Chapter 35: Mithridates Scheme

After a long time, his adjutant, Philesius, came to report, “All the troops are ready.”

Davos declare it in a deadpan tone, “Set out.”

Previously, he didn’t felt it obvious while he was in the squad, but now he found the problem while looking at the whole situation as the leader. In his previous life, although he wasn’t a soldier, but he saw movies and visited forums and knew that one of the foundations for an army to win battles was strict discipline and quick mobility. In military training in universities, when they setup emergency assembly they calculate it by minutes. Now, it took more than an hour from when the horn sound till they queue, and their sloppiness doused half of his excitement as a new leader.

He can only quietly observe and record all their shortcomings since he currently doesn’t have any prestige in the mercenary troops, he then need to think about a solution and wait until the time is ripe to talk about rectifying the troops and reforming the military system, it will probably take him a long time.

When nearly half of the troops has left the camp, Philesius then said, “Leader Davos, we should also leave.”

Davos nodded and Hielos had already brought his horse. Yesterday, Davos was nervous when he learned that the leader has to ride a horse, since he didn’t know how to ride a horse in his previous life. But who knew that he was able to freely control the horse after he had mounted it. Turns out that one of the best horse-riding races in the Mediterranean world at this time was the Thessalian. The original owner of his body had grazed sheep and horses from an early age, and with his remnant memory and the instinct of his body memory were enough for Davos to freely control his horse.

He grabbed the horse rein and mounted the horse, he then slightly clamped his legs on the horse belly. The horse neighed and trotted forward with its four feet.

Davos held his head high and sat upright. Yesterday, Tolmides’ words made him stop thinking about sharing the joys and sorrows with the soldiers and giving the horses to the old, weak, and disabled soldiers. Now he needs to be on the horse in order to always remind the soldiers that he, Davos, is the leader of the whole troops! As for the way of buying the heart of the people, he would wait until he become a famous strategos.

Riding on a horse and looking at the vast marching ahead, Davos naturally grew a sense of pride in his heart, ‘Real man should be like this’

Davos took control of his horse, followed by Philesius and Asistes, then by Hielos squad who were on foot. After leaving the camp and marching ahead, they reached the assembly place for the whole mercenary troops.

Davos had thought that his team was slow, and didn’t expect that the other team haven’t arrived yet. It seemed that the sloppiness was a common problem of the mercenaries, and everyone was accustomed to it.

The Spartan troops of Cheirisophus had already stood in front. When Davos rode over to greet him, there was a small commotion in the troops, the soldiers from the other camp recognized him as the leader who made a wonderful speech yesterday, but there were still some people who felt superior and thought of him as a young man who is still wet behind the ears. Jealousy, dissatisfaction, and bad words that questioned his commands, made Assistes, who followed him to turn red from anger. 

Only the troops of Cheirisophus was quiet as if they didn’t see him coming, which made Davos seriously look at these real Spartan warriors. They are dressed in a complete set of arms, arrange in a neat square formation with each individual fiercely standing quietly, like a tall and straight pine, becoming a unique sight in this noisy assembly. Davos felt their sharp and murderous glare and that a powerful force would be unleashed once this silence breaks out! Body, skill, tactics, and discipline are all in one, this are the Spartan warriors!

Davos looked at them enviously, ‘When can I command such an elite soldiers!’ He later learned that only about a third of Cheirisophus’ troops were genuine Spartans, the rest were Perioikoi.

On both sides of the Spartan troops were the small mercenaries such as Sossis and Pasion. After the whole mercenary assembly, most of them joined the troops of Cheirisophus, while several other leaders also joined the other camps, and the only one they were not interested was the camp of Davos. Davos felt helpless about it.

This time, the troops of Davos was fast in their formation because they basically adhered by the order when leaving the camp, the outermost part was the hoplite column, which was divided into four columns, the first column was arrange towards the rear in turn. The innermost part was the Peltast, divided into two columns, and it have the same length as the hoplite column, around half a mile long. When the enemy attacked from the outside of the left wing, the soldiers in the advancing column could turn right at once, with the hoplite at the front and the peltast at the rear, which will quickly formed a regular combat formation. The supply unit was located inside the huge open space on the left side of the peltast. Davos and his guards were between the peltast and the supply unit.

About half an hour later, when the troops completed lining up, the copper horn rang out once more, and they can finally depart.

The speed of their march wasn’t fast, it was mainly due to the supply unit with the tents, food, medicine, goods, and the other materials that could not be carried by people were carried by horses and cattle. The horses couldn’t pull wagons that are too heavy, otherwise the harness will squeeze their neck and trachea, which will lead to suffocation, and even though the cattle are stronger than horses, they have poor stamina and bad temper.

Davos saw Mersis, who was in the supply unit, shuttling back and forth, dealing with unexpected situations, and from time to time call out the soldiers to help. Davos secretly thanked himself on having followed the advice of Mersis, sending him a unit in advance in order to assist him in the supply unit. Eventually, Davos’ gaze fell on one of the women, Cheiristoya, although she was dressed the same, but her figure and temperament were like a crane among a flock of chickens, which made her easy to recognized.

Cheiristoya seems to have sense his gaze, so she turned around to look in his direction.

Davos took back his gaze.

“The speed of this marching won’t be able to cover 10 miles in an hour.” (note: miles in here = chinese miles, which is 500 meter)

“It is already good without the harassment of the Persians.” Philesius was glad, and after he just finished talking, there was a commotion in the rear.

“What happened?” Davos was nervous and asked.

Asistes immediately dispatched a herald to the rear to check.

After a while, the herald rushed back, “It is Mithridates, the Persian general! He brought about 30 cavalry, and they are at the right wing of the whole mercenary troops, loudly pressuring them to surrender!”

Psychological warfare! Davos brows twitched.

“Mithridates was a general of Cyrus the younger, but his scheme won’t work, we have been fooled by the Persians once, we will be a fool if we get fooled for the second time.” Philesius unhurriedly said.

Davos nodded and said, “Keep watching Mithridates, and keep on asking!” At the same time, he made Asistes dispatched another herald, so that the information could be sent back in turn.

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

“There are more than 20 soldiers that have abandoned their weapons and ran to the Persians!…they…they surrendered to Mithridates!”

Davos’ heart quivered, it is clear that Philesius had overestimated the wisdom of the mercenary. What’s more, the troops of Hieronymus had a lot of disputes about the leader they elected yesterday. It is now easy for Mithridates to tear a gap between the dissatisfied troops of Hieronymus. Will this lead to a snowball effect for the whole mercenary? Davos began to worry.

“Mithridates went around the right rear and pressured the troops of Cleanor!… There are around 10 soldiers that had thrown down their weapons and ran to the Persians!”

Damn it! The fear of Davos is coming true.

Philesius was equally nervous.

It seems that Mithridates was ready to circle around the huge formation of the mercenary and to constantly disintegrate the fighting spirit of the soldiers. And he will soon arrive before Davos’ troops!

“If we could only get rid of him.” Asistes said it with hate. But he also know that this is impossible, the other side is a light cavalry that can come and go like the wind, while their mercenary have no cavalry at all.

“Just shoot him with a javelin!” Matonis who was in the guard squad, shouted while pulling out the javelin on his back.

“How do you shoot them?! When you take out your javelin, the Persians would have run far away! Besides, the javelins have not yet been shot, but the Persian mounted archer can already shoot from afar!” Asistes retorted.

A flash of inspiration flashed through Davos’ mind, he eagerly asked the herald, “What is the distance between Mithridates and the formation when he shouts?”

“Around 100 meters.”

“Did the Persians retreat when the surrendered soldiers ran past?”

“No.”

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

Davos asked several questions in succession and got the answer. Faced with Philesius’ doubtful gaze, he pondered for a while and then said to him, “Now, I have an idea. Do you think this will work?”