Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 1313: The Great Battle of Thapsacus (5)

Although the Persian Scythed Chariots were terrifying weapons for breaking formations, they faced the well-prepared tactics of the Daionian Army. Their charioteers and horses were either shot down by light infantry or wiped out by the legionaries. The damage they inflicted on the Daionian lines was extremely minor.

The advancing chariots and war elephants churned up massive clouds of dust. Hundreds of meters away, Artaxerxes and Tiribazus could not see the fighting at all. But once the attack was launched, they had to carry out the prearranged plan. Shortly after the chariots and elephants moved out, the King of Persia dispatched three thousand armored cavalrymen from the front of the center, hoping they would follow close on the heels of the initial assault and completely shatter the Daionian lines.

The Persian Immortals were not just infantry; they included chariots and cavalry as well. These three thousand armored riders were part of the Immortals, an elite force selected from the vast ranks of Persian cavalry. Riding the tallest and strongest warhorses draped in barding, the riders wore full leather armor and wielded long Persian sabers, double-edged hand axes, and bows and arrows. In the traditional tactics of the Immortals, this cavalry unit launched the second wave of attacks immediately after the chariots. They often routed the enemy before the infantry even had to march out, and today, they hoped to repeat this old trick.

Following the King of Persia's command, the cavalry unit broke into a trot, advancing in three long, horizontal lines spanning the entire front of the center. (They did not adopt a dense diamond formation because Tiribazus assumed the chariots and elephants had already torn holes in the Daionian lines. He believed the cavalry charge would face little resistance. Spreading out the riders maximized their attack range and aimed to inflict widespread, irreparable damage, paving the way for the infantry to utterly crush the Daionian center.)

However, the cavalry unit ran into trouble shortly after setting out. They collided head-on with fleeing war elephants. Wounded, sensitive, and enraged, the behemoths perceived the approaching Persian cavalry as a threat. The elephants furiously thrashed their trunks, trampling and ramming wildly, throwing the cavalry's charging formation into chaos. Red-eyed with fury, the elephants then turned and charged directly into the advancing Persian infantry lines. To stop them, the grief-stricken mahouts were forced to drive long iron spikes into the elephants' brains, dropping the great beasts dead amid tragic trumpeting.

A few war elephants threw off their mahouts during their out-of-control stampede, plowing straight into the dense infantry formation and sparking a wave of panic.

Witnessing this, Artaxerxes felt a surge of unease. "Tiribazus, what is happening?!"

Tiribazus did not dare answer directly. Instead, he urgently reminded the king, "Your Majesty, the Immortal cavalry has deployed. It is time to launch a full-scale offensive!"

"Now?" This was the prearranged plan, but when the moment arrived, Artaxerxes hesitated.

Tiribazus's words temporarily dispelled the gloom rising once more in Artaxerxes's heart. He rallied his spirits and nodded.

Hearing the blaring military horns and seeing Persian messengers gallop past shouting orders, Remi took a deep breath. He knew the critical moment that would decide his tribe's survival had finally arrived. A trace of relief mixed with his sudden heavy-heartedness; he had been tormented for so long, and now, at last, there would be a resolution.

He glanced back at the Persian commanders screaming for them to attack, and a hint of a sneer touched his lips.

At the very front of the Persian army's far right wing, Mardonius had been waiting with growing impatience. When he received the King of Persia's order relayed by a messenger, his irritation instantly turned to joy. Eagerly swinging his long saber, he shouted, "Attack! Attack!..."

His excitement stemmed from his lineage: he was a descendant not only of Gobryas, but also of the elder Mardonius, the Persian commander who had led the army at the Battle of Plataea. The elder Mardonius had died bravely on the battlefield, but the defeat at Plataea had brought heavy criticism from the Persian nobility, tarnishing the entire family's reputation. The younger Mardonius was determined to claim top honors in this battle and wash away his family's stigma.

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The Immortal cavalry's horizontal line was massive. The minor chaos caused by a dozen retreating war elephants was nowhere near enough to halt the advance of the entire force. However, the ensuing downpour of arrows unleashed by thousands of Daionian light infantrymen proved to be a major problem for the Persian cavalry.

Megakides watched with satisfaction as distant Persian riders and their horses tumbled into the dirt. He was just reaching for a second arrow when his commanding officers started shouting. The battlefield was far too noisy for him to hear clearly, so he did not react. A squadmate grabbed him and yelled frantically, "Retreat! Retreat, now!"

Dragged back by his squadmate, Megakides shouted in frustration, "There's still time! I can get another shot off!"

"Bullshit!" the squadmate cursed. "The heavy infantry needs time to form up!"

Megakides fell silent. In traditional Greek combat, light infantry acted as skirmishing auxiliaries, deciding entirely on their own when to attack or pull back. But in the Daionian Army, every branch of the military had to coordinate closely. As a new recruit, he still was not fully used to this.

Megakides and his squadmates sprinted to safety behind the infantry lines. Meanwhile, officers like Arsinis stared tensely ahead. The Persian cavalry was coming fast; they were already dangerously close to the infantry formation.

"Javelins!" Arsinis roared. The fully prepared legionaries hurled their javelins with all their might.

This was a wave of death far more terrifying than the previous volley of arrows. The heavy javelins easily pierced the armor of the Persian cavalry and their steeds. Entire swaths of riders went down amid agonized screams and shrill neighs, simultaneously blocking the advance of the cavalry charging behind them.

Taking advantage of the chaos in the enemy lines, the rear cohorts surged forward immediately after throwing their javelins, locking shields with the front line to form a solid wall. However, this maneuver also locked out a few light infantrymen who had not retreated behind the lines fast enough.

The Immortal cavalrymen who luckily survived the ranged barrage never expected the Daionian formation to remain so perfectly intact after enduring the chariot and war elephant charges. Although shocked, they were Persia's most elite and courageous soldiers. Already at the enemy lines, they faced the heavily guarded wall of shields and spears without a shred of hesitation, plunging straight in.

The dense thicket of spears skewered the warhorses, but they could not immediately halt the immense kinetic energy of beasts weighing nearly a thousand pounds charging at full speed. Amid the frantic shrieks of the horses, a continuous volley of deafening crashes echoed—Boom! Boom! Boom! Shouts rang out as the front-line soldiers bearing the brunt of the impact were sent flying. Dozens of small gaps instantly tore open across the center formation.

Unfortunately for the attackers, the Persian cavalry only consisted of three horizontal lines, which had already been severely thinned out by arrows and javelins. They could not sustain their momentum after this initial collision. Because the Persian infantry was still only halfway across the battlefield, the Daionian legionaries quickly swarmed and wiped out the Immortal riders trapped within their ranks.

"Your Majesty, it seems our infantry squares have stopped the Persian cavalry's charge without taking heavy casualties... For now, we do not need to deploy the reserves to relieve them," Philesius, who had been closely monitoring the battle in the center, called out happily.

Hearing this, veteran generals like Amyntas and Epithenes breathed a collective sigh of relief. They had spent their entire lives on the battlefield and boasted immense combat experience. Yet, a perilous spectacle like today's—where chariots, war elephants, and armored cavalry slammed into their lines in back-to-back waves—was something they had never faced before. They had planned meticulously, but they had all been sweating nervously.

Davos remained perfectly calm. He stared straight ahead into the dust-choked battlefield, where countless silhouettes loomed in the haze.

"The Persian infantry is moving up. Their flanking cavalry should be starting their attack as well," Davos said in an even tone. He paused for a second before asking, "Have our slingers begun their assault?"

The full-scale Persian offensive had just begun. The Balearic Slingers were positioned on the two wings of the army, a good two or three miles away from the central command. No matter how fast a messenger ran, they could not deliver battlefield reports to Davos instantly.

Philesius was left momentarily speechless, but Tolmides reacted quickly beside him. "Rest assured, Your Majesty! Although Balearic citizens have rarely been conscripted since the Balearic Islands were incorporated into the Kingdom, they train year-round in the Iberian military camps. They have no problems coordinating with the other branches. I am confident they will perfectly execute the task you have given them!"

Davos nodded as he listened. "As long as we can break the Persian cavalry once more," he said leisurely, "I will have nothing left to worry about in this battle."

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"Hyah! Hyah! Yah! Yah!..." Amid a ceaseless chorus of shouts in various accents, more than thirty thousand cavalrymen on the two wings began to advance. Surging forward like floodwaters bursting a dam, their momentum was far more terrifying than the infantry attack in the center.

Staring at the rolling wall of dust approaching from the distance, First Cavalry Legion Commander Curtius showed no hint of nervousness. He even had the leisure to turn around and check his rear.

"Four hundred and fifty meters!... Four hundred and fifty meters!... Four hundred and fifty meters!" Observers stationed at the very front lines on both edges of the Daionian formation relayed the Persian cavalry's distance back to the Balearic Slingers positioned at the extreme rear. Aside from carrying a sling and a few pouches of lead bullets, these soldiers wore no armor. The moment the enemy cavalry mobilized, their officers had given the order, and they were already whipping their slings in circles.