Chapter 19: Suspicion

“The disaster of the Persian is coming!!” Matonis laughed happily and loudly, as if the Greeks would really do it.

“It seems that the Persians really want to send us away!” Hielos said as he realized it.

Or maybe Tissaphernes wants you to think that way. Davos thought to himself, without saying anything, he always felt that Tissaphernes isn’t simple. After all, his ideas were different from the Greeks of this era. According to his deep contact with the Greek soldiers during this time, he found that most of these Greeks grew up listening to their father’s stories about how they beat the Persians, they advocated strength and likes to fight head-on. Even if they employ schemes it was mostly tricks, their brains were indeed less inferior than the Persians in dealing with intrigue.

Davos was always worried because he knew that Tissaphernes was a brilliant politician, “Xenophon, do you know our marching route?”

“I’m not quite sure, it was decided by Tissaphernes, Clearchus, and Ariaeus. But it is surely not the way we entered from. Because you know—” Xenophon shrugged, “Your leader, Menon, took the lead and collected a lot of good things along the way, the local Persians hated us…don’t worry, we will be able to go back!”

‘Collect? You mean pillage! I am afraid that in the Persian’s eye, we are the aggressors! A bandit!’ After hearing that, Davos was slightly annoyed, so he secretly breathed out to calmed his mood as much as possible, “Do you know about the mountains, rivers, cities and roads in Persia?”

“Davos, this is the first time that I have gone deep into Persia, I don’t exactly know where they are, except that I know some famous cities in the book, such as Babylon, Susa, Persepolis, and so on…” Xenophon raised a piece of papyrus in his hand and said excitedly, “However, I kept a brief record of what I saw every day and when I get back, I will write them down, so that the Greeks can understand the situation in Persia!”

Davos smiled, ‘Well, I know that you’re going to write a book called 《Anabasis》 in the future, but it won’t solve the urgent problem now.’

Where can I find someone who was familiar with the Persian geography? Davos distressedly thought…

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

As time went by, the Greek mercenaries and the Persian army camped near each other, but when they went to the rivers to carry water and collect firewood, the soldiers of both sides would often meet and when they disagree, they would fight, which increased the hatred of both sides.

A few days later, they arrived at Physcus river and met the troops led by another brother of Artaxerxes, king of Persia. He came to help the king, but when he arrived, the war was over and he had to return with his troops.

Clearchus was afraid of an accident and he ordered the entire troops to be fully armed, and to protect the supply units at the center and keep the battle column westward. The Persian troops, were not surprised by the Greeks who appeared here and they may have been informed by Tissaphernes to continue marching eastward. The two troops are only a few tens of meters apart from each other, and at a glance, they can clearly see each other’s appearance and expressions. You can imagine how nervous they are.

For the first time, Davos saw the Persian army in its entirety, at the front were two-man chariots and four-man chariots, with 2 horses and 4 horses pulling each chariots respectively. One of them was responsible for controlling the chariot, while the other one or two soldiers for fighting, and he can see spears, shields, and bows in the chariot. There are only a dozen chariots and the legendary Scythed chariot wasn’t in-sight, but when he thought about it, he can see that the scythe can certainly be disassembled, otherwise it is very easy to injure its own teammates while marching in peacetime.

Behind the chariots were the cavalry. Most of the horses were slightly around 1.4 meters high, which was obviously shorter compared with the horses for racing that Davos saw at the Olympic Games in his previous life. They have bridle but no saddles and not to mention stirrups, they only place a thick blanket on the back of the horse. The riders, wear helmets, while some wear a soft hats, there is no leather armor or shield and they all wear short robes. They have a variety of weapons in their hands, bows are the most, followed by javelin, then spears, and a few with short mace…

Hundreds of cavalry galloped past and a huge infantry unit was on display. After looking at it for a while, Davos found that the the Persian infantry were a mixed troops: A shieldman with a large shield, the shield height is up to the shoulder, while its width is able to hide a person, closely followed by a spearman, then 6-7 archers and it will repeat.

This is very similar to the Persian infantry combat formation mentioned by Antonios, when the enemy arrives, the shieldman were in the first row and the shield walls they erect will protect the formation. The spearman will resist the incoming enemy and prevents them from breaking up the shield wall. The archers in the rear will use their bows and arrows to kill a large numbers of enemy. Whether they are shieldmen, spearmen or achers, they all have a common features, they are wearing light armor and some with no armor. Combined with the cavalry before, Davos can easily make a judgement, the Persian army is a force with excellent long-range lethality, strong mobility, but weak in close combat. No wonder they always get defeated by the Greeks in battle, because in a head-on battle, their infantry wasn’t an opponent at all under the impact of the Greek’s hoplite. The characteristics of the Persian Army were more suitable for long-range killing and harassment, and even much better with a wide scale mobile outflanking warfare.

The two armies passed each other and nothing happened, just a false alarm.

After this interlude, the troops quickly entered Media. This land once nurtured the fierce Medians and the Median kingdom they founded was a nightmare for the people of Mesopotamia. However, after a hundred years passed, its glory has ceased and for some reasons, this land under the Persian rule has become somewhat desolate and the terrain became uneven.

Due to the decrease of market supply, the fighting between the two armies for resources began to increase whenever they camped.

“Davos, you made this…this…leg bindings it really works! If I have another day’s walk today, my calf would have been too swollen for me to move in the afternoon, but now I don’t have to worry about that!” Hielos exclaimed while he sat in the tent removing his leg bindings.

“Of course, Davos is ‘God’s Favored’! He is blessed by Hades, and the ideas that he came up with can’t fail! Now, many companions of the other troops begun to learn how to use leg bindings!” Olivos proudly said.

Davos didn’t speak, and now that he’s hearing so much good things about himself, he even became slightly numb. He knew very well that some of the little things he had known in his previous life were only meant to improve the soldiers’ situation and further enhance his influence in Menon’s camp, but there would be no change in the situation of the Greek mercenaries as a whole.

“Davos, there’s a rumor circulating in the troops these days that the Persians are going to take action against us and give us to the Persian king as slaves after we’ve been captured. Do you think…this is true?!” The voice of Giorgris came from the corner.

This is exactly what Davos had been thinking. Although the suspicions between the two armies had existed before, such rumors could spread quickly in a day or two, making everyone knows about it and from his past experience it is impossible if no one deliberately spread it.

‘Is it the Persian? Or our own? Why do they want to spread such rumors? Let the agreement break down? Making the Greeks nervous and collapse?’ Davos had no clue for the moment, faced with the concerned gaze, with a bitter smile in his heart, he calmly said, “We have all been safe these days, so don’t be nervous and we all just need to be vigilant!”

Just then, a man went inside the tent.

“Matonis, you are out fighting again!” Hielos saw the bruises on Matonis’ face and said with a slight reproach.

Matonis spat a mouthful of blood and said excitedly, “Despite the Persians being weak in battle, but when it comes to fighting, they aren’t weak. We have more than a dozen people together with Martius, but it still took a lot of effort beating 20 of them!”

He sat on his bunk, while rubbing his cheeks and pretending to be mysterious, “I did not only fight, but I also heard something.”

“What is it?” asked Hielos.

Matonis looked at the crowd and said loudly, “Further on is the territory of Cyrus the Younger and his mother. I heard that there were many villages in there and they are relatively wealthy!”

“So we can finally eat something good!” Olivos cried happily.

The others were also slightly excited, since they haven’t eaten well these days.