Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 1299: Conquering Canaan and Tyre

Before the Daionian Army could fully encircle Jerusalem, the Jewish high priest took the initiative to visit the Davos Camp, humbly expressing to King Davos that the Jews were willing to submit to the Kingdom of Daunia.

Davos was quite cautious regarding this unique race in the Mediterranean Sea world that worshipped a single god. He quickly accepted the Jews' surrender, issuing both a promise and a warning: "As long as the Jews remain loyal to the Sacred Kingdom of Daunia, you will have the right to live according to your own laws and religion. At the same time, however, your customs must not infringe upon the rights of other races living under the rule of the Sacred Kingdom of Daunia. Otherwise, Daionia will inevitably intervene!"

The next day, at the gates of Jerusalem, King Davos was respectfully welcomed by the high priest in a purplish-red robe, along with the tens of thousands of Jerusalem residents he led. Emulating Cyrus from years past, Davos publicly read out his promises and warnings once more.

The people cheered. At the same time, the Jewish priests bound Nehemiah—the governor of Canaan appointed by Artaxerxes, who had poured his heart into the reconstruction of the Canaan Region—along with his subordinates. They pushed them before Davos, leaving them at his disposal.

Davos did not publicly punish this Persian governor, who was also a Jew. Instead, after bringing him back to the camp, he amiably asked Nehemiah if he was willing to serve the Kingdom of Daunia. If so, he would be dispatched to govern the Canaan Region once more after familiarizing himself with Daionia's political system and laws.

The Jews were flexible in character rather than stubbornly conservative, and Nehemiah had clearly inherited this trait. Surrendering to Daionia would not only save his life but also potentially allow him to fulfill his long-cherished wish of rebuilding Jerusalem and taking revenge on the Jewish priests who had betrayed him. Thus, he gladly fell to his knees before Davos.

With Nehemiah as a guide, the Daionian Army rapidly conquered the entire Canaan Region. Then, under his lead, they smoothly invaded the Samaria region east of Jerusalem, quickly capturing numerous towns and even apprehending the region's governor, Sanballat. This allowed Nehemiah to thoroughly vent his frustrations.

With Canaan and Samaria successively conquered by Daionia, Gaza suddenly became an isolated Persian enclave.

The Persian garrison panicked. They desperately wanted to leave this dangerous place and return to their homeland.

Little did they know, the Daionian Army had been closely monitoring the movements of the City of Gaza and quickly discovered the Persian garrison's intentions.

On the second day, Daionia's four cavalry legions and the Numidian Light Cavalry Legion caught up to the marching Persian garrison. The light cavalry legion harassed them with Bows and Arrows and javelins, while the standard cavalry legions launched a direct charge. They quickly routed the Gaza garrison, and the City of Gaza smoothly fell into the control of the Daionian Army.

Having thoroughly stabilized the rear, Davos led the army further north, soon entering the Phoenician Region.

It could be said that among these Persian vassal territories, the Phoenicians were the earliest to become enemies with Daionia. Years ago, when the Phoenicians decided to dispatch their fleets and travel thousands of miles to support Carthage, they likely never imagined that one day Daionia's massive army would arrive at their gates. Furthermore, the first city the Daionian Army intended to attack was the very instigator of that past event—Tyre.

Years ago, after Phoenicia submitted to Persia, successive Kings of Persia promised that as long as Phoenicia paid a certain quota of gold and silver annually and kept their fleets ready for deployment at any time, the Phoenicians would be allowed to live according to their traditional ways.

For the past century, the King of Persia had indeed rarely interfered in the administrative affairs of the Phoenicians. An important reason for this was that the high mountains of Lebanon separated Phoenicia from inland Persia, making land transportation highly inconvenient. This terrain also greatly affected Phoenicia; lacking vast and fertile arable land, they could not support a larger population. They could only dedicate all their efforts toward maritime expansion, thereby becoming wealthy and prosperous through sea trade. However, because the commercial interests of the various Phoenician City-States conflicted to some extent, even though they had established a Phoenician City-States Alliance early on, they could never form a unified nation.

Thus, the King of Persia was quite satisfied with this fragmented state of the Phoenician City-States. In turn, the various Phoenician City-States took advantage of Persia's continued leniency toward them to earn massive profits from inland trade, keeping them relatively loyal to Persia.

Tyre was the strongest among the Phoenician City-States, and its city was built on a small island about eight li from the coast, making it easy to defend and hard to attack. In the history of his previous life, Alexander, the king of Macedonia, who had been marching smoothly against Persia, suffered a setback here, spending a full half-year on it. Exactly because of this memory, Davos was extremely cautious when leading his army near Tyre. He prepared to lead his generals aboard a Warship to carefully survey Tyre's defensive situation before considering whether to assault the city directly or force its surrender through a prolonged siege.

But before he could even set out, Tyre's envoy arrived.

Tyre's envoy was actually an acquaintance—the former Carthaginian Suffet, Tepanco.

Upon seeing Davos, not only did he fail to show his former arrogance and hostility toward Daionia, but he even appeared somewhat sycophantic. Thus, the atmosphere of the entire meeting was relatively relaxed.

When Davos casually asked about the current situation of Hanno and the others, Tepanco's expression grew somewhat heavy.

It turned out that after Daionia forced Carthage to expel the Hanno faction, most of them chose to settle down in their former mother city of Tyre, and Tyre accepted them. However, not only could the absolute power Hanno and his peers once wielded in Carthage never be replicated, but Tyre's higher-ups also intentionally suppressed them, making it difficult for them to acquire any authority. The people of Tyre had once immensely envied Carthage's wealth and prestige, but now they frequently despised these stray dogs. Although they had no worries regarding food and clothing (Okriton, who had defected to Daionia, felt guilty and convinced the Carthaginian Senate to allow them to take away a portion of their wealth), they lived rather stifling lives. Hanno, in particular, who had once been able to command thousands with a single word, was completely unable to endure such desolation and died of depression a few years later.

However, ever since Daionia declared war on Persia, the higher-ups in Tyre began to attach importance to Tepanco and his associates. Not only did they frequently ask them about Daionia's situation, but they also elected Tepanco and a few others as senators to discuss how to handle the Daionian Army's attack together in the senate.

The reason Tepanco was sent as an envoy was also because he was an acquaintance of the Theonians and would be more easily accepted by them.

And the purpose of Tepanco's diplomatic mission was to represent Tyre in surrendering to Daionia.

Davos did not appear pleased by this good news; instead, he grew somewhat cautious. In his memories, when Alexander led his army to Tyre, the people of Tyre had also actively yielded. But when Alexander proposed going to the Temple of Melqart within Tyre to sacrifice to Heracles, Tyre immediately refused. It turned out they had only chosen to feign surrender in the face of military pressure, intending to wait for the final showdown between Alexander's army and the massive Persian army before making their ultimate choice.

Therefore, Davos made the exact same request. Tepanco stated that he could not make the decision himself and needed to seek the opinion of the Tyrian senate before replying.

After he departed by ship, Davos immediately warned his generals to make preparations for battle and not to be deceived by the Tyrians' gesture of surrender.

Unexpectedly, in the afternoon, Tepanco once again arrived at the Davos Camp, sincerely expressing to Davos that the Tyrian senate had completed preparations and welcomed King Davos's visit at any time.

Davos did not decline. The next day, he led a contingent of elite soldiers onto the small island, where the Tyrians respectfully received him.

In the Sacred Kingdom of Daunia, Heracles was one of the most popular deities among the people. As such, Davos solemnly worshipped his statue here. Throughout the entire sacrificial process, the Tyrians remained very well-behaved, which finally made Davos believe in their sincerity.

Based on what he observed within the city of Tyre, Davos analyzed and deduced the reason why the Tyrians had made a choice completely opposite to the history of his previous life.

It was because, in the history of his previous life, although Alexander won victory after victory in land battles, his navy was exceedingly weak. He had even once disbanded his already feeble fleet, allowing the Persian Fleet to repeatedly harass his conquered rear and cause him considerable trouble. Alexander could only gain dominance over the Eastern Mediterranean by sequentially capturing the Persian-affiliated towns along the Mediterranean coast one by one; this was a solution born of desperation. Precisely because of this, the Tyrians took advantage of his lack of a navy, knowing it would be difficult for him to conquer their city located in the sea, and dared to delay for time through a feigned surrender. In reality, due to a lack of naval forces, Alexander indeed encountered immense difficulties when attacking Tyre. Even though the subsequent surrender of Cyprus provided him with a fleet, it still took him a long and grueling seven-plus months of time and effort to capture Tyre.

But the Sacred Kingdom of Daunia was different. It possessed a powerful navy to begin with, and had heavily defeated the Persian Fleet twice at Samos and Cyprus. Not only had it established absolute naval superiority, but it had completely taken control of the Near East Waters. Not long ago, the army that landed on Cyprus had already conquered the entire island. The 1st and 2nd Fleets had already stationed themselves in the Cyprus Military Port, which was very close to Tyre. They could blockade and attack Tyre at any moment, posing a massive threat to the city.

In addition, although the Macedonian army in his previous life had strong combat power, their numbers were only around 40,000 to 50,000. Compared to the massive Persian army, the disparity was simply too vast. Therefore, the Tyrians had lacked confidence in Macedonia's ability to ultimately defeat Persia.