In the following more than a year, the exiles died down, and although the ranks continued to grow, they did not fight hard, but were worn down by time, and there were more and more people who sighed, but fewer and fewer who were determined to take revenge.

Pelopidas, however, kept an eye on the west: the rulers of Thebes, with the support of the Spartans, went against the grain and imposed oppressive rule on the city-state, causing the people to suffer and complain; The other city-states in Piosia also submitted to Sparta......

Pelopidas could no longer bear the strong sense of responsibility, and he decided to take immediate action, for fear of leaking secrets, he did not consult with the other leaders of the exiles, but privately sought out six like-minded friends to assist him in carrying out the "plan for the restoration of Thebes" that he had been thinking about for a long time.

Disguised as hunters, they set out early in the morning from the Athenian border, crossed the mountains and hurried without stopping, and when they reached the city outside Thebes, it was almost nightfall, so they mixed with the peasants returning from the fields, passed through the city gates, and then hid in the residence of their good friend Charon, and asked Charon to send slaves to call another of his good friends, Philidas, the clerk of the military consul.

After several people deliberated, there was this banquet the next night.

Now that they had succeeded in killing the two pro-Spartan military consuls, Pelopidas had just breathed a sigh of relief, and Phylidas raised the letter in his hand with an anxious expression: "Pelopidas, the situation is not good! Someone noticed our plan and wrote to the informant! ”

Pelopidas hurriedly took the letter and read it, the content of the letter was to warn Achias: an exile had infiltrated the city and attempted to assassinate the leaders of the pro-Spartan faction, reminding him to be careful! ”

Pelopidas' face changed and he hurriedly asked, "Who wrote it?!" ”

Phylidas shook his head: "There is no signature on the letter, the messenger left immediately after delivering the letter, it can be seen that this person is not a friend of Agias, maybe he is just an ordinary city-state official, and he accidentally saw you in the city......" After all, although Pelopidas is young, he still has some fame among the people of Thebes.

"What do we do now?!" The others looked nervously and looked at Pelopidas.

Pelopidas calmed down at the moment, and he said with a resolute expression: "Didn't we already make a wish to Zeus when we set off, and we were ready to sacrifice!" Things have been carried out so far, do you still have to retreat halfway! We should speed up our actions and quickly complete our plans while the enemy may not have understood the situation! ”

Pelopidas' words gave the others a shot in the arm, and they quickly reached a consensus, and took advantage of the darkness to leave the mansion and go to the homes of the two true leaders of the pro-Spartan faction, Leontiadas and Sypatas.

The lustful Sypatas was spending the night in a high-class brothel in the city, and Charon had already bought off the brothel, and the exiles easily entered the bedroom and stabbed him to death.

Leontiadas was not as negligent as his colleagues, he never went out at night, and the mansion was guarded by guards. But Pelopidas had already had a plan in mind for the assassination, and he had not been idle on the Athenian border for more than a year, and he asked Charon in Thebes to find an opportunity to make contact with these guards, and finally persuaded some of the Spartan-hating guards to pour down their colleagues with wine that night, and quietly open the courtyard door for Pelopidas.

When Pelopidas entered the bedroom, Leontiadas was still asleep. Pelopidas covered his mouth with his hand and stabbed a sharp dagger into his heart, and the cunning leader of the Spartans, Leontiadas, who caused the fall of Thebes and caused countless casualties.

Immediately afterward, Pelopidas rushed to the prison with some of his guards, posed as Leontiadas's entourage, deceived the door with his personal token, and then took advantage of his unpreparedness to kill all the jailers and release all those who rebelled against Sparta.

They thanked Pelopidas, who begged them to go to the city immediately and contact all the people who were dissatisfied with Sparta.

Everyone gladly obeyed.

As a result, in the middle of the night, the city of Thebes became unsettled, and the pro-Spartans noticed the anomaly, but they were completely unable to contact their leader, so they could not respond in time. The Spartans in the Acropolis, because no one informed them, did not know what was happening in the city, and they did not dare to act rashly in the night, so they could only guard the Acropolis.

As soon as dawn broke, the whole city of Thebes was boiling.

Most of the people of the city rushed to the square, including Ipaminonda. When Pelopidas quietly wrote to him about his plan, Ipaminonda, like some of Pelopidas' friends, opposed such a risky plan, but at this moment, when he saw Pelopidas standing on the central platform of the square, showing the corpses of Leontiadas and several others to the people, he couldn't help but sigh at Pelopidas's resolute and resolute action, such a seemingly extremely difficult thing actually let him do!

Pelopidas painfully recounted to the people the various sins committed by the Spartans and pro-Spartans in Thebes, so that the people of the square could empathize with them, and then he made an impassioned appeal: The people of Thebes take up arms, unite, and bravely fight against the traitors and invaders! Avenge the death of your compatriots and let Thebes regain its freedom and independence! ……

The populace was in high spirits, chanting Pelopidas' name, and excitedly crowning the uplifters who had participated in the assassination plan led by Pelopidas, and unanimously electing Pelopidas and Phelidas as military consuls.

Without hesitation, the two men accepted the appointment of the people, and at the same time announced the establishment of the Council of 100 of the city-state, whose members would be held by the citizens of Thebes on a monthly rotation, and established the highest authority of the city-state as the citizens' assembly.

The people raised their arms and cheered in celebration of Thebes becoming a democratic government.

Pelopidas then immediately gave orders to the populace: take up the shield and spear, form an army, capture all the pro-Spartan men, and retake the Acropolis occupied by the Spartan army, while also defending against the Spartan army, which was likely to intervene.

The people of Thebes immediately went into action, and the pro-Spartans were found and either killed or imprisoned, and only a very small number fled Thebes.

When the heavily armed citizen soldiers regrouped in the square, Pelopidas did not immediately lead the army, and asked for the appointment of Epaminonda as the commander of the army, to fight alongside him.

Many of the citizen soldiers did not even know who Ipaminonda was, but at this time Pelopidas's prestige was very high, and most of the people chose to agree out of trust in him.

When they saw a middle-aged man with an ordinary appearance but a bookish air on the platform, they couldn't help but regret the choice they had just made.

But Pelopidas was delighted, he knew Ipaminonda's ability, so he excitedly said to him who slowly walked up to the stage: "Ippa, we can finally fight together again!" ”

Ipamida seemed calm on the surface, but she was also very excited inside. He was a modest and low-key man, and because of his aversion to factional struggles, he did not participate in the series of political adventures carried out by Pelopidas, and he spent most of his time reading, music, and physical exercise. But when the people shouted for victory, the revolutionary enthusiasm also infected him, not to mention the trust of his close friends, so even if he knew the precarious situation facing the new Theban government, he still did not hesitate to say: "I will do my best to defend Thebes with the citizens!" ”

Ipaminonda's first office in the city-state was such an important one that would affect the rise and fall of the city-state, and he was forty-one years old at this time.

At this moment, the citizen soldiers guarding the south gate hurriedly reported: "A small group of Spartans came out of the acropolis, broke through their barriers, and fled out of the city. ”

It turned out that there were pro-Spartan personnel who ran into the acropolis and secretly reported to the Spartan commander that "there was a riot in the city, the pro-Spartan government has been overthrown, and the head has been killed", the commander was shocked to hear it, but he only had 400 soldiers under his command, the number of troops was too small, and without the cooperation of the Thebes, he did not dare to send them out to quell the rebellion, even if the soldiers were all brave, it could not be the opponent of thousands of angry Theban mobs, So he quickly decided: taking advantage of the riots that had just broken out in Thebes, and the mob had not yet taken full control of the city, he quickly sent people to force his way out of the city and ask for assistance from the Spartan garrisons of the neighboring city-states of Platia and Tespia.

The news brought by the city guards made the coup upstarters nervous.

At this time, Ipaminonda, who had just been appointed as the general of the unified army, took the initiative to ask: "Perrault, please let me lead a force to the south gate to block the reinforcements of the upcoming Sparta, while you go to recapture the acropolis!" ”

Seeing Ipaminonda's determined eyes, Peropidas replied without hesitation: "Good! ”

Then, he immediately allocated 3,500 citizen soldiers to Ipaminonda, leaving only 2,000 soldiers for himself, and the generals assigned to Ipaminonda were all close friends of his own, and they were also familiar with Ipaminonda, so that Ipaminonda could command more conveniently.

Ipaminonda did not have time to thank him, so he hurried to the south gate with his army.

At this time, Philidas, another military consul, asked worriedly, "Can Ipamida stop the Spartan reinforcements?!" Do we need to do a little more preparation?! ”

.。 Museum of Literature