"In addition, you have to send someone to inform Tisias and ask him to lead those from Tyndares to persuade and mobilize as many Helots as possible to help us unload the baggage ...... from the cargo ship."

Muqru took the order and left.

Leoticides then said to Adoris: "Go and tell the soldiers of the First Legion not to pursue the enemy any more, and not to march further north, but to assemble at once at the Spartan barracks, and to expand that camp as soon as possible." And also...... Where did the Spartans flee into the mountains? Send two soldiers to show me around. ”

Leoticides could roughly guess where the Spartan warriors might have fled from, but he needed to confirm it with his own eyes in order to set up his defenses.

……………………………………

Having seen the power of the Dionian army's ballistae, Dorios realized that even if he retreated to the barracks, he would not be able to defend for long (due to the constant invasion of foreign enemies, the defense facilities of the Spartan barracks in Mesenia were insufficient and relatively rudimentary), so he decisively issued two more orders: first, he handed over the command of the army to the adjutant, and asked him to lead the soldiers to retreat to the Lagonda Pass in the Tigertos Mountains, Try to preserve Sparta, an army of more than 400 people, consisting mostly of real Spartan warriors; Second, he sent messengers to the city of Pylos on the west coast, informing the soldiers of the city that the Dionian army had landed in Messenia, and ordering them to abandon the small city and retreat north as soon as possible.

But he himself decided to stay, even if he died at the gate of the barracks, he would never escape, because he knew that although it was completely excusable to retreat for the sake of preserving the strength of the enemy, the loss of Messenia was definitely a great thing for the Spartans, and the resentment and rumors of the people would always surround him, and as a former member of the King's Guard, a veteran of more than 20 years, he would never want his honor to be discredited.

It's a pity that he killed only one Dionian soldier, and was stabbed in the thigh with a javelin thrown by the enemy and became a prisoner, a despicable Dionian!

At this moment, he was carried by two soldiers and brought into the tent, and by the candlelight of the tent he saw a Dionian general in black armor sitting in front of him: he had very short hair, and his chin did not have a beard, and I had heard that the Dionians had a strange habit of not having beards, but the appearance of this man was not less than 50 years old...... Hey? Hey!

"Spartans, tell me, how many soldiers have you deployed in Messenia? How many were Spartan warriors? Leoticides asked in a cold voice.

Dorios didn't answer, he just stared at Leoticides' face, and even couldn't help but take a few steps forward.

The guards on both sides immediately grabbed him and shouted, "Your Excellency Commander is asking you, answer quickly!" ”

Dorios struggled to break free from the soldiers' grasp, and shouted excitedly, "Leoticides? You are Leoticides! ”

Leoticides was taken aback, he thought that he had changed a lot after leaving Sparta for so many years, and most of the Spartans who were familiar with him back then were probably either deceased or had retired, and it was impossible to recognize him on the battlefield, but he didn't expect that as soon as he set foot on the land of the Peloponnese, his identity would be revealed.

Mukru, who was next to him, immediately shouted: "This is the commander of the Dionian army, Lord Prosous, who once led his army to defeat the Carthaginian army, capture Syracuse, and conquer Gaul...... He is the famous victorious general of the Kingdom of Dionia! Spartans, stop messing around, answer the general's questions truthfully, and if you behave well, we will consider putting you back in Sparta! ”

"He is really Leoticides, the son of our former king of Sparta, Achis!" Dorios still stubbornly pointed at the Dionian general in front of him, and said loudly: "I will never admit my mistake!" The scar on his chin was left by the head wolf when we were sent by the instructor to hunt the wolf, and if it weren't for me, he would have been bitten to death by the wolf! ”

Dorios had a nose and an eye, and the other people in the tent all subconsciously looked at Leoticides: indeed, Prosous did have a relatively obvious elongated scar on his chin.

If Leoticides grew a beard and tied up his long hair, or many Leos are not too sure, but Leoticides now has not changed much from when he was younger, except for the wrinkles on his face.

With the continuous reform of Sparta's political system in recent decades, the king's power has almost been lost, but in addition to the right to command the army, there is another right that has not been deprived, that is, princes do not have to participate in cruel military training from an early age, otherwise a baby like Agesilaus who was born with a foot disease would have been thrown into the slit of the valley long ago, but Leoticides is one of the few royal family members who took the initiative to apply for Agego training, and naturally he is very concerned by other Spartan teenagers in the military camp, but with his character, he rarely pays attention to others, but that almost fatal wolf kiss left too deep an impression on his memory, so even if the Spartan in front of him was covered in dirt and blood, he could roughly guess who the other party was.

It's a small world! …… Leotisides sighed in his heart, and then said in a deep voice: "Leave this captive, and you all retreat." ”

Mukru looked at Leoticides, saw that he looked calm and resolute, opened his mouth, but finally did not speak, turned and walked out of the tent.

However, the two guards hesitated: "Commander, it is too dangerous to leave this Spartan alone in the tent!" ”

"Shall I be afraid of a wounded Spartan, get out!" Leoticides said without refusal.

The guards obediently withdrew, leaving only Leoticides and Dorios in the tent.

The two looked at each other, and after a moment, Leoticides broke the silence, pointed to the wooden bench next to him, and said, "Sit down."

Dorios was also polite, dragging his injured left leg and sitting on a stool.

"I didn't expect to meet you here, Dorios." Leoticides said slowly.

"I also didn't expect that the prince of Sparta would become the general of Dionia!" Dorios implicitly mocked in his exclamation.

"What is there to think of this, Agosilaus became king, if I did not flee from Sparta, would I be willing to stay in Sparta and be constantly accused of being a mongrel, and then like my mother...... Like my mother, was she wronged and hanged herself?! Leoticides' voice trembled, and he was a little agitated with rare emotion: "At that time, except for Dionia, which dared to oppose Sparta at the beginning of its establishment, the other city-states were either allies of Sparta or dependencies of Sparta, and I did not have many options...... But now it seems that I made the right choice, so here I am today. ”

"You made the right choice?!" When Dorios heard this, he immediately became angry: "Dionya raided Messenia, a precious property left to us by our ancestors, without declaring war, which is completely untrustworthy! Do you know how difficult it will be for us Sparta to lose Messenia?! How many people will be reduced to inferior people because they have lost their share of Messenia, they will lose their noble status as citizens?! …… Just because you have a grudge against King Agosilaus, you will not hesitate to harm all the Spartans, and don't forget that you are also a Spartan! ”

Leoticides knocked on the table with his hand and said indifferently: "I am now a citizen of Dionia, and it is not up to me to attack Messenia, it is an order from His Majesty Davers. Besides, it was Sparta who did not keep its credibility, and it was you who ended the peace agreement ahead of schedule, so that Thebes had the opportunity to form an alliance with our Dionias, and you violated the Kallias contract and led your troops to attack Thebes again, and of course Dionyas had to fulfill the covenant......"

"But Thebes has signed an armistice with our Sparta!" Dorios roared.

"Dionyas did hear rumors about this, but Thebes did not send a messenger to inform us, and Dionya was so far from the Greek mainland that it was impossible to determine whether such rumors were true or false, so the plan of attack was not changed.

In addition, there are some citizens of Dionya who were born in Messenia, and His Majesty Davers promised them that 'Messenia will restore its independence,' and today he has fulfilled his promise...... Leoticides said lightly.

"So Dionia has decided to become an enemy of Sparta?!" Dorios said fiercely: "Don't think that Dionia is the king and hegemon in the western Mediterranean, and you think that you have no opponent, it is only because of your undeclared war and our lack of defense that you have been lucky to succeed!" But soon we Sparta will gather a large army and retake Messenia, and then it will probably be the turn of the Ionian soldiers to become Spartan prisoners! ”

"If Sparta really sends a large army to fight for Messenia, it would be better." Leoticides accentuated his tone, his eyes flashed with a strange light, he looked at Dorios, and said meaningfully: "In fact, even if you don't say it, we know the current situation of Sparta, the Spartan warriors stationed in Messenia will not exceed 500, and all the Spartan warriors together are less than 2,000, so the Council of Elders has passed a resolution to give some Periasis and a very small number of Helots citizens of Sparta, but not to give them land, In fact, their status was still low, their desire to fight was not strong, and they even had contradictions with the Spartan warriors......

Also, many Spartan warriors who were unable to supervise the work of their own black laborers, and thus could not pay enough taxes, were deprived of the right to eat publicly, and were in fact reduced to inferiority, and they must have resented it in their hearts, and I think that the situation in Sparta is even worse now than it was when Kenadun was hunted......"