"By the way, what has happened to the Macedonian regent Ptolemy, who married the widow of Amintas (the stepmother of Alexander, Patikas, and Fili)?"

"Your Majesty, I was about to report to you. Agents in Ege discovered that for more than half a year, merchants from Asia Minor had been in and out of Ptolemy's mansion from time to time. ”

"Merchant ...... Asia Minor," asked Davers mused, "you mean that Ptolemy may have been in collusion with Persia?" ”

Aristilas said cautiously: "For fear of arousing Ptolemy's alarm, the Ministry of Intelligence did not conduct any further investigation of the merchant from Asia Minor. However, the relationship between Padicas and Ptolemy was very tense during this time, and Patikas publicly accused Ptolemy of taking too much power because he wanted to be king, and Ptolemy also publicly retorted, 'Patikas is naïve, unfair, and without his supervision, Macedonia would not know what the chaos would be'......

It is reported that when Fili sneaked to Turii, Padicas once suspected that his brother was being held hostage by Ptolemy, and sent guards to the door to inquire about it. I think that if it weren't for the protection of our Dionia, the mighty Ptolemy might have rebelled. ”

"You're right. A few years ago, after our army helped Macedonia to quell the rebels, the Ministry of Intelligence found evidence of Ptolemy's collusion with the rebels, which shows that he had long been ambitious for the Macedonian throne, and only because he was afraid of our Dionyas that he had been withholding it, and now he dared to clash with Paticas, and was no longer afraid of our Dionys's interference, who gave him the courage? It can only be Persia! After Davers finished speaking, he reminded emphatically: "But your intelligence department only needs to send someone to monitor him, and don't worry about anything else." ”

When Davers said this, he thought in his heart: wouldn't it be just right if the kingdom's only powerful enemy and potential hidden danger could be solved at the same time!

"Yes......" After Aristirath replied, still with no intention of leaving, Davers couldn't help but ask, "Do you have anything else?" ”

Aristiras hesitated for a moment and said softly, "Your Majesty...... I have a request! ”

"You say." Davers was curious: the usual cautious intelligence chief rarely asked him for it.

"Your Majesty, I have never left Turii since I worked for you! This time I want to be able to follow you on an expedition to Persia! Aristias said earnestly.

Davers looked at him and was silent for a moment, he didn't know if the main purpose of Aristillas's request was to resign as head of the intelligence department in disguise, especially since he had just vetoed his resignation.

"Your Majesty, this is a little selfishness on my part. If I can follow you and share a little of the glory of conquering Persia, a powerful country in the east, I will be able to proudly tell the inquiries of my children and grandchildren in the future. Moreover, when I go to Persia, it will be more convenient and faster for me to mobilize the personnel of the Ministry of Intelligence, spy on Persian intelligence, and disrupt the order in its country......"

Aristias said with a sincere expression again: "You don't have to worry about the security of the country, in fact, I have basically left it alone for more than half a year, and the specific affairs of the Ministry of Intelligence are specifically responsible for the deputy director Tratus, plus the full assistance of Secretary Masimus, the efficiency of the Ministry of Intelligence will only be stronger than before!" ”

Davers looked at him and suddenly laughed: "Good you Aristiras, it's rare to see you say so much!" In order to go out for a walk, you don't hesitate to belittle yourself! You've made it this far, can I still disagree? But in the time of the Games, you've got to get everything in order, oh, and ...... When the plan for the expedition to Persia is revealed to the people, you have to admit to Asuna that you are going on your own, not at my request, hahaha......"

Looking at the back of Aristiras's departure, Davos thought for a moment: it seemed that Aristias had already seen that he wanted to change his old ministers and pave the way for Crotocatax. Agreeing to him to go to Persia, then the positions of the important departments of the kingdom have basically been taken over by the prime ministers...... Oh, and there's a Sedorum who never gets in love, and it looks like I'm going to have to find the right person to wake him up at the right time......

……………………………………………………

Perhaps because most of the inhabitants of Crete came from the immigrants of Laconia, the city-states on Crete were somewhat similar to the Spartan polity, for example, they all had councils of elders, citizens' assemblies, and procurators, and the boys of the Cretan city-states were educated from an early age (mainly for military training......

Of course, due to the small terrain of Crete, the lack of materials, and the failure to unify Laconia like Sparta, although the city-states established alliances, they still maintained their independence, so they did not have enough financial and material resources to develop heavy infantry, but according to the actual situation of the island, focus on training archers. Reading.com

After the Greek War broke out five years earlier and Sparta was conquered by Dionia, the Cretan city-states were shocked to receive the news, and a few months later, when Dionia's vast fleet sailed off the coast of Crete, the Council of Elders of the Cretan city-states quickly made a decision to join the New Greek League and submit to Dionia.

After the establishment of the New Greek Alliance, peace and tranquility were finally restored in Greece in recent years, and the citizens of Crete were no longer recruited by the city-states to be involved in the war in Greece itself, and many Cretan citizens were still grateful to Dionia.

The year before, the king of Dionya had announced that he was going to hold a grand sports meeting and sent invitations to the city-states and countries of the Mediterranean, and when the Cretan city-states also received the invitations, the Cretans were pleasantly surprised to find that archery was included in the competitions listed in the letter.

In the past, Cretans also participated in the games held in Greece, but more often by the children of the nobility, because their wealthy families could provide enough money for professional training in public gyms, and the level of competition among the commoners was obviously far from theirs, but this time archery was a skill that the Cretan commoners excelled at.

Since Theoria only gave a total of five archery places to the Cretan city-states, the Cretan Union held a grand archery competition, and finally selected the five best players, together with the competitors of other sports, to form the Cretan team, and in early June, they took a boat to Turi, because this time the Games will introduce some new rules, and they need to rush to adapt first.

Mecca Kiddes, a 20-year-old civilian from the city of Heraklion in Crete, won the championship in this archery competition on the whole island of Crete.

But when he arrived at Turiyi and began to adapt to the venue, he found that the target used in the archery competition of the Dionian Games was not a human head target, but a novel circular target, on which five concentric circles were drawn, and the closer the arrow hit the target, the higher the score, which required the players who wanted to win the championship to further improve the accuracy of archery.

When he first started practicing, Mecca Kiddes didn't score very much, and he was a little panicked, but with these 20 days of continuous practice, he has begun to adapt.

At this moment, he pulled out an arrow from the quiver, put it on the bowstring, hooked the string with the two fingers of his right hand, and slowly pulled it back, while holding the bow with his left hand straight, slowly raised, and his eyes were always fixed on the target 50 meters in front of him, until the bowstring was half full, his arm did not move at all, and his breathing was steady, he unconsciously let go of his fingers, and the arrow flew out.

"Nine Rings!" The target reporter shouted in front of him.

Mecca Kiddes shook his head slightly dissatisfied, and rubbed his right arm, which was a little sore, with his left hand.

"This time, the three arrows shot a total of 26 rings, and after four rounds of shooting, it is very good to have such training results!"

Listening to the compliment of the target reporter, Mecca Kiddes was not happy, and he unconsciously turned his head to look at the competitors who were training seriously on other target positions.

Originally, he came to participate in this sports meeting with the mentality of imperativeness, but in the days of practice, he learned that many of the players participating in the archery event were very good at archery, and most of them came from various regions of Dionia. As far as he knew, these Ionian players also participated in military training from an early age, and the teenagers who excelled in archery would have special teachers to help them strengthen their training in this area, and when they reached adulthood, the military camps in various regions of Dioonia would test them in archery, and the best ones would be given priority to be selected into the light infantry brigade, and the almost ones would become members of the reserves, and then it was still military training year after year, day after day, and sometimes they would rush to the battlefield with the legion to participate in battles......

He once asked a contestant from the Eastern and Western regions of Theolia, who told him that the archery trials in the Eastern and Western regions had been held two months ago, and since there was no age limit for the archery competition, the number of people who signed up for the competition exceeded 5,000, and the whole selection lasted for 10 days, and finally three players were selected through additional competitions (there are only three archery places in the Dionian regions......

Dionya has more people than Crete in one region, and there are dozens of districts in Dionia, so the players selected from such a large number of competitors are naturally outstanding, and their performance on the training ground really put pressure on Mecca Kiddes.

"One more round!" He said in a deep voice.

The target reporter did not hand him the arrow, but looked up at the sky, and then gently persuaded: "You have already shot five rounds, and if you continue to practice, it is easy to strain your arm, and you will not be able to participate in the competition at that time." Besides, tomorrow's sports meeting will be held, so go back early and have a good rest, so that tomorrow you will have the energy to attend the ceremony held by the kingdom for the sports meeting......"