Chapter 194 The Impact of the War Outcome

Sea of ​​Crete.

Ships from all directions converged like big fish towards the port of Knossos in the east of Crete.

Even if the results of the war between Athens and Knossos gradually spread, it did not affect Knossos's status as a trade hub.

Because it is difficult to find another safe and stable port city to replace Knossos.

Even if there is another port city that wants to become a new trade hub, there is not enough interest to drive sea merchants to go to another city for trade.

Eastern Crete.

Palace of Knossos.

At this time, Deucalion was kneeling in the hall of the palace, pleading guilty to Minos on the throne.

After Deucalion recounted the process of his two defeats, the royal family and nobles in the hall accused Deucalion of underestimating the enemy, causing Knossos and many vassal city-states to suffer huge losses.

Deucalion knelt on the ground without saying a word, without making any excuses for himself.

Seeing that the accusations of the royal family and nobles were becoming more and more excessive, and some even said that they wanted to abolish Deucalion's status as the first heir to the throne, Minos could not help but say in a cold voice.

"You should all stop it! If you go to fight Athens, you will only lose more miserably. The Athenian soldiers all wore armor made of paper, and burned 20,000 kilograms of olive oil to attack us with fire during the naval battle. This is a situation that I could not have predicted. I asked myself that if I went to fight Athens, I would lose to Athens like Deucalion."

Hearing Minos' words, the royal family and nobles quieted down and dared not to accuse Deucalion anymore.

Because they all knew that if they went to fight Athens, they would indeed lose more miserably.

"My child, stand up first!"

After Deucalion stood up, Minos continued.

"In this war between Knossos and Athens, there are too many things about Athens that are beyond our expectations. We did not expect Athens to have 3,000 soldiers, nor did we expect Athens to have 100 warships, and we did not expect that all the Athenian soldiers would wear paper armor and use bronze spears. There are so many things about Athens that are beyond our expectations, and it is not unfair for us to lose this war. But the failure of this war will not defeat our city of Knossos. The merchant ships that come to Knossos to trade every day will provide us with business taxes, and we will soon be able to recruit new soldiers and build new warships." After listening to Minos' words, a nobleman asked excitedly. "King Minos, do we want to start a new war against Athens to wash away the shame brought to us by the failure of the war?" Minos turned his head and glared at the nobleman with cold eyes. "We do need to start a new war, but we are not going to attack Athens, but our vassal city-states." Seeing everyone's confused reaction, Minos continued. "The news that we lost to Athens will definitely cause many vassal city-states to break away from our control, so we must prepare to wage war against these vassal city-states that have broken away from Knossos. If we do not punish the vassal city-states that betrayed us, most of them will choose to betray us."

In addition to the weak city-states on Crete, the vassal city-states of Knossos also include some island city-states in the Aegean Sea.

Those vassal city-states on Crete may not dare to betray, but those island city-states far away from Crete will definitely have the idea of ​​breaking away from Knossos when they learn that the navy of Knossos has suffered huge losses.

"Father, please give me a chance to make meritorious service."

Deucalion knelt on one knee and pleaded with Minos.

"No matter what the reason is, I am the sinner who caused the defeat and loss of Knossos. If you really love me, let me make meritorious service to make up for my guilt."

Minos hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said.

"Then I will give you fifty warships and 1,500 soldiers, and you should be ready to go at any time."

The junction between the Myrtowon Sea, the Cretan Sea, and the Thera Sea is one of the important waterways in the Aegean Sea.

Aries sailed in this sea area with twenty large warships, and did not become a target that merchant ships avoided.

Because Aries' fleet was obviously not a pirate, it was more like a navy.

In fact, most merchant ships regarded Aries' fleet as the navy of Knossos.

After Aries came to this sea area, he conscientiously carried out Roy's orders. Whenever a merchant ship passed through this sea area, Aries would give 20 kilograms of salt to each merchant ship and persuade each captain to go to Athens for trade.

If there was no sufficient interest drive, even if Roy gave 20,000 kilograms of salt worth 2 million kilograms of grain, it would be impossible for maritime merchants to choose Athens as a new trade hub.

But when the news of Athens' victory over Knossos spread, sea merchants realized that Athens, like Knossos, had the strength to provide them with a safe trading environment.

Most importantly, Athens had a valuable commodity, salt.

In Athens, 50 kilograms of grain were used to buy one kilogram of salt, and it could be sold for at least 100 kilograms of grain in other places.

Sea merchants engaged in dangerous trade on the sea in pursuit of profits.

The profit of salt was so huge that it was enough to drive sea merchants to Athens.

Peloponnese.

Mycenae in the Argos region.

When the news of Athens defeating Knossos reached here, Mycenae King Akrisius was convening a meeting to march to Arcadia.

"The Knossos lost to the Athenians so quickly?"

After hearing the news brought by the soldiers, Akrisius said with disappointment.

"I thought the Athenians would defend the city and fight a long siege with the Knossos. I didn't expect that Roy would not only take the initiative to attack, but also defeat Deucalion so quickly on the land battlefield and naval battle."

Perseus frowned and said.

"Grandfather! In this war, Roy not only summoned 3,000 soldiers, he also had 3,000 bronze spears and 3,000 paper armors. If this army was used to attack us Mycenaeans, we would be destroyed by him. Now we have to admit that the Three Goddesses Alliance formed by Athens, Corinth, and Thebes is really stronger than us Mycenaeans."

Akrisius nodded and said.

"Fortunately, we have agreed with the Three Goddesses Alliance not to attack each other. Before our strength catches up with or even exceeds that of the Three Goddesses Alliance, we must avoid conflicts with them."

Pelops said at this time.

"Grandfather, perhaps we can also form an alliance with other city-states. Sparta in the Spartan region of southern Peloponnese and Tenaron in the Pylos region are not within our conquest targets, and they are exactly the ones we can strive to become allies."

Achrisios' eyes lit up and he couldn't help laughing.

"The patron saint of Sparta is the goddess Hera, and the patron saint of Tenaron is the goddess Persephone. Perhaps we can form a four-god alliance."

A Mycenaean noble said directly.

"We can let the goddess Hera become the wife of Zeus and the goddess Persephone become the wife of Poseidon, so that we can become one family with the cities of Sparta and Tenaron."