Chapter 41: Hellish Siege (Next)

"Report, the Persians are out of the canyon and have come after them!"

 "Very good. How many are there?"

 "There are about six or seven thousand of them, and they all seem to be archers and bow riders!"

 "Damn the Persians! Must have had the ludicrous idea of crushing us all with their bows and arrows!"

 "That's just right! The more they come, the more we kill!"

 "Can Davos hold it off there?"

 "That's why our attack must be fast and valiant!" Crisopus said firmly, "Gentlemen, please return to your command positions immediately and spread out in formation at once as we press on!"

 "Roar! ..." The chiefs fist pumped and began to move.

 ............... ...

 Altauzus exited the ravine and took up his battle formation impatiently, still with archers in the center and cavalry on either flank, as he had done the day before.

 Just two miles out of the mouth of the valley, the scouts returned to report, "The Greeks are coming headlong toward us!"

 Although Artaozus was in a state of exuberance, after all, he was experienced in battle, and this kind of assault tactic required maneuvering space, he didn't want to be confined to the mouth of the canyon. Thus, he immediately ordered the entire group to move to the left.

 Bow cavalry and archers were considered to be highly maneuverable, but it took time for a group of 7,000 men to change formation when they were already in battle formation, and the Greeks didn't give him that time.

 Not a moment after Artaozus gave the order, the Greeks appeared in the field of vision. He instantly tensed up, knowing very well: to make formation changes when there was an enemy advancing would undoubtedly be suicidal.

 He reordered the resumption of the battle formation, his mind rapidly calculating that in a moment, after firing two rounds of arrows to disrupt the enemy's advance, he would immediately move quickly to the left, disengage himself from contact with the Greeks, and look for the opportunity to fight again.

 His countenance soon changed, however, for the line of the Greeks opposite was long, extending far beyond his own two flanks, and lengthening to them as he marched.

 Artaozus was aware of the traditional Greek squares, they tended to pile up their arrays thickly, usually more than seven or eight columns, and use the powerful impact to crush the opponent. And now the opponent's formation is so thin that I'm afraid there are only two or three columns, why dare to do so? Artaozus immediately realized: because his side is full of light cavalry and archers, the Greeks do not need to rely on the power of numbers to crush, as usual, can win steadily.

 The Greeks are trying to surround themselves! What a carelessness! Artaozus was a bit flustered, his complexion shifting. He wanted to retreat immediately, but he felt that the formation had already been set up, and if he went back in disgrace like this, his morale would suffer, not to mention the key was the time delay.

 I have made a promise myself, at least let me shoot a round of arrows. He thought in his heart: seven thousand arrows can disrupt their formation, maybe even cause them to be confused, even if they can't there is still time to retreat.

 Thinking of this, Artaozus decided to take a chance. He quickly called his generals and instructed them to keep the order of retreat in mind ...

 When everything was arranged, he felt much relieved again, and looking at the approaching Greeks, he decided to wait until the distance between the two sides was close to about a hundred meters before ordering the release of arrows.

 Come on, Greek barbarian come and die! He laughed. However, at a distance of about two hundred meters, the sound of brass trumpets rang out from the opposite side, and the Greeks actually stopped advancing! He was in a hurry, but he did not want to let the troops to force forward, from the attack immediately turned to retreat is easy to produce confusion, and Artaozus just want to retreat smoothly, it is better to continue to wait for the Greeks to attack, he now feel that more troops also have the disadvantage of command is not smooth.

 Then, with a start, he saw countless arms reach out from the back of the Greek heavy infantry across the street and start circling around his head.

 Stone throwers! Artaozus was shocked, he remembered that there were no stone throwers in the Greek mercenaries, how come they suddenly had them again?

 At this time, there is no time to allow him to think carefully, countless fist-sized stones like hail as intensively smashed to the middle of the Persian army, these Persian archers are drawing their bows ready to fire, instantly struck by this blow, no armor to protect them, was smashed head broken and bloody, and even more directly smashed fainted...

 The center of the Persian army was in disarray.

 The stone throwers were fired so frequently that in an instant the opposing array threw up another cloud of flying stones that obscured the sky ...

 Artaozus, his eyes red with anxiety, shouted at the top of his lungs, "Retreat! Retreat quickly! ..."

 The trumpeter was about to blow the horn, but the opposite side of the high-pitched brass trumpet sounded first, the original static Greek heavy infantry yelled: "Ares!!!" Started to open stride, rushing towards the Persians, the entire Greek line as a surging tide, fearless of the reefs and shoals ahead, vowing to engulf the land, that is the powerful momentum of the unrelenting, enough to break the Persians already weak morale, and even in the Greek army in front of the middle of the road to crack open a channel, surging dozens of cavalrymen, a horse in front of the enemy Persians charging.

 The Persians were in full collapse! They completely disregarded the general's orders, and even wrapped them up and ran backward so hard that the pre-arranged order of retreat could not be carried out at all, and the cavalry, the bowmen, the right flank, the left flank, and the middle road swarmed toward the mouth of the canyon, with one thought in their minds: to get away from those horrible Greeks!

 Defeated! Defeated! Defeated before firing a single arrow! Artaozus had participated in the Battle of Kunasak before, as a teammate he cheered for the Greeks to easily defeat the Persian King's army. And now when he personally faced the Greeks charging, he felt the fear of the Greek heavy infantry, at this moment his brain was blank, just clasping his hands around the horse's neck, surrounded by his retainers, he rushed towards the mouth of the canyon. Because he was in the rear ranks of the middle road, closest to the mouth of the ravine, he and his squire cavalry ran almost at the front of the Persian army.

 Ahead was the mouth of the valley, where the vast space narrowed abruptly, and the steep, rolling peaks made it so that the air could only flow at the mouth of the canyon, making it almost impossible for Artaozus, who had just entered the valley, to keep his eyes open from the fierce mountain winds.

 "Heave!" He clenched his horse's belly, knowing very well in his mind: the faster he rushed through the canyon, the less he would lose some men and horses!

 The road through the canyon was not a straight line, but a curved "s" shape, which was not a problem for the Persian cavalrymen who had been riding on the battlefield for many years, and they controlled their horses well, and even though there was a curve ahead, they did not slow down their horses too much.

 Just as they turned sharply over the foot of the hill, there appeared in front of them a wall half a man high, simply piled and cut from stone and wood, and Artaozus and his squire cavalry, unable to strangle their horses, crashed straight into it, and at once there were shouts of men and horses, and screams of misery ...

 Artaozus was thrown off his feet, and the last sight he saw was the rapidly enlarging mountain wall in front of him ...

 The Persian rout entered the ravine like a wild torrent, filling it to overflowing and pushing forward ...

 While the remaining cavalrymen in front were horrified and stopped advancing, the soldiers in the rear were still desperately running forward ...

 Then a more tragic scene took place: the soldiers in front were crowded down, and before they could get up, they were trampled by the soldiers pouring in behind them, who, struggling desperately, tripped over the advancing soldiers, and then the routed soldiers behind them were still pouring in frantically in order to escape from the Greeks' killings ...

 Inside the canyon people are constantly falling, being trampled, falling, trampling ... Behind the stone wall, Persians are piled up in layers stretching all the way to the mouth of the canyon, some soldiers have been trampled to mincemeat, while others are still struggling, wailing in the streams of blood ... It is simply like earthly Purgatory!

 "Put up a shield wall!"

 "Javelin ready!"

 Seeing the Persian soldiers crowded in front of the stone wall, Davos, though a little nervous, still had a clear mind and pronounced his orders in turn!

 The Persians who struggled to climb over the stone wall were first met by the javelins of the light shield soldiers led by Epithenes, then the Greek heavy infantry in dense formation formed a shield wall to block their way, and the soldiers in the first four columns had their chests pressed against their backs to give strength to support the soldiers in the first column, and their bayonets were able to reach in front of the soldiers in the first column, and together they formed a wall of spears that blocked the access road tightly and easily stabbed the Persians down as they fled in panic and were unorganized. organized Persians.

 Davos let his soldiers carry stones and wood and simply piled up this stone wall, the intention was to prevent the onslaught of the Persian cavalry, because once the horses were allowed to run madly, the heavy infantrymen, even if they lined up in more columns, might not be able to block it and would suffer heavy losses, so they used the barricade to slow down the Persian cavalry. Unexpectedly, the stone wall had an effect far beyond imagination, it blocked the ravine with piles of corpses, making it impossible for the forces of the routed soldiers to converge and storm the defensive line organized by Davos.

 The battle didn't last long and the Persian routed soldiers, in a dire situation with pursuers behind them, no way out in front of them, and hell in between, had a complete mental breakdown and surrendered ...

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