ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 1036 The Kingdom Conference during the War ([-])
Cornelus was already old, and his voice was not loud and even trembling. It was impossible for people at the back of the venue to hear clearly, but there were several messengers in front of him who repeated his words in loud voices.

At this time, he took out a papyrus roll from his arms, unfolded it carefully, coughed lightly, and then began to recite: "Dear elders of the Kingdom of Dionia! Dear elders of the towns of the Kingdom of Dionia, Representatives! When the Kingdom Assembly was convened, I was unable to attend the meeting. For this, I deeply apologize to you! This war with Carthage, Rome, and Samnite was not initiated by us, but we did We have to fight on, because it is related to the life and death of the Kingdom of Dionia and the fundamental interests of each of our citizens!

Up to now, this war has lasted for a year. During this year, our soldiers have fought bloody battles on the front line, and you in the rear have worked hard to maintain the stability of domestic order and worked tirelessly to prepare for the war. With a large amount of supplies, we were able to defeat Rome and Samona one after another, which is inseparable from your painstaking efforts!

Some time ago, our Sicilian fleet and the third fleet almost wiped out the Carthaginian fleet, and just yesterday when I wrote this letter, our land army severely damaged Carthage's 10-strong army in Selinus. Captured the Carthaginian military commander Mago——"

When Cornelus read this, he paused intentionally. As he expected, thunderous cheers erupted from the venue.

"Great! Another big victory!"

"We won! We won! We won this war!"

"We defeated Carthage! We became the new overlord of the Western Mediterranean!!"

……

People danced and hugged each other, and their joy was beyond words. You must know that Carthage has dominated the Western Mediterranean for many years. Most people present, including the elders, did not have much confidence in this war. The result surprised them.

At this time, even the order officers in charge of order at the venue smiled and did not immediately stop the commotion in the venue. After a while, they asked for silence again.

Cornerus then continued to read: "...We defeated the Carthaginian navy, and now we have defeated the Carthaginian army. The Carthaginians have basically lost the ability to fight our Dionia. , so they sent envoys to ask for peace talks with us.

Everyone, I know that this year's war has had a great impact on the kingdom. The national treasury has been almost depleted, food prices have soared, a large number of young and middle-aged citizens have been evacuated, labor is lacking, soldiers have suffered many casualties, and some territories have been ravaged by the enemy. In urgent need of reconstruction... Many of you may hope to gain some benefits and negotiate peace with Carthage to restore order and stability to the kingdom.

However, although the Western Mediterranean is large, it cannot accommodate two powerful countries. Do we want to see Carthage, which has been hit hard after the armistice, learn lessons, cultivate itself, and challenge us again after recovering its strength?

I think your answer must be 'No! ', so we cannot stop at the current victory, and we must continue to fight until we finally get the ideal result we want, that is, we Dionia must gain an absolute advantage so that Carthage will never be able to challenge, Let there always be only one overlord in the Western Mediterranean, and that is us - Dionia! "

When Cornelus read this, his voice couldn't help but become louder, and everyone present had bright eyes and held their heads high.

“...Therefore, I hope that you will continue to unite, make the greatest efforts, continue to appease the people, maintain the stability of the kingdom, and do your best to provide sufficient supplies to the army until we win the final victory!...The above is what His Majesty wrote The content of the letter." Cornelus finished reading the letter and handed it to Lysias next to him.

At this moment, someone in the venue suddenly shouted: "His Majesty Davos is victorious!"

The venue became lively again: "His Majesty Davos is victorious!!!"

"The Kingdom of Dionia is victorious!!!"

……

Publius, who was sitting in front of the venue, was shrouded in this passionate atmosphere. He never expected that on the first day he stepped into the highest power temple of the Kingdom of Dionia, he would feel the ambition of the kingdom. ——Become the sole overlord of the Western Mediterranean.

Although he was not as excited as others, he was a little more proud and breathed out at the same time: Fortunately, he was lucky enough to become a citizen of this kingdom in time!
At this time, Cornelus took the opportunity and said: "It seems that everyone not only has no objections to the decision made by His Majesty, but also supports it. In the next two days, we will discuss how to better complete His Majesty's decision. request. But now, we first invite the chief officials of each department to give you a summary of the situation in the kingdom last year. Since everyone is interested in the military situation of the kingdom, first of all, please invite Minister of Military Affairs Hilos to come to the stage."

According to the previous procedures of the Kingdom Conference, King Davos first made a comprehensive summary of the situation in the kingdom last year, and then the chiefs of each department gave a detailed introduction to the situation that the department was responsible for. But now Davos is away on an expedition. , the steady Cornerus and Lysias did not dare to overstep their bounds and simply skipped the first link. The speeches of each department usually started from the Finance Department. After all, money is the issue that everyone is most concerned about, but now The military has become the biggest concern for everyone, so Hilos was the first to appear.

After years of training, this mercenary-turned-military minister stood in the center of the venue, with a calm and majestic demeanor that attracted everyone's attention.

He spoke comprehensively and briefly about the whole process of the war between Dionia and Rome, Samnite, and Carthage from the occurrence, development, and current situation of the wars between Dionia and Rome, and the current situation. The strategies and tactics formulated by King Firth and the Ministry of Military Affairs against these three hostile forces also mentioned the contributions made by each legion and fleet in the war.

Even though everyone had a general understanding of last year's battle through various channels, Heros's comprehensive and professional narration still made them feel refreshed, so everyone was listening carefully.

For Publius, he only then knew why Dionysia dared to ignore the Carthaginian attack in the first place, and King Davos first led the army to attack Rome. It turned out that they had already had serious discussions and negotiations. Deductions, careful preparations, and perfect plans were made, but Rome responded hastily, how could it be undefeated!

Publius roughly felt the horror of the establishment of the Military Affairs Department in the Kingdom of Dionia. Let a group of people with rich war experience do nothing else, specialize in military affairs, and only study how to defeat the enemy every day. How could they compete with the Roman nobles who spent a lot of time on city-state affairs and foreign affairs, and only summoned citizens and considered tactics when war came!

What surprised Publius even more was the series of data that Hilos said: In the past year's war, the Kingdom of Dionia used a total of eleven regular legions, one reserve legion, and four There are more than 700 warships in the cavalry corps, four fleets, and the army alone employs 11 people (not counting the reserve soldiers who were added later). What a powerful military force this is, and it can make this powerful military force One year of normal operation also shows the strength of the Kingdom of Dionysia!
Publius, who had been a senator in Rome for many years and had been engaged in tedious government affairs, was deeply aware of this. Now in retrospect: when the Roman Senate rejected the Dionysian envoy's request to "hope that they would reach an armistice with Wolsey" Demanding, and arrogantly shouting "not afraid of Dionia joining the war", it is so ridiculous to think about it now.

Of course, at the end of the speech, Hilos also mentioned with a heavy expression: Although the Dionian army achieved great victory in this year's war, it also suffered a lot of casualties. A total of nearly 3 people have been killed so far. Thousands of people died and more than 4 were injured (including Navy crew members, who accounted for the majority of the death toll).The Ministry of Military Affairs will try its best to arrange the funeral arrangements of the fallen soldiers, send pensions to their families as soon as possible, and properly solve the future livelihood problems of the families of the killed and injured soldiers, so that the soldiers who are still fighting will have no worries.

By the time Hilos finished speaking, almost no one asked any questions, and everyone responded with warm applause.

The second one who came to the stage to make a summary was Mercy, the Minister of Finance. His speaking style was obviously different from that of Helos. He complained that the war had wiped out the kingdom’s treasury’s savings for many years. The expression of heartache on his face was by no means Fake it.

Throughout the entire narration, he was mostly complaining about the large amount of gold and silver consumed in this war, even though he also mentioned that he had gained a lot of loot from the captured city-states such as Rome and Syracuse, and that he had already Precious metals began to be mined from the mines in Corsica and Sardinia, which actually made up for a large deficit in the national treasury. However, his tone and expression seemed to indicate that these were not worth mentioning at all. If the kingdom did not Stop the war immediately, and the kingdom will be in trouble this year due to lack of finances.

Publius knew from the whispers of those around him that this was the usual style of the greedy treasury minister of the kingdom, who was always complaining about the lack of gold and silver in the treasury.

However, Publius was still shocked by Melses' statement: the monthly tax revenue of the Kingdom of Dionia is seven to eight hundred talents, and this year it is close to tens of thousands of talents. This was also due to the impact of the war, which resulted in a significant decrease in tax revenue.But even so, compared with the previous Rome, its income was only a fraction of that of the Kingdom of Dionia. If Rome was still capable of fighting in the military, its financial resources were not worth mentioning at all. Death may be expected.

　I was drunk at the work party last night and failed to update in time. Please forgive me!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)