Speaking of this, Hennepolis crossed one leg, tapped the negotiating table with his right hand, and said mockingly: "What is the result? The Carthaginian army in Sicily suffered a crushing defeat, losing more than half of its 100,000 troops, and the rest was not far from extinction. At this time, it will be somewhat inappropriate to negotiate on this condition. ”

Ocriton's heart sank.

Henipolis looked straight and said coldly: "Since the main force that launched the onslaught on Selinus City this time was the army from Iberia, Your Majesty was worried that even if the two countries reached a peace agreement, the southern part of Iberia ruled by the Magonid family would become the biggest threat to the peace between the two countries, so we added two more to the original negotiation conditions——"

Henypolis stretched out a finger and said aloud: "First, put the entire Carthaginian colony in southern Iberia under the jurisdiction of Dionia. ”

He then held out a second finger: "Second, Carthage must return all the lands it occupies in Numibians, give independence to the Numibians, and must no longer invade the territory of the Numibians and interfere in the internal affairs of their tribes." ”

After hearing this, Ocriton's face changed greatly, he did not expect that the demands of the Dionians were so greedy and ferocious, they had far exceeded the assumptions of the Senate, and the conditions agreed to the Dioonians would undoubtedly shake the foundation of the Carthaginians, and he did not dare to negotiate on these two new conditions without authorization, and this trip was in vain!

…………………………………………

"Lord Publius, Turiy is almost there!" Tybrus, the Roman agricultural officer, pointed ahead and looked at the former Roman nobleman and now the new Dionian senator Publius, who was already tired and out of breath. Manlius said.

In fact, he did not need to be reminded, but through Publius's own observations, he already felt that Turiy was not far ahead, because the road was becoming wider and smoother, and the number of pedestrians increased dramatically, among them many peasants carrying farm tools and covered in dirt, and the houses on both sides of the road were becoming denser and taller......

"Lord Publius, this is still 4 or 5 miles away from the city of Turiin, you better get on your horse first, save some energy, and then come down at the inner gate." Seeing that Publius was panting, Tibrus kindly persuaded him.

"Four or five miles away?!" Publius was a little surprised: look at the density of houses on both sides of the road, and the bustling flow of people, it is not much more than the city of some Latin city-states, and it is so far away from the real city of Turiine, how huge is the central city of the Dionian Kingdom?!

Publius, who had always thought that Rome was the largest city-state in the land, looked ahead with amazement and a sense of insignificance, which strengthened his previous insistence: "I don't have to ride a horse, I can walk without any problem, and I can slowly enjoy the view of the city of Turiyi." ”

Because after passing through the Turii barracks, he heard the Roman officials who had returned with him talk about the fact that except for special duties such as cavalry, horseback riding was generally not allowed in the inner city of Turiy, and although it was allowed in the outer city, strangers would be interrogated and reminded by the patrols, mainly for fear of hitting and injuring pedestrians. The newcomer Publius, in order to keep a low profile, quickly dismounted and walked, explaining in similar language at the time.

Tybrus guessed a little bit of his mind, so he didn't persuade him any more.

"Tyblos?!" Suddenly there was a shout behind him, and Tyblous looked back, and a young man dressed as a farmer strode over, and said excitedly: "Look at the back like you!" I heard that you took the initiative to sign up for Latinum, and a group of us are still worried about you, looking at your lean appearance now, you must be very tired in Rome, right? Or is it official business? ”

"Official business." Tyblous said simply, then turned around and introduced, "This is the new patriarch of the kingdom, Lord Publius from Rome. ”

The young man looked at him curiously, hesitated, leaned into Tyblos' ear, and whispered, "Will he understand us?" ”

"Mistress Publius is very fluent in Greek!" Tyblous spoke aloud and introduced to Publius, "This is my former colleague, Assicalous, the Demo agricultural officer of the northern district of the outer city of Turiyi. ”

Publius then smiled and nodded, "Nice to meet you, Farmer Officer Asicalus!" ”

Slightly embarrassed, Asikalus quickly squeezed out a smile, stepped forward, and saluted, "Lord Publius, welcome to Turiyi!" ”

"Tyblos and I are not just colleagues, we have been neighbors since we were children, we both studied together at the Turiyi school, passed exams together, and happened to be assigned to the agricultural department together...... Tell me if this is Hades' blessing, the friendship between the two of us is not ordinarily good! Asicalus said, putting his arm on Tyblos' shoulder and patting it excitedly.

Although Publius did not understand what Archicalus said about the Turiyi school and the exam, he nodded politely.

Tyblous opened his hand with all his might, and scolded, "If your hands are dirty, wipe them on me!" ”

Asikalus immediately put on an angry expression: "Okay, you Tybrus, you have been in Radium for a while, and you have begun to dislike us agricultural officers!" What's wrong with the dirty! This is a testimony of my hard work and guidance to the people of Turiyi to complete the spring planting! ”

Although he knew the character of his friend, his words still caught Tybrose's attention, and he couldn't help but ask, "How is this year's spring sowing going?" ”

"Needless to say, of course it didn't go well!" Asikalus shrugged his shoulders and sighed helplessly: "You should also feel that this war has lasted so long and has such a large scale, more than 40,000 young and middle-aged citizens have been evacuated from our Turii region one after another, and all the soldiers who have returned are wounded, think about how much impact this has on the agriculture of Turii, and now there is a great shortage of labor here!"

Not to mention spring sowing, the previous autumn harvest had already made our Turiyi agricultural officials very worried, we applied to the prefect of Lucias, mobilized a large number of kingdom slaves, and by promising to shorten the period of becoming a citizen of the kingdom, we recruited a lot of free people (the wars between Sparta and Thebes and Athens became more and more intense, causing the people of Greece to begin to migrate to the kingdom of Dioonia under the guidance of well-intentioned people), and under our supervision, the autumn harvest in Turiy was finally successfully completed, But I haven't taken a good breath yet, it's time for spring sowing again, but fortunately this time-"

Asikalus looked at Publius, lowered his voice, and said to Tybrus: "Turii has another batch of slaves from Latium, as well as slaves from Syracuse, they were originally going to be sent to Sardinia, and we have intercepted some of them, these slaves are good at taking care of the farmland!" Together with the capture of the enemy from mainland Greece in the Apriria, Turij was able to ensure that there was no shortage of labor and that it could also provide assistance to the surrounding areas.

However, it is a lot of work to supervise so much slave labor, and do you know why I have so much dirt on me? That's because I often have to go to Shimoda to give demonstrations and teach them personally. If you had come to the outskirts of Turii earlier this day, you would have seen hundreds of reservists and cavalry patrolling the villages and fields to prevent these slaves from escaping or any other accident. ……”

Although Maximus was embarrassed by Maximus' mention of Roman slaves, he listened attentively and learned a lot about Dionia.

After hearing this, Tybrus said with some worry: "I always use the slaves of the kingdom to solve the problem of lack of labor, and it is not a way to continue in the long run!" ”

"Of course, it's only temporary." Asicalus immediately took over the conversation, and whispered in a mysterious voice: "Last night, a clipper ship from the south docked in the harbor, and a messenger galloped into the inner city senate, and I got the inside information early this morning, following the complete defeat of the Carthaginian fleet by our navy in the Carthaginian waters a few days ago, His Majesty Davers led the main army in Selinus and completely defeated the Carthaginian army of 100,000, and the Carthaginians suffered heavy defeats one after another, I am afraid that this war will end soon!" ”

When Publius heard this, he was shocked: Carthage, Rome's ally and claimed to be the richest and most powerful city-state in the Western Mediterranean, had been defeated so quickly?!

Tyblous asked what he wanted to ask, "Is all this true?!" ”

"Of course it's true, the news is absolutely reliable!" Asicalus said firmly: "However, the Senate did not announce this good news to the outside world today, I guess...... The good news may be announced at tomorrow's Kingdom convention! By the way, Lord Publius, you're here for the Kingdom Convention, too, aren't you? ”

"Ah...... Yes. Publius came back to his senses.

"Hey, you guys!" Suddenly there was a shout from the front.

Publius looked at it in a trance, and thought that it was the Roman soldiers who had come to Turiy, only to see a group of patrol soldiers in red helmets and red armor walking straight towards them (the patrol team was originally also black armor and black armor, but in recent years it has been changed to red helmets and red armor, mainly to distinguish them from the legionnaires of the kingdom, and at the same time, the red color is more eye-catching, which is convenient for performing official duties in cities with a large number of people).

The leader of the team looked at the group of people and the horses behind them with suspicious eyes, and then said with a serious expression: "Don't you see a lot of pedestrians!" Still blocking the middle of the road, blocking traffic, hurry up! ”