Chapter 29: War Council

Mersis came over and whispered, “Davos, according to your request, I took good care of the Persian that you had sent to the supply unit last time!”

“Is it?” Davos looked at him with a grin, “How can I thank you?”

“You are our leader and this is my duty.” Mersis smiled and approached him a little more and quietly whispered, “In addition, Menon has an assets of nearly 2 Taranto minas stored in the supply unit…”

2 Taranto minas are equivalent to 65 kg of silver, which was a huge sum of money, and Menon was really reliable in earning money. It just that Davos, who has only been reborn not long after, didn’t have a very deep concept about Greek coins, so he didn’t look surprised. He carefully thought about it and said, “Does Menon have any direct relatives?”

Mersis had been looking at Davos all this time, and he didn’t seem to be different, after he heard it again that he immediately understood Davos’ intention and felt admiration and hurriedly said, “No.”

“Did he have a will?”

“No. He never thought that he would die so early.”

Davos lamented for a moment and muttered, “Menon created this mercenary troops and he also made a lot of effort for this camp, so let’s use this money for the development of our camp.”

“Davos, you are just and selfless!” Mersis said loud compliments, then rubbed his hand and asked carefully, “Did Hades enlightened you so that you were able to calculate so fast?”

Davos had seen that there was still something in his mind but he didn’t expect it to be this, “Of course”

“Can you teach me?” Mersis knelt down and beg.

Davos was surprised that although this fatty wasn’t young anymore, he still had such a strong thirst for knowledge that he could not help but admire him slightly, “Sure, no problem.”

“Great! Davos, you are the best leader!” Mersis couldn’t help but hug Davos, which cause Davos to be stiff, the tradition of homosexuality in ancient Greece always made him wary of excessive physical contact, but soon he found that he was just over-thinking. Mersis was only expressing his gratitude to him and undoubtedly, this fatty has become one of his firm supporter.

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

It was already noon after he properly arranged everything. Davos thought that he would be late, but when he and Philesius arrived at the main tent of the mercenary, they only found Cheirisophus and Timasion inside.

When Cheirisophus saw the two men, one of whom was the same young man he had seen at the meeting earlier, his brows immediately frowned and said, “You are mercenary from Menon’s camp. Who is the leader that you have elected?” As he said that, his eyes naturally turned to look at Philesius.

Before Davos could speak, Philesius was on the left side of Davos and said, “All our soldiers unanimously elected Davos as our new leader!”

Cheirisophus and Timasion stared in shocked. After a while, the two men looked at each other and Timasion questioned loudly, “We are going to fight against the Persians now, and everyone has to go all out, yet you want to drag us down by choosing a kid who hasn’t yet grown up! Do you know that people end up dying in war, and many will die!!”

The last sentence of Timasion was directed at Davos, which obviously to intimidate him.

Davos unfalteringly responded to Timasion, who had a somewhat grim expression, “Wait till the fight starts, then we will find out who is dragging who! It is impossible to rely on brute strength alone when fighting the Persians! Where were you when I went to stop Clearchus and Menon! If they had listened to my advice, then we would not have such a bad situation today!”

“Of course…I also tried to stop them…” Timasion had been guilty of Clearchus’ capture. Hence, he was led by the topic of Davos and answered with lack of confidence.

“Everyone in our camp thinks that Davos is our best candidate for leadership, and no one objected! And I was entrusted to serve as his adjutant, assisting our leader, Davos, in managing the troops.” Philesius once again stressed it out loudly. As an old mercenary, he knew what Cheirisophus and Timasion were worried about and what they are trying to do.

Cheirisophus once again looked at Philesius, “This is?”

“Philesius, the adjutant of Menon, the one who is actually managing his camp…” Timasion said to Cheirisophus with an unusual tone.

“Oh…” Cheirisophus had an expression that seems to understand. Davos could guess what they were thinking, but he didn’t want to argue, time will prove everything.

“The others are still fiercely selecting, but you manage to choose quickly.” Cheirisophus finally stood up and said with a slight ridicule.

Davos immediately said, “At this critical moment, it is better for the whole troops to have a unified thoughts than them to act on their own will!”

Cheirisophus was stunned, he did not know the capability of this young new leader, but at least his eloquence wasn’t weak. He reluctantly saluted and said, “Welcome.”

Davos returned his salute and said, “I am glad to fight together with you!”

For a while, the tent was quiet.

Ten minutes later, Xanthicles came in and he replaced Socrates as the new leader.

Then, Cleanor replaced Agias and became the new leader.

The last one that came in was Hieronymous, who squeezed out Agasias and replaced Proxenus as the new leader. Together with him was Xenophon, an acquaintance of Davos, who became the adjutant of Hieronymous.

Everyone was surprised at the age of Davos. Fortunately, it was already afternoon and time was running out.

As soon as he arrived, Cheirisophus immediately said, “Everyone, let us first decide on the route we would take on our retreat back to Greece. My opinion is to follow the original route, along the Tigris River, into Armenia, and reach the Black Sea then return to Ionia by boat…”

“This is the route that Tissaphernes arranged for us and it was originally their scheme! I heard that there are many barbarians in the north, and even the Persians felt a headache, they are a huge threat to us!” Xanthicles objected.

“So what is your suggestion? Go west?! Not to mention that it is further away, but more importantly, we are now in a state of war with Persia, and it is dangerous if we stay on Persian land for one more day or more. The Persians can mobilize more soldiers to besiege us at any time! The North has made the Persians have a headache, it just shows that their rule over the north isn’t strong, this is our chance! Those barbarians and us doesn’t have any hatred, let alone that we have a common enemy – Persia!…” Timasion eloquently said and apparently he have already previously discussed it with Cheirisophus.

Sure enough, we still have to go north! Davos saw that Xanthicles and the others showed approval.

“Let’s vote. Raise your hand if you agree to go north!” said Cheirisophus.

Everyone agreed unanimously.

Cheirisophus added, “In order to concentrate our soldiers on fighting the Persians and prevent them from being attacked because they are scattered, I suggest that a small mercenary troops such as Sossis and Pasion be merged with us. Of course, this depends on both parties merging voluntarily.”

“How to distribute military supplies when they merge? How to distribution the previously collected property?…” Hieronymus asked seriously.

“It has been said that both sides are willing, if he wants to join your camp then you can discuss it in private.” Timasion impatiently said.

‘Merging with the smaller mercenary camp?!’ Davos has some intentions, after all, the more troops he have, the more likely they will survive the battle.

“Now that we all have agreed, we will announce this at the General Assembly. In addition, there is a more important issue, in our current state of getting attacked by the Persians at any time, what formation will we use in our march in order to ensure our safety?” Cheirisophus looked at everyone, but before they could answer, he had taken out a stick and made a comparison, “My suggestion is to move forward in a large empty space square formation, that is, 2 mercenary troops serve as the vanguard to guide the whole army, one mercenary troop on the left and right to protect our flanks, and then 2 mecenary troops to serve as the rearguard, with the supply unit and the non-combatants in the middle… What do you think?”