We can't influence others intellectually, but emotions do. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

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

The 20,000-strong army of the Spartan city-state was mainly composed of 5,000 Spartan heavy infantry; The other 15,000 troops were also composed of 5,000 Greek hoplites and 5,000 archers for long-range attacks, as well as 5,000 Greek cavalry.

The number of war horses on the Greek peninsula was not small, so that the forces on the Greek peninsula could form a cavalry force of no small size; However, the combat effectiveness of the Greek cavalry was relatively unmatched, at most it was comparable to the combat effectiveness of the Roman cavalry of waste materials.

This is also a relative comparison, and it cannot be said that all Greek cavalry is inferior in battle, after all, the Greek cavalry also has Macedonian royal cavalry that once roamed the world; And the scrap Roman cavalry never seemed to have any good records.

Perhaps, it is really like what Hannibal once said when he completely annihilated the cavalry legions that the Roman Republic had tried his best to build: the Roman cavalry, they were not real cavalry at all, they were just heralds on the battlefield.

Regardless of the combat effectiveness of the five thousand Greek cavalry of the Spartan city-state for the time being, the mere existence of five thousand Spartan hoplites and five thousand Greek hoplites is already a very strong fighting force; At the very least, it was much stronger than the 25,000-strong army of the Athenian city-state, which could not even gather 5,000 Greek hoplites.

The Athenian city-state did not have time to consult with the Greek city-states of Attica, so it had to send almost all of its own city-states' army; Although the Athenian city-state sent an army of 25,000 troops, the actual quality was more than a cut below that of the Spartan city-state.

Among the Greek forces, the existence of Spartan heavy infantry can be called rebellious, and it is not available to forces outside the Spartan city-state, and there is no meaning to measure strength at all; Therefore, the Greek hoplites, who were second only to the Spartan heavy infantry in combat effectiveness, became an important measure of the strength of every Greek power.

Among the 25,000 troops of the Athenian city-state this time, the most elite combat strength was the core of 3,000 Greek hoplites and 7,000 Greek infantry; Then there was the 15,000 auxiliary army of archers and javelinmen.

Such an army of 25,000 was enough to attack the isolated Peloponnesian province of the Kingdom of Macedonia, but it was extremely ridiculous to try to compete with the mighty Spartan army for the Peloponnese; The rulers of the Athenian city-state did not fail to understand this, and after sending this army in a hurry, they once again began to negotiate with the other city-states in the region of Attica.

After some haste and hass, the city-state of Athens finally took the most prosperous capital city in the Peloponnese before the army of the Spartan city-state arrived in Corinth; And the follow-up coalition formed by the Athenian city-state to coordinate the entire Attica region with other Greek city-states is also on its way to Corinth, which is an elite army of 15,000 people!

The Spartan army, which was one step away, naturally did not willingly watch the Athenian city-state occupy Corinth, and after detaching a small force to the Peloponnese port to occupy the port, the main army of the Spartan city-state was stationed five miles outside Corinth.

Next, the Peloponnesian province was the battlefield of the competition between the Athenian city-states and the Spartan city-states, and the Macedonian kingdom, as the real master of the Peloponnese, was kicked out of the war at the very beginning of the war.

As the small forces of the Spartan city-state entered the port, a detachment of the Macedonian navy stationed in the port of the Peloponnese quickly withdrew, leaving an empty port occupied by the troops of the Spartan city-state.

While the armies of the city-states of Athens and Sparta were wrestling in the Peloponnese, the army of Gnaeus of the Brutus family had successfully reached Larissa, the capital of the province of Thessaly in the Macedonian kingdom; In the face of the mighty army of 40,000 or 50,000 of the Brutus family, the governor of the Macedonian kingdom of Thessaly, very aware of the current affairs, chose to open the city gate and surrender unconditionally.

Since the governor of the Macedonian kingdom was so knowledgeable about current affairs, Ganeus, as the commander of the army, naturally would not embarrass him; After all, this person is also the governor of a province of the Macedonian Kingdom, and how to deal with it is still up to Tiberius to arrange, which is not a power that Ganeus can usurp.

After the capture of Larissa, Gnaeus gave the garrison of Larissa to Herenius' Third Legion; He himself left Larissa with the First Legion and the four leading legions, and headed for the border area between Thessaly and Attica, where the city-state of Athens was located.

The rapid fall of the Peloponnese and Thessaly provinces was soon reported by the officials of the Macedonian kingdom, who did not dare to hide the king from the king in such an important matter, so they trembled and handed over the news of the declaration of war by the Spartan city-states, the Athenian city-states, and the Roman Brutus family to the Macedonian kingdom.

Originally, he was still fantasizing that after the main army of the Macedonian kingdom was transferred back, the Macedonian kingdom would be able to recapture the king of Paionia, which was occupied by the Thracian barbarians, after receiving such bad news, he was shocked on the spot and couldn't say a word.

Before the king of the Macedonian kingdom and his officials could recover from these bad news, another war report from the front completely destroyed all the psychological defenses of the Macedonian monarch and ministers; The main army, which had been expected by the monarchs and ministers of the Macedonian Kingdom, had ceased to exist two days ago!

Why did the most elite main army of the Kingdom of Macedonia cease to exist? Could it be that the army of the Brutus family caught up with this army of 60,000 men and wiped them out completely? This is also impossible, how could the strength of the seven legions under the command of Tiberius destroy the main army of the Macedonian Kingdom with similar numbers in one battle, can't they fight and run?

In fact, the main army of the Macedonian Kingdom of 60,000 people was not wiped out by the Brutus family at all, but the Thracian barbarians came up with a bad trick to wipe out the 60,000 elite army of the Macedonian Kingdom in one fell swoop, completely destroying the hope of the Macedonian Kingdom.

With the strength of the Thracian barbarians, not to mention a mere Tyrisian tribe, even the Catalan tribes and Byzantine tribes that count the Thracian barbarians cannot have the strength to destroy the 60,000 elite army of the Macedonian Kingdom in a war; These 60,000 troops are the largest and most powerful army in the Macedonian Kingdom, and they are also the protector army created by the entire Macedonian Kingdom.

With the heritage of the Macedonian kingdom, to restore the glory of Alexander the Great is a fool's dream; But if you want to keep yourself safe, it is not difficult, and Alexander the Great left more than just empty glory to his children and grandchildren.

Then the question arises, with the strength of the Thracian barbarians, they have no possibility of destroying the 60,000 army of the Macedonian kingdom at all, so what means do they use to destroy the 60,000 army of the Macedonian kingdom?

The Thracian barbarians were an unusually ferocious and violent barbarian force, bloodthirsty and warlike by nature; During the attack on the Macedonian province of Paionia, the bloodthirsty and frenzied Thracian barbarian army slaughtered a large number of innocent Macedonian civilians, and then left their bodies untreated.

Later, the army of these Thracian barbarians left only about 5,000 Thracian barbarian warriors to garrison Belasola, the capital of the Paionian region; The rest of the Thracian barbarian warriors rushed to attack the capital of the Macedonian kingdom.

As a result, the Thracian barbarian army, which relied on brute force, was completely defeated by the royal legions of the Macedonian kingdom; With the exception of the Thracian barbarian warriors who had been killed on the battlefield, the remaining warriors fled back to the Berasora they had occupied.

Upon their return to Belasola, the Thracian barbarian warriors were shocked by what they saw; The whole of Belasora has almost become a dead city, with fewer than 2,000 Thracian barbarian warriors stationed in Belasola, and other ordinary civilians who have died all over the streets, and Belasora has become a city with more dead bodies than living people.

It turned out that the innocent people who were slaughtered by the Thracian barbarian army, their corpses were directly induced by the plague in the hot environment without anyone to dispose of them; The plague was a devastating disaster in such an era, and the Thracian barbarian garrison did not know how to isolate those infected by the plague, and finally this man-made plague became the disaster that exterminated Belasola!

Looking at the tragic situation in the city of Belasola, the leader of the Tyris tribe not only did not regret it, but felt that he had a new way to deal with the armies of the Macedonian kingdom; Coincidentally, at this time, the main army of 60,000 of the Macedonian kingdom was transferred back.

Therefore, the leader of the Tyris tribe asked the Thracian barbarian warriors who were suffering from the plague to take some of the rotting corpses in the city to the river on the road where the main army of the Macedonian kingdom must pass, and threw all the plague-infected corpses into the water source.

After this retaliatory arrangement, the leader of the Tyris tribe will order his warriors to abandon the plague-infected warriors and leave Paionia and return to the Tyris; When the abandoned warriors returned to Belasola, they found that their tribe's army was long gone, and they had become outcasts of their allegiance chief.

These Thracian barbarian warriors, unwilling to die at this point, took up the weapons that they could no longer hold in their hands, and began a frenzied slaughter throughout the territory of Paionia; The plague on them was also spread throughout the territory of Paionia in their madness.

And the main army of the Macedonian kingdom, after drinking the water of the river contaminated with the plague, the entire army of 60,000 was infected with the incurable plague; A few days later, the last elite army of the Macedonian kingdom was finally swallowed up by a great plague. (To be continued.) )