Home Categories world history The Long March

Chapter 23 Volume III IV

The Long March 色诺芬 3650Words 2018-03-21
They were safe and sound that day.They set out early the next morning, much earlier than usual, for they had to pass through a gorge in which the enemy might attack them as they passed.But after passing the gorge, Mithridates reappeared with a thousand cavalry and about four thousand archers and slingers.These men he asked Tisaphornes to allocate to him, with which he promised to deliver the Greek army into the hands of Tisaphornes.He underestimated these Greeks, because he saw that in the previous attack he had done a lot of damage to the Greeks with a small force, without any loss on his side.Therefore, when the Greek army had passed about eight stadia through the gorge, Mithridates also led his troops across the gorge.At this time, the Greek light and heavy infantry who were about to pursue the enemy had been ordered to go, and the cavalry had to be ordered to chase bravely to ensure that sufficient troops followed closely.At this time, as soon as Mithradat followed up, and the stones and tendons were about to hit the target, the Greek army sounded an order, and the Greek infantry rushed to the enemy immediately, and the cavalry also charged forward.The enemy did not dare to fight, so they fled to the canyon.In this pursuit, the Polish infantry suffered many casualties, and no less than eighteen of its cavalry were captured alive in the canyon.Without waiting for orders, the Greek army automatically mutilated and mutilated the enemy's corpse, so that the enemy would be terrified and frightened at the first sight.

The enemy left in embarrassment.The Greek army continued to march without disturbance all day long, and reached the Tigris River.Here is a great and desolate city named Larissa, where the Medes of old lived.Its walls were twenty-five feet wide, one hundred feet high, and two parasangs in circumference, and were built of glued bricks on stone foundations twenty feet high.When the Persians wanted to wrest their empire from the Medes, the king of Persia besieged the city, but failed to break through.A cloud of chaos obscured the sky, and the city could not be seen until the inhabitants abandoned the city and left.Only then did the city be captured.Not far from the city was a stone pyramid, one platron in width and two platrons in height; on this pyramid were many Persians who had fled from nearby villages.

From this place they marched for one station, six parasangs, and came to a large castle, deserted and dilapidated.The name of this city was Mespora, and it was once inhabited by the Medes.The base of the wall was of shell-millstone, fifty feet wide and fifty feet high.Build a brick wall on the foundation, fifty feet wide and one hundred feet high; the wall extends six parasangs.According to legend, here, the king's wife Medea took refuge here after the Persian conquered the Medes.King Bo also besieged the city, but he failed to break through it after a long period of sleep or assault.Zeus the Great shocked the residents with thunder, and the city was conquered.

From this place they advanced one station, four parasangs.At this station, Tisaphernes appeared, and he commanded the cavalry he brought, the troops of Orontas who married the king's daughter, and the Polish army brought by Cyrus during the Long March. Come to the aid of the king's men.Besides these troops, Tisaphornes had all the troops that the king had allocated to him.The result is that the army appears very large. When he approached the Greeks, he left several battalions in the rear and the rest on their flanks. At this time, although he couldn't muster up the courage to approach the Greek army, and he didn't want to risk a decisive battle, he ordered the soldiers to throw stones and shoot arrows.But when the Rhodes slingers and archers scattered in the middle of the team fought back, none of them could miss (because the enemy's secrets are hard to miss).At this time, Tisafonis hurriedly withdrew his troops to avoid the battle, and the others

The battalions also retreated. Throughout the day, one side continued to march and the other continued to pursue.The Poles could no longer be harmed by the long-distance shooting of their skirmishers, for the Rhodes slingers shot farther than the Poles' projectiles, and even farther than the Poles' bows and arrows. The wave bow was also large, so the Cretans were able to make good use of the arrows that fell into their hands.In fact, they are constantly practicing long-range shooting with enemy arrows into the air.In the village, the Greek army found a large amount of gut and lead for use by pitchers.What happened on this day was that when the Greeks came to some villages and started camping, the Poles withdrew, having suffered greatly from skirmishes.The next day, the Greek army was quiet and collected supplies, because there was a lot of corn in the village.On the next day they marched on, across the plain, with Tissaphernes trailing behind, continuing to harass and skirmish.

At this time, the Greek army discovered that the arrangement of the phalanx was inappropriate when the enemy followed.Because if the road is too narrow or there are mountains or bridges that make the two wings close together, the heavy armored soldiers will be crowded and difficult to move forward.In addition, when the two wings are separated, the people who were squeezed out just now will inevitably disperse, and the empty space between the two wings will be empty, which will affect the morale of these soldiers when there are enemy troops following closely behind.Also, whenever the army needs to cross a bridge or make other passes, everyone has to hurry and cross it first, which gives the enemy a good opportunity to attack.When the generals realized these difficulties, they organized six companies, each with a hundred people, and set up a captain to lead them; additional platoons and squad leaders②.In this way, if the two wings are close together in the march, these companies will fall back, so as not to affect the two wings, but for the time being act behind the wing formations.When the flanks of the phalanx parted again, they filled the space between the upper wings: in groups, if the gap was narrow; in rows, if it was wider; Wide words①—meaning always fill up the gap.Also, if the army had to cross a place or cross a bridge, it was possible to pass in squadrons in shifts without confusion.If any part of the army needs assistance, these troops rush there.Using this formation, the Greeks advanced four stations.

On advancing to the fifth station, they saw a kind of palace house surrounded by many villages.The road leading there passed through the mountains that descended from the mountains with the villages below them.Considering that the enemy army was cavalry, the Greek army was naturally very happy to see the mountain.But when they had come out of the plain and had reached the top of the first hill, and were going down to climb the next hill, they were attacked by the Poles, who threw projectiles, stones, and arrows from the top of the hill, and fought very violently.They not only caused a lot of damage to the Greek army, but also took advantage of the light soldiers of the Greek army, trapping the Greek army in the heavy armor and mixing them with non-combatants.The slingers and archers were completely useless throughout the day.The Greek army pursued the attacking enemy when they were in a hurry, but they were heavy troops, and it was very slow to reach the top of the mountain, while the enemy quickly fled without a trace.Every time the pursuit returned to the main force, they were also harassed.The same thing happened again on the second mountain.Therefore, in the

After climbing the third mountain, they decided to stay on the mountain temporarily, and led a lightly armed shield soldier to go around from the right side of the phalanx to another position on the mountain.Once this team was high above the enemy army following the Greek rearguard, the latter stopped attacking the Greek army going down the mountain, fearing that they would be cut off and besieged by the Greek army on both sides. Thus continued the Greek march that day, with one cohort passing the road over the hills, and another cohort advancing along a parallel line up the hillside, to the villages.There they assigned eight surgeons because of the high number of wounded.

They stayed three days in these villages, partly to care for the wounded, but also because they had plenty of provisions—flour, wine, and a good deal of barley collected for the horses.All these materials were confiscated by the acting governor of the region.On the fourth day they began to enter the plains.But when Tisaphornes arrived with his troops, the urgency of the situation taught them to camp at the first village they saw, and not to continue with their plan of marching and fighting.For many of the Greeks could not go on fighting, not only the wounded, but those who carried them and carried the weapons of the wounded.After camping, when the Polish army approached the village and tried to attack from a distance, the Greek army was very powerful, because occupying a position from which to resist the attack was very different from fighting the enemy chasing after it on the march.

It's dusk, and the enemy should withdraw.Because the Polish army never camped within a distance of 60 stadia from the Greek army camp, they were afraid that the Greek army would attack it at night.At night, the Polish army looked pitiful. The horses were tied up, and their legs were often entangled, lest they run away.Therefore, when there is a policeman, the Polish army must first put the horse on the saddle and bridle, and then put on its own breastplate and mount the horse-and these things are difficult to do in the chaos at night. A place quite far from the Greek army. When the Greek army realized that the Polish army wanted to withdraw and Zheng Ren sent a message, the Greek army sent an order to pack their backpacks and prepare to move forward before the enemy could hear them.The Poles delayed their march for a moment; but it was getting late, and they went away, because they did not think it worthwhile to follow the march and reach the camp by night.When the Greeks at last saw them go, they set out on their own camp and traveled no less than sixty stadia.In this way, the two armies were too far apart, and the enemy did not appear the next day, nor did they appear on the third day.But on the fourth day, after advancing at night, the Polish army occupied a high ground on the right branch of the mountain that the Greek army must pass.The road to the plain follows this ridge.

pass by. As soon as Chrysophus saw that this branch was taken, he called Xenophon from the rear to the front, with light infantry with him.But Xenophon would not take light soldiers, for he could see Tisaphornes appearing with his whole army.He himself rode forward, and asked, "What do you want me to do?" Cherisophus replied, "It is perfectly clear that the hills overlooking our path are occupied; it will be difficult to get rid of these people. of. Why don't you come with light soldiers? Xenophon replied that he thought the enemy was approaching, and that it would not be good to leave the rear without protection. Chrysophus said, "Well, at any rate, at this moment we must try to get these people from the high ground. drive away. At this moment Xenophon noticed that the top of the mountain was just above their own army, and from the top of the mountain there was a road leading to the mountain where the enemy was. The top of the hill, because once we have it, those in our path will not be able to stand ready for attack.Well, if you will stay here to command the army, I will go; or if you will go to the top of the mountain, I will stay here. ’ said Cherisophus, ‘well, it is up to you to choose any task. " At this time Xenophon said that since he was younger, he would go to the top of the mountain; but he urged Chrysophus to send him some soldiers to follow him from the front, because it would be too long to take people up from the rear.So Cherisophus sent him the light shield soldiers in front, and the people in the phalanx would fill them up.He also ordered the three hundred elite soldiers in front of his own square to go with Xenophon's soldiers. So they got up and went as quickly as possible.But as soon as the enemy army on the mountain saw them rushing to the top of the mountain, they also began to attack. Compete with the Greek army and rush to the top of the mountain.At this time, the Greek army yelled and encouraged their comrades to charge forward.The procession of Tisafonis likewise shouted forward.Xenophon rode along the column, cheering on his soldiers and charging forward, shouting, "Believe me, my good people, now you are racing for Greece. Now the race is for the return of your wives and children." side, hard work at this moment will save us from battles on the road." But Sotridas the Skonian said: "Xenophon, we are not the same; you ride a horse, and I Weary with the shield." Hearing this, Xenophon jumped from his horse, pushed Sotridas out of the ranks, seized his shield, and rushed forward as fast as he could.He happened to be still wearing his cavalry breastplate at this time, so the burden was heavy.Urging those in front of him to go up, he let those behind him pass him, for he found it difficult to keep up.However, the rest of the soldiers threw, beat, and abused Sotridas until he was forced to take back his shield and move on.At this time Xenophon mounted his horse again, and led the way on horseback when he could ride; but when the ground was too difficult, he dismounted and went on foot.They reached the top of the mountain ahead of the enemy.
Press "Left Key ←" to return to the previous chapter; Press "Right Key →" to enter the next chapter; Press "Space Bar" to scroll down.
Chapters
Chapters
Setting
Setting
Add
Return
Book