You know, in order to prepare for this great war, Dionysius not only raised taxes on the people of Syracuse, depleted his treasury, but also borrowed debts from the Cyrenaica city-state of Africa, and even started the idea of robbing the Sanctuary of Delphi, because there were not only thousands, but hundreds of thousands, millions of gold and silver goods donated to Delphi by various Greek city-states over the centuries (in real history, Dionysius really sent mercenaries to pretend to be bandits during the occupation of Great Greece in an attempt to rob Delphi, Only in the end the conspiracy failed).

If he captured Ligem, not only would he have direct access to a large amount of wealth to make up for the deficit in the treasury, but he would also have a complete monopoly on the Strait of Messina, and he would be able to sustain the cost of his long-term occupation of Greater Greece by relying only on the taxes of passing merchant ships. As for the purely military view of pulling out the "nail" of Lijim behind him before the army went north to attack, he really didn't care too much.

Phoebidas was not in the position of Dionysius, and it was certainly impossible to understand Dionysius' hesitation by considering the war in terms of economy. As a Spartan stubbornness, although he had already stated his reasons for choosing Coronia before his departure, he decided to say it again in order to strengthen Dionysius's determination: "Although Ligem is cut off by Lockley and isolated from the Southern Italian League, it is not easy to attack it!" I have read the map you gave, there is an impassable mountain range in the center of the north of Lijim, the east coast can only be reached by a narrow mountain road, and the west coast must first pass through the Maro River, and also capture its sub-state Taurina in order to open the road to Ligem, the Ligems will definitely defend the south bank of the Maro River with Taurina with all their might, where the territory is narrow, which is not conducive to the deployment of the large army of Syracuse, and it will take some time to attack the territory of Lijim. However, the South Italian Alliance will use this time to raise an army and defend Coronia and Trina, and may even attack Lokrie when we attack Lijim, leaving us vulnerable to the enemy...... If the consul dragged to Dionya had returned from Lucania with the main force, our war in Greater Greece would not have been a good one! ”

The last two words of Phoebidas shocked Dionysius's heart, although he said seemingly unconcerned: "The Dionian army led by Davers may not be so easy to drive back from the mountains of Lucania, his troubles have just begun!" ”

"As long as we hurry up and continue to attack northward while the South and Italy alliances are not ready for war, we will definitely be able to completely break their union, and then Lijim will be just a fish in a net, and there will be no escape. And even if the main force of Dionya can return from the Lucania region, it will not be of much help to the entire battlefield. ”

Dionysius didn't speak, but Phoebidas's persuasion had made him decide.

…………………………

At dusk, the door to the headquarters of the South Italian Alliance was slammed open, and the retinue of Yulipatos shouted: "My lord! My lord! The army of Dionya has arrived! ”

Exhausted and drowsy, Yulipatos couldn't believe his ears: it was so soon!

In the afternoon, at his urging, he saw with his own eyes that the Cilitin City Hall had sent cavalry inside and outside the city to inform all the citizens. According to the common practice of the Greek city-states, the citizens of Siriting received a notice to join the war, and it would take a day at the earliest to finish the affairs of their families, and then they would pick up the weapons and equipment stored at home and rush to the square in the city of Siriting. If you can complete the assembly and roll call of citizen soldiers the day after tomorrow, it is already relatively fast, and the organization of the troops and the preparation of baggage are ...... When everything is ready, we will set out at the end...... Pretines, the chief general of Cilitin, assured him to lead his troops in three days' time.

Compared with the previous preparations of his city-state, Yulipatos was already relatively satisfied with Siriting's performance today, so before Ansitanos's words, he only thought that this scholar wanted to show a positive attitude towards Dionia, and in his heart he didn't think that the Dionians could really do it, so Dionya really sent an army on the day he learned of the invasion of Syracuse, and when he really arrived at Siriting, the surprise to Yulipatos can be imagined.

"Mistress Ansitanos, great! Thank you so much! ......" he hurriedly thanked Ansitanos, who was also tired.

Ansitanos was not arrogant, waved his hand and said: "This has nothing to do with me, you should thank the soldiers of Dionya who have come all the way." You must know that it is more than 80 miles from Aspraustum to Siriting! It's really not easy to get there in one day! ”

"You're right!" Alerted by Ansitanos, Yulipatos hurried out of the city.

By the time they arrived, the soldiers of the Fourth Legion of Dionya had begun to camp on the south side of the road south of Siritin, and Yulipatos could not help but feel sorry when he saw that they were all shirtless and drenched in sweat.

They were guided by the soldiers to the commander Phellisius, who was sitting on the grass and discussing matters with the legion commander Epitenis.

"Lord Ansitanos, why are you here?" Epitenis was sharp-eyed and shouted first.

"You've worked so hard to come here, of course I'm going to come and see you." Ansitanos said seriously, the Fourth Legion quickly arrived to shock the remaining personnel of Siriting and other cities of the Southern Italian Alliance, which can be said to be a good example, and also made Ansitanos speak more weightily in the alliance, he is honored.

"How can anyone come to visit empty-handed!" Epitenis said half-jokingly, half-seriously.

"Epitenis!" Phellisius quickly gave him a look and motioned for him not to speak too much.

Ansitanos didn't care too much, after all, he usually met in the Senate, and he knew what kind of character Epitenis was, so he also smiled and said, "Then what do you want me to bring?" ”

"It's not me, it's these soldiers who have worked hard all day's journey, and when they are thirsty and don't have time to find water to drink, they have to be busy building camps......" Epitenis pointed to the soldiers who were still busy, and then to his parched lips: "You see, we are all dying of thirst!" ”

"Oh, you guys are too much-" Yulipatos on the side was so excited that he didn't know what to say, turned to his entourage and said, "You go back to the Alliance station now, call everyone together, go to the various restaurants in the city to buy slurry water, and then ask them to bring ......"

"Hey, we have nearly 10,000 people here, it is estimated that by night, there will be about 10,000 people from the Fifth Army Corps, not only the problem of water, we are coming too fast, the baggage battalion is still behind, it is estimated that it will arrive tomorrow, just eating these cold and hard bread is not enough to replenish the physical strength of the soldiers on a long march." Epitenis took out his ration and shook it in front of Yulipatos, reminding him unceremoniously.

"He's joking with you!" Phellisius glared at Epitenis and said, "We have bread and meat, enough to fill your stomach, you don't have to worry about it." ”

"I can't solve the problem of food supply for so many soldiers in the Siriting, but as long as you get to Coronya, I guarantee that the people of Coronnia will keep you well fed!" While apologizing, Yulipatus vaguely urged the Dionians, and at the same time he gave an order to his entourage: "If there is not enough syrup in the restaurants in the city, send a message to the citizens of Siriting, and if they send homemade syrup here, we will pay double the price for a jar of homemade syrup......"

The entourage departed.

"Thank you so much!" Pherisius hurriedly stepped forward to express his gratitude.

"This is Yulipatos, the messenger of Coronia." Ansitanos was busy making introductions.

"Oh." Epitenis pursed her lips and thought to herself: It turns out that you are from Coronia, and you should pay for the water.

"I really didn't expect you to come so quickly, and I didn't prepare anything, otherwise I should have feasted you to show my gratitude!"

"There is no need for a banquet, our military law does not allow generals and soldiers to eat and drink during the war, we bring our own rations for a few days, we are afraid that the transportation of the baggage battalion will not be able to supply it for a while, and then we really need to consider letting you Coronia provide us with food first." As commander, Phellisius had to take some details into account.

"Of course, there is no problem, and tomorrow I will send someone back to inform the city hall to prepare military rations. As I said earlier, the people of Coronia will feed the citizens of Dionia! Yulipatos agreed.

Looking at the countless soldiers in front of him digging ditches with pickaxes, sweating like rain, but doing it in full swing, Yulipatos couldn't help but ask curiously: "You are already very tired when you arrive here, just set up a tent to rest, why do you still dig a trench?" ”

"This is a provision of the Ionian Military Law, mainly to provide a safer and more comfortable camp for the soldiers." Ansitanos casually explained that Dionya had been established for a long time, and "old men" like them also knew some of the rules of the army.

"Your army is so demanding!" As a citizen, of course, Yulipatos had many experiences in the army, and compared himself to himself, and then looked at the Dionian soldiers in front of him, he couldn't help but sigh.

"It's still the easiest way to set up camp, because it's too late, and it won't be long before it gets dark, so you just have to dig a trench and build a rampart of the earth. This is again in the territory of the allies, there should be no danger, if in the war zone, just building a camp will take days! Epitense was both showing off and complaining: "The point is that our Fourth Legion must build camps not only for ourselves, but also for the Fifth." ”