"We can't let this continue in Lijim!" Alcibidas suddenly raised his voice and said, "I have discussed with some people and decided to unite the people of Lijim and urgently convene a citizens' assembly to vote together to completely annex Lijim to the Kingdom of Dionia!" ”

Hearing this, Davers could no longer hide the surprise on his face, and he leaned towards Alcibidas and asked, "Is this matter supported by your father?" ”

He knew Alcibidas, his brother-in-law, who was very talented in business, but not very interested in politics, and such an important event that would determine the future of Lijim would not be carried out without the strong impetus of a well-known and capable political figure.

"My father is not very interested in the politics of Lijim now, and he has no energy to do it......" Alcibidas glanced at Davers, and then said, "This matter was raised by General Fitun, and he pushed it all in!" ”

"Fitun......" Davers touched his chin, he had been paying attention to this person.

This general who led the army of Lijim made no small contribution to the defeat of the army of Syracuse in the southern Italian war, and after the war, he was also respected by the people of Lijim, and was elected general of Lijim for several years, and once served as the chief general for one year. However, he was resolute and resolute on the battlefield, but he frequently encountered setbacks in the political arena, and the bills he proposed often failed to pass the council, and his ability to govern was also criticized by many people, and scandals involving his relatives who used his power to accept bribes and obtain benefits were also exposed. Fitun resigned, and in a fit of rage, announced that he would no longer hold any public office in Lijim. According to some insider information spied on by Aristiras's intelligence services, there was a covert push by Attilicruz in the Lijim Council's attack on Fitun.

Davers's power-hungry father-in-law clearly did not want to see the prestige of Phandun take control of Lijim's politics.

Seeing that Davers did not speak, Alcibidas thought that the king was doubting whether Fildun alone would be able to make this work possible.

Then he emphasized: "Not only Feidun, but also some merchants have clearly expressed their support...... and then Alcibidas named several people.

Davers was surprised: these big merchants, like Alcibidas, who were all famous in Lijim, were not they worried that Lijim would lose some of the rights he had enjoyed after he was completely incorporated into the Kingdom of Dionia?!

Alcibidas saw Davers's doubts, and he explained: "Your Majesty, Lijim is too small for us, and we hope to become true Ionian merchants, with greater ease of doing business in the whole of the Western Mediterranean!" We are confident that after this war between Dionya and Carthage, the Dionian merchants will have an unprecedented opportunity to enter a realm of trade that they have never set foot in before! ......" Alcibidas looked a little excited.

I see! It's not that they care about the common people, but they are driven by profit, and as merchants in the Free City, it is naturally impossible for them to obtain the same rights as the merchants of the Kingdom of Dionia...... Davers smiled and said with a sigh: "It seems that you are more confident than I am in the upcoming war between the kingdom and Carthage, and sure enough, merchants are the most adventurous!" Have you been exposed to Sostatus yet? ”

Alcibidas nodded, feeling a pang of nervousness in his heart, he knew that the crucial moment had come.

Davers said in a deep voice: "Then you must have understood the predicament that the kingdom will face in the event of this war and the efforts that Sostatus will make to make it possible for Dionia to win this war. ”

Alcibidas said without hesitation: "Our Lijim merchants have more financial resources than the Turriyi merchants, and what the Turii merchants can do, we can also do!" What the Turriyi merchants can't do, we can do too! ”

Davers didn't say anything lightly, but said in a deep voice: "Very good, I hope that the merchant Lijim can prove it to me!" ”

"Your Majesty, you'll see it soon!" Alcibidas replied confidently.

………………………………………

While Alcibidas was talking to the children about ancient Egypt, Ansitanos, the foreign minister of the Kingdom of Dionia, had already arrived in Egypt, the oldest kingdom in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Egypt, which established a unified kingdom more than 2,000 years ago, has a prosperous economy and strong national power, and has created a splendid culture, and was once the most powerful country in the entire Mediterranean. However, as time went on, the power of the country began to decline, and the other races of the Mediterranean began to rise, so the doom of the Egyptians came.

Hyksos, Libyans, Assyrians, Persians...... They invaded and eventually ruled the most valuable land on the continent of Africa.

The king of Persia appointed loyal men as governors of Egypt, oppressed the Persians, and plundered their wealth to satisfy the luxurious life of the Persian nobility and provide a material basis for further expansion of Persia. The Egyptians were unwilling to be ruled and oppressed by foreign peoples, and launched riots and rebellions many times over a hundred years.

In the meantime, in 460 B.C., Athens was at its strongest. The Athenian navy pressed Persia to the east, forcing it to shrink its defenses, and to the south to face the forces of the Peloponnesian League, winning two battles in succession, Egina and Mecaly, which the Athenians even called a glorious year.

At this time, the Libyans of Lower Egypt staged an uprising in an attempt to overthrow the Persians, and requested assistance from the powerful Athens.

Athens responded and sent a navy of 200 warships to Egypt, which initially won some victories and even captured the city of Memphis, but suffered a crushing defeat, with many Athenian citizens and allies dying on Egyptian soil.

It wasn't until 404 BC that the Persian ruler Darius II died, and Cyrus the Younger competed with his brother Artaxerxes for the throne, and the civil strife in Persia gave the Egyptians a chance. The revolt, again led by the Libyans in the Nile Delta, was led by Amirtanius, who eventually succeeded in driving out the Persians and becoming the pharaoh of Egypt.

But after only four years in office, he was usurped by one of his ministers, Nifarud, who then passed the throne to Hakauer.

During Hakauer's reign, Sparta attacked Persia, then the Corinthian War took place in Greece itself, and after the Peace of Kings, the Persian king Artaxerxes finally relented and sent an army under the command of Phanabazos in the eighth year of the Dionian kingdom (386 BC) in an attempt to retake Egypt.

Fanabazos even hired the Greeks to fight in the war, and his leader was the Athenian general Iphiclateus, but the Persians and the Greeks were at odds and did not cooperate well. After three years of fighting, Hakauer drove the Persian army out of Egypt.

Egypt is safe for the time being, but last year Fakauer became seriously ill and was unable to preside over the government, leading to political turmoil in the country. Earlier this year, his son Nephilitis hastily ascended the throne, but soon there was turmoil in the country, and finally Nektanib, a general from the city of Bubastis in the northwestern Nile Delta, seized the throne and became the new pharaoh of Egypt.

……

Ansitanos recalled what he had learned about the major events that had taken place in Egypt over the years, especially this year had been a turbulent year for the Egyptians: Nektanib had only been the pharaoh of Egypt for only four months, and it was reasonable to say that his political situation was not stable......

At this time, the Dionian passenger boat he was on was successfully traced up the Canobic River, a tributary of the lower Nile on the west side, after being checked by the Canobic outpost.

It's the end of October, and it's past the flooding season in Egypt, so the river is so calm that you can barely see the flow, and the boats sail against the current without the need for a slender man to pull the riverbank.

Rich Egypt benefits from the Nile River, which rises and falls regularly every year. Every summer, when the rainy season arrives, the Blue Nile River that flows through the Ethiopian highlands south of Egypt swells, carrying away a large amount of sediment from the valley area, and when the flood peak reaches the Nile Valley, the flood water overflows the riverbed, flooding the land on both banks, carrying sediment and organic matter contained in the river water to penetrate into the soil, making the land in the narrow strip of land on both sides of the Nile always dark and fertile. This is especially true in the lower reaches of the Nile Delta, where the Nile floods can even turn the vast coastal lowlands into an ocean.

Now that the waters of the Nile have begun to recede, and the banks are still full of puddles and muddy fields covered with water and weeds, Egyptian farmers have begun to tend their fields, bare-chested, barefoot, and merely a piece of linen wrapped around their crotch. Some farmers fenced mud dams on the banks to keep the remaining water in their fields as much as possible. Some cleaned up the aquatic weeds and other debris in the fields, and picked up a few fish in the puddles as an extra harvest; , some have already driven their cattle and started plowing their fields...... There were also numerous papyrus boats shuttling to and fro along the river, bringing tools, food, and wheat seeds to the peasant women working on the shore.

Ansitanos also noticed that neatly dressed men with pen and paper in their hands were often seen on the edge of the fields, presumably the scribes of the pharaohs, who were estimating how much the flood season would cause next year's harvest and supervising the work of the peasants.

Agriculture was the backbone of Egypt, and the importance that the pharaoh attached to agriculture was far from comparable to that of other Mediterranean countries, but it also showed that the new pharaoh had begun to exercise his authority, which made Ansitanos put his worries at ease.