Xenophon did not approve of Agesilaus's protection of the foolish general who was selfish and tried to plunder Athens, but this was Agesilaus, a king who valued friendship very much, so he had to comfort him again: "Now that the allies led by Cleombrotus (another Spartan king) have been fighting in Central Greece for several months, and have not been able to make great progress, it will not be good for Sparta if the war continues to be deadlocked. Some of the city-states that were already dissatisfied with Sparta may join the alliance of Athenian Thebes one after another, and strengthen the power against Sparta, and then the Spartans may think of you again. ”

Agosilaus did not respond to Xenophon's words, on the one hand, he did not want to see Sparta in such a predicament, and on the other hand, he did not want to judge the performance of another Spartan king in Central Greece, so as to appear narrow-minded, so he changed the subject, half-joking, half-serious: "Xenophon, you are an Athenian, do you want Athens to be defeated?" ”

Xenophon said seriously: "I do not want Athens to be defeated, nor do I want Sparta to be defeated, Athens and Sparta have their own strengths, complement each other, and should not be enemies, if the two city-states are united, then the whole of Greece can be united, and we can compete with other powerful powers in the Mediterranean." ”

“…… Very good idea. Agosilaus looked at Xenophon and finally spoke.

After sending Xenophon away, he returned to the house and saw the book on the table, and Agosilaus was stunned for a moment, and he did not tell Xenophon the truth about "Sparta's support of the fugitives against Apulia", because he did not object to it at the Council of Elders.

"More than 500 warships, 100,000 troops! ......" Agosilaus muttered in a low voice, still with a bit of horror in his tone, when he first heard about the troops that had been invested in the war between the Kingdom of Dioonia (and the Carthaginian side was also the same), this really frightened him, he seriously estimated that even if the city-states of the Peloponnese, Central Greece, and Northern Greece were united, they would probably be able to barely make up this huge number, but Dioonia was able to do it relatively easily, which made him feel afraid, Because he knew very well in his heart: although Sparta and the Kingdom of Dioonia were still allies, but because the two sides were too close and both were ambitious, there would inevitably be a war one day due to a conflict of interests, so he hoped that Carthage would win this war, although it was a foreign race, but Persia was also a foreign race, and now it is not also a good cooperation? After all, the current situation in the Western Mediterranean is different from that of the time when Dionysius dominated Sicily.

Thinking of this, Agosilaus felt the urgency of time again: but as Xenophon said, Cleombrotus led his army to fight in Central Greece for so long, and there has been no major progress so far, and it is very detrimental to Sparta to continue like this, should he take some action?!

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The plundering of the Spartan generals and the subsequent acquittal led Athens to war against Sparta and an alliance with Thebes, which soon included Caius, Byzantium, Rhodes, and Eupia...... The city-states joined the new alliance, which was then named the Second Athenian League (after all, the alliance was mainly established by Athens, and most of the city-states that joined the alliance were the city-states that had allied with Athens over the years), in order to distinguish it from the Delian League established by Athens during the Peloponnesian War, which declared that the purpose of the alliance was to protect the independence of the Greek states against the oppression of Sparta.

In order to rally and recruit more soldiers to fight against Sparta, the Athenian citizens' assembly also passed a resolution to reinstate the collection of property taxes, and the Athenian government reformed the collection methods in order to collect taxes more quickly and easily.

The new Theban government, on the other hand, concentrated all its efforts on military affairs, relying on strong city defenses to withstand the first wave of Spartan attacks.

With the advent of autumn, the Spartan soldiers returned to their respective city-states to prepare for the autumn harvest, and the Spartan king Cleombrotus had less than 3,000 Spartan warriors left, and he was unwilling to lose the precious Spartan warriors in the siege battle, so he temporarily led the army to retreat to Plata.

The government of Thebes seized this precious time of truce and mobilized the people of the city to dig trenches and build barriers around the city of Thebes...... Take all measures that can strengthen the city's defenses to defend against the next Spartan attack. At the same time, they actively united with the neighboring city-states of Piosia, which had become independent, and took the initiative to help them strengthen their defenses in order to keep Sparta out of Thebes.

At the same time, the Spartan government also gathered the citizens of the city to conduct military training every day, and its head was Epaminonda, who won the recognition and respect of the whole city for his outstanding performance in the previous battles, and everyone actively participated in the training plan he formulated, and no one questioned this plan.

And Epaminonda was not satisfied with just holding the city of Thebes, he realized that only by defeating the Spartans in the battle could it be possible to completely remove the Spartan threat to Thebes, and only then could Thebes usher in a real rise. Therefore, while he was busy training the citizens, he also made a new proposal to Pelopidas and them, that is, to establish an elite company of heavy infantry, so that it could compete with the king's guard of Sparta, which was famous in Greece, and even suggested that the unit should be composed of homosexual couples, according to the characteristics of the citizens of Thebes, who should be composed of homosexual couples, and he believed that it was because of the intimate relationship between these couples that they could motivate each other, assist each other, and go to life and death together in battle.

Although homosexuality was admired in Greece itself, an army formed exclusively by homosexuals had never appeared in the previous Greek states, and if this proposal appeared in other Greek city-states or even Athens, many people might be questioned, but the emerging Theban government was composed of radicals led by Pelopidas, who were young, vibrant, passionate, adventurous, and innovative, so they realized that Ipaminonda's plan would help greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the Theban citizen soldiers. It was passed immediately, and it was executed immediately.

Pelopidas and Ipaminonda personally selected from among the citizens of the city, and soon formed a 300-strong company of heavy infantry (150 couples), all of whom were about 20 years old, born into the Theban nobility, and who had been trained for a long time in a wrestling school, and were all tall and strong, and agile.

Ipaminonda began to train them more rigorously in heavy infantry.

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In Sicily, the Carthaginian army officially began its assault on the Dionian territory.

Hasdruba led 30,000 soldiers from Jera straight north and began to attack Hena.

At the same time, Marco led more than 50,000 soldiers from the territory of Camanlina into the territory of Syracuse, and set up camp in the northwestern part of his territory, targeting Palagonia, not far from the camp.

Syracuse also gathered more than 10,000 soldiers, led by General Falekus, and marched through the Ixa Gate to attack the Taois, which was not far to the north.

The southern border of the Dionya Sicilian territory was attacked by three armies, but the cities of Dionia Sicily and their allies, which had been prepared for a long time, did not panic, and they defended in an orderly manner according to the prior deployment.

After Hasdruba and his army had made a trek to Hena, he had some difficulties, because the city of Henna was not only built on a hill, but it was also flanked by two large lakes on the north and south sides, which made it difficult for the Carthaginian army to surround it, and the army could not be fully deployed during the attack, and the advantage of being large was not fully exploited.

Moreover, at the beginning of the war, the governor of Hena, Creru, at the suggestion of Leotizides, mobilized the people and used the two lakes to dig a wide moat under the hills, which set up an obstacle for the Carthaginian siege engines to approach the city.

Together with the fact that Leotizides sent 3,000 soldiers of the Eighth Legion to Hena, plus the citizen soldiers in the city of Hena, the number of troops in the city totaled more than 5,000.

After several days of careful preparation, Hasdruba began to attack the city with all his might, but after a day of fierce fighting, he did not even take the head of the city, and the attack also suffered a failure in the following days, because of the many casualties among the soldiers, Hasdruba had to stop the attack and recuperate.

Margo's army also struggled, and for months the Dionian soldiers who remained in Palagonia had been building defenses with the help of the Catanese populace, setting traps outside the village, building watchtowers outside the traps, digging trenches outside the watchtowers, and trapping them outside the trenches...... This ring stretches for several miles to the south, holding the only flat stretch between the mountains on the south coast that leads to the Catania plain.

In order to open this road, Margo's army was tormented by traps and harassed by watchtower archers, and it took several days to clear less than 1/3 of the barricades, but the morale of the soldiers was low.

After two days of rest, Margo finally decided to change the line of attack and crossed the mountains to Leotini.

On the eastern coast, Syracuse's army had already reached the city of Tounis, but it took them five days to build the camp alone, and after the failure of the first siege, they remained in the camp without any movement.

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After being breached and occupied by the Romans last year, the unfortunate town of Wolsey was once again under fire this year, besieged by the Dionian army for nearly two months, and the families of Roman citizens were shouting at the city every day under the watchful eye of the Dionian army.