Davers perked up and immediately asked, "Great! Where are they?! ”

Felicius knowingly handed the plank over.

Izzam gasped, took the plank, carefully looked at the schematic diagram of the Persian army formation drawn on it, and then pointed to the central front of his right flank, and said excitedly: "Here it is!" Remy followed the code I had agreed upon before I left, and asked those tribesmen to use the bronze shields that the Persians had equipped them with to shake up and down against the sunlight regularly, so that it was clearly different from the other Persian armies, and even if I stood here, I could see it clearly, I think that when we captured the city of Asprarustum, our mountain reconnaissance brigade used a similar method——"

"Excellent! You've done a great job! Davers interrupted his rambling and asked, "Which troop are we facing against?" ”

"The 3rd and 4th Battalions of the Eleventh Regiment Corps." Izzam replied immediately.

"Your Majesty, you can send the Eighteenth Army Corps as a reserve, so that when the troops of the second brother Izzam retreat, we can make full use of this opportunity to increase the attack on this part of the Persian military formation!" Felicius also excitedly suggested.

"One legion is not enough!" Davers shook his head, tapped the plank hard, and said in a resolute tone: "Send the Nineteenth Army over again, this will be the breakthrough point for our infantry!" ”

…………………………………………………………………

Just when the two legions of Dionya were quietly moving in the rear of the array, Mardonios had already ridden to the carriage of the King of Persia, and said in a somewhat anxious manner: "Great King, the troops have already been arrayed, why haven't you given the order to attack yet?!" ”

Artaxerxes hesitated and said, "...... Do you want to wait for the Dionians to attack first? ”

"The Dionyas have few men, so it's impossible to attack us first!" Mardonios endured the dissatisfaction in his heart, turned his head to look at Trebasus not far away, and vented his anger on him: "Aren't you known as the most resourceful minister in the kingdom, how did you give the king a military advisor!" Now that the attack plan has been formulated before the battle, it is time to assist the king in carrying it out! The army has finished arraying, it has been almost half an hour, and the soldiers are still standing stupidly waiting, do you know that when I came here from the left flank, I saw that many of the auxiliary troops were already a little unstable, and even the formation of the East Ukxian people began to be chaotic! ”

Terebasus remained silent and did not refute, he had urged the Persian king several times before, but the Persian king seemed to have some concerns and never made a decision, so he put it off again and again.

Artaxerxes' face changed, of course he could hear that Maldonhos was pointing at Sang and scolding Huai, but he was not good at reprimanding him angrily on the spot, on the one hand, because the current enemy would affect morale, and on the other hand, because of guilt. Before the battle, he did formulate a tactic of attacking after repeated discussions with several important ministers, but when he saw the concise and fast formation of the Dionian army on the opposite side, and then the soldiers in its array stood silently and calmly like a mountain, compared with the scattered and noisy army on his side, he suddenly felt a strong uneasiness in his heart, and the experience of several defeats in the past came to his mind, which inevitably made him suffer from gains and losses again.

But when he heard Maldonhos's words, he was taken aback.

Terebasus, who was good at observing words and feelings, immediately said: "Great King, those attached troops are not our well-trained Persian army, although they have been strictly trained during this time, it is difficult for them to maintain their formation for a long time, we must launch an attack as soon as possible!" ”

Artaxerxes looked at Tribasus, and then at Maldonhos: "Then give the order to attack?" ”

Mardonios hurriedly said: "Don't hesitate, King, hurry up and give orders!" ”

Artaxerxes clenched the armrest of the carriage and swept his gaze over the majestic undead army, the impregnable Greek mercenaries, the massive war elephants, the terrifying chariots of murder, and the well-trained archers...... Finally, looking at the silent Ionian army on the opposite side, after a moment of silence, he took a deep breath and said loudly: "Prepare to attack!" ”

Mardonhos' face was delighted, and he turned his horse and ran back.

Tribasus then shouted, "Prepare to attack!" Get ready to attack! ……”

"Uh......h Woo ......" At the same time as the Persian trumpet sounded, Tribasus continued to give orders for the Persian king: "Archers attack!" ”

Artaxerxes' carriage held a banner embroidered with bows and arrows aloft, but only the archers in front of the center of the road could see this flag swinging, and the entire army formation was more than ten miles long, let alone seeing the flag raised, and even the soldiers at both ends of the wings could not necessarily hear the trumpet blowing, but the Persian army had its own way.

Two teams of Persian heralds, dressed in bright uniforms, galloped out of the wagons, crossed the gap in the ranks, rushed to the front, and then galloped along the formation to both sides, shouting at the same time: "Archers attack!" Archers attack! ……”

The bow in the middle lane is manual! The bow and arrow on the left flank are hand-made! The bow and arrow on the right flank are handmade! At the forefront of the Persian army, the archers lined up in a loose formation for more than ten miles, like a long snake that had just woken up from hibernation, began to slowly advance towards the Dionian army.

As soon as he heard the sound of the trumpets from the opposite side, Arcinis, like the other officers, immediately lifted his spirits and shouted to his soldiers: "Brothers, pay attention, the Persians are attacking!" ”

While shouting, he saw that some soldiers in the detachment were too excited and eager to try, and immediately reminded: "Everyone must strictly follow the pre-battle arrangements and prepare for defense!" Anyone who dares to disobey military orders will be severely punished! ”

The soldiers' hearts sank, and their expressions became solemn.

"Captain, the Persian archers have been killed!" The soldiers of the 1st column shouted.

"Prepare to defend!" Arcinis's heart tightened, and he stared ahead.

The Persian archers advanced slowly, because the Persian generals in command of the army knew the details of the Battle of Asia Minor, and knew that the Dionian army also had a large number of light infantry with strong combat effectiveness, so they were careful to guard against the appearance of their opponents.

However, they were already less than 250 meters away from the Dionian army, and the light infantry of the opposing side still did not appear in front of the formation, and the generals, despite their doubts, did not stop the soldiers from advancing.

As they approached a hundred meters from the Dionian formation, the archers consciously stopped advancing.

"Shoot the arrows!" Amid the shouts of the generals, the archers drew their bows with arrows and raised them high at a great elevation angle.

"Whoosh! Sou! Sou! ......" The sound of the bowstring, which was originally very light, converged in thousands, and it was unexpectedly clear that the Ionian soldiers who were a hundred meters away could hear it very clearly.

"Tortoiseshell Formation!" Arcinis shouted.

The soldiers of the detachment, which was already lined up in a dense formation, quickly shrank inward, and at the same time blocked the long shield in their hands on the outside and above of the small phalanx, as if adding a layer of black iron to the team of 50 people in the blink of an eye, protecting them tightly.

Alcinis, who was in the middle of the phalanx, looked up through the small gap between the long shields, and saw the arrows that covered the sky and the sun in mid-air pouring down like a torrential rain, and even with the protection of the thick long shield, he couldn't help but feel nervous in his heart.

"Pong! Disheveled! Clang! Clang! Disheveled! ......" arrows continued to fall on different parts of the shield with different sounds, as if playing a melody of death.

The Dionian soldiers in the tortoiseshell formation were all nervous, but when the melody disappeared, none of them were injured.

Before they could catch their breath, the melody sounded again.

After repeating it three or four times, there was finally a long interval.

This was due to the fact that the generals of the mixed Persian archers had noticed that the leading units of the Dionian army had adopted this peculiar formation, so that their projectiles had caused little damage, so they urged their soldiers to move on, increasing the penetration of their arrows at closer distances.

Approaching a distance of 50 meters, the Persian archers did not dare to advance further, because they had heard that the Dionian hoplites could shoot javelins, and they were too close to the enemy, and when they fired arrows, the Dionian soldiers on the opposite side suddenly charged, and they could not escape. It was precisely because of this danger that not all archers were willing to continue to approach the Dionians, and some archers of other races flinched even when urged by the Persian generals.

The front soldiers of the Persian archery corps fired straight shots, and the rear soldiers used projectiles, and they were more concentrated in the tortoiseshell formations, rather than a large area of attacks, which led to inefficiency, because the Dionian checkerboard array made the entire army formation more scattered, so that many of the projectile arrows fell on the clearing.

A more intense sound sounded outside the tortoiseshell formation formed by Alcinis's detachment, like a torrential rain beating lotus leaves, each long shield was full of arrows like hedgehogs, and the soldiers also let out a muffled snort of pain from time to time, it was the sharp arrow tips piercing through the shield, touching the bare arms or thighs of the Dionian soldiers, and occasionally arrows passed through the gaps in the shield array, and because they were blocked by thick helmets and cuirasses, they did not cause great damage.

The Dionian soldiers gritted their teeth motionlessly, and of course they were close together almost shoulder to shoulder, back to chest, and even if they were wounded, they could not dodge or retreat.

As the detachment leader, Arcinis not only had to spy on the movements of the enemy in front of him from time to time, but also listened to the frequency of arrows hitting the long shield.

Suddenly, he said in a deep voice: "Brothers, hold on a little longer, the Persians should not have many arrows!" ”

As soon as his words fell, the sound outside the array began to become sparse, and it didn't take long for it to disappear.

The Persian archers still had three or four arrows left in their quivers, but they chose to retreat at this time, on the one hand, because their arms were numb and they needed to rest due to the continuous drawing of their bows, and on the other hand, they also needed to provide support for the infantry in the following melee combat, which was a traditional Persian tactic, and of course they could not use up all their arrows at this time.