Chapter 202 Xenophanes' Advice

Aristillas actually sent his own younger brother to Sicily, which shows that he really put a lot of effort into this place! Antonios' spirit was lifted, and he immediately asked, "Where is he now?"

"Catanay or Syracuse? I don't know." Xenophanes shrugged and said, "But you are in Sicily, he should get the news soon, and he will send someone to contact us immediately. ."

Antonios nodded and asked seriously: "Now that the First Army has occupied Mayaro, what should I do next? What advice do you have?"

"My lord, I don't know much about military affairs. I can tell you what I have learned about the situation here for your reference." Xenophanes' modesty won the favor of Antonios, and he was busy leaving The map of Sicily that was taken from Davos during the Siliting camp was placed on the table: "Please tell me!"

Xenofannis did not refuse, stepped forward, carefully distinguished the map, then pointed to the map, and said, "Sir, you can see that Mayaro's position is actually very good. It has the ocean to the east and the ocean to the west. The huge Mount Etna, and Tauromenian in the north is only more than ten miles away from us, but its population is too small, I am afraid that even 500 soldiers cannot be dispatched. Sikuli in the south is more than 20 miles away, then It is also a small city-state. Now that Meyaro is occupied by us again, and so many citizens of Sikuli have been captured, it is difficult to say whether the tyrant of Sikuli can gather 3,000 civilian soldiers. More than 40 miles to the south is Katana— —”

Xenofannis said this with a painful expression on his face, he sighed lightly, and said, "Originally, Catania was a big city with 50,000 or 60,000 citizens, and the fertile Catania plain provides the people there. With enough grain, he could easily organize an army of tens of thousands of people... But... After Catane was destroyed by Dionysius, he let Campania mercenaries occupy the city, Catane... ...it's no longer Katana!  …”

"Are you from Catane?" Antonios asked suddenly.

"Yes, like Aristiras, I was once a Katanai!" Xenophanes said solemnly: "But now I am a citizen of Dionia!"

"When Syracuse is defeated, His Majesty will definitely let the Catanes rebuild your homeland!" Antonios comforted, and then asked, "How many civic soldiers does Catane have now?" When it comes to Campa Nia mercenaries, Antonios raised his vigilance. He had just fought them in the Battle of Crotone and knew that these mercenaries were not easy to deal with.

"...There may be four or five thousand people. After I returned to Sicily this time, I haven't been to the Catania Plain. I just heard from the people in Mejaro." Xenophonis speculated hesitantly. Then suggested: "Sir, if you want to know more about the situation, you need to wait for the arrival of the people from Antrapolis."

Antonios nodded and pointed to the Leotine icon between Catane and Syracuse on the map,

Asked: "Is this city-state also occupied by Campania mercenaries?"

"Leotine is not, it was once a sub-state of Syracuse. After Dionysius usurped power, he formed an alliance with our Catanes against Syracuse, but Catanes was After it was defeated, it could only surrender to Syracuse. Dionysius, in order to punish its betrayal, forcibly moved most of the citizens of Leotine to Syracuse, and now Leothine In terms of population, it's just a small city-state..." Xenophonis said sadly.

"Then how many troops are there in Syracuse?" Antonios asked seriously.

Xenophanes had to speculate again: "This... I don't know very well. But a few months ago, Dionysius led an army to invade our Great Greece, and his general Macias also led about Seven or eight thousand Syracuse soldiers went to the Mile Peninsula in the northernmost part of Sicily and destroyed the new city built by the exiles of Naxos and Catane. I think there must be tens of thousands of soldiers in Syracuse... …”

Tens of thousands! Antonio's face became gloomy, and he stared at the circle of city-state icons around Syracuse on the map: Taunis, Barclays, Hebesus, Pachinus... These are all Syracuse Loyal subordinate, it is estimated that Syracuse can easily and quickly organize an army of 20,000 people! No matter how strong the first legion is, after repeated battles, there are only more than 5,000 people left... Antonios believes that he does not have the magic of Davos, and can defeat so many enemies with such a small force.

Xenofannis saw Antonios' concern, he thought for a while and said: "Sir, Syracuse has so many affiliated city-states in Sicily, it seems to be very powerful, but the people of these city-states are very concerned about Syracuse. The dissatisfaction has been long, and even the people of Syracuse are dissatisfied with the dictatorship of Dionysius!"

"Oh?!" Antonios was interested: "Tell me about the situation in detail."

"In the past few years, Syracuse has been fighting externally. The scale of the war is very large, and the money and materials spent are also very large, so Dionysius forcibly demanded high tribute from each affiliated city-state, and He has no mercy on the people of Syracuse, and the special war tax levied has risen to 25%; in addition, he not only needs money but also people, before each war, he requires each city-state to provide a large number of troops, and in At the end of the war, these citizens were killed and wounded, but their families received nothing; he also supported tyrants in various city-states and attacked those citizens who resisted tyranny, so not only the people of the city-states resented him, but even the nobles. They are also very dissatisfied with him, but they are afraid of his powerful force and dare not resist...

Dionysius' men must also know this very well. I don't think they dare to take out all the troops to deal with you... After Dionysius led the army to attack Greater Greece, the Siku of Mayaro Li Gongmin also often privately cursed him for the failure of this expedition. A few days ago, when the news of 'our fleet defeated the Syracuse Navy' reached Meyaro, not only the freedmen and slaves, but also the citizens of Sikuli seemed a little excited, so these few days in the town The people here are talking a lot, and the topic of discussion is more about Dionia, and even my task has become much smoother, like the two riot organizers who have been lukewarm to me before, Contact me for the past few days...

This is the case with Mayaro, and the situation in other city-states should be similar. It gives me the feeling that these city-states in Sicily are now like a pile of dry wood, just need a torch, they can burn into a raging fire! Now, the news of "His Majesty defeated the army of Dionysius in the battle" has reached Sicily, and I believe it will have a greater impact on the people of the city-states! As long as you can defeat the Syracuse army once in Sicily, Sicily will inevitably be in chaos! "Selofenis said impassively, with excitement in his eyes.

"It's not that easy to beat the Syracuses in Sicily," Antonios said with a wry smile. Having said that, after listening to the detailed situation of Sicily introduced by Serofenice, he felt a little more confident: "Our current number of soldiers is still too small! Before coming, His Majesty mentioned the Sikelians to me, Do you think we can unite them against the Syracuses?"

Xenofannis thought for a while, then shook his head and said, "Although the Sikelians are natives of Sicily, they are different from the Lucanians and Brutians of Greater Greece. They are far less savage than them... oh, no. , is brave and fierce." Serofenice recalled that the two races were already citizens of the Union, and quickly changed his mind and said: "The life of the Sikelians is no different from that of the Greeks, but they prefer to live in the inland mountains of Sicily. They are a race with no reputation. When the Carthaginians attacked, they took refuge in Carthage. When Syracuse was strong, they joined with Syracuse...

But their fickleness was retributed by the gods. Dionysius pretended to form an alliance with them. After defeating Carthage, he murdered the king of the Sikelites, Aguilas, and sent an army to capture He took Aguirion, the central town of the Sikelians, and completely destroyed it. His atrocities terrified the Sikelians, and the other Sikelians quickly surrendered to Syracuse.

This time, Dionysius invaded our great Greece, and the Sikelians sent him some troops. So I don't think the cowardly Sikeles would dare to join us in attacking Syracuse, but they may not attack us, but remain neutral. But if Syracuse loses either of us, they'll join the victor..."

Antonios understood: this is a race that bullies the soft and fears the hard.

Note: In fact, it is not only Sikel who has this characteristic of bullying the soft and fearing the hard, but other city-states and races in Sicily are such a scumbag, because this is determined by the special political situation of Sicily: in the history of Sicily over the past hundred years, There are only two superpowers in this small island - Carthage and Syracuse, and there is no third force that can compete with it. On this relatively closed and small island, other city-states and forces can only depend on whoever is stronger. If they resist, they can only be destroyed. Of course, Carthage and Syracuse are peaceful because of their balance of strength. Other city-states can have a few more peaceful days. In the history that Davos knew in his previous life, it was not until the intrusion of a powerful foreign force, Rome, that completely broke the closed political and military ecology of Sicily and finally unified Sicily. And the first time Dionia appears in Sicily in this book, will it break the balance of power in Sicily?