"There is one more question." Davos withdrew his gaze and asked with a straight face, "On this road, where do we reach before we are considered out of the jurisdiction of the Persian royal family?"
Eager to please Davos, Marigi thought hard, then drew a circle on the sketch, "Here! Past Mespilla!"
"Mespira?" Davos looked closely at the pattern on the floor.
"Mespilla is Nineveh, the former capital of Assyria! Beyond it, further on, is Dukia." Marigi emphasized.
Davos nodded, "You're familiar with Dukia?"
"Not very well acquainted, just did business with them, exchanging grain for their mountain goods!" Marij said, an exasperated look on his face, "But they are untrustworthy barbarians, they would often fail to pay, and hurt people and rob things by force!"
Davos listened attentively and turned his head to Matonis, "Take his family to the supply camp and let Melsis take good care of them, but tell Melsis not to mistreat him and his wife and daughter or use them as slaves!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Marigold fell to his knees with a thud, "Please! Please! Let me go! And my wife and daughter! I've told you everything! Please let us go. ..."
"I see you understand Greek, and pretended not to before." Davos said.
Marij didn't argue at this point, just bawled his eyes out.
"In fact, it is for your own good that I do not let you and your family go. Do you realize that your lord, the king's brother Cyrus the Younger, has been killed in battle!"
Marigi suddenly stopped crying, and the hands holding Davos' legs lost their strength as she weakly asked, "Is His Highness Cyrus really dead?"
"In fact, you have just guessed it, haven't you? How else could Tissaphernes have brought us here, and he was the one who gave us permission to plunder your village as punishment for Little Cyrus' treason! This punishment, I'm sure, will never be the only one! All those who are intimate with him will not escape, I fear, don't you think?"
Marij had sat down on the floor in a trance.
As soon as he pulled him up, Martonis dragged him outside.
"This man doesn't look like a normal merchant." Xellos said to Davos as he watched Marij being dragged out of the tent.
"You're right!" Davos nodded. The family lived in a shabby house, but hid a lot of gold and silver and splendid clothes, and just by looking at him and his wife's temperament, how did he look like an ordinary Persian merchant, and was proficient in Greek and knew so much about it. Perhaps he was a relative of Cyrus the Younger or his supervisor, or perhaps his royal merchant, who, after realizing that Cyrus the Younger was plotting a revolt, hid himself in a small remote village in his domain to escape from trouble. If it wasn't for the village headman's tip-off, he would have narrowly missed a big fish
Davos thought thankfully, having selectively forgotten about how he tortured and tormented the village chief and his family. He said to Xilos, "Captain, I'd also like to trouble you to go and emphasize to Melsis again that no one is allowed to harass his family, he's very useful to us! Now that little Cyrus is dead, I'm going to make him defect to us with all his heart!"
A soldier giving orders to his captain, and surprisingly no one in the room was surprised that Davos had established himself as a leader in the squad.
"Okay." Without hesitation, Xellos walked quickly out of the tent.
"Pickles, thank you so much! You've helped me a lot today!" Davos turned to a warrior.
"It is an honor to be of assistance to you!" Pickles said in a slightly obsequious manner.
Davos pulled out two drachmas and shoved them into his hand.
"It's ... it's ..." Pickles faked the excuse.
Davos said, "Please take it! I really need to thank you for this today, plus I hope you can keep it a secret from Menon!"
Hearing this, Picols stopped pushing and tucked the silver coin in his arms, mouthing, "Don't worry, I don't like that guy either! Promise Hades that I won't divulge a word!" Pikors made a gesture of sealing his mouth, then said excitedly, "Next time there's this kind of job just call me!"
"Definitely less you!" Davos laughed.
Pikors exited the tent and Gilgrist immediately asked with concern, "Pikors is Menon's Persian interpreter, is he reliable?"
"I've heard that Menon knows Persian, and Pikors has nothing to do at all, but is often used as a laborer by Menon instead; he'd be foolish enough to offend us, not to mention the money he'd make." Oliverus interjected. After he came to his senses, he knew that he almost went to hell, and immediately thanked Davos, who reacted coldly to him, and he realized what was going on, so he had been relatively quiet up until now.
But as soon as he spoke, a brief silence fell over the tent.
"Davos, how did you know that the Persian merchant buried the money in the courtyard?" Giorgis asked suddenly.
Understanding that Giorgis was trying to liven things up, Davos said smoothly, "It's quite simple, when we captured Marigi, I noticed that apart from worrying about his wife and daughters being bullied by us-" Davos glanced at Oliverus as he said this: "Eyes were also quietly looking at the old tree in the yard from time to time, and when I went over to take a closer look, there was a spot under the tree that was a little different in color, and it was new soil. Of course I became suspicious, and it turned out that before I could frighten him much, the fellow was so timid that he confessed of his own accord."
Several people loudly praised Davos for his attentiveness, especially Oliveros who spoke at the loudest volume.
Davos said to Giorgis, "This money will be of great use to us; check the supply camp every day, and don't let that fat man take advantage of it."
"Okay."
............... ...
The marching columns of the ranks had grown even larger and more bloated after the repeated plundering of the Greek mercenaries.
For the next few days, as Marigi said, the army kept marching along the right bank of the Tigris, then crossed the river and reached the city, Cainé. Here they were once more well supplied. But the Greek mercenary soldiers' suspicion of the Persians grew, and new rumors continued to circulate among the army, leading to an increase in clashes between the soldiers of the two armies after the encampment.
Finally, when they reached the Zapatista River, a large-scale armed fight broke out between the soldiers of the two armies, with more than a hundred people on both sides holding weapons and fighting, killing and injuring more than ten people. If not for the timely arrival of the leaders of the two sides, sent troops to separate the two sides in time, the result is unimaginable.
This caused the next day's march to be canceled, and the soldiers in each battalion were restricted from leaving the camp. After days of marching, Davos and the others were all physically and mentally exhausted, and with a rare free day, everyone took a nap.
Melchis of the supply camp grabbed a portion of the looted livestock and slaughtered it to make meat sausages.
Just as Davos was waking up, Antonius burrowed into the tent with an anxious look on his face, "Davos, Menon, Clilicus, Proxenus, and a few other chieftains are going to the Persian barracks to negotiate!"
"What!!!" Davos rolled over and sat up in shock.
"I have heard that because of what happened last night, Clilicus went at once to Tissaphernes to negotiate, hoping to remove the suspicion of mutual distrust between the two sides and to avoid any further hostilities of this kind. Perhaps the two sides talked so well that Clilicus spent the night directly in the Persian barracks, and this morning he returned peacefully, and then sent to notify the chiefs of the various barracks to go with him to the Persian barracks for further talks with Tissaphernes. It is said that a number of soldiers and teamsters in the other camps objected to their going over, but in the end the chiefs came to an agreement, and they are about to set out." Antonius spoke quickly to finish the story.
"Why was no one in our camp informed of this?" Xellos asked in surprise.
"Menon didn't consult with the others, he only quietly brought two squadron leaders, Capes and Milstic." Antonius said with an embarrassed expression. In his heart, he understood that due to the last collective "palace" incident.
Most of the squadron officers and soldiers were no longer willing to obey Menon's orders, and Menon, having lost his prestige, did not want to give them any more advice, and went straight to the two squadron commanders who were still willing to listen to him.
Antonius did not elaborate on his explanation, but said, "I, too, heard the soldiers in the neighboring Socrates' barracks making a racket, and learned of it when I asked."
"Who are the people who went?" Davos asked with a serious look as he stood up and dressed quickly.
Antonius's heart thumped, and Davos's look confirmed the uneasiness he felt in his heart, "Five chiefs, Clilicus, Proxenus, Menon, Socrates, and Archias, and a dozen lieutenants."
"Move! Move fast! Take me to them, any later and it's over!!!" Davos draped himself in a linen liner and anxiously pulled Antonius out the door, Xylos and the others following close behind.
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