May 12, 363 Continental Gregorian Calendar, Hitaros, Thrace. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The leaders of the five western city-states received a notice from Menia and rushed from their respective city-states to the temple of Ares in Thrace by starry night to convene a meeting. The gods of Hitarus had many temples, but they always chose one of them as their main temple. This is a custom that originated in the days of the city-states, where each city-state always claimed that its city-state was protected by a great god and could have an advantage over the other in some way. The main temple of Ares was located in Thrace, and for hundreds of years there were no other cities vying for the worship of this deity, probably not because Thrace was superior, but because Ares was not as popular as Pallas Athena and Phobs Apollo.

Especially for the Landner family, they seem to prefer the charm of the sun god to women.

When Nathaniels walked into the ancient temple, he did have the above idea. Although he and his brother were inevitably going to battle, they never seemed to have visited the temple of Ares before each expedition. Now it seems that he is going to pray sincerely, hoping that Ares will not be petty about the past neglect of the Landner family.

"Your Royal Highness, presumably this temple is the only one we have here that can surpass the royal capital." Nathaniels was greeted by Aeneas, the military consul of Thrace, a man born with a strong back.

"His Excellency Aeneas is really too modest, there are too many places in the west that are different from Haiswa."

Aeneas smiled, not thanking or smug the prince for his compliment. He looked up at the altar of Ares in the center of the temple, and then whispered to Nathaniels, "If Your Highness can convince Odysseus of Ithaac in the next meeting, then everyone else will follow him, he is the wisest man we have here, and certainly the most cunning and sophistic. ”

"Thank you for your advice, and I would venture to ask, what is the position of Thrace?"

"Thracians are born warriors, born rebels, we never accept enslavement from anyone, that's all." Aeneas replied lightly.

The five western city-states practiced an ancient democracy, which was once popular in the various city-states founded by the Hitaros, and created the fruits of a very brilliant civilization. But with the rise of the Yartikat Empire, the shortcomings of this city-state democracy were exposed in the face of a unified and powerful empire, and the city-states were always scattered. Even if they were able to form an alliance, it would not last long enough, and it would often take the Yartikats a little camouflage and a casual stirring up for a seemingly powerful city-state alliance to fall apart or even kill each other. The Yartikats were also loyal followers of this system, but as the country expanded, the republic eventually became an empire. At present, there is no country on the entire continent that implements this system except for the west of Chunquan Pass. The monarchy, which had been practiced only by the Hitaros as barbarians, was now the standard system of the civilized world.

Returning to the original topic, the five western city-states realized the shortcomings of their own system, and in order to make the alliance more stable, they changed the original system. Although the five city-states were independent, the administrative center of the alliance was unified in Thrace, and the final decision on matters related to the whole situation would be made by the "Council of 500" of Thrace. The "councils of hundred" of the city-states were elected by direct vote of the local population, and then formed the "councils of five hundred". Each city-state nominated an archon to manage the affairs of the alliance. Thrace occupied the nominating power of military consuls; Menia was in charge of the handicraft industry; Argos is in charge of commerce; Anedan is in charge of agriculture; Ithac is in charge of the law.

In order to be able to accommodate enough people, an open-air circular hall was built behind the Temple of Ares in Thrace that could accommodate a thousand people. By the time Nathaniels and Aeneas walked into the hall, most of the senators had already arrived, including the three consuls of Menia, and by the way, Toklos was the consul of the Crafts of the Alliance. Some of the senators came to get acquainted with Nathaniels, and Aeneas introduced them to the prince, but most of them did not seem to be interested in Nathaniels.

"Are you all here?" Nathaniels asked.

Aeneas looked around and replied, "The toughest of them hasn't come yet." ”

Just as the Thracians were saying this, a voice burst into the room, "Valliant Aeneas, your voice is really not fit to speak ill of people behind their backs." ”

As they followed, a man was taking off his cloak, folding it and handing it to his followers.

"Wise Odysseus, if you don't come, we won't dare to discuss anything." Aeneas went up and embraced the consul of Ithaq.

"Presumably this is His Royal Highness Prince Nathaniels, what a blessing." Odysseus then stepped forward and owed himself to Nathaniels.

Nathaniels returned the salute as he carefully examined the man in front of him, and although his attitude was humble, his blue eyes always moved flexibly; Although his smile was always on his face, it changed every minute with the subtle twitching of his facial muscles. He has a Chinese face, a beard, curly hair with a reddish-brown tinge, and is not very tall, but he is also athletic.

"Alright, since I'm the last one there, let's get down to business." Odysseus exclaimed, "Please ask His Highness Nathaniels to explain the situation directly, and we will not waste any time." ”

"Well, distinguished consuls and senators, I think you have heard a little about what is going on outside before you come here. Just like a long time ago, our homeland is facing an invasion by the enemy. Unfortunately, my brother, King Canites, was defeated at the Battle of Besiktas by the invading Reynosk army. Now that half of the entire kingdom of Hitarus has fallen into foreign hands, I was ordered by the king to return to my own territory to raise troops to support him. But the situation changed too quickly, and before I could gather enough strength at my hands, the enemy's army had already reached Galatasaray. So, I've just come here with my only entourage, hoping to get your support. Nathaniels gave a brief but vivid account of the main story.

"Haiswa never favored us, so why should we shed our blood for that king?" The voice of doubt was the first to sound.

"We're not fighting for the king, we're fighting for Hitarus!" Mentor of Menia stepped forward again.

"Fighting for Hitarus? What did Hitarus give us? ”

"Even if we take a step back, we are willing to fight for Hitaros, but who can prove that the war with the Renoskes is for Hitaros? And not just to keep his own throne for someone in the Landner family? ”

These were not the things that the young Mentor could handle, and although he believed that his ideas were correct, he was not good at argument and logic to come up with strong arguments to refute what he saw as self-interested.

However, there were also those who supported Mentor among the senators, especially the Thracians. So the elders were divided into two factions, and there they quarreled there.

"Wise Odysseus, you should also see that the Reynosk army is extremely powerful, and we all know that King Canites has rarely been defeated in battles in recent years, but now he has been defeated by the other side in a battle, and even the king has fallen. And this Prince Nathaniels lost his territory like a lost dog. If we listen to his temptation to fight the Renoskes, I am afraid that we will only lose the lives of the young people in vain, and you must support our side. ”

"Lord Penthos, you are highly respected, and what you say is very reasonable." Odysseus agreed.

Then Aeneas came up again and said, "Wise Odysseus, you have read poetry and books, and you must not forget how our ancestors resisted the invasion of the Articut Empire to the death, when the entire continent had already been conquered by them, and only our ancestors insisted on resisting. In the end, they had to destroy our city and walk away. Now that the same thing is happening again, are we going to bend our knees to the Renosk Tsar and disgrace our ancestors? Thrace enshrines Ares, the god of war, and no matter what, Thrace will not shame this god and our ancestors. ”

"I know your determination, rest assured, I will not agree to submit to a foreign ruler either."

When Aeneas returned to Nathaniels, the prince said to him, "How is it? Did Master Odysseus approve of your opinion but not give a clear position? ”

"How do you know?"

"I stood here and watched for a while, and everyone who went to talk to him saw him smiling and admitting, but I'm afraid no one was assured, otherwise they wouldn't have gone up to talk to him one after the other."

"So, O cunning Odysseus, he always takes pleasure in not letting others guess his mind." Aeneas sighed.

Nathaniels cupped his chin in his right hand and pondered, considering how to force the cunning wise man to take a stand and stand firmly on his side. "Well, if only Brother Canites were here, he is better at dealing with this kind of thing than I am, and who else on the whole continent has enough wisdom to help me? Belch...... There is one person who may be smarter than him. Well, forget it, when it comes to him, even our King Majesty, who is usually calm and wise, will be mad and want to be on par with him...... Hey, maybe it's a good idea, and the only thing that can wash away reason is anger. Thinking of this, Nathaniels suddenly came up with a plan.

Perhaps Zeus, the king of all gods, was interested in favoring the Hitarus, and the envoy of the Renosk people also found Thrace at this time, bringing with him a letter from Bazaev urging him to surrender. As Kutuzov and Chabaev have talked about before, Bazaev is not a mediocre player, and because of this, he will not be satisfied with the situation that Kutuzov left him. Bazaev hopes that he can continue to work hard and pacify the enemy that his predecessor did not have time to solve in one fell swoop. However, he finally heeded the advice of his fellow Chabaev and adopted a policy of gentleness to recruit the Hitaros.

Nathaniels' men preemptively stopped the messenger, and when the prince himself came out of the meeting, they happened to inform him of it. Nathaniels conversed with the Heilman man, and found that although he could hear the Continental Mandarin, he did not know the Hitarus language at all. So, in his heart, the prince thanked the gods for their help to him, and pretended to be enthusiastic and led the messenger to meet the elites of the place.

"Everyone, please be quiet, this is an emissary from Lenoske, I am afraid he will bring us some good news." Nathaniels first said so loudly in the Continental Mandarin.

The Hitaros all focused their eyes on the messenger, which made the Heilman panic, so much so that he accidentally dropped the scroll to the ground as he pulled out the letter. Nathaniels, who was on the side, hurriedly picked it up for him, glanced at the contents of the letter by the way, and found that as he expected, the Heilman only knew how to write in Reynosque. This makes it easier for him to reverse black and white.

The nervous messenger, having thanked the ill-intentioned prince, began to read aloud Bazaev's letter of persuasion. Overall, although the grammar of the letter can be described as a mess, the wording is relatively soft. However, because the messenger was nervous, he stammered his thoughts, which made people feel as if he was afraid of something.

Most of the Hitaros present did not understand the Reynosk language, so they did not understand the contents of the letter at all.

"Your Highness, do you know what this envoy is reading?" Aeneas couldn't help but ask.

"Uh...... Well, well, I don't think you know about it. Nathaniels looked embarrassed.

"What the hell are you talking about? Your Highness, we know that you have fought against the Renosk people on the border in the past, and you will always know some of their language. Turbo Cross continued.

Seeing that Nathaniels was silent, and that the Heilman was still talking there, even Odysseus could not bear it anymore, and came to the prince to ask the prince what the Renoskes were talking about.

"Alas, I was embarrassed to explain, for fear of misinterpreting the good intentions of others. So, let me tell you what he means. Nathaniels could not withstand the repeated questions of the crowd, and finally made up his mind to answer. In fact, the meaning of the Renosk people is this, if your city-states are willing to avoid the attack of the Renosk army, then as long as you offer 'water' and 'earth' to the Renosk Tsar. The Tsar was to appoint a governor who would have the same privileges as the lord in Reynolds. ”

When it comes to "offering 'water' and 'earth'", the faces of the Hitarus people are already unsightly, and most of them have begun to glare angrily at the unaware messenger. Only Odysseus didn't show his anger, he just put away his smile and continued to ask Nathaniels: "What are the privileges of the lords of Renoske?" ”

"Ah, this one, it's not much different from other places in the general continent, only a few small aspects...... Yes...... It's just a little bit different. Nathaniels hesitated.

"And what do you mean by those little things?"

"For example, '**' la......"

"What is '**'?" Odysseus felt that the term might not be a good thing.

"That is, whoever is newly married in the territory, the lord can give priority to the bride for one night."

"I see, thank you for explaining." Odysseus turned and strode toward the pulpit in the room.

"Your Royal Highness, you have Odysseus." Aeneas said from the side.

"Huh? Did I say something that shouldn't have been said? He asked me to explain what '**' meant. Nathaniels looked innocent.

"Odysseus is getting married this fall."

"Oh my God!" Nathaniels shouted.

"Alright, that gentleman over there, is your faith over?" Odysseus asked loudly in the Continental Mandarin. The Heilman was so overwhelmed that he had to reply that he had finished reading.

"Very well," Odysseus said, turning to the Hitarus, in the Hitarus language, "Ladies and gentlemen, our ancestors were also asked to sacrifice 'water' and 'earth', yes, the tyrannical Emperor of the Articutat Empire. Now that we are being asked to give our water and earth, how can we endure being humiliated again! ”

One of the elders shouted, "See the water and earth of his ghost." And "We happen to have a nice deep well here." "Something like that.

"Maybe our power is insignificant, maybe we are doomed, but we will never succumb to such a shameless tyrant. Fellow citizens, we always think that the monarchy is a bad system, and although we still think it is, I will say here that the monarchy of Hitaros is ten thousand times better than the monarchy of Reynolds. At least the Landner family will not ask us to offer any 'water' and 'earth', nor will they ask for any damn '**' (when this word was spoken, Nathaniels hurriedly explained to the people around him what it meant, and the unmarried young man and the old man who did not marry his son were immediately filled with righteous indignation; And the Lenosque envoy looked through the letter inexplicably, because he did not remember that he mentioned the word, in fact he did not mention it. ）。 King Kanites was also 10,000 times better than the Tsar of Reynolds, and when faced with the enemy's invasion, at least he bravely led his army to fight the enemy. Distinguished parliamentarians, don't we love our homeland and our country as much as a king? I, Odysseus, swear here to Ares and to the gods that I cannot marry my beloved Penelope without removing the threat of the Renoskes to us. Compatriots, let's arm ourselves and let's fight with indomitable courage as our ancestors did! Tyrants can take our lives, but they can't take away our freedom! Long live Hitarus! Long live the union of city-states and democracy! Long live Ithac! ”

"Long live the union of city-states and democracy!" The patriarchs raised their fists and shouted.

"Long live Thrace!" Aeneas jumped onto the pulpit and shouted as he stood side by side with Odysseus.

"Long live Menia!" Young Mentor jumped on it as well.

"Long live Argos!" "Long live Anedan!" The Consuls of the Union of the two cities also jumped on it.

"Oh my God, my old bones are boiling with blood." Penthos said this, and then the elder jumped onto the pulpit and huddled with a few young men.

"Dear Penthos, you should shout something!" Mentor said.

"Well, that's it," cried Penthos, taking a deep breath, "die, Tsar!" ”

"This sentence really makes people feel comfortable." Thocross looked at the old man and the young man from under the pulpit and smiled.

The poor Heilman had no idea what was going on, and he had simply read a grammatical letter that had sent the Hitarus into a collective madness, and he was still standing there waiting for the other to calm down and give him an answer. At this time, Nathaniels walked up to him and whispered to him, "Honorable messenger, this group of Hitaros has decided to go to war against you, and if you don't run away now, when they come to their senses, I am afraid that they will tear out your heart and lungs to sacrifice to the gods." ”

The Heilman was so frightened that he muttered a sentence and ran out in a panic.

"Your Highness, what did the Renosk man say?" One of the subordinates asked.

"No culture kills people." Nathaniels replied.