ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 1310 The Great Battle of Taposacus ([-])

More than half an hour later, almost all the Dionian troops completed their formation. Quietness quickly returned to this side, while the Persian side was still noisy.

Two days ago, Artaxerxes became more confident in winning this battle after listening to Tribasus's account of the situation in the Dionysian camp.Now that he is sitting high on the carriage, he can see the situation on the opposite side clearly. The rapid and efficient formation of the Dionysian army is too obvious compared with the chaos and procrastination of his own side, which makes him feel a little uneasy again, and the sight is beyond his reach. The place was completely black, and the uniform pressure was heart-stopping, causing him to shout involuntarily: "Trebasus, urge the troops to speed up the formation! Speed ​​up the formation!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

After the Dionysian army was arrayed, the sun had almost risen to the middle of the sky, and the soldiers received orders from the team officers one after another: "Hurry up and add some food."

Just as the soldiers of the first detachment of the second brigade of the first legion were chewing the bread they carried and passing water bags to each other, someone exclaimed: "Squad leader, look! The Persians really have elephants!"

After hearing this, Alsinis, who was standing at the back of the detachment and serving the soldiers, immediately walked to the front of the queue. Looking forward, he saw dozens of soldiers in the Persian army opposite, wearing hoodies and swords tied to their tusks. Under the command of the mahout, the elephant is slowly walking to the front of the Persian array.

The elephants were huge and particularly eye-catching compared to the troops around them. Their appearance immediately caused a commotion among the soldiers of the First Legion and the surrounding legions.

Alsinius took a deep breath, turned around and shouted to the soldiers who were discussing: "The commander of the Matonis army told us before that there may be war elephants in the Persian army, why are you so surprised! "

"Captain, we are just curious, the Persians actually sent such a docile animal to the battlefield!" a soldier responded.

"No matter how docile an animal is, it can be scary once it goes crazy. Don't take it lightly!" Alsinis warned, and then smiled: "But the Persians don't know that we have seen giant animals countless times at the Thurii Zoo. They think they can scare us with the elephant, and then we will in turn make the Persians suffer the consequences of abusing the elephant!"

"Captain, don't worry. We are not afraid of elephants. We just think elephants are so cute. It would be a pity if they all died in this battle." Another soldier said half-jokingly and half-seriously.

Another soldier immediately answered: "I don't feel sorry. It's not our fault that these elephants died in the battle. On the contrary, it would be great if we could taste the elephant's meat after the war!"

"Cripps, you are such a foodie. You have eaten so much delicious food these days and you are still not satisfied! Do you think you can become as strong as an elephant by eating elephant meat?" Arcinis scolded with a smile.

"Captain, he just feels that the thing underneath him is too small and wants to be bigger." A soldier said loudly and jokingly.

The soldiers burst into laughter.

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More than an hour later, the Persian army finally formed its formation.

At the forefront of the center are Persian archers in a loose formation, followed by Indian war elephants and sickle chariots lined up in a row. The war elephants are in the center and the chariots are on both sides. Behind them are 3000 Persian armored cavalry. Behind the cavalry, [-] Greek heavy infantry and [-] undead troops spread out in a straight line.Artaxerxes was in the rear, and behind him were ethnic troops from Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf coast.

At the forefront of the right wing are Persian archers and a mixed force of archers from Armenia, Parthia, and Media, followed by 100 chariots from Media and Babylon, and behind the chariots are Ducia, Amelia, Persian infantry, followed by teams from tribes around the Caspian Sea, such as the Syrkarians, Tapulians, etc.At the far right end of the right wing were more than 1 cavalry from Amelia, Parthia, and Media.

At the forefront of the left wing was a mixed force of Persian, Arab, Bactrian, and Arachosian archers, followed by infantry composed of Persian, Carian, and Eastern Uxians and Sitacanis east of Susa. Then came the Far Eastern ethnic troops headed by Arachosia and Bactria.At the far left of the left wing are more than 1 cavalry led by Persia, Scythia, and Bactria, with 500 Arab camel cavalry at the forefront.

It can be seen from the Persian formation that the Persian formation has a thick depth, with the strongest strength in the middle.

The reason why the Persians made such an arrangement was that the Dionysian army had a large number of heavy infantry and strong close combat capabilities, so they increased the depth to enhance the stalemate capability in close combat.Whether it is for safety reasons or to eliminate the fear of Artaxerxes (In the battle with Cyrus the Younger, Artaxerxes suffered psychological damage from the javelin of Cyrus the Younger). Strength must be strengthened.

Therefore, Larrabassus took the opportunity to make a suggestion: hoard heavy troops in the middle, use war elephants and chariots to tear apart the enemy's defense line on the opposite side, and then use armored cavalry to attack, completely disrupting the enemy's heavy infantry. The Greek heavy infantry and the undead army would then follow up the charge. , completely crush the enemy, and thus win the battle...

Artaxerxes finally accepted his advice.

The formation adopted by the Dionia army is:

The center consists of the First Army, the Fourth Army, the Seventh Army, the No.12 Army and the No.15 Army in a checkerboard formation. When combined, the thickness is 10 columns. There are 5 light infantry brigades in the center of the rear. The entire middle road The commander was Matonis.

The left wing consists of the Second Army, the Fifth Army, the Eighth Army, the No. 14 Army, and the No. 16 Army in a checkerboard formation. It is also 10 columns thick when combined, and there are no other troops in the rear;

The far left end of the left wing consists of the 2000st Cavalry Corps, the 6rd Cavalry Corps, the Gallic Cavalry Corps and 2000 Numibian light cavalry, with nine light armored brigades at the rear.In the rear were [-] light infantry brigades and [-] Balearic slingers.

The right wing consists of the Third Army, the Sixth Army, the No. 11 Army, the No. 13 Army, and the No. 17 Army in a checkerboard formation. The combined thickness is 10 columns, and there are no other troops in the rear.

The rightmost front row of the right wing is composed of the Second Cavalry Corps, the Fourth Cavalry Corps, the Iberian Cavalry Corps and 2000 Numibian light cavalry, and the rear is also nine light armored brigades.In the rear were 6 light infantry brigades and 2000 Balearic slingers.

The command center where King Davos is located is located behind the center. In addition to the escort of the palace guard, there are No. 18 Legion, No. 19 Legion, and No. 20 Legion located on its left and right as reserves.

From the formation of the Dionysian army, it can be seen that Dionysia concentrated heavy troops at both ends of the two wings. It was obvious that he wanted to defeat the Persian cavalry first, and then outflank them from both wings.The Persian cavalry is obviously stronger than Dionia, and Davos actually wants to start from the enemy's strongest point. It can be said that he knows that there are tigers in the mountains and prefers to go to the tiger mountains.

Although the Persian army was twice as large as the Dionian army, due to the caution of the Persian King Artaxerxes, the depth of the array was significantly increased, while the Dionian army had an infantry array due to the confidence of King Davos. The thickness of only 10 columns was maintained, so the lengths of the formations on both sides were almost the same, both 15 miles long.

The Persian army has complex sources of arms. Not only do they have different clothing and weapons, but the soldiers themselves are also very different. Therefore, even though most of the entire formation is a dense array and is standing on a flat battlefield, the experienced Dionysian The sub-reconnaissance cavalry can still roughly judge the arrangement of troops in the middle and front of the Persian formation through careful observation.

The Dionian army is almost all black helmets and black armor, and the troops are relatively simple, and Daves deliberately prevents the enemy from seeing the reality of the array. Therefore, the heavy infantry and cavalry at the front of the formation are arrayed and can cover the enemy on the opposite side. After the line of sight was reached, the rear troops began to be deployed.

At the same time, Davos also specifically ordered that the soldiers behind the array must not raise their weapons before the battle!

At this moment, Felixius and his staff had drawn a sketch of the distribution of troops in the front of the entire Persian formation based on the reports of the scouts.

Davos took the board he handed over, and after carefully reading the sketch on it, he was slightly surprised: "Hey, the Persians have 100 more chariots, which is somewhat different from the number Izam told us."

"It may have arrived recently." Felicius explained.

Davos thought for a while and quickly made a decision: "Then let...the light infantry group on the right wing first detach 2000 people to deal with these tanks."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Felicius immediately went to convey the order.

"Your Majesty, it's already past noon, let's eat something first." Henipolis reminded from the side.

"I'm not hungry yet." Henipolis had asked several times, so Davos waved his hand impatiently.After the messengers set off, he kept looking to the left with concern, even though it was impossible from his position to see the mobilization of troops several miles away.

After a while, he suddenly realized something and asked, "Have Hieronymus and Amyntas eaten?"

Before Henepolis could answer, Hieronymus' voice came from behind: "Your Majesty, we are old and we are not participating in the battle. It doesn't matter whether we have lunch or not -"

"Yes, Your Majesty, we have no time to eat now, we are just waiting for the battle to begin!" Amyntas interrupted impatiently.

"Don't worry." Davos said calmly: "The longer time is delayed, the worse it will be for the Persians..."

As he was talking, Izam galloped from the left on horseback and shouted: "Your Majesty, I have found the position of the Xokant tribe warriors in the Persian army formation!"

　Thanks to Lamperucci and The Far Side for the tip!Your support is my motivation to write!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)