"Yes...... Your Majesty......" Publius choked up and nodded, and made up his mind that when this matter was over, he must let Lentulus leave Turiyi and go to a town where no Romans lived.

Davers smiled kindly, and raised his glass again: "Come on, do this glass, and when you deal with this matter smoothly, I think you can also be the chief executive of the town." ”

Purbrius listened, his spirits perked, he took a sip of the wine in his glass, and said categorically: "Your Majesty, rest assured, I will wipe them all out, and no one will escape!" ”

………………………………………

Led by the palace ceremonial officer, Gurira stood at the entrance to the hall of the Dionian palace when he heard a shout from inside: "Guria, the envoy of the Etruscan Alliance, asks to see you!" ”

Then I heard a majestic voice say, "Let him in." ”

Gurira's heart began to tense, and he took a deep breath and stepped into the palace hall.

I saw that the tall and spacious hall was illuminated by the sunlight shining in from the side windows, and tall and mighty soldiers stood straight on both sides, their armor shining.

Gurirá walked through the corridors formed by the guards, and saw a row of dark wooden chairs on the left and right sides, on which sat a dozen Ionian officials in ornate robes, most of them looking at him with inquiring eyes, including Ansitanos, the Ionian Foreign Minister he knew.

The gentle old man smiled and nodded to Guria, which calmed his mood a little, and then he saw the man sitting on the throne in front of him, with a bright and dazzling crown on his head and a majestic face, and his heart couldn't help but feel a pang in his heart: this was King Davers, who destroyed Rome, conquered Carthage, and made Dionia the sole overlord of the Western Mediterranean.

He hurriedly bent down and saluted respectfully: "Your Majesty the Most Honorable King Davers, on behalf of all the people of the Etruscan Alliance, I extend my most respectful greetings to you!" ”

"Welcome, emissary of the Etruscan Alliance!" Davers smiled and said kindly: "The Etruscan alliance is the alliance of Dionia, in recent years, our two sides have not only had frequent trade, but also have a lot of cultural exchanges, this trend is very good, I hope that the exchanges between our two sides will become closer and closer, which will be beneficial to the stability of the central region of Italy!" ”

"Your Majesty, you are right!" Gurirá took over and said, "But we Etruscan city-states want to strengthen ties with the Kingdom of Dioonia not only in trade and culture, but also militarily. ”

Antaoris, the rotating president of the Senate, immediately interjected: "Envoy of Cyria, what you say is incomprehensible, you should know that Dionya and Etrunia are allies, and the covenant originally stipulated that the two sides are not restricted in trade and cultural exchanges, and once one side is in trouble, the other side must provide military assistance, which already shows that we have a deep military connection." ”

"That's just an emergency measure under special circumstances, and what I'm talking about strengthening ties militarily is that our Etruscan alliance hopes to get military help from your Dionian kingdom under normal circumstances!"

Gurirá said in a heavy tone: "Your Majesty, you should know that over the years, the northern neighbors of the Etruscan League, the Gauls (the Greeks have always referred to these ferocious and terrible barbarian races from the north of the peninsula and from the depths of the continent as the Celts, and the Dioonians initially continued this statement until Rome was incorporated into the kingdom, and under their influence, they gradually began to change the name of the Celts in northern Italy to the Gauls), and they have been constantly invading the territory of the Etruscan League. In the past two years, the intensity of its invasion has intensified, and the alliance has formed an army to defend it, but ......"

"The northern frontier is too vast, and the Gauls are very cunning, and they seldom fight against our assembled coalition forces, but always attack our small and lone forces, and invade our defenses...... Now that the alliance is somewhat overwhelmed, the populaces of several city-states near the northern border have fled south in large numbers...... If this continues, the Gauls will be able to occupy Luna, Luca, and Florentia in the north, and then allow more tribes to easily cross the precipitous terrain and establish roots in the northern part of our Etruscan Confederation territory, and then ...... The large-scale southern invasion of the Gauls more than 20 years ago may be repeated! ”

At this point, the ministers in the palace whispered for a while, but none of them took the initiative to speak.

Davos avoided Guria's pleading gaze and looked at Alexis, the Minister of War (two years ago, the former Minister of War, Shiros, had stepped down, and Davos personally designated Alexis, who had played a major role in the Western Mediterranean War, to replace him), and asked softly, "Alexis, what do you think about this?" ”

Alexis frowned, thought for a while, and then said with a solemn expression: "Listening to the Etruscan envoy say this, the situation in the north of the Etruscan Alliance is relatively grim!" But...... Now that the Gauls have not invaded the south in a big way, nor have they captured the city-states on the northern border, if we in Dionya had agreed to the request of the Etruscan alliance and sent reinforcements to reinforce their northern border, we would probably have encountered the dilemma they faced - the Gauls would refuse to engage us head-on, and continue to disperse their forces to attack the Etruria, and we would not be able to gather a large army to invade the territory of the Gauls......

Effective defense against Gaul invasion will inevitably require long confrontations and fierce battles, and our reinforcements cannot stay in friendly territory far from home for a long time, which will make it impossible for soldiers to handle their own affairs and affect their income...... Moreover, the long-term retention of reinforcements in the north will also consume a lot of food from the Etruscan city-states, and welcome complaints from the local people......"

"Your Majesty, Lord Alexis is right, sending reinforcements at this time is not good for Etruscan or for us in Dionia, and we should consider it more carefully......" Most of the ministers agreed, obviously disapproving of the "reinforcement of Etruria".

Guriara was a little panicked, but fortunately he had prepared in advance: "Uh...... We also don't think it's appropriate to ask Dionia to send reinforcements at this time...... Therefore, after many discussions, the top leaders of the city-states of the alliance unanimously decided that Luna, Lucca, and Florentia would assign part of the territory to Dionia, and you could build towns in these territories, and the cost of building the city and the short-term material consumption would be provided by the entire Etruscan alliance free of charge. ”

As soon as these words came out, there was an uproar around.

The Minister of Agriculture, Burkos, couldn't help but ask, "What do you mean...... These carved lands belong to Dionya forever? ”

"Yes, forever!"

"So how much is this land area? Is there enough surplus land to feed the towns, other than building towns? Burkos then asked, reminding: "If there is not enough land to be allocated to the citizens of Dionia, even if Your Majesty agrees to your request, the people of the kingdom will not be willing to move to the Etruscan region, where life is much more dangerous than at home!" ”

Gurilla felt hope, and immediately said solemnly: "Of course, the Etruscan Alliance has considered this issue, so please rest assured, the land provided by the Alliance is vast enough and quite fertile, it should be able to meet the requirements of the Ionian people, and there are even rich mineral ...... in some places."

Guliala's words immediately aroused heated discussions among the ministers.

This situation made Gurira sigh in his heart: if it were not for the years of raiding and harassment of the Gauls, which caused a large number of people from the city-states near the northern border to flee south, and the land of these city-states was barren and depopulated, they would not have been able to provide so much land to Dioria!

At this time, Alexis asked again: "Etruscan envoy, do we Dionya have the right to choose which lands to belong to Dionys?" Where to build a city? ”

As the highest military governor of the kingdom, Alexis asked this question because he didn't want the Etrunians to give all the lands closest to the Gauls to Dionia, so that the Dionian citizens and soldiers were at the forefront to defend against the Gauls' attacks and bear the casualties alone, leaving the Etrucans to hide behind and not work hard.

Before Gurira could respond, Davers coughed lightly and said with a serious expression, "I'm also more concerned about this issue. ”

Gulirá's heart sank, knowing that he could not be perfunctory on this matter, he raised his spirit, and said thoughtfully: "Honorable king...... The Dionian Kingdom is strong, the Etruscan Alliance is relatively weak, how can we play tricks, we are sincerely providing land, please help us to defend against the Gauls! If His Majesty the King and the ministers are not satisfied with the land allotted, we can revisit the discussion and choose a new land. ”

Davers was satisfied with his statement, he leaned back, held the armrest of the throne with both hands, and said with a smile: "I already know the requirements of the Etruscan Alliance, please go back and rest first, we will discuss this matter." ”

“…… Yes, Your Majesty the King! Guliara did not receive a clear reply, and although he was a little unwilling, he did not dare to say more, and obediently withdrew from the palace.

At this time, Davers looked at the ministers and said in a loud voice: "Ladies and gentlemen, you have all heard the request of the Etruscan envoys, and if you have any opinions on this, please tell me." ”