Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 260: Taposacus Battle (2)
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After more than half an hour, almost all the Dionian troops completed the array. Quiet quickly returned to this side, while the Persian side was still noisy.
Two days ago, Artaxerxes listened to Trebasus's account of the situation in the Dionian camp, and he was more confident in winning the battle. Now he stands high on the carriage and can see the situation on the opposite side clearly. The fast and efficient formation of the Dionian army is too obvious compared with the chaos and procrastination of his own side. It makes him a little uneasy again, and he has his vision. The place was completely black, and the uniform sense of oppression made his heart palpitating, which made him shout involuntarily: "Terrebasus, urge the troops to speed up the formation! Speed up the formation!"
"Yes, King!"
After the formation of the Dionian army was completed, the sun was almost in the middle of the sky, and the soldiers successively received orders from the team officers: "Hurry up and add some food."
Just as the soldiers of the First Division of the Second Battalion of the First Army were chewing the bread they carried and passing water sacs to each other, someone exclaimed: "Squad leader, look! The Persians really have elephants!"
Alsinius, who was standing at the back of the detachment and serving the soldiers, immediately walked to the front of the queue and looked forward, only to see dozens of heads in the Persian army on the opposite side with tunics and fangs tied. Under the command of the mahout, the sword-like elephant is slowly walking to the forefront of the Persian array.
Elephants are huge in size, and are particularly eye-catching compared with the surrounding army. Their appearance immediately caused a commotion among the soldiers of the First Army and the surrounding Army.
Alsinius took a deep breath, turned around and shouted to the soldiers who were discussing: "The Captain of the Martonis Legion has already told us that there may be war elephants in the Persian army. What can you do? Strange!"
"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 will be terrible once it becomes mad, don't take it lightly!" Alsinius reminded him, and then smiled again: "But the Persians don’t know that we’ve seen it at the Turíy Zoo a long time ago. How many times have I thought that using an elephant will scare us, and then we will in turn let the Persians suffer from the abuse of elephants!"
"Captain, don't worry, we are not afraid of elephants. We just think elephants are so cute. It would be a shame to die in this battle." Another soldier said half-jokingly and half-seriously.
Another soldier immediately answered: "I didn’t feel a pity. It’s not our fault that these elephants died in the battle. On the contrary, if you can taste the meat of the elephants after the war, how much Good!"
"Cripps, you foodie, you are not satisfied after eating so many delicious food these days! Do you think you can become as strong as an elephant by eating elephant meat!" Alsinis Smiled and scolded.
"Captain, he just thinks the things under him are too small and want to be bigger." A soldier said jokingly.
The soldiers laughed.
……………………………………………………………………
More than an hour later, the Persian army was finally lined up.
At the forefront of the middle road are the loosely formed Persian archers, followed by the Indian war elephants and sickle chariots lined up. The war elephants are in the center, the chariots are on both sides, and there are 3000 Persian armored men behind. The cavalry, 20,000 Greek heavy infantry and 10,000 undead troops were deployed behind the cavalry. Artaxerxes is in the rear, behind him are ethnic forces from Mesopotamia and the coast of the Persian Gulf.
At the forefront of the right wing is a mixed army of Persian archers and archers from Armenia, Parthia, and Medes, followed by 100 tanks from Medes and Babylon, followed by Dukeya and Ami The infantry of Leah and Persia, followed by a team composed of tribes around the Caspian Sea, such as the Sylkaria, the Tapulians, and so on. At the far right end of the right wing there are more than 10,000 cavalry from Amería, Parthia, and Medes.
At the forefront of the left wing are the mixed archers of Persia, Arabia, Bactria, and Alahosia, followed by Persia, Carria, and East Uxian and Sitakinis east of Susa. The infantry was followed by the Far Eastern ethnic forces headed by Alahosia and Bactria. At the far left of the left wing, there are more than 10,000 cavalry led by Persia, Scythian, and Bactria, and 500 camel cavalry from Arabia are at the forefront.
From the Persian formation, we can see that the Persian formation has a solid depth, and the road is the strongest.
The reason why the Persians made this arrangement is that the Dionian army has a large number of heavy infantry and strong close combat capabilities, so the depth is increased to enhance the stalemate ability in close combat. Whether it is for safety reasons or to eliminate Altaxerxes’ fear (Altaxerxes was injured by Cyrus’s javelin in the battle against Cyrus, there is a psychological shadow), in the middle of the road Strength must be strengthened.
Therefore, Lalabassius 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, and then use armored cavalry to disrupt the enemy’s heavy infantry completely, and the Greek heavy infantry and the undead army. Keep up with the charge, completely overwhelm the enemy, and win the battle...
Altaxerxes finally adopted his suggestion.
The formation adopted by the Dionian army is:
The 1st Army, 4th Army, 7th Army, and Fifteenth Army of the Twelfth Army are deployed in a checkerboard formation. When combined, they are 10 columns thick, and there are 5 light infantry battalions in the center of the rear. , The commander of the entire middle road is Matonis.
The left wing consists of the Second Army, Fifth Army, Eighth Army, Fourteenth Army, and Sixteenth Army in a checkerboard formation. When combined, it is 10 rows thick, and there are no other troops behind;
The leftmost end of the left wing consists of the 1st Cavalry Regiment, the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, the Gallic Cavalry Regiment, and 2000 Numibian light cavalry. At the rear are nine light armoured battalions. There are 6 light infantry groups and 2,000 Barriari slingers in the rear.
The right wing consists of the 3rd Army, the 6th Army, the 11th Army, the 13th Army, and the Seventeenth Army in a checkerboard formation, with a combined thickness of 10 columns, and there are no other troops behind.
The front row at the far right end of the right wing consists of the Second Cavalry Regiment, the Fourth Cavalry Regiment, the Iberian Cavalry Regiment and 2000 Numibian Light Cavalry. At the rear are 6 light infantry groups and 2,000 Barriari slingers.
The command center where King Davers is located is at the rear of the middle road. In addition to the guards of the palace guards, there are also the 18th, 19th, and 21st regiments on its left and right as reserves.
From the formations listed by the Dionian army, it can be seen that Dionian gathered heavy troops on the two ends of the two wings, apparently trying to defeat the Persian cavalry first, and then outflank the two wings. The Persian cavalry is obviously stronger than Dionia, and Daves actually wants to start from the strongest position of the enemy.
Although the number of the Persian army is twice that of the Dionian army, due to the caution of the Persian King Artaxerxes, the depth of the array is obviously increased, and the Dionian army is due to the self-confidence of King Davos. , The infantry array only maintains the thickness of 10 columns, so the length of the two formations is almost the same, both are as long as 15 miles.
The sources of the Persian army’s arms are complex. Not only are the clothes and weapons different, but the soldiers themselves are also very different. Therefore, even though the entire formation is mostly dense arrays and standing on a flat battlefield, they are experienced The Dionian scouts can still roughly judge the front force arrangement of the Persian formation through careful observation.
Almost all of Dionia’s army is black helmet and black armor. The arms are relatively simple, and Daves deliberately prevents the enemy from seeing the reality of the array, so the heavy infantry and cavalry at the forefront of the formation are lined up and can be covered. After the enemy's line of sight on the opposite side, the troops in the rear began to be deployed.
At the same time, Daves also specifically ordered: Soldiers behind the array must not raise their weapons before fighting!
At this moment, Felicius and his staff have drawn a sketch of the front force distribution of the entire Persian formation based on the report of the scouts.
Daves took the wooden plank he handed over, and after carefully reading the sketch above, he was slightly surprised: "Hey, the Persians have 100 more chariots. This is a bit different from the number Izam told us. "
"Maybe I just arrived recently." Phillips explained.
Daves thought for a while, and quickly made a decision: "Then let the right-wing light infantry brigade separate 2,000 men first to deal with these tanks."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Phillips immediately went to deliver the order.
"Your Majesty, it's past noon, let's have something to eat first." Hernipolis reminded him from the side.
"I'm not hungry yet." Hernipolis had asked several times, so Daves waved his hand a little impatiently. After the messenger set out, he always looked to the left with concern, even though it was impossible to see the mobilization of troops miles away from his position.
After a while, he suddenly realized something and asked: "Hylonimus and Amintas have they eaten?"
Before Henipolis could answer, Hironimos’ voice came from behind: "Your Majesty, we are old and we don’t participate in the battle. It doesn’t matter whether we eat lunch or not—"
"Yes, Your Majesty, we don't have any leisure time to eat, just wait for the battle to start!" Amintas interjected impatiently.
"Don't worry." Daves said calmly: "The more time is delayed, the more disadvantaged the Persians..."
As he was talking, Izam galloped from the left on horseback and shouted loudly: "Your Majesty, I have found the position of the Xocokant tribal warrior in the Persian army!"