Aristillas actually sent his younger brother to Sicily, which shows that he really made some effort to do this! Antonios was refreshed and asked immediately: "Where is he now?"

"Katana or Syracuse? I don't know much," said Shenofenis, shrugging, "But when you come to Sicily, he should get news soon and will send someone to contact us immediately."

Antonios nodded and asked seriously: "Now the First Legion has occupied Mearo. What should you do next? What suggestions do you have?"

"Sir, I don't know much about military matters. I can tell you what I have learned here for your reference." Chenoffenis' modesty won Antonios' favor, and he hurriedly placed the Sicily map that he took from Davers when he left the Siliteng camp on the table: "Please tell me!"

Chenoffinis did not refuse, walked forward, carefully distinguished the map, and pointed to the map, and said, "Sir, Mearo's location is actually very good. Its east is the ocean, the huge Etna volcano to the west, and Taoromenian to the north is only more than ten miles away from us, but its population is too small, and it is probably impossible to send out 500 soldiers. Sikuli to the south is more than 20 miles, which is also a small city-state. Now Mearo is occupied by us and has captured so many Sikuli citizens. It is hard to say whether Sikuli's tyrant can gather 3,000 civilians. More than 40 miles south is Katanai-"

When Senofenis said this, his expression was painful. He breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Originally, Katanai was a big city with 50,000 or 60,000 citizens. The fertile Catanian plains provided sufficient grain to the people there and could easily organize an army of tens of thousands of people... But... After Katanai was destroyed by Dionysius, he let Campanian mercenaries occupy the city, Katanai... it is no longer Katanai!..."

"Are you a Katanai?" Antonios asked suddenly.

"Yes, like Aristillas, I was once a Katanai!" Chenoffenis said in a deep voice: "But now I am a citizen of Dionia!"

"When you defeat Syracuse, your Majesty will definitely let the Catanai rebuild your home!" Antonios comforted him and asked, "How many civilians do Catanai have now?" When he mentioned the Campanian mercenaries, Antonios was alert. He had just fought with them in the Battle of Crotone and knew that these mercenaries were not easy to deal with.

"... There may be four or five thousand people. After I returned to Sicily this time, I have not been to the Catania plains. I have heard from the people in Mearo town." Chenoffinis hesitated and suggested: "Sir, if you want to know more details, you need to wait for the people from Antrapolis to arrive."

Antonios nodded, pointed to the Leotini icon between Catanai and Syracuse on the map, and asked, "Is this city-state also occupied by Campania mercenaries?"

"Leotini is not, it was once a sub-state of Syracuse. After Dionysius usurped power, he formed an alliance with us Katanai to fight against Syracuse together, but after Katanai was defeated, it could only surrender to Syracuse. In order to punish its betrayal, Dionysius forced most of the citizens of Leotini to Syracuse. Now, Leotini is just a small city-state in terms of population..." Chenoffenis said with sad eyes.

"So how many more soldiers can there be in Syracuse City?" Antonios asked with a serious expression.

Chenoffinis had to speculate again: "I don't know much about this...but a few months ago, Dionysius led a large army to invade our Great Greece. His general Massias also led about seven or eight thousand Syracuse soldiers to the Mile Peninsula, the northernmost Mile Peninsula in Sicily, and destroyed the new city built by the exiles of Naxos and Katanai. I think there must be tens of thousands of soldiers in Syracuse... "

Tens of thousands of people! Antonios's face became gloomy. He stared at the city-state icons around Syracuse on the map: Taunis, Barclays, Heberus, Pacchinus... These are all loyal subordinates of Syracuse. It is estimated that Syracuse can quickly organize a unit of 20,000 people! No matter how strong the First Legion's combat power was, after a series of battles, there were only more than 5,000 people left... Antonios believed that he was not as magic as Davers, and could defeat so many enemies with such a small number of troops.

Chenoffenis saw Antonios' concerns, and he thought for a while and said, "Sir, Syracuse has so many affiliated city-states in Sicily, which seems to be very powerful, but the people of these city-states have been dissatisfied with Syracuse for a long time, and even the people of Syracuse are very dissatisfied with Dionysius's dictatorship!"

"Oh?!" Antonios was interested: "You talk about this in detail."

"In recent years, Syracuse has been fighting abroad. The scale of the war is very large, and the money and materials consumed are also very huge. Therefore, Dionysius forced to demand high tribute from all affiliated city-states, and he was not ruthless to the people of Syracuse. The special war tax imposed has increased to 25%. In addition, he not only needs money but also people. Before each war, he required various city-states to provide a large number of troops. At the end of the war, these militias died, injured, and their families were not given anything. He also supported tyrants in various city-states to fight against the citizens who resisted tyranny. Therefore, not only the people of various city-states resented him, but even the nobles were very dissatisfied with him, but they were afraid of his powerful force and did not dare to resist...

Dionysius's men must also be aware of this situation. I think they dare not draw out all the troops to deal with you... After Dionysius led his army to attack Greece, Mearo's Sikuli attackers often cursed him privately in private. A few days ago, when the news of "our fleet defeated the Syracuse Navy" reached Mearo, not only the free people and slaves, but also the citizens of Sikuli seemed a little excited. So in the past few days, the people in the town were talking about it, and the topic of discussion was more about Diony, and even my mission became much smoother. Like the two organizers of the riots just now, they had been lukewarm with me before, and they had taken the initiative to contact me these days...

Mearo is like this, and the situations in other city-states should be similar. I feel that these city-states in Sicily are now like a pile of dry firewood. Just a torch can burn into a raging fire! Now, the news that 'Your Majesty defeated Dionysius' army in the battle' has reached Sicily. I believe it will have a greater impact on the people of each city-state! As long as you can defeat the Syracuse army in Sicily once, Sicily will inevitably become in chaos!" Shelofinis said passionately, with an excitement flashing in his eyes.

"It is not that easy to defeat the Syracuses in Sicily." Antonios smiled bitterly. Having said that, after hearing the details of Sicily introduced by Syracuse, he felt a little more confident: "We have too few soldiers now! Before coming, His Majesty mentioned the Sikaels to me. Do you think we can unite them to deal with the Syracuses?"

Chenoffenis thought for a while and shook his head and said, "Although the Sikels are natives of Sicily, they are different from the Lucans and Brutis of Great Greece. They are far less savage than theirs... Oh, no, they are brave and fierce." Shelofinis remembered that these two races were already citizens of the alliance and quickly changed his words and said, "The life of the Sikels is no different from that of our Greeks, but they prefer to live in the inland mountains of Sicily. They are a race without credibility. When the Carthaginians attacked, they surrendered to Carthage. When Syracuse was strong, they united with Syracuse...

But their fickleness was retribution from the gods. Dionysius pretended to form an alliance with them. After defeating Carthage, he murdered Aguilas, the king of the Sikels, and sent his army to capture Aguileon, the central town of the Sikels, and completely destroyed it. His atrocities scared the Sikels, and the other Sikel towns quickly expressed their surrender to Syracuse.

This time Dionysius invaded our Great Greece, and the Sikels sent him some troops. So I think the cowardly Sikels would never dare to attack Syracuse with us, but they might not attack us, but remain neutral. But if Syracuse was defeated with either of us, they would join the victorious side..."

Antonios understood: this is a race that bullies the weak and fears the strong.

Note: In fact, not only Sikel has the characteristics of bullying the weak and fearing the strong, but other city-states and races in Sicily are like this, because this is determined by the special political situation in Sicily: In the past hundreds of years of Sicily history, only two super forces appeared on this island - Carthage and Syracuse, and there is no third force to compete with. On this relatively closed and small island, other city-states and forces can only look at who is strong.

Just rely on whom, if you resist, you will be destroyed. Of course, when Carthage and Syracuse maintain peace due to balanced strength, other city-states will have a few days of peace. In the history known to Davers in his previous life, it was not until the invasion of the powerful foreign power, Rome, that the closed political and military ecology of Sicily was completely broken and the island of Sicily was finally unified. In this book, Dionia appeared in Sicily for the first time. Will it break the balance of power in Sicily?
Chapter completed!