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

After receiving a large amount of gold coins from the Kingdom of Epirus and a large number of old Roman weapons and equipment from the Augustan family, Governor Alexander began a large-scale expansion of the Ionian region; Compared to the weapons of the Seleucid Empire, Governor Alexander found the Romans to be more flexible and easy to use.

Governor Alexander himself, before becoming governor of Ionia, served as a palace guard of the Seleucid Empire for several years; The so-called palace guards of the Seleucid Empire are actually the soldiers of the Silver Shield Legion who take turns patrolling the palace.

In those years, it was enough for Alexander, who had a strong military talent, to fully understand what the combat effectiveness of the Silver Shield Legion was, and also for Alexander to subconsciously understand the real situation of the entire Seleucid Empire and the actual situation of the army; It was precisely because of this knowledge that Alexander had the confidence to rebel.

According to Alexander's own observations, the Silver Shield Legion of the Seleucid Empire was nothing more than a legion of face; Perhaps, the combat effectiveness of the Silver Shield Legion is indeed not bad, but compared to the propaganda of the Seleucid Empire and the perception of the outside world, it is still far behind.

Think about it, a group of pampered aristocratic youths formed a legion, no matter how strong its combat effectiveness is, how strong can it be; After all, this is only an era of cold weapons, and what really determines the combat effectiveness of an army is not sophisticated weapons and equipment, but a firm will to fight and a fighting passion that is not afraid of death.

However, Alexander must also admit that it was only the Silver Shield Legion of the Seleucid Empire that appeared to be nothing; Those phalanx pikemen and ironclad cavalry who have been guarding the border for the Seleucid Empire all year round are still the invincible divisions they once were, and their combat effectiveness has always been so strong, they are the backbone of the entire Seleucid Empire.

Therefore, when the emperor of the Seleucid Empire decided to appoint Alexander as governor of a province, Alexander immediately took the initiative to go to the Ionian province, where the garrison was the most elite army; Without thinking, the emperor of the Seleucid Empire agreed to Alexander's offer of life, but in the end he cultivated a mortal enemy for himself.

The garrison of the Ionian province was unusually strong, but it was not very numerous; After serving as the governor of Ionia, Alexander immediately began to expand the Ionian garrison legion, and in the process of expansion, Alexander also subconsciously used some means to eliminate dissidents and install henchmen, and finally completely controlled the entire Ionian army.

When Alexander learned that the Emperor wanted to put him to death, he immediately raised the banner of rebellion against the Empire in Ionia; Tens of thousands of elite Seleucid Ionian garrisons turned into rebels of the Seleucid Empire overnight.

In order to suppress Alexander's rebellion, the emperor of the Seleucid Empire urgently dispatched 20,000 phalanx pikemen from Silesia and 15,000 infantry from Assyria to the Ionian region to quell the rebellion; You know, Alexander's rebels had a large number of ironclad cavalry, how could they suppress Alexander's rebels with only 35,000 troops?

In fact, Alexander's army against the Empire's counterinsurgency army numbered more than 40,000, including elite ironclad cavalry and phalanx pikemen. Both qualitatively and quantitatively, Alexander's army had absolute superiority, and it was simply an asymmetrical war.

The Seleucid counterinsurgency army unsurprisingly lost their war, and in fact they were attacked by Alexander himself only three days after entering the Ionian region; Of the 35,000 Imperial counterinsurgency army, less than 5,000 were able to flee back to Silesia, less than 10,000 were killed in battle, and the remaining 20,000 were all captured by Alexander.

At the same time, the people of the Seleucid Empire are not enemies of life and death, but just their masters; Coupled with the fact that the current emperor of the Seleucid Empire was indeed a dumb and incompetent monarch, Alexander easily persuaded 20,000 captives to surrender.

With the addition of 20,000 elite divisions of the Seleucid Empire, Alexander's army had more quantity and higher quality; Later, Alexander received funds from the Kingdom of Epirus and weapons from the Augustan family.

As a result, Alexander began to plan the formation of his own country, and reorganized and reorganized the army under his command; The so-called state of one's own was nothing more than a solution for Alexander to nominally get rid of the notoriety of the rebels, and the newly formed kingdom of Alexandria had an Ionian region as its sole ruling area.

Sardis, the original capital of the Ionian region, naturally became the capital of the Kingdom of Alexandria; And Alexander himself, from the Viceroy of Alexandria, has changed to a better Majesty the King Alexander.

Although the establishment of this kingdom of Alexander did not make Alexander's power stronger, Alexander's lavish reward for his loyal soldiers and followers made those loyal to Alexander more active; Even those powerful who were reluctant to pledge allegiance to Alexander became staunch supporters of Alexander under the lure of the Founding Heroes.

After the establishment of Alexander's kingdom, the whole of Ionia became more stable, and the support of all Ionians for Alexander rose to a new level; Then, at such a great time, Alexander carried out a thorough reform of his army.

Alexander's disorganized army was reorganized into seven new legions, the first and second legions, each consisting of 10,000 elite phalanx pikemen; the Third and Fourth Legions, each consisting of 10,000 infantry armed with Roman youth armament; The Fifth and Sixth Legions, each consisted of five thousand conscripted pikemen and five thousand archers.

These six scrambled legions were the main military force of Alexander's kingdom; As for the last legion, it was the Guards Legion directly under Alexander, consisting of 5,000 ironclad cavalry and 5,000 Greek cavalry.

The Seleucid Empire was one of the successor empires of Alexander's Empire, and the regular cavalry of the empire was actually formed after the original Greek cavalry; Although these cavalry are no longer composed of Greeks, the weapons and equipment they use are still the weapons and equipment of the Greek cavalry of the past, and the name has always retained the title of Greek cavalry, and no one has changed it.

After completing the reorganization of the kingdom's army, Alexander began to consult with his generals on how to expand Alexander's kingdom's territory; With the strength of Alexander's kingdom, it was simply impossible to feed the seventy-thousand-strong army of seven legions.

If Alexander hadn't obtained enough money and weaponry through two large-scale transactions between the Kingdom of Epirus and the House of Augustus, the Kingdom of Alexander would not have had the 70,000 troops in front of him; Even if it has this 70,000 army, the Kingdom of Alexander will not be able to support this 70,000 army, and it will only take half a year at most, and the Kingdom of Alexander will be consumed by this 70,000 army and go bankrupt.

Attacking the rest of the Seleucid Empire was an option that Alexander would not have considered; The march from the Ionian region to the nearest region of the Seleucid Empire, Silesia, also required at least two full months of marching; More crucially, Silesia was close to Syria, the capital of the Seleucid Empire, and Alexander did not think he really had the strength to stand up to the Seleucid Empire.

In fact, all Alexander relied on was that the Seleucid Empire was too far away from the Ionian region, and the march along the way had to travel through mountains and rivers; It is impossible for the Seleucid Empire to send a larger army than the last counterinsurgency army to attack Ionia, otherwise the Seleucid Empire would have gathered 30,000 ironclad cavalry to quell the rebellion in the Ionian region.

Since this route of march was extremely difficult for the Seleucid Empire, it will also be difficult for Alexander's kingdom; The most unwise option to attack the Seleucid Empire mainland would be to target the vicinity of Ionia.

The only regions connected to the Ionian region were Lysia to the south of Alexander, Phrygia to the north, and Galatia to the east, apart from the distant mainland of the Seleucid Empire. Among them, Phrygia is ruled by the city-state of Pergamon of the Greek city-state alliance, and is the most powerful of the three.

More importantly, the city-state of Pergamon was part of the alliance of Greek city-states, whether it was the militarily powerful city-state of Sparta or the natically powerful city-state of Rhodes, they were the natural allies of the city-state of Pergamon; If the city-state of Pergamon were attacked, the nascent kingdom of Alexander would face a naval blockade by the city-state of Rhodes and a possible cross-sea attack by the city-state of Sparta.

The Seleucid Empire on land was already a natural enemy of Alexander's kingdom, and it would be unthinkable for Alexander's kingdom to be blockaded by other powers from the sea; After losing the trade partners on the road and at sea one after another, it was impossible for Alexander's kingdom to develop, which was also an unacceptable result for Alexander.

Therefore, the Phrygian region, which was ruled by the city-state of Pergamon, was not an object for Alexander's kingdom to attack; The last remaining kingdoms are the kingdom of Halicarnassus in the Lycia region and the kingdom of Ankara in the Galatia region, both of which are independent kingdoms without any strong forces behind them, and they themselves have no reliable allies, so they are naturally the best targets for attack. (To be continued.) )