About 170 kilometers south of Naxos is the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean, Crete, one of the cradles of Mediterranean civilization, as early as 3000 BC, there was the Minoan civilization. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 InfoLike Egyptian hieroglyphs and Babylonian cuneiform, Crete saw the earliest European script, linear writing.

Today, Crete has been honorably neutral for a long time. Because of its distance from the Greek peninsula, it was able to stay out of the situation and did not participate in many wars, but this should not underestimate the military power of Crete, because since the classical era, it has the most powerful long-range force in the Greek world and the entire Mediterranean region at that time - Cretan archers. Since the Greco-Persian Wars, the Greek mercenaries have been well-disciplined, well-trained, and elite, especially for the Persian army, which is not a little stronger. The most powerful in the Peloponnese was the Spartan heavy infantry, known for its high morale, excellent endurance, and bravery in battle; The most powerful in the Attica Peninsula are the hoplite armourers, known for their thick armor, strong defenses, and discipline; Cretan archers, on the other hand, are known for their long range, long-range strike power, and combat flexibility. Alexander's knowledge of Cretan archers began when he was playing the Roman Total War in his previous life, when his favorite thing to use was Cretan archers, and the green costume was almost a symbol of victory.

Crete, Cretan ...... Alexander repeated these three words silently, and he was finally able to get a glimpse of the true face of the Cretan archers, and wondered if they were also wearing green suits as in the game.

Although the city-states of the Greek peninsula such as Athens monopolized most of the trade with Greece, Crete was after all a transportation artery connecting the East and West Mediterranean, and one of the transit points for trade between the East and the West, so many merchants who traveled back and forth between the East and West Mediterranean were still willing to stay here to replenish supplies. Compared with Athens, Crete does not have the bustle and noise, it is mainly agricultural, in most inland areas, people are engaged in the cultivation of olives and grapes, sheep and goats, and the coastal areas are more developed fisheries, only in a few seaports on the northern coast of Crete, commerce is relatively developed, and Cretan archers are mainly hired close to these places, and some of them are employed by the government.

In order to avoid misunderstandings and conflicts, Alexander arrived in Kaidonia with his bodyguard Ares and Polybecon's son Alexander (later known as Alexandre) and several Guards soldiers in civilian clothes. Of course, a large amount of gold coins is inevitably carried. Kaidonia is a lot bigger than Alexander imagined, after all, there is a big difference between the game and reality. Not knowing the political tendencies of the Cretan consuls, Alexander went directly to the ironsmiths in the city to ask for information about the Cretan archers. Although they are very low-key, they still attract the attention of many people, maybe Ares is too tall, or it may be that the impact of a few bags of gold coins on the horse has attracted the attention of others, but no one cares what others think, Alexander is completely relieved, except for himself, everyone else is a master of breaking through the line of life and death.

"Hey, man, do you know where to recruit Cretan archers?" Alexand asked a middle-aged man who was refining his arrow, and held out a hand with a silver coin between his index and middle fingers.

To his surprise, the middle-aged man ignored him, so he repeated it out loud. The blacksmith was startled, and looked up and was about to scold, when he suddenly saw the man in his early thirties in front of him smiling at him, still holding a silver coin in his hand, and the roar he wanted to vent suddenly disappeared without a trace. So he said embarrassedly: "Are you here to recruit mercenaries?" ”

"Yes, I'm here to recruit Cretan archers." With that, he handed the silver coin to the blacksmith.

"Hehe, then you're asking the right person. Look, I'm not playing with an archer's arrow! ”

"Alright, take me to them!"

"How many people are you going to recruit? You know, the archers of Crete are the strongest archers in Greece, and the recruitment fee is not cheap! ”

"You can rest assured about this, you are not afraid of not having enough money, but you are afraid of not having enough manpower."

"Hehe, such a big breath, how many people are you going to recruit!" …,

"At least that's the number!" With that, Alexandre stretched out three fingers.

"Thirty!"

Alexand laughed but didn't answer.

"Three hundred!"

Alexand shook his head.

"Is it ......?"

"At least three thousand!" Before the blacksmith could finish speaking, Alexandre spoke, and looked at the frog at the bottom of the well in front of him with disdain.

"At least three thousand?! Are you recruiting so many people to do it, are you going to war? ”

"You don't think you need to know this, do you?"

"Uh-hey-hey!"

Alexander stepped forward, take us to the leader of the mercenaries, and I will pay you another 4 drachmas after the deed.

"Really?"

"I speak my word!"

"Okay, I'll take you right away."

Alexander smiled secretly, if he could help him complete the recruitment, he could give him even 40 drachmas in gold, but he didn't expect 4 drachmas to make him so excited.

Led by the blacksmith, the group came to a high ground outside the city. Although the terrain is relatively high, it is very flat. There is a complex of buildings not far away, and when you walk in, it looks like a village of considerable size. Some of the infrastructure in it is fairly well constructed. Outside the village, there are many farmers grazing cattle or farming, and in the village, some women are doing odd jobs, and there are still many green clothes hanging outside the houses, but there are no vendors or anything like that.

"What kind of archers are there?" Ares couldn't help but start muttering.

"It's coming, it's coming!" The blacksmith saw that Ares was impatient, and hurriedly said, for fear that the 4 drachmas would be yellow.

After a while, everyone came to a place that looked like a military camp, and Alexander finally determined that this was the village where the mercenaries lived, and when there was no war in peacetime, they were scattered, living with their wives and children, doing farm work, training from time to time, and only going out with the army when they were fighting, which was actually the system of integrating soldiers and farmers. Alexander has always admired this system, the advantage of such a military system is that it can better feed the army, reduce military expenditures, soldiers can do farm work to support themselves, can get military pay when they go out on the war, as long as they maintain sufficient training, it will not have much impact on the war, in fact, this is a relatively good militia.

The leader of the mercenaries is called Ducarus, about fifty years old, with a bearded face, looking at the soldiers around him with clear eyebrows, this leader is indeed very special, like a barbarian in the north, living like a Dionysus.

"Are you looking for something about me?" Ducarus said after staring at a few people for a moment.

"We're here to recruit archers." Alexand stepped forward and said.

"You should know that Cretan archers are the best in the world, so they are expensive!"

"How much is that person a month?"

"At least two hundred drachmas of silver."

"Hehe, I think you should understand that if I don't recruit them, they won't even get 60 drachmas a month, you must know that a construction worker only has 2 drachmas a day, and I think you should know better than me how much money you can earn a month just doing farm work."