Chapter 41: Hellish Encirclement and Annihilation (II)

“Report, the Persians came out of the valley and are already came chasing!”

“Very good. How many people?”

“There are about 6,000~7,000 people, all of whom seems to be archers and mounted archers!”

“Damn Persian! They must have a ridiculous idea of using arrows to defeat us all!”

“That is just right! The more that comes, the more we kill!”

“Can Davos block them?”

“That is why, our attack must be fast and powerful!” Cheirisophus firmly said, “Everyone, return to your command post at once and immediately spread out the formation, and move out!”

“Hou!!…” The leaders are itching for a fight and began to move out.

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

When Artaozus left the valley, he couldn’t 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.

Just 2 miles after leaving the mouth of the valley, the scout came back to report, “The Greeks are coming toward us!”

Although Artaozus was in high spirit, he after all has a lot of combat experience. He doesn’t 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 Greek’s 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 side’s 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 don’t have the time left to retreat, they should at least shoot a round of arrows, 7,000 arrows can disrupt the Greek’s formation and may even cause chaos.

With this in mind, Artaozus decided to take risks. He quickly called the officers under his command and told them to remember the order of withdrawal…

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 doesn’t 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 doesn’t 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 aren’t protected by armor, and their head got badly battered and even directly got knocked unconscious…

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 side’s formation, which have covered the sky…

Artaozus’s eyes turned red from anxiousness and hoarsely shouted, “Retreat! QUICKLY RETREAT!…”

The bugler was preparing to blow the bugle, but there was a loud brass bugle that sounded on the opposite side, and the silent Greek hoplites roared, “Ares!!!” The whole Greek front started taking big steps rushing towards the Persians like a surging tide without fear of the reefs and shallows ahead, vowing to swallow up the land. It was an unprecedented momentum, strong enough to crush the Persian morale. The front of the Greek troops split open a passage in which dozens of cavalry poured out and took the lead to charge at the enemy Persians.

The Persians totally collapsed! They did not listent to the officer’s order and even pulled them in their arms as they ran back at full speed. The order of withdrawal that was arranged beforehand could not be carried out. The cavalry, archers, right wing, left wing, and center have all rushed to the mouth of the valley like a swarm of bees. They only have one idea in their minds, ‘Get away from those terrible Greeks!’

Defeated! Defeated! Defeated without shooting a single arrow!! Artaozus had participated in the Battle of Cunaxa before, and as a teammate of the Greeks, he cheered at them as they easily defeated the Persian king’s army.  But now that he is personally facing the charge of the Greeks, he felt the horror of the Greek hoplites and at this moment, his brain was blank, but his hands were clasping around the neck of his horse, and was surrounded by his retinues as they rushed to the mouth of the valley. He was close to the mouth of the valley due to him being at the rear of the center. Therefore, he and his cavalry retinues were ahead of the Persian army as they run.

The mouth of the valley is ahead in which the vast space suddenly narrowed, and the steep and continuous peaks made the air to only flow in the valley’s mouth, making Artaozus, who had just entered the valley, almost got blinded by the intense mountain wind.

“Hia!” He clamped the belly of his horse and clearly knew that the faster they cross the valley, the less troops he would lose!

The path on the valley is not a straight line, but a curved “S” shape. It wasn’t a problem for the Persian cavalry who rode on sands all year round, they have good control on their horses and they didn’t slow down too much even if there is a curve ahead.

Just as they whirled around the foot of the mountain, a half-man high wall made of stacked stones and wood appeared in front of them. Artaozus and his cavalry were unable to stop their horses from crashing into it. People and horses immediately screamed loudly…

Artaozus was thrown out and what he eventually saw was the rapidly enlarged mountain wall in front of him.

The defeated Persians entered the valley like a torrent and filled it up as they push forward…

When the rest of the cavalry at the forefront stopped moving in horror, the soldiers in the rear were still desperately running…

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 Greeks…

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… it’s hell on earth!

“Vertical shield wall!”

“Javelin ready!”

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 won’t 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 Davos’ 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 another…