Chapter 6: Chess Player

After a moment of silence in the tent, Olivos said: “It’s a pity that Cyrus the Younger died in battle. Although he is a Persian prince, but he is polite and likes to help people, and he is also handsome and very popular with the ladies, even the Cilisian queen became his mistress. If he didn’t die, he would’ve been a good king!”

Being handsome and able to flirt with the ladies, is a good king? What rubbish logic is that! Davos secretly criticized.

“Yeah! Cyrus the Younger does not look down on us like the other Persians, he is sincerely kind to us Greeks! If he were the king, we Greeks would have a better relationship with the Persians!” said Giorgris.

“And he is a warrior, not weak like the other Persians!” Matonis chimed in.

“The most important is that he is very generous! Giving us a lot of gold coins!” Olivos emphasized another sentence that led everyone to agree.

Is this a memorial service for Cyrus the Younger? Davos was amused, according to the memory of his body, he couldn’t help but say: “Is Cyrus the Younger generous? I don’t think so! You see, first of all, he owed us more than 3 months of salary, but he didn’t gave it until the Cilisian king inspected the troops and paid us 4 months worth of salary.”

“When we suspect that Cyrus the Younger was going to fight the Persian king and refuse to move forward, he tried to persuade us by increasing our salary from one daric gold coin to one and a half, only then did we agree. For the next 2 months, did he give the money? Don’t forget that he once ordered us to threaten the Cilisian king and the timid king gave him a lot of money. When we found out about Cyrus the Younger’s plan, there was a big protest at the assembly, Cyrus the Younger promised afterwards that when capturing Babylon, he will give us five silver coin each. But did he gave it?”

After a while, Olivos bitterly answered: “He is dead!”

“You see, Cyrus the Younger did not spend his own silver coin and took us to a place about 1,500 km¹ away from Greece – on a hostile land filled with dangerous enemies. If he had told us from the beginning that he was going to fight the Persian King, would we have agreed?”

The three shook their heads like a puppet.

“He concealed the truth. Giving little benefit at a time, just like using grasses to lure the sheep to go forward, and in the end, we have no choice but to agree.” Davos exclaimed: “Cyrus the Younger is a clever swindler! Without paying any price, he let more than 10,000 Greeks fight to the death for his conspiracy.”

There was another silence in the tent, and soon Olivos began to swear: “Damn Cyrus the Younger! Damn Persian! and that idiot Meno! Every damn time that he actively let us be the vanguard, he kept saying that Cyrus the Younger would appreciate us and give us more in return. Meno is a fool. His mouth is not only rotten, but even his head is rotten. Sooner or later, we’ll get killed by him!…fuck…my stomach…I’m going to starve to death!”

Davos was amused seeing Olivos making a scene. Not to mention the collusion in the old government, even the Kangxi Emperor on TV and the emerging emperor after Qianlong, even if he have not eaten pork, but he have seen pig run!

Cyrus the Younger was born in the mankind’s center of conspiracy – the court and getting the position of military commander in western Persia isn’t simple. Just watching him as he fool around with the Greeks, you can see how strong his wrists are. As for Meno, he probably isn’t foolish, as a mercenary leader, he may have known Cyrus the Younger’s plan on pushing his compatriots into the pit of fire long ago, but he was only interested in the profit.

“Davos, you couldn’t say such remark in the past. You really…really…” Matonis cautiously asked.

Davos knew that Matonis and “himself” had a good relationship due to both of them having a similar personality. So, he said: “Matonis, I am still me no matter what, I will always be your good brother! Thank you for taking care of me all this time! I hope you can continue on helping me!” With the repeatedly veiled reference to “God’s Favored” thing, Davos is now considering it, having experience society for the past 30 years and play as a simple-minded 19 year old Greek, he didn’t want to pretend, nor couldn’t, might as well just let the others think that way, that should be…good enough. Therefore, he neither denied nor acknowledged and gave a vague answer.

He haven’t expected that his words made Matonis became more lively: “You can rest assured! With me here, no one will dare to bully you!”

“Davos, can we return home?” Giogris’ voice is filled with worry.

Evidently, Davos disclosure of Cyrus the Younger made them begin to doubt their abilities.

Davos smiled bitterly. Although he did not know the development of this historical event, the Chinese history told him that the emperor of a feudal dynasty hated nothing more than rebellion. Unless the Persian king is mentally ill, he will definitely wiped them out completely, in order to deter all those who harbors different ideas!

As for attacking the Persian army and capturing Babylon. Davos is not optimistic, otherwise the name of this event should be called “Great March of the Ten Thousand Greeks” rather than “Great Retreat”. However, he said: “Don’t worry! We will return home smoothly.”

He leaned his head and looked at the others who have now a much relaxed expression, and sighed in his heart: it’s good being a simple-minded guy. Not even thinking about how the current situation is completely dangerous and placing their life on an “Oracle” is also a blessing.

Davos is thinking about it, when his mind jolted, he suddenly remembered a movie he had seen in his previous life 《2012》, when the world’s calamity came, those rich and powerful can easily sit on one of the 7 arks, while the ordinary civilians can only depend on luck, a chess piece can only be at the the mercy of others; only by becoming a chess player can he grasp his destiny in his own hands! But how to become one?

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

In the afternoon, Hielos squad was assigned half a bag of wheat flour and more than a dozen dates.

Everyone struggled and started making bread. Davos asked as he actively helped, because he has nothing to refer from his memory.

The ancient Greek bread making is actually similar to that of chinese noodles, and the most important thing is the fermentation. Bread was the staple food of the Greeks and they carry yeast when they march during war, and it’s well preserved.

After kneading the flour, they then put it on the iron plate and bake it using the firewood they collected. In the evening, only then did they ate the crude bread. They filled their stomach and hurriedly went to sleep.

In the early morning of the next day, Hielos woke everyone up and told them: “The messenger of Ariaeus arrived and said, ‘He is going to take his troops back to his hometown in Asia Minor’. The leaders are not willing to go back empty-handed and promise him ‘if Ariaeus is willing to continue attacking Babylon with them, they would like to make him the king of Persia.’ and they sent Cheirisophus² and Meno together with the messenger in order to persuade Ariaeus.”

“Why did they send Meno?” Matonis asked puzzled.

“Don’t you know that Meno has a good relationship with Ariaeus?” Olivos smiled ambigously. T/N: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

“Can they persuade Ariaeus?” Giorgris said worriedly.

Everyone turned their attention to Davos, overnight, he had become their spiritual backbone. Davos felt a lot of pressure, but he did not evade and pondered for a while, then shook his head: “Ariaeus is a Persian aristocrat, who as an adjutant of Cyrus the Younger had been forced to take part in the rebellion. Now if there is another rebellion with the Greeks, if he fails, not only will he die, but his family will also be implicated. If he is really ambitious, as soon as he had learned about Cyrus the Younger’s death, he should’ve immediately took over everything Cyrus the Younger had and promptly united with the Greek mercenaries. It is only today that he wanted to go home. Obviously, after much consideration, he made a decision.”

There was disappointment on everyone’s face when they received a negative answer.

“Brothers, these are the things that the mercenary leaders should be concerned about. Let’s do what we should do.” Hielos hurriedly said: “Meno told us to slaughter all the excess livestock in the squad and prepare more to eat.”

We can finally have enough to eat! This news temporarily dispelled the fog in everyone’s mind.

[1] The author was using the chinese unit of distance – Li(里) for this and I just converted it to km. (tell me if you prefer the original)

[2] Cheirisophus was a Spartan general sent by the Spartan ephors to aid Cyrus the Younger against his brother.