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

Whether it is the kingdom of Halicarnassus in the Lycia region or the kingdom of Ankara in the Galatia region, they do not have the military strength to oppose the kingdom of Alexander, nor do they have the capital to make the kingdom of Alexander jealous; However, Alexander's kingdom was not strong enough to wage war against both countries at the same time, and it was necessary to choose one of the two countries as the main enemy.

In fact, with the 70,000 troops of the Kingdom of Alexander, even if it were to wage war against the Kingdom of Halicarnassus and the Kingdom of Ankara at the same time, it was not completely impossible; However, the Kingdom of Alexandria needs to deal with more than just these two kingdoms, the distant Seleucid Empire and the city-state of Pergamon around him are all enemies that the Kingdom of Alexander needs to watch out for.

In particular, the city-state of Pergamon in Phrygia once invaded the Ionian region during the frequent wars of the Seleucid Empire, which is why the people of the Ionian region had very poor relations with the city-state of Pergamon.

More crucially, the Kingdom of Alexandria needed to be afraid of the city-states of Sparta and Rhodes behind the city-state of Pergamon, while the city-state of Pergamon did not need to have the slightest fear of the Kingdom of Alexander; Aside from its own powerful army, Alexander's kingdom had no backing force or any meaningful allies.

Although both the kingdom of Epirus and the Roman family of Augustus had close trade with Alexander himself, it was only trade and did not represent anything at all; What's more, the kingdom of Epirus has become a part of history, and the Roman Augustan family is far away in the western Mediterranean, and distant water cannot save the thirst.

If the whole army of Alexander's kingdom really attacked the kingdom of Halicarnassus and Ankara on two fronts at the same time, Alexander dared to guarantee it; Just as their own army marched into the enemy's territory, the army of the city-state of Pergamon must have also marched into the territory of Alexander's kingdom.

In view of this, Alexander never intended to attack any enemy; In Alexander's opinion, in order to protect the homeland of Alexander's kingdom and deter the city-state of Pergamon, the kingdom of Alexandria also needs to leave at least two legions of troops to guard the homeland, otherwise it will definitely not be able to suppress the possible attack of the city-state of Pergamon.

From the perspective of geographical location, the Kingdom of Halicarnassus is closer to the capital of the Kingdom of Alexandria, Sardis, than the Kingdom of Ankara, and the Lycia region ruled by the Kingdom of Halicarnassus is fertile and populous, surrounded by the sea on both sides, and has very good ports; The Kingdom of Ankara, on the other hand, is a purely inland kingdom with barren land and sparse population, making it difficult to develop rapidly.

However, the Kingdom of Ankara has an advantage that the Kingdom of Halicarnassus does not have, that is, the Galatia region ruled by the Kingdom of Ankara is directly east of the Phrygian region where the city-state of Pergamon is located; Once Alexander's kingdom obtained the Galatia region, it could blockade the city-state of Pergamon from both sides due east and south, completely cutting off the city-state's ambition for external expansion.

Such a strategic advantage was also a factor that had to be taken into account for the Kingdom of Alexander; In addition, the military strength of the Kingdom of Ankara is far weaker than that of the Kingdom of Halicarnassus, and the total number of troops in the Kingdom is only 15,000 people, and they are all light infantry with extremely backward weapons and equipment, and there are almost no pikemen, let alone other arms.

Comparatively speaking, the military strength of the Kingdom of Halicarnassus is much stronger; The army of more than 20,000 men was almost entirely made up of pikemen, in addition to two mercenary units recruited from Crete and Rhodes in the Kingdom of Halicarnassus, with a conservative estimate of three kilograms of litre archers and 5,000 Rhodesian slingers.

With an army of this size, even the Kingdom of Alexandria would have to pay a certain price if it wanted to occupy the Kingdom of Halicarnassus; Even Alexander himself conservatively estimated that at least 10,000 casualties would be required to take the Kingdom of Halicarnassus, which was the result of the Kingdom of Halicarnassus not desperately resisting to the end.

However, there is another advantage of attacking the kingdom of Halicarnassus first, which cannot be ignored, that is, the geographical location of the Lysia region surrounded by the sea on two sides and the mountains on the other; With such a geographical location, as long as the Kingdom of Alexandria can successfully eliminate the Kingdom of Halicarnassus and solve the problem of stability in the Lycia region, there is almost no need to leave many troops to garrison the Lycia region.

Even if the armies left behind to garrison the Lycia region, their task was to maintain the stability of the situation in the Lycia region and prevent the enemy from attacking from the sea; On land, the Lycian region was in front of the Ionian region, and it would not be attacked by the enemy.

This is not the case with the Galatia region, where the Kingdom of Ankara is located, which is a real enemy region on all sides; From the Silesian region of the Seleucid Empire, it was possible to attack both the Ionian and Galatian regions.

Excluding the threat of the Seleucid Empire, due west of Galatia is the Phrygian region of the city-state of Pergamon, due east is the native kingdom of Cappadocia, to the northeast is the Pontic region of the Pontic Kingdom, and to the northwest is the Bithynia region of the Nicomedian Kingdom. This is not a hot potato that is easy to attack and difficult to defend at all, and after taking it, you must send heavy troops to guard it.

With this in mind, Alexander finally made up his mind to declare war on the kingdom of Halicarnassus; At the same time, Alexander himself personally led the Guards and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Legions to attack the kingdom of Halicarnassus.

Alexander's most trusted general, Ephestionas, was also appointed by Alexander as the commander of Alexander's native guards, responsible for commanding the Fifth and Sixth Legions, which were equipped with a large number of archers, to defend Alexandria proper.

When the army of the five legions of Alexander's kingdom entered the territory of the kingdom of Halicarnassus, the king of the kingdom of Halicarnassus received the news of the attack of the rebels of the Seleucid Empire; In the eyes of the Kingdom of Halicarnassus, the kingdom established by Alexander was simply a pseudo-kingdom that was not recognized, and Alexander's army was nothing more than the rebels of the Seleucid Empire.

The Seleucid Empire was a skinny camel bigger than a horse, and it was indeed a super-empire that was far more powerful than the kingdom of Halicarnassus, but Alexander's army was nothing more than the army of the former Seleucid Empire's Ionian province; Could it be that the army of the Kingdom of Halicarnassus could not cope with the rebel forces of a single province of the Seleucid Empire?

The confident king of the kingdom of Halicarnassus personally led all the kingdom's army of 30,000 to meet Alexander's army, Alexander did not know that his enemy would be stupidly sent to the door, and he was still leading his army to the capital of the kingdom of Halicarnassus.

As a result, Alexander's army and the army of the kingdom of Halicarnassus met halfway through; Alexander did not expect the army of the Kingdom of Halicarnassus to take the initiative to attack, and the king of the Kingdom of Halicarnassus did not expect Alexander's army to come so quickly.

After the main armies of the two kingdoms had formed their respective formations, they began to advance slowly; It was not until the main armies of both sides could see each other's main armies with the naked eye that Alexander immediately gave the order to charge the cavalry of the Guards Corps around him.

5,000 powerful ironclad cavalry galloped at the front, and at the rear of about 100 meters were the Greek cavalry with 5,000 followers who were not strong in combat; Alexander's purpose was also very simple, that is, to let 5,000 ironclad cavalry completely destroy the enemy's formation, and then let the Greek cavalry in the rear cooperate with the ironclad cavalry to massively kill and damage the enemy who was disrupted in formation.

The combat effectiveness of the ironclad cavalry is incomparable to that of other armies, and even the Spartan hoplites, who are so strong that they are invincible in foot combat, cannot withstand the charge of the ironclad cavalry in the same number, let alone these pikemen troops who are not even heavy pikemen.

The Ironclad Cavalry of the Guards easily tore through the pikemen phalanx of the army of the Kingdom of Halicarnassus, inflicting heavy casualties on the infantry who tried to stop the Ironclad Cavalry charge; Just after being penetrated by 5,000 ironclad cavalry, the army of the Kingdom of Halicarnassus paid at least nearly 10,000 casualties.

The Cretan archers and Rhodesian slingers hiding behind the pikemen phalanx were unable to inflict enough damage on the ironclad cavalry, and before they could even fire a second round of arrows, the ironclad cavalry had already entered the pikemen phalanx of the kingdom of Halicarnassus, and quickly broke through the pikemen phalanx and killed the archers and slingers.

After the powerful cavalry group launched an attack, the main army of Alexander's next four legions was also quickly thrown into battle; In less than an hour, the 30,000 troops of the Kingdom of Halicarnassus were completely wiped out, and even the king of the Kingdom of Halicarnassus was trampled into unrecognizable flesh by the ironclad cavalry in the chaos.

After annihilating the army of the Kingdom of Halicarnassus, Alexander led his army into the capital of the Kingdom of Halicarnassus three days later; After another seven days, the whole of Lysia had been conquered by the armies of Alexander.

After the complete occupation of Lysia, the commoners of Lycia did not reject the rule of Alexander; As a result, Alexander left his general, Andrew Chris, to lead the Second Army to stay in the Lycian region, and he himself led the other four legions back to the Ionian region. (To be continued.) )