"It's absurd!" Mardonius interrupted Trebass loudly, and scolded angrily: "It is shameful enough to retreat before the battle and let the enemy occupy our land! We have to let ourselves be To drive away the people and destroy their property, do you think they don't hate the army enough and want to provoke them to riot!"
"Your Majesty, now that the Dionysian army has violated the territory and the situation is tense, Trebassus' ridiculous strategy will only disrupt the kingdom and affect the army's operations. I request that he be severely punished!" Halpergus also Immediately blamed.
Artaxerxes was also hesitant, but remembered that Trebassus had always been resourceful and was his favorite, so he suppressed the unhappiness in his heart and asked coldly, "Trebasus, Why do it?"
Trebassus ignored Mardonius and the others and said calmly: "Your Majesty, King Dionia is a greedy person. In the past few decades, he has annexed one city-state after another and controlled the entire Western Mediterranean Sea. This time he invaded the kingdom, not just to occupy Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia, Canaan, his goal must be our entire kingdom, so he brought nearly 200,000 troops from thousands of miles away.
However, the daily consumption of these 200,000 troops is very huge, and it is far from enough to rely on the areas he occupied to provide supplies, and the transportation of food and materials from the Western Mediterranean Sea, thousands of miles away, the transportation route is too long. It consumes a lot of time and manpower, not to mention that once the Dionysian army continues to advance eastward from Syria, it will be more difficult to transport supplies. The best way for the Dionysian army is to collect food and supplies on the spot. .
Mesopotamia is the richest in the world, and now the people have just completed a bumper harvest of food, which can fully meet the needs of the Dionian army, but—" Trebassus said with emphasis: "Once we take what I just said With those measures taken, and the posture of defending against Babylon, the king of Dionia would be very anxious, because he would be worried that his army would not be able to obtain supplies on the spot after it invaded the Mesopotamian plains. And Babylon is a well-known fortified city, and it has heavy defenses. It is not something they can conquer in a short time. Therefore, in order to avoid such a bad situation, he will definitely take the initiative to seek a decisive battle with us! "
"Oh, it's so simple to say, but in case the Dionia army is not fooled, it will still hide in the camp!" Orontas sneered and questioned.
"Lord Orontas, don't you understand what I mean?" Trebassus also responded with a sneer, "That King Dionia's expedition to conquer our huge kingdom can only be done quickly. Victory, maintaining such a large force in Syria for a long time without taking any action will only consume Dionia's national strength greatly, that Dionysian king will not be so stupid!"
"Maybe he will wait for the Greek coalition to join forces before attacking east." Halperges then questioned.
"Then we can have enough time to evacuate all the people west of Babylon without leaving a grain of food for the Dionysian army, then the larger Dionysian army will have to march more than a thousand miles to Babylon. On the way, Supplies cannot be obtained nearby, and our powerful cavalry can bypass the main force of the Dionysian army and continuously attack their baggage transport teams. In this way, I am afraid that the Dionysian army will collapse before it reaches Babylon... That The ambitious King Dioria would never want to see this happen, so I think he will lead an army after him!"
Halpergus sneered: "Will you come after him?! Trebassus, the Dionysians are not your subordinates, they will listen to you like this. What you said is just speculation, but the kingdom is not. It's not worth paying such a huge price based on your guesses!"
Not to be outdone, Trebasus said ironically: "Lord Halpergus actually started to care about the people of Mesopotamia, which is really rare! I remember that the army you led was related to this region. The people who have the most disputes, even after the king issued a new military order, he has not changed his mind."
Halpergus became angry and scolded: "What are you, how dare you—"
"Okay!" Artaxerxes slammed on the seat and shouted in awe: "This is not a place for you to abuse each other and show your personal grudges! Trebassus, are you sure that the Dionian army will leave the camp and take the initiative to fight with you? Are we going to fight?!"
After the argument just now, he saw the three of Mardonios sneering silently on the side, and Trebasus was already in a difficult situation. He took a deep breath and said resolutely: "Just follow what I said just now. If the plan is implemented, the Dionysian army will definitely take the initiative! We will pay a considerable price, but as long as the Dionysian army can be defeated, then you will not only be able to recover Syria, Phoenicia, Canaan, and western Asia Minor , Cyprus, you can also take the opportunity to retake Egypt, regain control of Greece, and threaten the mainland of Dionia again... So it's all worth it!"
Defeating Dionysus, retaking Egypt, taking control of Greece, regaining dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean... Artaxerxes was moved by the words of Trebassus, the aged monarch longing for a glorious victory to wash away his past The failure he encountered, but the decision was of great importance after all, and he was a little hesitant, so he turned his attention to the confidant who had been silent all the time: Percy Tidai, what do you think? "
Pesitidayi is self-aware. Although his identity is also prominent, he is still far behind these important officials of the kingdom, so he did not intend to participate in the quarrel of these important people, but now he is facing Regarding the question of the King of Persia, considering that he and Trebassus were both close ministers of the king, Trebassus usually took care of himself, he considered his words, and said politely: "Your Majesty, our army's officer The advantage lies in cavalry and archers. If the Dionysian camp is attacked, the cavalry will be completely useless, and the power of the archers will be greatly weakened. If the Dionysian army can be lured into battle in Mesopotamia, the vast The plains allow the cavalry to gallop at will, so that the arrows can be fired at the enemy without any hindrance, and we will be more certain to win.”
Artaxerxes nodded, and after pondering for a while, he finally made up his mind, he looked around the crowd, and suddenly raised the volume, making his voice a little hoarse: "I decided to take Trebassus's suggestion and put Taposacus on it. All the people around and to the west were evacuated, all the villages were burned, the city of Tabosacus was destroyed, and all the troops were withdrawn to Nisefonia—"
Seeing that the three of Mardonios wanted to speak, he immediately waved his hand to stop him, and at the same time looked at Trebassus sharply, and said sharply: "If the Dionysian army did not catch up as you said, , but continue to hide in the camp, I will not continue to implement such measures, and you-I will never forgive!"
Artaxerxes only adopted half of Trebasus's suggestion, and it was a last resort. In the past few years, the failure of attacking Egypt, the rebellion in Asia Minor, and the loss of control over Greece have made Artaxerxes' prestige. Big losses and dissatisfaction from his subjects, so this time he only dared to make a small attempt, instead of making most of the residents of the Mesopotamian plains homeless, so as not to let himself be completely passive.
Although Trebassus was a little disappointed, he also knew the reason why the Persian King did this, so he could only pretend to accept it calmly. And Mardonios and the others seemed to have seen the tragic end of their political enemies, and they no longer questioned them. The high-level Persian army reached an agreement on this.
… … … … … … … … … …
After listening to Izam's introduction to the details of the Persian army, all the incumbent commanders of the Dionysian army strongly demanded a decisive battle with the Persian army as soon as possible, and among the retired veterans, except for Philisius and Geogris In addition to being more cautious and hoping to wait for the confluence with the Greek coalition forces before acting, Alexis, Amintas and others also proposed that "we should take advantage of the high morale of our own army and the chaos in the organization of the Persian army. Lead the army eastward as soon as possible to find fighter planes."
The generals were full of fighting spirit and strengthened Davos' determination.
On the second day, he issued "the order to prepare for the eastward advance, the soldiers of each legion began to pack their luggage, each baggage battalion began to load materials, and the engineering battalion checked various equipment and prepared some wood...
At the same time, Davos also informed Midorades, the commander of the Dionysian Combined Fleet: to lead the fleet to the camp as soon as possible. After the Dionysian army left, all the infantry of the fleet would immediately take over the camp to ensure the rear. Base security.
Although the Dionysian army was well-trained, it took such a huge army three or four days to go to an unfamiliar battlefield and launch an attack on the Persian army. In time, the entire Dionysian army was ready to go east.
When the main force of the army set out on the fifth day, the scout and cavalry hurried back to report: the Persian army entrenched near Tabosacus was driving the local people to retreat eastward, and at the same time they were burning fields and villages, and even destroying Taposakus City…
This news surprised Davos, but he did not stop the entire army's operations, convened a military meeting again, and discussed the purpose of the Persian's move.
In his opinion: no matter whether the Persians are choosing the tactics of fortifying the wall and retreating to defend, or using deceit to lure the Dionysian army to advance rashly, not only will it not change the action plan of the Dionysian army, but it will strengthen the fight against it. determination to fight.