“There is still a problem.” Davos regained his gaze and seriously asked: “Until where on the road will we be able to leave the jurisdiction of the Persian royal family?”
Marigi was eager to please Davos, and so, he carefully thought about it and drew a circle on the sketch: “Here! After Mespila[1]!”
“Mespila?” Davos looked at the pattern on the ground.
“Mespila was the former capital of Assyria, Nineveh! After passing it, the next place is the Carduchians.” Marigi emphasized.
Davos nodded: “Are you familiar with the Carduchians?” ．
“Not really, I just did business with them by exchanging food for their mountain goods!” Marigi said, with an angry look on his face: “But they are dishonest savages who often don’t pay, they will also hurt you and steal something!”
Davos listened carefully, then he turned to Matonis and said, “Take his family to the supply unit and let Mersis look after them, but you must tell Mersis not to abuse him and his family and not to turn them into slaves!”
As soon as he finished talking, Marigi threw himself down on his knees, “I beg you! I beg you! Let me and my family go! I already said everything! Please let us go…”
“It seems that you can understand Greek, but pretended that you didn’t.” Davos said.
Marigi had no excuse this time and just burst into tears.
“In fact, it’s for your own good that I didn’t release you and your family. Do you know that your lord — the king’s brother, Cyrus the Younger, had died in battle!”
Marigi suddenly stopped crying, and the hands holding Davos’ legs also lost strength, he then asked weakly, “His Highness Cyrus really died?”
“Actually, you have already guessed it, didn’t you? Otherwise, how can Tissaphernes bring us here, and allowed us to pillage your village, because it was the punishment for Cyrus the Younger’s rebellion! I believe this punishment won’t be the last time! I fear that all the people close to him can’t escape, right?”
Marigi was paralyzed on the ground and lost his senses.
Matonis pulled and dragged him.
“This person isn’t like an ordinary merchant.” Hielos watched as Marigi got dragged and said to Davos.
“You are right!” Davos nodded. The family living in a dilapidated house, but hid a lot of gold, silver, and gorgeous clothes, he is also proficient in Greek and knew so many thing, and the only thing that made him and his wife like an ordinary Persian merchant was their temperament. Perhaps he is a relative of Cyrus the Younger or his royal merchant. After knowing that Cyrus the Younger rebelled, he fled to a remote village in his territory to escape disaster. If it wasn’t for the village head giving him away, he would have missed a big fish.
Davos thought happily, while he has selectively fogotten how he had tortured the village head and his family. He said to Hielos, “Squad leader, I have to trouble you to once again emphasize to Mersis that no one is allowed to harass his family, he is very useful to us! Now that Cyrus the Younger is dead, I want him to truly join us!”
Davos’ leadership in the squad was already established which made everyone present not surprised on how a soldier gave an order to his squad leader.
“Alright.” Hielos stepped out of the tent without hesitation.
“Pikors, thank you very much! You have been a great help to me today!” Davos faced a soldier and said.
“It’s my honor to be of help!” Pikors humbly said.
Davos pulled out 2 drachmas and shoved them into his hands.
“This…this…” Pikors tried to decline.
Davos said, “Please accept it! I really want to thank you for this matter, and I hope that you can keep it secret, and to not let Menon know about it!”
Pikors no longer decline after he heard what he said, he then stuff the silver coins and said, “You can rest assured that I also don’t like that guy! I Promise to Hades that I won’t say a word about it!” Pikors made a ‘keep his mouth shut’ gesture and excitedly said, “Next time you have this kind of work, you can just call me!”
“I definitely can’t leave you out!” Davos laughed.
After Pikors left the tent, Giorgris immediately asked with concern, “Pikors is a Persian translator of Menon, can we trust him?”
“I heard that whenever Menon meet someone who speak Persian, Pikors doesn’t have anything to do. On the contrary, Meno often use him as a laborer. He would be too foolish if he offend us and besides, he will earn some money.” Olivos chimed in. After he woke up, he knew that he almost went to hell and immediately thanked Davos, who knew that Davos responded to him coldly and realized something, so he had been quiet until now.
But as soon as he spoke, the tent fell into a brief silence.
“Davos, how did you know that the Persian merchant buried his money in the yard?” Giorgris suddenly asked.
Davos understood that Giorgris wanted to liven up the atmosphere and said, “It’s very simple, when we captured Marigi, I found that he wasn’t only worried that we would take advantage of his wife and daughter—” Davos said this and glanced at Olivos, “His gaze kept sneaking a glance at the old tree in the yard from time to time, and so I went over and took a closer look, there I found a spot under the tree with a different color and it was a new soil. Of course, I have some suspicion, but I didn’t scare him that much, that guy was too timid and voluntarily confessed.”
Several people prase Davos’ meticulousness, especially Olivos, who spoke the loudest.
Davos then said to Giorgris, “This money is of great use to us, you need to go to the supply unit every day to check it out. Don’t let that fatty take advantage.”
“Okay.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
After the Greek mercenaries plundered many times, the marching formation of the mercenaries became even larger and bulky.
For the next few days, just as what Marigi had said, the mercenary troops had been marching along the right bank of the Tigris river, then crossed the river to reach the city, Gainie. They manage to get another adequate supply in here. But the suspicion of the Greek mercenary soldiers against the Persians became more serious, and a new rumors continued to spread among the troops, which leads to increased conflict between the soldiers of the two armies after they camp.
When they finally reached Zapatas river, there was a large-scale conflict between the soldiers and more than 100 soldiers on both sides held weapons and fought, killing and injuring more than 10 people. If the leaders of both sides had not arrived in time and sent troops to separate the two sides, then the result would have been unimaginable.
This led the marching to be cancelled the next day and the soldiers in each unit were restricted from leaving their camp. The constant march these days made Davos both physically and mentally exhausted, they seldom had free time and so, they all slept deeply.
Mersis, who was in the supply unit, seized this moment to slaughter some of the looted animals and made smoked sausages.
Just as Davos woke up, Antonios got into the tent and looked anxiously, “Davos, Menon, Clearchus, Proxenus and the other leaders went to the Persian camp to negotiate!”
“WHAT!!!” Davos was startled.
“I heard that after the incident last night, Clearchus immediately went to see Tissaphernes to negotiate, hoping to elimate the suspicions of mutual distrust and to avoid the recurrence of such hostilities. Perhaps the two sides had a good conversation that made Clearchus to directly spent the night in the Persian camp. He returned safely this morning and sent people to inform the other leaders to follow him to the Persian camps to have further talks with Tissaphernes. It was said that many soldiers and officers of the other mercenary team opposed their decision, but the leaders eventually reached an agreement and they are about to leave.” Antonios quickly spoke about what had happened.
“Why was nobody in our camp notify us of this?” Hielos asked strangely.
“Meno didn’t consult with others and quietly brought the 2 captain, Kapes and Mirstik.” Antonios said with an awkward look. He knew it in his heart that after the last collective “forced” incident, most of the officers and soldiers were no longer willing to obey Menon’s order, and after Menon lost his prestige, he no longer want to discuss it with them anymore and therefore, directly sought out the 2 captain who are still willing to listen to him.
Antonios did not explain it in details and said, “I just heard the noise of the soldiers of the nearby Socrates camp and only then did I know about it after asking them.”
“Who are the ones that are going?” Davos stood up, he then dressed quickly, and asked seriously.
Antonios’ heart “thump” after he saw Davos’ expression which confirmed the uneasiness he felt, “Clearchus, Proxenus, Meno, Socrates, Agias these five leaders, and more than a dozen captains.”
“Faster! Faster! take me to them, before it’s too late!!!” Davos put on a linen and anxiously pulled Antonios out, followed by Hielos.
[1] Mespila was the capital of the former Assyrian empire. Its other name are Nineveh(back in the Assyrian empire period) and Mosul(modern day).