Chapter 41 \nâReport, the Persians came out of the valley and are already came chasing!â\nâVery good. How many people?â
âThere are about 6,000~7,000 people, all of whom seems to be archers and mounted archers!â
âDamn Persian! They must have a ridiculous idea of using arrows to defeat us all!â
âThat is just right! The more that comes, the more we kill!â
âCan Davos block them?â
âThat is why, our attack must be fast and powerful!â Cheirisophus firmly said, âEveryone, return to your command post at once and immediately spread out the formation, and move out!â
âHou!!âŠâ The leaders are itching for a fight and began to move out.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
When Artaozus left the valley, he couldnât wait to spread out his battle formation, and just like the day before yesterday, the archers were in the middle and the cavalry were on both wings.\nJust 2 miles after leaving the mouth of the valley, the scout came back to report, âThe Greeks are coming toward us!â
Although Artaozus was in high spirit, he after all has a lot of combat experience. He doesnât want to be confined near the mouth of the valley due to his attack tactics needing space to maneuver. So he immediately ordered his entire troops to move to the left.
The archers and mounted archers are all highly mobile, but it still takes time for 7,000-man troops to change their battle formation, which the Greeks did not give them.
Not long after Artaozus gave his instruction, the Greeks appeared in his sight. He suddenly became nervous, and he clearly knows that it is seeking death to change formation while the enemy is advancing.
He ordered that the battle formation be restored and quickly thought it in his mind that in a little while, after 2 rounds of arrows are fired, the advance of the enemy will be disrupted and they should quickly move to the left, breaking away from the Greeks and finding another opportunity to fight.
However, his face quickly changed, because the Greekâs front line was very long, it far exceeded both his wings, and as they move to their direction, both wings continuously extend.
Artaozus is aware of the traditional Greek phalanx. They often piled the formation very thickly, usually more than 7~8 rows, and crushed the other side with a powerful impact. Now the other sideâs formation is so thin that they only have 2~3 rows, why did they dare do that? Artaozus soon understood that it is due to their side being all mounted archers and archers, the Greeks can still win without using the strength of numerous people to crush them.
The Greeks wanted to surround them! He was careless! Artaozus was a little flustered and his expression change to confusion. He wanted to immediately withdraw, but he felt that since the formation was already been spread out, and if they dejectedly went back, then the morale would be affected, and the important thing is that they will be delayed.
He had made an oath. He thought to himself that even if they donât have the time left to retreat, they should at least shoot a round of arrows, 7,000 arrows can disrupt the Greekâs formation and may even cause chaos.\nWith this in mind, Artaozus decided to take risks. He quickly called the officers under his command and told them to remember the order of withdrawalâŠ
When everything was properly arranged, he felt a lot more relieved. Looking at the approaching Greeks, he decided to wait and instructed the arrows to be fired when the distance between the two sides is about 100 meters.
Come on, Greek barbarians, come and die! He smiled maliciously. However, at a distance of about 200 meters, a brass bugle sounded on the opposite side, and the greek stopped moving forward! He was anxious, but he doesnât want his troops to move forward, because it is easy to cause chaos when turning a sudden attack to a retreat, while Artaozus only wanted a smooth retreat. But if he wait for the Greeks to attack, he now felt that there are too many troops and there might be some problems on the commands due to inconsistency.
Then he saw the Greek hoplites facing him stretch out countless arms behind and started swinging overhead.
Slingers!! Artaozus was so frightened that he remembered that there were no slingers in the Greek mercenaries, why did they appear all of a sudden?!
Then he doesnât have the time to think about it, countless fist-sized stones crashed into the middle of the Persian army like hailstones. These Persian archers were drawing their bows, when they suddenly got hit. They arenât protected by armor, and their head got badly battered and even directly got knocked unconsciousâŠ
There was chaos in the Persian army.
The rate of the slingers are very fast, and soon another flying stones was thrown from the other sideâs formation, which have covered the skyâŠ
Artaozusâs eyes turned red from anxiousness and hoarsely shouted, âRetreat! QUICKLY RETREAT!âŠâ
\nWhen the rest of the cavalry at the forefront stopped moving in horror, the soldiers in the rear were still desperately runningâŠ
Therefore, a more tragic scene happened. The soldiers at the front were crushed and trampled by the soldiers coming from behind, while the struggling soldiers end up tripping the rushing soldiers, and the defeated soldiers still crazily pouring in, in order to escape the slaughtering of the GreeksâŠ
Inside the valley, people fell, trampled, fell, trampled⊠Behind the stone wall, the Persians piled up in layers extending all the way to the entrance of the valley, and even some of the soldiers have been trampled into minced meat, while the others are still struggling and screaming in the river of blood⊠itâs hell on earth!
âVertical shield wall!â
As Davos saw the Persian soldiers pushing each other in front of the stone wall, although he was slightly nervous, he still calmly transmitted his orders very clearly!
The peltast led by Epiphanes first shot those Persians that are struggling to climb the stone wall. Then the Greek hoplites formed a shield wall in a dense formation so that they can block their path, and the soldiers in the front four rows stuck their chest on the back of the soldiers that are in the first row in order to support them, and their spears can also reach in front of the soldiers on the first row and together, formed a wall of spear that tightly block the path and easily stab the panicked and unorganized Persians that are trying to flee.
Davos simply build the stone wall by asking the soldiers to carry stones and wood. His original intention was to prevent the charge of the Persian cavalry, because even if there are multiple rows of hoplites, they wonât necessarily be able to block a horse once it goes wild, and they would suffer heavy losses. Therefore, he used a barricade to slow down the Persian cavalry. Unexpectedly, the effect of the stone wall was far beyond his imagination, the valley was blocked with mountain of corpses and it made it impossible for the defeated force to gather together to attack Davosâ line of defense.
The battle did not last long, there is no way out for the defeated Persians that were being followed by pursuers in the middle of hell, they completely had a mental breakdown and surrendered one after anotherâŠ