Shilos thanked Cornerus for his praise in disguise.

"I'll ask Amendorala to recommend a suitable patrol leader," Davers said. ”

Cornerus immediately perked up: "Your Excellency, please speak. ”

"Epitenis, he's going to make a good patrol leader." Davers pointed to the back row and affirmed.

"Huh?!" Epitenis, who was talking to Zpitt in a low voice, did not expect to be named, and replied in surprise: "Why me?!" ”

"So that you can focus more on the administrative affairs of the Alliance, and set an example for your soldiers, instead of spending your days tormenting the young people of Dionia!" Davers said half-jokingly, half-seriously.

The crowd laughed. Epitenis likes beautiful boys, everyone knows, in fact, many veterans also have this hobby, but Epitenis is more obvious. The Greeks love teenagers and carry teenagers, which is not only a fashion, but also a tradition. Although Davers personally felt uncomfortable, he still showed respect and did not want to force change. In addition to this, what Davers admires most about Epitenis is that he can think calmly on the battlefield and be flexible in the face of complex situations. He always accomplishes the tasks given to him, and exceeds expectations.

Under pressure from Davers, and with Cornerus's repeated requests, Epitenis finally had to agree.

Epitenis' helpless expression drew Armintas and them laughing again.

By this time the meeting was already past noon, Cornerus declared a half-hour adjournment, and the slaves, who had been waiting outside the Senate, came in at once and brought their masters food and water to fill their stomachs.

Even with a half-hour break, Davers would not have time to spare, munching on bread while discussing with Scombras and Shilos the issues they would need to solve once they took office, and how the two cities could cooperate and strengthen ties with each other to deal with any situation that might arise in the south.

Kunograta then approached him to discuss how to appoint five new senators. As the senators, it is natural that his family should be placed in Turiyi in order to carry out his duties, and even if he is the chief executive of another city, he will not move out of the residence of Turiyi, after all, the term of office of the city chief executive is only two years, and the senator is for life.

There is also a lot of unused public land in the city of Turiyi, which is under the control of the Senate and will not be granted easily. Of course, it is impossible for a small piece of land to be built for the new senator for free, and the "Dioonian Land Law" clearly stipulates this, even if Davers buys land, he has to pay according to the market price. Due to the influx of people over the past year, the price of residential land in Turiyi has risen repeatedly, and this increase should rise sharply after Dionia's defeat of Crotone.

Kunogorata hoped that the land given to the new senators by the Senate would still be sold at the original price, in order to demonstrate the sincerity of the Dionian Senate and appease the newcomers.

Davers agreed, and he also considered that if any of the five new Crimesa elders could not afford the money, it would be advanced from the state treasury and repaid later.

The half-hour break ended, and the Senate meeting continued.

Davers stood up and said his first proposal: "This time the war with Crotone, Dionia, although won, exposed a number of problems, the main and most urgent of which was the navy!" ”

As soon as Davos's words fell, it immediately resonated strongly with the senators.

"Your Excellency is right! In this war, the greatest loss caused to us by the Crotone people is that their fleet continues to come ashore and plunder, burning down many villages in Turii, killing many of our people, and the public officials of Turiyi are still having a headache to resettle the people and rebuild their homes! Kunograta complained.

"If we had a navy in Dionia, and it was as strong as our army, then by the time the battle was won, Crotone would have surrendered long ago, and there would have been no need to encircle Crimesa at all!" Amintas emphasized.

"The trade of the Dionian Alliance is becoming more and more prosperous, and the territory of Dioonia is rapidly expanding, and we need a strong fleet to protect our maritime trade from the sneak attack of our long coastline by enemy fleets, and our ports are blocked by enemy warships!" Marigi reminded loudly.

"That's right! We need a strong navy to protect the security of the Ionian Union! Everyone agreed.

"Now that we've all agreed, then my proposal is-" Davers looked at everyone and said, "In addition to the three three-deck paddle warships under construction to be completed at an accelerated pace, we will build seven more three-ply warships this year, I asked Enanilus, the shipyard in Turii does not have enough docks to complete such a large order, and there are also larger shipyards in Crimesa, which have the ability to manufacture three-deck paddle warships, and can hand over a small part of the order to them to complete." From now on, we will build ten three-ply ships every year, until five years later we will have 50 three-sculled ships, and we will also have 20 medium-sized ships (i.e., 100-man ships) and 10 small ships (50-man ships), so that we will have a relatively strong Dionian navy with 80 ships. ”

Everyone agreed that this plan was feasible, but Merses objected: "No! No way! In this way, the alliance spends more than a hundred more Talientes every year, which is too much! ”

"It's a little more, but I think our treasury can handle it. Last year, the state treasury collected more than 200 talentes from land tax, land tax and trade tax alone, and this year's minimum estimate given by Marigi is at least double the revenue of the state treasury. When Davers said this, many senators were taken aback, and before they knew it, Dionia's treasury revenue was about to be on par with Tarantum and Crotone, and a small amount of money to build a fleet should be more than enough.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Lord Mersis, it doesn't cost more than a hundred Talients to build ten three-story slurry warships a year." Mariji stood up and reminded everyone: "There are two main parts to the cost of building a warship, one is wood, and the other is the manufacturing cost. In the mountains of our Union territory, and especially in the mountains of Lucania, there are innumerable cedars of the highest quality, which are most suitable for the construction of three-layer pulp warships, and I have heard that Athens had a special agreement with Turiyi that Turiyi would provide Athens with a certain amount of timber for shipbuilding every year. ”

"There is indeed an agreement that every year Turiyi is to supply Athens with at least a thousand pieces of timber for ships, and if necessary, double it." Enanilus said. In order to complete this agreement, the Turi's family has been complaining about the fact that the Turi's family has been cutting down a large number of trees for decades, and although they have earned some money for timber, there are fewer and fewer cedars with older trees in the mountains around the Turii, and there are more than a dozen large shipyards in Athens that do not need to build ships in the Turii. Later, due to excessive logging, many barren mountains appeared around Turij, and the people discovered this drawback, and began to buy wood from other city-states in Greater Greece and sell it to Athens to make a difference.

"It was only later in the war between Athens and Sparta that we were forced to cancel this agreement after the Spartans had the upper hand in their navy." Kunograta added.

Davers nodded, after serving as the Consul of the Alliance, he knew about the agreement. He even argues that the Athenian general Perikles had agreed to build Turiyi, calling for the creation of a great pan-Greek city-state, and that one of the real strategic purposes was timber. You must know that Athens was born with two major defects, first, it did not produce much grain locally, and it had to rely on imports to maintain the needs of the city-state's huge population, so it built many colonies along the Greek coast to the Black Sea or controlled key cities, such as Byzantium, to ensure the smooth navigation of grain from the Black Sea, it needed a strong navy, and the Athenians ambitiously wanted to establish a strong alliance of Greek city-states in the Mediterranean, and they needed a strong navy. However, the second major defect of Athens was that it did not have many forests in its own territory, let alone trees that could make high-quality warships, and with the size of Athens' navy and merchant ships, the amount of wood needed must have been a huge amount, so the search for marine timber became a strategic question related to whether Athens could maintain its strength. Egypt has no forests, Persia has wood, but it will not be sold to the enemy Athens, Northern Greece and Thrace have forests, but they are located inland, cutting and transportation are problematic, and the cost is also high, so Greater Greece, which is run through the Apennines Mountains, has become an important place for Athens to buy wood, and Turiyi, which was established by the Athenians, is naturally the main source of wood.

"Therefore, I ask the Senate to negotiate a plan to approve the annual felling of a certain amount of cedar by Union slaves for timber for warships, which does not cost an Opol. As for the manufacturing fee-" Marigi looked at Enanilus and said jokingly, "I don't think Lord Enanilus will definitely not charge too much from the Alliance." ”

Enanilus smiled helplessly.

Everyone felt that Marigi was right, and the worries about the cost dissipated a lot.

"But have you ever considered the maintenance and maintenance of these warships after they are built, it is also a lot of expense!" Mersis said unconvinced.

"Enganilus and I had a discussion about it." Davers said, and Enanilus nodded, indicating that it was true.

"In times of war, of course, we will not leave our ships idle at the docks, except for a small part to patrol the coast of the Alliance, and some to repair in the dockyards, the rest can serve as escorts for merchant ships, especially the route from the Adriatic Sea to the Greek mainland, where pirates and robberies are frequent. It can also be used as a large cargo ship on an ad hoc basis, carrying goods for friendly city-states...... You see, isn't it good to earn maintenance costs for our navy and at the same time train the seafaring skills of the crew? Davers finished his thoughts, and Merses stopped talking.

"In addition, we need to find a qualified commander for the upcoming Ionian Navy. His current assignment is to assist the military officer, Pherisius, and to supervise the construction of warships; Cooperate with the Treasurer Mersis to review the payment; When the ship is built, he will recruit sailors, crew it, conduct regular military training, arrange coastal patrols, and—" Davers said in an accentuated tone, "Win the naval battle." Do you have any qualified candidates to recommend? ”