While Crozes and Theseus were having a headache for food and food, Achilles, who was in his palace, was also having a headache for food.
Although he delegated the power in his hands to the three of Theseus, he kept an unblinking eye on the important affairs of the kingdom.
Through the total food reserves and daily food consumption data sent by Theseus, he knew even better than Theseus, the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, how much surplus food he had on hand. []
Since the nobles gave up their rights, they voluntarily gave up a large part of their food and money as slaves to show their support for the young king.
Nowadays, the nobles don¡¯t have much food and slaves on hand. If he stares at their pockets again, Achilles himself will feel a little embarrassed.
The second round of sowing period in Greece has passed, and the harvest period is still three months away. Based on the experience of previous years, the harvest of this round of crops is probably less than half of the spring and summer round of crops.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? but due to the lack of good fertilizers and good farming technology, the harvest of crops was very pitiful, and this second round of crops is more of a little comfort than a harvest.
Now he has about 15,000 soldiers, officials and slaves on hand, and the food these people consume every day is an extremely considerable number.
With the food stored in Theseus' hands, plus some fish and game from the mountains, he could only last for two months, and he could not even sustain the harvest of the crops.
Judging from the current situation, if you don¡¯t want your staff to starve, you must find a way to get food from other ways as soon as possible.
Now that we have thought of all the ways to find food from within the kingdom, we can no longer find excess food, so we can only find ways from outside the kingdom.
"It seems that we can only let Zomokos move." To be honest, Achilles still didn't want to let his army, which had just been formed for only more than half a month, join the battle so early.
But in this embarrassing situation, the only way to obtain wealth and food is through war against other city-states and grassland tribes.
Originally, he planned to send someone to call Zomokos, but before the guard who sent the message left the palace, Zomokos, Crozes and Theseus had already arrived.
Previously, Theseus and Crozes hurried to the military camp after considering the issues of food and slaves. After discussing with Zomokos, the three of them reached a consensus on the matter, and then they hurriedly dared to come. to the palace of Achilles.
Who would have thought that the four monarchs and ministers all thought of going together. After hearing the intentions of the three people, Achilles couldn't help but feel happy.
Since the four people all believe that the best way to solve the current food problem is to wage war abroad, there is no need to waste any more words on this matter.
What needs to be considered next is the scale of this foreign war, as well as the direction and target of the attack.
Achilles¡¯ personal officer Lalasi took out a map charting the layout of the forces surrounding Thessaly and spread it flat on the table in the center of the hall.
The four Achilles came to the table together, stood around the large wooden table, and carefully selected the most recent targets on the map.
As the supreme leader, Achilles did not express his own opinion, but handed it over to the three men of Zomokos for consultation.
In choosing the direction and target of attack, the three people still had some differences. Theseus and Crozes believed that the most ideal target of attack should be the city of Zolazos in the lower reaches of the Pinho River.
The reason why the two of them chose this city-state is also very good, because soldiers can launch an offensive against this city-state through water, and this city-state is relatively wealthy among the dozens of surrounding city-states.
"Zomokos believes that the best attack direction should be to the north of Thessaly, that is, the smaller northern city-states.
As for his reason, it is relatively simple. Although these city-states are not rich, their overall strength is relatively weak. Israel has just formed an army and only needs to pay a small price to get them.
Because there were differences of opinion, the last three people had no choice but to look at Achilles and let him decide which city-state to attack.
Standing there, Achilles kept looking at the map on the table, his eyes wandering around Thessaly on the map, looking for the best target in his mind.
In the end, his eyes fell on the city of Zola Zuosi, which is a medium-sized city-state with a population of 60,000.In the lower reaches of the Nio River, the water and soil are fertile, the crops are harvested very well, and the entire city is relatively rich.
If you can capture this city-state, you will not only get a huge number of wealthy slaves and food, but you will also be able to extend Thessaly's sphere of influence eastward.
But there is a key issue, that is, the city-state itself is not weak in military force. There are twenty or thirty young and middle-aged demigods and heroes, and there are at least seven or eight thousand brave and skilled soldiers.
Taking his eyes back from the map, Achilles looked at Zomokos and asked: "Zomokos, please analyze it. With our current strength, if we attack the city of Zolazos, the casualties will be how?"
Zomokos leaned down and stared at the city of Zolazos on the map. After thinking for a while, he responded: "If we dispatch all our troops, with two thousand elite cavalry and three thousand infantry, , fifty chariots and thirty ballistae, after completely defeating the army of Zola Zuosi City, the casualties will probably not be less than two thousand."
After hearing his answer, Achilles stretched out his hand to pinch his chin and muttered: "Two thousand casualties? This has almost accounted for half of our total strength. Such a loss is something we cannot bear now. .¡±
Two thousand casualties may not be considered heavy casualties at all in the large-scale wars of later generations, but in this era of scarce population, unless it is a superpower like Mycenae, for other city-states, it is almost It's a stretch.
There are only about 10,000 young and capable soldiers in Thessaly, and the other young and middle-aged men still need a long period of training before they can become qualified soldiers.
If two thousand warriors were lost in just one war, it would be difficult for the poor and weak Thessaly to accept such a loss.
Achilles didn¡¯t want to see that most of the team he had managed to pull together was lost in just one war.
Although the savings of Zola Zuosi City are very rich, the wealth and food accumulated in the city-state are enough for him to squander it for a long time.
But these young and skilled soldiers will be his reliance in fighting for land hegemony and overseas colonization in the future. For the wealth and food in Zola Zuosi City, even two thousand soldiers are definitely not worth it.
For this rich city, Achilles was still very moved, and asked again: "Is there no way to make the army of Zola Zuosi City completely lose the fighting spirit to resist?"
Hearing Achilles' question, Zolmokos frowned, thought for a while, shook his head, and said: "It's difficult. In order to defend their city-state and family, the Zolasos people will definitely resist to the death. , Unless all their demigods and heroes are killed, leaving them without a leader, there is no way to make them give up resistance."
Achilles was also silent. The city of Zolazos was different from the Macedonian tribe. They had strong and towering walls. It would be impossible to kill all the demigods and heroes.
"If we can lure them out of Zola Zuosi City and fight them in an open place, with our cavalry and chariot teams, we can cause heavy casualties to them and weaken their fighting spirit." Zuo Mo Kos thought of something and spoke again.
Achilles' fingers lightly hit the table, his eyes looked up at the dome of the hall, and he said in deep thought: "If I give you thirty more ballistae, are you confident that you can defeat the people of Zola and Zuosi?" At the same time as the army, reduce our own casualties to less than 500?"
Hearing Achilles say that he would be given thirty more ballistas, Zomokos opened his eyes suddenly, and his pupils shone with light. Without even thinking too much, he responded affirmatively: "If the number of ballistas increases, By the time I get to the sixty seat, I am confident that I can easily defeat the Zola Zuosi army and make them completely lose their fighting spirit."
In this era, the ballistae is equivalent to the heavy artillery during World War I. The salvo of the ballistae is not only its lethality to soldiers and destructive power to city walls, but also its shock to people's hearts.
The deterrence created by the salvo of sixty ballistas is no weaker than the salvo of hundreds of giant cannons in later generations, and it is enough to easily defeat the fighting spirit of any army.
Two armies confront each other, and one side forms a defensive phalanx. If the phalanx is defeated solely by the flesh and blood of the soldiers, the attacking side will suffer huge casualties.
Even an elite cavalry team with 2,000 people will have to pay a heavy price when facing the Greek phalanx whose defense is like an iron wall and is extremely lethal.But with a large number of ballistae, this indestructible Greek phalanx will be sad. Even if the crossbows are two to three hundred meters apart, the crossbow arrows fired are still very lethal and can easily tear through the strong shield and take the lives of the soldiers behind.
Anyway, the manufacturing process of crossbow arrows is very simple. With an ordinary bow and arrow, dozens of them can be made in one day.
There are more than 500 craftsmen with exquisite craftsmanship in the blacksmith shop. If they work hard, they can make tens of thousands of crossbow arrows in a day.
If the Zola Zuosi people just defend blindly, then they only need to use the crossbow to shoot from a distance, and use the crossbow arrows to pile them up to death.
And if the Zuola Zuosi people gave up the defense of the phalanx and rushed forward to fight for their lives, then the Thessalian army could in turn form a square to kill them. At the appropriate time, they would dispatch cavalry troops and chariot troops to completely defeat them. Zola pulled the Zuosi army.
After determining the target of the next attack, the three men of Zomokos hurriedly left Achilles' palace. Zomokos returned to the military camp to prepare for the next expedition, while Crozes and Theseus , also need to prepare various materials and personnel.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye. Five thousand Sesari soldiers were ready, and all the materials needed to conquer Zola Zuosi City were also ready.
According to the previous plan, all war supplies and slow-moving ballistae were transported by water and land by the fleet to the vicinity of the city of Zola Zuosi, and then disembarked there to join the large army.
Because what is about to be conquered is a medium-sized city-state with a population of 60,000 and between 7,000 and 8,000 soldiers. All 5,000 soldiers are dispatched. As the strongest man in Thessaly, Achilles also needs to go to hold the battle.
In order to prevent the people of Zolazuos from being prepared in advance, Achilles kept it strictly secret before the army set off, and only a few people knew about it.
Even those soldiers only knew that they were leaving Thessaly to conquer a certain city-state, but they did not know which city-state it was.
The wharf, which is still under construction, is filled with various supplies. Sixty ballistae cannons, covered with thick straw mats, were transported onto the warships under the careful handling of the soldiers.
When all the supplies and ballistae on the dock were transferred to the warships, seven huge wooden warships set sail and sailed away from the city of Larissa, heading east along the Pinho River.
And five thousand fully armed soldiers, led by Achilles, left the military camp in a mighty manner and headed east along the Pinho River.
In Greece of this era, a war involving more than 10,000 troops was considered a large-scale war. A war involving more than 100,000 troops, such as that of Troy, was unique in the entire history of ancient Greece.
Thessaly was only more than a hundred miles away from the city of Zolasus. They were marching eastward along the flat banks of the Pinio River, and they were marching at an extremely fast speed.
At noon the next day, the army had already approached a place only ten miles away from Zola Zuosi City. At this time, Zola Zuosi City finally became aware of the existence of this huge army.
After discovering this huge army that appeared near their city-state, the nobles of Zola Zuosi City panicked, hurriedly convened a meeting of nobles, and quickly summoned the soldiers in the city.
When the army approached the city of Zola Zuosi, seven warships approached the river bank and unloaded all the supplies shipped on board. The sixty ballistae were carefully protected in the center.
The warship that unloaded all the supplies did not return to the city of Larissa, but continued eastward, swimming in the river near the city of Zolazos, blocking the city of Zolazos from the waterway, and thus updating the situation in the city. People bring stress.