"Will Persia do the same?" Acistus asked curiously.
"What about Greece?" Marij immediately glared back and asked defiantly.
Davos glanced at them both and said, half-jokingly, half-seriously, "If you live long enough, you might be able to see it in fifty years."
"Is this an oracle?" Acistus asked excitedly.
Marij was clearly not convinced.
Davos smiled and didn't answer again. If his butterfly wings were weak enough to change the course of history, a few decades later (he couldn't remember the exact time), Alexander of Macedonia conquered Greece proper and then destroyed Persia. Since the Greeks didn't consider the Macedonians in the north to be their own people, in a sense, he conquered the two most powerful forces in the Mediterranean at the time in one fell swoop.
............... ...
For the next two days, the Greek mercenaries continued to march briskly all the way.
Until the third day, when Tissaphernes' army appeared.
Now, the Greek mercenary's fifty-man light cavalry squad was basically spread out by Davos to be used as scouting cavalry. After all, the Persian cavalry has strong individual ability, one-on-one killing, the Greek cavalry is not a match. Therefore, they are in groups of five, do not dare to detach from the army too far, only within a radius of two or three miles, and when they see the Persian troops from afar, they will immediately report back.
"The Persians are coming, prepare for defense!"
"Pass the order from Kerisopus to prepare for defense!"
The messenger wandered quickly around the periphery of this huge square, relaying orders.
The center of the large hollow square formation used by the Greek mercenaries was escorted by the supply battalion, so it was impossible for them to change their formation before they met the enemy; they simply had the supply battalion converge toward the center, with soldiers armed with shields and spears, on alert, slowing down their march and keeping their formation intact.
Soon the Persians appeared directly behind the group. From the flags flying high, the soldiers knew that Tissaphernes was coming. The Greek mercenaries had easily defeated him at the Battle of Kunasak, so they did not take it too seriously.
Then another column appeared on the left flank of Tissaphernes, and as the array advanced the hearts of the Greeks tightened; it was another army of no less than ten thousand men! The emblem on the army's flag was familiar to all; Ojontas, the governor of Armenia, had come, and this had been in the chiefs' estimation.
Then another large army appeared on the right flank of Tissaphernes, again no less than 10,000 men, holding up an army banner that was somewhat familiar to everyone.
"Oh, I remember! That's the army we encountered on the road, supposedly led by the Persian king's brother!" Acistus exclaimed.
"This army that was supposed to be marching in the opposite direction of us has actually appeared here! It has been quietly following us, I fear! Tissaphernes has long harbored malice towards us!" Felicius said with a grave expression.
Davos nodded with a slightly stiff motion, his hands gripping the reins of his horse.
Tissaphernes' army was joined by the remnants of Cyrus the Younger, led by Arrizos, and the four great armies came together in great numbers, spreading out in the shape of a goose, and slowly approaching the Greek army ...
The seemingly boundless and dense tide of people was the most the Greek mercenaries had seen since the battle of Kurasak; last time there was still little Cyrus to rely on, and the mercenaries were only responsible for the right flank, while now they had to face the entire Persian army, and every one of them was inevitably a little nervous in their hearts.
Despite the tension, when the Greeks all knew that the only way to survive was to fight in blood. Criano had been watching the distance of the enemy's march, watching to enter the range of the stone throwers, he immediately gave the order: "Stone throwers ready!"
The stone throwers throughout the rear-guard immediately began to fling their cables, and at a distance of more than three hundred meters, the flying stones would have been less accurate and less powerful, but the Persians were so numerous and so dense that almost every stone that fell provoked a cry, and there was confusion in the Persian formation in the middle of the road, and the advance was almost halted.
"Lord Governor, the enemy's attack is too fierce! Should we temporarily fall back and let the armies on the two flanks force their way up first?" An adjutant beside him proposed to Tissafonis.
Tissaphernes' face was equally unimpressed, but he rebuffed without hesitation. Though he had been appointed by the king to be chief of this plan of expelling the Greeks, Ojontas was only assisting, and the king's brother, Sittilus, was only a friendly favor. But one was a governor of equal rank with him, and the king's son-in-law; the other was the king's own brother. How could he hope for their full assistance if he himself did not put forth a deadly effort, not to mention their intimacy with the king, and going back to tell Artaxerxes privately about his performance, the good impression that had been built up so easily in the heart of the king of Persia was spoiled.
Tissafonis glared fiercely at his adjutant and immediately ordered, "Pick up the pace and continue to close in!" This time, he had a total force of nearly 50,000 troops concentrated in his hands. People, he had plenty of! Since the Greeks wanted to compete with him in long-range firepower, let's compete and see who shoots accurately! Let's see who can withstand it! Anyway, he was not prepared to engage Greece in close combat, the scene after the Battle of Kurasak, where the Greeks' heavy infantry charged and easily routed the left flank of the Boers, happened right next to him, and it was too much of a shock for him.
The Persians screamed and galloped all the way, and Tissaphernes even sent his own troops to supervise the battle, cutting down the deserters one by one to warn the whole army. In such a situation, the two flanks of the Persian army also quickly closed in on the mercenaries. Since the Persians had too many troops and the mercenaries were in a square formation, the Persian army lengthened their line and almost surrounded the entire mercenary army.
Davos had long since dismounted, and his warhorse was led to the supply camp in the center of the square. Facing the approaching enemy, he was not as nervous as he was at first: "Put up the shield wall!"
Acistus and the two messengers under his command conveyed Davos' orders throughout the left flank of the force.
The four columns of heavy infantry squadrons began to close in and stay close, round shields stacked on top of round shields, and soon a long bronze wall was erected. The Greek heavy infantry's round shield is one of the best among the infantry of the Mediterranean countries, it is one meter in diameter, with a wooden core and wrapped in copper skin, and it is not held by hand, but the whole small arm goes through the two grips on the back of the round shield, thus saving strength and not easy to slip off, and it is difficult to be penetrated by bows and arrows, as it is big enough and hard enough.
The archers who wandered behind the heavy infantry also quickly close to the shield wall to reduce the damage of the opponent's bows and arrows, due to the previous total annihilation of Altauzus' six thousand men, the Cretan archers in the mercenaries not only amassed and replaced the Persian recurve bows, but they even selected the soldiers who were good at using bows and arrows among the heavy infantry and the light shields, and joined the archers as well, making the mercenaries' number of archers reach five hundred, who were scattered in the rearguard and the right and left Both flanks.
As the Persian army closed to within a hundred meters, both sides released their arrows almost simultaneously.
"Bang! Knock-knock! Bang! ..." A series of bowstrings sounded, and countless arrows leaped into the air, like a large dark cloud, blocking the blue sky and the hot sun. The density of the arrows even caused many arrows to collide in the air, and when most of the "dark clouds" landed on the mercenary army, a "clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Arrows came and went from both sides.
The Persians even advanced their line to fifty meters away and stopped advancing by half a point. Because the Persians knew very well that any further and the Greek light shield soldiers should be put into battle.
...............
The bow-war lasted for some time.
Mercenaries in addition to this long four-square shield wall under the land is still clean, around the densely filled with arrows, quiver has been empty Greek archers do not have to worry about, by hand on the ground to pull a "arrow grass", will return fire.
Davos was used to the sound of arrows striking the round shield, and he was more worried about the muffled grunts that reached his ears every now and then, signaling that another person had been hit. His left arm was also a bit sore and numb, but he kept the same position without moving, not daring to withdraw the round shield. Now both sides were just fighting for perseverance to see who could hold out until the end.
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