"Yes, my lord!" Tissaphonis couldn't help but glance at Massabadi, thinking, No wonder this guy looks ugly, this would never end well if the Dowager Empress Palisatis knew that her beloved youngest son was beheaded and cut off!
"Tissaphernes, do you think the Greeks will surrender?"
"Great King! I'm afraid ... it's difficult with what I know of those few major Greek mercenary leaders. However, there may be a few who would be willing to obey your will, Your Majesty!" Tissaphernes said cautiously.
"It would be nice to cause them to implode!" Artaxerxes flicked his jaw with his fingers. The swift onslaught of the Greek heavy infantry yesterday still haunts him when he thinks about it, "... If they won't surrender, deport them .... Too many Persians have already died in this rebellion! Don't let these rude and barbaric Greeks continue on my land, looting our belongings! Kill our people!" Artaxerxes sighed long and hard. He was gentle by nature and did not like to argue with others, otherwise he would not have indulged little Cyrus so far and caused this great chaos. Even when Little Cyrus rose up, he hesitated and wanted to retreat eastward. If the ministers had not strongly discouraged him and fully supported him, I am afraid that yesterday's battle would not have happened.
"Great King, you love the people of the empire like your own children! I am overjoyed that the empire has a benevolent monarch like you!" Tissaphernes' words came from a sincere place. In fact, it was because of this kind of character of Artaxerxes that he had gained the support of the majority of the ministers and nobles, making it possible for the core of the empire to not experience any major upheavals despite the rebellion of Little Cyrus.
"Your Majesty, I have an idea! ... How about driving the Greeks out north ..." said Tissaphernes.
Artaxerxes mused, realizing that Tissaphernes did not want the Greeks to trample on his bailiwick, Asia Minor, again.
"To the north ..." His eyes lit up as he remembered the tribes of unwilling and unruly mountain people, such as the Duchess ...
Let these barbarians dog-eat-dog! He thought, a small smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.
"This matter is entirely in your hands! I'll wait for your good news in Persepolis!" Having said this, he could not wait to go home. Because the news came yesterday: there was another riot in the eastern part of Persepolis. He had to rush back to the capitol as soon as possible to sit in on it. Also, he was beginning to miss his queen, Statira.
............
Early in the morning, mist filled the Kunasak area, and the entire Greek barracks were quiet, with most people still asleep.
Davos stepped out of the tent and surveyed the unfamiliar place curiously.
Yes, he is no longer Davos himself; his soul comes from twenty-first century China. As a government civil servant, he had toiled for more than ten years before he was promoted to the director of the city's high-tech development zone. His friends hosted a banquet for him to celebrate, he got drunk, and when he woke up he realized that he had gone to a strange place and become a strange person.
He had dead-pinched his thighs over and over again just to prove that he was dreaming, and to this day they still hurt a little.
After a long night of acclimatization, he was no longer obsessed with why he was here. His adaptability is considered strong: when he entered the government with the first place in the city in the civil service examination, he was sent to the local remote and poor mountainous area as a village official, and stayed for several years. He not only persevered, but also won the favor of the county leaders with his excellent performance, and was recalled and entrusted with important tasks.
... It is just his parents, and his girlfriend who is about to talk about marriage ... but now he is separated by different time and space, and there is no day of reunion ... He took a long breath and tried to blow away the sadness in his heart. Blow away.
After walking slowly for a short while, his mood calmed down slightly. He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and admonished himself: since he had already arrived in a new world, let's live tenaciously here for now!
According to the remaining memories of this body, he knew that "he" was a Cesarean. Two years ago, at the age of seventeen, he and his fellow villagers went out to earn money as mercenaries. A year ago, Macedonia and Thessaly conflict, Macedonian cavalry attacked his hometown, his parents were killed, relatives were captured ... Now, he is alone. This time, he is following Menon, the mercenary leader, to help the Persian prince Cyrus Jr. in battle.
Last night the companions thought he was asleep, but in fact he had been listening to their conversation. Through the companions' conversation, he learned more. As a good young man of the twenty-first century, he was barely a cynic. When he was a village official, he spent most of his time on the internet in order to survive the long lonely nights. Flooding and venting in certain military forums had almost become his sideline. As a result, he knew quite a bit of historical and military knowledge, and knew that he was probably in this time period after the Peloponnesian War.
As for the Greek mercenaries helping the Persian prince to plot against the usurpation of the throne, what part of Western history is involved. As a non-history major, the requirements are too high, he really can not think of. Until someone said the phrase "we have tens of thousands of heavy infantry in Greece", which reminded him of his hidden memories.
It was once when someone in a forum advocated that certain books should be read in order to understand the ancient history of the West, and one of the books on the list, The Long March, aroused his curiosity: was there a long march in the ancient West? Because the author happened to be a historical figure he knew, he looked it up on the Internet and realized that it came from the famous ancient Western historical event of "the retreat of 10,000 Greeks".
As Davos vaguely remembered the incident in which the rebel prince died in the midst of the chaos because of his presumption, he blurted it out in the heat of the moment. But he didn't realize that the others, who more or less held in their hearts the wish that young Cyrus would win and everyone would get rich together, were completely unable to accept his guess.
Faced with question after question, the first-timer didn't want to fall out with his companions just yet, and perhaps held a slight illusion in his mind that maybe this wasn't that historical event. So he was silent.
As a result, everyone parted on bad terms. This night, he did not sleep well. The unfamiliar environment and the fear of the future made him toss and turn, making it difficult to sleep.
Early the next morning he stepped out of his tent, facing this strange new world for the first time, and was greeted by tent after tent, seemingly endless at a glance.
Breathing in the humid, fresh air, he gathered his courage and walked forward. Occasionally, someone would come out of his tent and greet him, and he would respond with a smile. There were even warriors who knew he was injured and asked him about his injuries with concern, while he would stop to express his gratitude and take the opportunity to chat a bit and learn something from others. Obviously it wasn't because he was some big shot that everyone treated him kindly, but rather the mercenaries under Menon's command were partly Thessalians, and quite a few of them, who had even fought side by side with him for more than two years, were familiar with each other. So as he walked, his strangeness gradually dissipated.
Not far away came the neighing of horses and sheep, drawing him forward. In Davos's memory, this large area surrounded by wooden fences and located in the center of their barracks was the supply camp of the mercenaries led by Menon, which not only contained a number of packhorses and mules, but also a number of oxen and sheep looted along the way, as well as a batch of food distributed to Menon by Cyrus the Younger. Moreover, there were merchants stationed inside, and when passing through the big cities, there would even be nearby ** to make money here.
As he walked up to the entrance, a group of guards armed with spears stopped him.
"No one is allowed to enter without Menon's orders!" Behind the guards, a short, fat man shouted in exasperation.
Davos gave him a look and turned to go around, he didn't want any trouble. Behind him also came the fat man's reprimand to the guards, "Next time someone comes, you'll have to be more aggressive, or you won't be able to quell these thieves! Five sheep have been lost since last night, by the time Menon punishes me, I'll punish you all!"
It seems that the mercenaries have a serious shortage of food! I wonder how much food the Persian army broke in yesterday and took away. As he walked and pondered, without realizing it, a simple wall made of branches and sticks loosely inserted into the soil appeared in front of him, blocking his way forward. Though it was still densely packed with tents, he knew it was already another mercenary camp.
At this time, the sun has risen to a high altitude, the fog gradually dispersed, the line of sight has been able to reach far. The sky is high and the field is wide, the wind is clear and fresh, and for a while it is intoxicated ... Listening to the companions said that the city ahead is Babylon, and not far away is the Euphrates River: one is the capital of one of the four major ancient civilizations, and the legendary Garden of the Air is desirable; one is the mother river of the people of the Mesopotamian plains. Yet I wonder if I'll ever get a chance to visit?
However, the sudden boiling up of the camp startled the disoriented man. A feeling of uneasiness came over him, and he returned at a quick pace.
At that moment, the soldiers came out of their tents in droves, discussing excitedly with each other with nervous and uneasy looks. Those words that reached his ears were transformed into six words: little Cyrus was dead!
His heart sank: this really was the event of the great Greek retreat of ten thousand! Wouldn't the rest of the day be spent on the run!