Davos laughed, "My answer was to accept Turii's employment."
Despite being somewhat prepared in his mind, Burkos couldn't help but look surprised.
"Don't rejoice too soon! This is just my personal opinion, I still have to go and convince the squad officers and soldiers under me, many of them are already a bit tired of the war after more than a year of fighting in Persia, and are eager to return home." Davos poured cold water on him before saying, "I'll do my best to convince them, and of course the higher your employment pay is, the more it will impress them as well."
"Two Daric gold coins a month for a soldier!" Bulcos said decisively.
Davos did some mental math and asked, "How many men do you need?"
"The more the merrier, of course!" Bulcos blurted out without thinking.
"Heh, what a big mouth! If I were to take five thousand men with me, the pay and provisions would be a huge amount per month, can Tourii afford it?"
"I told you that Turii is one of the most prosperous city-states in Magna Graecia! You're just taking ten thousand men, and Turii can easily feed you all for a year on its own alone! Bulcos said confidently.
"Well, I hope so." Davos was cautiously optimistic, then asked, "Also, how are we going to get to Turii? How many ships do you have?"
"I've made a deal with the Byzantine shipowners to have as many ships as I want when the time comes, as long as I pay for them!"
"So, will the Spartans here agree to our leaving for Turii?" It was then that Davos asked his main concern.
"I have been authorized by the Spartan Senate, while the Byzantine Prefect Kryander is head over heels for your presence and is happy for you to leave." Burgos replied with a chesty smile.
So, Davos agreed dryly, "It seems you have it all arranged. Then, I will tell you tomorrow morning the number of soldiers I will be leading and negotiate a more detailed employment agreement with you."
"Okay, I'll be back in the morning. I hope it's good news for you!" Despite a few twists and turns at first, the deal was eventually made, and Burkos left in a happy mood.
"Darling, are you really going to go to Turii?" Kristoia, who had been listening quietly, spoke up.
"Right!" Davos turned to me with an excited gleam in his eyes, "Kristoia, perhaps this is a good opportunity! A chance to turn us from fish in the water into fishermen who cast nets!"
...............
Matonis sat on the ground, his heart was both excited and curious: to know that since he had been a sub-captain, he had never been involved in the discussion and formulation of any decision in the barracks, this time by the crier, Asistos, urgently notifying them, the sub-captains, to attend the meeting, could it be that there was some major decision?
He looked around and saw that not far away Olivers was loudly joking and laughing with the bystanders, the boy had now become a sub-captain as well, equal in status to him, and every time he saw him it upset him, so he shouted, "Olivers, there's going to be a military meeting here, it's not your tent, so please keep quiet!"
Oliverus turned around and laughed, "So it's the brave Martonius, have you punished your two soldiers who violated military rules and robbed Byzantine citizens?"
As soon as Matonis heard this, he dared not yell any more, though he was in a rage.
Since entering Armenia, Davos has been a significant leader of the mercenaries, and his military prowess has not only been recognized by the leaders and soldiers, but has also conquered the hearts of his subordinates, so he has gradually begun to reorganize and reform the team.
At that time in Armenia's journey, the mercenaries constantly with the local natives in small clashes, dead and wounded people, including team officers are not a few, and Armenia and later Farsia, Taukea and other places are mostly mountainous, large forces are not easy to unfold. So Davos, according to the actual situation, first of all, merged the army consisting of fourteen hundred men into seven companies of two hundred men, with four detachments of fifty men under one company, so that not only was it convenient to command, but also, in mountainous operations, it was much more flexible and versatile: for a single detachment would have been strong enough to repel a small group of the enemy, whereas a coalition would have had the ability to undertake an independent task of fighting, for it had four detachments, and it was possible to fight with two detachments frontal, another detachment on the flanks in a roundabout way, and another in reserve, etc.
After this consolidation and reorganization, the combat effectiveness of his ranks was greatly improved, and some soldiers even said privately and proudly, "Our Davos is not only a divine dependent of Hades, but has also been enlightened by Athena!"
Davos then took the occasion of the death and wounding of a team officer to promote capable heartthrobs, such as Hylos, who had been promoted to company captain, and Martonius, Oliverus, and Giorgis, all of whom became sub-captains one after another, to give him a firmer grip on his troops.
He then proceeded to implement the second step of his reform program by creating a Military Law to strictly discipline the soldiers. This would have killed the free-spirited mercenaries. However, at that time, a considerable portion of the conflicts with the local natives were caused by the soldiers' wantonness to steal and rob property, so standardizing military discipline was the best way to reduce conflicts. However, Divers not only clean up the military discipline, but also in the marching, camping, scouting and other military aspects of the regulations: for example, before Divers was surprised at the mercenaries to build camps of simple, sometimes even no protection, so he stipulated that when camping, the campsite must be excavated trenches, hides, earth barriers and so on.
At first, the soldiers were reluctant to carry out, after marching and fighting were already tired, but also have to do this kind of hard work, tired! However, after two night attacks by the mountain people, the soldiers in other camps were greatly defeated, with deaths, injuries, and loss of property, but only Davos's troops were safe and sound under the protection of the trench and earth wall, and only then did the soldiers begin to accept this rule from the bottom of their hearts. Of course, Davos just in all aspects of some simple provisions, he did not dare to be too serious, for example: escape in combat, put aside in the past life from ancient times is a felony beheading, but he wants to do so, the soldiers of the barracks are not a revolt, so he only used some of the lighter penalties: canes (do not dare to hit too much), fasting, etc., for the honor of the Greeks, in front of his comrades, was stripped bare his pants! For the Greeks who valued honor, being spanked with their pants down in front of their comrades was a matter of extreme loss of face, and they would try to comply with the rules unless it was a special case.
Of course, there were quite a few soldiers who couldn't stand the discipline and ran away to other barracks, and together with the dead and wounded soldiers, the number of soldiers in Davos' barracks should have been drastically reduced. It should be noted that when the entire Greek mercenary army returned to Byzantium, it was reduced from 13,000 (purely soldiers) to 9,000 (which is already more than half of the historical number, in which Davos played a big role). Yet the number of soldiers under his command was still not far off from when he first took over, with about fourteen hundred soldiers.
There were four reasons why the number of soldiers did not decrease: First, Davos managed the army as fairly and justly as possible, no matter whether it was a team officer or an ordinary soldier, they were all treated the same, and there was nothing special about them. Every battle and plunder harvested property was also distributed to the soldiers by Marigold according to merit, and he himself was empty-handed; two, his troops had the strongest fighting power and the least casualties, especially after the military reform. For soldiers who wished to return home alive, it was certainly a strong reliance; three, the medical battalion he established cured a large number of injured soldiers, and half of them chose to stay, in which Kristoia's intentional guidance played a large role; four, Davos's personal charisma. "God's favorites", military genius, set in a mysterious, but he is amiable to the soldiers, and even many times with his own horse to carry the wounded ... soldiers are happy to accept his command, and affectionately called him "our Divers".
Now, Davos led the mercenaries in more than half a year's campaign, in a special environment has begun to gradually adapt to these Davos seems to be relatively simple, but for these soldiers have been very strict military law. Therefore, Martonius knew that his soldiers had violated the regulations that Davos had set up before coming to Byzantium, and they would definitely be punished, which was a bit hard for him to accept. At this moment, he had no time to think too much, because Davos had already lifted the tent, took Marij, and stepped into the meeting place.
Note: The event of the annihilation of more than 10,000 citizen-soldiers of Turii by the Lucanians actually happened in history, but it was about ten years later (the exact time is not known), and the reason why it happened will be mentioned later.
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