"It's ridiculous!" Mardonios loudly interrupted Tribasus's words and angrily rebuked: "It is already a shame to retreat without a fight, and let the enemy occupy our land!" And let us drive out the people and destroy their belongings ourselves, do you think they are not disgusted enough with the army to provoke them to riot? ”

"My Lord, now that the Dionian army is in danger and the situation is tense, Trebasus's ridiculous tactics will only disrupt the kingdom and affect the army's operations, and I ask him to be severely punished!" Halpergues immediately rebuked him.

Artaxerxes was also hesitant, but remembering that Tribassus had always been quite resourceful and his favorite minister, he forcibly endured the unhappiness in his heart and asked coldly: "Tribassus, why do you do this?" ”

Ignoring Maldonhos's accusations, Tribasus said calmly: "Great King, King Dioonia is a greedy man, and in the past few decades he has annexed one city-state after another, controlling the entire western Mediterranean. This time he invaded the kingdom, not only to occupy Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia, and Canaan, but his target must have been our entire kingdom, so he brought nearly 200,000 troops from thousands of miles away.

But the consumption of these 200,000 troops every day is very huge, it is not enough to rely on the areas he occupies to provide supplies, and the transportation route of food and supplies from the western Mediterranean, thousands of miles away, is too long, and it will consume a lot of time and manpower, not to mention that once the Dionian army continues to advance eastward from Syria, it will be more difficult to transport supplies, and the best way for the Dionian army is to collect food and supplies on the spot.

Mesopotamia is rich, and now the people have just completed a bumper grain harvest, which can fully meet the needs of the Ionian army, but—" said Terebasus in an accentuated tone, "as soon as we take the measures I have just mentioned, and assume the posture of defending Babylon, the king of Dionya will be very anxious, for he will fear that his army will not be able to get supplies on the spot after it has invaded the plains of Mesopotamia, and Babylon is a famous fortified city and has a heavy defense, It's not something they can conquer in a short period of time, so in order to avoid such a bad situation, he will definitely take the initiative and seek a decisive battle with us! ”

"Hehe, it's so simple, but what if the Dionian army is not fooled and still huddles in the camp and does not move!" Ojuntas sneered, questioning.

"Lord Ojuntas, haven't you understood what I mean?" Tribasus also responded with a sneer: "That Dionian king has traveled thousands of miles to conquer our huge kingdom, and he can only win quickly, maintaining such a large army in Syria for a long time without taking any action will only greatly consume Dionia's national strength, that Dionian king will not be so stupid!" ”

"Maybe he'll wait for the Greek coalition to converge before attacking east." Halpergues then questioned.

"Then we can have enough time to evacuate all the people west of Babylon, and not leave a grain of food for the Ionian army, then the more massive Dionian army will have to march more than a thousand miles to Babylon, and we will not be able to get supplies nearby on the way, and our strong cavalry can also bypass the main force of the Dionian army and constantly attack their baggage convoys, so that I am afraid that the Dionian army will collapse before it reaches Babylon...... The ambitious King Theoria would never want to see that happen, so I think he will surely chase after him! ”

Halpergues scoffed, "Definitely coming after you?!" Terebasus, the Dioonians are not your men, they will listen to you like this, what you say is nothing but speculation, and it is not worth it for the kingdom to pay such a big price based on your guesses! ”

Not to be outdone, Tribassus retorted, "It's rare that Lord Harpergues has begun to care about the people of the Mesopotamian plains!" I remember that your army was the most disputed with the people of the region, and that it continued to do so after the king issued new orders. ”

Halpergues was annoyed and cursed, "What are you, how dare you—"

"Alright!" Artaxerxes slapped his seat hard and exclaimed, "This is not the place for you to abuse each other and show your personal grudges!" Are you sure that the Dionian army will leave the camp and take the initiative to fight a decisive battle with us?! ”

After the argument just now, and seeing the three of Mardonhos sneering silently on the side, Tribasus was already difficult to ride a tiger, he took a deep breath, and resolutely said: "As long as the plan I just said is implemented, the Dionian army will definitely take the initiative!" We will pay a lot of money, but as long as we can defeat the Dionian army, then you will not only be able to recover Syria, Phoenicia, Canaan, western Asia Minor, and Cyprus, but you will also take the opportunity to retake Egypt, regain control of Greece, and threaten Dionya proper...... So it's all worth it! ”

Defeat Dionia, retake Egypt, take control of Greece, and regain supremacy in the Eastern Mediterranean...... The words of Tribassus moved Artaxerxes, the aged king longed for a brilliant victory to wash away his previous defeats, but the stakes were high, and he hesitated a little, so he turned his gaze to his confidant, who had been silent: What do you think, Pesitidai? ”

Pesitidai is self-aware, although his identity is also prominent, but compared with these important ministers of the kingdom, it is still far behind, so he did not plan to participate in the quarrel between these big people, but now in the face of the inquiry of the king of Persia, considering that he and Tribasus are both close ministers of the king, and Tribasus usually takes good care of himself, he considered his words for a while, and said euphemistically: "King, the advantage of our army lies in cavalry and archers, if you attack the Dionian camp, the cavalry will not be able to play a role at all, The power of the archers was also greatly reduced. And if we can lure the Dionian army into battle in Mesopotamia, the vast plains will allow the cavalry to gallop at will, and the arrows can be fired at the enemy without any hindrance, and we will be more confident of victory. ”

Artaxerxes nodded, and after a moment of silence, finally made up his mind, he looked around at the crowd, and suddenly raised his voice, making his voice a little hoarse: "I have decided to take the advice of Tribasus, withdraw all the people around and west of Taposacus, burn all the villages, destroy the city of Taposacus, and withdraw all the troops to Nisephonia-"

Seeing that the three Mardonos wanted to speak, he immediately waved his hand to stop him, and at the same time looked sharply at Trebasus, and said sharply: "If the Dionian army does not catch up as you say, but continues to retreat in the camp, I will not continue to carry out such measures, and you-I will not spare it!" ”

Artaxerxes only took half of Tribassus's advice, and he was forced to do so, because a series of failures in the past few years, such as the failure of the attack on Egypt, the rebellion in Asia Minor, and the loss of control of Greece, had greatly disgraced Artaxerxes' prestige and dissatisfied his subjects, so this time he only dared to make a small attempt, and did not dare to leave most of the inhabitants of the plains of Mesopotamia homeless, so as to avoid completely falling into passivity.

Although Terebasus was a little disappointed, he also knew the reason why the king of Persia did this, so he could only pretend to accept it calmly. And Mardonhos, as if they had seen the tragic fate of their political enemies, no longer questioned it. This is how the top brass of the Persian army agreed.

………………………………………………………………

After listening to Izzam's introduction to the details of the Persian army, all the serving Dionian commanders strongly demanded a decisive battle with the Persian army as soon as possible, and among the retired veterans, except for Felicius and Giogris who were more cautious and hoped to wait for the convergence with the Greek coalition before acting, Alexis, Amintas and others also proposed that "we should take advantage of the morale of our own army and the organization of the Persian army is still relatively chaotic, and lead the army eastward as soon as possible to find fighters."

The generals were full of fighting spirit, which also strengthened Davers's determination.

On the second day, he gave the order "to prepare for the eastward march, and the regiments began to pack their luggage, the baggage battalions began to load supplies, and the engineering battalions inspected all kinds of equipment and prepared some timber......

At the same time, Davers also informed the commander of the Dionian Combined Fleet, Midorades: to lead the fleet to the camp as soon as possible, and after the departure of the Dionian army, all fleet infantry will immediately take over the camp to ensure the safety of the rear base.

Although the Dionian army was well-trained, such a large army needed detailed planning and rigorous operational organization to go to an unfamiliar battlefield and attack the Persian army, so it took three or four days for the entire Dionian army to prepare for the eastward advance.

On the fifth day, when the main force of the army was gone, the scouts hurried back to report that the Persian army entrenched near Taposacus was driving the local population to retreat eastward, and they were burning fields and villages, and even destroying the city of Taposacus......

The news took Davers by surprise, but it did not stop the whole army, reconvene the military council, and discuss the Persians' intentions.

In his opinion, whether the Persians chose to clear the wilderness, retreat and defend, or lure the Dionian army to advance by retreating, it would not only change the plan of action of the Dionian army, but would strengthen its determination to engage in a battle with it.