ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 40 The Hellish Encirclement and Annihilation War
"You mean..." Zantiparis asked thoughtfully: "After passing through the canyon, directly form a formation and fight the pursuing Persians."

"And the road in the canyon is not wide, which will slow down their retreat, making it easier for us to catch up with them. The more Persians come to pursue, the slower they will retreat from the canyon, and the more lethal we will be to them. !” Timasson said excitedly.

"But the Persians are not fools. How could they risk passing through the canyon when they saw that we were prepared?" Xenophon's question stunned everyone.

Chrysops said confidently: "So we will not attack near the mouth of the valley. Whenever the Persians catch up with us, we will attack! We will lure them to chase!"

"That's right! Anyway, the Persians don't dare to fight us head-on. We have slingers and cavalry, and we will definitely give the Persians an unexpected surprise! At that time, the whole army will attack together and drive them to the mouth of the valley. The narrow mouth of the valley It will also slow down their retreat and help us catch up with them!..."

Everyone said something to me, and the plan was quickly perfected.

At this time, someone suddenly said: "Why don't we ambush an army here in the canyon and block the canyon immediately after the enemy passes through."

Everyone was stunned and turned their heads suddenly. It was Davos who had been sitting in the corner and listening to them carefully just now.

"...Do you want to eliminate them all?!" Cleethorpes looked at Davos, tried his best to suppress his surprise, and said slowly.

Davos stretched out the five fingers of his left hand, then clenched them into a fist, and waved vigorously: "Of course! Just defeat them. After they escape back to repair, they will still come to attack us. Only by surrounding them and annihilating them can we give the greatest deterrent to the Persians." !”

The Greeks admired strength and liked frontal assaults, and because the composition of their army was mainly heavy infantry, this characteristic of them was further emphasized.This is true even for the Spartans, who are the best at fighting. The Battle of Marathon, the Battle of Pladia...not to mention these big battles were all won by the Greeks with strength from the front, but there were countless small battles with few detours and twists. Outflank, ambush, attack, mass annihilation... These military terms are familiar to even the most ordinary people of later generations. They may seem simple, but in this era, there are almost no traces in the military history of various Greek city-states with heavy infantry as the main combat force. .Of course, there are occasional similar battles, but few people pay attention to and summarize it.It wasn't until hundreds of years later that Hannibal, the commander of Carthage, killed half of the men in Rome with repeated annihilation battles, forcing Rome, the overlord of the Mediterranean, to begin to learn from their enemies, and finally made the classical Western military tactics have reached a new level.

Davos, whose soul comes from later generations, is of course not limited by this era. Although his military experience is still immature, his military thinking is 2000 years ahead of his time.What he was thinking about at this moment was what Taizu of later generations often said: It is better to cut off one finger than to hurt ten of them.

Cherrithorpes looked at this immature young man calmly, but was shocked by his courage and conception.He admitted that Daves's proposal was very tempting and feasible, and still asked cautiously: "There are dense forests not far from the valley, but if you have too many soldiers in ambush, it is easy to be attacked by Persian soldiers." The human scouting cavalry found out: If there are too few soldiers, if the Persians come too many, how can you stop their retreat? In addition, what if the Persians don’t come to catch up tomorrow? You must know that they didn’t come today. Come."

Daves had already considered this clearly, and he replied seriously: "No plan in the world is perfect, and any military operation has risks, so we must consider all possibilities as thoroughly as possible. First of all, I want to ask you, Cleethorpes, how far is this forest from the mouth of the valley?”

"About three miles." Chrysops blurted out, as if the terrain was imprinted in his mind.This made Davos very impressed: surveying the terrain is an essential skill for a qualified commander, and he must learn it hard!
At the same time, Chrysops's words relieved his biggest worry about this plan. He analyzed confidently: "According to what was said before, the whole army will set off before dawn, so when the hidden troops arrive in the woods, the enemy will The reconnaissance cavalry should still be sleeping. We only need to ambush three to four hundred soldiers, and the possibility of being discovered is very small. Secondly, if there are many Persians coming to pursue, there is no need for the troops responsible for the ambush to To annihilate them, we only need to open a gap at the interception point to allow the Persians to escape, and then intercept them. The Persians are focused on escaping and will not have time to organize resistance. In this way, although we cannot completely annihilate the enemy, the results obtained will not be the same. Too bad!”

Well, Sun Tzu, the first military strategist to theorize ancient warfare and elevate it to a strategic level, must have lived in the same era!An inexplicable sense of pride arose in Davos's heart, which made him more calm: "As for the Persians not coming, don't worry. After noon, before the enemy appears, the ambush troops can withdraw on their own initiative. They have no baggage. , the action will be faster, and our large forces will be at the entrance of the valley to respond, then there will be no big problems..."

Davos's careful thinking finally conquered all the leaders present, and they all agreed with Davos's suggestion: add an ambush force.

Cleithops, who had always looked down on Davos because of his youth, couldn't help but cherish his talent. The Spartans' approach to caring for their juniors was unique: "Davos, are you willing to command this army?" Go to the ambush troops?”

Davos was stunned. What he saw in the eyes of Cleethorpes was trust and expectation. He thought about it carefully, ignored Felixius's obstruction, and nodded heavily in the face of everyone's complicated eyes. :"I can!"

..............................

The next day, before dawn, the Greeks got up at the urging of bugles, packed their luggage, packed their equipment, and set off sleepily.

When we reached the mouth of the gorge, a glimmer of light appeared on the horizon.

Davos led three squadrons of heavy infantry and a squadron of light shields to separate from the main force.The leaders all sent their blessings.

"Zeus will be with you!" These are the words of Chrysops.

"May Ares give you strength!" These are the words of Timazon.

"May Athena give you luck!" These are the words of Xenophon.

……

In order to fight the Persians with all their strength, the whole army worked together.

"Take care, leader! Come back safely!" Felicius said solemnly.

"Don't worry, Felicius, we will take good care of the leader!" Antonios interjected.

"Take care too!" Davos said, giving Felicius a strong hug.Then, under the awe-inspiring gazes of the remaining soldiers and team officers, he led the troops along the foot of the mountain and hurried towards the forest on the left...

..............................

In fact, Artauzus took action earlier than the day before yesterday, because his team had grown huge, with about 4500 archers and 1500 horse archers. This made him more confident and eager to defeat the Greek army as soon as possible. Obtained the lieutenant-general position promised by Tissaphernes.

The scouts reported that the Greeks had already broken camp and passed through the canyon, and were twenty miles away from the Persian army.

He took it for granted that the Greeks were moving so quickly to avoid his attack. When he thought of the oath he made in Tissaphernes, he couldn't help but feel a little anxious: they must not be allowed to run far away, and they must be defeated today. them!

So he urged the troops to speed up their march. When passing through the canyon, he did not stop because the scout cavalry told him that the Greeks were five or six miles away from the exit of the canyon.

....................................

"The Persians have entered the canyon, leader Davos!" Asistes ran back to the woods and reported to Davos.

"How many people are there?" Antonios asked on the side.

"Their team is very long, probably several thousand people!" Asistes said, breathing heavily.

"This is really a big fish caught in the net!" Amyntas whistled lightly.

"Then immediately implement the second plan we discussed last night." Although Davers was nervous, his facial expression was well controlled.

"Brothers, start working quickly!" Capps shouted in a deep voice.

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(End of this chapter)