Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

"...... It was not until July that the King of Persia ordered us to pull out our battalion and march westward, but it took us two months to reach Tapsacus due to the large size of our army and the slow speed of our march.

To make it easier for me to leave quietly and to keep in touch with them later, the tribal army of the Ksokonts chose the northern outskirts of Tapsosakkus as their camp, not far from Mount Amanus, so one evening, half a month ago, I left the camp secretly and went north into the mountain range without being seen.

"Izam, this time you risked your life to go deep into the Persian hinterland and successfully contacted the Ksokont tribe and convinced them to support Dionysia, which was a great achievement for the kingdom, I thank you on behalf of the whole army!"

Davos bowed to him with a solemn look, bluffing the Izzam into standing up and waving his hands, not daring to accept the salute: "Your Majesty, as a citizen of Deionia and a senator of the Senate, this is my duty! And although I'm retired, as a former member of the Mountain Range Reconnaissance Brigade, this was my duty! I am sorry for the gratitude of Your Majesty and the entire army!"

This was a very decent comment, and Mariji blinked: you know back then Izam was a complete barbarian who didn't know the respect and etiquette when he first started following Davos, but after decades of immersion in Dionysia, especially these few years after retiring from the army, he had completely changed his mind.

"Well, since you still see yourself as a Dionysian soldier, I will follow the army's system of rewards and punishments and give you a big credit first, and then reward you when the war is over." Satisfied with Izzam's performance, Davos smiled and then asked, "Do you know how many men there are in the Persian army after spending so much time there? What is the composition of their army? How is the combat?"

As a former captain of the Mountain Ridge Reconnaissance Brigade, detecting the enemy is what Izam was best at, so he gave it some thought and immediately replied: "Your Majesty, according to my observations during this period of time, the Persians have about 350,000 troops stationed in Tapsacus, of which there are about 200,000 Persian troops, the rest ...... like the army of Dukia has 30,000, Taukia has about 10,000, Armenia has about 30,000, Arabia has about 10,000, Scythia has 5,000, Kardan has 10,000, India has more than 10,000 ...... Oh, they also have more than 20,000 Greek mercenaries.

Of all these troops, the approximately 50,000-60,000 Persian troops guarding the king of Persia should be the most effective, and of these, except for the immortal army stationed in Babylon, the rest are from the eastern regions of Susa and Persepolis-"

"Altaxerxes himself has led an army?!" Davos interrupted him and asked, a bit surprised.

Izzam quickly responded, "Sorry, Your Majesty! I forgot to mention just now that the Persian king arrived in Tapsacus with his undead army only late last month, and has stayed in the city since his arrival, without showing his face."

"Well ......" Davos nodded, "You go on."

"In addition to these 50-60,000 Persian troops, the Persian army has an advantage over us in that it has a large cavalry, about 30,000 men, including the cavalry in the attached areas. In addition, it has an archers numbering up to 50,000 men. But they had no powerful heavy infantry! This is the biggest weakness of the Persian army, but the Dukean tribal army, the Kardanians, and the Greek mercenaries ...... are still good infantry fighters and will probably be placed by the Persians on the 1st line against our legionnaires during the battle.

In addition, there are some special types of troops in the Persian army that need our attention. One was the sickle chariot. It is said that the reason Artaxerxes came to Tarsus so late was to prepare these 200 chariots, which I saw from a distance.

In addition, there were war elephants, brought by the Indians, more than 50 in all. I have seen elephants many times at the Tuli'i Zoo, but this was the first time I saw one being used in battle. The Indians placed a small wooden tower on the elephant's back, on which two people could sit, one elephant man and one archer. The elephant is so large that it should pose a threat to our infantry arrays when used for charging.

The Persians kept the Arabs away from the army and set up a camp of their own, but they didn't have many camels, about 500 or so ......".

Izam paused for a moment, and when he saw that Davos was silent, he said in a stronger tone: "Your Majesty, although the Persian army is large in number, its sources are too complicated.

I learned this the hard way when I followed the Dukean army from Orpheus to Tapsacus. The troops were out of control after less than an hour of marching along the Persian prescribed route, and were scattered across the plains. ...... Every day in the afternoon, the entire Persian army had to stop marching, and then the troops had to regroup, which took at least two hours, including the Dukean army, and often resulted in clashes with other troops. ......

Such an unmotivated, undisciplined, and disunited Persian army could not stand against our army, even though we were at a numerical disadvantage. The Persians realized this, however, and when all the troops arrived at Tapsosacus, they began to reorganize all the troops-"

"How were the Persians integrated?" Davos asks seriously.

"The Persian army has been training in the plains near Tapsacus. Before I left, I felt that the Persian army was in a better state than when I first arrived in Tapsacus.

Your Majesty, if we let the Persians continue this way, even if we eventually win, it will cost us a lot of money, so-" Izam, with a solemn look, pleaded aloud, "Your Majesty, we should take advantage of the fact that this Persian army is still loose and When it's not pinched together, attack it as soon as possible!"

Davos chimed in, not taking a position right away.

When Mariji saw this, he immediately changed the subject away: "Izzam, you have spent so much time in the Mesopotamian plains, how do you feel about the attitude of the people there toward the entire Persian army?"

"Of course it's not too good!" Izam replied with a scornful look on his face: "The Persian army is not our Dionysian army, which is subject to strict military law, but their auxiliary troops come from different regions and different races, and not only are they undisciplined, but some of them also have a grudge against the Persians, such as the Dukean tribal army, which came to such a rich place as Mesopotamia to plunder, destroy, and even force women to fuck. The Persians have organized a large military court martial to deal with these infractions, and have even had a few run-ins with affiliated troops over them.

But even they Persian soldiers themselves were doing the same disgusting things, so the towns along the way closed their gates and refused to let their soldiers in as soon as they heard the army coming, even to the Persian army ...... I heard some rumors that some Mesopotamian nobles had stopped the Persian king's car several times on the way to sue the Persian army, but the king didn't seem to do anything to punish them ......".

Hearing this, Davos asked Mariji with some interest, "The inhabitants of the Mesopotamian plains seem to be somewhat unhappy with Persian rule?"

"Your Majesty!" Maliki replied with some emotion: "Although Persia has ruled the Mesopotamian plain for more than a hundred years and has always operated it as a core region, the Persian inhabitants are still not the majority in the Mesopotamian plain, and the main peoples of the plain are still the Babylonians and the Medes, but they have always been submissive to Persia, and Persia is almost equal to them. They were treated by outsiders as part of the real Persia.

But in reality there was a difference between the two! The Babylonians in particular, having been ruled by several foreign races over the centuries, were accustomed to being indifferent to wars between nations, and as long as their interests were not infringed upon, they could accept whoever came to rule the Mesopotamian plains. Therefore, it may be an important reason why Cyrus the Lesser led his army into the Mesopotamian plains from Asia Minor, almost approaching Babylon, without any hindrance along the way.

I don't know if Artaxerxes ever resented this, but the information from Mazias shows that he apparently trusted the Persian nobles of Susa and Persepolis, who had supported him during that turbulent period, more, and later gave them more power and preferential treatment, and even rewarded them with some lands in the Mesopotamian plain, while these Persian nobles were in Mesopotamia. Although Altaxerxes realized the problem and mediated, the Mesopotamian people's discontent with the Persians did not go away.

Your Majesty, if our army, after defeating the Persian army, would treat the people of Mesopotamia with no offense and promise them some benefits, they would see us as the masters of the land and would open their gates to welcome us! ......"