283, Yalun League

Solomon saluted at the entrance of the post road, watching Aesop's carriage leave. He did not recognize the cloaked driver Amon, nor did he know that he was the only god he believed in. In fact, when Solomon saw Amon, he felt that this man was very familiar, but he didn't even think about it, because Amon came out of Yunmeng Temple and had just offered sacrifices to the swamp goddess with a group of chariot drivers.

...

The caravan passing through the black fire swamp has had a particularly good luck these two days. The weather is neither cold nor hot, and it always makes people feel very comfortable. Even the mud pools in the swamp no longer emit a scent of corruption. The beasts that occasionally appear in the jungle are now gone, and the annoying mosquitoes have disappeared without a trace.

Two days later, Amon drove out of the Black Fire Swamp and came to the place where he captured King Lucill alive. This is the other end of the post road, and now it has developed into a large town. There is a newly built temple of the Great Temple of Light, which is worshipped by the Potz people and another temple of the goddess of swamps.

After the fall of Enrier, the temples of Enrier in various parts of Hati were still there. When Hati was annexed by Pots, Cyrus and later Darius did not force the locals to demolish the temple of Enrier. However, the officials of various provinces built the Temple of Holy Fire of the Great Light, and the official target of the sacrifice became the God of Great Light Mazda.

As time goes by, Enriel is gradually forgotten, and the Kingdom of Hati is gone. A new generation under the rule of several new provinces divided into Pots has grown up, and the temples of Enriel everywhere have gradually become abandoned. Since the temple of Enriel has lost its official status, some people quietly demolished the stones and took them back to repair their houses and courtyard walls.

Today, the original Hathi and Assyria are still well preserved. There are not many temples of Enriel that are often sacrificed to Enriel. There are three main types of people who sacrifice to Enriel. One is the old people who have been devoutly believing in Enriel since childhood, and the other is the young people who inherited this belief due to family and other reasons. As for the third type of people, they actually do not believe in Enriel and Anuna's gods at all, but only express nostalgic thoughts or some wishes in this way.

On the contrary, the two temples of the swamp goddess Yunmeng are still in a constant stream of sacrificers, and she has become the legendary local god.

Amon drove the car without walking in the northwest of the Yuanhati territory, but drove all the way south to the beach. On the left was endless yellow sand and on the right was gradually lush grassland. This was the battlefield where he led the An-La Legion to fight against the Nannar Legion of Hati. Now the golden swords and iron horses are silent, and the yellow sand on the grassland is still the same.

Amon and Medanzo do not need rest, but Aesop is just a mortal and is very old. They need to pay attention to food, clothing, daily life and life. Although Aesop claims to be strong and does not need the special care of the gods, Aesop is like a servant of the mortal world, making everything well on the road, so that Aesop does not feel the fatigue of the journey.

Aesop left his mansion and his fields to his friends, but he did not return home empty-handed and took him a savings. This was a huge sum of money. His decades of career have also made Aesop very rich. As for the drinking water and food he needed on the road, Amen brought them in a space magic weapon, and no other supplies were needed along the way.

When this seemingly ordinary carriage came to the blue sea, it finally revealed its extraordinaryness. The two horses pulling the carriage subconsciously wanted to stop before the swell of the coast, but the driver whipped a whip, and the horse seemed to be driven by some force, and then raised its hooves and ran forward.

Aesop picked up the curtain and looked out. The person who drove the car was Amon. He was mentally prepared no matter what kind of miracles he showed, but he was still deeply shocked at this moment. The carriage was running on the turbulent waves, and the fresh sea breeze blew, with a slight salty and fishy smell, giving people a very comfortable feeling.

How many mortals in the world have ever had such enjoyment in their lives? Aesop looked at the sea for a long time, then looked back at Amon's back, his eyes full of indescribable gratitude. There are more magical experiences behind him. After the carriage was swept across the sea, the speed was more than ten times faster than on land, just like flying in a wave of invisible wind.

After a while, a few small dots appeared on the distant sea level, followed by another, which were the warships lined up. Medanzo had already vaguely heard the sound of killing. So many ships gathered together, and an unprecedented sea battle was breaking out ahead. Before the warships could notice that there were carriages running on the sea surface, Amon shook the reins, and the carriages had already risen into the air and rushed into the sky. The horse pulling the carriage galloped, and clouds were growing under the hooves.

Aesop's carriage passed over the battlefield, and a sea battle broke out on the sea. Looking down from the clouds, the number of Pots warships significantly exceeded that of the Heaton coalition's warships, but the Pots Navy came from various provinces of the Great Empire. The soldiers were mixed with language and had too many ships to command. The soldiers of the Heaton coalition mainly came from sailors who had been sailing for many years. The command and dispatch were well-organized and the formation of the Pots warships was broken.

This naval battle was called the Battle of Salami. In the end, the Heaton coalition won a great victory. The main force of the Pots Navy suffered heavy losses and was no longer able to launch an attack from the sea. Shortly after the outbreak of this naval battle, the Heaton Army, with Kibada soldiers as the main force, also fought fiercely with the Pots Army in Pradaya and also won a great victory.

The victory of these two battles marked the complete repelling of the Pots Empire's invasion, and the city-states were freed under the rule of Pots. When Aesop arrived at the city of Yarren, people were chanting here, celebrating their victory.

Aesop's carriage crossed the battlefield and landed directly outside the outskirts of Yaren. Medanzo also joked with Aesop: "You are such a lucky sign. With your arrival, the Poz army finally retreated completely."

Yaren is a beautiful city-state. The patron saint they believe in is Yarenna, the god of wisdom in the Olympus system. On a small hill next to the residential area, the beautiful Temple of Yarenna stands. This city-state also carries the remains of war. Some buildings have traces of smoke from the smoke remaining on the white marble pillars, but it is very prosperous, lively and full of vitality.

Medanzo said curiously: "I thought I would see a city-state full of broken walls and ruins, which had been ravaged by war, but I didn't expect it to be like this."

Aesop smiled and said, "I heard that the Potz army set fire to destroy Yalun City. Now I know that the rumors may not be complete. All the people in Yalun City retreated at that time. It was probably because they set fire to a group of things that they could not take away. But the losses here are not small. Didn't you see that the city walls and many buildings were newly built?"

Medanzo nodded and said, "Of course I noticed that the small Yalun City has a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources. The main city will be rebuilt like this in a short time."

Amon, who had not spoken, explained: "The profits of this war, Yalun City State were not small. It was the organizer and leader of the coalition forces. Its navy played the most important role. The nearby city-states were also dependent on it. Yalun made a large amount of war money. More city-state alliances were being discussed in the hall, and Yalun had become the leader."

When Aesop entered Yaren City for investigation, he calmly revealed his identity without hiding anything. He directly introduced that he was born in the Miduli City State of Heaton. His father was a businessman. When he was very young, he met pirates and was kidnapped and sold to slaves by pirates. He went to many places in the Tianshu continent. Later, he gained freedom and became the lord of Salem City in the Duke Plain. Now this year, he finally returned to his roots and took out documents that could prove his identity.

The listeners were surprised. Someone had vaguely heard the legend of Salem City and the name of Aesop. It was the news brought back by the sages traveling faraway continent. Unexpectedly, they saw the legendary real person today. Aesop's arrival even caused a small stir. The sergeant guarding the city carefully checked his identity documents and his items with him, and found no problems.

When Aesop's carriage entered the city, the people around him were surprised, envious, suspicious, and suspicious. They talked about it privately, and they all said everything. With Aesop's age and experience, they no longer cared about these comments. They faced various eyes calmly and talked with Medanzo all the way to the past and present of this Yarren City.

Why did Medanzo say that this is the "little Yaren City"? This city-state is not small in the United Kingdom of Heaton, but compared with the famous city-state of Tianshu Continent he had seen, it is indeed not magnificent or prosperous enough. Medanzo grew up in Barron City, and later went to Mengfeisi. According to the size of the city-state, Yaren City is less than one-tenth of Barron City, which is far less than as majestic and grand as Mengfeisi.

The history of the nations of the Tianshu continent has been more than a thousand years, and civilization has a long history. The United Kingdom of Heaton is just a rising star on the edge of the continent, just like the Olympus god system. But this city-state is full of vitality and vitality. It absorbs the seeds and nutrition of the civilizations of the Tianshu continent and develops very quickly.

Here people have more free thoughts, showing a magnificent flower competing for beauty, and many great scholars and sages were born, and Aristotle, whom Amon had seen, was one of them.

However, many ordinary people in this city-state have complex mentality towards the countries of Shitianshu continent. They were once weak and learners. When facing the powerful and rich countries such as Aiju, Barron, and Hati, they had a subconscious worship and even inferiority complex. When they gradually became strong and rich, they gradually became arrogant and conceited, the subconscious historical inferiority complex turned into an inexplicable sense of superiority and hostility towards different civilizations.

This complex gradually began to appear after the Heatons defeated the Potz army, so when people saw Aesop's return, there would be various discussions with complex emotions that were difficult to describe. This is also the source of civilization. The precipitated bone marrow may subtly influence many people over the long period of thousands of years. Amon arrived precisely when the Yaren City-state civilization had just emerged.

What Amon arrived was the United Kingdom of Heaton, which had just repelled the powerful Pots Empire. It was an era when various thoughts were flooded and various thoughts collided with dazzling sparks from time to time. This was also a new country different from the countries of the Tianshu continent. As soon as Amon entered Yalun City, he narrowed his eyes and listened to the various voices in the city-state. Not only were the people around him pointing fingers at Aesop, but also the important matters being discussed in the city-state conference hall-

During the Hippo War, the nearby city-states depended on Yalun and established the Yalun Alliance. This alliance had thirty-five city-states at the earliest. According to the agreement, everyone organized Heaton's joint navy to pay the alliance to build warships from Yalun City-state. However, after the victory of the war, more than 200 new city-states of all sizes that joined the alliance, the allied funds paid became a political tribute, with the nature of alliance taxes, or more directly, protection fees.

The allies paid by the various cities and states, which were of unprecedented huge sums for Yalun City, were originally a military expenditure for fighting the Potz Empire. When the war ended, the allies paid by the various cities and states increased instead of reducing, and were dominated by Yalun City and states, used to strengthen their own political and military power, and built the more magnificent Yalun City.

Yalun City is not a kingdom, but a city-state republic. Adult men with citizenship in the city-state established a citizen assembly, which is a consultative body that discusses various affairs, quarrels, chats about idleness, nonsense, and spreads all kinds of rumors. In addition to the citizen meeting, there is also a noble meeting, where only nobles with honorable status are qualified to participate, and it is an important political participation institution. On the basis of the citizen meeting, Yalun City-state organized a meeting of 500 people, which is a daily political discussion institution.

This was the first time Amon came to such a city-state republic. When he entered the city, it was the day when the 500-person meeting of Yalun City was held. The main integration discussed in the city-state meeting was the matter of the new membership of the nearby city-states.

The 500-person meeting passed a resolution with an absolute majority, deciding to increase the alliance funds of the affiliated city-states, open up trade and trade between the city-states, form the Yalun people to command the alliance army uniformly, punish and suppress those city-states that have joined the alliance and have regretted not paying the alliance funds or want to withdraw from the alliance.

The more Amon listened, the more interesting he felt. The system implemented by the Yalun people should be more popular and popular than the monarchy of the mainland countries, but the mentality of the people here is very interesting. At this moment, he also heard the conversation between Medanzo and Aesop, and then explained the recent great war and wealth in the Yalun city-state.

The discussion in the city-state meeting hall is still continuing. The previous topic is about income and the second topic is about debt.

During the Hippopotamian War, Yalun spent a lot of money to build a navy, and the recent rebuilding of the city-state was also a huge expenditure, so it was necessary to increase the accession funds of the city-states. Now there will be a huge income. It is said that the debt owed by Yalun City should be repaid first. This debt was mainly borrowed from the states outside the Yalun League during the war.

But the Yalun City State did not want to pay it back because the newly received alliance funds would build a stronger army, build more merchant ships, build stronger city defense fortifications and a magnificent temple. So they thought of a way, that is, the Citizens' Congress will vote to repay the debt? If the Citizens' Congress decides not to repay, the Yalun City State will not pay it back. In layman's terms, it means voting and surplusing.

The reason why Yalun City-state did not want to repay its debts is also clear. They borrowed this money for war, and now they need more funds to enrich their strength. The Yalun people's philosophy and behavior are a kind of protection and care for the surrounding states. This proposal was passed at the meeting of 500 people, waiting to be submitted to the Citizens' Congress for voting.

The third issue of this meeting is still related to finance. Some people believe that many wealthy businessmen in Yalun City-State who engage in navigation trade use various means to evade taxes in various city-State, and need to be strictly investigated and compensated. However, this proposal has been rejected by the nobles' meeting, and this time it was rejected at the 500-person meeting and will not be submitted to the Citizens' Congress for discussion and voting.

The last topic of this meeting was about military arrangements. The Hippolar War was clearly over. Why did the Yaren city-state increase such a huge expenditure? In addition to building merchant ships and temples, the rest of the main expenses are for military purposes, because there is a good excuse at present, that is, the battle between Yaren and Kibada.

The Yalun City-state established the Yalun Alliance, and the Kibada, which had a very powerful military force, also took the opportunity to conquer many small states around and established the Kibada Alliance, which was in conflict with the Yalun Alliance in all aspects. The Yalun City hoped that the city-states to which the Kibada Alliance belonged were dependent on it, thus forming a more powerful Yalun Alliance.

Amon kept listening to the discussion in the city-state council hall, while passing on these issues and the results of the discussion to Aesop, and finally said: "These people are really complicated. They voted and negotiated within the city-state. Although the decisions made in this way are inefficient, they are easier to support than the emperor's orders. But they are discussing how to blackmail other city-states so that the Yalun people can get more wealth, and at the same time, they decide not to pay off their debts in this form. But they refuse to order strict investigations on the wealthy Yalun businessmen evading taxes in various city-states. You are from Heaton Kingdom, what do you think about this?"

Aesop smiled bitterly: "When I was a young man, Yalun was a city-state republic like this today. If it was military, it could not compare to Kibada, and if it was wealth, it seemed to be inferior to my hometown Midulli, but it became powerful in this war and became the leader of the Yalun League. I wonder if you heard it, the passerby who had just walked by said inadvertently - 'Yalun was the republic of the Yalun people, the empire of the Hetons.'"

Amon just smiled, without saying anything more, and asked Iso again, "You are the guide, where should I drive this car?"

Aesop replied, "Let's go forward, I'll give you a guide, let's find an inn to stay for a while."

Medanzo asked with some wonder: "Isn't your hometown in Midulli? I'm just passing by Yaren City, why should I stay here and not rush back?"
Chapter completed!