Davers narrowed his eyes, his sharp gaze passed through the soldiers fighting in front of him, through the dust and mist, and saw the few banners of the Persian king waving in the wind gradually growing larger in his field of vision, and he couldn't help but smile.

When Artaxerxes ordered all the reserves to press, his chariot had to follow the large army closely, and if he remained still, only the royal guards guarding him would be left around him, numbering only a few thousand, and they were too conspicuous to make him feel very unsafe.

The rider carefully steered the four "Nicean Horses" (these white horses were born in the Nisia Plain, the most fertile land in the Zagrosh Valley, and were regarded by the Medes as the finest and tallest horses, and were offered to Assyria as tribute, and the Persian royal family sanctified them, declaring that the Nisean white horses were sacred to the Achaemenid royal family by the gods, and that no one was allowed to possess them except for Persian officials authorized by the king) followed the reserve troops towards the battlefield where fierce battles were raging.

Artaxerxes, who was a little anxious, sensed that the advance of the reserve army was too slow, and was about to give an order to Tribasus, asking him to urge the troops in front of him to speed up, but saw the advisor suddenly restrain his horse, put his hand on his forehead, and look up at the sky, while the royal guards beside him did the same.

Artaxerxes subconsciously looked at the sky ahead.

At this time, the sun was already in the west, Artaxerxes hurriedly raised his eyes, even if it was blocked by dust and fog, he felt that the sun was particularly dazzling, and quickly closed his eyes, and was about to open them, but he heard Tribassus shouting in panic: "Ballista!" It's a stone fired from Dionia's ballista! ”

Artaxerxes was startled, ignoring the stinging pain in his eyes, and hurriedly opened his eyes, only to see a dozen round black shadows flying overhead, followed by a roar from behind.

Artaxerxes looked back and saw that a dozen meters away from him was dusty, and dozens of round stones the size of coconut smashed into a pit.

Altarxerxeston broke out in a cold sweat.

"My Lord, the Dioonians are trying to attack you with their ballistas! Fast! Get back! Without the consent of the king of Persia, Terebasus urgently demanded that the carriage turn around and retreat.

The Persian king's luxurious carriage was pulled by the "Four Sacred Horses of the Goddess of the Goddess", which was not only larger than the average carriage, but also much heavier, and it was not easy to make a quick turn, let alone make a U-turn, and the carriage was surrounded by royal guards, making it difficult to clear enough space in a short time.

At this moment, in the rear of the Dionian infantry formation, a simple three-meter-high sentry tower has been erected at some point, under the control of the engineering battalion laborers, the experienced ballista unit watchman is standing on the sentry tower, looking ahead, and according to the impact point of the first round of stone shells and the position of the Persian king's carriage, quickly correct the ballista firing data, and loudly report to the ballista unit next to the sentry.

The ballista men quickly adjusted the elevation angle of the ballista and the strength of the string...... Soon, a second round of stone projectiles was ejected.

At this time, Artaxerxes' carriage was still turning around, but he saw dozens of stone projectiles whizzing down in midair.

The first one landed next to the carriage and smashed one of the royal guards to pieces, splattering Artaxerxes with brains and blood.

For a moment, Artaxerxes' mind went blank, and he stood dumbfounded, unresponsive to the guards' panicked cries.

"Boom!" Another stone bullet fell in front of the Nisean white horses, and the dust splashed on them, and the fertilized white horse, aware of the danger, struggled to break free from the yoke of the carriage, and did not listen to the commanding man.

The carriage shook violently, and actually threw Artaxerxes out of his mind.

"The King!! ......The royal guards rushed to the rescue in a panic, and at this moment, a stone bullet hit the carriage, and immediately sawdust flew everywhere, and screams were everywhere.

………………………………………………………………

The senior generals of Persia knew that the ballista was a siege weapon made by the Dionians, and the siege equipment was rarely used in the field battles between armies, so they fell into a blind spot in their thinking, and never thought that the Dionian army would use ballistae to attack themselves in the battle, so they entered the range of the ballista completely unsuspectingly.

In fact, before the battle began, Davos ordered 30 ballistas to be placed in the rear of the center, and although he was lucky enough to use the tactic of decapitation, he did not have much hope that it would be realized, because Davers knew that the Persian king Artaxerxes had rarely been on the front line in previous battles.

The focus of the ballista attack was not on the center, but on the right flank of Persia, the reserve army behind the Duqya troops, to prevent their timely rescue from the front.

According to the Dionian military system, a legion is equipped with 10 cannons, so there are nearly 200 ballistae in this large army under the command of Davers, of which 170 are concentrated at the rear of the left flank of the Dionian army, directly opposite the Dukia troops.

Just as the ballistas in the middle were aimed at the carriage of the King of Persia, part of the reserve on the right flank had already been bombarded with stone bullets, because they were in a hurry to rescue and entered the range of the ballistas early.

In fact, the stone projectiles fired by a single ballista do not cause much damage, but the concentrated firing of 170 ballistas is not only amazing, but also the lethal effect is very terrifying, as long as it falls within a general range, it can create a small bloody scene of blurred flesh and blood.

The front-line troops deployed by Artaxerxes in the battle were either the elite of the Persian army or the fierce subordinate ethnic troops, and most of them as reserve troops were mediocre in combat, and the Caspian states in the rear of the Duqoya troops were not even reluctant to contribute to Persia, and came here just to cope with the errand, but were called by the Persians to rush to the rescue, and after several rounds of stone attacks, their already small morale was lost, and many fled in panic......

……………………………………………………………………

And during the time when the heralds of the right wing of Persia were going to ask for help from the king of Persia, the well-prepared Dionian legionnaires, after pouring into the gap in the Persian front, would launch a fierce attack with the warriors of the Ksokant tribe against the Persian archers who had rushed to close the gap.

By the time the Persian reserves were dispatched, the Persian archers, who had suffered a large number of casualties, had been forced to retreat, and while the Persian reinforcements were thrown into confusion by ballista attacks on the way, countless Dionian legionnaires continued to rush through the gap in the Persian line, and instead attacked the flanks and rear of the Dukia army on both sides of the gap.

The already demoralized Dukia warriors were caught in front and rear and quickly collapsed. Some even responded to the Ksocont warriors and joined the side of Dionia.

When the herald reported the battle situation on the left flank to the command center, there was laughter, and both the veteran and the young staff officers were excited, because they knew that the victory was decided.

Davers also had a smile on his face and asked, "How is the cavalry on both flanks?" ”

Phellisius replied in a loud voice: "Your Majesty, the Persian cavalry has begun to retreat, and our cavalry is regrouping and preparing to attack the flanks of the enemy on both flanks. ”

"Excellent! Very good! Very good! Davers praised three times in succession, the smile on his face was even worse, his heart was completely relaxed, and he looked back at these old comrades-in-arms who were also talking and laughing easily: "It's hot, everyone is thirsty, right?" Heni, let's drink the water you brought. ”

"Your Majesty, it's not interesting to drink slurry water, we want to go to the palace of Babylon to drink good wine!" Amintas said jokingly and loudly.

"Hahaha......" everyone laughed.

…………………………………………………………………………

Although the Dionian legionnaires continued to defeat the enemy on the left flank and widen the gaps, the Dionian cavalry and light armoured men turned to attack the enemy flanks after crushing the Persian cavalry...... The Dionian army had already held the key to victory, but for a huge battlefield that stretched for more than ten miles, total victory would not come quickly.

It was almost dusk before the Persian army completely collapsed, and the Persian undead army and Greek mercenaries in the center were fighting to the end, so they were surrounded and unable to escape.

This great battle resulted in heavy losses to the elite Persian troops, such as Mardonios, Harpergues, Pesitidai and other high-ranking Persian generals were either captured or killed in battle, the only regret was that Artaxerxes fled the battlefield.

Therefore, Davers, who won the battle, ordered that the cavalry units continue to pursue the routed army, and that the various legions should also shorten their rest time and speed up their march to Babylon.

The fastest pursuers were, of course, the Numibian light cavalry, which did not have much advantage in the battle against the Scythian cavalry and other light soldiers in the Persian mixed cavalry unit, but because the main force of the Persian cavalry was defeated, the opponents had no intention of fighting and fled, so they began to rest in the second half of the battle, so they had more physical strength than the other troops.

The onslaught of the Numibian cavalry left the city of Nisephonia, which was not far from the battlefield, unprepared, and was forced to surrender when it was able to contain the rout.

Before entering the city to rest, Davers sent a herald to the west, and told Leoticides, who was hurrying, that the Dionian army had completely defeated the Persian army, and that he would no longer have to lead his army to the rendezvous, but should return to Asia Minor and conquer the region once and for all.

Early the next morning, the Dionian cavalry continued their pursuit eastward, catching up with Artaxerxes and the royal convoy by a tributary on the north bank of the Euphrates.

The king of Persia at this time was completely different from the high-spirited appearance he had when he had led a huge army out of Babylon, and after the army was defeated, the soldiers fled in all directions, and the prestige of the king was lost, and even his most trusted royal guard had many soldiers fleeing in the night, and there were less than 500 guards beside him.

And after he himself was attacked by a ballista and fell from the carriage, the 60-year-old was hit so strongly that he suddenly fell into a coma and still has not awakened, which also slowed down their escape.

After being overtaken by the Dionian cavalry, Terebassus, who was still following the king of Persia, led the remnants of his guards to surrender and demanded that Artaxerxes be given the royal courtesy he deserved.

Davers, who arrived later, readily agreed, and sent the best medical staff in the army to treat him.

With the king of Persia in hand, the Dionian army's eastward attack was smoother, and important towns such as Korsoti and Talmande induced the surrender of the cities on the banks of the Ladi River.

In early December, the Dionian army entered the Babylonian region.

When Davers's unit passed through a small village, the veterans of the army became agitated, because the name of the village was Kunasak.

"That's where we camped! I remember that the tent I was staying in seemed to be in this location! ”

"Over there! It's the battlefield over there! We crushed the left flank of the king of Persia with a single charge, but unfortunately Cyrus the Younger was too reckless, otherwise we would have won that battle......"

"What's the shame of that! Thanks to his failure, His Majesty will come to the fore, lead us to create Dionia, and allow us to return here today as conquerors! ”

"That's right, we all have to thank Your Majesty! Your Majesty wins! ”

"Your Majesty is victorious!!"

When the veterans greeted Davers with affection and heartfelt cheers to express their gratitude, Davers, the king of Dionya and the new overlord of the entire Mediterranean, rode motionless on his warhorse, like a clay statue, and he stared at the open space where Giogris stood in front of him, and his heart was full of emotion: it was there that he was reborn from a Chinese citizen in the 21st century to a lowly mercenary in the ancient Greek era, from the very beginning of the struggle to survive, to the creation of Dionia, I have struggled in this strange world for more than 30 years......

At this moment, scenes of the past flashed through his mind quickly, like a dream.

"Report! Your Majesty, Babylon has surrendered in Kaesong, and the advance troops led by the corps of Kucius have entered the city! The herald's shout woke up a trance-stricken Davers, who looked around at the soldiers who had begun to cheer, and a smile slowly bloomed on his face: No, this is not a dream! This is the turbulent world of the ancient Mediterranean! And I, Hades. Davers is now the most powerful man in this world!

He waved his right hand vigorously: "Go!" Let's go to Babylon! ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Everyone responded in unison, and thousands of soldiers excitedly surrounded this great king, galloping towards the great oriental city that had opened its arms to them......

(End of book)