"I'm sorry! Your terms are too poor, we cannot accept them! Our army has decided to withdraw immediately and give this area to Agamemnon!"

Suddenly, Xia Zhe spoke in a deep voice.

After saying this, he waved his hand and signaled Lillian to see the guest off.

One hundred thousand gold coins?

Are you sending away beggars?

Last time I ran off to Tinos, I managed to get back nearly 500 million gold coins. With this little money, you can only fool the Cretans who have never seen money!

The greatest sincerity that a wandering army like Ptolemy could muster was really shabby in Xia Zhe's eyes!

And, most importantly, after Xia Zhe came to his senses, he realized that something was really wrong.

The agreement signed with Leonidas was probably just a delaying tactic by Leonidas.

Although for a moment, Xia Zhe really couldn't understand why Leonidas, who had a strong army at that time, would resort to a delaying tactic.

Wouldn’t it be better to just defeat Athens?

But the fact is, Sparta and Achaea have no intention of making peace at all!

Therefore, it was a coincidence that they led their army here when they received the news that I would go south to the continent of Crete!

They came here just for me!

It’s not a good place to stay for long!

Using the excuse that the conditions offered by the Egyptians are too bad, we should quickly take everyone along! This is the most urgent matter!

When they heard the king flatly reject the Egyptian envoy's conditions, not only were the Egyptian envoys stunned, but even Antigonus and Minos were confused.

Our army has been preparing for so long, are we really going to give up and retreat to the east?

Originally, I thought there was no chance of winning, so if the king proposed to withdraw his troops, it would not be unacceptable.

But now the situation has really developed as Wang predicted. The enemy army is really in civil strife, and the chances of winning this battle are quite good.

Why not accept the Egyptians' conditions and deal a heavy blow to Agamemnon's army?

The king knew it clearly in his heart, but he said this.

What other ingenious plans does he have that we haven't figured out yet?

"This? My king Ptolemy is sincere in joining forces, so he didn't send a single soldier. Agamemnon's army should be less than a day's journey from here. Your Majesty can send someone to find out and see if there are only one million people coming! See if no one from my Egyptian army participated in the Eastern Expedition!" The messenger hurriedly explained.

Ptolemy had played all the cards he had offered him. The Egyptian envoy now felt very passive.

I thought that with such good conditions, King Stoby would definitely be very interested and agree immediately.

However, unexpectedly, King Stoby refused to accept it at all.

That’s a big problem!

Once Agamemnon's army obtains the richest central part of Crete, its strength will surely increase exponentially in time!

There is no wall in the world that is completely airtight.

Agamemnon would soon notice the Egyptian army's ambiguous attitude.

By then, if Agamemnon turned back and attacked, the Egyptian army would probably be wiped out!

Disobeying the king's orders is secondary.

If I let the Egyptian soldiers who had finally escaped die in a foreign land and not have a good end, I would really blame myself for the rest of my life!

No, I must try harder and convince King Stoby.

"If Your Majesty has any additional requests, please feel free to ask! As long as my Egyptian army can do it, I will immediately consult my king Ptolemy and give you a satisfactory answer!"

Thinking of this, the messenger hesitated for a moment and spoke again.

He actually has no cards left to play. But in this situation, everything is very delicate.

The envoy felt that if King Stobius raised the stakes, Egypt could do so. It wasn't impossible to persuade Ptolemy to accept the terms.

If we wait until the Cretan militia army really goes east, it will be too late.

It turns out the conditions can still be negotiated!

After hearing the words of the Egyptian envoy, Antigonus and Minos seemed to understand something.

Yes, the Egyptians don’t know what we are going to do!

We agreed to the Egyptians' conditions as soon as they put them forward. How easy is that to deal with them?

It is right to strive for more benefits.

However, these Egyptians were just losers who wandered here and did not have much money to gain.

For a moment, Antigonus and Minos didn't know what kind of additional request to make.

"I think the Egyptians are actually not sincere at all! It's better for our army to retreat! Think about it, the Egyptians want us to try to consume Agamemnon's 100,000 troops, but doesn't Agamemnon still have 900,000 troops? Are the Egyptians so confident that they can annihilate these enemy troops? The logic doesn't make sense!" Xia Zhe said.

These words startled Antigonus and Minos, who fell into deep thought. Meanwhile, the Egyptian envoy began to groan inwardly.

In fact, when he left Keldonia, Ptolemy did not specify such details. He just asked the envoy to try to persuade the Cretan militia to fight Agamemnon's army.

As for the outcome and how many of Agamemnon's men would be consumed, Ptolemy had no idea how many remaining troops King Stobi could muster, so how could he predict it in advance?

The envoy estimated the best outcome after looking at the number of Cretan militiamen, saying that Agamemnon would lose 100,000 men, plus their arrows.

Don’t underestimate the Cretan militia army, which has more than three million people.

But in the eyes of the envoy, if they could defeat elites of the level of the Spartan heavy infantry, 100,000 was already the maximum.

However, this statement did lead to a strange logical problem, and King Stoby immediately caught hold of it.

The Egyptian envoy couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat on his forehead, and was speechless for a moment.

Seeing that the envoy had been rendered speechless by his words, Xia Zhe quickly stood up and wanted to see him off, and then formally ordered the entire army to retreat.

But before he could finish his words, Antigonus excitedly interrupted him.

"It's actually very easy to judge whether you Egyptians are sincere or not! Since neither you nor I are sure of defeating Agamemnon's army, let's join forces! Our army can launch a frontal attack, but you must also launch a surprise attack from behind at the right time. Attacking from both front and back is the real way to win. What do you think?" Antigonus said.

Having just been reminded by the king, Antigonus also realized that there were indeed hidden dangers in this battle.

Even if they could really stop Agamemnon's army, they would be unable to launch a counterattack.

With time, they can recover.

If the Egyptians were truly sincere and took the opportunity to launch an offensive from the rear, a true war of annihilation would have been possible.

This was the first time in many days that Antigonus saw a definite glimmer of victory.

He couldn't suppress his excitement at all and immediately revealed his tactical ideas.

However, as soon as he finished speaking, Antigonus began to regret it.

There was no doubt that the wise and intelligent king had already thought of all these things he had thought of. That was why he kept squeezing the Egyptian envoys and forcing them to increase their bargaining chips.

Since the king has never made it clear, he must have his reasons for not making it clear.

Why are you trying to show off?

He said it all at once!