Davos stared, and saw a middle-aged man enter outside the tent, a man of medium stature, with a kind and agreeable countenance.
The middle-aged man was likewise sizing up Davos. Although he had heard some rumors about this mercenary leader before, he was still surprised at his youth when he met him. However, the Davos at this moment was different from the one who fought in the Kentritt River half a year ago, not only did he have a circle of stubble on his chin and a scar on his face, but also the hardships and bloody killings along the way had made him more vicissitudes and murderous, and his eyes were even more sharp and compelling.
"Citizen Burkos of Turui greets Chief Davos!" The middle-aged man stepped forward and saluted Davos.
"Turii?" Davos was a bit confused, not being a history major in his previous life he knew absolutely nothing about the city-state's nomenclature, and the remnants of this body's uneducated memories weren't helping a bit.
At this point, Kristoia saw his confusion and softly explained, "The city of Turii is situated on the west side of the Gulf of Taranto in Magna Graecia, and is one of the youngest Greek colonial cities in southern Italy. After Xubaris was destroyed twice by Crotone, the Xubarians who lost their homes sought help from Athens, and it was Pericles who was the chief general of Athens at the time, and he responded to the Xubarians' request and decided that he wanted to build a new Panhellenic city-state on the site of the old Xubaris, so he sent out a call for all the city-states of Greece to migrate there, including Miletus, and that's how Turi'i came about ..."
"You are absolutely right, ma'am, and I salute you for your vast knowledge!" Burgos acted courteously, though he was surprised by the presence of a woman in an important place of deliberation.
"Ogbaris ... Ogbaris ..." Davos found the term somewhat familiar, and after repeating it silently for a few moments, it suddenly came to him, "Oh. Isn't that the Ogbaris whose citizens there lived in luxury and even used their warhorses to train for dancing, only to be defeated by Crotone with music?!"
"Yes." Burkos looked at Davos' excited appearance and wondered a little if his powers were really as magical as the rumors had it.
Davos remembers the story because the history of Ogbaris' extravagant lifestyle that led to their defeat had become a fable in the West in a previous era, and it was also related to Pythagoras, the famous mathematician of ancient Greece. Yay Italy! ... Davos pondered briefly and suddenly became interested: "What is it that you have come to see me about?"
Bulcos tensed up, at first he was full of confidence, but the refusal of several chiefs in a row had made him a bit afflicted already, Davos was his last hope, "Turii is suffering from the invasion of the natives, and so would like to hire you and your soldiers to go and help us and repel these natives."
Davos and Kristoia looked at each other.
Burkos continued, "Of course, we'll pay you handsomely!"
"How much can you pay?" Davos asked with interest as he leaned forward.
Feeling hopeful, Bulcos immediately shook his spirit, "One dalic gold coin a month for a soldier!"
Davos what to speak, instead sitting back down.
"Oh, I misremembered, it should be one and a half ... Ah, no! no! It should be two, two Dalek gold coins! ... "Burkos saw that Davos remained expressionless, and his words trembled a little.
"What's the big deal with Tourii that you're in such a hurry?!" Davos suddenly broke into a small smile.
Bulcos heard: bad, he underestimated the young man, and at the same time anxious about the success of the employment, in the young man's immovable lure to reveal the horse's foot.
"Burkos, if you want me to work with Turii, then you better tell me the truth!" Davos' words had a tone that could not be denied.
Burgos, however, heard a little hope, so he adjusted his mood and said heavily, "The native Lucanians of Italy invaded Turui's territory in a big way, and the Turui Citizens' Assembly, after discussing the matter, unanimously decided to send troops to repel the Lucanians. So, we sent ten thousand heavy infantry and one thousand cavalry, and we suffered a crushing defeat ... The ferocious Lucanians massacred our soldiers wantonly, and also cut their bodies into pieces and piled them up outside the city ... The citizens who ran back to the city were less than three hundred people ... When I set out, the natives had not yet attacked the city, but had already captured the city of Amendolara to the north of Tului, which caused considerable panic among the citizens of Tului ... whose hopes now rested on me! So ... so ..." said Burkos, shedding tears.
Davos, who had already seen so much misery in nearly a year, was already hard-hearted, and was too familiar with the sadness of Bulcos to see it, but asked in surprise, "Are all these soldiers, so many of them, citizens of Turii?"
"Yes, Turii is one of the most prosperous city-states in Greater Greece!" Burgos said with slight pride as he wiped the tears from his eyes.
"A force of eleven thousand men actually failed as well, are the Lucarians strong?" Davos curiously continued to pursue the question.
"No, in fact, it seems that the Lucarians only have eight thousand people." Bulcos was afraid that Davos was intimidated, so he had to say, "It's just ... just the interior of Turii ... well ... well ... Mainly because they don't have good commanders, they ventured too far and got ambushed ..."
"Oh, yes." Davos rubbed the stubble on his chin and asked again, "Why don't you ask the other city-states for help?"
"We have a defense alliance in the Greek city-states of Southern Italy, but for some unknown reason in the past few years, the natives have begun to invade the territories of the city-states in a big way, and Tarentum, Lockeri ... and Crotone don't have any extra forces to support us, and Syracuse is facing an attack by the Carthaginians ... I had also asked the Spartans for help, but Sparta seemed to be at war with Persia and rejected my request, but agreed to facilitate my hiring of soldiers in Greece ..." said Bourcos helplessly.
"There is no shortage of soldiers in all of Greece right now, so why come to us?" Davos asked again.
Burkos immediately said as if in compliment, "I had already recruited some soldiers in Ephesus, but I heard about you guys! I thought that to be able to retreat back safely in the Persian hinterland, your bravery and strength has been most strongly proved, and if I can hire you who are experienced in combat, then there must be no problem in repelling the Lucarians! So as soon as I heard the merchant ships anchored in Ephesus speak of having seen you in Chrysopolis, I immediately rushed over, not realizing that you had arrived in Byzantium again."
Burkos' compliments didn't affect Davos' thinking as he nodded and continued, "Are the Lucarians powerful? What types of soldiers do they have? How about their equipment? What are their combat characteristics like? ..."
Question after question hit Bulcos' brain like an iron nail. Burkos was able to deal with it easily at first, but later on it became very difficult because Davos had already asked complicated questions: such as how big was Lucania's territory? How many cities were there? What was the main livelihood? How was the political system? How was the foreign interaction? ...
While struggling to answer Davos's questions, Bulcos was amazed that a mercenary leader could still ask such high level questions, and after sensing that Davos was different, his confidence had increased, as only someone who wanted to go would think to go into detail.
"The situation is generally clear to me as well." When Davos finished, Burgos let out a long breath: this was several times harder than answering a citizen's questioning at a citizens' meeting!
"I think Timasone, Zantiparis, Criano, they all turned you down, didn't they?" Davos said.
Again, Bulcos looked at him in surprise.
"My barracks are at the very back, and you must pass them before you can reach me. As far as I know, Timasone wants to return to Aeolia-his homeland. Zantiparis and Criano, however, have been invited by Sethus, a Thracian tribal leader, to serve him at a high salary. And with Xenophon now with the Anaxian tribesmen, I am your only chance, am I not?"
Davos's shrewdness had made Burkos not want to hide anything more, and he said matter-of-factly, "Yes, Chief Davos, you are my only chance! So do you refuse or agree?"