Kindness is commendable, noble and commendable. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

- Aristotle (one of the great philosophers, scientists, and educators in the ancient history of the world)

Faced with the aggressiveness of the Seleucid Empire and the unreasonableness of Seleucus VII, the Parthian kingdom could only ask for help from the other three kingdoms that were also part of the alliance; This alliance of kingdoms consisting of four kingdoms was actually an anti-Seleucid alliance consisting of the Parthian kingdom, the Armenian kingdom, the Pontus kingdom, and the Alexander kingdom.

From the perspective of historical origins, these four kingdoms were once part of the Seleucid Empire, and they were also hostile to the Seleucid Empire; Therefore, it is not surprising that these four kingdoms form an alliance against the Seleucid Empire.

The crux of the matter is that this alliance did not have the Parthian kingdom at the beginning, and if it were not for Seleucus VII's determination to change the decline of the Seleucid Empire and make the Parthian kingdom feel a real threat, the Parthian kingdom would not have joined this alliance.

Even after joining this alliance, when the Kingdom of Pontus called on all the allied kingdoms to engage in a military confrontation with the Seleucid Empire, only the Kingdom of Alexander and the Kingdom of Armenia each sent 20,000 troops to respond to the call of the Kingdom of Ponticus, and the Kingdom of Parthia did not even reply to the Kingdom of Pontus, let alone send troops to respond.

In fact, the Parthian Kingdom has always felt that its strength is the most powerful existence among the four kingdoms, even if this kingdom alliance is formed, the strongest Parthian kingdom should be the alliance leader, how can the Pontus Kingdom be the alliance leader?

The rebellious Parthian kingdom had never cooperated with any of its allies in the League, and was at best a nominal member of the Kingdom League; However, after the Seleucid Empire annexed the province of Elemes of the Parthian Kingdom, the other three kingdoms of the Kingdom Alliance received a request for help from the Parthian Kingdom, and they still sent the armies of their respective kingdoms to reinforce the Parthian Kingdom.

This is not to say that the other three kingdoms were all good people who gave selflessly, but everyone was not willing to sit back and watch the Seleucid Empire become stronger; Since the reign of Emperor Seleucus VII of the Seleucid Empire, the situation within the Seleucid Empire has become more and more stable day by day, the size of the army has become larger and larger day by day, and even the quality of the army has become higher and higher.

When the previous emperor ruled the Seleucid Empire, the soldiers of the Silver Shield Legion who served as the Imperial Palace Guard of the Seleucid Empire were just embroidered pillows, and no one could understand the Silver Shield Legion as well as Alexander, who had served in the Silver Shield Legion; At that time, the Silver Shield Legion, not to mention the war, couldn't even do the most basic strong façade.

What now? In the year Seleucus VII ascended to the throne, he began a large-scale reorganization of the Silver Shield Legion, known as the Praetorian Guard; All the infantry and pikemen of the Silver Shield Legion were rigorously trained, and all unqualified noble children were cleared out of the Silver Shield Legion, and civilian warriors from other armies who endured hardships and performed well were also selected into the Silver Shield Legion.

After the great reorganization of Seleucus VII, the combat effectiveness of the Silver Shield Legion increased rapidly; The children of the nobles who objected to Seleucus VII's approach wisely chose to leave the Silver Shield Legion and pack their bags and go home after Seleucus VII made it clear that he would send the Silver Shield Legion to the front line for training.

Seleucus VII will not stop the noble children who want to leave the Silver Shield Legion, but will encourage them to do something else when they return home and continue to serve the Empire; Seleucus VII did not treat the noble children who were willing to stay in the Silver Shield Legion badly, not only giving them officials and knights, but also promoting them to the position of officers one by one, and personally teaching them to march and fight.

Later, the army sent by Seleucus VII to the northern border region to confront the army of the Kingdom Alliance was the once vulnerable Silver Shield Legion of the Seleucid Empire; Alexander, as a person who thought he was very familiar with the Silver Shield Legion, led an army of 20,000 troops of the Kingdom of Alexandria to launch a tentative attack on the Silver Shield Army when the Silver Shield Army had just arrived in the border area.

Alexander, who was rarely underestimated, suffered a big loss in front of the transformed Silver Shield Legion, and the 20,000 troops of Alexander's kingdom were defeated on the battlefield by the 20,000 troops of the Silver Shield Legion; At least 8,000 soldiers from Alexander's kingdom did not return to the barracks, and the cost paid by the Silver Shield Legion was only more than 1,000 casualties.

This battle made the high-level leaders of all the kingdom alliances, including Alexander, truly realize the combat effectiveness of the Silver Shield Legion, and also made them understand the horror of Seleucus VII; Therefore, after receiving the request for help from the Parthian Kingdom, they immediately sent a reinforcement force of 60,000 people to reinforce the Parthian Kingdom.

If the mighty Parthian kingdom was destroyed by the Seleucid Empire, the territory of the Seleucid Empire would be further expanded, and Seleucus VII's prestige in the Seleucid Empire would be further enhanced; When the time comes, after a few more years of development in the Seleucid Empire, will there be any hope for other kingdoms to survive?

After Seleucus VII captured the province of Elemes of the Parthian kingdom, he did not immediately attack the Medes, the capital of the Parthian kingdom, but chose to lead his army in the province of Elemes to wait for the army attacking the kingdom of Dumassa to return.

After the complete conquest of the Arab region where the Kingdom of Dumassa was located, the 30,000 troops of the Seleucid Empire were left to garrison the Arab region, and the rest of the main army returned to the province of Babylon; When the 20,000-strong army of Babylon returned, Seleucus VII entrusted them with all the captives and garrisons of the province of Elemes.

The 60,000 troops of the Kingdom Alliance, plus the 30,000 elite troops reassembled by the Parthian Kingdom, these 90,000 troops are all the troops used by the Parthian Kingdom to counterattack the province of Elemes; And Seleucus VII had only 70,000 troops in his hands that could be used for the attack, including more than 20,000 troops in the province of Babylon, which had just returned.

As it turned out, Seleucus VII was not something that the Parthian kingdom could cope with on its own; Even after the Parthian Kingdom received 60,000 reinforcements from the Kingdom Alliance, the alliance of kingdoms that distrusted each other could not be the opponent of the unified Seleucid Empire's army, but it just gave the Seleucid Empire more opportunities to break through one by one.

The allied forces of the four kingdoms, which consisted of 90,000 men, did not join forces to counterattack the region of Rimes, but divided into four armies to attack the province of Elemes respectively; Seleucus VII, who was good at using warplanes, did not miss such a good opportunity, and he immediately led all his mobile troops to take the lead in attacking the 30,000-strong army of the Parthian kingdom.

The 70,000 troops of the Seleucid Empire were divided into two parts by Seleucus VII, the main force of 40,000 troops was the mobile force under the command of Seleucus VII himself, and the remaining 30,000 troops were stationed in the province of Elemys to defend against enemy attacks; The 30,000 troops of the Parthian kingdom were easily defeated by the 40,000 elite led by Seleucus VII himself.

Later, Seleucus VII defeated the 20,000 armies of the Kingdom of Armenia and the 20,000 armies of the Kingdom of Alexander; Only in the final face of the 20,000 elite army of the Pontus Kingdom, the elite army of Seleucus VII also paid a very heavy price to completely defeat the army of the Pontus Kingdom, so far, the counter-offensive army organized by the four kingdoms was all defeated.

From the massive 90,000-strong coalition army counterattacking the province of Rimes to the retreat of less than 40,000 troops to the nearest Parthian kingdom, the first large-scale head-to-head confrontation between the Kingdom Alliance and the Seleucid Empire ended in a crushing defeat in just three months.

The price paid by the Seleucid Empire was not light, and the 60,000 main army and 30,000 garrisons of Babylon Province at the beginning of Seleucus VII now only have more than 50,000 troops left; In addition, the Arab provinces and the provinces of Elemes have just been incorporated into the Seleucid Empire, and how to quickly stabilize the situation in these two provinces is the most important thing for the Seleucid Empire.

As a result, Seleucus VII abandoned the Parthian kingdom to continue the attack, and instead returned to Antioch with an army of 30,000 elite troops stationed in the provinces of Babylon and Elemes; After several successive successful expansions, Seleucus VII's popularity in the country reached new heights, and even those who once opposed his succession to the throne became his staunch supporters.

After returning to Antioch, Seleucus VII received information that the Northern Kingdom Alliance was massively increasing its troops in the border areas; In order to ensure the security of the northern border areas of the Seleucid Empire, Seleucus VII expanded the size of the Silver Shield Legion stationed in Silesia to 30,000 people, and equipped the 30,000 Silver Shield Legion with 5,000 ironclad cavalry to strengthen their counterattack force.

The original garrison of 10,000 in Assyria was expanded to 20,000 by Seleucus VII, and although it was not easy for the Kingdom of Armenia to send a large army over the mountains to attack Assyria, it was always right to plan ahead; Combined with the 30,000 troops stationed in the region of Elemes, the Seleucid Empire has sent 85,000 troops to deal with the alliance of kingdoms in the north.

In addition to the alliance of kingdoms in the north, the kingdom of Egypt in the south was one of the main enemies that the Seleucid Empire had to guard against; Even, in the eyes of Seleucus VII, the Kingdom of Egypt was a more serious threat to the Seleucid Empire than the four northern kingdoms. Anyway, the four kingdoms are just four kingdoms with scattered strength, but the Kingdom of Egypt is a real and formidable rival!

In order to guard against the Kingdom of Egypt, Seleucus VII stationed 20,000 elite infantry and 5,000 ironclad cavalry in the region of Korosyria, which was connected to the Jewish and Phoenician regions of the Kingdom of Egypt; As for the Syrian region where the capital Antioch is located, Seleucus VII stationed 10,000 of the Seleucid Empire's most elite ironclad cavalry, 10,000 sickle chariot troops, and 20,000 elite pikemen in the border area. (To be continued.) )