Douluo: The Adventures of King Skin

“A voice said: People on earth/look at me in the sky and tell the truth,/are all the scars of spirit and flesh/not enough to pay for birth.”

——Robert Frost, "A Question"

Although Pyrrhus was happy when he hugged his thigh and there was no psychological burden, at this moment, the feeling of being kicked away by the thigh was something he would never forget.

"Demitri broke off his engagement with your royal sister Deidamia and married your cousin Cadmia, sister of Neoptolemus.

"The wedding will be held on the ship during the day."

"A wedding on a battleship is an unforgettable moment of happiness for a bride..." Pyrrhus said this after being silent for a while.

"Your Majesty, you do not have to rely on a successor," Zenas comforted Pyrrhus: "I have long heard that Neoptolemus did not have the appearance of a king, even without the appearance of these successors. Help, you can still take back the throne sooner or later."

"That's right, Zenas." Pyrrhus sighed:

“We don’t have to be attached to anyone, I don’t even have to want the throne of Molossia.

"I just feel sorry for Deidamia, who was originally going to marry Alexander's son."

After Dedamia's former husband's family, the Ajid royal family, suffered such a tragedy, they entered into a new engagement with the Antigonus family, whom they had been friends with for many years.

"Originally, I thought that Demetrius was not a good match. He already had many wives and concubines, and Antipater's daughter was his well-deserved first wife. My sister could only get the status of a concubine after marrying her. .

"This was originally a political marriage, but luckily Dedamia liked him very much, and I sincerely wished her happiness at the time..."

Before Demetrius was called the "Becker", the Macedonians called him "The Beautiful Man", which shows that he does have an outstanding skin; and although his temperament cannot be called a model of a king, it is indeed very good. Easy to get close to.The young Deidamia had seen him once, and had longed for him ever since.

"Let's not talk about this." Pyrrhus said: "Zinas, can you find out the movements of Dmitri's headquarters? Quite a few of his elites have not disembarked, and they may have other intentions."

"I asked about it by the way yesterday," Zenas said: "Dmitri took some soldiers from the sea to the port of Aulis in Boeotia. That city-state should have turned to Demetrius."

Who do you know in Dmitry's army?Is this kind of information something that can be obtained 'by the way'?

Pyrrhus was very surprised.Although people in this era do not have any special awareness of confidentiality, the Macedonian army is not so leaky, right?

"Of course I can't ask, but 'Bright Eyes' has a way." Zenas took out a coin and tossed it. On it was the owl-shaped 'Bright Eyes' Athena.

Pyrrhus suddenly felt that the name "Bright Eyes Times" was not that good.

Putting aside his idle reverie, Pyrrhus spread out a map covering the entire Mediterranean.Deciacus's map was already quite accurate, and Pyrrhus was unable to give him much guidance in a short period of time.

After all, this era lacks the accumulation of basic data compared to methods.It is also for this reason that after high-definition printing is used, the map covering the entire Mediterranean is not large. There are only approximate locations of cities and seaports, and most of the coastline can only be drawn with rough outlines using thick lines.

The geographical direction of central Greece is like the word "king".

The lower line is the northern edge of the Peloponnese Peninsula, which belongs to the Arcadians. In history, it often formed the Achaean League with city-states farther west; at the junction with the middle is an isthmus city, which is the famous Corinth.

The upper horizontal line is the island of Euboea, and the Euboeans are also descendants of the Ionians; in the middle of the island there is a protrusion to the southwest, where is Chalcis.

Across the middle is the Attica Peninsula to the east, and the city of Athens is on the south side of the peninsula;

The connection between the west and the continent that we will later call the Balkans, where the holy land of Delphi maintains a small alliance of neighbors, and over the mountains to the north is a steep coast by the sea, which is the famous Thermopylae;

The middle crossroads area belongs to the Boeotian League. At its core is the city of Thebes, which was once destroyed and restored by Cassander a few years ago. The port of Aulis where Demetrius is going is at the bottom. North side of Bis.

In ancient times, Aulis was the place where the army of the Trojan expedition gathered and set off. King Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter there; and in later history, Aulis was always a small city-state attached to Thebes. , until independence after the city of Thebes was destroyed by the Macedonians.

The situation has become very obvious.

Plepelaus did not have enough troops to fight against Demetrius's entire army, so he could only sit back in Corinth and watch the Athenian front being pursued all the way;

Demetrius should have also deployed some troops in Megara on the north side of the Isthmus of Corinth, so that the Athenian front did not dare to go south to join Plepelaus, so they could only choose to flee north.

If the Athenian front could reach Thermopylae, they would have escaped.

It's a pity that Demetrius had already planned ahead. He only sent half of his troops to attack the Athenian front, and took the other half to the north side by sea. By then, he would have a close-door attack on the Athenian front.

We all know that no matter in modern or ancient times, under normal circumstances, even if you win on the battlefield, it is difficult to annihilate all the enemies.

An army will collapse before casualties reach half, and qualified generals will retreat earlier.

One is chasing and the other is running. Basically, as fast as you can run, the opponent can also run as fast as you want; you can drop your baggage and chase with light equipment, and the opponent can also escape with light equipment; you can send out fast mobile forces like cavalry to pursue, and the opponent can also send out cavalry to stop them. .

The losing side can gather troops along the way and eventually restore its organization.

Therefore, all generals will pursue encirclement and annihilation of the enemy in order to complete their achievements in one battle.

People like Pyrrhus, who had never been on the battlefield, could figure out such a simple thing. Plepelous could naturally figure it out, and so could Cassander.

Are the Athenian front the only ones who don’t understand?

Thinking of the strange behavior of this army outside Athens, Pyrrhus felt that they also understood it, but they understood it too well.

"There must be an insider from Demetrius in Cassander's Athenian front, and my former brother-in-law wants to recruit this army. Plepelaus will definitely come to the rescue, but Megara also has a long wall, and he will definitely not be able to make it in time; So Cassander's only hope is to send reinforcements from Thessaly to meet them." Pyrrhus looked at Hippias, Achilles and other men who had just arrived, and explained the situation to them.

Hippias had just arrived from Thessaly. He said: "Cassander's garrison in Thessaly will not exceed 5000 people. Including the temporarily recruited Thessalian cavalry, the maximum is 5000. He should be able to mobilize the troops After mixing, [-] people were sent south to respond."

Cassander should still be able to gather a lot of troops in Macedonia itself, but that will take time; before that, it can be said that this is the time when his territories outside Macedonia are at their weakest.

"What a great opportunity! It's a pity that we have no silver coins and no soldiers now." Pyrrhus sighed.After experiencing the break-up of the engagement, his heart was now filled with a sense of urgency that time could not wait.

At this time, Zenas suddenly smiled and said: "Your Majesty, how come you don't have soldiers? Didn't you say before, 'One newspaper is worth thousands of troops'?"

"Zinas, you must have something on your mind!" Pyrrhus believed in Zenas's professionalism. He was not a simple remonstrator, and since he had spoken, he would not be without aim.

"My lord, are you interested in becoming Tagus of Thessaly?"