"Is this—" Ducarus knew that he was at a loss, and he didn't know what to say. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

At this time, Alexander stepped forward, and in front of Ducarros's tall body, he looked so weak, but his momentum was not weak at all.

"Although a soldier earns little income from doing farm work at home, but as a mercenary, he risks his life when he goes out to fight, and the pay and return of the two are naturally different, 150 drachmas a month, what do you think?"

"I will discuss this with the brothers, after all, this issue of remuneration concerns everyone, and I cannot have the final say alone. But first, I want to ask you, how many people do you need to hire? ”

"How many people do you have here?"

"There are about a thousand men in my jurisdiction, and there are about four thousand in the other places of Crete combined, and there are other heavy and light infantry here in addition to the Cretan archers."

"Okay, you discuss with your subordinates first, I want elites, don't use peasants to make do, but you can consider recruiting some hot-blooded young people with a certain amount of training. Of course, the remuneration is certainly different. Also, if you can help me recruit all the archers in the neighborhood, I'll pay you an additional fee. ”

"So, you're going to have a lot of people to hire!"

"At least three thousand elite archers, and some light and heavy infantry may be considered as appropriate, but I know that the number of heavy infantry in Crete is very small, so it cannot form a climate, and I am not very interested in other light infantry such as leather shields, javelinmen, etc."

Ducarus broke out in a cold sweat after hearing this, such a large-scale recruitment has not appeared for a long time, but he was surprised and very glad at the same time, because he had met a big customer, so he retired first to discuss the big matter.

Alexander and the others waited outside for about an hour, and more than a dozen people came out one after another, and Alexander estimated that they should all be officers. One of the old men asked him, "I thank you for your generosity, but I don't know where you are going to take us to fight?" ”

"East, the land of gold, Ares, you bring someone to bring the things, I want to meet your soldiers."

"Okay."

After a while, several people carried a few bags of things to the training ground, they opened their pockets, and everyone's eyes were straight when they saw it, even Ducarus was stunned, they probably had never seen so many gold coins. That's 20 tarrants of gold and 50 tarrants of silver! There may not be much silver, but this gold alone is enough for 3,000 people to serve for a year.

"These are all gold coins and silver coins that are easy to circulate in the market. I will pay you three months' salary in advance, plus 150 drachmas per family. In addition to paying you on time every month, everyone will also have a share in the spoils of war on the battlefield! ”

"Phew-" Several officers shouted for a while, and the people below were happy, the salary alone was already very good, and the benefits outside the salary made them even more excited. Before they started to serve, they had a lot of income, which was a bit like pie in the sky for them, especially many young people who had just started to participate in training, and they felt very lucky, and at the same time understood that mercenaries were indeed a good profession, even if they had resisted before, they were quickly defeated in the face of money.

Seeing that Alexander had come up with so much money, Ducarus felt the need to show the other party the strength of his troops. So he shouted to one of the soldiers in the front row: "Yaros, come out and show us your level for our new master!" ”

"No!"

Seeing that this man was not very tall, but his arms were unusually strong, he picked up his bow, ran quickly to the side of the training ground, posed as a bow to shoot the eagle, and pulled a full moon. With a "whoosh", an arrow flew out in an arc and landed on a target in the distance. Alexander and a few people around him couldn't help but stretch their heads, especially Alexander, he was stunned for a long time, he was not surprised that this person could shoot so far, but he really couldn't imagine that he could shoot so accurately, you must know that the range stipulated in the international archery competition is 70 meters, and more than twice the distance above can also shoot the arrow target What kind of level is this! I'm afraid that any international masters will also sigh when they see it. But fortunately he didn't hit the bull's-eye, otherwise he would have wondered if he was dreaming. Since then, Alexander's knowledge of Cretan archers has become even closer, and he is even more glad that he has chosen. …,

"Brethren, His Majesty will take you on a journey around the world. Yes, it's play, because Your Majesty's army will be invincible. We will have access to untold riches and beautiful women, and when you are old you will have beautiful wives and huge estates and a large herd of slaves and livestock, and life will be very nourishing. If we want to get this, let us stand with your majesty and the great King Alexander with great loyalty! Alexander's words of sensationalism and demagogy made the young people below cheer incomparably, while Ducarus and the others standing next to him were stunned.

"You—you are King Alexander of Macedon, the son of the great Alexander the Great!" The eldest asked in surprise.

"Not bad!"

Before Alexander could finish speaking, the old man began to weep bitterly. Alexander was very strange, he never thought that such a situation would occur when he revealed himself, and he didn't know what to do for a while. After a while, the old man seemed to realize his gaffe. So began to tell his story.

"Great and generous Your Majesty, although you are still young, you are full of wisdom and kindness, my name is Mathils, I once participated in the Greek mercenaries led by General Menon against the Emperor, as Greek soldiers, we attach great importance to our honor, our confrontation with the Emperor lasted longer than many Persians, in the last days of Darius, the governor of Artabazos also led us to guard his side, after Darius died the king did not punish us, but only said to us that the Greek nation is a great nation, We should not point the finger at our own people, let alone fight for the tiger, but we should unite against foreign enemies, but he admires our loyalty, so he released us unconditionally. I was touched by the tolerance and ambition of the Great, who always regarded the Greeks as his own countrymen, while we were always wary and antagonistic against the Macedonians. In fact, many of my comrades-in-arms are full of reverence for the Emperor, although he is not a Greek, but his glorious exploits cannot be erased by anyone. The Emperor never hated us, and when General Mennon died, the Emperor lamented the loss of a good opponent worthy of respect. There are two men I have most respect in my life: one is Memnon, the greatest general of the Greek mercenaries; Then there was Alexander the Great, the greatest king of all time. ”

"My father respects you because you have extraordinary military qualities, your adherence to your work ethic has made you more loyal to your employer than the people to the king, you are the only one who remained by Darius's side when he fled, you are the best of the soldiers, the best mercenaries in the world." Alexander also knew that some of Memnon's followers had committed suicide after Memnon's death, a rarity not only in Greece but also in the world.

"Thank you Your Majesty for your praise, we will definitely stick to our principles, do our part, and we will follow you wherever you go."

"So do we, Your Majesty!" Several of them gave Alexander a military salute.

Alexander was very pleased to see them like this, and Ducarus shouted to all the soldiers: "Soldiers, standing here is the great King Alexander, who has brought us not only money, but also honor, and from now on we will follow His Majesty and move forward." Cheers to our bright future! ”

The cheers did not subside for a long time, Alexander saw hope, he suddenly thought of the Emperor, although he could not completely get rid of his influence, but at least these people in front of him recognized him, and that was enough. On the road ahead, he was convinced that he would be able to make them die and worship him Alexander IV as much as he worshipped Memnon and Alexander the Great.

Ducarus did the rest of the work for him, a total of 600 heavy infantry, 800 javelinmen and 3,000 Cretan archers, and Ducarus and other mercenary leaders jointly praised Alexander's generosity and mercy to the Cretan consul, and Alexander paid a gift of 20 tarrants of silver, and the consul was very happy and lent Alexander 50 troop carriers. Alexander returned to the ship with a happy mood, this time with a full load.

After all the preparations were made, the huge fleet headed for the next stop, Rhode Island.