Chapter 459: War Preparation (I)

Thus Kunogelata could only say with a bitter smile, "It's just that I am used to addressing him with that. We really need to pay attention in the future!"

Cornelius nodded, feeling the same.

At this time, the chief commercial officer Marigi, and Plesinas, the one in charge of the Temple of Hades, came out. But compared to those before them, the two of them were smiling.

Kunogelata always suspected that the two of them were the ones responsible for the whole "Davos to be the king" thing.

'Was it the time for them to get their reward for their achievements?' Kunogelata thought in disgust and couldn't help poke at them, "The two of you seems to be in quite a good mood while the entire people of Theonia are worried about Theonia's safety."

Marigi remained smiling as he looked at Kunogelata. He then lowered his voice in a mocking mysterious tone and said, "I'm certainly in a good mood because his majesty Davos has promised me..."

As he deliberately trailed off his words, it prompted Kunogelata to ask, "Promise what?" subconsciously.

Marigi immediately exclaimed, "His majesty has promised me that the blockade of the port of Thurii by the Syracusan fleet would soon be broken and restore the trade in the port of Thurii!... Do you think there will be anything else, Lord Kunogelata?"

Kunogelata coughed dryly twice and was about to change the subject to hide his embarrassment when Cornelius exclaimed, "Lord Davos... His majesty Davos is going to start the naval war against the Syracusans?!"

"Of course! The Temple of Hades would divine and pray for this battle early tomorrow morning!" Plesinas responded feeling self-satisfied.

Kunogelata and Cornelius looked at each other with amazement.

"Go, his majesty is waiting to announce this news to you!" Marigi said with a smile on his face.

As they hurried forward, they didn't even have the time to say goodbye.

"See! How sad that some people already knew that the political situation in Theonia is different from what it used to be, yet they still don't want to accept it!" Marigi sneered.

As he had always felt guilty about Kunogelata, Plesinas didn't want to dwell on this topic, so he asked, "Just now, his majesty spoke of some suggestions on how to expand the influence of Hades and increase the kingship's prestige. However, there are some things that I haven't fully figured out. Lord Marigi, since you are more familiar with Persia, can you tell me how the Persian royal family preached their supreme god Ahura Mazda in the lands of the foreign people?"

Marigi touched his beard, and with a look of complacency, he smugly said, "I am indeed the right person to ask, as I know the Persian royal family very well. You should know that when Cyrus the Great founded his great empire, he did not interfere in any way with the faith of the foreign people, for he himself did not preach vigorously about the great Persian gods as he was always busy with his conquests. It wasn't until Darius became the great king that, although he claimed to have sacred blood and had married Cyrus' daughter, he still felt that the throne he had inherited from the great king Cyrus still lacked the persuasive authority over those great Persian nobles. That was when he thought of Ahura Mazda, whom the Persians worship..."

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

Just as Marigi chatted with Plesinas about the Persian religion, Kunogelata and Cornelius bump into Antonios - the legatus of the first legion, Amintas - the legatus of the second legion, and Kapus, a former legatus - and now a military official of the Ministry of Military*, and Seclian, the Navarch of the Theonian navy. And they all had just come out of Davos' quarter. (Davos divided the authority of the Chief of Military into three, and they are in charge of different aspects and do not interfere with each other. In fact, the soldiers think that they have the same rank. However, for administrative purposes, Davos positioned the official in charge of personnel appointments one rank higher so that he could coordinate the matters with the Ministry of Military.

Kunogelata and Cornelius looked at each other. After all, these four now represents the whole of Theonia's military troops in Thurii, and with them appearing here together, it seems that Davos would start to make his big move soon!

The four men travelled in a hurry, only greeting them briefly before hurrying to complete the task Davos assigned.

"Lord Kapus, you have to return those 3,000 sailors that you transferred to me. Otherwise, we would not be able to carry out the joint training smoothly!" Seclian urged.

"Don't worry. In fact, I am now going there to bring them back to the naval base in the Crati River." Kapus reassured him.

Seclian could finally relax a bit.

"Kapus, you... anyway, his majesty ordered to gather another 7,000 men in the port, and they have to be young adults who have undergone our military training for at least a year. Does the port even have that many freemen who meet this condition?" Antonios asked with concern.

"There shouldn't be that many...but we can go to Amendolara and Besidice. If they're still not enough, you can also recruit in the transport brigade responsible for the logistics..." Kapus had already considered this.

"With the enemy being everywhere in Theonia's territory and our troops are stretched to the extreme and spread everywhere, our territory is now quite barren! Thus we must break the stalemate as soon as possible, so the most important issue is to gather our troops again!" Antonios said anxiously.

"The main problem is that Davos...his majesty wants to have a decisive battle with Syracuse in the sea first! Is that not too risky?!" Amintas interjected, still somewhat resistant to the orders of Davos, "The Syracusan navy had fought against Carthage for so many years that they are experienced in naval warfare. Moreover, they are far more numerous than we are! Besides, we had just formed our fleet and have never fought even once, so how could we beat the Syracusans with just an extra wooden thing onboard, and sending all our soldiers to the enemy ships...and, in case...they lost, they won't even be able to escape! And they are Theonia's most elite force!!"

"Lord Amintas, what do you mean by just an extra wooden thing on the ship?! You clearly have no idea how much the addition of this 'one more thing' has changed the navy's tactics!" Seclian said with displeasure as soon as he heard Amintas, "And even if you are experienced in warfare, it's only on land, so please stop talking nonsense if you don't know anything about naval warfare!"

Amintas became furious when he heard him, "How dare you shout at me! You don't even have any battle achievements, so what qualifications do you have to stand here and lecture me about naval warfare?!"

"Tomorrow! I will show it to you with a victory!" Seclian retorted without showing any weakness.

"Knock it off!" Antonios shouted and glared at Seclian. Although he didn't like the young man's arrogant tone either, he was now the navarch of the navy that Davos relied on, "We are such in a situation, and you still have the mood to bicker and make a fool of yourselves in front of the soldiers! If his majesty arrives later and sees that we haven't yet started training, I fear that he would give all of us a lecture!"

Amintas looked around and saw the soldiers were looking at them with curiosity. Thus he could only suppress his anger, "Young man, stop squabbling and get some results!"

"You'll see it tomorrow!" With that, Seclian stopped talking. Then he turned around and walked away as he suddenly realised that it would be disadvantageous for him to argue with Amintas in the military camp. Thus he felt it would be better to hurry back to the naval base, where he had the final say.

"Antonios, Amintas, there is no need for you to worry. After fighting together with his majesty...King Davos for so many years, do you still not know him?! Would he even dare fight a decisive naval battle with the Syracusans if he doesn't have any certainty?!" Kapus reminded them both.

"But that's all on land! Although we have been training with the navy, no one has ever experienced fighting at sea. Furthermore, the new tactics that Seclian is talking about have not been tested in actual battles after all. Besides, who knows if it will work in the vast ocean when we meet the enemy's huge fleet of ships?! And with the soldiers of the first and second legions...most importantly, even his majesty himself would have to board the ships, so in case-" Antonios said until here as he dare not even think about the consequences if they lost.

His worries also affected the others.

"Anyway, there is no need to worry as his majesty would be fine with Hades' blessing! Instead, we'd better hurry up in carrying out his orders." Kapus said with reluctance.

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

While they quarrel, Davos spoke to Baripiri and Sedrum, the statesmen from Bruttii.

"You two lords are just in time as I was about to send someone to invite you." Davos smiled and asked them to sit down.

"Your majesty, Sedrum and I came here to ask forgiveness!" Said Baripiri, and with a troubled expression, he stood up again, "Petaru and the others were acting strangely before their rebellion, but we didn't pay attention to it, and as a result...they ended up escaping back to Bruttii and made the people to rebel..."

"However, your majesty, Baripiri and I can assure you that it is only a small minority of Bruttii who rebelled, while the vast majority are still loyal to Theonia! And that there will never be any major unrest or chaos in the Bruttian region!" Sedrum continued Baripiri's words and promised Davos with a serious expression.

"Yes, and we can swear to Amara!" Baripiri firmly added.

Davos gazed at the two slightly haggard statesmen, who were obviously under tremendous pressure from the rebellion of Petaru and the other statesmen from Bruttii. After a few moments, Davos withdrew his gaze and said sincerely, "You can rest assured that even if Petaru's rebellion has caused some suspicion among the people of the other cities towards the Bruttians, the statesmen, including me, are very clear about it!

Lord Baripiri, the first brigade of the fifth legion, composed of citizens of Besidice, had taken the initiative to stay behind to stop the enemy to cover the retreat of our troops at the Battle of Allaro River. Although they ended up either killed or captured, they had ensured the smooth withdrawal of most of the soldiers of the fourth and fifth legions. Even until now, the leader of the first brigade and a statesman of the Senate, Burim, and some Besidisian soldiers are still alive in Syracuse's camp, so if such heroes are not the most loyal citizens of Theonia, who else can be?"

After hearing Davos' words, Baripiri burst into tears, not only because of the great sacrifices made by the Besidisians in the war and Davos understanding their grievances but also because he was worried about the safety of those who became prisoners.