"If Ionia is full of these good-for-nothings, there is really no way to resist the Persian attack."
Hilde's words were like firing a map cannon.
He cursed all the Ionian city-states.
But no one dared to refute now. These envoys usually acted arrogantly in their own city-states, but in front of Hilde, they were as well-behaved as good children. It was not because they thought Hilde was beautiful, nor because they felt that Hilde was scary, but they were simply afraid of Hilde's strength as the king of the Byzantine Kingdom.
Hilde glanced around.
After discovering that these messengers had become obedient.
He smiled at Pyrrhus in front of him.
And Pyrrhus nodded gratefully.
Hilde once again focused his gaze on the envoy from Abydos. "Next time you speak, remember this. Are you qualified to say these words? Forget it. This matter is not the focus of today's discussion. I don't want to talk about the relationship between you and the Spartans, and I don't want to know. The key issue now is that the threat of the Persian attack is getting bigger and bigger. I want to know what you think."
Hilde said this and came in front of everyone, leaning on his spear.
"Is this what you are planning? Even if the Persians invade, it won't be a problem for them to conquer you. After all, you were part of the Persian Empire decades ago. You haven't been independent for very long. Some city-states have only been independent for less than 20 years. So you still miss the rule of the Persian Empire?"
"Not really!"
At this time a man came out and said.
"During the reign of the Persian Empire, our city-states suffered a lot. We really lived in a very oppressive environment at that time. The Persians did not agree with our culture and tried to change our ideas and habits. The Lydians were the best example. A hundred years ago, many of our city-states were ruled by the Kingdom of Lydia, but the Kingdom of Lydia gave us full freedom and even provided us with funds. The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus was built under the sponsorship of the King of Lydia."
"and then?"
Hilde smiled and nodded.
This person spoke Hilde's thoughts.
"After the Lydian Kingdom was destroyed by the Persian Empire, the brave and martial Lydians were forced by the Persians to work in agriculture and music. They were not allowed to join the army or take up arms. Only 100 years have passed. The Lydians in Anatolia no longer know how to fight. They can only play the lyre for you. We have also encountered such a thing, but fortunately, our fate is better than that of the Lydians. We were liberated by the Delian League before our martial spirit was completely suppressed. So of course we know how terrible it is to be ruled by the Persian Empire, because almost everyone here has lived from that period to the present."
From the time when the Delian League and the Persian Empire signed the treaty to the present, only about ten years have passed. People's memories are often short, so they feel that the Greco-Persian War seemed to have passed a long time ago. But in fact, this war has only been over for about ten years. The rulers active in various city-states today are almost all those who have lived from the Greco-Persian War to the present.
It is precisely because of this.
In fact, most people cannot forget what it feels like to be ruled by the Persian Empire.
What the man said resonated with others as well.
Including the envoy from Abydos, he was looking at Hilde with a complicated expression, because what Hilde said was indeed right, no one wanted to return to the era ruled by the Persian Empire. If they wanted to avoid returning to that era, what Hilde said was very necessary.
Facing the growing threat from the Persians, what should all the city-states do to avoid these threats? This has become a very important question. And the only way they can choose is also very clear, that is, they can only unite the Ionian Alliance formed to jointly oppose Persia.
But this is easy to say, but it is another problem to do it. Everyone thought so at first, but everyone saw with their own eyes the end of Miletus, which bravely resisted the Persian Empire, so all the city-states suddenly began to be afraid. Faced with such a threat, a very contradictory idea was formed, that is, I don’t want to be ruled by the Persians, but I don’t want to fight the Persians with all my strength, because everyone always thinks that if I fight with all my strength, it is very likely that the Persians will focus on me, and I will be the first to suffer.
Such contradictory thoughts.
This eventually led to the current situation of the Ionian League.
Hilde listened to the man finish.
So he asked, "Which city-state are you from?"
"Mytilin."
"Then your situation should be relatively safe. As far as I know, Mytilene is separated from the coast of Asia Minor by a small strait. You are on an island."
"Yes, but if other city-states are ruled by the Persian Empire, then our Mytilene will also suffer the same disaster. We are all connected, and we are all in danger. Only by protecting the city-states along the coast of Asia Minor can we be protected."
Hilde agreed very much with what the messenger said.
The island where Mytilene is located can be said to be the largest island along the coast of Asia Minor. Although it is called a strait, it is actually closely connected with the mainland. However, the envoy from Mytilene is very serious, and the sense of justice he possesses is something that the envoys from city-states like Abydos do not have.
Chapter 8 of the ninth chapter: This is a threat
Therefore, Hilde was quite curious about the mentality of the envoy from Mytilene to say such words. After all, as Hilde said just now, Mytilene was not a city-state that would be seriously threatened by Persia. Although there is a truth that the lips and teeth are cold, the fact that he has such awareness shows that this person is not a coward.
Then Hilde said:
"Everyone has heard that the envoy from Mytilene has said everything I wanted to say. You should all understand this now. If everyone in Ionia, including our Byzantine Kingdom, does not unite to face the Persian Empire, our fate will be to be annexed and destroyed."
"yes……"
"That's true..."
Many people were shaken after hearing this.
"I know that when you came here, you must have doubted our motives and wondered why our Byzantine Kingdom wanted to wade into this muddy water. But as the envoy from Mytilene said, resisting the Persians is not only the mission of you Ionians, but also my mission. If you Ionia are conquered by the Persian Empire, your future is obviously none of my business. But if you are destroyed by the Persian Empire, we will definitely be the next to suffer. This principle of lips and teeth is not only true for Mytilene, but also for us."
Hilde cleverly transferred the words of the Mytilene envoy to herself, which provided her with a very good excuse and rhetoric for rebuilding the Ionian Alliance.
"We understand that the Byzantine Kingdom is in the same situation as us. After all, we are all Greeks. Although our political systems are different, I believe that we are on the same front in opposing the Persians." At this time, another man spoke up, "On the one hand, the Byzantine Kingdom is not a traditional Ionian country. Isn't it a bit strange to join the Ionian Alliance? Secondly, Ephesus, which was a member of Ionia, has now become a part of the Byzantine Kingdom. Does this mean that the Byzantine Kingdom also has the idea of ruling our Ionia? If so, we are just choosing between the Persian Empire and the Byzantine Kingdom to rule us. Why don't we choose the more powerful Persian Empire?"
"That's a good question."
Hilde couldn't help but laugh.
"Pyrrhus has already answered this question. It is obvious that you did not listen to what Pyrrhus said, but asked this question in front of me. I will not mind that you did not listen carefully and dared to ask me this question. If you have this doubt, then I can answer you. Ephesus's joining the Byzantine Empire was the decision of the Ephesians themselves, because their previous citizen assembly made a wrong judgment, which made the Ephesians very disappointed. It is also because of this that I, who rescued Ephesus from the Persians, naturally became the master of Ephesus."
"Isn't this...reason a bit far-fetched?"
"Yeah, just because you saved them, you can rule them?"
"Just?"
A nitpicker is really a nitpicker.
No matter what era, there will always be such argumentative people.
These guys were just looking for trouble by saying this. Hilde took a deep breath to calm herself down a little, and then the smile on her face became even stronger, which looked strange. But if Sophia, who knew Hilde well, was here, she would know that Hilde was murderous now.
"How about this? Didn't you say just? Everyone knows what the antonym of save is? It's destroy. Since saving a city-state can be modified by the word just, then destroying the city-state should also be modified by this word, right? So which city-state are you from? Since you think this kind of thing is justified, then do you want me to send troops to destroy your city-state first, and then rule you completely? At this time, I wonder if you will say that you only destroyed our city-state, how can you be qualified to rule us?"
"Your Majesty, this is too much."
"You are the one who went too far."
Hilde said coldly.
"You guys don't really think that the Byzantine Kingdom coming to help you resist the invasion of the Persian Empire is really free? Is it really free of charge? Do you think that our Byzantine Kingdom sending tens of thousands of troops to fight the Persians on the front line can be described with just this word? Are you too naive? We help you for our own interests, but it doesn't mean that you can take it for granted! I can tell you that in order to eliminate the threat of the Persian Empire to us, I will consider using all means, including conquering all of Ionia before the Persian Empire reacts."
Hearing Hilde say this.
Everyone looked around in surprise.
Even though Hield directly said this idea, it was really a bit surprising, but Hield felt that he had said it lightly enough, and he was very friendly to these people by not directly saying his real thoughts. And if these people hadn't been arguing with him all the time, Hield wouldn't have wanted to say it so decisively.
"Are you threatening us?"
"Threat? I think too highly of you."
In Hilde's palm, purple electric sparks made crackling sounds, and the messengers couldn't help but take two or three steps back. Although they had heard that Hilde was an oracle, this was the first time they saw an oracle use his power with their own eyes.
"You must understand one thing. If I want to conquer you and rule Ionia, our army will be just like the army of the Persian Empire, and you will not be able to fight back. However, we are all members of the Delian League, so I don't want to do anything so extreme. I called everyone here so that we can sit together and discuss the future of the Ionian League and how we should jointly deal with the threat of the Persian Empire. I don't want to do anything too extreme to you. The premise is that you must respect me, the Byzantine Empire, and Ephesus. So does anyone have any objections to what I said? If so, please speak up now."
Chapter 9: Speech on Building a New Alliance
With Hilde saying this, who dared to speak out their own meaning? Otherwise, they would be electrocuted to death by Hilde on the spot. The envoys of these city-states dared to be angry but dared not speak out. They were very angry about Hilde's overbearing behavior, but what could they do? If all these people rushed forward, Hilde might be able to solve all the problems with a wave of his hand.
It was the same messenger from Mytilene.
He wasn't that scared.
Instead, he lowered his head and smiled, "Your Majesty, please don't be angry. We Ionians rarely deal with countries with kings. We don't know how to respect His Majesty, and it is inevitable that we will offend you. So I apologize to you on their behalf. For the future of Ionia and the Byzantine Kingdom, I think we must sit down and discuss this issue calmly and carefully."
"That's the correct way to put it."
The smile returned to Hilde's face.
The weather that seemed like it was going to have a thunderstorm suddenly cleared up.
Hilde's expression changed too quickly.
So Hilde happily walked to Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus first smiled and nodded to Hilde, then left here very consciously. From now on, no matter whether it was the affairs of the Byzantine Kingdom or Ephesus, let Hilde decide for herself. Pyrrhus’ current status was just a city official of the Byzantine Kingdom and he had no right to decide the affairs of Ephesus.
Hilde stood in front of everyone and looked around.
The show of force I just showed was indeed useful.
At least these guys kept their mouths shut.
In the face of absolute strength, all the pots and stoves are meaningless. What's more, Hilde doesn't want them to shut up, but to speak human language. It is for this reason that their cooperation becomes natural. Since these guys have chosen to shut up, then Hilde will do the next thing.
"If you don't mind, I'm going to tell you about my next plan, the reconstruction of the Ionian League. It will be a complicated matter and will affect the current status of all city-states. But these changes are better than being occupied by the Persian Empire. I hope that no one will directly refute me when I speak. If you have any ideas, please speak after I finish speaking."
Hilde's words.
It's almost like shutting everyone's mouth.
Seeing that they were all cooperative, Hilde began to explain.
"Regarding the reconstruction of the Ionian League, I will make it short and express what I want to express to you in the most straightforward language. First of all, the reason for the reconstruction of the Ionian League is to better gather the power in everyone's hands to resist the invasion and threat of the Persian Empire. All members must understand that the Persian Empire is a threat to all of us. Unless the Persian Empire destroys itself, the Ionian League will continue to exist for the freedom and peace of the Greeks."
"Then, the reason why the Ionian League needs to be rebuilt is largely because Athens and Sparta are now involved in a war. The Delian League and the Peloponnesian League are inseparable. The previous leader of the Delian League, Athens, is now unable to take care of itself. Athens can no longer lead the Ionian League to resist the Persian Empire like it did 20 years ago. Without the leadership of Athens, everyone should be very clear about the problems faced by the Ionian League. This shows that no matter what kind of alliance it is, it must have a strong leader to gather everyone's strength together. Only in this way can everyone's potential be maximized."
Although Athens was never a member of the Ionian League.
But Athens was the founder of the Delian League.
The Delian League was established to resist Persia. The original mission of the Delian League was to mediate with the Persians, and in the end they really drove the Persians away.
It is precisely because of this that when Athens was unable to take care of itself, the Athenians had no way to focus their energy on these happy younger brothers, so these younger brothers faced the situation of being isolated and helpless. They could only take care of themselves and established the Ionian League. This is the history and reason for the establishment of the Ionian League, which is also directly related to Athens.
"So I think everyone must be very clear that the Ionian League needs a strong leader. However, looking at the entire Ionian League, only the city-state of Miletus has such strength. But obviously Miletus has been destroyed, but the Byzantine Kingdom, which inherited all the population and spirit of Miletus, has the obligation and the need to assume the leadership responsibility that Miletus did not assume before. And my Queen Hilde of the Byzantine Kingdom, the oracle of Lady Athena, is the only person in the entire Asia Minor region who is capable of fighting against the tyranny of the Persians. Therefore, in order to rebuild the Ionian League, the Byzantine Kingdom must not only join it, but also become a leader. The purpose is to bring everyone together and make our fists bigger."
Hilde's idea caused some people nearby to panic. They didn't expect that Hilde would not be polite at all and said directly, "I will take care of the entire Ionian Alliance." They wanted to ask Hilde how she was going to take care of it, but when they thought of what Hilde had said just now, everyone had to shut up before she finished speaking, so these people who had a lot of things in their stomachs really shut up.
Hilde was very satisfied with their reaction.
"Secondly, let me talk about the general plan of the new Ionian League. All countries and city-states that are willing to adopt this plan will be members of the new Ionian League. The Byzantine Kingdom will become the leader of the alliance. The army and material allocation of all alliance members in the city-states will be unified by the alliance headquarters established by the Byzantine Kingdom. Each country can send generals to the alliance headquarters to discuss how to fight against the Persian Empire. Each country and each city-state has the right to participate in the joint command, but at the same time, each city-state is allowed to retain a part of its army in its own city-state to ensure stability according to the number and population of its own army. Apart from this, all armies will be under the unified command of the alliance. Similarly, each country does not need to be fully responsible for its own expenses. The military expenses of its own army will also be jointly borne by the alliance, just like the Delian League."
The lion opened his mouth wide
The Delian League became like this. The reason why the Delian League was called the Delian League was because Athens required all the allies to store all the funds they provided on the island of Delos. The treasury on the island of Delos stored about 20 talents of gold, and one talent of gold was equivalent to about 40 to 1600 kilograms. In other words, on the island of Delos alone, there were about 3200 to kilograms of gold stored. This is a very scary number, and it also indirectly shows how rich the Delian League is.
Hilde's proposal is based on the Delian League, but this creates another problem. All the city-states here are part of the Delian League. If a new Ionian League is established, and they need to pay the fees that the league requires, doesn't that mean that these city-states need to pay twice?
Hield has a solution for this, too.
"And now the Delian League you joined can no longer protect you, nor can it lead you to resist the Persian attack, so the money you originally wanted to give to the Delian League can be completely transferred to the new Ionian League. Otherwise, if you give your money to the Delian League, the Delian League will only use the money to fight the Spartans and will not care about your life or death at all."
Hilde's words also expressed the thoughts of many people.
After all, no one in the Delian League would come to help Ionia, and as a result, Ionia had to pay a portion of the money every year, and all of this money was used by Athens to fight the Spartans. So because of this, these Ionian city-states listened to Hilde. They didn't have to give the money to the Delian League. On the contrary, they supported this. After all, it was better to gather the money together and use it all to fight the Persians than to obediently give the money to people who would not help them.
"Regarding this point, I will discuss with you in detail how much money each city-state needs to provide and how the money will be used. Although the Byzantine Kingdom is a new country that has only been established for three years, it is not short of money. We still have plenty of money, so in the newly established Ionian Alliance, we are willing to pay a large sum of money as funds to jointly fight against Persia."
Hilde had to test the waters.
If the Byzantine Empire is unwilling to pay.
How could other city-states be willing to pay the money?
Of course, the main problem was that Hilde was unwilling to hand over the money to the Delian League, so with this excuse, Hilde could not provide funds to Athens, pretending that she was in great need of money to fight Persia, so she had to do this. This shameless approach allowed Hilde to avoid a large amount of money that needed to be handed over to the Delian League. After all, Hilde would definitely put the money that entered the Ionian League into her own pocket.
The issue of money or not will have to be discussed later.
Now let’s talk about the last point.
"I have made it very clear in my previous words, and the last point is actually the most important. I require everyone to understand one thing. The New Ionian League is our front line against the Persians, but in order for the alliance to have the ability to resist the Persians, everyone must gather under this banner, and no one is allowed to refuse this. If someone disagrees with my idea and is unwilling to join the Ionian League, this will pose a threat to our Ionian League's next move against the Persian Empire, which is indirectly equivalent to you being an enemy of our Byzantine Kingdom. In order to better concentrate all our forces to deal with the next crisis, I have to eliminate some small crises in advance. I hope everyone can understand this. I have finished my words, and you can say whatever you want to say quickly."
"what!"
After hearing this, everyone was dumbfounded.
This sentence was like a bomb being ignited.
No one could fail to hear the hidden meaning in Hilde's words, which was that you don't have to join the new Ionian Alliance, but if you don't join you must be prepared to be dealt with by me. Hilde's words were actually a naked threat. The Ionians had no way to gather together to resist the Persians, but they also had no way to gather together to resist the Byzantine Empire. Under this circumstance, there was only one way before them, and that was to agree to Hilde's request.
Let's not talk about the first few points for now. The last one alone was unbearable for many people. They felt that this was completely oppression and forced them to make such a choice and decision, so naturally many people could not accept it. So, the envoy of Abydos, who was a little timid just now, stood up and said: "What is the difference between your behavior and that of the Persians? You force us to join your so-called new Ionian Alliance, hold everything in your hands, and warn those who do not join!"
"Yes!!! This is an act of hegemony!"
"Naked aggression!"
The indignant messengers couldn't help but start shouting.
Such a reaction was completely within Hilde's expectations. She knew this would happen, so she was not surprised or surprised at all. She just listened quietly to these people starting to make a fuss, but these people were also good-for-nothings and could not say anything valuable. They just kept emphasizing that Hilde was a dictator and that Hilde did this for Ionia.
