Since Antigonus returned to the Medes, he has been preparing for the next war, and at the same time, he has secretly contacted the governors of the Eastern Alliance, and has written a lot of empty checks to achieve the purpose of discord. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoIn any case, the coalition forces are indeed divided, and at least Eumenes is already having a hard time controlling the situation. Soon after, Antigonus also received the news of Alexander's capture of Babylon, which was brought by Utreus, who had fled after many difficulties, and Seleucus, who had initially received the news, almost fainted. Originally, Seleucus didn't want to participate in the war between the Diadochi, but Peizon's constant instigation and seeing that his interests were damaged in the end had to join the Antigonus camp, he didn't expect that in the end, Babylon, which he had worked so hard to manage, would still be captured, or the vanguard of the human family would be captured within a day. This devastated Seleucus, who was uneasy for a while. Antigonus gave Seleucus a timely shot and stabilized the poor governor, even if his old nest Asia Minor was not protected, but the most important thing for now was to defeat Alexander, so that the world would be decided.

So in the early autumn of 316 B.C., Antigonus led a huge army from Ecbatana, along the royal road all the way to Babylon, this road is less than 500 kilometers, although to cross the Zagros Mountains, but because all the way is the royal road, so it is very easy to walk, half a month should be able to reach Babylon. In addition, he secretly sent Philotas to Egypt to inform Ptolemy of the current situation on all sides, and greatly boasted of his strength, persuading him to attack Tyre, thus leaving Alexander at a loss for both sides.

Although Eumenes received news of Antigonus' attack on Alexandria soon after, it was a long time later, and since he had to travel almost twice as far from Ecbatana to Babylon from Persepolis, and the route was much more difficult than Antigonus's, the coalition forces arrived in Babylon much later. However, with the exception of Silpitius, who fled, the satraps followed Eumenes to the west. However, the governors did have different minds. Peusestas was now in complete anticipation of the excitement, for he thought that it was highly likely that Antigonus would defeat Alexander before the reinforcements of Eumenes arrived, and that he would be able to convince the other satraps to fight back and divide the territory equally with Antigonus. If Antigonus is defeated in turn, then he can also enjoy the treatment he deserves as a reinforcement. If the two armies do not win or lose, then their own side will be an important weight to break the balance, and they can act at the right time. Antignis has always been in a contradiction, as an important force that supported Eumenes at the beginning and allowed him to grow stronger, even if he played an important role in preventing Eumenes from advancing westward, but it is difficult for Tico to cross the river and tear down the bridge or even settle accounts after the autumn, and Peusestas's credit seems to be greater than his, so it is not very reliable to fall to Antigonus's side. But if you fall to the king's side, you may suddenly become a non-conforming character, and coupled with your previous misdeeds, you are likely to be punished by the king later. This contradiction lasted for a long time, and it was not until the army reached Babylon that he made a final choice. And the second-in-command of the Silver Shield, Thotamos, is a completely despicable and shameless fellow, he can betray anyone, including Antijanis, since he is not the commander of an independent legion, he will not be punished no matter which side wins, so he just needs to act on the opportunity and not think too much. The governors of the other provinces were more inclined to support the king's army than Peusestas, but their troops made up a smaller proportion and had little say. And the king's grandfather, Oakshatus, almost fell out with Peusestas last time, but was persuaded by Eumenes, and now he is the most active person besides Eumenes. …,

Pressed for time, Eumenes set out with Phoenix and his 1,500 direct cavalry and most of the cavalry of Oxchates, Stasano, Stasander, and Odmos, in order to join Alexandria before Anticous reached Babylon. This force, though mixed and small in number, was very elite, with either the veterans who followed Eumenes or the cavalry of the governors' guards, a total of nearly five thousand men. They passed through the Persian Gate, followed the narrow valley of the Zagros Mountains toward Susa, and followed the royal road to Babylon.

Alexander, who received news of the imminent arrival of Antigonus's army, did not show much annoyance, and continued to build the business that he was passionate about. Since Alexander entered Babylon with a large army and caravans, Babylon has become more active, especially the commercial atmosphere of the new city, which is due to Alexander's policy of free trade. Whether it is from the water or land of the merchant has suddenly increased, originally Babylon goods are very varied, as far as the African south of the tropical products or Western European specialties can be seen here, because of Alexander's policy, now the market is more prosperous, Babylon has become a huge distribution center of goods. Later, Alexander found that the area of the West City could no longer meet the needs of commercial development, and although the rising land prices brought him great benefits, it limited the further development of commerce. So later, Alexander made an amazing decision to build a new city. Of course, at this critical juncture, he would not rush to build any city, and this plan could only be put on after defeating Antigonus.

After a period of preparation, Alexander imported a lot of timber from Armenia, and the stone was lacking in Babylon, and Alexander would not be able to buy a lot of stone from the east for a while, but Alexander had a lot of oil, which was a great weapon for defending the city. However, one of the drawbacks of oil is that it pollutes the environment, and Alexander didn't want to turn the beautiful place of Babylon into a Jedi with no grass, no livestock, and no sewage, which is also something he needs to pay attention to.

Alexander was going to focus his defense on the eastern city, because the royal palace and wonders were in the eastern city, and it can be said that the most valuable and worthy place of Babylon was the eastern city, so it was the first place that needed to be secured. Xicheng is a commercial area, there are no too valuable things in the city, and it is not a big problem to rebuild if it is destroyed. There are also walls along the river in the eastern part of the city, which can effectively prevent the enemy from attacking from the river. However, because the western city is a commercial area, there is no wall along the Euphrates River to protect it, but the other side does not have a naval army, even if it attacks from the water, under the dense bow and arrow, it will suffer heavy losses. And there was no point in capturing the western city, because there was a wall and a gate on the other side of the river, and it would be impossible to cross the long Euphrates River along the bridge to attack the western gate of the eastern city. During that long march, it was like walking through the gates of hell in Hades. The reason why Kassandro was able to capture Babylon was only because he captured two of Babylon's main and deputy guards, and under the influence of the Star of Agid, he forced the soldiers of the eastern city to surrender obediently.

Alexander planned to deploy 28,000 men in the eastern city, but only a few soldiers were scattered on the walls of the city for more than ten kilometers, and more than 5,000 were cavalry, and the other part was used as a reserve. At first, they were all deployed on the outer wall, and when the outer wall could not be held, these soldiers retreated to the inner wall, which was higher and thicker, and when the enemy rushed into the middle of the inner city and the outer city, it was like walking into a tunnel of death, and a large number of bows and arrows and sassal wood would be smashed down to kill the enemy. Dias's engineers and his artillery became the key to Alexander's defense, as the latter would become an important force in the fight with Antigonus, and Alexander recruited a considerable number of people for the manufacture and use of trebuchets and ballistae of various specifications, and hundreds of trebuchets and ballistae were built. In addition, Alexander was to requisition a number of ships and attack the enemy flank along the Euphrates River if necessary. All these preparations, combined with the thousands of silver coins Alexander had spent on all aspects of construction, had once again dried up the pockets that had been filled with treasures from the Babylonian treasury.

After all the plans were announced, everyone threw themselves into the preparations and prepared for the upcoming big battle with a positive attitude. The soldiers began to receive the necessary training to defend the city, the recruits intensified their training for courage and fighting spirit, and Alexander and the generals gave frequent speeches to encourage everyone, increase their determination to defend the city, and enhance their will to fight. Scouts were also scattered in large numbers to find out the news of Antigonus's army. Merchants bought grain and a variety of other foodstuffs in large quantities, and farmers began to harvest ripe crops. The rest of the produce was left in the fields as a last resort, Alexander did not want to implement a policy of clearing the wilderness, and he believed that victory would be his own eventually, and the remaining unripe crops could not be used as food for the Antigonus army.

Everyone was ready for war, and the day of the big war was getting closer.