I was a priest in the city-state era

Chapter 193 Substituting Fat Salt for Fat Grain
Although the war between Athens and Knossos was temporarily over, Loy did not become easier.

Because next, Roy has to solve a more difficult and more important thing than defeating the city of Knossos-to solve the food problem in the city of Athens.

If the food problem in the city of Athens is not resolved, even if there is no enemy to attack the city of Athens, the city of Athens will collapse by itself.

The current grain shortage in Athens is about 150 million catties of grain.

To make matters worse, because of the hostile relationship between the city of Athens and the city of Knossos, the Athenians could not go to Knossos to buy grain, and had to let the grain merchants take the initiative to transport the grain to Athens.

In order to solve the food problem in the city of Athens and make the city of Athens a trading hub in the Aegean Sea, Roy took out the commodity with the highest value and the highest profit in this era-salt.

Port of Piraeus.

Clay pots filled with salt were moved by soldiers to the cabins of twenty ships.

After all the [-] catties of salt in one thousand clay pots were moved to the boat, Roy said to Aries.

"Aries, now I want to give you an important task related to the survival of the city of Athens. I want you to take these [-] warships and [-] soldiers to search for merchant ships in the South Aegean Sea, and destroy the merchant ships you encountered along the way. pirates. As long as you meet a merchant ship, give them a pot of salt and tell them to come to Athens for trade. You can buy unlimited salt at the price of fifty catties of grain for one catty of salt. As long as you put a thousand Give a pot of salt to a thousand merchant ships, and you can take the fleet back to Athens. And most importantly, you have to tell those merchant ships that no commercial tax will be charged for selling goods in Athens.”

After listening to Roy's exhortation, Aries couldn't help but said.

"Your Majesty, 200 catties of salt is equivalent to [-] million catties of grain. Do we really want to give it away for nothing? The price of one catty of salt is one hundred catties of grain. Isn't it too cheap for us to sell fifty catties of grain for one catty of salt?"

"You need to take the long view."

Roy patted Aries on the shoulder and said.

"Now we let merchants from the sea come to Athens City to trade in order to make Athens City a trading hub. When Athens City's status as a trading hub stabilizes, we can collect wool - and we can collect taxes. As long as Athens City replaces Knossos City becomes a trading hub, we can destroy Knossos City without bloodshed, and make Knossos City completely decline. And we actually have no loss of profit, after all, we use sea water to dry out the salt Yes, the price we pay is some labor."

Aries nodded half-understood and said.

"Then I will follow your request and give salt to every merchant ship I meet, and tell them that there is no merchant tax for trading in Athens City."

"You can also tell them that in addition to salt, we have commodities such as olive oil and wine in Athens."

After Aries left the port with [-] warships and [-] Athenian soldiers, Roy returned outside the city of Athens, preparing to pay the soldiers who participated in the war.

The city of Athens would definitely not be able to distribute food directly to the soldiers.

Even if it can barely be distributed, the city of Athens may start to collapse the next day after the food is distributed to the soldiers.

Moreover, the soldiers couldn't take away hundreds of catties or even thousands of catties of grain alone.

Therefore, Roy does not intend to directly distribute food to the soldiers, but to distribute salt to the soldiers.

outside of Athens.

More than 2000 soldiers gathered at Fayan, and this spectacular sight attracted thousands of Athenians to watch.

Roy stood on a mound and shouted to the soldiers.

"Soldiers! Now I want to tell you that the war between Athens and Knossos is over. Soldiers from Thebes, Eubia, and Corinth can go home. Before you go home, I will I want to fulfill my promise to you and give you the rewards you deserve. But each of you can’t go home with hundreds of catties or even thousands of catties of grain, so I will send you salt. In other areas, The price of one catty of salt is equivalent to one hundred catties of grain, but I will give you the salt at the price of one catty of salt and fifty catties of grain. That is to say, the reward you deserve is one thousand catties of grain, and I will give it to you You have twenty catties of salt. You can eat the salt yourself, or you can store the salt as currency. When you finish eating the grain, you can exchange the salt for the grain.”

In this era, storing food is definitely more difficult than storing salt.

For civilians, there is so much food at home that they can't finish it in a short time. Whether it is eating moldy food or eating food that has been bitten by mice, it is very dangerous.

So the soldiers were very willing, and Roy exchanged hundreds or even thousands of catties of grain for salt and distributed them to them.

"If you have no objections, then line up one by one to get your salt. After you get the salt, those who are married can sign up to go home today. Those who are not married can participate in tomorrow's blind date. If you're lucky, you'll get a wife."

After Roy finished speaking, the soldiers began to line up to receive the salt in an orderly manner.

Although the [-] Athenian soldiers led by Bai Yang were not there, Roy did not forget them, and arranged for [-] bags of salt to be delivered to their homes.

After Taurus received his big bag of salt, Roy came to Taurus and exhorted him.

"Taurus, you don't have to participate in tomorrow's blind date."

"what--"

Hearing Roy's request, Taurus said suspiciously.

"Does Your Majesty want me to be single forever?"

"I have already prepared a wife for you."

Roy explained with a smile.

"Before I robbed the six sisters of Perseus, the prince of Mycenae, as spoils of war, and only let the Mycenaeans redeem Perseus's three cousins. Perseus's three sisters, two One is arranged to be married by me, and the other one is left to you. Now I want to give this princess to you as my wife, so of course you don't need to go on a blind date."

Suddenly learning that there was a noble princess who would become his wife, Taurus looked at Roy with wide eyes in shock and said.

"Is what Your Majesty said true? You are so kind to me. I really don't know how to repay your kindness. Originally, I planned to cast bronzes for you to build warships on Yubia Island. Now I change I have made up my mind, I will stay in Athens and serve you loyally."

"Taurus! If you really appreciate my kindness, stay in Yubia and make weapons for me. Before you return to Yubia, I will tell you how to make charcoal and use charcoal to smelt iron ore to make iron tools. Teach you. As long as you bring other Phoenicians to continuously make bronze and iron ware for me, you will be able to make credit for me that will not lose to anyone. After three years, I will make you the island of Eubia Governor of the Isle of Eubia, who governs all the people of Eubia."

After speaking, Roy patted Taurus on the shoulder with his right hand.

"His Majesty--"

Although the governor of Yubia is not a hereditary position and a lifelong position, he is also the supreme ruler of Yubia Island.

As a commoner, I have the opportunity to obtain this kind of status that is not lost to the king of the city-state——

Taurus, unable to express his gratitude, knelt down on his knees in front of Roy to express his loyalty.

(End of this chapter)