Everyone couldn't help shouting: "This is really amazing! Xenophon was instructed by Hades to come to Persia! And Davos, you have never seen Xenophon, but you know him through oracles! This is Hades! Si is bless us!!" The crowd began to recite the hymn of Hades reverently.
Although Davers was surprised, he thought it was just a coincidence. He pretended to follow everyone to finish the carol, and then said: "Even with the blessing of Hades, we still need our own efforts to pass the test and return to Greece safely."
"Davos is not very confident about whether he can go home smoothly?" Xenophon looked at Davos. Xenophon believed in divine prophecies, dream omens, and prophecies, and it was precisely because he heard that Davos was Hades' favored one that he came to find out. Because of Hades, he believed that he had a relationship with Davos. There must be some mysterious connection between them.
"I'm just an ordinary infantryman, like a frog in a well, I don't know the top situation. So I'm inevitably confused." Davos said calmly: "You are Proxinus' close friend and Sue. The most outstanding student of Crates. I hope you can tell us what kind of situation we are facing now, so that we can clear our confusion."
Olivers wanted to say something, but Davos stopped him with his eyes.
Xenophon did his part and said: "I think this time we return to Greece should be smoother! Why?" Xenophon has a sense of responsibility, because he came to Persia under the guidance of the 'god'. Faced with this possible disaster, when everyone was panicking, he thought that was why the gods sent him here. Therefore, he was in the military camp these days, running back and forth, helping Proxinus to stabilize the heart of the army.
At this time, he looked at the crowd and said patiently: "First, our Greek heavy infantry is strong while the Persian army is weak. In the decades since the battle of Wenquan Pass, we Greeks and Persians have always had the upper hand in the battle. The previous battle with the Persian king is more telling, our valiant impact directly caused them to collapse. It can be seen that the Persians' fear of the Greek heavy infantry has penetrated into the blood. Although their cavalry is stronger than ours, what is the use? Being able to detect and harass, but not daring to fight head-on, will not help them improve their combat effectiveness."
"That's right, the cavalry are cowards!" Matonis exclaimed in approval, a bit of embarrassment appeared on Xenophon's face.
"However, the javelins and bows and arrows of the Persian cavalry have caused us a lot of trouble," Hiros reminded.
"But the cavalry, like their infantry, lacks the skills and courage to confront us head-on. Bows and arrows alone can't shake our courage. As long as we decide to retreat, they can't stop us from leaving." Based on his understanding of the cavalry, Se Norfin said confidently.
"Secondly, I heard from the Persians that their new king, Artaxerxes, was a gentle and cowardly man since he was a child, which is why the young Cyrus dared to rebel. I heard that in the area of Susa and Persepolis, there were The little Cyrus's friends responded with troops. Although Artaxerxes was lucky to kill the little Cyrus, he never dared to risk the danger that the rear had not been pacified to fight the mighty us desperately.
Third, our commander Clearkus is a very capable man. Although I am an Athenian and he is a Spartan, I cannot but admit that he caused a lot of trouble for Athens during the war between Athens and Sparta, and after that he defeated Thrace many times at Kersonis people. Proxinus, Menon and other leaders are also commanders with rich combat experience. They have dealt with the Persians all the year round. They know the Persians very well. The Persian commander was Artaxerxes, the Persian king who had just become king and had never commanded an army. The general Tisafonis he relied on was even easily defeated by us. They were not the opponents of several leaders at all! …”
Davos listened carefully to the story of chromogen. Through Xenophon, he learned a lot of things he didn't know before. This time he sincerely applauded: "Very wonderful speech! As expected of an outstanding disciple of Socrates!"
"Yeah! As expected of the person Hades instructed! Your words gave us confidence!" Hiros said sincerely.
In the face of everyone's praise, Xenophon looked calm, convincing ordinary soldiers that it was a very common thing for him, his eyes fell on Davos, as if he wanted to see the rumored "God's favor" of Hades. What's the difference.
"But you forgot to say one thing." Of course Davos couldn't let the other side look down on him, especially in front of his teammates: "Although Persia has a vast territory and a large population, it cannot be effectively governed. Most areas Still autonomous, they have their own culture and religion, and obeying Persian rule only need to do two things - pay taxes and do military service. Persians only believe in themselves, so they have very few foreign officials in their army and court. Foreigners cannot If you integrate into Persia, you will naturally not work for him. I think this is one of the reasons why the Persian army collapsed as soon as it encountered us."
Xenophon savoured what Davos said, and recalled what he had seen along the way, and it was very consistent. He was stunned: a 19-year-old young man who had received a strict education had no better knowledge of Persia than a 19-year-old who didn't know a word. This is not "God's favored one"! Xenophon can only comfort himself: "You are right! This is the ills of the king's dictatorship! On the contrary, it is the advantage of the Greek democracy. We are fighting for ourselves!"
Advantages of a democratic system? Davers seemed to see the face of the country that called itself "the police of the world" in the previous life. He pouted his lips contemptuously, but was seen by the attentive Xenophon: "Davers thinks what I said is wrong?"
"Xenophon, when do you think Athens was the most stable and prosperous period in a hundred years?" Davos decided to use the knowledge of his previous life to shock the historical celebrity in front of him and impress him, so that he could let himself The name of the mercenary can be passed on to the top ranks of the mercenary.
"The time of Pericles' reign." Xenophon replied without hesitation.
"You forgot to mention the reign of Pisistratus." Davos reminded: "It was under his rule that Athens completely owned the Attica region, prospered the port of Piraeus, and made Athens has become another powerful city-state besides Sparta in mainland Greece!"
"But..." Xenophon didn't expect Davos to mention Pisistratus. The Athenians were proud that they lived in the most democratic Greek city-state, and almost no one wanted to talk about that dictator. He wanted to refute, but for a while he didn't know how to start. After all, the highly educated and learned Xenophon knew that Davos was telling the truth.
Davos seized the opportunity and continued: "You want to say, 'But Athens was stronger under Pericles,' right? But there is a problem with that statement under Pericles. Pericles was a general. How many years? Thirty years! In thirty years, he has never lost the election, and he has been elected chief general many times! All the internal and external important laws and decisions of Athens were proposed and formulated by him, which created the gold of Athens Times! Isn't this a satire of Athenian democracy, which has a yearly election, invented the shard exile, and prevented dictatorship? Is Pisistratus a dictatorship? Pericles is democracy?! Pericles is just Bipisite Latour's political tactics are more subtle and more moderate.
And what do you think of a superior democracy without Pericles? Athens, which has stronger financial resources, a stronger navy, and more allies than Sparta, has internal strife and fights with each other. The people of Athens are often unable to distinguish the truth from falsehoods, and are easily instigated by politicians. That's why at the most critical moment of the expedition to Sicily, you forced away the most talented general of Athens, Alcibiades; just won a crucial naval battle on the island of Agnose, but failed to rescue the drowning soldiers in time because of the strong wind Generals, easily judged by the populace, even executed... These stupid actions by Athens were not uncommon in this long war with Sparta! Is this what the Athenians thought of as a perfect democracy? ! It has consumed the power it has accumulated over the past hundred years in constant internal friction! "
The democratic system of ancient Athens was a focus of Davos's study at the party school in his previous life, because it was the origin of the modern Western political system, and Davos still remembers it fresh.
Note 1: The evaluation of Xenophon in Western historians is not high, and he is only a shallow taste in the field of history and philosophy, and his research and understanding of history is not as deep as Thucydides and Herodotus, and his philosophical attainments It is even more difficult to catch up with his classmate Plato. Moreover, in his writings, he believed in divine prophecies, dream omens and prophecies. He often chose historical materials and judged historical facts based on his personal political likes and dislikes, which was very exaggerated. When I read his writings, I also learned something. However, in any case, he left a lot of precious first-hand information, so that we modern people can understand that era more clearly, otherwise there would be no novel I wrote today.
Note 2: This is interesting: after the Battle of Agnose Island, among the generals who were tried by the Athenians were the characters I wrote about in my last novel—Little Pericles, the only remaining son of Pericles, and finally he also was executed.