Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 9: Javelin and food

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The tasks assigned to Davos are: to go to the battlefield to pick up the spears, shields and even carriages discarded by both sides, and use them as wood for cooking meat. To this end, they were also assigned an ox cart.

The battlefield was not far from the camp. Yesterday, the cavalry went out to investigate and found that the Persian king's army had already left, so they dared to send soldiers out to clean up the battlefield. However, many soldiers were sent out, mainly because they were afraid of being attacked by the Persian cavalry.

Before he reached the battlefield, Davos saw the sky in front of him from a distance, as if it was dark, with countless crows hovering, and the harsh sound made him feel palpitations!

A few miles away, the grass is covered with human corpses and horse corpses layer upon layer. On the corpses are dense flies and insects. There are even wild wolves and wild leopards eating the bones. Dodging, just staring at a distance, with a cold light in his eyes...

Every time Davos took a step, a layer of flies flew up, buzzing, and rushing straight to his face, driving them away.

Davos was pale and felt his whole stomach churning.

"Davers, you have experienced this kind of scene many times, why do you still feel uncomfortable?!" There was a hint of joy in Matonis' concerned words. Because he felt that although Davos had changed, there was still something he needed to take care of.

"I'm fine!... ugh..." Davos swallowed hard. Memory is memory, after all, this is the first time he, a modern man, has witnessed the battlefield of this bloody massacre with his own eyes. But he knew in his heart: In this troubled world, such scenes will appear in front of him again and again in the future, and he must adapt!

He let go of the hand covering his nose, forcibly endured the pungent stench, picked the corpse off the ground, pulled out the shield that was pressed down below, quickly patted off the maggots on it, and threw it onto the ox cart.

When they first arrived on the battlefield, the cow in the trailer couldn't bear this terrifying environment. It was always restless and almost injured Matonis. It was Davos who came up with an idea and covered its eyes with linen, and it was only able to do it. Much quieter.

Everyone has been busy for a long time, the ox cart is full, and each person is holding a bundle.

"Where's Davos?" Matonis found that there was one person missing from the team.

"There!" Olivers pointed not far away: Davos was throwing a javelin at a vulture pecking at a corpse, only to be swiftly avoided by the seemingly clumsy vulture.

"Looks like he's going to compete in the javelin at Olympia!" Olivers said jokingly.

"Shut up!" Matonis glared at him, then walked towards Davos.

Davos saw him coming, and quite naturally picked up a javelin from the ground. Now, he has begun to adapt to this harsh environment.

"Matonis, how many archers do we have?" Davos asked, stroking the sharp tip of the gun with his hand.

Matonis is not good at this problem at all, but fortunately there is a careful Georgris: "Archers?... I remember that only Clearkus had nearly three hundred Cretan archers... If you count Javelin-throwing light shields... well all... maybe... three thousand."

"Three thousand. How many light shields do we have here?" Davos asked.

"About four hundred people..."

"Matonis, don't burn the javelins. It's a pity. Why don't we each have one or two javelins. What do you think?" Davos thought for a while and said.

Before Matonis answered, Olivers said first: "We are hoplites!"

"But when facing the Persian cavalry, our heavy infantry can't approach them, and can only avoid the bows and javelins they shoot!" The reason why Davos made this proposal is because this body has this regret in the memory. When collecting this wooden weapon, he suddenly had this inspiration, because he knew that another world-famous Roman heavy infantry in history was not only amazing in melee combat, but also terrifying in their javelin throwing, so he had this proposal.

"There are enough cavalry in Arreus," said Olivers.

Davos smiled: "It's better to rely on yourself than others."

"Is this the 'oracle' that Hades gave you?" Georgris asked anxiously.

Davers laughed without answering.

"I think this is a good idea. Go back and talk to Hiros." Matonis took the javelin in Davos's hand, turned around, and threw the javelin suddenly, and the vulture that was still pecking fell to the ground.

"However, Davos, your javelin skills still need to be learned!" Matonis said proudly.

The fact that the Greek heavy infantry does not use the javelin is just a matter of tradition and habit, but the Greeks' javelin skills are not bad, and they are even top-notch in the Mediterranean region, because the javelin is one of the pentathlons at the Olympia Games, and Greek boys have been in the arena since childhood. Start training these.

"Very good! Not only beef and mutton, but also bird meat to eat at noon!"

"I heard that the meat of this bird cannot be eaten because it comes from hell..."

… … … …

In the camp, the livestock has been slaughtered, the meat has been cut, put in a crock pot, filled with water, and placed on a makeshift earthen stove, everything is ready.

Everyone pulled back their weapons, chopped them up, and cooked the meat.

Matonis told Hiros of Davos' idea.

Since it was the proposal of the "God's Blessed One", after careful consideration, Hiros felt that the idea was acceptable: the javelin was not heavy, and it was completely acceptable for a heavy infantryman to carry two javelins. So he went to Antonios, hoping for support.

Antonios called the rest of the nine squad leaders and wanted to hear their thoughts first. Some of the team leaders were in favor, some were against it. Opponents stick to the Greek tradition of heavy infantry, and believe that: Menon already has 500 light shield soldiers under his command, and it is completely unnecessary for heavy infantry to carry javelin; They are both Thracians, and the two sides do not cooperate very well. The heavy infantry has its own javelin, which can at least force the Persian cavalry not to get too close to reduce casualties. The two sides could not argue, and Antonios could not make a decision, so he had to say: As long as it does not affect the battle, each team can decide whether to carry a javelin or not.

Hiros came back happily and was about to talk to Davos, but found a group of people staring at the churning pieces of meat in the crock, only Davos was missing.

"Where's Davos?"

"Say to look at the guts of those animals that were thrown away... What about waste..."

When everyone was puzzled, they saw Davos walking over with a spear carrying a bloody sheep intestine.

"Hey, get this stinky thing out of the way! It affects our appetite!" Everyone shouted while covering their noses.

Davos ignored it and instead said loudly: "I saw a lot of cattle and sheep viscera discarded in the baggage camp and let the birds and wild dogs take it away. This is too wasteful! Don't forget, we were so hungry two days ago. I can't wait to eat my own hands! In the next few days, whether fighting or marching, there may be times of starvation. We should pick up these things and store them up to prevent this from happening again. We still have something to eat!"

"Are those things edible?" a strong soldier asked.

Davos remembered his name as Martius, a soldier living in another tent, and his question was exactly what everyone wanted to ask. The Greeks mainly relied on grains as their staple food and ate very little meat. It was only this time that they went deep into Persia and began to eat meat frequently because of logistical reasons. Animal offal not only smells fishy, but also tastes very fishy in the absence of spices and cooking methods, so other than using it for divination, few people will try to eat it, and even think that eating it will be poisoned.

"Of course you can! These things are not only very useful... Not only can they fill our stomachs, but they can also improve our bodies. For example, they can make us see better at night." Davos answered affirmatively.

"Really?! That's great!" Matonis said happily.

The five people in the other tent looked suspicious.

"Davos is a 'God's Blessed One'! Do you know? Before he fell on the battlefield and fell into a coma..." Olivers began to brag to them about Davos' amazing changes in the past two days.