ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 217 Harassment of Crotone Navy

In this way, in this new village composed of dozens of families with preparatory citizens as the majority, Aguilas was elected without any controversy.Because he was one of the mercenaries who followed Daves to Thurii. During the encirclement and annihilation battle against the Lucanian coalition, his left leg was seriously injured and he became a lame after recovering from the illness.After the Tua Alliance was established, when Daves came to comfort their wounded soldiers, he made a request: he hoped to exchange the "land" originally assigned to him in Amendolara to the south bank of the Craty River. The purpose was just to stay as far away from his lively comrades as possible, so as not to get hurt.

With the influx of population, the farmlands on the Subari Plain were greatly developed, and new villages sprung up rapidly on this flat and fertile plain like mushrooms after rain.Originally, in the eyes of dozens of newcomers, Aguilas was an unsmiling and unapproachable person, but under the supervision of the notary sent by the Senate, Aguilas was easily elected as the village head, and everyone knew that This is a mercenary veteran who followed Hades, a benevolent consul, and the undefeated famous general Davos. His eyes immediately became a little awed.

Aguilas is a serious person. Since he has become the head of a village, he must fulfill his responsibilities: maintain order in the village, resolve disputes among villagers, educate the villagers' moral customs, inspect the farmland planting in the village, and remind Villagers participate in military training on time, supervise their military service, pay taxes, record population growth, and guard against epidemics... everything is taken care of down to the smallest detail.

He gets up early every morning, walks around every corner of the village with a cane, and sometimes even drags his injured leg to jump into the mud and repair canals with the villagers...

A few months later, people in the entire village praised his performance. When they met him, they showed genuine respect on their faces. This allowed him to rediscover the meaning of his own survival and struggle.

After the war between Crotone and Dionia, all the adult men in the village went to fight, and spring was the planting season, so there was an obvious shortage of labor.Although every household has slaves, after all, agriculture is different from industry and commerce. There are not many fields and the output is not too large. If there are too many slaves, it will only waste money and food. When labor is really tight, you can still rent slaves, which is better than most During that busy period, every household had one or two domestic slaves.Aguilas rushed to the Turui Senate, registered, and brought back 30 city-state slaves to help the whole village with farm work.

Except for Aguilas, a disabled man, the entire village is made up of women, old people and children. The rest are slaves, most of them are male slaves in their prime. However, Aguilas is not worried that these slaves will cause trouble, because the laws of the alliance stipulate that : Every year on the celebration day of the establishment of the Dionysian City-State Alliance (i.e. October 10), a group of hard-working and well-behaved city-state slaves will be given freedom in front of the Temple of Hades. This is a tribute to them. The reward for keeping one's duty also demonstrates the kindness of Hades.Since the promulgation of this law, the work enthusiasm of city-state slaves has become high and their efficiency has doubled; as for domestic slaves in rural areas, it is not easy for farmers to own a slave and they rely heavily on them, so naturally They cherish it very much and treat their slaves like family members. The longer the time, the closer the emotional connection between the two parties, and the greater the freedom the domestic slave will have. As long as the master is rich and can afford the ransom money required by the alliance, there are many Domestic slaves could be freed before their masters died, and after they were freed, these slaves would often return to their masters' homes and continue to help with household chores as servants.

With the help of slaves, the entire village's spring plowing was completed well.Of course, in his spare time, Aguilas would also comfort the women and elderly people in the village who were worried about their relatives who were on the battlefield.

On this day, because the village's water tanker on the river bank broke down, Aguilas rushed to the city of Turii early in the morning to find someone to repair it. With great difficulty, he made an appointment with a highly skilled carpenter, and hurried back Go home.

As soon as he opened the door, the female slave at home immediately came forward and told him: "Madam is sleeping now. She did not vomit today."

Aguilas was relieved.He had been fighting on the battlefield for most of his life. He originally thought he would die in the wilderness or live a lonely life, but he never expected that after following Davos to Magna Graecia, he would become a city-state citizen, receive land, marry a wife, start a family, and now he would What a blessing from Hades to have children!

When he heard the news from the doctor, he was so happy that he even used his savings to buy a slave girl to take care of his pregnant wife.

"Master, please drink water." The slave girl obediently held the wooden cup filled with water.

Aguilas, who felt thirsty at this time, did not drink it immediately. He asked: "Has it been boiled?" In the past, Greeks were accustomed to drinking raw water, but Helps, who was highly skilled in medicine, many times He called on citizens to drink "heated and boiled water" in public, insisting that this would reduce the risk of getting sick.Aguilas was no stranger to this. When he was marching in Persia, Davos had such strict requirements on his mercenaries.He needs to take good care of his body for the sake of his unborn child.

The slave girl nodded, and he drank it with confidence.

"Bang!" The door was suddenly pushed open with a loud noise, and a half-year-old boy rushed in.

Aguilas stared, about to reprimand.

The boy said out of breath: "Uncle Aguilas, I was picking up shells at the beach just now... I saw... I saw a big boat parked on the beach, and a lot of people got off, and they all had weapons!"

enemy! !Aguilas was immediately alert, turned around and said to the slave girl: "Go to the field and call Bomis (the male slave of the family) back, and then immediately help his wife go north and wait for me in the square of Thurii City!"

"I know, Master!" The slave girl ran out of the yard quickly.

"Child." Aguilas remembered that this boy was named Patroclus. He was usually naughty and often beaten by his father, a strong Thasos man. "When you saw those people, there were others. At the beach?”

"Only me."

Aguilas thought for a moment and then asked: "Can you ride a mule?"

"I have secretly ridden other people's cows and mules many times." This clever boy obviously realized that the situation was urgent and revealed all his secrets without fear of being scolded.

"Do you know that village very close to us in the south?"

"I know, I even fought with the children in that village."

"Uncle wants you to ride my mule and rush there immediately to inform them. Just say what Aguilas said, 'The enemy is coming, tell them to evacuate quickly!' Can you do it?"

"I can!" The boy nodded vigorously.

"Good boy!" Aguilas stroked the boy's head in praise, and suddenly remembered something. He took out the village chief's seal issued by the chief executive of Turiyi City from his arms and put it into the boy's hand: "If they don't believe it, just Show them this."

"Yeah." The boy nodded again.

Aguilas immediately took out the green mule from the cattle and sheep pen in the yard, and the boy easily jumped on the mule's back.

"Kid, remember, after delivering the message, you can rush to the wooden bridge over the Kraty River and wait for us!" Aguilas warned.

"I know, uncle." The boy shook the reins, and the green mule ran out of the yard.

Seeing the boy's skillful movements, Aguilas was half relieved. As an older batch of mercenaries, he and most of his comrades had similar thoughts. This alliance was created with their blood and sweat, and they have this responsibility. Defend the alliance instead of just focusing on your own village.

Aguilas looked at the house reluctantly, then strode out and limped towards the village square, ringing the bell to signal the villagers to evacuate immediately.

Aguilas led the slaves to help the old and the young. Not long after they evacuated the village, thick smoke rose behind them...

Women screamed and cried for the burning villages...

Aguilas could still remain calm. Based on his previous looting experience, he judged that the enemy would not leave the village immediately to pursue him, so he kept urging the villagers to move forward faster, but his fists were clenched tightly: in the alliance His first new home was destroyed!

...........................

"This morning, three villages in Thurii were destroyed and fifteen people were killed, but we did not catch a single enemy! Felicius, you have to think of a way! If this continues, Victory Square will be lost. The people are full, and then the people of the entire alliance will fall into panic! Do the citizen soldiers at the front still have the heart to fight?!" Kunogolata said anxiously, as the chief executive of Thurii, he can't Watching helplessly, Turui, who had finally recovered his prosperity, suffered another catastrophe.

"Don't worry, Lord Cunogorata, sit down and discuss it slowly." Cornerus comforted him and explained for Felicius: "To be honest, the Crotone people are also very cunning. , they used small warships to land scattered on the coasts of Thurii and Castellon. They were all dozens of sailors holding bows, arrows and javelins. All the young and middle-aged citizens in our villages went to fight. Otherwise, how could it be possible? It's easy for them to succeed in a sneak attack! As soon as these sailors discovered that our troops were arriving, they immediately fled back to the ship. We couldn't catch up even if we wanted to! There are only three brigades in the city. They have to defend the port of Turii and also take care of Amendo. Lara, we really don't have enough manpower!"

"But the problem must be solved as soon as possible!" Kunogolata snorted and said: "If we don't have enough manpower, we can consider using those free people!"

"It is indeed a good idea to use free people, Lord Cunogorata!" At this time, Felicius, who had been deep in thought, said: "Tens of thousands of free people have nothing to do in the port. After a long time, it is easy to get into trouble. Chaos. Yesterday, free people came to the military camp and said, 'There is no food to eat, and they want the soldiers to give them food.'"

　Thanks to Scarlet Pioneer and book friend 160804090321041 for the reward!Your support is my biggest motivation for writing! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)