Chapter 1307
"Enough time?" Orontas also said coldly, "I don't think so! Didn't the previous news say that the Diónia had sent part of their army to the west to capture the cities of Issus, Casta Blum, and other cities, opening up the road from Silesia to Syria? Farabazos was only harassing them. He didn't dare to block the Dionysian Army head-on. As long as the Greek Army passes through the Tauris Mountains, they can smoothly reach Syria and join forces with the Dionysian Army. This will undoubtedly greatly increase the enemy's strength! "
At this point, Orontas turned around and bowed respectfully to the king of Persia. He then said solemnly, "Your Majesty, the Greek soldiers are very strong in close combat. This time, the Diónia has also gathered the most powerful armies of Sparta, Athens, and Thebes. Although according to Farabazos' report, it was the betrayal of the Greek mercenaries that led to the defeat of the entire battle, it may also be that the Greek army led by the soldiers of Sparta, Athens, and Thebes first defeated the left wing guarded by our army, which led to the sudden change in the situation of the battle. Therefore, we must defeat the Dionysian Army in Syria as soon as possible before the Greek Army arrives. Only then can we secure the final victory of this war!"
Back then, Orontas was ordered to stop the Greek expeditionary army and suffered a crushing defeat. The terrifying impact of the Sparta soldiers left a deep impression on him. Therefore, the governor of Ameria for decades, who was like a local tyrant, could temporarily abandon the arrogance of the nobles of Persia and give a warning.
His words immediately made Artaxerxes' face turn ugly, because he also had the same memory. In the battle with Cyrus the Younger, he witnessed with his own eyes the charge of tens of thousands of Greek heavy infantry to defeat his left wing. At that time, he almost fell into despair.
For the other generals present, the fact that the Greek army was able to defeat King Darius and King Xerxes twice and maintain the upper hand in the battles with the Persia army for decades was obviously more worthy of their attention than the Dionysian army, which had yet to achieve a brilliant victory against the Persia army. The crushing defeat of the Persia fleet in the battle of Cyprus did not cause a shock to the nobles of Persia, because Persia was not good at naval battles. Almost no Persia participated in the entire Persia fleet. As for the battle in the western part of Asia Minor, Artaxerxes did not announce the real situation, so Fanabazos' report made them misjudge the situation. The defeat of the Persia army was mainly due to the betrayal of the Greek mercenaries.
Seeing that everyone in the room had their eyes on him, Terebasus' heart tightened. He knew very well that at the beginning of today's meeting, Maldonios, Halpergos, and Orontas had questioned the strategy adopted by the Persia army. In fact, they were expressing their dissatisfaction with him.
The conflict between Terebasus and these top nobles of Persia had been going on for a long time, and the root cause was jealousy. The king of Persia regarded Terebasus as his confidant and obeyed him. This was obviously incomparable to the ministers of the kingdom who were far away from the royal court. Of course, this also involved the conflict between the old nobles of Persia and the new nobles. Since the meeting of the army, they had repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction with Terebasus, but with the protection of the king of Persia, the matter was eventually left unsettled. But today, their joint attack made Terebasus feel a little uneasy from the way Artaxerxes looked at him. The king, who had a mediocre performance in military affairs, was wavering on whether to continue implementing the strategy he proposed!
Fortunately, he was prepared in advance. He calmly took out something from his pocket and said softly, "This is the map of the Dionysian Army that Lord Maktonos had sent out after many investigations and a lot of time. I have specially made a copy of it. Have a look."
As he spoke, he unfolded the white cloth in his hand and placed it on the open space in the middle of the room.
Maktonos, who had been watching from the side, walked over first. He looked down at the cloth on the ground and said, "This is indeed the map of the Diónia camp drawn by my men."
Maldonios, Orontas, and Halpergos walked over slowly and looked at it casually. But soon, they looked surprised and bent down to take a closer look.
Seeing this, Artaxerxes asked the eunuchs to bring a table and put the map on it.
While the three of them were looking at the map, Terebasus said in a deep voice, "Five years ago, the Dionysian Army invaded Greece. The Greek city-states united and formed an army of nearly 100,000 men. They had a chance to repel the Dionysian Army, but the Diónia built a complex defensive camp to lure the Greek army to attack. The number of Greek soldiers was two or three times that of the Diónia soldiers defending the camp. But after more than two months of siege, they did not achieve much. Instead, the Diónia took advantage of the Greeks' lack of defense and sent troops to land on Thessaly. In the end, Greece sided with Diónia."
This sigh seemed to twist Artaxerxes' heart, making him lean back in his chair. If it were not for the rebellion of Asia Minor, Persia would have been recaptured by him. Even with the support of Asia Minor, Greece would not have surrendered so quickly! … …
"This time, the Dionysian Army is trying to repeat the same trick. Look, both sides of their camp are against the mountains, and the back is a bay. We can only attack from the front, and the width of this front is narrow, which is obviously not conducive for us to take advantage of our numbers."
Terebasus gestured on the map and said earnestly, "Look again, the camp they built has two layers of wooden walls. The wooden fence in front is very low, only about one meter high, and the wooden wall behind is four meters high. The distance between the two walls is 30 meters, and there is a trench in the middle. Although our spies are unable to explore the depth of the trench, according to the situation of the Dionysian Army defending Peloponnesus, it is very difficult to cross. It will be more difficult for our soldiers to reach the wooden wall at the back, and it will take a lot of time. And look, the wooden wall at the back is densely packed with towers. The Diónia will definitely place a large number of archers on it to launch a fierce long-range attack on our troops.
In addition, Lord Halpergus's men also mentioned a piece of information that needs our attention. In this period of time, the Dionysian Army has sent out a large number of soldiers to set up traps in front of the camp. According to what we know, the Diónia camp is very well defended. Our troops will have to pay a lot of casualties just to attack the real wooden wall of the camp. Not to mention besieging them for a long time, just one or two failed attacks will cause the subsidiary troops to lose their fighting spirit. Once the rested Diónia launches a full-scale counterattack, our troops will be in a very dangerous situation! "
The three great nobles of Persia had been commanding troops for a long time, and were all proficient in military affairs. Looking at the map, they naturally understood that Terebasus was not exaggerating. Although they hated this person, they did not refute him. Instead, they stared at the map and thought hard, hoping to find a solution to the problem.
After a brief silence, Orontas asked reluctantly, "Are we going to stay here and do nothing? Are we just going to watch as the Dionysian army and the Greek army converge?!"
Terebasus was waiting for the question. He calmly replied, "The Dionysian Army has invaded our borders aggressively, capturing Canaan, Feili, and Syria. At first, we thought that they would continue eastward into Mesopotamia, so the King personally led the army to Thabosakus. But the Diónia slyly stopped advancing, trying to exhaust us through defense while waiting for the Greek Coalition Army to meet. Of course, we can't let the Diónia get what they want, so we have to force them to leave their camp and take the initiative to attack us. Only then will the overall situation be more favorable to us."
Halpergus sneered and said, "Since the Dionysian Army can suddenly change from an offensive posture to a defensive one, it shows that their king is very cautious. Unless he is a fool, it is impossible for him to give up his camp and lead an army that is much smaller than ours to take the initiative to attack us!"
Terebasus replied confidently, "I have studied the king of Diónia in detail. He is a very confident and bold Greek. He has led an army that is smaller than the enemy many times, and he has taken the initiative to attack us. This is also one of the reasons why the Diónia has rapidly expanded in just a few decades and become our opponent. It shows that he is not someone who does not dare to take the initiative to attack just because his army is small. On the contrary, he likes to take risks. It is only because the King arrived in time with his army that he temporarily took a defensive position and waited for reinforcements. But as long as we pay a price, I believe that he will have to give up his defense and take the initiative to fight us!"
"What price?!" Artaxerxes asked eagerly.
Terebasus looked at the King of Persia with a very serious expression and said in a deep voice, "Your Majesty, the reason why Fanabazos was able to stall the Greek Coalition Army was mainly because he burned and evacuated the villages and towns along the Greek Coalition Army's route, so that the Greek Coalition Army could not collect any food and supplies, making it difficult for them to transport. Now, we can adopt a similar tactic, evacuate all the people in the area around Thabosakus, burn the villages and supplies that cannot be taken away, and turn the area between Thabosakus and Syria into a barren land — "
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