Chapter 100: The Battle of Issus (2)

Seeing such a scene, Phileteros was quite surprised, this was too far from his expectations, and originally wanted to use the chariot to disrupt the opponent's formation and then wait for the opportunity to break through, but the result was completely wiped out in the first line of defense. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info But as the founder of the later Pergamon Dynasty, Philaeandros was not a vegetarian, he immediately adjusted his mood, he knew that he had to drum up for these guys, otherwise the battle would not be able to fight, and this battle must be fought, this battle determined his future, but also determined the future of his master Lysimachus.

So he rode forward a few steps and said, "Tonight there will be a feast, and a great wine, and a beautiful woman, and we may drink with an open heart, and touch the breasts of women with impunity, and there will be an innumerable amount of gold coins waiting for us." When we tell others about our heroic deeds today, we will be looked at with admiration, because we are all warriors. But until then, we must defeat the enemy before us and show them the prowess of our Thracians and Macedonians. ”

He seemed to forget that they were facing the Macedonians, but this did not affect the effect of his speech, and the emotions of the soldiers were sometimes easily aroused, especially in ancient warfare, morale boosting was a very important tactical tool and general skill. Soon the soldiers forgot their hesitation and fear, and became full of confidence. Of course, the soldiers' thirst for good wine, beautiful women and money also played a very important role.

Alexander's generals in the distance saw that Phileteros was encouraging morale, although it was not a big deal, and they didn't want morale to be compared, so Kletos, who had always been very arrogant and older, also began to boost morale: "Brothers, the importance of today's battle, I don't talk about it, everyone knows, I won't say more, you see that he is just a general, with a newly formed legion, although there are many veterans, but many of them are new soldiers, but the first combat performance is so eye-catching, We, the veterans who followed His Majesty the King from birth to death, can't be compared later, if anyone disgraces me, don't blame me for being polite, do you understand? ”

"Understood!" The soldiers replied in a sonorous voice.

The Rhodes slingers continued to shoot, the Greek heavy infantry maintained a tight formation and began to advance, and the leather shield spearmen also readjusted to a dense formation, but Cretos did not dare to break away too far from the Chinese army, and several phalanxes were still arranged near the left flank of the Chinese army on the right, so as not to be taken advantage of by the enemy cavalry, and they also advanced a few dozen steps appropriately, after all, their most important task was to hold their positions, and then attack. Since the enemy's cavalry is stronger than his own, if he rashly attacks and is waiting for the enemy to break through the defense, once he is torn apart, the consequences will be unimaginable, which is also what Alexander repeatedly emphasized, and generals at all levels have kept it in mind.

At the same time, Philip on the left wing of Antigonus also launched an action, and the chariot also took the lead in attacking, but it soon suffered the same result as the right flank, because almost both sides were carried out at the same time, so they did not know each other's battle situation at all, and there was no way to notify them in time, so the chariot also did not escape the fate of being abused, and in the end there were less than twenty cars left and directly withdrew from the battlefield.

Philip was also very impressed, but he had a great infantry—5,000 infantry from his father Antipater, and Greek infantry cobbled together from all over Greece. The former is the elite infantry of Macedonia, the infantry phalanx composed of the pure Macedonian propertied class, and these are all veterans, this time Kassander is bloody; Although the latter came from different city-states, and the equipment was not very uniform, but the combat effectiveness of these soldiers should not be underestimated, the strength of the Greek infantry was known throughout the Mediterranean, and their armor was basically thick, thus ensuring the defensive power, and the various city-states were also separately organized, thus ensuring combat effectiveness. Most of the Greek warriors wore lamellar leather armor made of linen and leather strips, while others wore heavy, stiff breastplates with muscular motifs, bright horsetail tassels hanging from their heads, and leggings tied to their calves.

In addition, Philip had one of the most powerful troops, the Spartan hoplites. Although the number of this army is only 500 people, its combat effectiveness must not be underestimated, this is a fact that everyone agrees, even if the Macedonian royal spearmen are slightly inferior to them, only the silver shield soldiers under Antizhenis can match them during this period, and the silver shield spearmen in the Seleucid era have also degraded a lot.

After the 4th century B.C., the gap between the rich and the poor among the citizens of Sparta accelerated, the number of people who lost their land and citizenship increased, the "commune of the equals" tended to disintegrate, and the citizen army was weakened day by day. In 370 BCE, Epiaminonda led an army of 70,000 men of the Peeotian League into the Peloponnese, bypassing the city of Sparta but burning the countryside of Laconia, and in 369 BC helped the Messenians free themselves from Spartan slavery and rebuild their country. For the next 10 years, most of the Peloponnese was controlled by the Thebans, and Sparta was finally reduced to a second-rate city-state with no status.

After the rise of the Macedonian Empire, the decline of Sparta became even more irreversible, perhaps in order to revitalize Sparta, King Eudamedas I, the king of the Euripontide lineage, took the initiative to overtake Cassander and provided 500 Spartan hoplites, led by Odamidas I's son Archidamus (later Archidamus IV). Another king of the Archiades lineage, Cleonmini II, was too old to deal with affairs now.

Cassander was pleasantly surprised by the change in the attitude of Odamidas I, and did not hesitate to take over the troops, the Spartan helmet was brass, weighing up to 4.5 kilograms, which could protect the head in all directions, and the armor was a combination, composed of scales, feathers, brass, and iron, and the most important was the brass armor, which was strong enough to resist the piercing of ordinary spears. The shield is a large round Astis shield, which, combined with the Greek gauntlet, makes it easier to block and wield. The length of the spear is about 2 meters, and the front part is a sharp iron tip, and the rear end is a short iron tip, which can be regarded as a second killing weapon. The dagger has a blood groove on it to facilitate drawing from the enemy's body, and it is of moderate length, suitable for hand-to-hand combat after the spear formation is breached. Although there are not many of them, today the Spartan hoplites are definitely the best of the best.

Originally, the relationship between Sparta and Macedonia has always been relatively bad, but Macedonia is full of factions, and the relationship between the Greek states is even more complicated, but it is not difficult to draw conclusions from a certain point of analysis. A few years earlier, when Polybecon had fought with Cassanders in the Peloponnese, he had a big fight with Damini at Megarobolis and ended up with a crushing defeat.

At that time, Megaropolis was the only city that supported Cassander except for the port of Piraeus, and the main component of this city was the Helots, who had been oppressed by Sparta for hundreds of years, and the existence of this city was to disgust Sparta, and Ibamida was founded with the intention of planting a nail in the Peloponnese.

Therefore, Mecaropolis and Sparta are old enemies, and their relationship has not changed at all, even if there is any possibility of détente, and each wants to get rid of the other as soon as possible. For Megaropolis, who was desperately supporting Cassander, Sparta hated U and U, and his attitude towards Cassander was definitely not friendly. However, now Sparta actually participated in the side of Antigonus, and participated in the war as a subsidiary of Cassander, which surprised Alexander, and he couldn't help but think: This is not in line with the character of the Spartans at all, is it true that Sparta has fallen to Sparta, and does not even want the least face?! What the facts are, Alexander is naturally not clear for the time being.

Alexander's right flank was relatively weak compared to Antigonus's left flank, and there was no advantage in the ambush, but the mobility was better, and although the space on the right flank was not large, it was much better than the left flank by the sea. It's just that Philip is obviously very clear about the advantages and disadvantages of both sides, all the phalanxes are in the camp, 3000 cavalry firmly protect the left flank, try not to give the opponent's cavalry a chance, if it is just to deal with the few guards cavalry of Eumenes and the Arab cavalry with low combat effectiveness, these 3,000 cavalry are naturally enough, but Philip missed the opponent's ambush, that is 3500 cavalry with good combat effectiveness! This was something Philip had never expected.

Alexander's infantry on the right flank also advanced slowly, but in order to increase the length to compete with the opponent, it was inevitable to sacrifice depth, fortunately they were all elite, but if the ratio of infantry between the enemy and us was very different, it was very dangerous, and once it was broken by the opponent, it would be a devastating blow.

The archers on Philip's side began to shoot far low, but unfortunately, whether it was a leather shield spearman, a silver shield or a shield bearer, the shield they were equipped with was not a small shield like a pikeman, but a relatively bulky Aspis round shield, and the area of defense was very large, so the archers' shooting did not have much effect. Soon they turned to the Guards cavalry to shoot, but only one round, and the Arab archers of Eumenes also quickly formed a scattered formation and fired at the archers, and rushed towards the archers as they fired, and the archers retreated very consciously, until they retreated to the infantry formation, and the Arab cavalry immediately rushed to the perimeter, which made Philip, who had wanted to eat this daring archer in one fell swoop, change his mind.

However, soon the archers began to shoot Philip's lancers on the periphery, which made Pricy forced Laus to be very impatient, his lancers were lightly armed with horses and soldiers, and there was little protection at all, their role was to impact the enemy's formation, once they fell into hand-to-hand combat or suffered a long-range attack was bad, Philip had to order Pricy to force Rolls to send 8 squadrons (1200 people) of lancers to destroy these abominable archers. In this way, Philip was left with just over 2,000 men to protect the left flank of the infantry, but the other side only had 1,000 men, which reassured him.