MTL - Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece-v9 Chapter 240 Battle of Asia Minor (1)
Phanabazos expressed his concerns, but most of the governors still insisted on fighting here with the Greek coalition forces. In addition to the Persian aristocracy's contempt for the arrogance of the Greeks, another important reason was the position of the two armies at this time. On the southwestern edge of the Missia area, not far from the coast, the Persian army has a large number and a huge consumption of rations. Coupled with more than ten days of continuous pursuit, the logistics and transportation lines have been drastically elongated and supplies have become difficult. The nearby towns Most of them were surrendered to the Greek coalition forces. In addition, the Greek coalition fleet controlled the nearby seas, and the logistics supply had the advantage. If the two sides confronted for a day or two, the Persian army would have to retreat due to the lack of food, which would not only cause the previous Efforts in vain will also lead to the loss of Persia's prestige in this area.
Under their insistence, Fana Bazos finally strengthened his determination to fight the Greek coalition forces here.
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Knowing the news that "the Persian army is marching towards the camp", Leotichides, who had been prepared, immediately sent a messenger to inform the allied generals to gather their troops and prepare to go out to fight.
At a distance of about one mile, the two armies began to line up.
The Allied Forces of Persian and Asia Minor are composed of troops from various regions in western Asia Minor, Greek mercenaries, Yoke Xinghai city state reinforcements, and eastern Asia Minor reinforcements, with a total of nearly 80,000 soldiers. Since there are many Greek city-states in western Asia Minor and Yoke Xinghai, this Persian army is somewhat different from the traditional Persian army, and Fanabazos has learned the lessons of fighting against the Greeks in the past, and specially carried out military mobilization. It was emphasized that all regions should recruit as many Greek city-state infantry as possible. Therefore, in addition to the 15,000 Greek mercenaries led by Jason, there are more than 6,000 Greek heavy infantry with strong combat effectiveness in the entire army, as well as from eastern Asia Minor. Persian cavalry, Mesopotamia cavalry, and other cavalry, the total number of cavalry exceeds 8,000, in addition to the traditional Persian infantry and archers more than 40,000, the ratio is about 1:2.
Archers and cavalry are the strengths of Persia. The original weakness-infantry has also been strengthened. In addition, the army has more troops than the opponent. Although it is not dominant in the terrain, Fanabazos still has the battle against this battle. A lot of confidence, so he adopted a relatively balanced formation: the Greek heavy infantry was at the forefront of the left, center, and right infantry arrays, and Jason’s mercenaries were mainly located in the middle, with four thousand cavalry on the left and right, bows and arrows. The hand is behind the infantry array...
Leotichides and the Allied generals were not in a rush to line up, but stood on a high place and observed the situation of the Persian lineup for a while, and felt that they did not exceed their expectations, so they started to draw up with last night without worry. The plan is arranged in formation.
The Greek coalition consists of nearly 30,000 troops from the three Dionian regiments and cavalry regiments, about 27,000 troops from Greece and the Ionian Islands, and 7,000 troops from the Allied Confederate Army in central Italy, totaling about 65,000. Among them, there are more than 35,000 heavy infantry. In addition, there are more than 2,000 medium infantrymen in the central Italian Allied Army. They clearly have the upper hand in the medium and heavy infantry. However, the cavalry only has the Dionian Sesali Cavalry Corps and the Macedonian Cavalry. , And other Greek city-state cavalry have more than 3000 cavalry, less than half of the Persian cavalry.
In terms of light infantry, there are three light infantry brigades of the Dionian regiment, more than 1,000 Epirus light shields recruited by Leotichides in the mountains around Thessaly, and 2,000 light infantry from the Allied forces in central Italy. There are also nearly 3,000 light infantry provided by the city-states of Greece. 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 javeliners are the majority, obviously inferior to the Persian army in range.
According to the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy and our arms and the difference in numbers, the formation listed by Leotichides is: the center is mainly Dionian with a small number of Greek soldiers; the right wing is the Greek city-state army; the left wing is the front row. It was a Dionian soldier, followed by a soldier of the Allied States in central Italy; and the cavalry was not placed at the ends of the army, but stayed behind the center.
The entire formation of the Dionian army was not completely parallel to the Persian army. Its right wing was slightly forward and its left wing slightly behind. In fact, it was an oblique array, but the array of the Thebes in the battle with Leuctra The difference is that Leotichides did not thicken his right wing, but he combined the Spartan fighters led by Agcilius, the Thebes Saints led by Ipamirunda, and Iphikrates. Led by the elite heavy infantry of Athens, the most combative armies of the three Greek allies were placed at the far right end of the right wing. From a distance, the right flank of the entire Greek coalition is full of Greek heavy infantry (Leotichides even forbids Spartans from wearing red cloaks), even the thickness of the array is the same, making the Persians unable to make accurate Judgment-the attack center of the Greek coalition forces is on the right wing.
In fact, Leotichides’ meticulous arrangement did make a difference. It took more than an hour for the two armies to line up their positions, and neither attacked immediately. During this period of confrontation, the Persian military commander Fanaba Zoss has roughly understood the formation of the Greek coalition forces, but has not made any adjustments. Obviously, he believes that the opponent's formation is not surprising and the Persian army can completely deal with it.
However, the reason why he has not given an offensive order for a long time is because the Greek coalition forces are located at a high altitude and the Persian army will suffer a disadvantage when attacking upwards. Therefore, he has not ordered the whole army to advance, just to see if the opponent can attack forward. The Greek coalition forces had to go down a gentle **** to fight them on flat ground. But obviously the commander of the Greek coalition forces is very cautious, and the control of the entire force is relatively effective.
From a distance, the Greek coalition soldiers are like small trees standing still, neatly planted on the half-slopes of the hill... This makes Fanabazos more cautious.
But after the half-hour confrontation between the two sides, the Persian generals couldn't help but rushed to question Phanabazos, because it was already noon, and the weather was relatively hot. Standing for a long time would consume the soldiers' physical strength. Larger, if this continues, they will probably be unable to fight and can only retreat.
Even the Governor of Missia Theopempus threatened: If Fanabazos does not issue an offensive order, he will lead the Missia army alone to attack the Greeks.
Fanabazos couldn't hold back everyone's insistence, but he did not immediately issue an order for the whole army to attack, but first notified the archers to move to the front of the formation.
After completing this formation change, he once again ordered: the large group does not move, the archers advance in advance, and attack the Greek coalition forces from 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, Leotichides immediately ordered: All the Allied light infantry move forward to the front of the formation, ready to shoot.
The distance between the two armies was no more than 500 meters. The Persian archers marched faster. They approached a distance of 100 meters after a while. The enemy was still beyond their range; but for the bows and arrows of the light infantry of the Greek Allied Forces standing on a higher ground. In terms of hand, this is worth entering their range.
The officers of the Dionian Light Infantry Brigade shouted one after another: "Archers are ready!"
The archers drew their bows and set up arrows. Thousands of arrows were thrown into the air, and then scattered in the array of Persian archers, screaming one after another.
Led by the Dionian light infantry, other coalition archers also started shooting.
Although the Persian archers kept falling to the ground with soldiers, for their huge numbers, they were nothing but small splashes of water. In addition, the Greek Allied Light Infantry, in order to fight the Persian archers, also stretched their formation to several kilometers long, but their total number is less than the opponent, and there are fewer archers among them, so the long-range attack power spread to each area is natural. Weakened a lot, not enough to cause a devastating blow to the Persian archers in the area, so the Persian archers firmly braced the arrow rain and advanced faster.
When the distance was shortened to six or seventy meters, the javelinmen of the Dionian Light Infantry Brigade roared everywhere, and one after another heavy javelins threw at the Persians like lightning, and the archers changed from the initial throwing. It became a direct shot, and more Persian archers fell, but at the same time their counterattack began.
The arrows and javelins that covered the sky and the sun caused a sharp increase in the casualties caused by the arrows and javelins between the two sides within a distance of tens of meters.
The Persian archers started to shoot hastily and gradually stabilized their output. Gradually, they pulled the whole situation back, and gradually began to gain the upper hand. They are worthy of being one of Persia’s most powerful weapons that dominate the Middle East and Asia Minor. UU看书www. uukanshu.com In addition to the well-trained Dionian light infantry who can confront the enemy, the light infantry of the allies are beginning to be a little weak. The light shield soldiers of Epirus even use a leather shield to cover the top of their heads and rush to Start a close fight with the Persian archers.
The Persian archers were determined not to be afraid, and drew out specially equipped short blades to fight. Although the light shields were better equipped, the Persian archers actually had the upper hand with more versus less.
The whole battle started to be a bit unfavorable for the Greek coalition forces, but Leotichides, who had been paying attention to the battle situation from a high place, did not appear anxious. He only ordered the entire cavalry force to move forward to the far right of the entire army.
Then he calmly ignored the support of the coalition light infantry and stopped taking any action. Because in his opinion, although the coalition light infantry are at a disadvantage, they can take advantage of their high terrain and be able to deal with the Persian archers who are far more numerous than themselves. Even if they are all damaged in battle, the Persian bows and arrows The arrows in his hand have also been consumed almost, and there is not much threat to the infantry of the coalition army, so he would rather continue to confront, than give up the geographical advantage that he has finally obtained, and give orders for the whole army to attack, and he firmly believes The patience of the Persians may not be as good as his.
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