Chapter 29 The Post-War Senate Meeting (2)

Hiros thanked Cornelus for his disguised praise. ? www.suimeng.lā

Davos said, "Let me ask Amendolara to recommend a suitable patrol captain."

Cornerus immediately cheered up: "Sir Consul, please speak."

"Epithenes, he will be an excellent patrol captain." Davos pointed to the back row and said affirmatively.

"Ah?!" Epithenes, who was whispering to Tspit, did not expect that he would be named, and replied in surprise, "Why me?!"

"So that you can focus more on the administrative affairs of the alliance and set an example for your soldiers, instead of scourges the young people of Dionia all day long!" Davers said half-jokingly and half-seriously. .

The crowd laughed. It is well known that Epithenis likes beautiful young people. In fact, many elders also have this hobby, but Epithenis shows it more clearly. Greeks like teenagers and support them, which is not only a fashion, but also a tradition. Although Davers personally felt uncomfortable, he still showed respect and did not want to force a change. Apart from this, what Davos admired most about Epithenes was that he was able to think calmly on the battlefield and respond flexibly to complex situations. The tasks given to him, he can always complete, and exceed expectations.

Under the strong pressure of Davos and the repeated requests of Cornerus, Epithenes finally had to agree.

The helpless expression on Epithenis' face once again caused Amyntas and the others to laugh.

At this point in the meeting, after noon, Cornelus announced that the meeting was adjourned for half an hour, and the slaves who had been waiting outside the Senate immediately came in and brought drinking water to their masters to fill their stomachs.

Even if he takes a half-hour break, Davos will not have free time. While chewing his bread, he discusses the problems that need to be solved after they take office and how the two cities cooperate with each other. , to strengthen contacts to deal with the situation that may arise at any time in the south.

Then, Kunogorata approached him to discuss how to arrange the five new senators. As an elder of the Senate, his family should naturally be placed in Turui to facilitate the performance of his duties. Even if he serves as the chief executive of another city, he will not move out of the mansion of Turui. After all, the term of the city chief executive is only two years, and Elders are for life.

There are still a lot of idle public land in Turii City, which is managed by the Senate and will not be granted easily. Of course, it is impossible to allocate a small piece for the new senator to build a house for free. The Dionysian Land Law clearly stipulates that even if Davos buys the land, he must pay the market price. Due to the large influx of people this year,

The price of residential land in Turii has been rising again and again, and should continue to rise sharply after Dionysius beat Crotone.

Kunogolata hopes that the land given to the new senators by the Senate will still be sold at the original price, in order to show the sincerity of the Dionysian Senate and appease these newcomers.

Davos agreed, and he also took into account that in case any of the five new Crimesa elders could not come up with the money, it could be advanced from the treasury and repaid later.

The half-hour break ended, and the Senate meeting continued.

Davos stood up and said his first proposal: "This war with Crotone, although Dionia won, exposed some problems, the main and most urgent need to solve is the Navy !"

Davos' voice just fell, and immediately aroused strong resonance among the elders.

"The consul is right! In this war, the biggest loss the Crotones have caused us is that their fleets continue to go ashore and loot, burning down many villages in Turii and killing a lot of us. People, the public officials in Turii are still struggling to resettle people and rebuild their homes!" Kunogolata complained.

"If we in Dionia had a navy and were as strong as our army, Crotone would have surrendered long ago when the battle was won, and there was no need to surround Crimea!" Aminta Stressed.

"The trade of the Dionysian Alliance is becoming more and more prosperous, and the territory of Dionia is rapidly expanding. We need a strong fleet to protect our maritime trade and prevent our long coastline from being attacked by enemy fleets, Our port is blocked by enemy warships!" Marigi reminded loudly.

"That's right! We need a strong navy to protect the safety of the Dionysian Alliance!" Everyone agreed.

"Since we have all reached a consensus, then my proposal is-" Davers looked at everyone and said: "In addition to the accelerated completion of the three three-story oars under construction, we will build seven more three-story ships this year. Oars, I asked Enanilus, the shipyard in Turii doesn't have enough yards to fulfill such a large order, and Crimisa also has a larger shipyard with the ability to make three-layer oars We can pay a small number of orders to them to complete. From now on, we will build ten three-layer oar warships every year until we have three-layer oar warships in five years. ships) and ten small warships (warships), thus having a relatively powerful Dionian navy with one warship."

Everyone thought that this plan was feasible, but only Mersis objected: "No! No! In this way, the alliance will spend more than 100 talents each year, which is too much!"

"Although it is a bit more, I think our treasury can fully bear it. Last year, the treasury received Dotalient from the land tax, rent tax and trade tax alone, and this year Marij gave me the lowest estimate. , at least double the treasury revenue." Davers said this, many elders were surprised, and before they knew it, Dionia's treasury revenue was almost equal to Tarantum and Crotone. Now, it should be more than enough to spend a small amount of money to build the fleet.

"Everyone, Lord Mersis, it doesn't cost more than a hundred talents to build ten three-layered warships every year." Mariji stood up and reminded everyone: "The cost of building warships mainly consists of two parts, one is Timber, and the second is the cost of manufacturing. There are countless high-quality cedars in the mountains of our alliance territory, especially in the mountains of Lucania, which are most suitable for the construction of three-layered warships. I heard that Athens had specially cooperated with Turii had an agreement that every year Turii would provide Athens with a certain amount of shipbuilding timber."

"There is indeed an agreement that Turii will provide Athens with at least 1,000 pieces of marine lumber every year, doubling if necessary," Enanilus said. At the beginning, in order to complete this agreement, the Turii people cut down a large number of trees for decades. Although they made some money for timber, there were fewer and fewer old cedar trees in the mountains around Turii, and there were ten large shipyards in Athens. Several families do not need to build ships in Turii, and the family of Enanilus has always complained about this. Later, due to excessive deforestation, many barren hills appeared around Turii, and the people discovered this drawback and began to buy wood from other city-states in Greater Greece and resell it to Athens to earn a little price difference.

"We were only forced to cancel this agreement after the Spartan navy gained the upper hand in the latter stages of the Athens-Spartan war," Kunogorata added.

Davos nodded. After serving as the consul of the alliance, he understood the agreement. He even believed that the Athenian general Pericles had agreed to build Turii, calling for the establishment of a great Panhellenic city-state was just a high-sounding reason, and one of the real strategic purposes was for timber. You must know that Athens is born with two major flaws. First, it does not produce much food locally, and it needs to import to maintain the huge population of the city-state. Therefore, it has built many colonies along the coast of Greece to the Black Sea or controlled the key points. A city-state in a location, such as Byzantium, needs a strong navy to ensure the smooth passage of food from the Black Sea, and the Athenians are ambitious to build a strong alliance of Mediterranean Greek city-states, and even more need a strong navy. But the second biggest flaw of Athens is that there are not many forests in its native land, let alone trees that can make high-quality warships, and with the scale of the navy and merchant ships of Athens, the wood required must be a huge amount, so looking for wood for ships It became a strategic question about whether Athens could remain strong. Egypt has no forests, Persia has wood, but it will not be sold to the enemy Athens, Northern Greece and Thrace have forests, but they are inland, cutting and transportation are problems, and the cost is also high, so the Apennine Mountains run through the whole territory. Greater Greece became an important timber purchase place for Athens, and Turii, which was established by the Athenians, was naturally the main timber supplier.

"So, I asked the Senate to discuss a plan to approve a certain number of cedars cut down by the Union slaves every year, as wood for the warships, this does not need to cost an Opol. As for the manufacturing cost--" Mariji looked at En'anilu He said jokingly, "I don't think Lord Enanilus will charge the Alliance too high a fee."

Enanilus smiled helplessly.

Everyone felt that Marigi was right, and their worries about the cost dissipated a lot.

"But have you considered the maintenance and upkeep of these warships after they are built, which is also a huge expense!" Mersis said in dissatisfaction.

"Enanilus and I have discussed this issue." Davos said, Enanilus nodded, indicating that it was true.

"When there is no war, of course we will not leave warships idle at the docks, except for a small part to patrol the coast of the Alliance, part to be repaired in the dock, and the rest can serve as escorts for merchant ships, especially the Adriatic There are frequent incidents of pirates hijacking ships on the route from Haikou to mainland Greece. You can also temporarily serve as a large cargo ship to transport goods for friendly city-states... You see, it not only earns maintenance costs for our navy, but also trains the crew. Isn't your sailing skills pretty good?" After Davos finished speaking his thoughts, Mersis stopped talking.

"In addition, we also need to find a qualified commander for this upcoming Dionian Navy. His current task is to assist the military officer Felixius, supervise the construction of warships; cooperate with the treasurer Mersis, Review the funds; in the future, when the warship is built, he will also recruit sailors, equip crew members, conduct regular military training, arrange coastal patrols, and—" Davers said with emphasis: "Victory in naval battles. Do you have any qualified candidates to recommend? "Mobile users, please browse and read for a better reading experience.

.