Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece - Chapter 1291

[Chapter 240 The Battle of Asia Minor (1)]

Fanabazos expressed his concerns, but most of the governors still insisted on fighting the Greek coalition here. In addition to the Persian nobles despising the arrogance of the Greeks, there is another important reason for the position of the two armies at this time. On the southwestern edge of the Misia region, not far from the coast, the number of Persian troops is huge, and the military rations are hugely consumed. Coupled with the continuous pursuit for more than ten days, the logistics and transportation lines have been sharply stretched, and supplies have become difficult. The nearby towns Most of them surrendered to the Greek coalition forces, and the fleet of the Greek coalition forces controlled the nearby waters, and the logistical supplies had an advantage. Efforts in vain would also lead to the loss of Persian prestige in the region.

Under their insistence, Phanabazos finally firmed up his determination to fight the Greek coalition here.

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When he heard the news that “the Persian army is marching towards the camp”, Leoticides, who had been prepared for a long time, immediately Send messengers to notify the Allied generals to assemble their respective armies and prepare to leave the camp to meet.

At a distance of about a mile, the armies of both sides began to form.

The Persian Asia Minor Coalition Army is composed of troops from various regions in western Asia Minor, Greek mercenaries, reinforcements from the city-states of Eugene, and reinforcements in eastern Asia Minor, with a total of nearly 80,000 soldiers.

Since there are many Greek city-states in the western part of Asia Minor and the Sea of Eugene, this Persian army is somewhat different from the traditional Persian army, and Phanabaszos has learned the lessons of fighting against the Greeks in the past, and specially made military mobilization. Emphasizes that each region should recruit as many Greek city-state infantry as possible, so in addition to the 15,000 Greek mercenaries led by Jason, there are more than 6,000 Greek heavy infantry who are not weak in combat in the entire army, as well as from eastern Asia Minor The Persian cavalry, the Mesopotamia cavalry, and the cavalry in other regions, the total number of cavalry exceeds 8,000. In addition, there are more than 40,000 traditional Persian infantry and archers, with a ratio of about 1:2.

Archers and cavalry were originally Persian’s strengths, but the original weakness – infantry was also strengthened, and the number of troops was also larger than the opponent’s. He was very confident, so he adopted a relatively balanced formation: the Greek heavy infantry was at the forefront of the infantry formation on the left, center and right flanks, Jason’s mercenaries were mainly located in the middle, with 4,000 cavalry at each end, bows and arrows. The hand is behind the infantry formation…

Leoticides and the allied generals were not in a hurry to form the formation, but stood at a high place and observed the situation of the Persian formation for a while, and they felt that it did not exceed their expectations. Only then did I start to arrange the formation according to the plan drawn up last night.

The Greek coalition consists of three Dionian legions and a cavalry legion of nearly 30,000 people, the Greek and Ionian Islands army of about 27,000 people, and the Central Italian Confederation army of 7,000 people, a total of about 65,000 people.

Among them, there are more than 35,000 heavy infantry. In addition, there are more than 2,000 medium-sized infantry in the Central Italian Allied Army. They clearly have the upper hand in the medium and heavy infantry

. , and other Greek city-state cavalry, a total of more than 3,000 cavalry, less than half of the Persian cavalry.

In terms of light infantry, there were three light infantry battalions of the Dionian Legion, more than 1,000 Epirus light shield soldiers recruited by Leoticides in the mountains around Thessaly, 2,000 light infantry from the Allied armies in central Italy, There are also nearly 3,000 light infantry provided by the Greek city-states. The total number of light infantry is close to 10,000, but it is still far less than the number of Persian archers, and the javelin is the majority among them. The range is obviously not as good as the Persian army.

According to the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy and our troops and the difference in quantity, the formation listed by Leoticides is: the middle is mainly Dionia, and there are a small number of Greek soldiers; the right wing is the Greek city-state army; the left wing is the front row. The Dionian soldiers, the Allied soldiers in central Italy at the rear; and the cavalry were not placed at the ends of the army line, but at the rear of the center.

The entire formation of the Dionysian army is not completely parallel to the Persian army. Its right flank is slightly forward and the left flank is slightly behind. It is actually an oblique formation, but the formation of the Thebes coalition in the battle with Leuctra is slightly different. The difference is that Leoticides did not thicken his right flank, but he combined the Spartans led by Agesilaus, the Holy Team of Thebes led by Ipamironda, and Ifikrates. Led by the elite heavy infantry of Athens, the most powerful army of the three Greek allies was placed on the far right of the right flank.

From a distance, the right flank of the entire Greek coalition is all Greek heavy infantry (Leoticides even strictly forbid the Spartans to wear red cloaks), and even the thickness of the array is the same, making it impossible for the Persians to make accurate Judgment – The focus of the offensive of the Greek coalition is on the right flank.

In fact, Leoticides’ meticulous arrangement did play a role. It took more than an hour for the two armies to form their formations, and neither launched an attack immediately. During this confrontation, the Persian military commander Fanaba Zoss has a general understanding of the formation of the Greek coalition, but has not made any adjustments to the formation, apparently thinking that the opponent’s formation is not surprising and the Persian army is completely capable of dealing with it.

But the reason why he didn’t give the order to attack was because the Greek coalition was located at a high place, and the Persian army would be disadvantaged in attacking upwards. Therefore, he never ordered the whole army to advance, just to see if the other party could attack first. The Greek coalition had to go down a gentle slope and fight them on the flat ground.

But obviously the Greek coalition commander is very cautious, and the control of the entire force is relatively effective.

From a distance, the soldiers of the Greek coalition army are like standing little trees, neatly planted on the half slope of the hill… This makes Fanabazos more cautious.

But after the confrontation between the two sides for half an hour, the Persian generals couldn’t bear it anymore, and rushed to question Fanabazos, because it was noon and the weather was hot, and standing for a long time was exhausting to the soldiers. If it goes on like this, they may not be able to fight and can only retreat.

Even Theopumpus, the governor of Misia, threatened that if Phanabaszos did not give the order to attack, he would lead the Misian army alone and attack the Greeks.

Fanabazus couldn’t resist everyone’s insistence, but he did not immediately order the entire army to attack, but first notified the archers to move to the front of the formation.

After completing this formation change, he ordered again: the large force does not move, the archers advance and attack the Greek coalition at a distance.

More than 20,000 Persian archers lined up in a loose formation of six or seven miles to approach the Greek coalition…

Knowing this situation, Leoticides immediately ordered: All coalition light infantry moved forward to the front of the formation, do Ready to shoot.

The distance between the two armies was no more than 500 meters. The Persian archers marched faster and approached a distance of 100 meters after a while, and the enemy was still out of their range; Hand-to-hand, that’s pretty close to their range.

The officers of the Dionian Light Infantry Brigade shouted one after another: “Archers prepare!” The

archers drew their bows and arrows, and thousands of arrows were thrown into the air and scattered in the array of Persian archers. Screams rang out one after another.

Led by the Dionysian Light Infantry, other Allied archers also started firing.

Although soldiers of the Persian archers kept falling to the ground, for their huge numbers, this was just a small splash.

Moreover, in order to fight against the Persian archers, the light infantry of the Greek coalition also stretched their formation to a length of several kilometers, but their total number is less than that of the other side, and there are fewer archers among them, so the long-range attack power spread to each location is natural The weakening was a lot, not enough to cause a devastating blow to the Persian archers in this area, so the Persian archers stood firm against the arrow rain and moved faster.

When the distance was shortened to 60 or 70 meters, the javelinmen in the Dionysian light infantry brigade roared and threw heavy javelins at the Persians like lightning, and the archers also changed from projectiles at the beginning. It became a direct shot, more Persian archers fell, but at the same time their counterattack began.

The two sides shot arrows to and fro within a distance of tens of meters. Because there was not much protection, the casualties caused by the arrows and javelins that covered the sky and the sun increased sharply on both sides.

The Persian archers started to shoot hastily at the beginning, to the gradually stable output, gradually brought the whole situation back, and gradually began to gain the upper hand.

They are worthy of being one of the most powerful weapons for Persia to dominate the Middle East and Asia Minor. In addition to the well-trained Dionysian light infantry who can fight against them, the light infantry of the allies are starting to be a little weak. The Epirus light shields even covered their heads with leather shields and rushed to fight the Persian archers at close range.

The Persian archers were resolute and took out their specially equipped short blades to fight. Although the light shield soldiers were better equipped, the Persian archers actually had a slight upper hand by being more than a few.

The whole battle situation began to be a little unfavorable for the Greek coalition forces, but Leoticides, who had been watching the battle situation from a high place, did not appear anxious, he just ordered: let the entire cavalry unit move forward to the far right of the entire army formation.

Then he calmly ignored the support of the light infantry of the coalition army and stopped taking any action.

Because in his opinion, although the coalition light infantry was at a disadvantage, they took advantage of the high terrain and were able to deal with the Persian archers far more than themselves for a long time, even if they were all damaged in battle, by then the Persian archers The arrows in his hand have also been consumed almost, and there is no great threat to the infantry of the coalition army, so he would rather continue to confront, rather than give up the geographical advantage that he has finally obtained, and issue the order to attack the whole army, and he firmly believes that The patience of the Persians is probably not as good as his.

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