Seeing the increasing turmoil in the city, the high priest of the temple of Apollo was very worried, although he had only been high priest for a few years, and he was far less influential than the previous high priest on Syracuse (with the efforts of the previous high priest, he had allowed the various forces in Syracuse to eliminate their differences, which led to the current political structure, and restored peace and tranquility to Syracuse, so his prestige was very high), but he decided to learn from his ancestors and do his best to restore stability to the order of Syracuse.

For this reason, he took the initiative to find Theagenis and Phalegus, and persuaded them not to attack each other again, otherwise it would only give the enemy in the north an opportunity.

In fact, both Theagenis and Falekus were frightened when they learned of the chaos in the city, after all, the tens of thousands of troops of Dionya were eyeing the north, and if there was civil strife in the city of Syracuse at this time, it would be dangerous!

It happened that the high priest came to persuade him, and the two of them got off the donkey down the slope and said one after another: for the sake of Syracuse, they are willing to reconcile.

……………………………………

Early in the morning of the third day, the councillors of Syracuse entered the meeting with serious expressions, and before the meeting could begin, news suddenly came that a Dionian army had left the city of Katanai and was marching south, numbering more than 50,000 men.

The parliamentarians suddenly became nervous: Is Dionya going to attack us?!

When everyone was panicking, Teagenis stood up, took the initiative to make overtures to Falekus, and spoke generously, reminding everyone not to fall for the Dionians, but to unite and defend against the impending attack with all their might.

Falekus and other centrist parliamentarians responded positively to this, and began to discuss how to deal with the coming war.

There were no more quarrels in the room, even more harmonious than in previous meetings, as if the quarrels, insults and clashes that had never happened here yesterday had never happened.

However, the fact that politically literate generals were able to reach a compromise in the face of a crisis and restore order to the council did not mean that ordinary people could do it easily, not to mention that they did not know that the situation in the council had changed, and although the town hall had sent more patrols, there were still clashes in the city, which led to a tragic incident.

Several young champions of Theagenis got into an argument with a group of centrist supporters, which eventually led to a brawl that resulted in a fight between them and their outnumbered.

When the patrol arrived and dispersed the crowd, they found a young man stabbed in the chest with a dagger, already lying in a pool of blood, and no one could see who had assassinated him.

The patrol team did not know what to do with the incident for a while, but the pro-democracy people had already arrived at the scene one after another, and when they saw the tragedy, they were excited and angrily demanded that the murderer be punished.

When the news reached the council, the otherwise lively venue suddenly became calm, and the democrats and centrists were holding urgent consultations on what to do to satisfy their supporters and keep Syracuse from causing unrest in such a crisis.

Just then, the sentry came back with the news that Dionia's army had passed through the ruins of Palagonia and continued southward, and that the vanguard cavalry might have approached Geira.

The parliamentarians were stunned, and then all of them were overjoyed, and some even burst into cheers: "It turns out that the Dionian army is not going to war with Syracuse, but to attack the Carthaginians!" ”

Without the dark clouds of war, the atmosphere in the venue suddenly became relaxed.

At this time, Teagenis stood up and sternly pointed out: "Since there is no way to know who the real culprit is, the neutral supporters who participated in the brawl are all guilty and should all be arrested and tried!" ”

Of course, Falekus and the others were resolutely opposed, and the sound of quarrels resounded in the venue again.

It was not long before Sebonus's statement once again intensified the contradictions between the democrats and the centrists, who had already calmed down, when he said: "Although the Dionicians have begun to attack the Carthaginians, we in Syracuse are still in a state of hostility with the Dionians, and in order to ensure that there will be no accidents in the future, and in order to reassure the Dionians to attack the Carthaginians with all their might, it is necessary for us to temporarily restore friendship with the Dionias, so I think that the conditions given by the Dionians must also be fulfilled!" ”

The conditions given by the Dioonians were to ask the Council of Syracuse to punish Falekus and the others! Suddenly, the turmoil in the venue became bigger and bigger.

Although Hiktath did not participate in it, he was saddened and saddened by the revelations of the democrats and the neutrals, and he understood many things that he had not understood before: why did some members of the originally agreed port civilian faction suddenly support a resolution unfavorable to the port civilians at the meeting? Why did the port plebeian gradually become disunited and divided? ……

At dusk, Schiktath returned to his port house exhausted, only to be told by his family that a commoner was waiting in the hall for something important to look for him.

As a general of the port civilian faction, Hiktas often met with some port civilians and even freemen at home, listened to some of their opinions and requests, and tried his best to help them solve some difficulties.

While the servant was preparing dinner, he decided to meet the man first.

Seeing Hiktas walk into the living room, the civilian stood up unhurriedly and saluted.

Seeing that he looked ordinary, and that he had no impression in his mind, he should not have seen him before, so he asked, "What's your name?" What's the matter with me? ”

A mysterious smile suddenly appeared on the man's ordinary face, and he whispered, "Lord Hiktas, Lord Antrapolis has asked me to greet you!" ”

Sicktas's long memories were stirred up by these words, and his heart shook, and his cloudy eyes suddenly sharpened, staring directly at the man.

The man stared at him calmly.

Soon, Hiktath reacted, turned back to his henchman and said solemnly: "You go out first, tell the others, you are not allowed to enter here without my order!" ”

After the servant had gone out, Hiktath asked, "Are you a Dionian?" ”

"Yes. My name is Artemis, a citizen of Ionia, from Catanay. The man said frankly.

"Dionians, you are so bold!" Hiktath slapped the back of his chair and shouted, "Tell me, how many of you are in Syracuse?!" Did you cause the turmoil in the city?! ”

The man was not frightened, but smiled slightly, and said solemnly: "The life of the civilians in the port of Syracuse has not been easy in the past two years!" Their share of land is shrinking, some of them have been relocated, the number of people who can participate in the citizens' assembly is limited, the number of people elected to the council is limited, and even the number of people who can be elected to the rank of general has decreased...... Instead of uniting to fight for their own interests, the common people of the port are divided into several factions, fighting each other for the interests of the unloading of ships and fishing in the docks, which gives the council a reason to suppress you...... Hiktas, if Lord Antrapolis knew about the situation of the civilians in the port today, he would be very sad! ”

Although Antrapolis is no longer in the intelligence service of the Kingdom of Dionia, it was he who appointed personnel to help the civilians of the port of Syracuse unite and finally successfully launch a rebellion, so although Hiktas they have not seen Antrapolis, they are not unfamiliar with this name, which is why Artemis mentions him several times.

Hearing these words, Hiktas's face was blue and purple, and he was quite ashamed: the predicament of the port commoners today is of course related to his lack of ability and leadership.

But he soon came to his senses: it was the enemy of Syracuse sitting in front of him!

He immediately sank his face and tried to refute it.

Artemis suddenly took out a papyrus scroll tied with black rope from his bosom, and said in a deep voice: "Lord Antrapolis is far away in the north of the kingdom, and of course he cannot know about the terrible situation of the civilians in the port of Syracuse today, but His Majesty King Davers in Cataney has learned about the situation in Syracuse very carefully and carefully, expressed his extraordinary concern about your situation, and said that he will do his best to help you, and he also wrote this letter, let me bring it to you!" ”

As he spoke, he pushed the scroll of paper in his hand forward.

Hiktath subconsciously stepped back, staring straight at the scroll of paper, his pupils narrowing sharply: this is a letter written by the most feared enemy of the generals and parliamentarians of Syracuse, the king of Dionia! Take it, afraid that you will be tempted, and you are also afraid that once the matter is leaked, it will become evidence of your collaboratorship; But if you don't take it, and you are worried that you will miss a great opportunity, the current situation of the civilians in the port is indeed not good, and today's meeting is a blow to yourself......

Hiktath was very conflicted, and stood still; Artemis didn't say a word, holding the scroll of paper all the time...... The whole picture seems to stand still.

After a long time, Hiktas sighed softly: "I'm old......"

He cautiously took the paper roll with both hands, which was as light as nothing, but as heavy as a thousand pounds......

………………………………………

The sentry in Syracuse did not notice that while the Dionian army was marching south, another Dionian army had left the west gate of Catanay and marched northwest into the mountains.

By the afternoon, the army had approached Agilion, not far from the western foothills of the Etna Volcans.

Creroux, who had been informed in advance and was waiting outside the city, greeted him.

"Mistress Creru, I've kept you waiting!" Lizaru and Epitenis hurriedly dismounted, apologizing. Although Kreru was more than a dozen years younger than them, he was also a senator of the Senate, and this time he was specially ordered to temporarily give up administrative affairs to assist them, and the two did not dare to wait for them.