Due to the defeat in the Battle of the Pletus River, the morale of the army was greatly bruised, and the strength of the army was also hit to a certain extent, and Antigonus had no choice but to go to the Medes to recuperate. www.biquge.info He had two routes back to the Medes - one was to march northwest along the farthest royal road to Sardis, all the way to the plain between the Zagros Mountains and the Tigris River Valley, to the crossroads with the Babylonian royal road to Ecbatana, and then to Ecbatana, which had been one of the most important roads since Persian times, and it was the safest and smoothest road, which took about 40 days. But this route of march had a fatal problem for Antigonus - the heat. Many soldiers had already suffered from heat stroke or even died on the roads of Susania on the way of the previous march, and now this defeated army will probably die even more when they return the same way. Another option is to travel directly through the shady Zagros Mountains, which takes only about nine days, but these difficult roads are also inhabited by the Uksiyi, a formidable hill tribe. It has been customary since the days of the Persian Empire that in order to pass through these mountain roads safely, the hill tribes must pay protection money to guide them, and if they refuse to pay the protection money, the hill tribes will attack those who cross the border without permission.

At this time, Antigonus didn't have so much money to give these people, and it was very expensive to maintain such a large army, Antigonus didn't get a penny in Susa, and then experienced the fiasco of the Battle of the Plettes, in order to appease morale, he broke the money again, and there was not much money left from Asia, and he was about to go to Ecbatana to ask for money, how could he be willing to pay these barbarians to buy money, not to mention that the arrogant Antigonus could not buy them money even if he had a sense of honor. Antigonus was ready to force his way through the area, led by Neakas, who was even higher than Paddica and had sailed through the Indian Ocean, with Antigonus himself leading the heavy infantry in the middle with the supplies of the army, and Peisson leading the cavalry to protect from the flanks. After several surprise attacks by these elusive natives, Antigonus managed to bring his troops to the Medes, despite the loss of some of them. There, Antigonus rested his soldiers on the one hand, and on the other hand used Ecbatana's money and friendly encouragement to boost their morale, making them forget the difficult march of the previous months and the defeat of the Plettes. Pesson sent about 2,000 archers and 2,000 spearmen from his Median district, and unexpectedly received 3,000 Hecanian cavalry. Reinforcements from Amisus, which Antigonus had mobilized from Asia, also arrived, bringing 10,000 infantry, including 2,000 Phrygian mercenaries (Tomahawk hoplites) and 3,000 Cappadocian cavalry. And Misezhenes, who was reappointed by Antigonus as the king of Armenia, showed the characteristics of the wall-riding faction, only sent 3,000 Armenian cavalry, and originally Antigonus wanted him to support him with all his country's strength, and of course Misezhenes would not be so stupid. However, this was already fortunate for Antigonus, and since Alexander did not pursue Antigonus's reinforcements, they all made it to the Medes safely. Now that he had an army of more than 60,000 men, and his army had recovered greatly in numbers and morale, and gradually came out of the shadow of the defeat at the Pletus, Antigonus began to prepare for a new campaign, for although he had outnumbered Eumenes, he did not yet know of Alexander, and now that the road to Babylon had been opened, if Eumenes took advantage of the fact that Antigonus had not yet recovered from the defeat to march westward, if the two armies met, not only would his army be compared again, And all his previous efforts may be in vain, because although Alexander does not have more prestige than he does, Alexander is indeed a rightful king, which he can never achieve, and he does not think that the other party will be as unfortunate as Claterus. …,

Eumenes felt that victory was already beckoning to them, but Peusestas and the Governors of the East refused to carry out the nominal governor's plan. If they follow Eumenes to the west, their empty territory is likely to be invaded again by Pesson, and for Antignes, once he meets the king, then his important position in the army will plummet, because the king still has so many cronies around him, he doesn't know how many more he can rank, so he just hopes that Antigonus can destroy Alexander first, so that the coalition can defeat Antigonus in the name of revenge for the king, and at the same time, there are also Thotamos, Ponsestas and Sirbitius. It was clear that these governors of the East would no longer compromise in this quarrel.

"Don't you know that this is the time when Antigonus is at his weakest?" Eumenes was visibly angry at the satraps' performance, "As long as we join up with the king's army, then we will have enough strength to defeat Antigonus, and if we miss this opportunity, Antigonus will have enough time to rest and replenish, and even carry out various defeats on us." ”

"Although Antigonus's strength has been damaged, it is more of a loss of morale for the loss of personnel, and it will not take long for these deficiencies to be compensated, and we have just pursued them all the way after a long march in the heat, so that our supplies and morale will be equally tested. Therefore, our army also needs to rest, and now that the army is so close to Persepolis that we will be there in a few days, and I will give you a grand hospitality when the time comes, and you will be sure to make your trip worthwhile. ”

"This guy is buying people's hearts." Phoenix whispered to Eumenes.

"I know, it looks like he's getting his way." Eumenes looked at the expressions on everyone's faces and knew that things were going to go bad.

"Are you at his mercy?"

Knowing that if he insisted on his own views, the coalition would likely break up and end up being defeated by each other, so he persuaded his friends to stay with the coalition of the Eastern Doges. In this way, the huge coalition army advanced towards the city of Persepolis in the heart of Persia. However, this reluctant decision of Eumenes put Alexander in a very dangerous position, because Antigonus, when he learned that he was marching southeast, did not pursue him as expected after resting, but turned to attack Alexander, who had just gained a foothold in Babylon. History took a radical turn at this moment.

The ancient city of Persepolis had been systematically destroyed by Alexander the Great just a few years earlier, but the city and its vicinity were still among the richest in Persia, and Persepolis was the capital of the Persian governor Peusestas. In the Combine barracks near the city, Peusestas prepared an extremely lavish feast for this huge army, and even entertained the main officers with the pomp of the royal family. His purpose in doing so was obvious: to use enough financial and material resources on his own territory to win the hearts and minds of the people, so as to compete with Eumenes for control of the army. Soon after, Silpitius, the governor of Alajosia and Gedrosia, openly threatened that he was working for Peusestas rather than Eumenes, a Greek, and that Eumenes should cede power to Peusestas in time.

Eumenes pondered how to deal with it, and an open rupture would only lead to Antigonus eventually defeating each of them, and if one of them were to take the lead in defeating the other, the army would be torn apart. Eumenes then let out the word that Silbitius was secretly colluding with Antigonus and that he would have to be tried sooner or later, and judging from the fact that Silbitius was still firmly in control of Alajosia after Antigonus defeated Eumenes, this accusation is not entirely fabricated. Regardless of whether there was collusion with Antigonus or not, Silpitius, who had now heard the news, left his army and fled from the barracks overnight to return to his own jurisdiction for refuge. …,

In addition, Eumenes asked the various governors to forcibly borrow a large sum of 400 tarrants, and Eumenes declared that this large sum of money would be returned to his men after defeating Antigonus, so that if anyone was dissatisfied with him, he would consider it again and again, considering the huge amount of money he had lent. After all, if the creditor dies or is not ready to repay the money, he will lose all his money.

After Eumenes strengthened his control over the army, he received news from defectors in Antigonus's army. After a brief respite in the Medes, Antigonus decided to crush the king's army before the arrival of this winter. The veteran marched with a replenished army from the Medes to Babylon to the southwest, where Alexander had reached Babylon and was welcomed by the populace. Eumenes was in a hurry when he found out, because he knew that the king's army was very small, only more than 30,000 men, and that it would be difficult to win against Antigonus's army, so he blamed himself for not having the strength to advance west into Babylonia. If he had known that Antigonus had taken advantage of the opportunity of the coalition army to rest in Persepolis to launch an attack on the king, he would have marched westward even if the coalition army split, but it was too late to say anything. So he marched northwest from Persepolis with a large army, hoping to come to Alexander's aid.

However, the march of the army was slow, and Eumenes was sick for a few days on the road due to long-term anxiety and fatigue, so he did not make it to the decisive battle between Antigonus and Alexander.