After more than half an hour, almost all of the Dionian troops had completed their formation, and quiet was soon restored on this side, while the Persian side was still noisy.

Two days earlier, Artaxerxes had listened to Tribasus' account of the Dionian camp and had become more confident of winning the battle. Now that he was on top of the carriage, he could see the situation on the other side, and the rapid and efficient formation of the Dionian army was too obvious compared to the chaotic procrastination of his own side, which made him feel a little uneasy, and the sight was completely black, and the sense of uniform oppression made his heart palpitate, and he couldn't help but shout: "Tribasus, urge all troops to speed up their formation!" Speed up the formation! ”

"Yes, King!"

After the Dionian army had finished arraying, the sun was almost in the middle of the sky, and the soldiers received orders from their officers: "Hurry up and replenish your diet." ”

Just as the soldiers of the first detachment of the second brigade of the first regiment were chewing the bread they were carrying and passing water bladders to each other, someone exclaimed: "Captain, look! The Persians really have elephants! ”

Hearing this, Arsinis, who was standing at the back of the detachment and was serving the soldiers, immediately walked to the front of the queue and looked forward, only to see dozens of elephants in the Persian army on the opposite side, with their robes and tusks tied to their swords, under the command of the mahout, slowly walking to the front of the Persian array.

The elephants were large and conspicuous compared to the surrounding armies, and their appearance immediately caused a commotion among the soldiers of the First Legion and the surrounding legionnaires.

Arcinis took a deep breath and turned back to the soldiers who were talking loudly, "Commander Matonis has already told us that there may be war elephants in the Persian army, what is so strange about you!" ”

"Captain, we're just curious that the Persians really sent such a docile animal into battle!" A soldier responded.

"No matter how docile an animal is, once it starts to go berserk, it's terrible, don't take it lightly!" Arcinis reminded him, and then smiled: "But the Persians don't know how many times we have seen elephants in the Turriy Zoo, and they think that they can scare us with it, and when the time comes, we will make the Persians suffer from the abuse of elephants!" ”

"Don't worry, Captain, we're not afraid of elephants, we just think elephants are so cute, it would be a pity if we all died in this battle." Another soldier said half-jokingly, half-seriously.

Another soldier immediately answered: "I don't feel sorry, it's not our fault that these elephants died in battle." On the contrary, it would be nice to be able to taste elephant meat after the war! ”

"Cripps, you foodie, you've eaten so much delicious food these days, and you're still not satisfied! Do you think you can become as strong as an elephant by eating elephant meat? Arcinis scolded with a laugh.

"Captain, he just thinks what's underneath him is too small and wants to get bigger." One of the soldiers said jokingly and loudly.

The soldiers burst into laughter.

……………………………………………………………………

After more than an hour, the Persian army finally finished its formation.

At the forefront of the middle were loosely formed Persian archers, followed by Indian elephants and sickle chariots lined up, with the elephants in the center and the chariots on either side, followed by 3,000 Persian armored cavalry, behind which 20,000 Greek hoplites and 10,000 undead troops spread out in a row. Artaxerxes was in the rear, and behind him were ethnic forces from Mesopotamia, the coast of the Persian Gulf.

At the front of the right flank were a mixed army of Persian archers and archers from Armenia, Parthia, and the Medes, followed by 100 chariots from the Medes and Babylons, followed by the infantry of Dukya, Ameria, and Persia, and then by the ranks of the tribes around the Caspian Sea, such as the Syrkarians, the Tapurians, and so on. At the far right end of the right flank were more than 10,000 cavalrymen from Ameria, Parthia, and the Medes.

At the forefront of the left flank were mixed archers of Persian, Arab, Bactria, and Arachosiya, followed by the infantry of the Persians, Carias, and the Ukxian and Sitakenis east of Susa, followed by the Far Eastern ethnic forces led by Arachosia and Bactria. At the far left end of the left flank were more than 10,000 cavalry led by Persian, Scythian, and Bactrian, with 500 Arab camel cavalry at the forefront.

It can be seen from the Persian formation that the Persian formation has a thick depth, and the strength in the middle lane is the strongest.

The reason why the Persians made this arrangement was to take into account the large number of heavy infantry and the strong melee ability of the Dionian army, so they increased the depth to enhance the ability to hold each other in close combat. Whether it was for safety reasons or to dispel Artaxerxes' fears (Artaxerxes suffered a javelin wound from Cyrus the Younger, which had a psychological shadow during the battle with Cyrus the Younger), the power in the middle must be strengthened.

Therefore, Lalabassus took the opportunity to make a suggestion: accumulate heavy troops in the middle of the road, use war elephants and chariots to tear apart the enemy's defense line on the opposite side, and then use armored cavalry to charge and completely disrupt the enemy's heavy infantry, and then the Greek heavy infantry and undead army will follow the charge and completely crush the enemy army, so as to win the battle......

Artaxerxes eventually took his advice.

And the formation adopted by the Dionian army was:

The center route was spread out in a checkerboard formation of the 1st, 4th, 7th, 12th, and 15th legions, with a thickness of 10 columns at the time of merging, and in the center of the rear there were 5 light infantry brigades, and the commander of the entire center was Matonis.

The left flank was spread out in a checkerboard formation by the 2nd, 5th, 8th, 14th, and 16th legions, which were also 10 columns thick when combined, and there were no other troops in the rear;

The leftmost part of the left flank consisted of the 1st Cavalry Corps, the 3rd Cavalry Corps, the Gallic Cavalry Corps, and 2,000 Numibian light cavalry, with nine light armoured brigades in the rear. In the rear there were 6 light infantry brigades and 2,000 Bariali slingers.

The right flank was spread out in a checkerboard formation by the 3rd, 6th, 11th, 13th, and 17th legions, with a combined thickness of 10 columns, and there were no other troops in the rear.

At the far right of the right flank was the 2nd Cavalry Corps, the 4th Cavalry Corps, the Iberian Cavalry Corps, and 2,000 Numibian light cavalry, with the same nine light armoured brigades in the rear. In the rear were 6 light infantry brigades and 2,000 Bariali slingers.

King Davers's command center was located at the rear of the central lane, and in addition to the palace guards, the 18th, 19th, and 21st legions were located to the left and right of it, serving as reserves.

From the formation of the Dionian army, it can be seen that the Dionian army was concentrated at both ends of the two flanks, apparently intending to first crush the Persian cavalry and then outflank them from both flanks. The Persian cavalry was obviously stronger than Dionia, and Davers actually wanted to start from the enemy's strongest point, which can be said to know that there were tigers in the mountains and preferred the tigers.

Although the Persian army was twice as large as the Dioonic army, the depth of the array was significantly increased due to the caution of the Persian king Artaxerxes, and the Dionian army, due to the confidence of the Diorian king, only maintained the thickness of 10 columns, so the length of the two formations was almost the same, both were 15 miles long.

The Persian army has a complex range of troops, not only different clothing, different weapons, but also very different soldiers, so even if the entire formation is mostly dense array, and it is standing on a flat battlefield, the experienced Dionian scouts can still roughly judge the troop arrangement in the front of the Persian formation through careful observation.

The Dionian army was almost all black armor and relatively simple troops, and Davers deliberately did not let the enemy see the reality of the array, so he began to arrange the rear troops only after the heavy infantry and cavalry at the front of the formation were lined up and could block the view of the enemy on the opposite side.

At the same time, Davers also specially ordered: soldiers located at the rear of the array must not raise their weapons until the battle!

At this moment, Philippius led the staff officers to draw a sketch of the distribution of troops in the front of the entire Persian formation according to the report of the scouts.

Davers took the board he handed him, and after carefully reading the sketch on it, he was slightly surprised: "Hey, the Persians have 100 more chariots, which is a bit different from the figure that Izzam told us. ”

"Probably just got there." Felicius explained.

Davers thought for a moment and quickly decided: "Then let ...... The light infantry brigade on the right flank will first divide 2,000 men and deal with these chariots. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Felicius immediately went to deliver the order.

"Your Majesty, it's already noon, let's eat something first." Henypolis reminded from the side.

"I'm not hungry yet." Henipolis had already asked a few times, so Davers waved his hand a little impatiently. After the herald had departed, he had been looking to the left with concern, even though it was impossible for him to see the movement of troops from miles away.

After a while, he suddenly realized something and asked, "Did Silonimus and Amintas eat it?" ”

Before Henipolis could answer, Hieronymus's voice came from behind him: "Your Majesty, we are old, and we don't participate in battles, so it doesn't matter if we eat lunch or not—"

"Yes, Your Majesty, we don't have time to eat now, just wait for the battle to start quickly!" Amindas interjected impatiently.

"There's no need to rush." Davers said calmly: "The further time drags on, the more unfavorable it will be for the Persians......"

As he spoke, Izzam rode from his left and shouted, "Your Majesty, I have found the position of the warriors of the Ksokant tribe in the Persian army!" ”