Alexander set out in late spring, and by the beginning of July, Alexander had reached the Mesopotamian border, but Amphimarcus had sent someone to invite him to Assyria. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info This Anfi Marcus seems to be a good old man, and he will treat anyone who crosses the border. Perhaps because it is located in Central Asia leading to West Asia and Asia Minor, and it is a relatively rich plain area, it is deeply loved by passers-by, and he does not have much military strength, so he can only be exquisite in all directions, and treat every passer-by kindly, so as not to suffer unwarranted disasters. Alexander did not go there, but as he was ready to march all the way down the Euphrates to Babylon, he wrote a letter to Amphimarcus, in which he did not blame him for his previous reception of Antigonus, but on the contrary Alexander expressed his relief at his achievements and told him to keep Mesopotamia well. Alexander then quickly marched southeast, his goal was to reach and capture Babylon as quickly as possible, and then quickly flank or rendezvous with Eumenes before attacking Antigonus.

After Amintas left Eumenes, he fought behind enemy lines with Eumenus, who arrived later, constantly harassing Antigonus, and dealing a heavy blow to Antigonus's logistical supplies, and finally had to go to the Medes to rest after the Battle of the Pleites River. However, what he did not expect was that the coalition of the eastern governors did not advance westward as he imagined, but advanced in the opposite direction of Persepolis, which made him very puzzled and depressed, so he sent people to inquire about Eumenes and moved closer to Babylon, because he knew that Alexander would arrive soon, and before that he did not dare to cross the Zagros Mountains to go to Pesson's lair, but left a large number of scouts widely hidden in some important passes in the Zagros Mountains.

Cassandris's mixed army of horses and camels had already crossed the Syrian desert long before Alexander's arrival in Mesopotamia, and after resting near Lake Raizazai, they came by surprise from the west to the city of Babylon.

Babylon is a fascinating ancient city located at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. As early as around 1830 B.C., the Amorites established the ancient kingdom of Babylon with Babylon as their capital. After the death of Hammurabi, the best king of the ancient Babylonian kingdom, Babylon was constantly attacked by foreign tribes, and after more than 500 years of war, it was not until the end of the 7th century BC that the new Babylonian kingdom was established under the leadership of Nebuchadnezzar. However, 88 years later, the Neo-Babylonian kingdom was completely destroyed by the Persians.

The commander of Babylon at this time was Seleucus' Patrocles, a strategic general who historically dug embankments to irrigate canals to divert floods against invasions by Dmitry's army, and was also a geographer. However, Cassandreus had just arrived, and he didn't know anything, so he could only ask Pyrus to follow the caravan to the city to investigate the situation, but fortunately, the merchants of Tyre had not been to Babylon for the first time, and they were all familiar with the situation. However, in order to keep it a secret, Cassandrus only allowed merchants he felt reliable to enter the city, and many of his retinue were replaced by soldiers.

News soon came from the city that since Seleucus had brought the main force to the Medes, what remained of Babylon was mainly a few newly recruited soldiers, a total of about 6,000 men, and Patrocles was the supreme military commander. Cassandrus knew that it was basically impossible to break through the city of Babylon by storming, even if there were spies to cooperate, his three thousand men would not be able to destroy twice as many people as himself, and there were many Greeks or Macedonians living in the city of Babylon, and some soldiers could be recruited for garrison at any time, so it would be more difficult for him to have a chance of victory, which made Cassandros very distressed, because if he attacked Babylon before the king came, it would be the best gift to His Majesty, and it was also a great merit, And if he waited for the king's army to arrive here, his advance march would have no effect, and it would definitely be a blow to his prestige, and the king would lose his trust in him, which was unacceptable to him. However, he has no siege weapons, and there is a big gap in the strength of the two sides, and the rush for quick success is likely to cause the destruction of this army, so at this time, Cassandros is facing the first important choice in his life. …,

One night, Pyrus came to the commander's tent, looked at Kassandro with a frown, shook his head, and said, "General, you are still troubled! ”

"Alas......"

"Sighing doesn't look like your style!"

"Do you have any good ideas?"

"How can I have it, you can't think of it, I can still think of it?" Pyruston paused, suddenly thought of something, and said, "But we don't have much food!" You see, if you want to plunder, Babylon is very rich! ”

"But once we do this, we will be exposed, and we may lose the hearts of the people, and even if we occupy this place in the future, we will leave some sequelae." Cassandrus said helplessly.

"What then, do you want to wait for Patrocles to call?"

"What did you say?"

"I said—" Before he could finish speaking, Pyrus saw Cassandro make a gesture to shut up.

Cassandreus walked back and forth in the tent for thirty rounds before he finally stopped, and Pyrus was about to ask, but Cassandrus spoke.

"Call Abdullah to me at once."

"Call him—oh, okay."

After a while, Abdullah arrived, the leader of the Arab mercenaries was very tall, with a very straight nose and a relatively rudimentary armor over his gray skin. Compared to Kassandros, Abdullah's whole person is full of domineering, which is also a common trait of uncivilized barbarians, and the ignorant are fearless.

"I am very grateful that the general was here with me, and we are here after a difficult journey of dozens of parasanga. Not far to the east is the beautiful and rich city of Babylon, where there is plenty of food and wealth, but there is an army of 6,000 men in the city, and we have only about 3,000 men. ”

"Regardless of the commands of the general, all my Arab soldiers will fully assist you in the capture of Babylon." Kassandris's provocative words piqued Abdullah's great interest.

Cassandrall walked to the armor stand, picked up his armor without hesitation, and handed it to Abdullah, who was startled and said, "General—"

Kassandrus stopped: "The armor of the Arab warriors is too thin, but unfortunately I can't equip all of you with good armor now, this armor was given to me by the king, I think it should be much stronger than yours, give it to you for self-defense first, and the other warriors will make up for it later." ”

Abdullah looked at the armor in his hand blankly, at this time he was not only excited, but also moved, and many images appeared in his mind, but before he could finish thinking, Cassandrus said in a sonorous and powerful tone of command: "Tomorrow, the general will lead all the troops under his command to plunder outside the city of Babylon, and be sure to attract Babylon to send a large army to encircle and suppress." You can do a short engagement with the opponent before retreating, or you can retreat directly, but you must attract the opponent to you, I will set up an ambush at a distance of about 80 Stadia to the west of Babylon, and when the enemy reaches the ambush circle, we will launch a surprise attack to annihilate them. ”

"Thank you for your kindness, I Abdullah, I will die for you. So let's all sorts out? ”

"That's right, all of them are dispatched, otherwise it will not be enough to attract a large number of troops from the other side, but we must minimize the killing of civilians."

"Okay, please rest assured that the subordinates will complete the task."

"Then you go down and rest first, and set off at dawn tomorrow."

Abdullah arched his hand and withdrew from the tent.

"If we succeed in luring the defenders out of the city tomorrow, then we will be able to defeat each other, but if we only defeat them, it is useless, if we do not destroy them completely, it will be difficult for us to break through Babylon, only by destroying them completely, we can change into their clothes and open the gates. So your mission, in addition to besieging them together, is to kill all their cavalry. Remember, it's all. ”

"Yes, General!"