Calcides thought for a moment, and then said: "In addition, I have learned from the Naucratis merchants who have gone to Cyprus to trade that they have recently been expelled by the Cypriots, and their merchant ships have been forbidden to enter the Cypriot waters again, and it has been common to see a large number of warships in the eastern waters of the island of Cyprus some time ago...... We have analysed that it is likely that the Persians concentrated most of the ships of their fleet in the ports of eastern Cyprus......"

While Davos was still groaning, Mattonis exclaimed, "It seems that the Persians are gathering their naval forces and preparing for our attack from Egypt!" ”

Davers did not respond, but looked at Calsides again: "We will attack Persia next, what do you suggest about this?" ”

Calcides' expression became solemn, and he pondered for a while before he said softly: "Your Majesty, the military plan for attacking Persia from Egypt was formulated by the Ministry of Military Affairs before...... I feel like it might need to be revised......"

"Oh?" Davers looked at Calcides, who was slightly nervous, lightly knocked on the wooden chair with his hand, and said in an encouraging tone: "None of us have any experience in fighting in Egypt, you have the most right to speak, can you tell us in detail why you want to modify the plan?" ”

When Davos motioned to Hennipolis to place a wooden map of Egypt and Persia in the center of the hall, they all gathered around.

"Your Majesty, Legion Captains!" Facing everyone's gaze, Calcides took a deep breath, pointed to the map of the city of Daphne, although his voice trembled slightly, but his tone was powerful: "The city of Daphne is the easternmost fortress established by the Egyptians in the Nile Delta, just to defend against the invasion of the Persians, and from the city of Daphina to the east, to the border of Egypt, about two hundred miles, the place through which it passes is all desert, there is no human population, and there are no supply points, according to the marching speed of the kingdom's army in this terrain, It will take three to four days to pass the ...... at the earliest."

As he spoke, Calcides' words became fluent, and he traced the route of the march with his finger on the map, and finally stopped on a circular icon marked with the word "Gaza": "Less than twenty miles from the Egyptian border is Gaza City, a fortress built by the Persians, which is known to be usually garrisoned by 1,500 Persian soldiers, which may now increase to 4,000—"

"4,000 is not much, our army is heading north, it should be easy to capture it." Second Legion Commander Lizaru interjected.

"I'm afraid it's not easy." Calcides said solemnly: "Gaza City was originally just a front-line supply town for the Persians to invade Egypt, but since the last time we reinforced Egypt and repelled the Persians, the Persians may have been worried that we would attack them through Egypt, so they recruited Jews and Phoenicians two years ago to build a fortress in Gaza. According to the information we have received, although the city is not large, it is not easy to capture it because of its high walls and thick walls and sufficient reserves of military rations and supplies.

Moreover, the term 'Gaza' comes from the Canaanite language, which means that it is surrounded by sand, and it is a fortress built on gravel, and the nearest Canaanite oasis is at least twenty or thirty miles away, which means that we cannot get any resources from the vicinity of Gaza City to build large siege equipment such as siege towers, mobile towers, siege vehicles, etc., and even the construction of siege platforms and causeways is difficult, because there is only sand there, no earth, and it is not easy to solidify, but these are not the biggest difficulties-"

Calsides looked around at the generals, and finally at Davers, and said in an accentuated tone: "The one that has the greatest impact on us is the desert!" I once led my army from Dafina to try to march eastward, but I have suffered a lot! Marching in the desert, the day is very hot, the wind and sand are strong, the ground is soft, the soldiers wear armor, walking is very difficult, it is easy to get tired, usually the army marches normally, at least 50 miles a day, but in the desert a day I am afraid that even half of the distance can not be reached.

And at night, the desert became so cold that the soldiers could not sleep without blankets. The guides said that it was fortunate that it was spring, and that if it was summer, the whole desert would be like a furnace, and few people would dare to walk on it, and there would only be more than three months left before the summer arrived......

"It's been 10 days since I led the legion here, and I obviously feel that the climate in Egypt is much hotter than in Great Greece. The commander of the Fourth Army, Melisanda, asked curiously.

"I haven't asked the Egyptians that question." Calcides said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty and the commanders of the legions, please pay attention! If we are going to lead our army through the desert and capture Gaza City, the greatest threat to us is water! During this long march of nearly 400 miles, there was no water source, and the soldiers marched in the desert very easily and needed to drink a lot of water, even if we set out with a large amount of water, if we could not successfully capture Gaza in a short time, we still faced the danger of water shortage! ……”

After listening to Calcidis's words, the faces of the generals became solemn.

Davos gasped even more, he suddenly remembered that in the previous history, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which was established by the Crusaders in the Middle Ages of Western Europe, boldly gathered a large army and entered the desert area to attack the Egyptian monarch Saladin, only to collapse almost without a fight due to lack of water......

"Gaza City was also built in the desert, didn't the Persians lack water?" The commander of the 3rd Army, Trotilas, questioned.

"There should be wells dug in Gaza City, and the Persian soldiers are not very large, unlike us with as many as 200,000 people, and there are a lot of laborers, horses and livestock, and just digging a few wells will not meet the demand. What's more, it is very difficult to dig out groundwater in the desert, and it may not be successful. ”

"We may be able to march east along the coast, with the fleet with us, ready to dock and supply us with water and other supplies......," Mattonis said hesitantly.

"I used to have such an idea, but after careful consideration, I found that this method is not very appropriate, because to supply such a large army, it also needs a large fleet, and Egypt, which is not developed in maritime trade, can not provide it at all, so it can only be recruited from Greece and the kingdom itself, which takes a lot of time, and the more ships, the more crews are needed, which in itself will consume more supplies, plus the fleet docks every day to load and unload water, and the process takes a lot of time. This will seriously delay the march of the army and prolong our passage through the desert......"

At this point, Calcides pressed his finger on the map and moved it upward: "You should have noticed that the coast of our march is not too far from the island of Cyprus and the coast of Phoenicia, which are the main naval bases of Persia and have a large number of warships. I have already said before that the Persians may well have assembled their fleet in the military port of Cyprus, and they will most likely attack our fleet.

And if we have the navy to escort it, but there are no ports on the long coast from Naucratis to Gaza to dock and replenish, the fleet will not be well rested, the ships will not be maintained, and when the Persian fleet comes, we will have to think about protecting the fleet, the whole situation will not be very favorable to our navy......"

Calcidis, apparently after careful consideration, patiently listed the difficulties one by one, and the legionnaires all frowned in deep thought.

Davers sighed and said, "It seems that the Ministry of Military Affairs and I have both made the mistake of talking on paper, and we have both underestimated the difficulty of fighting in the desert, if it weren't for Calcidis, you found out in time, we might really suffer a lot of trouble!" Since you can find the problem, then you must have come up with a solution to the problem, and tell us in detail how you can modify the battle plan! ”

Faced with Davers's encouraging gaze, Calcides cheered up and said loudly: "I think that the first target of our attack is not Gaza, but here - Cyprus!" ”

Everyone's eyes immediately focused on the icon on his finger.

"Attacking it has three purposes." Calcides laid out the plan he had thought of: "First of all, the island of Cyprus is a large island, with large lakes and rivers, large plains in the north, a large population, relatively abundant food and material reserves, and several well-equipped military ports, and it is also easy to land and fight, as long as we capture it, it can be used to anchor our fleet and support our army in the nearest battle.

Secondly, the island of Cyprus is a barrier to the coast of the Persian Near East, and having occupied it, we can land to the north, attack the Gulf of Issus, attack Syria and Phoenicia to the east, and threaten Canaan to the southeast...... The entire coast of the Near East is under our threat, thus giving us more of the initiative in the war—"

"Since the island of Cyprus is so important to Persia, the Persians must also attach great importance to it, and you also mentioned just now that Phoenicia and Cyprus are the main sources of the Persian navy, and they are also gathering their own warships, and looking at the map Phoenicia is very close to Cyprus, they can send a fleet in time to intercept our convoy!" Lizaru interrupted Calcidis, asking a keen question.

Calcides said unhurriedly, "This is the third purpose I want to mention! We traveled thousands of miles to launch an attack on Persia, and the long transportation line was the biggest weakness of our army, but as long as we grasped the dominance of the Eastern Mediterranean, this was not a problem, so the military plan formulated by His Majesty and the Ministry of Military Affairs took into account the need to destroy the Persian fleet first, so the Greek coalition first landed in Asia Minor, trying to lure the Persian fleet north, but the effect was not ideal, and in the end only the Persian Minor fleet was annihilated, and the main force of the Persian fleet remained in the Near East Sea! But if we attack Cyprus, the Persian fleet will have to pour out, and I think that's what we should expect! ”

With that, Calcides looked at Davers.

Davers crossed his arms to his chest and stared at the map, still in thought.