Chapter 8, Section 10: Meeting with Queen Xerxes
This is victory!
This is triumph!
Hilde's heart was filled with excitement, and he was thinking about building a triumphal arch here.
At this time, Sitalses limped to Hilde with the help of other soldiers. Seeing Sitalses' wounded appearance, Hilde immediately jumped off her horse and walked to Sitalses in two steps. She carefully checked Sitalses' injuries and asked with concern: "Sitalses, how are you injured? Is it serious?"
"His Majesty……"
Sitalces smiled.
But then, his tears couldn't stop flowing.
“Hold on…”
"Yeah, I know, you're great."
Hilde looked at Sitalses crying bitterly, she smiled slightly, reached out her hand to rub his hair, and then said gently: "You and your soldiers are warriors that I am proud of. You are able to defend the city of Byzantium under such circumstances, which is really great. As expected, when I left here, I handed over the defense of this city to you, which was a very correct choice. Your existence made me realize that what I did was not a wrong choice."
"His Majesty!"
Sitalces raised his head.
He is very excited now.
"The King of Thracian... He is dead, dead!"
"Yes, he is dead!"
"He is finally dead! The Thracians can finally live a good life!"
"Citharces, don't worry. I promise to let the Thracians live a good life." Hilde held Citalces's rough hands tightly. "The days of suffering are over. Your family and friends will no longer live under oppression. From today on, your tribe will enter a free life."
"Yes! Your Majesty!"
Sitalces burst into tears.
It can be seen that he has been waiting for this day for a long time.
"Okay, go and have a rest."
"Yes, I, I'll go right away..."
The soldiers hurriedly supported Sitalces and went to find a doctor.
Hilde heaved a sigh of relief when she saw that Byzantium had not suffered any damage. Now, she knew the general situation, but there was still one thing that had not been resolved, that was the Persian Emperor Xerxes. This time, the Thracian King was resolved largely with the support of Xerxes. As the emperor of the Persian Empire, she came all the way here to help you deal with the Thracian King. For Hilde, she already owed you a great favor.
Favors must be repaid.
Hilde didn't know how to pay it back.
Completely become part of the Persian Empire?
Although they did stop the King of Thracian, the country was still destroyed in the end?
Hilde had thought about this before, but after careful consideration, the possibility of it actually happening was almost zero. Xerxes was not stupid either. If he wanted the Byzantine Kingdom, he could have asked for it when Hilde arrived in Ankara, instead of waiting until now. Therefore, Hilde was not sure what she should do when facing Xerxes later.
After she handed over the settlement of the troops to Amyntas, she quickly returned to her residence. When they arrived here, the guards at the door saw Hilde coming back and hurriedly said to her, "Your Majesty, just now, a strange woman came and insisted that she was the princess. We wanted to stop her, but she beat us away. Your Majesty, we..."
"Okay, I see."
Hilde sighed helplessly.
"She is indeed a princess."
"what?"
"Don't be surprised, just treat it as such. Okay, you guys keep watch at the door, I'll go in first."
Hilde sighed and walked in quickly.
After arriving at her room, Hilde stood at the door and hesitated for a while. But at this time, Xerxes' charming voice suddenly came from the room: "Sissi, why are you standing at the door? Come in quickly."
"……OK."
Hilde sighed.
Then he opened the door and walked in.
At this time, Xerxes was lying on Hilde's bed. She had taken off half of her robe, revealing her plump body and graceful curves. At the same time, incense was lit in the room, and a faint fragrance was exuding from the room. A careful smell would reveal that this incense was definitely not the one Hilde usually used, but a very elegant oriental fragrance. This made Hilde a little puzzled. Did Xerxes come here and bring incense himself?
"Sissi."
"I'm here."
Hilde showed her submission.
"Come here quickly."
"I... I just had a fight and I'm covered in dirt. Can I..."
"But I came all the way here. Helping you deal with the King of Thrace is not my purpose." At this time, Xerxes slowly got up from the bed and walked towards Hilde. As Xerxes walked, her gorgeous robe slowly slid down from her body and finally fell to the ground. "You know, I have been patient for a long time, Sissi, do you want to take a bath? So next, let's do it together. I will wash you very clean."
"His Majesty……"
Hilde suddenly felt a little scared.
Xerxes stuck out his tongue.
"With my tongue."
"…Your Majesty, this joke is not funny."
"Why are you still so shy? You've done it so many times before." Xerxes reached out and gently held Hilde's hand, then put his mouth close to Hilde's ear, "Anyway, the war is over for now, and now we can relax and have a good rest, right?"
"But the war has just ended, and there are more things I need to deal with... and, in fact, the war is not over." Hilde sighed helplessly, "The war is still going on, and we have a new enemy. The Kingdom of Scythia that betrayed us must pay the price for their stupidity."
"Oh, you have such a strong desire for revenge."
Xerxes looked at Hilde curiously.
“That’s great, I like it.”
"Then Your Majesty..."
"Go take a shower quickly, I'm not a patient person."
tsk...
Hilde couldn't help smacking her lips.
This guy……
Hilde also grabbed Xerxes' hand and locked the door behind her. She smiled slightly evilly, approached Xerxes and said, "Since Your Majesty does not dislike me, then, I will do as you wish."
"Sissi..."
"But I'm in a bad mood right now, Your Majesty, please don't blame me for being too rude."
Just like that, in Hilde's room.
Soon, Xerxes' voice, both joyful and painful, was heard.
Chapter 1: The Rapidly Expanding Kingdom
For the Byzantine Empire.
The stone that had been hanging over the head of the Byzantine Empire finally disappeared.
After the death of the Thracian king, the Thracian Kingdom collapsed. This loose kingdom, which was originally composed of many different tribes, no longer posed a threat to the Byzantine Empire. Of course, after defeating the Thracian king, it meant that Hilde could now include the entire territory of the Thracian Kingdom. That included a large forest area, the fertile land of the Thracian Basin and the river valley area, and more than 300,000 Thracians living on this land.
The population of the Byzantine Kingdom itself was about 370,000. With the addition of these Thracians, the population of the Byzantine Kingdom quickly soared to 700,000. In terms of population, it was even faintly overwhelming the Macedonian Kingdom to the west. Of course, Hilde did not expand because of this. After all, most of the citizens of the Macedonian Kingdom were well-trained citizens, while Hilde was plagued by famine, disease and other problems that plagued the more than 300,000 Thracians.
Hield has a lot to do.
The first thing she did was to adjust the administrative divisions.
Thrace was so big that Hilde didn't even know how to divide it.
It can be said that the territory of the Thracian Kingdom now far exceeds the current territory of the Byzantine Kingdom. If all of it is controlled, the territory of the Byzantine Kingdom will rapidly expand from its current state to twenty times the original size. Although most of the area is a forest with few people, it is still a very scary scale. If you have such a territory, plus a population of more than 700,000, it will really be a challenge for Hilde.
So, during these few days in Byzantium.
Hilde and other officials of the kingdom have been meeting to discuss the matter.
Finally, we came up with a fairly acceptable solution.
First, the provinces were redivided. The Great Byzantine Province, where the city of Byzantium was located, annexed the northern province of Apollonia and the eastern province of Samothrace. At the same time, the southeastern part of Thrace was incorporated into it. Finally, Samos Island and Chalcedon in Asia Minor were also incorporated into the Great Byzantine Province. In this way, the Great Byzantine Province had about one-fifth of the territory of the entire Byzantine Kingdom.
Because the Thracians were a people that was almost barbaric.
The most important thing for them to become part of the Byzantine Empire is assimilation.
And the best way to assimilate is to bring civilization into their land.
Therefore, without cities, the Thracians could not develop a high-level civilization. Hildes had to build cities in Thrace to make trade in these areas of Thrace flourish. So Hildes took Odysseus, a Thracian gathering place on the coast, which was also a well-known place for the Greeks, and established the Black Sea Province with it as the center.
The province of Upper Thrace was established in the Adlicia tribe, the capital of the Thracian Kingdom.
To the west, along the Hebros River, was the abandoned Greek colonial city of Philippolis, which was also revived as part of the Hebros province.
There was no city in the Danube-Vistria River basin in the central region, so Hilde decided to build a new city here.
Hildene had not thought of a name at first, but who would have thought that the Thracian officials all suggested calling the city Hildenenia to commemorate the city that liberated the Thracians.
The Thracians could not refuse the hospitality.
Of course I can't refuse.
In this way, the land of the Thracian Kingdom was planned by Hilde.
At this point, Hilde's Byzantine Kingdom was suddenly divided into several parts.
The Great Byzantine Province, the Black Sea Province, the Danube Province, the Hebro Province, and the Upper Thrace Province.
There are five provinces in total, and they have basically taken shape.
After the administrative unit planning is completed.
What awaits Hilde and his team next is how to make good use of these administrative units.
First we have to send out the troops.
Hilde ordered the Second Legion to march into the new territory to prevent the Scythians from moving south. At the same time, she immediately began to train the surrendered Thracians to establish the Fourth Legion, named "Adlicia." But then, Hilde would definitely maintain at least three legions in the Thracian region. The Fifth and Sixth Legions would not be established until things were almost done. She could only take things step by step.
After finishing all this, Hilde was almost exhausted.
"Ah... I can finally take a break."
"You can't rest yet."
Hilde, who had just laid down on the bed, felt a pair of hands reaching into her robe.
"Your Majesty, can you let me take a break?"
"That won't work."
Xerxes turned around and pressed on Hilde.
"I came all the way here to find you, and you're still so cold to me."
"I don't want to either... There are too many things going on right now, but fortunately, the biggest problem has been solved. Let my men handle the rest." At this time, Hilde reached out and tightly grasped Xerxes' wrist, then turned over and pressed Xerxes under her. With a faint smirk on her face, Hilde asked, "Tell me, do you always make such loud noises on purpose when Sophia can hear you?"
"I don't have any."
Xerxes smiled slightly and rolled his eyes.
"Besides, are you afraid of being heard?"
"not afraid."
How could Hilde not know what Xerxes was thinking?
However, it was not good to do this day after day, especially since Xerxes was the Persian emperor. He didn't care about the state's affairs and came to spend several days with her. Although Hilde invited her out, it was still not good.
It seemed that he sensed Hilde's thoughts.
Xerxes first stretched out his knee and gently pressed it against Hilde's breast.
Then he said softly:
"I have already dealt with the Persian issue."
