Douluo: The Adventures of King Skin

"He makes his sun rise on the good and the evil; He sends rain on the just and on the unjust."

——"Matthew" 5:45

The Spartans advocated a simple and plain life. They only wore a long tunic all year round and never washed or changed it.

Xenophon praised this way of life to the heavens, Diogenes said that they had the style of philosophers, and Critias also said that this kind of clothing was practical and convenient.

Aristotle criticized the Spartans' "too simple dress is actually a kind of show off".

Okay, everything you say makes sense.

In short, Cleonymus must have scorned this tradition, or perhaps he never regarded himself as a Spartan in his heart, and his behavior reflected the style of the successors.

So when he appeared in front of the Tarentum people, he couldn't wait to put on a gorgeous purple robe.

He brought five thousand elite soldiers recruited by Lacedaemon, and an equal number of mercenaries joined him on Magna Graecia.Then he mobilized the citizens of Tarantum and nearby Greek city-states, as well as the Messapians on the peninsula, and obtained another [-] infantry and [-] cavalry.

By this time he had gathered a considerable force, and the invading Lucanians knelt down when they saw this formation, expressing their desire to re-establish friendship with Tarantum.

Metapontum on the other side of the bay was unwilling to surrender to his side, so Cleonymus forced the Lucanians to attack the city-state.

When Metapontum finally surrendered to him, he entered the city, extorted six hundred talents of gold and silver, and then asked them to send away 200 girls from good families in the name of demanding hostages.

Then I had a good time.

…………

…………

Just as Pyrrhus was preparing to set off, Creon and several permanent representatives hurried over with news of Demetrius's southern expedition.

A few days ago, Demetrius invaded the city of West Zion at night, destroyed the garrison's armed forces, and then graciously sent them away.

But here is a problem.

Demetrius went south to attack Peloponnese, but he mainly attacked Polyperchon.

——To be honest, Pyrrhus was a little shocked when he learned that Polyperchon was still alive. This man must be ninety years old, right?

Polyperchon had already joined Cassander's camp when he killed the illegitimate son Heracles. He and Plepelaus stationed in Corinth jointly resisted Antigonus. It can be said that except for the Lacedaemon region, the entire peninsula It's all under the control of both of them.

But there is one exception, and that is West Zion.This was Ptolemy's only territory on mainland Greece.

Demetrius did not attack Corinth directly on the isthmus, but first captured Western Zion next to it, probably to avoid launching a strong attack on the narrow isthmus.

But the result of doing so was to directly declare war on Ptolemy.

So is Maria’s “academic exchange” here still relevant?

However, Maria's matter is not what Creon and others consider. There are more troublesome matters behind.

Dmitri said to the people of West Zion, it is too unsafe here for you, I will find you a new home.

As a result, the new home was in Thessaly, the southern tip of Magnesia, on the peninsula on the east side of the Gulf of Pagace, not far east of Iolkos where Pyrrhus originally landed. It was also named after himself. "Demetrias".

Didn't say hello.

"Now where Demetrius has transported people, craftsmen and civilians have already started building the city there. You see..."

I read?

What do I think?

I'm just a tagus!

This matter should be decided by your council, right?

Infringement of sovereignty, nothing to say, the only option is Xuan Ta Ma!

"Ugh……"

You don't need to ask to know that they don't have the guts at all.

Although Cassander was defeated, although Cassander is also a successor, and although Dmitri is also a successor, the gap between successors and successors is like an egg and a chicken.

And it's not like they weren't afraid of Cassander.

Pyrrhus' previous proposal of "one-sidedness" among the disciples was successfully passed at the Emergency Supreme Council, largely because they all believed:

Thessaly had offended Cassander and the Macedonians so much that it could only follow Demetrius's path until it was dark.

The Thessalians had no choice, and neither did Pyrrhus.

If you want to end the war quickly, the most promising among the successors is the Antigonus family, and the two families have formed mutual trust over decades of cooperation.

But Dmitry is a man who is easy to talk to and really easy to talk to. If he is unreliable, he is really unreliable.

When he was in Athens before, Demetrius issued an order to levy a huge sum of money.

The Athenians scraped together 250 talents and offered them up. However, Master De thought it was too little and was meaningless, so he gave red envelopes to his concubines.

This really hurt the hearts of the people of Athens.

——Money, no matter how much, is everyone’s hard work. How about you use it in the right way?

There is no way to say it.

"Everyone is flattering King Demetrius, let's flatter him too." Pyrrhus was helpless and thought of a reasonable way:

"We separated 'Demetrias' and established an honorary Tagui, which was presented to Demetrius at the Corinthian Council."

When Creon and others heard this method, their worries suddenly turned into joy, with "yes" expressions on their faces.

"..."

After taking the blame, Pyrrhus went to Maria and his disciples to break the bad news.

Although he knew that people would probably go back to Egypt directly after hearing this, Pyrrhus was unwilling to deceive his friends.

Maria had just finished her lecture in the academy and was taking a few "graduate students" to the large experimental park to continue tinkering with the steel project.

Ironmaking in small blast furnaces has been successful, but the efficiency is still quite low. Moreover, there is a shortage of iron and coal in Lamia, making it difficult to expand production.But don't worry now, after all, the current wrought iron is just a metal that has advantages and disadvantages with bronze.

Steelmaking is much more complicated.

Although Pyrrhus had some knowledge of later generations, it was all principle-that is, iron and carbon.As for more basic things like minerals and metallography, I don't know anything about it, let alone the specific process.

And now some blacksmiths in West Asia have used various "ancestral secret recipes" to tinker with steel that is even stronger than what Pyrrhus himself experimented with.

Fortunately, there are now people who are truly proficient in alchemy and can systematically sort out the steelmaking process...

**

Although Maria and Cleopatra were not apolitical, they still understood the seriousness of the matter.

Demetrius and Ptolemy were originally hostile forces to each other, but they only developed some "friendship between warriors" during many years of fighting. This was just a matter of decency and etiquette, and the relationship between the two parties did not really change. .

Now that war has broken out, all Dmitri can do is allow the 'Academic Fleet' to leave safely.

"Clebarat, your brother should come to pick us up soon, but I won't go back."

"Ah? Teacher, there is going to be a war, do you still want to stay here?" Cleopatra advised worriedly: "Your father is still in Egypt, won't you go back?"

Thinking of her father's advanced age, Maria felt a little uncomfortable, but she persisted: "The students need me, and the Experimental Garden also needs me... I also need this place."

"Then I won't go back, I want to be with the teacher!"

"Clebarat, you have to go back."

"But..." Cleopatra pursed her lips, "I still have to learn from you..."

"Clebarat, in two years, you will embark on your own path of alchemy." Maria gently stroked the disciple's hair, "I need you to return to Alexandria and learn what you have learned here. The research methods are also brought there. Academics have no national boundaries, and I hope that scholars who arrive in Egypt can learn this method."

After Maria finished speaking, she looked at Pyrrhus uneasily.

Although she felt that the other party should have the same view as her, that is, academic results should benefit the entire world.

But she was not sure whether Pyrrhus, as a ruler, could agree to her behavior that was tantamount to an enemy when the war broke out.

You know, what Cleopatra can bring back from here is not only the knowledge of steel smelting that may have a huge impact on the war, but also various new machinery and processes, such as papermaking and printing, which are the pillar industries of Thessaly, and related technologies If leaked, it could cause a major financial blow to Pyrrhus' side.

"Mary is right. You should take the knowledge you learned here back to Egypt. Lamia also has some latest books, so you should take them back with you."

After hearing what Pyrrhus said, Maria couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and then felt some sympathy and joy.

Why doesn't Pyrrhus think so?

It is still BC, and the entire human civilization is in a very weak state.

Natural and man-made disasters may destroy the achievements of civilization. This is a common fact in history.

But he hopes to get rid of sectarian prejudices, make basic technologies such as papermaking and printing benefit more people, make human civilization more resilient, and prevent the world from being desolate for a long time...

I hope that if something unexpected happens to him during the war, if Lamia Academy is destroyed, the results he has achieved in this world will not be wasted.

How many people in this era can understand him?Even if future generations can understand him?

Yang Zhu was unwilling to take a dime to benefit the world, and many people despised his selfishness; but Yang Zhu selflessly taught his thoughts to the world, and how many of the people who despised him could actually be altruistic?

Even he himself, in his previous life, was just a selfish and narrow-minded villain, but that was just because of embarrassment and helplessness, not an active choice;

In this life, he has become a prince, and he hopes to be a truly noble person and do some truly noble things.

His companions and people close to him may understand his thoughts, but they will never agree.

So Pyrrhus also felt that meeting Maria was really lucky.