After Padica's death, Antipater, who took over the remnants of Padica's army, was faced with a mess. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoThe main force of the Macedonian royal army under Padica was demoralized by the failure of the invasion of Egypt, and then Antipater was very troubled by a series of problems such as unpaid wages and homesickness. He had to use deceptive means to bring the main force of the royal army back to Macedonia proper, which finally managed to alleviate the problem, but the Macedonian soldiers he left behind Antigonus, although there were also hopes to make a fortune by plundering more booty through new wars, the morale of a large part of the soldiers was still very poor.

Antigonus will not have a lot of money in his hands, and more importantly, even if he has a little money, he has to prepare for future wars, and it is impossible to pay for the time being. Thus, nearly forty percent of the Macedonian soldiers given to him by Antipater mutinied - and since there was no one to pay them, they were left to fend for themselves. From the end of 320 BC to the beginning of 319 BC, when Antigonus led his army for the winter, a part of the Macedonian soldiers, led by an officer named Olcias, broke away from the main force of Antigonus's army and plundered the Phrygia of Antigonus. What's more, this army, as the old part of Padica, in this case, in order to prevent being exterminated, is likely to join Padica's brother Alcetas, who is not far away, which will be an immeasurable loss for Antigonus.

Antigonus had to deal with these rebellious soldiers, but if he had to fight these rebels, it would be a huge loss for him, after all, he had only so many Macedonians in his hands, and even if he added Greek and Asian soldiers, he was not as good as either of Eumenes and Arcetas, and the Macedonian soldiers were stronger than the other soldiers. However, he came up with an incredible plan - he sent one of his generals named Leonidas (if there is a resemblance, it is pure coincidence - the same name as the king of Sparta who died in the battle at Thermopylae) to "take refuge" with the rebels. This Leonidas was a man of talent, not only did he succeed in joining the rebels, but he soon replaced Ossias as the leader of the rebel army.

Leonidas tricked them into taking them back to Macedonia, and led them out of the mountains where he was located, via the plains of Phrygia. Soon, this army was suddenly surrounded by the pre-ambushed Antigonus army, and all of them were captured without bloodshed.

Antigonus did not dare to punish these rebels lest the remaining Macedonians under his command be dissatisfied, after all, the masters of these royal armies could do everything. He disarmed them and sent Leonidas back to Macedonia with them. At this time, Antigonus was in a very unhappy mood, after all, the Macedonian soldiers under his command were suddenly reduced by nearly half, and the troops at hand were even less.

Despite this, with the arrival of the spring of 319 BC, Antigonus decided to deal with his opponent as soon as possible, after all, it was not a good feeling to be caught between two hostile forces for a long time. With 3,000 Macedonian soldiers returning home, Antigonus was stretched thin, and he borrowed troops from the nominally controlled governors of Lydia, Cletus, and Asande, the governors of Caria, in western Asia Minor, to monitor the movements of Artese. Even so, all he could take with him were 10,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry, and 30 war elephants. Although there was no advantage in numbers, Antigonus did not hesitate to lead his troops into Cappadocia.

At this time, Eumenes was quite confident, he had 20,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry at his disposal, not only was he superior in numbers, but the quality of his cavalry was also proven in the battle with Craterus. However, he had to face a serious problem - his capable cavalry general, Fanakabazos, had died of illness. …,

In terms of seniority, Fanakabazos was already a naval commander in chief during the Persian Empire. More than twenty years ago, his father, Artabazos, the governor of Lydia in the Persian Empire, failed to rebel against the Persian king and went into exile with his sisters, as well as the brothers Mentor and Memnon (the only Greek mercenary leaders worthy of the title of Alexander's opponent), where they lived for many years. His sister Barcin, who became Alexander's mistress after the death of her second husband Memnon, and her other sister became the wife of Eumenes, who himself caused great trouble when he was commander of the Persian fleet. As a result of the death of Fanakabazos, in addition to the Greek Phoenix, who had previously been tied with Fanakabazos, Eumenes promoted a general named Apollonides to command his proud cavalry.

Eumenes took up battle on the plains of Cappadocia called Orkynia, ready to meet the challenge of Antigonus. Obviously, Eumenes chose a plain as a battlefield because he wanted to take advantage of the Cappadocian cavalry.

Antigonus discovered a hill near the camp of Eumenes, and he occupied it so that he could see the whole battlefield. In order to conceal the obvious disadvantage of his own forces, Antigonus pretended to camp nearby and wait for reinforcements, and soon had his heralds report "Our reinforcements have arrived!" Fake news. When Eumenes' scouts heard this, they went back and reported back to Eumenes.

Antigonus decided to play the trick to the end. The next day, he set up a decisive battle and commanded his phalanx forward, sacrificing the number of soldiers in each phalanx, thus making the array twice as wide as it would normally be. Eumenes and his army had heard that Antigonus had received a large number of reinforcements, but now that the width of the opponent's array was not shorter than their own, they thought that the opponent was a strong enemy with a force at least equal to their own, and they could not help but lose their morale.

The arrays of the two sides began to make contact, and the battle officially began. If he only played these tricks, Antigonus's tricks would be revealed sooner or later, after all, he was too small to fail. However, at the critical moment of the battle, something happened that shocked Eumenes - Apollonides and his cavalry all defected in front of the battle!

Antigonus's combat skills were second to none among the Diadochi, as he had few defeats, and his killer weapon for victory, except for the rapid march, was to buy off the enemy's generals, and in doing so, he reversed many defeats. This time he didn't know how to convince Apollonides to defect, maybe the veteran did not hesitate to bribe the latter with part of his already tight military budget, or maybe Antigonus now has a natural advantage in status as a "legitimate" crusader, and promised him a knighthood, so this guy who resembles Neoptolemus betrayed Eumenes (the reason why it is similar is that in addition to his shameless nature, the ending is also quite similar). In the battles of the classical era, when the two sides were basically evenly matched, once one side was attacked by the opponent's cavalry in a roundabout way, it was difficult for the attacked side to recover the defeat. Eumenes' army, which had been deceived by Antigonus's trickery and thought that its opponent was strong, now a cavalry on one side had defected and soon collapsed.

Antigonus became the undisputed victor at the Battle of Euquinia, with 8,000 of Eumenes' troops killed in battle alone, as well as all their supplies and bags. These were the spoils of war that his army had captured in various "hostile" areas of Asia Minor, and many of the soldiers under Eumenes, especially the Macedonians, were willing to fight for the Greek, who had already been sentenced to death, in large part because of his generosity, and the loss of his bags was almost as great a blow as the defeat of the battle itself. …,

However, Eumenes had not yet conceded defeat, and although most of his soldiers had been killed or surrendered, there was still a part of the army around him, mainly a few cavalry led by Phoenix and others, who still followed him. He also captured Apollonides, who was already dreaming of promotion and fortune, hanged him from a tree, and then fled the battlefield. When Antigonus led his main force in pursuit of him, he managed to deceive Antigonus's pursuers and turned back to the battlefield of Oquinia.

The reason why Eumenes had to return to the battlefield was because according to the custom of the time, the loser of the battle had to ask the victor to collect the bodies of his own fallen soldiers after the battle, and Eumenes did not want to give Antigonus a chance to win again spiritually. He deceived Antigonus' pursuers and returned to the battlefield to cremate the bodies of the soldiers who had died in battle. Later, he was also surprised to discover that Antigonus's military supplies and the luggage battalion where the soldiers' personal belongings were kept, including some of the Macedonian soldiers' family members, were still near the plains of Okinia, and were now exposed to his eyes. His soldiers eagerly said that they would plunder the unsuspecting battalion early the next morning.

Eumenes knew that he had to restrain his army, and if his remnants of thousands of men succeeded in plundering Antigonus's camp, the final outcome would be the destruction of the entire army (they would not be able to get far with a large amount of plunder, and Antigonus's army would soon catch up with them, not only recovering their possessions but also destroying them). However, it was inconvenient for him to directly prevent his soldiers from obtaining the loot at their fingertips. So he wrote to the guard of Antigonus's camp, his "old friend", Menander, who had placed him with him a few years earlier. It was precisely because of Menander's defection that the vanguard led by Antigonus was able to enter Asia. In his letter, he said to Minander: "Out of our old friendship, I tell you that our soldiers are ready to come and plunder your barracks, and that you should move quickly to a safe place. ”

Minander hastened to move all his baggage, luggage, and belongings to the foot of a nearby hill that was steep and uneven, not conducive to cavalry charges, and assumed a defensive posture. The next day, Eumenes made it appear that he was going to lead his soldiers to attack, and ordered the scout cavalry to go to reconnoiter first. When it was reported that Menander had retreated to safety and set up a defensive position, Eumenes feigned disappointment and told his men that Antigonus was coming, and that we should run. So the remnants of his army withdrew from the battlefield of Oquinia, and the battle officially ended. When Antigonus's army returned to the camp, Menander told everyone that Eumenes had not plundered their camp, and many Macedonians praised Eumenes for his kindness that kept their wives from being insulted, their children from being enslaved, and their property preserved. Antigonus shook his head and said disapprovingly to his cronies, "Eumenes has robbed less than I have robbed in my Phrygian jurisdiction before, but this kid is more slippery, and knows that this robbery is too much to escape my pursuit." ”

Eumenes had intended to continue eastward into Armenia to gather new forces there, but Antigonus led the army in hot pursuit, and the number of people who followed him became smaller and smaller, until at last only 500 infantry and 200 cavalry remained. Eventually, he was forced to abandon his plans to go to Armenia and arrived at a fortress called Nora on the border of Cappadocia (which he had arranged as a backup base), and Antigonus's army arrived to drain the entire siege of Nora.