ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 738 The Thebes Incident ([-])
In the following more than a year, the exiles ceased their activities. Although the team continued to grow, they did not strengthen their troops. Instead, their fighting spirit was worn away by time. More and more people sighed, but fewer and fewer people were determined to take revenge.

Pelopidas has always been paying attention to the trend in the west: the rulers of Thebes, with the support of the Spartans, have perversely implemented a high-handed rule over the city-state, and the people are suffering and complaining; Other city-states in the world also surrendered to Sparta one after another...

The strong sense of responsibility made Pelopidas unable to endure it any longer. He decided to take immediate action. For fear of leaking the secret, he did not discuss with other leaders of the exiles, but privately found six like-minded friends to assist him. Implement the "Recovery of Thebes Plan" that he has been thinking about for a long time.

They disguised themselves as hunters and set out from the border of Athens early in the morning, traveling non-stop over the mountains and ridges. When they arrived outside Thebes, night was approaching, so they blended in with the group of farmers returning to the city from the fields. After passing the city gate, he hid in the residence of his good friend Charon, and asked Charon to send a slave to call his other good friend, Phylidas, the clerk under the military consul.

After several people deliberated, there was this banquet the next night.

Now that they had successfully killed two pro-Spartan military governors, Pelopidas just breathed a sigh of relief when Phylidas anxiously raised the letter in his hand: "Pelopidas , the situation is not good! Someone noticed our plan and wrote a letter to inform us! "

Pelopidas hurriedly took the letter and read it. The content of the letter was to warn Achias: There are exiles sneaking into the city and trying to assassinate the leaders of the pro-Spartan faction, reminding him to be careful! "

Pelopidas' expression changed and he quickly asked: "Who wrote it?!"

Philidas shook his head: "There is no signature on the letter. The messenger left immediately after delivering the letter. It shows that this person is not a friend of Azias. Maybe he is just an ordinary city-state official who accidentally saw you in the city. ..." After all, although Pelopidas is young, he is still somewhat famous among the people of Thebes.

"What should we do now?!" Several other people looked nervously and looked at Pelopidas.

Pelopidas calmed down at this moment, and he said resolutely: "Didn't we make a wish to Zeus when we set out and were ready to sacrifice? Things have already progressed to this point, do we still have to retreat midway! We We should speed up our actions and quickly complete our plan before the enemy may understand the situation!"

Pelopidas' words gave others a shot in the arm, and everyone quickly reached a consensus. They took advantage of the night and left the mansion to go to the two real leaders of the pro-Spartan faction, Leontiadas. and in the house of Hypatus.

The lustful Sypatas was spending the night in a high-end brothel in the city. Charon had already bribed the people in the brothel, and the exiles easily entered the bedroom and stabbed him to death.

Leontiadas was not as careless as his colleagues. He never went out at night, and there were guards waiting in the mansion, so the defense was relatively tight.But Pelopidas had already had an assassination plan in mind. He had not been idle for more than a year on the border of Athens. He asked Charon in Thebes to find opportunities to contact these guards, and finally convinced them Some guards who hated Sparta poured wine on their colleagues that night and quietly opened the gate for Pelopidas.

When Pelopidas entered the bedroom, Leontiadas was still sleeping soundly.Pelopidas covered his mouth with his hand and stabbed his sharp dagger into his heart. Leonti, the cunning leader of the pro-Spartan faction who caused the fall of Thebes and caused countless casualties, Adas died in this way.

Immediately afterwards, Pelopidas rushed to the prison with some guards, pretended to be Leontiadas's entourage, used his personal token to trick him into opening the door, and then took advantage of him and killed all the jailers. All imprisoned people who resisted Sparta were released.

They thanked Pelopidas one after another, but Pelopidas asked them to go to the city immediately and contact all the people who were dissatisfied with Sparta.

Everyone gladly accepted the order.

As a result, the city of Thebes became restless late at night. The pro-Spartans noticed the anomaly, but they were completely unable to contact their leaders and therefore were unable to respond in time.The Spartans in the acropolis did not know what was happening in the city because no one informed them. They did not dare to act rashly in the dark and could only guard the city cautiously.

As soon as dawn broke, the whole city of Thebes was boiling.

Most of the people in the city rushed to the square, including Epaminondas.When Pelopidas wrote to him quietly about his plan, Epaminondas, like some of Pelopidas' friends, opposed such a risky plan, but now he saw Pelopidas standing in the square. When the bodies of Leontiadas and several others were shown to the public on the central platform, he couldn't help but marvel at Pelopidas' resolute and courageous action. Such a seemingly extremely difficult matter actually allowed him to do it. Done!
Pelopidas heartbrokenly recounted to the people all the crimes committed by the Spartans and pro-Spartans in Thebes, making the people in the square feel the same. Then he made an impassioned appeal: The Theban people took up arms. , unite and fight bravely against those traitors and invaders!Avenge your fallen compatriots and let Thebes regain its freedom and independence! …

The people were so excited that they chanted the name of Pelopidas. They excitedly put laurels on the rebels led by Pelopidas who participated in the assassination plan. At the same time, they unanimously elected Pelopidas. Pydas and Phylidas served as military consuls.

The two men accepted the appointments given by the people without hesitation, and at the same time announced the establishment of the city-state's Council of Hundreds, whose members would be rotated monthly by Thebes citizens, and established the city-state's highest authority as the Citizens' Assembly.

The people cheered and celebrated Thebes becoming a democratic government.

Then, Pelopidas immediately issued an order to the people: take up the shield and spear, form an army, arrest all the pro-Spartans, retake the acropolis occupied by the Spartan army, and at the same time defend the most likely Spartan troops arrived to intervene.

The people of Thebes immediately took action, and the pro-Spartan elements were found out and either killed or imprisoned. Only a handful of people escaped from Thebes.

When the heavily armed citizen soldiers gathered in the square again, Pelopidas did not lead the army immediately. He requested that Epaminondas be appointed as the commander-in-chief and fight alongside him.

Many of the citizen soldiers did not even know who Ipaminondas was, but Pelopidas had a high prestige at this time, and most of the people chose to agree out of their trust in him.

When they saw an ordinary-looking middle-aged man with a bookish air walking onto the platform, they couldn't help but regret the choice they had just made.

But Pelopidas had a look of joy on his face. He knew Ipaminondas' abilities well, so he excitedly said to him as he slowly walked onto the stage: "Ipaminondas, we can finally fight together again!"

Epaminondas seemed calm on the surface, but he was also very excited in his heart.He was a modest and low-key man. Due to his aversion to factionalism, he did not participate in the series of political adventures carried out by Pelopidas. He spent most of his time reading, music and physical exercise.But when the people shouted victory, the rising revolutionary enthusiasm also infected him, not to mention that his close friends gave him so much trust, so even he knew that the newly born Theban government would face a dangerous situation. , he still said without hesitation: "I will do my best to defend Thebes with the citizens!"

The first city-state public office held by Epaminondas was such an important position related to the rise and fall of the city-state. He was already 41 years old at this time.

At this moment, the citizen soldiers guarding the south gate hurriedly reported: "A small group of Spartans came out from the Acropolis, broke through their obstruction, and escaped from the city."

It turned out that someone from the pro-Spartan faction ran into the Acropolis and reported to the Spartan commander the shocking news that "a riot had occurred in the city, the pro-Spartan government had been overthrown, and the leader had been killed." The commander He was shocked when he heard this, but he only had 400 soldiers under his command, which was too small. Without the cooperation of the Thebans, he did not dare to send them out to put down the rebellion. Even if the soldiers were all brave, they could not have thousands. As an opponent of the angry Thebes mob, he quickly made a decision: taking advantage of the riot that had just broken out in Thebes and the mob had not completely taken control of the city, he quickly sent people to force out of the city and invaded the neighboring city-states of Plataea and Thes. The Spartan garrison at Pia requested aid.

The news brought by the city guards made the instigators of the coup feel nervous.

At this time, Epaminondas, who had just been appointed as the general of the army, took the initiative to ask for help: "Perot, please let me lead an army to the south gate to block the incoming Spartan reinforcements, while you go to recapture Acropolis!"

Pelopidas saw Ipaminondas' firm eyes and replied without hesitation: "Okay!"

Then, he immediately assigned 3500 citizen soldiers to Ipaminondas, leaving only 2000 soldiers for himself. The generals assigned to Ipaminondas were all his close friends, and they were close friends with Ipaminondas. Tatsuya was relatively familiar with it, so that Ipaminondas could command more conveniently.

Epaminondas had no time to thank him, so he hurried to the south gate with his army.

At this time, another military consul Philidas asked worriedly: "Can Ipaminondas block the Spartan reinforcements?! Do we need to make more preparations?!"

　Thanks to Al Fasil’s Heroes for the tip!Your support is my motivation to write! !
　　
　
(End of this chapter)