The next day's march, Davos rode in the horse, spring breeze, full of mind are lingering last night and Christoya that a good time: Christoya is not only beautiful, the body is really as sexy as the appearance of that, white smooth skin, peaks and curves let him love, coupled with her flexibility of the body, so that he wallowed in it, try to give vent to the young and strong body of nineteen years of accumulation of desire, has been lingering until late at night, if not Olivers outside to cover for him, I am afraid that would have been broken into the good things, so he also let Olivers outside to eavesdrop on the "crime". He had been lingering until late at night, if not for Oliver's cover for him outside, I'm afraid it would have been broken into, so he let Oliver's "crime" of eavesdropping outside go unnoticed.
When after the passion, Christoya lying in his arms, shyly expressed the willingness to be with him, Davos felt that the gap between himself and the world seems to be much smaller, and with this attachment also let him on the future of the future, more a thought: Davos from the modern society, and is an adult, he knows that the passion is impossible to last. Christoya came from the nobility, and was the concubine of the young Cyrus, enjoying a luxurious life. And now he is just a mercenary, an ordinary civilian in Greek society, not even a citizen, homeless, drifting around, a short time is okay, a long time is not guaranteed that Christoya will not be disgusted ... Of course, this thought was buried in his heart, now is not the time to think deeply, because the current priority is to return to Greece safely and alive. Greece.
The Persian's presence spoiled his good mood.
This time, Tissafonis changed his strategy, no longer attacking, but raiding. The Persians followed the mercenaries, keeping a safe distance, and every now and then another group of bow cavalry blood rushed up, shot a round of arrows, and immediately disappeared far away. The damage to the mercenaries was not great, but it kept their nerves on edge, affecting the marching speed and morale.
There was nothing the chiefs could do about it, and the only thing they could do was to mix stone throwers, archers, and heavy infantry, making it possible to force them not to dare to be too arrogant in the face of the speedy Persian bow cavalry.
Meanwhile, the Greek mercenaries encountered other difficulties. As they got closer and closer to the Dukia mountains, the plains gradually turned into hills and the terrain became rugged, and the huge square-air formation of the Greek army could not be kept intact, especially when crossing rivers and trekking through narrow mountain passes, and the whole formation was completely fragmented. The Persian cavalry took advantage of the situation and used their bows and arrows to cause even more confusion among the mercenaries.
The chiefs, after some deliberation, were obliged to take the ranks of those small mercenaries who had joined the Clerisopes in the first place out of the front guard (for hitherto the Persian attacks had come chiefly from the rear and flanks), and to form four or five companies, each of about two hundred men, which were placed on the flanks and in the inner part of the rear-guard. As soon as there was a large gap in the formation, or when it was compressed because of the narrowness of the terrain, they rushed out to form a new rearguard, blocking the charge of the Persian cavalry and providing a barrier for the archers and stone-throwers who arrived later.
In this way, the mercenaries marched while trying to think of every way to deal with the attacking Persian cavalry, and this posture lasted for four or five days, and when the rolling hills appeared in front of them, the whole army breathed a sigh of relief, for they all knew that the cavalry could not get to the hills.
Panting, they trudged the rugged trail over the first ridge to the foot of the second, where the party stopped to rest from exhaustion.
Most of the soldiers took off their armor, wiped off their sweat, and sat down to rest; the guards of the supply battalion rested, but also had to check the injuries and damages of the beasts and vehicles, and the whole army was gathered in the narrow area between the two mountains, ready to rest for a while, and after recovering their strength, they would continue their march.
The attack came out of nowhere, countless bows and arrows and flying stones came whizzing in, catching the mercenaries by surprise: the soldiers screamed, the women screamed, the beasts of burden ran amok, and the whole group was in disarray.
The first to react were Chrysopus and his eight hundred Spartan warriors, for these Spartan warriors had not thrown away their weapons and armor after descending the mountain as the other soldiers had done, while they still had more stamina from their regular and rigorous training, and when Chrysopus realized that the attack was coming from the second ridge, he immediately and decisively ordered, "Spartans, advance! "
The Spartan warrior immediately followed him, charging toward the top of the hill with his shield raised.
The Persian light infantry shot quickly, slinging arrow after arrow down the hill.
After the initial confusion, the mercenaries also reacted quickly, after all, they were all veteran warriors who had been through war for a long time, they quickly grabbed the round shields beside them and hid themselves under them. Only the personnel of the supply battalion, apart from the guards, most of them were either slaves or looted women without any combat experience, driven by fear, most of them were not escaping but screaming and running around, thus they were injured quite a lot under the dense rain of arrows.
At this time, Davos was anxious, the last few days of camping in order to take into account the impact, he did not go to look for Christoya, and now the situation is urgent, I do not know if she is safe.
"Acistus, inform the squad officers to form a shield wall and close in on the supply and medical battalions!" He shouted.
"Yes, Chief!"
In fact, without his order, Felicius, Capheus, Antonius and the others had already led their troops to raise their round shields above their heads and move towards the center in a shield formation.
Oliverus and Martonius also immediately rushed forward with their shields up to protect Davos
Instead, Davos yelled, "Marij! Marigi, are you okay?!"
"I'm fine!" Marij shouted from behind him.
"Protect him now, don't let him get hurt!" Davos ordered.
As much as Martonius despised the Persian, Davos' orders were always meticulously carried out by him.
By this time, he was acting captain of the escort, and at his command, several of the Giorgis rushed up to guard Marigi.
Marij stared at Davos's back, not saying a word, his eyes full of gratitude.
Davos had no time to look at Marigold's condition, and, half on his knees, he endeavored to look out from under his shield in the direction of the supply camp, which was in a state of confusion.
He rushed anxiously toward the center, and when he saw that a shield formation had also been erected on the medic battalion's side, he breathed a slight sigh of relief, and to avoid suspicion, he called out first, "Helps! Helps!"
"I'm here!" Helps' voice came from under the shield formation, "We're all right!"
Only after hearing this did Davos relax completely. At this time, Xilos came over and briefly explained the situation to him: the reason why the doctors and female slaves of the medical battalion were all safe was also related to Kristoia. When the first wave of arrows came down, she immediately greeted them and hid them under the pannier, and Xilos then commanded the more than one hundred wounded soldiers accompanying them to form a shield formation to protect the safety of most of them.
Xellos' praise of Kristoia's quick and calm response in the face of danger gave Davos another layer of knowledge about the woman, perhaps that was why she was the only one of Cyrus Junior's concubines to have escaped from the Persian plunder.
The supply wagon camp was much more miserable, Melesius was not injured under the protection of his guards, the slaves and women were hit by a lot of arrows, and the pack animals also died several times. Facing the crying face of Melsius, Davos, who was already accustomed to life and death, didn't send any manpower to protect these non-combatants who were already scattered and running around. Luckily, the Persian attack didn't last long before it stopped, because the troops led by Kerisopus were already close to rushing to the top of the hill.
The Persians, of course, would not fight the mercenaries hard, and they retreated quickly.
Cleethorpes left the Spartan warriors at the top of the mountain as a defense.
Upon descending the hill, Chrysopus called the chiefs together to discuss a way to deal with the situation, and he said, "The Persians are light infantry; we cannot catch up with them, and although they have retreated, they will probably continue to attack us with their bows and arrows on the third and fourth mountain ranges. Our ranks are so large that it will be difficult to avoid them."
Speaking of deliberation, he had actually thought of a countermeasure on the way back down the mountain: "I have just carefully surveyed at the top of the mountain, these mountain ranges are not too high, and they do not cover a large area, so we can send a troop to first go around the back from the right side of the next mountain range, and then on the front, there will be me leading my warriors to play the vanguard. The Persians will be cut off from the rear by us if they wish to occupy the heights again and continue to attack us."
Grissops poked the sketch drawn on the ground hard with a twig, "Then surround and finish them off."