Chapter 1272
The Devers ignored the noise of the women and children, looking down at the huge yellow arena paved with a mixture of fine sand and clay, and the long strip of isolation belt in the center of the arena. He asked, "Clotho, how many racing races are there today?"
As the leader of the sports preparation team, Cloto Catax knew the entire schedule of all the races like the back of his hand. He immediately replied, "There are three racing races today."
At this time, there was another round of cheers from the audience. It turned out that the racers were driving their racing cars into their respective starting gates.
The Devers looked at the row of starting gates at the south end of the arena with great interest and asked, "Which regions and city-states are the contestants from in the first race?"
"There are from the Kingdom of the Po River region, West Numibia, Thebes, the Kingdom of the Bruti region, Macedonia, Cyrenaica … Erm, and our Turií region …" Cloto Catax said with great familiarity.
"It seems that the first round of the race is very competitive!" The Devers listened and said excitedly, "The racers from the Po River region should be Gaul citizens. They are originally good at driving chariots on battlefields with complex terrain. Now that they have switched to the arena, they should be even more at home. The Bruti region is originally a famous pastoral area of the kingdom. Although in the past, Bruti horses were more suitable as Thoma horses because they were short and good at climbing mountains, they have imported a batch of Lusitanian horses from the Iberian Peninsula and bred them in large numbers. I heard that they are not inferior to Gaul horses.
The Cyrenaica Bay horses are also very famous. It is said that they used to sell a large number of them to the nobles of the city-state of Peloponnesus. Erm … Macedonian cavalry, I believe you have experienced their strength in the Battle of Tegea a few years ago. And West Lumibia, this is also a region rich in horses. Our light cavalry legion is made up of West Lumibians … These contestants are all from famous horse-producing areas. Whether it is the horses or the racers, they should be the best of the best. I believe that the competition in the race will be very fierce! "The Devers commented with great interest while stroking his chin.
"Grandpa, what about Thebes?" Cristod interrupted from behind.
"Thebes … I don't think their car has the ability to compete with the other racers," Devers said with certainty.
"Father, Thebes have won many championships in the Greek Games in the past, and this time, the Thebes are owned by Perópidas," Cloto Catax reminded him.
"The past is the past. In the past, the Greeks did not allow foreigners to participate in the Games. The Macedonians who were related to them did not have the opportunity to participate. But in today's sports meeting, the Greeks will see that there are many races in the Mediterranean world who are better at driving carriages than them! " Devers still insisted on his own judgment. "Therefore, no matter if it's an individual or a country, we must never be complacent. Instead, we must face the world bravely and dare to compete with the strong. Only then can we improve even more! Chris, do you think Grandpa is right? "
"Grandpa is absolutely right!" Christopher nodded repeatedly like a chick pecking at rice.
Holding him by her side, Cristoya could not help but laugh and scold, "Little bootlicker!"
Devers smiled kindly. "Chris, Grandpa has a question for you. Who is Perópidas?"
"The military commander of the Pioscia Alliance!" Christopher blurted out.
"Great!" Devers gave a thumbs up and then patted the couch beside him. "Come to Grandpa and sit down!"
Although Kristoff was eager to try, he looked at his grandmother first.
"Go, go." Cristoya waved her hand and then reminded Devers, "Don't let him go near the railing in front!"
Devers nodded.
Christopher excitedly scurried to sit beside Devers and then asked, "Grandpa, you haven't told me about the Turís racer yet."
"Ah!" Devers slapped his forehead. "How could I forget about our racer! Clotho, who is the Turís racer? Who is the owner of the racer? "
"The driver's name is Procris. He's the youngest son of the former cavalry hero, Sobkos. He won first place in the racing event held in the Turii region. The racing car he's driving today should be provided by the Turii Carriage Chamber of Commerce."
"Soberkos …" Devers could not help but feel a little disappointed when he heard this name that had been covered for a long time. "I seem to remember that the current president of the Turís Carriage Association … is also Soberkos' son?"
"Yes, Father. The president of Tuliyi's Carriage Chamber of Commerce is called Pebarisius. He's the eldest son of Sobers. He used to be an officer of the First Cavalry Legion, but more than ten years ago, when the kingdom rescued Wolsey and fought against Rome, his leg was seriously injured. In the end, he had no choice but to retire and run the carriage business that his father left behind …" Cloto Cattacus introduced.
"This family has made a great contribution to the kingdom!" Devers sighed.
"Uncle Clotho, I see that there are eight gates down there, but why did you only say there are seven racers?" Apox's son, Tisiphonus, suddenly asked. He was three years younger than Cristos, but he inherited his father's intelligence and steadiness, and had excellent results in school.
Cloto Catax was stunned. He quickly counted with his fingers and immediately apologized, "I missed one. The other racer should be … from Egypt."
"Oh, Egypt!" Devers exchanged glances with Cloto Catax without batting an eyelid.
Five days after his conversation with his son that night, he received accurate news from the Afrika region: Jehao had been found. His ship had crashed under a cliff a hundred miles away from Cyrenaica after a storm. His body and that of his entourage had been found among the rocks. According to the Afrika region's governor, they had all died of drowning.
For this reason, the Devers had called for an emergency meeting of the kingdom the day before to convince the ministers to follow his plan to deal with this unexpected incident. On one hand, Diónia would send an emissary and a fleet to Afrika to transport the bodies of Jehao and his entourage back to Egypt. On the other hand, the kingdom would temporarily block the news that the Egyptian emissary delegation had been destroyed by the storm. At the same time, the Ministry of Military Affairs would inform Calsidis to quietly gather a few legions of soldiers in Sicily to observe the situation.
Therefore, although the Egyptian delegation in Turís was confused about why their emissary delegation had not arrived yet, they could still participate in the various competitions calmly.
"It is said that Egypt was the first country to use chariots among the Mediterranean countries. Chariot archers are still an important part of Egypt's army. It looks like the first competition will be very intense!" Devers sighed and immediately complained to his eldest son, "You are not as attentive as our little Tixi! Tixi, come and watch the competition with Grandpa! "As he spoke, he patted the couch on the other side.
"Oh," Tisiphonus replied and stood up to walk forward.
"I want to sit with Grandpa too!"
"I want to sit too!"
…
Seeing this, the other children started shouting one after another. No matter how much their parents tried to dissuade them, they would not listen.
"Alright, alright, move a couch beside me and let the children sit over here," Devers said with a smile.
After seeing that the children had sat down again, he pretended to be serious and said, "If you want to watch the competition with Grandpa, you must agree to a few of Grandpa's requests. First, you must watch quietly and not make any noise. Second, you must actively answer Grandpa's questions. If you answer correctly, you will be rewarded at home! "
"Grandpa, what is the reward?"
"You will know when the time comes. Can you fulfill my requests? "
"Yes!"
"Good child, then let's watch the competition together."
Seeing that Devers was happily teasing the children, Cristoya spat softly, "This old fellow!"
Aegnis's leisurely voice rang in her ears, "If only it was like this every day!"
Cristoya was stunned. Looking at the happy scene between Devers and the children, she could not help but sigh softly, "Yes!"
… …
While the Devers were enjoying the joy of their family in the royal stands, in the VIP seats not far below, the president of the Turií Chamber of Commerce, Sostatus, saw a familiar face, "Hey, Pebaricius, I didn't expect you to come to watch the competition!"
"Nonsense! If I don't come, who will cheer for my brother? "Pebaricius was born in the military, so he was more direct with his words.
"I know that your brother won the right to participate in the Turií region's competition," Sostatus immediately asked curiously, "But is his competition today?"
"He's in the first competition today. There's a notice of the competition posted at the entrance of the arena. Didn't you see it?"
"I don't have time to look at it!" Sostatus pointed at the group behind him and complained softly, "Look, I have to take care of so many friends. I'm so busy, I don't have time to care about other things."
Pebaricius glanced at the crowd behind him and said with slight mockery, "Lord Sostatus, you really have a lot of friends. No wonder you can become one of the top merchants in the kingdom. You should be able to earn a lot during the competition."
"Sigh, forget about earning money, it's good enough that I don't lose money!" Sostatus sighed and said, "It's not like you don't know that there was a riot in the big market outside the main port of Turií the day before yesterday. Many foreign merchants couldn't rent shops, so they banded together and put their goods on the side of the road to sell. As a result, two streets were blocked. The patrol team went to drive them away and even got into a conflict with them … You know, these days, all the markets in Turií are full of tourists. At that time, there was almost a riot, resulting in casualties among the tourists due to panic and trampling. Fortunately, a large group of soldiers arrived in time and calmed the situation.
"After the incident, an official from the Ministry of Commerce came to me, hoping that the Turií Chamber of Commerce could set an example by temporarily renting out part of the market to these foreign merchants to ensure the smooth progress of the competition. He even said something like," This will also be beneficial to the further expansion of the kingdom's trade to the Eastern Mediterranean in the future, which will be beneficial to our merchants "… Hmph, I'm in this trade myself, what an unnecessary move!"
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