This makes the Athenian fleet more flexible, and the possibility of annihilating them in one go is too low. If Hilde rushes straight up, it can indeed threaten the fleet of the other side's base camp, but those fleets will play hide-and-seek with Hilde on the vast islands of the Aegean Sea, which is not what Hilde wants to see.
Therefore, Hilde had better find an opportunity to annihilate the Athenian fleet in one fell swoop.
Just surround it completely.
Maybe even surrender without a fight.
At the same time, Hilde actually has a huge trump card in his hand to deal with Athens.
That's food.
Athens is a heavily commercialized and handicraft city-state. The main grain-producing area is still the Attica region. However, it is indeed difficult to feed the 200,000 people in Athens with grain from these places. Previously, Athens established many agricultural colonies along the fertile Black Sea coast. The main purpose here was to produce grain and provide it to Athens. Therefore, in order to protect this grain transportation channel, Athens must vigorously develop its navy.
Later, the Byzantine Empire rose and not only annexed the Ionian region, but the Byzantine colonial army also immediately spread throughout the Black Sea coast. Compared with the immigrant groups of small city-states such as Greece, the national immigration of the Byzantine Kingdom was much more efficient. After solving the problem of the Scythians, the Byzantine Kingdom's immigration points blossomed all over the fertile plains of Scythia. At the same time, the Caucasus region on the north coast of the Black Sea also welcomed these Byzantines.
Grain colony in Athens.
Almost all of them disappeared and were quietly occupied by the Byzantine Empire.
Finally, Athens had to rely on the Byzantine Empire for overseas food.
After all, the Byzantine Kingdom and Hilde still maintained a friendly relationship called the "Delian League". Although it was basically in name only, at least the two sides were still allies in name. Therefore, the Byzantine Kingdom sold grain to Athens at a low price through the Byzantine Chamber of Commerce. Those fine wheat, barley and other good things were sold at very low prices in the Athenian market, meeting the needs of the Athenian people's lives, and by the way...
The peasants of Attica were also bankrupted.
After the farmers went bankrupt, before they could say anything, the Byzantine Chamber of Commerce recruited them with relatively good compensation, or directly bought the land and hired people to farm it. The Athenians did not even notice that all the farmlands in Attica had gradually changed from Athens to Byzantium. At the same time, those Attica farmers also boarded ships and became crew members, workers, or other occupations.
These, Hilde thought.
Creon didn't know.
But Nicias should be very clear about this matter.
Therefore, he should understand the difficulties Athens faced when facing the Byzantine Empire.
But at the same time, Athens now has at least one year's worth of food in reserve, and they are determined to defend their city and clear the countryside.
Chapter 4, Section 5: Party in the Bathtub
Hilde could take two approaches at the same time: force the city of Athens to submit in terms of food, and defeat the Athenian navy strategically. As long as both sides were accomplished, then even if Nicias of Athens disagreed, the Athenians would be angry and drive him out of the position of consul.
That's Hilde's plan.
It seems to be quite seamless indeed.
But I don’t know how it will be implemented in practice.
While Hilde was thinking, Rhodes, who was curled up in Hilde's arms, moved.
Hilde turned around and saw that Rod had propped himself up, rubbed his eyes, and looked out the window sleepily. When he found that it was already daytime, Rod quickly sat up straight and turned his gaze to Hilde.
She lowered her head somewhat embarrassedly, then raised her head again and asked:
"Does it hurt?"
"Hmm? You asked me if it hurts?"
"I'm sorry... Sister Xixi, you make me feel like my mother, so at that time..."
"fine."
Hilde also sat up, then grabbed the robe beside him and put it on.
"Isn't this great?"
"But……"
"It gave me a taste of what it would be like to have children in the future."
Hilde looked at Rhodes with a smile.
As a result, Rhode was so ashamed that he wanted to crawl into the ground.
So, Hilde patted Rhodes on the shoulder, took her hand and said, "I'm in a good mood today. Let's go take a shower together!"
——————————Dividing line——————————
"Is this the place to discuss national affairs?"
Xerxes' wheat-colored skin looked particularly beautiful in the steaming pool.
Hilde's hands groped back and forth on Xerxes's slender legs. It must be said that Xerxes' slightly fleshy thighs were indeed very comfortable. Moreover, wheat-colored skin was Xerxes' unique feature. Hilde, who was sitting next to Xerxes, had bright white skin that shone brightly.
"Isn't it nice here?"
"A few naked women chatting while taking a bath?"
"I think it's okay."
Hilde smiled.
Rhodes, who was sitting opposite Hilde, put almost half of his face into the water.
Sophia showed off her long horns openly and looked at Rhodes with some curiosity. After all, it was the first time for Rhodes to attend such a party.
"So, Sissi, what do you want to say?"
"There's still one person who hasn't come yet."
Hilde looked outside.
"coming."
"Who?"
Everyone followed Hilde's gaze and saw a woman with a figure comparable to Hilde's, breaking through the mist and walking towards the pool. After a closer look, everyone realized that it was Artemis. At the same time, another slender figure also ran over quickly, with her long golden hair tied into a ponytail. There was no doubt that this girl must be Dione.
"Hello everyone."
This is the case now.
Artemis would still feel a little embarrassed.
This was her first time doing this too.
and so……
As a god, it was nothing for her to bathe with other women. Artemis, the goddess of hunting, had also played with female hunters in the valleys or lakes. Therefore, the goddesses being frank with each other was not really something worth mentioning. However, there was one person here that made Artemis a little concerned.
That was Hilde, of course.
Artemis sheepishly walked to the pool and carefully dipped her body into the water.
But the body has just been covered with hot water.
Hilde quickly got to Artemis' side.
Artemis was startled and quickly put her hands up to cover her face.
"Too close!"
"What's wrong?" Seeing Artemis's panic, Hilde looked at her with interest, "Is the goddess so shy?"
"No, it's not this..."
"Well, don't bully Lady Artemis." Sophia also persuaded with a wry smile, "If Tomyris was here, she would definitely be angry with you."
"Hahaha."
Fortunately, that little girl Tomyris is not here.
Now, it will take Tomyris two days to return to Byzantium, and she is still on the way.
However, Hilde was still quite interested in Artemis's reaction. It seemed that there might be some forbidden feelings between Artemis and Athena. Both of them were virgin goddesses, so Hilde had no idea what they thought of each other.
but……
"ah!"
Artemis suddenly let out a whine.
The reason was that Hilde pinched the other person's butt in the water.
"Don't be so nervous."
"You, what are you doing!"
Seeing this scene, Xerxes couldn't help but burst into laughter: "Hahahaha, this is so funny!"
"You can still laugh, you're so thoughtful."
"If you have wine today, you will get drunk today!"
Xerxes' optimism also made everyone laugh.
Xerxes turned around and saw Rhodes laughing with his hands covering his mouth.
"Rod, show me a water spray!"
"This is not a party!" Hilde stopped Xerxes. "Anyway, since we have to talk about serious things now, why don't we just take a bath and chat comfortably?"
"Um……"
Artemis held her forehead helplessly.
"If you weren't so frank."
"We are all women, what are we afraid of!"
Hilde glanced at Artemis, then pulled a plate from the side and placed it on the water.
In the middle of the bath, there is a table, which is mainly used to eat and drink while taking a bath. For today's chat, Hilde also specially prepared brandy that has been aged in wooden barrels for a period of time, as well as the best Byzantine wine. Seeing this, Diony also understood and immediately came over to pour wine into everyone's cup.
Everyone raised their glasses.
Everyone's attention was focused on Hilde, who was standing in the center with her entire body exposed from the water.
"First of all, let us hope that the Byzantine Kingdom can survive this crisis!"
"cheers!"
Everyone raised their glasses to celebrate and then drank them all.
After drinking the wine, Hilde put down the glass and looked around.
"Today, the most important thing I want to talk about is the next goal. Today, the Olympian gods have been threatening us and have posed a great threat to us, so we absolutely cannot sit idly by. Therefore, we should now gather all our strength to make these arrogant gods of Olympus understand that what they are doing is against morality!"
"Kill them!"
Xerxes enjoyed the fun and raised his glass to cheer.
"No, no, no."
"What are we going to do?"
Chapter 4, Section 6: The Plan to Send Troops to Athens
"Now, what we have to do is to break the threat that the Olympians are posing to us."
“This is a big project.”
At this time, Rhodes couldn't help but say:
"Sister Sissi, what are you going to do?"
"Indeed, when we heard that the enemy we were facing was the entire Olympian clan, we felt scared and thought that no matter what, we would never be able to face off against such a terrifying enemy like the Olympian clan. However, the good news is that the Olympian clan is not united, but each has its own thoughts. Most of the gods have already noticed Zeus' tricks, just like Apollo before. And this time, among the gods sent by Zeus, the most important one is obviously Hera."
"Queen Hera..."
This name is indeed well-known.
And Hilde took a sip of her brandy.
He explained with a smile and a calm attitude:
"Hera is the commander-in-chief of this operation, responsible for commanding the other gods. I learned this from Lady Artemis. And now, perhaps the only god who completely obeys Hera is Hermes. Even Ares has his own little thoughts. Similarly, other gods do not completely obey Zeus, which can be judged from the situation of the oracle."
"Even though Zeus personally asked them to do so, when they came to the human world, they still carried out their missions according to their own preferences. For example, Hercules only wanted to choose brave warriors, while Ares hoped to rely on the oracle to have a greater impact on Sparta and other surrounding city-states. Hermes was busy spreading his grace among merchants and thieves. Hephaestus even found an equally outstanding craftsman in Argolis and discussed the technology of making weapons with him."
Hilde glanced around with a smile.
Except for Artemis who already knew the result.
The others listened very carefully.
