I am the son of the traveler

Chapter 60 Huge number of prisoners of war

After defeating the Duretika barbarians, Antigonus did not take advantage of the victory to pursue the victory, go south to the Mariki Plain or go north to take the opportunity to conquer the fragile Duretika people. Instead, he chose to continue stationed in the Tantonon territory and ordered the army to repair on the spot.

As Antigon's most loyal lieutenant, Kronos, the military consul, did not want the army to stay here and miss the opportunity. He asked Antigon to march several times, but Antigon politely refused.Antigonus had a lot of concerns. In the two consecutive wars, he had captured more than 9000 barbarian prisoners. The number of prisoners had already exceeded the number of soldiers in the Macedonian army. The unruly barbarian captives found an opportunity to revolt.

Antigonus could not accept such a situation, so he decided to continue to stay here until the slave merchants who accepted the invitation came here from Pella.In addition to waiting for the slave trader, Antigonus also needed the soldiers to take this time to rest. Continuous wars were harmful to the mental stress of the soldiers, and proper rest was necessary.

Although there are no merchants and prostitutes accompanying the army here, at least there is a holiday, and the soldiers are still very happy about it. Except for the necessary patrols and sentries, the soldiers all took off their armor and showed their strong muscles. Sports competitions are held on the school field in the barracks.

This is one of the most common forms of entertainment for Greeks (including the entire Panhellenic world). In addition to sports competitions, Greeks also like to go to theaters, concert halls and other places to watch drama performances, music performances and dance performances, as well as hold banquets. Because there are no conditions for the latter two entertainment methods in the barracks, soldiers can only choose sports competitions.

Therefore, after Antigonus left the command post and went to the military camp, what he saw was a group of soldiers wearing only underwear or no underwear at all competing in the five sports of running, long jump, wrestling, gun throwing and discus throwing. The scene was simply It's indescribable. If it were placed in modern times, it would definitely be criticized by some people as immoral.

Standing outside the school field, Antigonus quietly watched the movement in the field. His attention was attracted by the group of soldiers jumping long. He noticed that the long jump of these soldiers was different from the long jump of later generations. Holding a dumbbell made of stone or metal, it is said that they believe that this can accurately grasp the swing of the arms and increase the thrust, increase the distance of the long jump, maintain the balance of the body, and make the feet land on the ground smoothly. In addition, it is worthwhile One thing to mention is that athletes must keep their feet parallel after landing, otherwise they will be judged to be invalid. This is different from Antico's standards in later school sports meetings.

This made Antico feel a little guilty. If this standard is used in future school sports meetings, then his long jump results will be invalidated. Not only him, but most of the athletes who competed with him will also be invalidated.

Turning his eyes to other places, he looked at the soldiers who were throwing javelins. Because they adopted the standard of long-distance throwing, the javelins were equipped with bladeless spearheads. Different, it is about 1.6 meters long, but its thickness is only as thick as an adult's index finger. It is wrapped with a thin leather strip in the middle and front of the javelin, and the end of the leather strip forms a circle. When throwing, the athlete will use the index finger and middle finger Insert the holster because they think it helps keep the flight direction and throws farther.

In the javelin-throwing competition, those Agrians and Agyrians who are good at using javelins are undoubtedly the best. This seems to have become a racial talent, but Antigonus bets that if he lets These tribes who are good at using javelins live in prosperous towns and stay away from hunting. Their javelin shooting skills must have weakened.

As soon as he thought of this, Antigonus' face darkened suddenly, and he suddenly realized that if those tribes were forced to settle in the town, would they be far away from hunting and fighting, and would reduce their combat effectiveness? The main force of the Macedonian army is the main force The infantry phalanx is right, but these light infantry are also indispensable.

Antigonus fell into confusion.

……

Six days later, the slave traders finally arrived.

Because the volume of goods was too large this time, Antigonus invited several well-known slave traders in Pella to come together. These slave traders made their fortunes from the barbarians who helped King Philip deal with the captives in the early days of Macedonia. It can be said that It is very trustworthy.

In the command post of the military camp, Antigonus received several slave traders. These merchants were all dressed in colorful clothes and decorated with jewels on their robes. It seemed that they were afraid that others would not know that they were rich. Antigonus just After just looking at them, he lost interest. He concluded on the spot that these people were the kind of nouveau riche who had nothing but wealth.

Those merchants didn't know what Antigon was thinking, they all smiled and saluted the king on the throne and introduced themselves, while Antigon nodded to them very flatly as a response.

After a round of self-introduction, Antigonus coughed lightly, and said straight to the point: "I invite you here for the sake of the 370 barbarian prisoners captured in the war. As you can see, the number of barbarian prisoners of war is already high. After the number of Macedonian soldiers, if I continue to lead them forward, it is very likely that there will be some uncontrollable accidents."

"Therefore, I hope that you can buy those prisoners of war and bring them back to Pella City, which can be regarded as serving the country."

"Nine thousand three hundred and seventy two prisoners of war!"

After hearing the number released by Antigonus, the merchants below all showed surprise expressions, and one of them even exclaimed in a low voice. It is no wonder that they showed such expressions. In any previous war, Macedonian The army has never captured so many prisoners of war, and the most is only more than 4000 people, which is actually doubled.

After the shock, one of the slender businessmen stood up and said cautiously: "Your Majesty, the escort we brought cannot guard so many barbarians. Even if we are willing to buy them, we can't take them away. "

"That's not a problem." Antigon waved his hand casually, and said, "The war will not continue in a short time. I will send troops to escort the slaves back with you."

After finishing speaking, he remembered something, and said again: "Besides, not all of the barbarian slaves are barbarian warriors, and many of them are old and weak women and children. You can take care of those old and weak women and children to threaten those barbarian slaves." man."

Hearing Antigonus say this, the businessmen were relieved, but one of them also stood up and asked the most critical question.

"Your Majesty, then, at what price do you want to sell those prisoners of war?"

(End of this chapter)