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Chapter 1302

Before the Dionysian Army completely surrounded Jerusalem, the high priest took the initiative to go to the Diónia camp and humbly expressed to the King of Devers that the Jews were willing to surrender to the Kingdom of Diónia.

The Devers were more cautious about this special race in the Mediterranean world who believed in one God. He quickly accepted the surrender of the Jews, and made a promise and warning, "As long as the Jews are loyal to the Holy Kingdom of Diónia, they can have the right to live according to their own laws and religion, but at the same time, they can't affect the living rights of other races under the rule of the Holy Kingdom of Diónia because of their own customs. Otherwise, Diónia will intervene!"

The next day, the King of Devers was greeted at the gate of Jerusalem by the high priest in a purple robe and thousands of Jerusalemites led by him. The Devers followed the example of Cyrus and once again read out his promise and warning in public.

The people cheered. At the same time, the Jewish priests also tied up the governor of Canaan appointed by Artaxerxes, Nehemiah, who had worked hard for the reconstruction of the Canaan region, and his subordinates. They pushed him to the Devers and handed him over to them.

The Devers did not punish the governor of Persia, who was also a Jew, in public. Instead, after bringing him back to the camp, they asked Nehemiah kindly: If he was willing to serve the Kingdom of Diónia, he would be sent to govern the Canaan region after he was familiar with Diónia's political system and legal system.

The Jews were flexible, not conservative and stubborn. Nehemiah obviously inherited this characteristic. Surrendering to Diónia would not only allow him to live, but also allow him to fulfill his long-cherished wish of rebuilding Jerusalem and take revenge on the Jewish priests who betrayed him. So, he knelt in front of the Devers happily.

With Nehemiah as a guide, the Dionysian army quickly conquered the entire Canaan region. Then, under Nehemiah's leadership, they successfully invaded the Samaria region to the east of Jerusalem. They quickly captured many towns, and even captured the governor of the region, Samara. This was a great relief to Nehemiah.

Canaan and Samaria were conquered by Diónia one after another, making Gaza an isolated enclave of Persia.

The Diónia defenders panicked. They were eager to leave this dangerous place and return to their homeland.

Under the strong request of the soldiers, the commander of the defending army had no choice but to let the soldiers bring enough food and water and quietly leave Gaza City. They marched towards the northeast, attempting to bypass the area occupied by the Dionysian army and go to Damascus through the trade route at the edge of the desert in the east.

Unexpectedly, the Dionysian Army had been keeping a close eye on the movements of Gaza City. They soon discovered the intentions of the Persia defenders.

On the second day, the four Dionic cavalry legions and the Numibian Light Cavalry Legion caught up with the marching Persian garrison. The Light Cavalry Legion attacked with arrows and javelins, while the Heavy Cavalry Legion launched an attack and quickly defeated the Gaza garrison. Gaza City also fell into the hands of the Dionic army.

After completely stabilizing the rear, the Devers led the army north and soon entered the Phoenician region.

It could be said that the Phoenicians were the earliest enemies of Diónia in these regions affiliated to Persia. When the Phoenicians made the decision to send a fleet to support Carthage, they probably never imagined that one day the army of Diónia would arrive at their city. Moreover, the first city that the Dionysian Army was going to attack was Tyre, the initiator.

After the Phoenicians surrendered to Persia, the successive kings of Persia promised that as long as the Phoenicians paid a certain amount of gold and silver every year, and their fleet was always at their disposal, they would allow the Phoenicians to live in their original way.

For hundreds of years, the kings of Persia rarely interfered in the administrative affairs of the Phoenicians. One of the main reasons was that the mountains of Lebanon separated Phoenicia from the inland Persia. Land transportation was very inconvenient, and this terrain also had a great impact on the Phoenicians. They did not have vast and fertile farmland to support a larger population. They could only devote all their efforts to developing their economy on the sea, thereby becoming rich and prosperous because of maritime trade. However, due to certain conflicts of commercial interests between the city-states of Phoenicia, although they had established a Phoenician City-State Alliance very early on, they had never been able to form a unified country.

Therefore, the king of Persia was more satisfied with the state of the Phoenician city-states. The Phoenician city-states had also taken advantage of the preferential treatment that Persia had given them and made a lot of profits from trade with the inland. Therefore, they were still relatively loyal to Persia.

Tyre was the most powerful of the Phoenician city-states, and its city was built on a small island about eight miles from the coast. It was easy to defend and difficult to attack. In the history of the previous life, King Alexander of Macedonia, who had attacked Persia smoothly, encountered a setback here and spent a full half a year. It was precisely because of this memory that the Devers were very cautious when he led his army to Tyre. He planned to lead the generals on a warship to carefully inspect the defense of Tyre before considering whether to directly attack the city or force it to surrender through a long-term siege.

However, before he could set off, Tyre's messenger arrived first.

Tyre's messenger was also an acquaintance — the former Carthage Sophie Tepanrako.

After seeing the Devers, not only did he not show the arrogance and hostility towards Diónia that he used to have, he even showed some flattery. Therefore, the atmosphere of the whole meeting was relatively relaxed.

The Devers asked about the recent situation of Hanno and the others, and Tepanrako's expression became a little gloomy.

It turned out that after Diónia forced Carthage to expel the Hanoverian faction, most of them chose to settle in their former motherland, Tyre. Tyre also accepted them, but not only could Hanno and the others not reproduce their power in Carthage, but the higher-ups of Tyre also deliberately suppressed them, making it difficult for them to gain some power. The people of Tyre used to be extremely envious of Carthage's wealth and power, but now they often despised these stray dogs. Although they did not have to worry about food and clothing (Okridon, who joined Diónia, persuaded the Carthage Council to allow them to take away part of their property out of guilt), their lives were relatively depressed, especially Hanno. He, who used to have hundreds of followers, could not bear such loneliness and passed away after a few years.

However, since Diónia declared war on Persia, the higher-ups of Tyre began to pay attention to Tepanrako and the others. Not only did they often ask them about the situation of Diónia, but they also elected Tepanrako and a few others as councilors to discuss how to deal with the attack of the Dionysian Army.

The reason why Tepanrako was sent as an envoy was also because he was familiar with the people of Diónia, so it was easier for him to be accepted by the people of Diónia.

The purpose of Tepanrako's visit was to represent Tyre to surrender to Diónia.

Regarding this good news, the Devers did not seem happy. Instead, he was a little cautious. In his memory, when Alexander led his army to Tyre, the people of Tyre also took the initiative to surrender. However, when Alexander proposed to go to the Mercian Temple in Tyre to worship Hercules, Tyre immediately expressed their refusal. It turned out that they had only chosen to feign surrender in the face of military pressure. They wanted to wait for the final battle between Alexander's army and the army of Persia before making the final decision.

Therefore, the Devers made the same request. Tepanrako said that he could not make a decision and needed to ask for the opinion of the Tyre Council before replying.

After he left by ship, the Devers immediately reminded the generals to prepare for battle and not be fooled by the surrender of the people of Tyre.

Unexpectedly, in the afternoon, Tepanrako once again came to the camp of Diónia and sincerely expressed to the Devers that the Tyre Council was ready to welcome the visit of the King of Devers at any time.

The Devers did not refuse. The next day, they led a group of elite soldiers to the island, and the people of Tyre welcomed them respectfully.

In the Holy Kingdom of Diónia, Hercules was one of the most popular gods. Therefore, the Devers solemnly worshipped his statue here. Throughout the worship process, the people of Tyre were always obedient, which made the Devers believe in their sincerity.

Based on the situation they observed in the city of Tyre, the Devers analyzed the reason why the people of Tyre made a choice that was completely opposite to the history of his previous life.

It was because in the history of his previous life, although Alexander won many battles on land, his navy was very weak. At one point, he even disbanded his already weak fleet, causing the Persia fleet to harass the rear of his conquest many times, causing him a lot of trouble. Alexander could only take over the Mediterranean Sea by capturing the towns belonging to the Persia along the coast one by one. This was the only way. Because of this, the people of Tyre bullied him because he did not have a navy, making it difficult to capture their cities in the middle of the sea. Therefore, they dared to pretend to surrender to buy time. In fact, because of the lack of a navy, Alexander did encounter great difficulties when he attacked Tyre. Even after the surrender of Cyprus provided him with a fleet, it took him more than seven long months to capture Tyre, which was time-consuming and laborious.

However, the Holy Kingdom of Diónia was different. It had a strong navy, and it defeated the Persia fleet twice in Samos and Cyprus. Not only did it establish an absolute advantage in the sea, but it also completely controlled the eastern sea. Not long ago, the army that landed on Cyprus had conquered the entire island. The first and second fleets had been stationed in the military port of Cyprus, which was very close to Tyre. They could blockade and attack Tyre at any time, which posed a great threat to the city of Tyre.

In addition, although the Macedonian army in his previous life was very strong, it only had 40,000 to 50,000 people. Compared with the army of Persia, there was a huge gap. Therefore, the people of Tyre were not confident that Macedonia could eventually defeat Persia.