Chapter 39
After a long time, the adjutant, Felicius, came to report, "The entire army is ready."
The Devers announced expressionlessly, "Let's go."
Previously, when he was in the small team, he did not feel it was obvious. Now that he was the leader, overlooking the entire situation, he realized the problem. Although he was not a soldier in his previous life, he knew from watching movies and browsing forums that one of the foundations of the army's victory was strict discipline and quick mobility. During military training in university, emergency assembly was calculated by minutes. Now, it took more than an hour for the bugle to be blown until the formation was completed. This kind of delay dampened half of the excitement he felt as a leader.
Now, he, who had no prestige in the military, could only observe quietly, remember all the drawbacks, and think of solutions. When the time was right, he could talk about reorganizing the army and reforming the military system. That would probably be a long road.
When almost half of the team had left the camp, Felicius said, "Chief Devers, we should also move."
The Devers nodded. Hilos had already brought his horse. Yesterday, when the Devers learned that the leader had a horse, he was quite nervous. In his previous life, he did not know how to ride a horse. Unexpectedly, after he rode on it, he could control it freely. It turned out that one of the most powerful horse-riding races in the Mediterranean Sea was the Thessaly. The original owner of this body had been herding sheep and horses since he was young. The remaining memories and instinctive muscle memory were enough for the Devers to control the horse freely.
He grabbed the reins and jumped on the horse. His legs were slightly clamped, and the War Horse raised its head and neighed softly. It moved its four hooves and trotted forward.
The Devers sat upright on the horse with his head held high. Yesterday, Tormid's words made him no longer think about sharing weal and woe with the soldiers and giving the horses to the old, weak, and disabled soldiers. Now, he needed to sit high on the horse and constantly remind the soldiers that he, the Devers, was the leader of the entire army! As for the methods of buying people's hearts, he would wait until he became a famous general.
Riding on a horse and looking at the majestic procession, Devers naturally felt a sense of pride in his heart. 'A real man should be like this!'
The Devers steered their horses forward slowly. Felicius and Asistes followed closely behind them, followed by Hilos's escorts on foot. After leaving the barracks, they continued forward for a while until they reached the rendezvous point.
The Devers thought that their team was slow, but they didn't expect that there were other teams that hadn't arrived yet. It seemed like procrastination was a common problem among mercenaries, and everyone was used to it.
Kellethorpes' Sparta team was already standing in front of them. When the Devers rode over to greet them, there was quite a commotion in the team passing by. The other camp soldiers recognized him as the leader who had made the wonderful speech yesterday, but there were still some people who were jealous and dissatisfied with the young man who was still wet behind the ears. They said bad things about his commanding ability, which made the Asistes who followed closely behind him blush and look angry. The Devers, however, didn't seem to hear them and just kept moving forward.
Only Kellethorpes' team was quiet, as if they didn't see the arrival of the Devers. This made the Devers carefully look at these real Sparta warriors. They were fully armed, lined up in a neat square formation, and each of them had a strong physique. They stood silently like tall pine trees, forming a unique scenery in this noisy meeting place. And in their sharp and murderous eyes, the Devers felt that once this silence broke out, it would release a powerful force! Body, skills, tactics, and discipline, all in one. This was the Sparta warriors!
The Devers looked at them enviously. 'When can I command such elite soldiers?' It was not until later that he learned that only about a third of Colesthorpes' army were real Spartans, and the rest were Pyriasian.
On both sides of the Sparta army were teams of small mercenaries, such as Sosis and Pasion. After the army meeting, most of them joined Kellethorpes' team, and so did a few other leaders. Only the Devers' camp was not interested. The Devers also felt helpless.
This time, the Devers' army formed up quickly, because they basically followed the order when they left the camp. The outermost column was the heavy infantry column, divided into four rows, and the first column lined up backwards. The innermost column was the light infantry column, divided into two rows, so that the light and heavy infantry columns were the same length, about half a mile in front and back. When the enemy attacked from the outside of the left flank, the marching column of soldiers could immediately turn right, with the heavy infantry in front and the light infantry in the back, quickly forming a regular battle formation. The supply camp was inside the light infantry column, on the left side of the huge central open space. The Devers and his guards were in between the light infantry and the supply camp.
After about an hour, all the battalions finished forming up, and the bronze bugle sounded again. They could finally set off.
The marching speed was not fast, mainly because of the supply camp. Tents, food, medicine, supplies, and other supplies that could not be carried by humans had to be carried by oxen and horses. Horses could not carry carriages that were too heavy, or the harness would squeeze their necks and airways, causing them to suffocate. Oxen were stronger than horses, but they had less endurance and were not very reliable.
The Devers saw Mercies in the supply camp, moving back and forth, dealing with unexpected situations, and calling for help from the soldiers from time to time. The Devers were secretly glad that they had listened to Mercies' suggestion and sent him a platoon to help the supply camp. Finally, the Devers' eyes fell on Kristoya, who was among the women. Although they all wore the same clothes, her figure and temperament stood out like a crane among a flock of chickens, and it was easy to recognize her.
Kristoya seemed to sense something and turned her head to look in their direction.
The Devers hurriedly looked away.
"At this marching speed, we can't walk more than ten miles in an hour," he said.
"It's good enough that there are no Persia invasions." Just as Felicius finished speaking, there was a commotion behind them.
"What happened?" The Devers's heart tightened, and he quickly asked.
The Asistes immediately sent a messenger to the rear to check.
After a while, the messenger rushed back on horseback. "It's the Persia general, Mithradate! He brought about thirty cavalrymen and is not far from the right flank of the army, loudly urging them to surrender! "
Psychological warfare! The Devers's eyebrows twitched.
"Mithradate is the general of Cyrus the Younger, but his tactics are useless. We have already been tricked by the Persia once, and only fools will fall for it again," Felicius said calmly.
The Devers nodded and said, "Monitor Mithradate and continue to find out!" At the same time, he asked the Asistes to send another messenger, so that they could take turns to send back information.
…
"More than twenty soldiers abandoned their weapons and ran towards the Persia! They … they surrendered to Mithradate! "
The Devers's heart skipped a beat. Obviously, Felicius had overestimated the intelligence of the mercenaries. Moreover, Hieronymus's troops had been arguing over the election of a leader yesterday. Now that Mithradate had easily used lies to tear apart the disunited Hieronymus's troops, would it cause a snowball effect? The Devers began to worry.
"Mithradate went to the rear of the army and shouted to Cleano's troops! About ten more soldiers abandoned their weapons and ran towards the Persia! "
Damn it! The Devers's worries were coming true.
Felicius was also nervous.
It seemed that Mithradate was going to circle around the huge formation of the mercenaries and continuously break the morale of the soldiers. Moreover, he would soon be in front of the Devers's troops!
"If only we could chase him away," the Asistes said hatefully. But he also knew that it was impossible. Mithradate was a light cavalry that could come and go like the wind, and the mercenaries had no cavalry at all.
"Just shoot him with a javelin!" Matonis pulled out the javelin from his back and shouted to the guards.
"How?! By the time you take a javelin out, the Persia will be long gone! Moreover, a javelin is not as far as the Persia's horse bows! "The Asistes retorted.
A thought flashed through the Devers's mind. He asked the messenger urgently, "When Mithradate shouted, how far away was he from our formation?"
"About 100 meters away."
"When the surrendered soldiers ran over, did the Persia retreat?"
"No."
…
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