I was a priest in the city-state era

If we regard the Dorians' enslavement of the locals of the Peloponnese and the formation of the Spartan military group by the men of the Dorian people to maintain their rule as a professional military system, the earliest professional military system in the world was born five hundred years later.

Because in this era, the private soldiers of the royal family or the nobles could not be considered professional soldiers. They were not loyal to the city-state or the kingdom, but to the masters who supported them.

When there was a war, the rulers would recruit soldiers from the civilians.

If the enemy was too strong, the rulers would also choose to hire more powerful mercenaries to fight.

More than three hundred years later, in the Battle of Kadesh, Ramses II of the Egyptian Empire recruited a large number of mercenaries to defeat the Hittite Empire, bringing his army to more than 20,000 people.

Ramses II ruled the Egyptian Empire with a population of millions, but he would rather use mercenaries than recruit civilians, obviously because there was a huge gap in strength between civilians and mercenaries.

But this also reflects that there were no professional soldiers in the Egyptian Empire at that time.

After all, wars do not happen all the time. For the rulers of this era, it is a waste of wealth to support professional soldiers in peacetime.

For example, if a country only goes to war once every ten years.

It is obviously more cost-effective to recruit mercenaries with two or three years of finances than to use ten years of finances to support a professional army.

Later, the Dorians swept across the Peloponnese with their professional military system, and only then did the city-states including Athens have a citizen system similar to the professional military system.

Compared with soldiers who are soldiers in wartime and farmers in leisure time, professional soldiers are of course more powerful.

So under Roy's rule, even if there is no war, the Kingdom of Athens still supports a large number of professional soldiers, allowing these professional soldiers to train every day to improve their combat capabilities.

Port of Piraeus.

On the day when Roy was about to go to Sais to rob food, 1,500 Athenian soldiers were summoned by Roy to board fifty warships at the port.

The soldiers boarded the warships in an orderly manner, and Aries immediately reported to Roy.

"Your Majesty, all 1,500 soldiers of the Athenian Legion have boarded the ship. We can set off at any time now."

"Then let's set off!"

After saying that, Roy boarded his flagship with Aries.

Led by the flagship, fifty warships left the port in a mighty manner and started a long voyage.

Standing at the stern of the flagship and looking at the city of Athens, Roy couldn't help feeling a little uneasy about this expedition.

Because this was the first time Roy had left the Aegean Sea.

When Roy's fleet sailed out of the Athenian waters, Roy did not let the fleet sail into the Myrtowon Sea in the southwest of the Aegean Sea, but let the fleet sail into the southeast of the Aegean Sea where the Cyclades Islands are located.

Because Roy wanted the island city-states of the Cyclades Islands to see the strength of the Athenian Navy.

The island city-states of the Cyclades Islands were originally vassals of the city of Knossos. Now the city of Knossos has been destroyed by the tsunami and its ports and ships, and it is no longer able to control the island city-states of the Cyclades Islands.

Now Roy showed the strength of the Athenian navy to the island city-states of the Cyclades, so that they could take the initiative to become vassals of Athens in exchange for the protection and help of Athens.

If powerful island city-states like Naxos and Andros were unwilling to become vassals of Athens, Roy would also use force to persuade them and let their kings go to the underworld to confess their stupidity.

The total area of ​​all the islands in the Cyclades is only 2,500 square kilometers.

If these islands are not considered as a whole, even for Naxos, the largest island, Roy's fleet can be regarded as a behemoth.

So Roy's fleet entered the Cyclades Sea under the push of the north wind and immediately caused a sensation in the archipelago.

Many kings of small islands who ruled hundreds of people took the initiative to meet Roy and wanted to become vassals in exchange for the protection and help of Athens. Roy accepted all of them.

These small island kings took the initiative to become vassals of Athens because they were always worried about being annexed by powerful neighbors like Naxos.

Athens is hundreds of miles away from their territory. Even if they become vassals of Athens, they don't have to worry about Roy taking away their throne.

Perhaps these small island kings will feel that Roy will not look down on their small islands and hundreds of people at all.

These small island kings will never think that when Roy has time to deal with them, he will turn their islands from vassals into parts of the Kingdom of Athens.

Two days later, when Roy's fleet sailed out of the Cyclades Sea, except for the four powerful island city-states including Naxos, all other island city-states in the Cyclades Islands became vassals of Athens.

When the fleet entered the Sea of ​​Crete, Roy did not choose to sail directly to the Kasos Strait east of Crete to enter the Eastern Mediterranean, but let the fleet sail to Knossos.

Because Roy wanted to see the disaster situation of Knossos with his own eyes.

At noon the next day.

Roy's fleet sailed into the devastated port of Knossos.

In fact, the main city of Knossos is more than 2,000 meters away from the port, so the tsunami did not cause much casualties to Knossos.

Even if all the people in the port area were drowned by the sea, the number of deaths would be at most a few thousand.

The biggest loss caused by the tsunami in the port area is that Knossos lost its status as a trade hub. No merchant ships are willing to come to Knossos to trade and provide Knossos with a steady stream of wealth.

The food problem caused by this will turn Knossos into a miserable hell on earth.

After Roy landed at the port, a group of Knossos people who were wandering nearby immediately ran to Roy and knelt down to beg.

"Please give me some food! I have elderly parents and young children at home. Without food, our whole family will starve to death."

"The food in my family was soaked in sea water. In order to save food for their children and grandchildren, my parents took the initiative to starve to death."

There was also a woman holding a baby begging.

"Have pity on the child, give him something to eat for the sake of the child!"

Facing these begging people, Roy raised his bronze spear expressionlessly and threatened.

"Get out of here! If anyone doesn't want to leave, I'll kill him and help him get rid of the pain of hunger."

Roy knew very well that people are not worried about the lack of food but the inequality of food.

If he helped some people, others would think that they should help everyone.

It's a pity that Roy doesn't have the ability to help everyone.

Even if Roy is willing to let himself and 1,500 Athenian soldiers starve to death and take out all the military rations to help the people of Knossos, the result will be a drop in the bucket.

Because to solve the food problem in Knossos, it doesn't need thousands or tens of thousands of kilograms of food, but millions of kilograms of food.

If Roy only helps some people, those who don't get relief will not only not praise Roy's behavior, but will resent Roy's injustice because they don't get relief.