ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 1290 Battle of Asia Minor ([-])

Pharnabazus voiced his concerns, but most of the governors still insisted on fighting the Greek coalition here. In addition to the Persian nobles despising the arrogance of the Greeks, another important reason was the position of the two armies at this time. On the southwest edge of the Misia region, not far from the coast, the Persian army was huge in number and consumed huge amounts of military rations. Coupled with more than ten days of continuous pursuit, the logistics transportation line was dramatically stretched, making supplies difficult, and nearby towns Most of them surrendered to the Greek coalition, and the Greek coalition fleet controlled the nearby waters. The logistics supplies had an advantage. If the two sides faced off for another day or two, the Persian army would have to retreat due to running out of food. Not only would the previous Efforts in vain would also result in the loss of Persia's prestige in the region.

Under their persistence, Pharnabazus finally strengthened his determination to fight the decisive battle with the Greek coalition forces here.

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After learning that "the Persian army was marching towards the camp", Leoticides, who had been well prepared, immediately sent messengers to inform the allied generals to assemble their respective armies and prepare to go out of camp to fight.

At a distance of about one mile, the armies of both sides began to form formations.

The Persian Asia Minor coalition consists of armies from various regions in western Asia Minor, Greek mercenaries, reinforcements from the Uko Xinghai city-state, and reinforcements from eastern Asia Minor, with a total of nearly 8 soldiers.Since there are many Greek city-states in western Asia Minor and the Euker Sea, this Persian army is somewhat different from the traditional Persian army. Moreover, Pharnabazus learned the lessons from previous battles with the Greeks and specially made military mobilizations. It emphasized that each region should recruit as many Greek city-state infantry as possible, so in addition to the 15 Greek mercenaries led by Jason, there were more than 000 Greek heavy infantry with strong combat effectiveness in the entire army, as well as from eastern Asia Minor. The Persian cavalry, the Mesopotamian cavalry, and the cavalry from other regions, the total number of cavalry exceeds 6000. In addition, there are more than 8000 traditional Persian infantry and archers, and the ratio is about 4:1.

Archers and cavalry are Persia's strengths, and its original weakness, infantry, has also been strengthened. In addition, the number of troops is greater than that of the opponent. Although he does not have an advantage on the terrain, Pharnabazos still has an advantage in this battle. He was very confident, so he adopted a relatively balanced formation: the Greek heavy infantry was at the forefront of the left, center, and right infantry arrays, Jason's mercenaries were mainly located in the middle, and there were four thousand cavalry on each side of the left and right, and bows and arrows. Hands at the rear of the infantry array…

Leoticides and the allied generals were not in a hurry to form the formation. They still stood at a high place and observed the Persian formation for a while. They felt that it was not beyond their expectations, and then they safely began to follow the plan drawn up last night. Planned formation.

The Greek coalition forces consisted of nearly 3 Dionysian legions and cavalry corps, about 27 troops from Greece and the Ionian Islands, and 000 Confederate troops from central Italy, for a total of about 7000 people.Among them, there are more than 65 heavy infantry. In addition, there are more than 000 medium infantry in the allied army in central Italy. They clearly have the upper hand in medium and heavy infantry, but the cavalry is only Dionia Thessaly Cavalry Corps, Macedonian Cavalry, and other Greek city-state cavalry, a total of more than 5000 cavalry, less than half of the Persian cavalry.

In terms of light infantry, there are three light infantry brigades of the Dionian Legion, more than 1000 Epirus light shield soldiers recruited by Leoticides in the mountains around Thessaly, 2000 light infantry from the allied armies of central Italy, There are also nearly 1 light infantry provided by various Greek city-states. The total number of light infantry is close to [-], but it is still far less than the number of Persian archers, and harpooneers make up the majority of them, and their range is obviously inferior to the Persian army.

Based on the advantages and disadvantages and the numerical gap between the enemy's and our own troops, the formation listed by Leoticides is: the center is mainly occupied by Dionia, and there are also a small number of Greek soldiers; the right wing is the Greek city-state army; the front row of the left wing formation They were Dionian soldiers, with soldiers from the central Italian allies in the rear; the cavalry was not placed at both ends of the military formation, but stayed behind the center.

The entire formation of the Dionian army is not completely parallel to the Persian army. Its right wing is slightly forward and the left wing is slightly behind. It is actually an oblique array, but it is different from the array of the Theban coalition in the Battle of Leuctra. The difference was that Leoticides did not thicken his right wing, but he combined the Spartan warriors led by Agesilaus, the Theban holy team led by Ipamirondas, and Iphicrates. The elite heavy infantry of Athens, the most powerful army among the three Greek allies, was placed at the far right end of the right wing.Looking from a distance, the entire right wing of the Greek coalition was made up of all Greek heavy infantry (Leotichides even strictly prohibited Spartan warriors from wearing red cloaks). Even the thickness of the array was the same, making it impossible for the Persians to make accurate Judgment - The focus of the Greek coalition's attack is on the right wing.

In fact, Leotychides' careful arrangement did work. It took more than an hour for the two armies to get into position, and neither of them launched an attack immediately. During this confrontation, the Persian military commander Fanaba Zoss had a general understanding of the formation of the Greek coalition, but did not make any adjustments to the formation. Apparently, he believed that there was nothing surprising about the opponent's formation and that the Persian army was fully capable of dealing with it.

But the reason why he has not issued an order to attack for a long time is because the Greek coalition forces are located at a high place and the Persian army would suffer more when attacking upwards. Therefore, he has not ordered the entire army to advance, just to see if the other party can attack first. The Greek coalition forces had to go down the gentle slope and fight them on flat ground.But it is obvious that the commander of the Greek coalition forces is very cautious and has relatively effective control over the entire army.

From a distance, the Greek coalition soldiers looked like small standing trees, neatly planted on the half-slope of the hill... This made Fanabazus even more cautious.

But after the half-hour confrontation between the two sides, the Persian generals couldn't help it anymore and rushed to question Panabazus, because it was already noon, the weather was relatively hot, and standing for a long time was physically demanding on the soldiers. If it continues like this, they may not be able to fight and will have to retreat.

Even Theopompus, the governor of Mysia, threatened that if Pharnabazus did not give the order to attack, he would lead the Mysian army alone to attack the Greeks.

Pharnabazus could not resist everyone's persistence, but he did not immediately issue an order for the entire army to attack. Instead, he first notified the archers to move to the front of the formation.

After completing this formation change, he ordered again: the large troops should not move, and the archers should advance first to attack the Greek coalition forces from a distance.

More than 2 Persian archers lined up in a loose formation six to seven miles long and approached the Greek coalition...

Upon learning of this situation, Leoticides immediately ordered that all the coalition light infantry move forward to the front of the formation and prepare to fire.

The distance between the two armies was only more than 500 meters. The Persian archers marched faster and approached a hundred meters away after a while. The enemy was still outside their shooting range; but for the bows and arrows of the Greek allied light infantry standing on higher ground, Hands down, that's barely within their range.

The officers of the Dionian Light Infantry Brigade shouted one after another: "Archers, prepare!"

The archers drew their bows and nocked arrows, thousands of arrows were thrown into the air, and then scattered in the array of Persian archers, and screams continued.

Led by the Dionian light infantry, other coalition archers also started shooting.

Although soldiers from the Persian archers continued to fall to the ground, for their huge number, these were just small splashes of water.Moreover, in order to fight against the Persian archers, the Greek allied light infantry also stretched their formation to several kilometers long. However, their total number of people was less than that of the opponent, and there were fewer archers among them. Therefore, the long-range attack power was naturally spread to each area. It was weakened a lot and was not enough to cause a devastating blow to the Persian archers in this area, so the Persian archers firmly withstood the rain of arrows and moved forward faster.

When the distance was shortened to six to 70 meters, the javeliners in the Dionian light infantry brigade roared, and heavy javelins were thrown at the Persians like lightning, and the archers also changed from the initial throwing to the Persians. With direct fire, more Persian archers fell, but at the same time their counterattack also began.

The two sides were firing arrows back and forth within a distance of tens of meters. Since neither side had much protection, the arrows and javelins that blocked the sky caused a sharp increase in casualties to both sides.

From the initial hasty shooting to the gradually stable output, the Persian archers gradually restored the situation and gradually began to gain the upper hand.They are indeed one of the most powerful weapons used by Persia to dominate the Middle East and Asia Minor. In addition to the well-trained Dionian light infantry who can fight against the enemy, the light infantry of the allies are beginning to be a little weak. The Epirus light shield soldiers They even covered their heads with leather shields and rushed over to fight the Persian archers at close range.

The Persian archers were resolutely unafraid and drew out their specially equipped short blades to fight. Although the light shield soldiers were better equipped, the Persian archers still had a slight upper hand with more versus fewer.

The entire battle situation began to be a bit unfavorable for the Greek coalition, but Leoticides, who had been paying attention to the battle situation from a high place, did not appear anxious. He just ordered that the entire cavalry unit be moved forward to the far right end of the entire military formation.

Then he calmly ignored the coalition's light infantry who were struggling to support him and stopped taking any action.Because in his opinion, although the coalition light infantry were at a disadvantage, they could take advantage of the high terrain to deal with Persian archers who were far more numerous than themselves for a long time. Even if they were all lost in battle, by then the Persian bows and arrows would The arrows in his hand have been almost consumed, and there is no big threat to the coalition infantry, so he would rather continue the confrontation than give up the geographical advantage he finally obtained, and issued an order for the entire army to attack, and he firmly believed that The Persians may not be as patient as he is.

(End of this chapter)