In the marathon, nearly half of the runners failed to finish the race, and even many runners fell unconscious in the middle of the marathon and were sent to the hospital for emergency rescue, which made the audience sigh.

In the evening, the celebratory banquet at the Dionian Palace was the final arrangement of the Games, and in keeping with the tradition of the Greek Games, but Dioonia made it extraordinarily grand, inviting not only the champions of all the games, but also the important envoys of all the friendly city-states who participated in the Games.

King Davers personally presided over the banquet, and the atmosphere was very warm.

At the banquet, he clinked glasses with Calaristratus, Iphiclateus, Ipamironda, Agosilaus, and others. Now, with his high authority over the entire Greek world, he treats these historical figures of his past life as if he were any other person, that is, he does not have much curiosity or talk to them too much, so as not to cause misunderstanding among the envoys of other city-states, which frustrates Agosilaus's desire to make some requests to King Davers, whom he has finally met.

Towards the end of the feast, Davers announced two things: first, in view of the success of this Games, the Holy Kingdom of Dionya will henceforth hold a Games every four years in the summer, and will do its best to make it the greatest celebration in the whole Mediterranean world; Secondly, tomorrow the Greek Parliament will convene an important enlarged meeting, to which not only the envoys of the Greek city-states participating in the Games, but also the envoys of other allied countries, will be invited to discuss important matters with them.

Big Things?! …… The envoys returned to the hotel where they were staying with all kinds of speculations, and some of them did not even sleep well all night.

On the second day of the Greek Union meeting, Davers was also present in person and presided over the meeting.

In front of the assembled envoys and councillors of the city-states, he solemnly proposed to "declare war on Persia and form a coalition to attack Asia Minor", which really surprised all the participants.

In fact, King Davos was not the first person to make this suggestion in front of the emissaries of the Greek city-states, as early as ten years ago, the Athenian orator Isocrates repeatedly declared at the Greek Games and other public occasions that "the Greek city-states should stop all conflicts and internal strife, unite to defend against the threat of Dionya in the west, and bravely attack the sworn enemy Persia in the east, so as to completely eliminate the culprit that caused the civil strife in Greece itself, and obtain enough land for the Greeks to support a larger population......"

Although Isocrates' speech was ridiculed by the top brass of the Greek city-states, it had a certain impact on the Greek people. After the Greek War, the initiator was rumored in Athens that "without the continued incitement of Isocrates, Athens would not have joined the anti-Dionian coalition, which led to the current predicament...... So a few years earlier he had been expelled by the citizens with pottery shards and went into exile in Asia Minor.

Now, immediately after King Davers made this suggestion, he announced that the Holy Kingdom of Dionya would send more than 100,000 troops to attack Persia, whether the Greek Council agreed or not!

This gave the messengers a great shock.

At the same time, Davers suggested that if the allies sent troops to form an alliance, after each victory in the battle, Dionyas would divide the spoils equally with them, and after the victory over Persia, a part of the conquered Persian territories would be divided as overseas possessions of the allies in Asia Minor, according to the contribution of the allies in the whole war......

As we all know, Persia is a rich kingdom, and the king of Persia is even richer in the world, and it is of course a good thing for the Greek city-states with small and poor land and financial difficulties to be able to earn wealth from Persia and nourish themselves.

For the Greek powerhouses such as Athens and Thebes, Dionia's control of the Greek alliance made them have no room to expand their power, and if they could defeat Persia and obtain the territory of Asia Minor, it gave them another way to develop their national power...... So most of the Dionian allies were impressed by Davers's proposal, not to mention that Dionya had some unwavering supporters in the Greek parliament, such as Messenia, Arcadia, Zakynsus...... So the resolution to "declare war on Persia" was finally passed.

The next step was to discuss the formation of the Greek coalition and the development of a plan for an attack on Persia.

A few days later, news of Dionya's declaration of war on Persia spread throughout the kingdom, and the enthusiasm of the populace that had not yet fully faded was rekindled by the success of the Games.

While the people were discussing this important event of the kingdom in the streets of the towns, Davos summoned Leotichides in the palace office.

"Have you watched all of this sports meeting?"

"I watched a lot of the games at the same time, so I only watched some of them." Courier

"What do you think?"

"Although the Greek city-states have achieved some good results in traditional athletic sports, the first and second and third places in almost all competitions closely related to military affairs have been won by athletes from our kingdom, which shows that the military qualities of the citizens of Dioonia are far superior to those of other allies."

"You! You! Davers smiled dumbly: "Three sentences are not far from the military." ”

"Your Majesty, you didn't just want to chat with me this time, did you?" Leoticides asked calmly.

"I can hear that there is resentment in your words, it can't be that I am still dissatisfied with my transfer from the First Legion to the Turry Barracks and as the chief instructor of the reserve corps commanders, right?" Davers said half-jokingly, half-seriously.

Leoticides was silent.

The year before, Davers issued a new directive to the Ministry of War: the establishment of the post of commander above the corps commander, as the highest rank of front-line officers, the commander of the corps who has commanded several legions or combined forces and won many victories can be promoted to this post after passing the examination of the Ministry of War, it is not only a great increase in the salary and position of the officers of the Kingdom of Dionia, but also has the honor of entering the Senate directly without selection, and in the event of war, the kingdom can directly appoint these commanders as commanders of the army.

This was a great incentive for all the officers of the kingdom, but Davers knew that the transfer of those generals with outstanding military achievements and high prestige from the army in peacetime to some idle posts would definitely make generals like Leoticides, who did not care much about their positions and devoted themselves to the army, dissatisfied, but in order to maintain the stability of the royal family and the kingdom in the future, he must do his best to improve the system of the kingdom's army while he was still in power, and reduce the burden on Crotokatuques and his descendants.

Of course, Davers would not say these secret thoughts at this time, but only coughed lightly, and then said in a gentle tone: "Have you heard the news that the kingdom has officially declared war on Persia?" ”

"I already know, Your Majesty is probably coming to me this time because it has something to do with it." Leoticides said with a flat expression.

Davers said slowly: "After discussing with the Ministry of Military Affairs, I think you are the best candidate for the commander of this coalition army that is about to be formed, but I don't know what your wishes are?" ”

Leotichidesmune's face suddenly changed, and he immediately said: "Your Majesty, I am willing to take on this heavy responsibility!" ”

A smile flashed across the corner of Davers's mouth, and he picked up a booklet on the table and said, "In that case, you are the candidate for the commander of the Greek coalition forces!" These are some of the matters that have been tentatively decided at the meetings of the Greek Union in the past few days, so you can take a look at them first. ”

Leoticides immediately took it, looked through it carefully, and suddenly his face changed slightly, and asked: "Your Majesty, why is there a separate article behind the article that Sparta sent 3,500 troops and 40 tons of wheat...... Agosilaus sent 500 Spartan warriors?! ”

Davers looked at him and said meaningfully: "That's what Agosilaus added after negotiating with me alone, Agosilaus will personally lead all the Spartan warriors in the land of Laconia to participate in this military campaign, and he hopes that after the complete defeat of Persia, the kingdom will be able to give the real Spartans a separate good territory in western Asia Minor......"

"Agosilaus wants to get all the Spartans to move out of Laconia and colonize Asia Minor?!" Leoticides, who was always calm, showed some surprise.

"Yes." Davers nodded and said softly: "After the formation of a new government in Laconia, the political situation was relatively stable at first, but when the original black laborers gradually got used to the new citizenship and eliminated their fear of the Spartans, their hatred for Sparta also increased day by day...... Hey, that's what I didn't think about very well! After all, there are countless black laborers who have been persecuted by the Spartans for so many years and died at their hands, and this hatred cannot be easily eliminated!

Although the Helots did not dare to clash openly due to the rules of the kingdom, they could suppress the Spartans through citizens' assemblies or other political means, after all, their citizens accounted for more than half of the citizens in Lagna, and the Piriasians also had a grudge against the Spartans, so for more than a year, the Spartans had a hard time, and colonizing Asia Minor might be a better choice for them......"

In the past few years, Leoticides deliberately blocked the news from Sparta, and did not know that the life of the Spartan people was embarrassing, after listening to Davers's words, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty, but at the same time, he was also very sad: After all, Laconia is the homeland where the Spartans have lived for hundreds of years, so they left? ……

After a few moments, he refocused on the roster and asked his question: "The Spartan warriors are very strong in combat, and I have no problem with them sending troops alone, but why let Agosilaus lead the troops?" He's almost 80 years old, can he fight? ”