Among the various arms of Rhodes, Alexander naturally valued the Rhodes the most, the slingers were different from the archers, and in Greece, where heavy armor was prevalent, ordinary archers had little effect on the heavily armored soldiers, so the Persian Imperial army, with archers as the main force, repeatedly served in front of the Hellenistic heavy infantry. But the slingers were different www.biquge.info because of the fast movement of stone projectiles, even the Greek heavy infantry could not necessarily withstand the blow of the sling. An experienced Rhode Island slinger can accurately hit a man's head from 100 meters away – even if you're wearing a helmet and you're not going to be stunned from a headshot. Some people even wear helmets and have their cervical vertebrae broken and die. In Xenophon's expedition of 10,000 men, the Rhodes slingers also fought with the Persian archers and crushed them.

The Rhodesan slingers in Xenophon had a large shield like a javelin-gunner, which is why they were less afraid of archers, who needed two hands to handle a bow and a stone, and only one hand to throw a stone. Joining the Rhode Island Slingers is the Bellery Slingers in the Western Mediterranean. However, because the trajectory of the slinger is too low, it is a big killer to put it behind his own people! In fact, in addition to projecting on the front line before the two armies docked, the real use of the stone throwing is to place it on both flanks, and after the infantry lines of the two sides are in contact, it will protrude from the two flanks and shoot the enemy from the side or back.

The Romans also liked to use slingers, but their catapults were heavy slings. Unlike a sling, a heavy sling throws a stone out of the back of the shoulder instead of spinning overhead. So the Roman slingers looked like they were bowing to you, but they actually wanted your life. The accuracy of the heavy stone is poor, and the range is short, about 80 meters, but the trajectory is curved, and it can be projectile over the head of one's own person.

So far, Alexander has more than 30,000 soldiers, including 3,000 Cretan archers, 2,000 Rhodestal slingers, 3,000 Greek heavy infantry, 300 friendly cavalry, 1,200 royal cavalry (Guards cavalry), 1,800 Thessalian cavalry, 3,000 Macedonian cavalry, 2,000 royal spearmen (disciplined troops recruited from the upper echelons of society, equipped with fine armor and large round shields), 6,000 Macedonian pikemen, 3,000 shield bearers (shield soldiers, The forerunner of the Silver Shields), 600 Greek Heavy Leather Shieldmen, 1,500 Agrian (Agre) Javelins, 1,000 Macedonian Greek Archers, and 4,000 Barbarian Mercenaries. In addition, there were some soldiers who carried out engineering work, and Alexander deliberately organized them into a separate team for the future military operations such as the manufacture of siege weapons and the laying of pontoon bridges. Of course, the navy was also very large, because the various sails of the Middle Ages had not yet been invented, so the conventional double-, triple-, and five-row paddle warships required a large number of manpower, so that Alexander's navy employed more than 15,000 boatmen in total for more than 300 warships, which was also quite expensive. Alexander was also worried about this, and when he came ashore, in addition to the more than 100 hired warships that he could return to Greece to find a new master, the other 200 warships were the Macedonian fleet, and if they were disbanded, their livelihood would not be sustainable. But for now, he only has one step at a time. But then something happened that brightened his mind.

Although Cassander had already sent troops to receive Macedonia at this time, he had been worried about Alexander's whereabouts since he learned that the child who had given the speech that day and managed to escape was indeed Alexander, and he vaguely felt that this child might be his great enemy in the future, so he spared no effort to send a fleet to search for Alexander's whereabouts. Later, through the mouths of the merchants, it was learned that Alexander had gone to Rhodes and that the fleet was very large. He did not dare to slack off, and borrowed from Ptolemy Antigonus's fleet on the coast of Asia Minor, a total of 150 ships, led by Antigonus's nephew, Telethforus. He also sent someone to borrow it from Asander, but the latter did not take action after many prevarications. However, by this time, with the addition of his own fleet and that of Athens and other Greek city-states, there were more than 400 ships. Alexander's fleet, on the other hand, was like the fleet of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, with a large part of it being non-military personnel, and only 250 warships could actually be used in battle. Cassander personally commanded the fleet, knowing that the composition of the fleet was too complex to control, and only he could control it, so after sending Pricy to force Laus to receive Macedonia, he led a large fleet to pursue Alexander's fleet, and nominally to pursue Polybeccon and Olympias, who killed his brother Eoras and many Macedonian supporters of Cassander, so his actions were supported by the army, while Cassander's brother Philip remained in Greece. …,

Shortly after Alexander left the port of Rhodes, he discovered the Cassander fleet in the strait between Rhodes and Lykia, and due to the suddenness of the incident and the large size of the Cassander's fleet, Polybocon suggested that the fleet retreat to the port of Rhodes and ask for help from Mannon. Rhode Island did not have a strong navy, with fifty warships, so Manon suggested not to fight it at sea, but to defend in the harbor, where the opponent should not dare to enter the harbor easily, and if he did, he might face a long-range attack from the land. When the other party is short of provisions, it will automatically withdraw from the encirclement, and then it can slip away. Everyone didn't have a good idea for a while, so they agreed.

However, Alexander and many of the young Zhuang were clearly upset by this act, and many threatened to fight Cassander to the death. Relatively speaking, Alexander was relatively calm, he was neither overly negative nor hot-headed, he was thinking about how to defeat Cassander's fleet.

"General, the enemy army has escaped into the port of Rhode Island, please instruct." Glaucias reported that Cassander's loyal subordinate was expressionless at all times.

"Blockade the port, no one is allowed to attack without my orders. In addition, you send men to Rhodes to tell Manon to surrender and surrender the Polybocon fleet, otherwise we will not spare them once we take Rhodes. ”

"Yes!"

Inside the Rhode Island Consulate.

"I am the messenger of the great Macedonian regent General Cassander, and my name is Polyclatis!"

"Regent, isn't the regent of Macedonia Polybocon? What kind of person is Cassander, how dare he call himself a regent! ”

"You-you-how dare you slander the regent!" Polycratis was so angry that he wanted to scold but felt that it was inappropriate, so he pretended to be calm and said: "The regent said that as long as General Manon surrenders and cooperates with us to capture the thief chieftain, the regent will not pursue the crime of harboring!" ”

"What! Your generals are not small! Want us to surrender! Hahaha, although there are few people in my Rhode Island, I have never been afraid of any threat, if he Kasander dares to attack, then let him bear the wrath of everyone in my Rhode Island, what are you, dare to go wild here, if you don't get out of here, I'll chop you up and feed the dogs! ”

The messenger, who was still arrogant just now, was so frightened by Mannon's momentum that he didn't dare to let go of a fart, and he grabbed his legs and jumped and ran out, when Alexandre came out of the room on one side and couldn't help laughing when he saw the ugliness of Polecrates.

"Cassander knew that it was not easy to attack, so he sent someone to persuade him to surrender, and the king was as good as a god, but he did not expect this messenger to be so ignorant and arrogant, and it was simply a humiliation for himself."

"He relied on nothing more than his navy, but if he wanted to land and fight, it would be a fool's dream. We have a total of nearly 50,000 troops, and the other side will never exceed this number, at most 30,000 is about the same. ”

"And he will definitely send someone to receive Macedonia, so that his own troops alone will not exceed 20,000."

"So what's next?"

"Let's wait and see what happens."

Concentrate:

1 Philip: The Cassander brothers. In 323 BCE, he and his two brothers, Cassander and Eoras, were suspected of poisoning Alexander the Great. Later, in 313 BCE, Cassander sent him to lead an army to invade Aetolia, but when Philip marched to Acarnania, news came that King Epirus had regained his throne, and Philip turned back to attack Aethacades and defeated his opponents in a fierce battle. Aethacades led the remnants of his army to join the Aetolians, and Philip then defeated the combined forces of Epirus and Aetolia in another battle, in which Aeacades was killed and caused the Aetolians to abandon their easily conquered areas and retreat into a fortress in the mountains.