After Alexander's defeat of Antigonus, except for a few satraps who followed Eumenes, almost all the Diadochi were united, in addition to Cassander and Ptolemy, including Peusestas and Silpitius in the East, which was unexpected by Alexander, but also reasonable, although there was no public crusade against the king, but the various forces continued to collude, and the undercurrent was surging. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoBecause everyone is nostalgic for the power in their hands, no one wants to give it up easily, and to be loyal to a child under the age of ten, where are the generals who served Alexander's command now? Against this backdrop, Alexander and Eumenes embarked on a crusade against the separatist forces in various places.

Originally, he was going to crusade against Antigonus, but due to the episode of Ptolemy's attack on Tyre, Eumenes decided to teach the rampant Ptolemy a lesson first. Eumenes had under his command the cavalry general Phoenix, the commander of the Silver Shield Army, Antijanis, the vanguard generals Amintas, Ducarros, Greitas, and others. And Ptolemy was not bad, not only in terms of numbers, reaching 28,000 men, but also under his command the general Nikano, others and Seleucus and his subordinates who defected. However, the Eumenes side had 50 war elephants that the other side did not have. However, war elephants were no surprise to generals of the caliber of Ptolemy and Seleucus, who had participated in Alexander the Great's expeditions against the Indians and had a wealth of experience in dealing with them.

Originally, Ptolemy and Seleucus had deployed more cavalry on the left flank of their own army, so Eumenes deployed them in an oblique array, placing war elephants and 1,000 cavalry of the Guards on the left flank to strengthen their strength, and ordered the cavalry on the right flank of their own army to delay the battle as long as possible. However, when Ptolemy learned of Eumenes' formation from the scouts, he immediately changed his formation, concentrating the elite 3,000 Nile cavalry on the right flank, with a phalanx of 15,000 soldiers in the center and 1,000 cavalry and 3,000 black mercenaries on the left flank.

Eumenes looked at the Ptolemaic army in the distance and pondered for a long time, and when Eudemos saw that he still had no instructions, he couldn't help but hurriedly say, "General, how do you think we should act?" ”

Eumenes pondered for a moment and said: "The opponent's strength is not weaker than ours at all, whether it is the Chinese army or the left and right flanks, it is stronger than ours, and our only special elephant soldiers, they seem to have a way to restrain themselves, you see that the front is covered with thistles, there are only a few narrow passages, elephants are only livestock after all, and they are more difficult to control than horses, you must be careful when you will attack, I will first send Macedonian cavalry to attack to attract the attention of the opponent's long-range weapons, and the slingers will try their best to suppress the opponent's long-range forces in the middle." and your elephant soldier will act again.

"Herald! The Macedonian cavalry of Gelas on the left flank attacked in an arc on the left side of the opponent's right flank. The Chinese army advanced slowly, and the right flank tried to contain the opponent's forces as much as possible, paying special attention to the opponent's cavalry, and never allowing them to go around the rear of our army. Attack on all fronts! ”

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"Governor, the enemy has been dispatched?" The herald said to Ptolemy.

"Order, the Chinese army does not move, and the two flanks attack."

"Ah, is it just a two-wing attack?"

"What are you talking about, don't give orders soon!"

"Yes!"

"Eumenes, look how I made you dumplings." Ptolemy sneered inwardly.

The battle began with the elite cavalry of both sides fighting each other, with Eumenes having the upper hand on the left flank of his own army and the outpost of Ptolemaic cavalry, but as Ptolemy led the rapid reinforcement of the Nile cavalry and attacked the flank of the left flank of the Eumenes, the two sides were evenly matched, and the knights of both sides drew their swords after their spears were broken. While the cavalry of the two sides were fighting, Eumenes ordered the war elephants to start advancing, hoping that the appearance of the war elephants would demoralize the enemy. When the elephants approached the Ptolemaic army, the Ptolemaic javelinmen and archers began to shoot and sprinkled thistles on the elephants' path, and some of the elephants began to lose control and run wildly because of the fact that they stepped on the thistles. The riders of the remnants of the elephants were killed by the Ptolemaic archers and javelinmen at close range, and the rockets frightened the elephants, and most of the frenzied war elephants fled backwards, which seriously interfered with the deployment of Eumenes, who ordered the driver to kill the mad war elephant, and the driver raised his javelin and stabbed the elephant in the head, and the behemoth fell with a miserable roar, which made everyone feel sad and angry.

At the same time as the elephants were lost, the cavalry on Eumenes' left flank was gradually defeated, and the army began to show signs of collapse, so Eumenes had to order a retreat and try to regroup.

While Eumenes' left flank and Ptolemy's right flank attacked, the other flank began to confront, and Phoenix's Cappadocian cavalry, which was also the elite of the cavalry, was re-equipped by Alexander, and became even more powerful. Even though Nikano commanded the Macedonian cavalry, he suffered heavy casualties in the face of the powerful charge of the Phoenix cavalry, and after recognizing the reality, Nikano quickly retreated to the Nubian spearmen. However, Abdullah's Arab light cavalry, all armed with bows and arrows, immediately harassed from the periphery, and although the Nubian spearmen were armed with large shields, casualties were somewhat inevitable, and the opponents were all cavalry, and could not catch up, so Ptolemy's left flank was completely passive. As a last resort, Amos could only gradually move the spearmen closer to the Chinese army. By this time, the Chinese longbowmen had already fired several times before the opponent could get close, and Ptolemy's archers suffered heavy losses, but they did not retreat, but began to fire at each other after reaching their own range. The longbowmen wore only a simple layer of leather armor, which was basically unguarded, and could not shoot against the elite Egyptian archers equipped with scale armor. The longbowmen then retreated, and the infantry advanced to engage the opposing forces.

In early Ptolemaic Egypt, the army was still relatively elite, especially during the period of Ptolemy I, and there were quite a lot of Macedonian pikemen in its service, so it defeated the armies of Antigonus and Seleucid many times, which is not the same as the army of the Ptolemaic dynasty more than two hundred years later. Due to the experience of the elephant soldiers on the left flank, the elephant soldiers of the Chinese army stopped halfway through, leaving all the infantry to attack. The two armies docked, Ptolemy's Macedonian pikemen did not show the slightest advantage, and the Nile pikemen recruited by Egypt also had a certain combat effectiveness, but in the face of the strongest silver shield soldiers of this era, any power in Eastern Europe appeared vulnerable. It is also a stabbing move, which seems simple, but has a lot of connotation. Under the extremely sharp attack of the silver shield soldiers, the Nile spearmen, who had more than twice as many as the opponent, were invincible, and seeing that the gap could not be blocked, Hikemt had to order a retreat, and wait until the silver shield soldiers penetrated deep to surround it. At this time, the Nile spearmen showed their high discipline, and the retreat under the beckoning of such a powerful opponent did not turn into a rout, but retreated a hundred paces in a relatively orderly manner. However, the Silver Shield Men were not afraid to expose their wings, and immediately chased after the enemy defenses. The Nile spearmen quickly established a second line of defense, but the other soldiers of the Ptolemaic army panicked, and the innovation of the silver shield soldiers stimulated the other soldiers, and the superior Ptolemaic army gradually began to fail.

At this time, Amos's Nubian spearmen gradually dispersed in the retreat, and most of the qualities of the blacks were relatively poor in any era, especially their combat ability, so they were the best source of slaves, and they were not suitable for the battlefield.

Gaza Campaign

When: Spring 315 BC

Location: Gaza (Syria)

Result: Eumenes wins

Belligerents

Eumenes

Ptolemy

Left Wing of the Eumenes Army (Eumenes)

1000 Guards Cavalry (Eumenes)

1800 Macedonian cavalry (Garas)

30 War Elephants (commanded by Odmus)

1200 Rhodes slingers

Right Wing of the Ptolemaic Army (Seleucus)

3,000 Nile Cavalry (Chia)

1600 Macedonian cavalry (Seleucids)

2000 archers and javelinmen

Central of the Eumenes Army (Antignis)

11,000 infantry of all ranks formed the Macedonian phalanx (commanded by Amintas, Dokamos, Yumenas and others)

2000 Silver Shields (Antignis)

20 war elephants and 1,500 longbowmen (Ducarus) at the front of the battle

Central Plolemaic Army (Ptolemy)

8000 Macedonian pikemen of all ranks (Utlerus et al.)

500 Escort Cavalry (Ptolemy)

2000 light infantry

5000 Nile pikemen (Hikmut)

2000 Elite Archer (Merrill)

Right Wing of the Eumenes Army (Phoenix)

1500 Cappadocian cavalry (commanded by Phoenix)

2000 Arab Cavalry (Abdullah)

Left Wing of the Ptolemaic Army (Nikano)

1600 Macedonian cavalry (commanded by Nikano)

3000 Nubian spearmen (mercenaries) (commanded by Amos)

casualty

More than 1,200 people were killed

More than 2,600 people were wounded

20 war elephants were killed

More than 3,000 people were killed

More than 5,000 wounded (half captured)