Calimaya led 2,600 Athenian warriors and 400 Phossi warriors all the way into Athens; The Greek coalition is defeated! The Persians are coming! For a time, chickens and dogs jumped in the city of Athens, and people panicked.

Themistocles, the commander of the Athenian navy, sat in the semicircular chamber with a gloomy face, watching the lonely military governor Calimaya walk in; The council chamber was filled with people, including clergy and Athenian magnates、......

The Athenian army and navy had never been on good terms, and Timistocles, who was a dignified man, was reluctant to stay with men like politicians more like soldiers, such as Calimaya; In addition, Timistocles' family is only at a medium level. For all these reasons, Timisocles, despite his ability and prestige, only put him in charge of the navy; As for the center of power in Athens, he had no chance of entering.

Now, the Athenian Army is basically finished, and Athens is in danger; At this time, the ability of a leader is obviously much more important than how much power he has; As a result, Timisocles was naturally pushed to the fore by everyone, hoping that he could ensure the safety of Athens.

By Themistocles as the military and political chief?

Unanimously passed, there is nothing to discuss, can you find a better person?

"I propose to abandon the city of Athens." Themistocles threw out his thoughts.

"What! You can't! Absolutely not ......"

……

A small number of people are thinking carefully about the meaning of this; And more people have risen up and fiercely opposed this proposal.

You're just sitting in the position of boss, and you're thinking about running away without a fight?

The city of Athens is our home, should we wander together?

Truth is often in the hands of a few; In order to implement the truth, either read the talent or ...... Convince the majority.

One can imagine how difficult it was for Themistocles.

Even as the Persians approached step by step, these guys who decided the fate of Athens were still arguing fiercely in the council chamber; Perhaps, the agricultural markets of Athens are quieter than the council chambers.

The Athenians have always regarded themselves as the bosses of Greece, and the truth is not far from ten; Athens did boast of the most powerful navy in Greece, an army that could rival the Spartans, the most prosperous and beautiful cities, and the greatest wealth .......

However, the Athenians were now cornered by the Persians and were to abandon the city and flee; It is difficult for all Athenians to accept this reality, but if they do not flee, they will stay and wait for death.

Themistocles, who succeeded in convincing the majority of opponents, to implement the empty city plan.

The women and children were transferred to the islands of Trosyn and Salamis, while all the adult men, on the ships of war, were gathered into the bay of Salami; The Persian army had no gain in the city of Athens and was bound to continue its advance; or turn to the northwest and go to the Thebes, Phossi, etc.; Or turn southwest and head to the Balpennese. In order to survive, the other city-states will inevitably fight the Persians to the end, and no matter what the outcome, the Persians will also lose a lot; At that point, the Athenians had saved themselves and had been given a chance to breathe before moving on to the next step as the situation depended.

The above is the overall intention of Timistokery's so-called empty city plan: to avoid the enemy's edge, preserve strength, and wait for the opportunity to move.

The whole city of Athens began to stir, every family was nervously packing up their belongings, hundreds of thousands of people, it was not easy to transfer; The Persians were only about forty kilometers away from the city of Athens, and although the speed of the advance of the large army was limited, it did not take much time; Seeing the chaos in the city, Timisocles had no choice but to add an order, asking people to carry dry food, clothing, gold coins or something, and the rest of the things without them.

"Military ...... Military and political chief, the west of the city is coming...... A large number of troops. "An Athenian warrior came to Themistocles panting and reported vague, worrying news.

"Chengxi? A large number of troops? Timistocles was puzzled; Kalimaya, who was following him, was also puzzled, if it was a Persian, it should have appeared from the southeast? Besides, the Persians need to clean up the battlefield, and then the armies are drawn one after another, how can it be so fast? If it was Sparta and other city-states in the Peloponnese, it would not have been possible to reach the level of "large numbers"; According to common sense, if there can be a scale of 10,000 people, the Athenians will have to thank the goddess of Athens.

Before it was over, another Athenian warrior came running and shouted, "Commander...... In the southwest of the sea, more than 100 warships were found. ”

More than 100 warships?

The Persians numbered more than a thousand warships, and it is said that they encountered a hurricane in the bay near Thermopylae Pass, and lost several hundred, but at least 800 of them remained; The Athenian navy had 180 warships, and if the enemy only had more than a hundred warships, then Themistocles had nothing to fear, but the evacuation of the whole city would be delayed for a long time, and if they were unlucky, they would never be able to evacuate.

Athens was in crisis.

Sandwiched between the vast marching columns, the king's army looked out at the city of Athens ahead.

There is a difference between culture and culture, and sometimes the observation of architecture is enough to illustrate the problem.

Sparta didn't even have walls, and the walls of Athens weren't majestic, but they were tall enough; The first impression on Wang Jun was that he was beautiful. Unlike Sparta, which admired nature and health, the Athenians were very particular about music, music, and art, all of which were the first in Greece; Of course, there are some negative products of everything, for example, Athenian women in this period started to wear makeup, and they were embarrassed to go out without a few hours of makeup. Not only women, but also the men of Athens were very particular; Athenians were generally not tall, and their hair was mostly black, and occasionally there were naturally blonde hair, which was immediately sought after, so a fashion wave of dyeing black hair into blonde hair was born.

You know, it's 480 B.C.!

The huge army of Sparta, divided into army and navy, went straight to Athens.

Marching all the way to the northeast, the huge army stopped at Corinth, and gathered reinforcements from the city-states of the entire Peloponnese, and the originally large army was once again enlarged; I don't know if it was because the royal army changed the course of history, these city-states suddenly went all out, and the strength of each city-state almost poured out.

Navy:

There were 16 Spartan warships, 25 Mantinian warships, 25 Tegia warships, 30 Corinthian warships, and 36 Arcadian warships, a total of 132 warships and 23,000 personnel......

On the Army side:

Mantinia sent 2000 warriors, Tegia 2000 warriors, Arcadia 4000 warriors, and even the smallest city-state, Phileuceus, sent 1000 warriors; Corinth had already sent 1,000 men to support Athens, and had not yet received news of the total annihilation, and this time, they sent 1,800 warriors again. Together with Sparta's huge army of 100,000, the total strength of the combined forces of the Peloponnese reached an unprecedented 110,800.

Having received the exact news, Themistocles gave a long soothing look; The previous two vague pieces of news were almost desperate, and now, the whole of Athens is boiling.

Reinforcements! Huge reinforcements!

The Spartans brought with them 110,800 armies, 132 warships, and a navy of 23,000 men, plus 180 warships, a navy of 31,000 in Athens, and ...... 2600 Athenian warriors carried by Kalimaya; Although the number is shabby, Athens only has such a small army for the time being; As for the support force of the Delian Alliance, there are only 400 Fusi warriors left.

No matter what the reinforcements thought of the crippled Athens;

No matter how the Corinthian commander questioned Kalimaya, how did the previous 1,000 Corinthian warriors all die?

In short, the Athenians are still very relieved, well, sad, shocked and relieved.

The reinforcements were so large that the military governor ordered that there was no need to flee the city of Athens, which was the source of the Athenians' peace of mind; The loss of more than 17,000 warriors means that 17,000 families in Athens have lost their loved ones, which is a sad reason.

and the shock, which belonged only to a small part of the Athenian elite; This Spartan can send 100,000 troops in one city-state, which is terrifying!

For a long time, because of the cruel selection of descendants of the Spartans, the population was sparse; The Spartans never included the freedmen in the army, and when they used the helots, the weapons they provided were very rubbish, let alone trained them, and they were pure cannon fodder of cannon fodder. Lin Lin and many other factors eventually led to the various city-states of Greece, for a long time, the eyes were focused on the Spartan warriors of more than 10,000 people, who made them so fierce; However, there is a very important thing, which these city-states have neglected, and it is very fatal; In fact, the Spartans themselves ignored a lot of things, wasting such a large territory and so many people of non-Spartan origin.

Sparta controlled an area of 8,400 square kilometers, while Athens now controls just over a quarter of Sparta's area; The population of Sparta, pure Spartans, is indeed not much, only about 120,000, which is about the same as a medium-sized city-state, but in its vast jurisdiction, there are still 400,000 freemen and 1 million helots!

Now, the freedmen became fourth-class citizens of Sparta, and eagerly participated in military politics; Helots had the opportunity to become civilians, and his fighting spirit was high; Although the training time is not long, weapons are no longer garbage, not to mention, the training method of Spartan officers is definitely the most vigorous in the Greek region in this era.

Themistocles, Calimaya, and a number of shrewd Athenians, outwardly enthusiastic, welcomed Leonidas and his party on behalf of Athens; In fact, these guys are all extremely gloomy in their hearts.

The "Spartan militia" composed of 60,000 black laborers walked in front of the Athenians, and these original Spartan cannon fodder were all of high morale, neat queues, and well-armed; 30,000 "Spartan Wehrmacht", in a better state, on the surface, does not lose to the crippled Athenian Army; The so-called 10,000 "Spartan Royal Guards" are naturally as fierce as tigers, but because they know something, the Athenians are not unusual.

When did Sparta become so powerful?

Themistocles and Calimaya looked at each other, and both understood the other's thoughts, the Spartans were more terrible than the Persians!

The Athenians have a characteristic that they are very united in the face of a strong enemy, and when there is no threat from an external enemy, they are particularly fond of infighting; In this situation, Themistocles and Calimaya, two Athenian heavyweights, stand together in thought and action.

"Sparta has such a strong army, but it has only sent 300 men to Thermopylae before; And now, it was delayed until the Athenian army was crippled by the Persians, and it was belated; Leonidas, you are so calculating! ”

Themistocles pondered in his heart; In all fairness, he wronged at least half of Leonidas; 300 people went to the hot springs, or Leonidas was determined to die, otherwise, let alone 300 people, there would not even be a single hair.

In the council chamber of Athens, the generals of the Greek coalition city-states gathered to discuss how to respond to the Persian attack; The Athenians were very low-key, and offered to let Leonidas be the commander of the coalition forces, even if the Athenian navy was still the strongest, and the Athenians were also handed over to the command of the Spartan admiral Yuribiade.

Wang Jun looked at Themistocles with contempt, the newly appointed military governor of Athens was really shameless; Knowing that the Spartan Navy was weak, Yuribiad only had experience in commanding 16 warships, and now he was given more than 300 warships, and 180 of them were Athenian Navy, how could he command it?

Maybe the goddess of Athens had finally woken up, or maybe it was the results of the New Marathon that frightened them; A meeting is taking place here, and reinforcements from the Attica Peninsula are arriving.

Navy:

There were 23 battleships of Thebes, 25 battleships of Sesby, and 25 warships of Fossey, a total of 73 warships and 13,000 personnel.

On the Army side:

Thebes sent 3000 fighters, Sesby sent 2000 fighters, and Fosse again sent 2000 fighters.

Because of the unprecedented strength of the power, and the low-key nature of the newly defeated Athens, the military meeting of the Greek coalition went very smoothly.

Leonidas, king of Sparta, as supreme commander of the coalition forces and commander of the army; Spartan naval commander Euribiade, who served as commander-in-chief of the combined Greek fleet; In addition, the lower-level military command organs have also been properly arranged.

Outside the city of Athens, densely packed with infantry from the Greek coalition, they were encamping on the northeastern outskirts of Athens according to Leonidas' orders; In Salami Bay, 385 warships of various city-states gathered, and Wang Jun accompanied Yuribiad to Timistocles' ship.

In order to unify Greece, defeating the Athenian navy was an inevitable thing.

In other words, the Spartan navy was too weak, only 16 warships; The only consolation is that the Spartan and Athenian warships are the same in appearance and of the same quality; Just out of curiosity, Wang Jun casually asked Yuri Biade, but got an unbelievable answer.

The Spartans, who had a bull's nose, actually didn't know how to build ships?

To be exact, the Spartans would still build some small ships, but the Spartans really couldn't build larger, better warships; The 16 ships of the current Spartan fleet were all bought from the Athenians. Looking at the smile on the corner of Themistocles' mouth, the new military and political governor of Athens, Wang Jun sneered in his heart.

How? They were all beaten to the door by the Persians, and they were embarrassed to laugh at Sparta?

;