Human behavior is motivated by one of seven causes: opportunity, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, hope, and passion. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

- Aristotle (one of the great philosophers, scientists, and educators in the ancient history of the world)

Just as Alexander was returning to Ionia with his army, the emissaries of the House of Brutus arrived in the open sea of the Ionian port on a transport ship with a large quantity of gold coins and weapons; Until the price is negotiated with Alexander, the emissaries of the House of Brutus will not easily bring those gold coins and weapons ashore, which is a real sheep's mouth.

Upon boarding the port, the emissaries of the House of Brutus explained their identity to the officials of the port and wished to see Alexander as soon as possible; The officials of the port have also heard of the prestige of the Roman Brutus family, which is one of the super families of the Roman Republic, and even the former powerful kingdom of Epirus has been wiped out by the Brutus family, and the current Brutus family is in full swing.

In the face of those flattering officials, the envoy of the Brutus family also maintained his due duty as an envoy, and he did not refuse to accept what he should have, and he did not miss a word about what he should not say; Two days later, Alexander himself, having learned of the officials' reports, personally arrived at the port with his personal guards.

Alexander had never been a man who was willing to waste his tongue on meaningless matters, and his previous dealings with the Kingdom of Epirus and the House of Augustus had been straightforward and open, without even the slightest pleasantries.

This time, he was still straight to the point and asked the envoy of the Brutus family, who had already had a full understanding of Alexander's situation long before the envoy; In addition, this time it was the Brutus family who asked Alexander, and the envoy of the Brutus family naturally did not dare to have the slightest support, and he answered obediently when Alexander asked.

When Alexander learned that the Brutus family wanted to obtain the Ironclad Cavalry, he thought about it for a while and offered to provide no more than 2,000 Ironclad Cavalry to the Brutus family; However, his conditions were also very harsh, that is, the Brutus family had to provide 500,000 gold coins to the Kingdom of Alexander, and return the 2,000 ironclad cavalry after a year.

If the two thousand ironcladers were killed or wounded during the mercenary period, the cost of killing one of the ironclad horsemen of the Brutus family would be a hundred gold coins, and if they were wounded, they would have to pay fifty gold coins; Everything else was done according to normal employment rules.

Frankly speaking, Alexander's asking price was not high, after all, the ironclad cavalry of the Seleucid Empire was also considered a strategic force in this era; Its powerful combat power can definitely help the Brutus family to build countless feats in a year, even if the enemy is the Spartan heavy infantry of the Spartan city-state, the ironclad cavalry can defeat them.

At the price of 500,000 gold coins, in exchange for 2,000 ironclad cavalry for two years of wholehearted service for the Brutus family, no matter how you look at it, it can be regarded as a no-loss deal; Unfortunately, this result was not what the Brutus family wanted.

The emissary of the Brutus family smiled and rejected Alexander's offer, and then told Alexander in a calm tone that the Brutus family had brought a full three million gold coins and five million gold worth of weapons and equipment for this transaction; This was not something that could be exchanged for two thousand ironclad cavalry, and Alexander had to pay a higher price for it.

Three million gold coins and five million gold worth of weapons and equipment were more than Alexander's transactions with the kingdom of Epirus and the family of Augustus combined; Alexander was never a man of wealth, he valued what it could bring him and, more importantly, what he had to pay to get it.

After the envoy of the Brutus family told the price of the Brutus family, Alexander carefully calculated it in his heart; After countless measurements, Alexander reluctantly refused the price of the Brutus emissary.

For Alexander, the price offered by the Brutus family was beyond his ability to accept; Just three million gold coins is enough to hire thirty or forty thousand elite troops from the Kingdom of Alexandria to fight for the Brutus family for more than two years, plus weapons and equipment worth five million gold coins, even if you hire 100,000 troops to fight for a year, this wealth is more than enough.

The crux of the matter is that the total army of the entire kingdom of Alexandria is not enough for 70,000 troops, and Alexander has not had time to replenish the soldiers lost in the attack on the kingdom of Halicarnassus; In other words, the Kingdom of Alexander simply did not have the strength to eat this huge amount of money taken out by the Brutus family.

Alexander knew that it would not be difficult for a force like the Brutus family to find out what he was doing; In that case, if the Brutus family came to trade with such a large sum of money, they must have other purposes, not just to hire an army.

Whatever the Brutus family wanted to do, Alexander did not consider his nascent kingdom of Alexandria to have the strength to cooperate with the Brutus; The fate of seeking skin with the tiger is often miserable, and win-win cooperation only exists between two people of equal strength.

In the face of Alexander's direct refusal, the envoy of the Brutus family calmly offered the Brutus family's conditions, that is, the Brutus family provided Alexander with a total of 8 million gold coins, and Alexander needed to pay for the ownership of 10,000 ironclad cavalry, and the Brutus family did not hire 10,000 ironclad cavalry but wanted to get 10,000 ironclad cavalry.

In addition, the Brutus family also knew that Alexander only had 5,000 ironclad cavalry under his command, and it was impossible to give 10,000 ironclad cavalry to the Brutus family; Therefore, the Brutus family also gave Alexander another choice, that is, to take out two thousand ironclad cavalry, plus the training method of ironclad cavalry and the forging method of a full set of armor in exchange for eight million gold coins.

The conditions of the Brutus family can be said to be relatively generous, you must know that the price paid by the Augustus family in order to get these is far less than the price offered by the Brutus family; To tell the truth, the price of the Brutus family made Alexander also excited, three million gold coins and weapons and equipment worth five million gold coins were really a huge amount of money.

As long as Alexander got this, he could re-expand his ironclad cavalry from 3,000 to 10,000 within the next year; The Ionian and Lycian regions could also grow rapidly, and even the weapons and equipment used by the other six legions of Alexander's kingdom could be improved by leaps and bounds.

These are indeed very big temptations for Alexander, but Alexander is very puzzled by one thing, that is, why the Brutus family should pay such a big price in exchange for these things; Although the combat effectiveness of 2,000 ironclad cavalry is strong, it can not play a very big role on the battlefield where more than 50,000 people can fight at every turn.

As for the training methods of the ironclad cavalry and the forging method of a full set of armor, what if the Brutus family got these? It is impossible to effectively help the Brutus family improve their strength in a short period of time, even if the Brutus family makes every effort to build a full set of armor and train ironclad cavalry, it will only be one or two thousand ironclad cavalry at most every year, is it worth paying such a big price?

You must know that training ironclad cavalry is not a simple matter, training methods, a full set of armor, excellent knights, and top war horses, these four factors are indispensable; With the strength of the Brutus family, even if they have the top three, it is impossible for them to obtain top-level war horses on a large scale, which is something that no force can do.

This meant that the price paid by the Brutus family was not proportional to what they received at all, and Alexander really couldn't understand why the Brutus family would make such a deal with him; Puzzled, Alexander did not directly agree with the price offered by the envoy of the Brutus family, but asked the envoy about his doubts.

If Alexander had no doubts about such a deal, then there was a real problem; When Alexander asked about his doubts, the envoy of the Brutus family once again put forward another condition to Alexander, that is, once the Brutus family launched a war against the city-states of Athens and Sparta, Alexander would also cooperate with the Brutus family in waging war against the city-state of Pergamon.

If Alexander could promise to do this, the Brutus family would trade with Alexander on the above terms; Actually, this was a win-win condition for the Brutus family and the Kingdom of Alexander, and the Brutus family, who attacked the Athenian and Spartan city-states, could do so without worrying about the reinforcements of the Spartan city-state from the city-state of Pergamon.

And the Kingdom of Alexandria can also attack the city-state of Pergamon without worrying about the reinforcements of the city-state of Sparta to the city-state of Pergamon; As long as the two sides cooperate tacitly, the Brutus family can smoothly unify the entire Greek peninsula, and the Kingdom of Alexander can completely solve its own worries.

Such conditions were still too favorable for Alexander; Although on the surface it appeared to be a mutually beneficial deal between the Brutus family and the Kingdom of Alexander, in fact it was the Kingdom of Alexander who took advantage of the greater advantage.

This time the emissary of the House of Brutus did not explain anything further, nor did he prescribe any more conditions; After careful consideration, Alexander finally agreed to the terms of the Brutus family's transaction, agreeing to use the training methods of two thousand ironclad cavalry and ironclad cavalry, as well as the forging technology of a full set of armor, in exchange for the Brutus family's weapons and equipment of three million gold coins and five million gold coins. (To be continued.) )