Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Davos narrowed his eyes, his sharp gaze passed through the soldiers fighting in front of him, through the dusty fog, and saw the Persian banners waving in the wind gradually getting bigger and bigger in his vision, and he couldn't help but smile.

When Artaxerxes ordered all the reserve troops to press on, his royal carriage also had to follow the large force slowly forward, if still stay where they are, the periphery will only be left to escort his royal guard, only a few thousand people, but also too visible, so that he felt very insecure.

The driver carefully drove the four "Niseiya horses" that carried the royal carriage (these white horses came from the Niseiya plain, the most fertile land in the Zagros Valley, and were considered by the Midi as the finest and tallest horses, and were offered as tribute to Assyria. The Persian royal family sanctified it, claiming that it was a sacred object given by the gods to the Achaemenid royal family, and that no one could possess it except Persian officials licensed by the king) followed the reserve troops towards the battlefield where the battle was raging.

Artaxerxes, who felt that the advance of the reserve troops was too slow, was about to give an order to Trebasus to urge the troops ahead to speed up, when he saw the minister suddenly stop his horse, put his hand on his forehead and look up at the sky, while the royal guards beside him did the same thing.

Artaxerxes subconsciously looked at the sky in front of him.

The sun was already to the west, Artaxerxes hastily raised his eyes, even with the dust and fog, he felt the sun shining brightly, and hurriedly closed his eyes, and was about to open them, when he heard Trebassus shouting in panic: "Crossbow! It's the Dyonian crossbow firing stones!"

Artaxerxes was startled, ignoring the stinging pain in his eyes, and opened his eyes in a panic, he saw a dozen round black shadows flying overhead, followed by a roar from the rear.

Artaxerxes looked back, a dozen meters away from him, dust and dirt, dozens of coconut-sized round stones smashed out of a crater.

Artaxerxes suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

"My Lord, the Dionysians are trying to attack you with crossbows! Quickly! Retreat back quickly!" Without asking the Persian king's permission, Trebassus eagerly asked the carriage to turn around and retreat.

The Persian king's luxurious carriage was pulled by "four Nisei horses", which was not only larger but also heavier than ordinary carriages, so it was not easy to make a quick turn, let alone turn around.

At this moment, in the rear of the Dionysian infantry formation, a simple three-meter-high post had been erected at some point. Under the control of the engineering battalion laborers, experienced crossbow watchers were standing on the post, looking ahead and quickly correcting the crossbow firing data according to the impact point of the first round of stone bullets and the position of the Persian king's carriage, and loudly reporting to the crossbow unit next to the post.

The crossbowmen quickly adjusted the elevation angle of the crossbow and the strength of the drawn string ...... Soon, the second round of stone bullets were ejected.

At this time, the carriage Artaxerxes was still turning around, but saw dozens of stone bombs whistling down in mid-air.

The first one landed next to the carriage and smashed a royal guard to pieces, splashing brains and blood even onto Artaxerxes' face.

In an instant, Artaxerxes' mind went blank and stood dumbfounded, not reacting to the guards' panicked shouts.

"Boom!" Another stone bomb smashed down in front of the Nisei white horses, splashing dust hit their bodies, and the fertilized white horses, realizing the danger, fought to break free from the yoke of the carriage, not listening to the command of the harness.

The carriage, in a violent shaking, actually threw the disoriented Artaxerxes out.

"Maharaja!!! ......" The royal guards rushed to the rescue as they panicked, and at that exact moment, a stone bullet hit the carriage right in the middle of the carriage, and suddenly wood splinters flew everywhere and screams of misery were heard.

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The Persian senior generals knew that crossbows were a powerful siege weapon made by the Dionysians, and siege equipment was rarely used in field battles between armies, so they were caught in a dead end, never expecting the Dionysian army to use crossbows to attack themselves in a battle, and therefore entered the range of the crossbows completely unprepared.

In fact, before the battle began, Davos had ordered 30 crossbows to be placed behind the center, and although he was lucky to use the tactic of decapitation, he did not have much hope that it could be achieved, because as far as Davos knew, King Artaxerxes of Persia had rarely been at the front line of the battle in previous battles.

The focus of the crossbow attack was not in the middle, but on the Persian right flank, in the rear of the Dukeya forces, to prevent their timely rescue of the front.

According to the Dionysian military system, a legion was equipped with 10 cannons, so there were nearly 200 crossbows in the army led by Davos, 170 of which were concentrated at the end of the left flank of the Dionysian army, facing the Dukeya forces. While the Kesokant tribe was defeated, the crossbow units here also set up their posts in time to closely observe the movements of the enemy's reserve forces.

Just as the crossbows in the middle aimed at the Persian king's wagon, some of the reserve troops on the right flank had already been bombarded with stone bullets, as they were in a hurry to rescue them and had entered the range of the crossbows early.

The stone bullets fired by individual crossbows actually did not cause much killing damage, but the concentrated firing of 170 crossbows not only made an amazing noise, but also caused a horrible killing effect, which could create a small bloody scene of flesh and blood as long as it landed in the general range.

The front-line troops Artaxerxes placed in the battle were either the elite of the Persian army or the troops of the affiliated races with fierce fighting power, while most of the reserve troops were of average fighting power, and the troops of the Caspian states located behind the Dukeya troops were not even willing to contribute to Persia, and came here just to cope with the errand, but they were asked by the Persians to come to their rescue urgently. After a few rounds of stone bombing, their already low morale was gone and many of them fled in panic ......

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During the time when the Persian right flank messenger went to ask the Persian king for help, the well-prepared soldiers of the Dionysian legion poured into the gap of the Persian line and then, together with the warriors of the Kesokant tribe, launched a fierce attack on the Persian archers who rushed to close the gap.

By the time the Persian reserve troops moved out, the Persian archers who had suffered a lot of casualties were already forced to retreat. Taking advantage of the confusion caused by the crossbow attacks on the Persian reinforcements halfway, countless Dionysian legionnaires kept rushing through the gap in the Persian line and attacked the flanks and rear of the Dukeya army on both sides of the gap.

The already demoralized Dukeya warriors suffered a back-and-forth attack and quickly collapsed. Some even responded to the Kesokant tribal warriors and threw themselves into the Daeonian side.

When the messenger reported the battle situation on the left flank to the command center, there was laughter, both the veteran generals and the young staff officers were all in a state of excitement, for they knew that the victory had been decided.

With a smile on his face as well, Davos asked, "What is the status of the cavalry battle on the two flanks?"

Felicius replied in a loud voice: "Your Majesty, the Persian cavalry has begun to collapse, and our cavalry is reorganizing its formation and preparing to attack the flanks of the enemy formation on both flanks."

"Very well! Very good! Very good!" Davos praised three times in a row, his face smiled even more, his heart completely relaxed, and looked back at his old comrades who were also laughing easily: "It's very hot, everyone is thirsty, right? Herney, share the syrupy water you brought with you to drink."

"Your Majesty, it's no fun to drink syrupy water, we want to drink wine in the royal palace of Babylon!" Amintas said loudly in jest.

"Hahahaha ......" The crowd laughed.

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Although the Dionysian legionnaires continued to defeat the enemy on the left flank and widen the gap in the enemy line, and although the Dionysian cavalry and light armor turned to attack the flanks of the enemy line after defeating the Persian cavalry ...... the Dionysian army had the key to victory, full victory would not come soon for the huge battlefield that stretched for more than ten miles.

It was almost dusk before the Persian army completely collapsed. Fighting to the last were the undead Persian army and Greek mercenaries in the middle, and thus caught in a heavy siege from which they could not escape.

As a result of this battle, the best Persian troops suffered heavy losses, such as Mardonios, Halpergus, Peshitidai and other senior Persian generals were either captured or killed in battle, and the only regret was that Artaxerxes escaped from the battlefield.

Therefore, Davos, who had won the battle, gave orders for the cavalry to continue to pursue the routed troops, and for the legions to shorten their rest time and speed up their march to Babylon.

The fastest pursuers were of course the Numibian light cavalry, who did not have much advantage in the battle against the Scythian cavalry and other light troops in the Persian mixed cavalry force, but since the main body of Persian cavalry had been defeated and their opponents had no desire to fight and fled, they started to rest in the second half of the battle, and thus had more physical strength than the other troops.

The Numibian cavalry's furious advance made the city of Nisefonia, which was not far from the battlefield, lack sufficient defenses and was burst into the city when it received the routed troops, and finally had to surrender.

Before Davos entered the city to rest, he sent a messenger to the west to tell Leotichides, who was hurrying in, that the Dionysian army had completely defeated the Persian army and that he should not lead his army to the rendezvous, but return to Asia Minor and conquer the region once and for all.

Early the next morning, the Dionysian cavalry force continued its pursuit eastward and caught up with Artaxerxes and the royal escort along a tributary on the northern bank of the Euphrates.

Even his most trusted royal guard had fled in the dark, with less than 500 men at his side.

After he himself was attacked by the crossbow and fell from the carriage, he fell into a coma at the age of over 60 after such a strong impact, and has not yet awakened, which also slowed down their escape.

After being overtaken by the Dionysian cavalry, Trebassus, who was still following the Persian king, led the remaining guards and simply chose to surrender, while demanding that Artaxerxes be given the courtesy due to a king.

Davos, who arrived later, readily agreed and also sent the best healers in the army to treat him.

With the Persian king in hand, the Dionysian army attacked more smoothly to the east, and important towns on the banks of the Indus River, such as Korsotti and Talmand, opened their cities and surrendered.

In early December, the Dionysian army entered the Babylonian region.

When the troops of Davos' army passed through a small village and town, each of the veteran generals of the army became excited, because the name of the village was Kunasak.

"Back then, we camped here! I still remember that the tent I was staying in seemed to be in this location!"

"That way! Over there is the battlefield! We crushed the Persian king's left flank with a single charge, but unfortunately, little Cyrus was too reckless, otherwise that battle should have been won by us ......"

"What's the pity about it! Fortunately, he failed, so that His Majesty would stand out and lead us to create Dionysia, so that we could return here today as conquerors!"

"That's right, we all have His Majesty to thank for that! Long live Your Majesty!"

"Your Majesty!!!"

While the veterans cheered Davos from the bottom of their hearts to express their gratitude, Davos, the king of Dionysia and the new ruler of the Mediterranean, rode on his war horse as if he were a clay statue, staring at the empty space where Georgios stood in front of him with a lot of emotions: there he was reborn from a Chinese citizen in the 21st century to a lowly mercenary in the ancient Greek era, struggling to survive from the beginning to create Dionysia, struggling for more than 30 years in this strange world ......

At the moment the past flashed by his mind at a rapid pace, as if a dream.

"Report! Your Majesty, Babylon has opened the city and surrendered, and the vanguard troops led by Warlord Cuchius have entered the city!" The shout of the messenger woke up the dazed Davos, who looked around at the soldiers who had already started to cheer, and a smile slowly bloomed on his face: No, this is not a dream! This is the ancient Mediterranean world in turmoil! And I, Hades. And I, Hades Davos, am now the most powerful man in this world!

He waved his right hand: "Let's go! Let's go to Babylon!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" The crowd responded in unison, and thousands of generals excitedly surrounded the great king, racing towards the great eastern city that had opened its arms to them ......

(End of the book)