After these people calm down a little. Hilde then spoke: "It's really interesting. I originally thought that you would have a lot of opinions on the points I mentioned before, but I didn't expect that your biggest opinion is about this matter. Unfortunately, I know what you think, and I know that this kind of thing is indeed a bit difficult to accept, but I will not allow the newly formed Ionian Alliance to be absent from many people. If there is no way to gather the power of the entire Ionia together, then there is no need for the Ionian Alliance." "You are invading!" "We won't surrender!!" More and more people are opposing it. Hilde simply bowed and pointed to the door. "Well, those who disagree with this can leave now, return to your city-states, and prepare for war. I won't say anything more to you. This path is also your own choice, so just be happy with it. As long as you can shoulder this responsibility." The first section of the tenth chapter is about a tense situation Hilde didn't bargain with them at all. This straightforward attitude made those who were still noisy just now shut up instantly. What Hilde said was right. If you don't agree, you can go back and prepare for the battle. If you agree, then stay and discuss it together. Under such circumstances, some people who were indignant just now now chose to bow their heads obediently.
Of course, there are also a dozen people with very stubborn tempers. They turned around and left. Most of these people were from a series of city-states in the northern region of Ionia, centered around Abydos. Hilde simply memorized the city-states these people belonged to. Of course, she did not show any anger, but just looked at the matter in a normal way. After these people left, Hilde spoke to those who stayed behind. "Since you all stayed, it means that you agree with the four aspects I mentioned above. In this case, you are obviously very smart people in many things, unlike those who left just now. They were impulsive and did not consider the future results at all. But it doesn't matter. They will taste the consequences. I will let them know how to write the word price." Faced with this naked threat. Even though some people are quite angry. I am just angry but dare not speak out. Hilde's oppressive ruling style makes everyone feel suffocated, but there is nothing to be done about it, because Hilde is just that kind of person. In the face of absolute strength, any face is useless. If you treat them as human beings, they will not treat you as a human being. If you treat them as garbage and tell them that they will kill you if they don’t do so, in the face of absolute strength, they have no choice but to surrender. This is an experience that Hilde has summed up over a long period of time. It's really easy to use. The representatives of the remaining city-states, at least on the surface, agreed to Hilde's four demands, but of course this was just the beginning. Hilde did not really intend to form an alliance with them, but to use the alliance as an excuse to directly intervene in the military and politics of these city-states, and then completely transform them into cities of the Byzantine Kingdom within one to two years. Only in this way can these cities be controlled with minimal losses. As for those who disagree. Hilde had to resort to force. Fortunately, there were relatively few city-states that disagreed. Moreover, even those who agreed would definitely have some grudges in their hearts. They would think that it would have been better for them to leave in the first place. They would definitely wait and see what kind of friction would arise between those city-states that left and the Byzantine Empire. If the Byzantine Kingdom did not deal with those Ionian city-states that did not listen to it, then those seemingly obedient city-states would definitely cause trouble for themselves in the future. So doesn't this give Hilde a reason to kill the chicken to scare the monkeys? "I personally thank everyone who is here for your cooperation. It's getting late today, so you can all rest in Ephesus first. We have prepared a resting place and various delicious foods for you. After tomorrow, we will discuss in detail the investment ratio and troop ratio." "Yes."
Everyone had no choice but to bow their heads in submission. There was no other way before them. Hilde watched this silently, and remembered the expressions on everyone's faces. Some people thought Hilde's proposal was reasonable, while others thought Hilde was going too far, but they didn't dare to say it directly. Hilde understood what these people were thinking, so now there was only one thing in front of Hilde, which was to single out those Ionian city-states that dared to resist him and punish them. This matter cannot be delayed. It must be resolved immediately. So, after settling all the messengers, Hilde immediately returned to the military camp outside the city of Ephesus. She came to her own tent, opened the map, and looked carefully to see the approximate locations of those city-states that dared to resist her. As a result, Hilde couldn't help laughing when she saw it. "Sissi? What's wrong?" Sophia walked over to Hilde with a cup of tea. "Didn't you say today wasn't going well?" "It can be said to be smooth or not. If everyone agrees calmly, it is not a completely good thing for me. I still need some city-states to stand up and resist me. In this way, I can show everyone what it means to kill a chicken to scare the monkey." "Killing the chicken to scare the monkey?" Obviously, as a native of the Greek world, Sophia did not know what it meant to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys. "The monkeys are disobedient, so we kill a chicken in front of them to let them know the consequences of disobedience. This is killing the chicken to scare the monkeys. It is a very simple thing to do. We must let them know the consequences of offending us." Hilde showed the map to Sophia. "Look at this piece, it's the city-states that are rebelling against us today." “Are they all gathered together?” "Yes, don't you think this is giving us an opportunity? If we scatter them, I will have to split up the army and destroy them one by one. Isn't gathering together giving me another chance?" "No wonder you're so happy." "That's right, we solved it all at once. Such a big thing can be considered solved." All of these city-states that rebelled against Hilde were located in the northeastern region of Ionia, and the most interesting thing is that most of these city-states were located on the east coast of the Hellespont, which means that they were only separated from the Gallipoli Peninsula by a strait. These people did not consider the position they were facing before rebelling against Hilde, and they dared to do so. They were really fearless. Among them, the larger city-states include Abydos, Lempsacus, Dacilion, Troy and Gysion, and there are some small city-states that ordinary people don’t know about. Among these five city-states, Abydos has the strongest military strength, and they also have the most connections with the Spartans. The city-state population is about 70,000. Troy is the largest city-state. Of course, this Troy is not the Troy of the previous Trojan War. This is the newly built Troy. It has developed to the present day and has a population of about 90,000. Of course, compared with the Troy that previously confronted the entire Greece, this Troy is obviously too weak. As for the other three city-states, Dacilion is the farthest from the other city-states, but it is very close to Astacus, which Hilde had just conquered. Therefore, Hilde's Second Legion, which is now deployed in Astacus, can go all the way west along the coastline. In the second section of the tenth tune, Xiao Xuexue went back. Dasilion was far away from these other places and had no way to get timely reinforcements, so the Second Legion could easily defeat Dasilion and leave them no chance to resist. As for the remaining four city-states, their overall strength gathered together amounted to an army of about 4 people. In fact, Hilde had another plan, which was to let the Persians go out again and attack Abydos directly. But if she did so, on the one hand, the Persians would probably be unwilling to do so, as they would keep fighting but would not gain any benefits. On the other hand, it would also make many Ionians suspicious. Those who did not listen to Hilde would be beaten by the Persians. So was there some secret connection between Hilde and the Persians? Avoid such misunderstandings that may cause unnecessary adverse consequences. What Hield will do next. These are the four bastards I dealt with personally.
"It looks like there will be another war next." Seeing Hilde's excitement, Sophia said helplessly, "In fact, I naively thought at first that there would be no need for a war between the Byzantine Kingdom and Ionia, but now it seems there is no way." "War is inevitable. If there is no war, we can be thankful for our good luck. But when war comes, we must face it head-on. We cannot think about how to avoid war just because we don't want it. Fortunately, most of the city-states have been intimidated by me, so I don't need to be an enemy of the entire Ionia." This may be the best news. Killing the chicken to scare the monkeys, and by the way, the strength of this chicken is not very strong. "So there will be no more Xiao Xuexue after this?" "temporarily unavailable." Hilde looked around. "Speaking of this, where is little Xue Xue?" "She told me today that she had some matters to attend to in the Persian Empire, so she is leaving first. If you need anything, just send her a letter." Sophia smiled helplessly, "As expected of the emperor of the Persian Empire, she comes and goes without a trace. We can't track her movements at all." "So he went back..." Hilde suddenly felt a little lonely. Even if she wanted to go back, she could have just come over and said hello to Hilde and told her she was leaving. But he left without saying anything. Faced with this situation, Hilde suddenly felt indescribable panic. She was like a boyfriend who made his girlfriend angry but didn't know why. But since they had already left, Hilde couldn't say anything more. She could only sigh and say, "Okay... let's go." "Xixi, are you very sad?" Sophia asked, somewhat worriedly. "Little Xuexue will come back after all." "I know she will come back... Never mind, the things at hand are more important." Fortunately, Xerxes would not need to help in the future, so even if she was not there, Hilde could handle it well by herself. But Hilde suddenly realized that some changes had taken place in herself, and her feelings for Xerxes might be more than she thought. Could it be that I really fell in love with her? Hilde shook her head quickly. No matter what happens now, you must concentrate and focus on doing the next thing well. So, on the second day, Hilde and the city-states that agreed to establish a new Ionian League signed the Ephesus Agreement, formally establishing the Byzantine Kingdom as the leader of the Ionian League, and the proportion of the army and capital contribution of each country was also determined in this meeting. Each city-state was required to hand over 40% of its total income to Ephesus, which would be kept in custody. Why is it this number? Because all the cities of the Byzantine Empire. They all handed over 40% of their income to the central treasury. As for the army, this was even more true. The command of the army was handed over to the Byzantine Empire, and the city-states did not need to support the army themselves. Therefore, although more than 40% of the money was handed over, the actual income did not decrease much. It was precisely because of this that many city-states were able to accept the previous 40% tax transfer. The army was also to be managed by Hilde. The most important point was that Hilde required the city-states to provide soldiers, not the army directly. Hilde did not need allies to cooperate with him on the battlefield, because that would only hinder him. What Hilde wanted was for these troops to be trained and armed completely according to his wishes, and finally become an army that could fight for the Byzantine Kingdom. Similarly, the number of troops that Hilde requested from each city-state was actually relatively small, much less than if they had established their own army. After all, these armies needed to be funded by the Byzantine Kingdom, so they did not need so many people. Finally, the newly formed Ionian League would provide Hilde with 24,000 troops throughout the next year.
Of course, this is still very small compared to the combined population of over one million of these city-states. Hilde does not need to madly exploit Ionia's human resources for the time being. These 24,000 people are enough. Of course, Hilde would never use these 24,000 men to fight the Persians head-on on the battlefield, because there was no need to do so. Instead, Hilde would transfer these 24,000 men from Ionia to the Byzantine homeland for training and reorganization, and finally directly become the army of the Byzantine Kingdom. In addition, these 24,000 men came from different city-states. After being mixed up, it would be difficult for them to gather together and cause trouble for Hilde because they belonged to different city-states. Such actions did effectively promote the rapid growth of Hilde's military strength. 24,000 people. At most, there are two legions. Now Hilde has seven legions, including the Thracian legion in training and the two legions of 24,000 people. The total number of troops has reached 9, which means that Hilde's total number of troops may be almost the same as that of Macedonia, another great kingdom in the Greek world to the west. And with so many troops, Hilde can think of some cool ways. And Hilde has already had people prepare for all of this. Hilde's ideas about the legion are very flexible. For example, the legions deployed in mountainous areas are basically composed mainly of infantry. Chapter 10: The Expansion of Byzantine Military Power This kind of legion is very similar to the Greek army, and precisely because of this, they can be used flexibly in wars with Greece and other surrounding civilizations. It is a very versatile legion, but such a legion is not suitable for use in the large plains of Scythia. Due to the complex terrain of Scythia, this kind of legion will easily fall into the enemy's cavalry harassment when facing the battle of Scythia, and lacks effective cavalry countermeasures. Apart from this. This large infantry corps also has a disadvantage. The ability is too mediocre. Although it is powerful and indestructible, it is difficult to exert miraculous effects. As long as the commander of this kind of legion is a person with a normal mind, the war against the Greek countries will be relatively smooth. It is like playing chess. The legion of large infantry can push forward without thinking. As long as the Byzantine Kingdom has an advantage in military strength, it is easy to win. Future wars will definitely be diverse. Even now. Hield also has to be prepared to face a variety of situations. So Hilde gave way to Sitalces in the Upper Thrace Province, who had been preparing to build a cavalry corps. In order to defeat the Scythian cavalry, he had to have strong cavalry in his hands, so Hilde asked Sitalces to build a full cavalry unit within this period of time. Hilde had many Thracian knights who were good at riding horses. These people only needed more training to master more excellent horse fighting skills, and these people would become the main force of Hilde's march into the Kingdom of Scythia in the future. Of course, such a cavalry unit is not particularly suitable for competing with those Greek countries. After all, the Greek region is full of mountains and hills. If a war breaks out here, the use of a large cavalry corps will be very troublesome. Therefore, Hilde will not make trouble for himself by using a large cavalry corps in the mountainous Greek region. And this time. 24,000 soldiers taken from the Ionians. These men will be organized into two infantry corps. Hilde's current plan is to station these two legions in the Upper Thrace province and the Black Sea province respectively, responsible for preventing the Scythians from moving south. As for whether they will rebel, there is no need to worry. After entering the Byzantine army, their officers will be officers of the Byzantine Kingdom, and the education they receive every day will be to fight for the Byzantine Kingdom. What's more, they are all Greeks. Those Thracians, who are almost barbarians, have been trained by Hilde, let alone these people. Hilde is still very confident about this. Hildes had promised the people of Ephesus that they would become the most glorious city in Ionia. Now Hilde is going to do what he says. As it stands, the new Ionian city-state placing its treasury in the city of Ephesus will inevitably stimulate many people to come to Ephesus. You must know that the status of Delos in the whole of Greece is also very important, especially its religious status.
In Greek mythology, Delos is the residence of the goddess Leto, the sixth wife of Zeus, who gave birth to Apollo and Artemis. Although the natural resources in this place are extremely scarce, so that ordinary people cannot survive on this island, there are temples of Dionysus, Hera, Poseidon and other gods on Delos. Because of its special geographical location, it has become the best berthing port for many merchant ships sailing between the Argonis Gulf and the Ionian Coast. And these are largely. It is also related to the fact that the Delian League placed its headquarters on the island of Delos. So for Ephesus.