Aristilas actually sent his own brother to Sicily, which shows that he really put a lot of effort into this place! Antonios perked up and immediately asked, "Where is he now?" ”

"Katanay or Syracuse? I don't know very well. Xenophanes shrugged his shoulders and said, "But you have come to 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 Mejaro, what should I do next, what do you suggest?" ”

"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 Antonios' favor, and he hurriedly laid on the table the map of Sicily that he had taken from Davers when he had left the camp of Cilitine: "Tell me! ”

Xenophanes did not shirk, stepped forward, carefully distinguished the map, then pointed to the map, and said, "My lord, you see that the location of Meiaro is actually very good. It is bordered by the ocean to the east, the massive Mount Etna to the west, and Tauromegnan to the north, although only a dozen miles away, is too small to send even 500 soldiers. To the south, Sikuli is more than 20 miles away, and it is also a small city-state, and now that Meiaro has been occupied by us, and so many citizens of Sikuli have been captured, it is difficult to say whether the tyrants of Sikuli can muster together 3,000 citizen soldiers. More than 40 miles further south is Katanai—"

When Xenophanes said this, his expression was painful, and he exhaled lightly, and said: "Originally, Katanai was a large city, and there were once fifty or sixty thousand citizens, and the fertile Catanian plain provided the people there with enough grain, and could easily organize an army of tens of thousands...... But...... After Catanay was destroyed by Dionysius, he let the Campanian mercenaries take possession of the city, and Catanay ...... It's not Katanai anymore! ……”

"You're from Katanay?" Antonios asked suddenly.

"Yes, I'm a Katanay, just like Aristiras!" Xenophanes said in a deep voice: "But now I am a citizen of Dionia! ”

"When you defeat Syracuse, Your Majesty will definitely let the Katanai people rebuild your homeland!" Antonios was reassured, and then asked, "How many citizen soldiers does Katanai have now?" "Antonios was wary of the Campanian mercenaries at the mention of them, having fought them at the Battle of Crotone and knowing that they were not easy to deal with.

“…… Maybe four or five thousand people. Since I returned to Sicily, I have not been to the Catania plain, and I have only heard from the people in the town of Meyaro. Xenophanes speculated hesitantly, and then suggested, "My lord, if you want to know more about the situation, you need to wait for the arrival of the people from Antrapolis. ”

Antonios nodded, pointed to the Leotini icon between Cataneh and Syracuse on the map, and asked, "Is this city-state also occupied by Campanian mercenaries?" ”

"Leotini was not, it was once a sub-state of Syracuse. After Dionysius usurped power, he formed an alliance with us Katanay against Syracuse, but after the defeat of Katanay, he had no choice but to surrender to Syracuse. Dionysius punished him for his betrayal by forcibly relocating most of Leotinis' citizens to Syracuse, and now Leotinis was a small city-state in terms of population......" said Xenophanes with a sad look in his eyes.

"So how many troops are there in Syracuse now?" Antonios asked with a serious expression.

Xenophanes had to speculate again: "This ...... I don't know. But a few months ago, Dionysius led a large army to invade our Great Greece, and his general Macias also led about seven or eight thousand Syracuse soldiers to the Milai Peninsula in the northernmost part of Sicily and destroyed the new city built by the exiles of Naxos and Catanay, and I think there must have been tens of thousands of soldiers in the city of Syracuse......"

Tens of thousands! Antonios' face darkened, and he looked at the circle of city-state icons around Syracuse on the map: Toannis, Barclay, Hebesus, Pacinus...... These are all loyal subordinates of Syracuse, and it is estimated that Syracuse can easily and quickly organize an army of 20,000 men! No matter how strong the combat effectiveness of the First Army is, after repeated battles, there are only more than 5,000 people left...... Antonios thought that he could defeat so many enemies with such a small force without the magic of Davers.

Xenophanes saw Antonios' concern, he thought for a moment and said: "My lord, Syracuse has so many vassal city-states in Sicily, it seems to be very powerful, but the people of these city-states have been dissatisfied with Syracuse for a long time, and even the people of Syracuse are very dissatisfied with the dictatorship of Dionysius! ”

"Oh?!" Antonios came interested: "You tell me more about this. ”

"In the past few years, Syracuse has been fighting abroad, the scale of the war is very large, and the money and materials consumed are also very huge, so Dionysius forcibly demanded high tribute from the various affiliated city-states, and he was not soft on the people of Syracuse, and the special war tax levied has risen to 25%; In addition, he demanded not only money but also men, and before each war he asked the various city-states to provide a large number of soldiers, and at the end of the war, these citizens were killed and wounded, and their families received nothing; He also supported tyrants in various city-states and fought against citizens who rebelled against tyranny, so that not only the people of the city-states resented him, but even the nobles were very dissatisfied with him, but they were afraid of his strong force and did not dare to resist......

Dionysius' men must have been well aware of this situation, and I don't think they would dare to draw all their armies against you...... After Dionysius led his army to attack Greater Greece, the Sikuli raiders of Myaro often cursed him in private 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 even the citizens of Sikuli seemed a little excited, so the people in the town have been talking a lot these days, and the topic of discussion is more about Dionia, and even my mission has become much smoother, like the two organizers of the riot just now, who have been lukewarm to me before, and have taken the initiative to contact me these days......

This is the case with Meiaro, 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, and it only takes a torch to burn into a raging fire! Now, the news that 'Your Majesty defeated the army of Dionysius in the battle' has reached Sicily, and it is believed that it will have an even greater impact on the people of the city-states! As long as you can defeat the Syracuse army in Sicily once, Sicily will inevitably be in chaos! Shelovenis said impassionedly, his eyes shining with excitement.

"It's not so easy to defeat the people of Syracuse in Sicily." Antonios smiled wryly. That being said, after listening to the details of Sicily introduced by Selovenis, he felt a little more confident in his heart: "Our current number of soldiers is still too small!" Before you came, Your Majesty had told me about the Sikhars, do you think we can unite with them against the Syracuses? ”

Xenophanes thought for a moment, shook his head and said, "Although the Sikelian people are indigenous to Sicily, they are different from the Lucanians and Brutis in Great Greece, they are far less barbaric than them...... Oh no, it's brave and ferocious. Remembering that these two races were already citizens of the Union, Shelovenis hurriedly changed his words: "The life of the Sichaels is no different from that of us Greeks, except that they prefer to live in the inland mountains of Sicily. They were a discredited race, and when the Carthaginians attacked, they took refuge in Carthage, and when Syracuse was strong, they united with Syracuse......

But their fickleness was retributed by the gods, and Dionysius pretended to be an alliance with them, and after defeating Carthage, he murdered Aguilas, the king of the Sikerians, and sent an army to capture the central town of the Sichael, Agilion, and completely destroy it, his brutality frightened the Sichael, and the other Sichael towns soon submitted to Syracuse.

This time, Dionysius invaded our Greater Greece, and the Sikerians sent him some soldiers. So I think the cowardly Sichaels would never dare to join forces with us to attack Syracuse, but they may also not attack us, but remain neutral. But if Syracuse loses with either of us, they will join the victorious side......"

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

Note: In fact, it is not only Siquel that has this characteristic of bullying the weak and fearing the hard, but other city-states and races in Sicily are such wall-heads, because this is determined by the special political situation of Sicily: in the past hundred years of Sicilian history, there have only been two superpowers on this small island - Carthage and Syracuse, and there is no third force that can compete with it. On this relatively closed and small island, the other city-states and powers can only rely on whoever is strong, and if they resist, they can only be destroyed, of course, Carthage and Syracuse are at peace because of the balance of power, and the other city-states can have a few days of peace. In the history known to Davers in his previous life, it was not until the invasion of Rome, a powerful foreign force, that the closed political and military ecology of Sicily was completely broken, and Sicily was finally unified. And the first appearance of Ionia in Sicily in this book, will it upset the balance of power in Sicily? 8)