he drove to the dock in the morning, the boat had already returned to the fishing dock.

The fishing wharf was built in the outermost and most remote part of the port, which was for the cleanliness and hygiene of the port, because the wharf was so foul that flies, mosquitoes, and insects often gathered on those dead fish and shrimp.

Of course, Micarelsus did not feel this disgusting, but walked on the dock and looked at the baskets of fresh fish unloaded on both sides of the road, and he felt a sense of satisfaction.

"Tesitis, how's your harvest today?!" He waved at his moored fishing boat from afar.

Ctesitis was an experienced old fisherman, who not only operated the boat, was skilled in fishing, but also good at judging the presence of fish, and Mikalesus paid nearly twice as much to hire him.

At this moment, Tessitis sat in the bow of the boat, enjoying the gentle rays of the sun, and said in a calm tone: "It's just spring, the sea is still cold, the fish don't come out much, and Poseidon doesn't bless him, how can there be a good catch!" ”

Micarelsus looked down at the two baskets of fish on the shore: one basket was half-filled with mackerel and cod, and the other basket was full of shrimp and squid.

Mikalesus was already satisfied with this harvest, of course, he knew that Tessitis had relatively high requirements for himself, so Mikalesus jokingly said: "While there is still time and the weather is warm, how many nets will you go to sea again?" ”

Tessitis poked the mud stains on his fingers and reminded him, "I'll have no problem going to sea again, but will you sell them all in time?" Waste is punishable by Poseidon! ”

In this era, because there were no refrigerators, freshly caught fish had to be sold on the same day, otherwise they would be thrown away the next day because they were rotting. Although the Greeks preferred to live on the seashore, their staple food was still cereals, and marine fish was only a supplementary food. In recent years, the tax burden in Syracuse has increased, and the purchasing power of ordinary citizens has declined, which naturally has also affected the sale of sea fish, not to mention casting a few nets, and it is a question of whether these two baskets of fish can be sold before the market closes in the evening, and then the surplus may only be taken home, boiled fish porridge for slaves to eat, or fed to pigs and dogs.

Micarelsus sighed, did not speak, and turned back to direct the slaves to carry the baskets onto the carriage.

At this time, another fisherman on the fishing boat shouted: "Hey, Micarelsus, have you heard, the army of Dionysius has been defeated by the Dionians!" ”

"How is this possible?! Where did you get the news?! Mikalesus looked shocked and couldn't believe it.

"How impossible! Our navy can be defeated by the Dionians, and of course our army can be defeated by them! Far from grieving the defeat of the city-state, the fisherman had a strange expression of schadenfreude on his face: "Now the whole port has been spread through, and some merchants from Great Greece have confirmed the news. It is said that in this battle, we in Syracuse were defeated very badly, and this time it was the turn of the people in the city to cry! ”

"Whether it's the people in the city crying or the people in the port crying, the defeat of Syracuse is not a good thing for us." Tessitis said lightly.

"We have been defeated, and it is time for Dionysius to stop the war and make peace with the Great Greeks." The fisherman said expectantly: "If there is no war, there will be no war tax!" ”

"I'm afraid that Dionysius will continue this war! Not only will it increase the tax burden, but it will also ...... Like you, like me, you might even be drafted as a sailor. There's finally a hint of worry on Tessitis' face.

"I will not die for Dionysius! It's time for this war to be stopped! The fisherman shouted.

Micarelsus didn't have the heart to listen to what they had to say, he walked back with heavy steps, and there was no joy in his heart that he had escaped the catastrophe because he had not participated in the expedition, and the news of the "defeat of the army of Syracuse in Great Greece" weighed heavily on his heart, reminding him of the great turmoil that had been set off in the city of Syracuse when the Carthaginian army came down a few years ago......

Luckily, this time it's in Greater Greece! …… But he thought about it, if these tens of thousands of soldiers were trapped in Great Greece and could not return, the anger of the people would probably be difficult to calm down by the officials appointed by Dionysius!