Douluo: The Adventures of King Skin

"Even if only 1000 people oppose you, these 1000 people will fight to the end. - Demaratus"

It wasn't like Cassander had never seen this kind of thing before.

In other words, he has not personally experienced it, but he does know that it exists.

Cassander put down the newspaper picked up by the outpost and couldn't help laughing.Of course, with his usual prestige, no one dared to ask him, "Why is Basileus laughing?"

After Cassander laughed, he began to speak:

"During Alexander's Eastern Expedition, Darius, the King of Kings of Persia, was defeated in Issus. He also implemented such a strategy. He sent out troops and burned a large number of his own villages one after another in order to cut off the influence of the Eastern Expedition army. supply.

"Philip, do you know how Alexander responded?"

Philip didn't want to say anything at first, but his name was already called upon, so he had no choice but to answer.

The story of Alexander's Eastern Expeditions is a household name in Macedonia. When it comes to the battle examples, even a child can understand it clearly.Philip said:

"Alexander marched south along the coast and captured all the Phoenician city-states, forcing the Persian navy to lose its base and surrender, thus gaining a stable rear."

"That's right. As long as we take Magnesia again, we can gain a stable rear." Cassander agreed with a smile:

"Pyrrhus can burn it if he likes! It's best if we don't have to fight a single battle, and he can burn down the entire Thessaly by himself! Then Demetrius won't be able to go north!"

Cassander looked around at the generals in the tent and issued an order:

"Philip, I will give you 1 men, and you will take them to Magnesia on the coast; I will take the other 5000 men and continue to Larissa.

"You have to remember that if you win over the local Xenophon people well, you can agree to any conditions - as long as they don't cause trouble!

"We'll end up meeting up in Tempe Valley."

…………

…………

Cassander decided on a strategy of separate attacks and combined attacks, while Pyrrhus was still worried about how to improve the combat effectiveness of the cavalry.

Since the general mobilization order was issued, various materials have continuously arrived in the hands of the committee. In addition to food, the most strategically valuable items are horses.

There were so many horses at once, and it was easy to find riders.Thessaly was originally the main horse-producing area in the Greek world, and was naturally rich in cavalry.

Raise the recruiting flag and there will be no shortage of people to feed you.What's more, the current public opinion is very good.

Pyrrhus selected a group of the best, expanded the cavalry to 5000 men, and put the rest into the volunteers.

Theoretically, these 5000 men and horses can only be counted as fifty centurions, because according to the prevailing organizational standards at this time, the cavalry must be equipped with two horses to maintain sufficient horsepower at all times, so he has to bring an entourage to help him take care of the horses and equipment. .

Of course, this follower often also rides a horse, so he is actually a bench player.Although in normal times he may only be able to hold the horse hard, but at the critical moment of the decisive battle, he can at least hold up a light cavalry by riding on the backup horse.

Similarly, heavy infantry at this time often also had followers with similar functions, but Pyrrhus believed that this follower was not as necessary as cavalry, but was just a backward organization method.He would rather establish professional light infantry and baggage troops than have soldiers fool around in the military camp with their entourage of male and female eunuchs.

The cavalry can bring its entourage. Of course, this entourage must be standard and cannot be messed up like the infantry entourage. The name was changed to the deputy cavalry specifically for this purpose.

Pyrrhus was poor before, and could only have one man with one horse, and a centurion had only 50 horses; now one man had two horses and one man, and a centurion had 100 horses.Obsessive-compulsive disorder is fully satisfied.

There are cavalry, but most of them are light cavalry.In this era, the light cavalry had very poor combat effectiveness and could only be used as four-legged light infantry.

Because at this time, both light and heavy cavalry were armed with the same short spears as the infantry. They usually did not charge with guns like they did in the Middle Ages, but used their height to plunge down.The light cavalry did not have the armor of the heavy cavalry, and the weapons in their hands were so short. To put it bluntly, they were not even qualified to backstab. They could only make a living by throwing javelins and shooting arrows from a distance, chasing broken soldiers and picking up holes.

Just like the Battle of Philais a few days ago, the light cavalry of both sides were very helpless in the battle. Pyrrhus's light cavalry stayed behind at the risk of their lives, and in the end there was no actual battle; and the light cavalry on the opposite side launched a wave of desperate assaults. , even a group of camels and draft horses couldn't break through.

In the end, the result of the battle was not as good as the mounted infantry led by Oandros.

Thessaly was not without heavy cavalry.During Alexander's Eastern Expedition, only a small part of the heavy cavalry in the Macedonian army were the so-called companion cavalry, and the main force was the Thessalians.

But now most of the heavy cavalry from Thessaly work for the successors. Without the money from the big boss, it is impossible for ordinary self-employed people to do it.In Thessaly itself, only some private soldiers controlled by nobles were considered heavy cavalry.

Pyrrhus worked hard to get a lot of heavy cavalry from these people, plus some brought by Hippias and his original two or three teams, and also used the excess armor to arm a group, and he Many of his friends were also sent out, and together they only managed to make up the full strength of 10 teams. In fact, there were only 500 troops.

For the time being, this is the limit. If there are more, even if the armor is passed from the infantry, there will be no qualified war horses.

We can only think of solutions based on combat effectiveness.

For now, the superficial difference between cavalry and light cavalry is nothing more than horse equipment. When it comes to training, the cavalry under Pyrrhus are actually all a trick.

But as for Pyrrhus, he feels that the equipment of the two is actually a trick:

The heavy cavalry only had multiple breastplates and greaves on their bodies. The horses were still naked and they also held short spears in their hands.This configuration is just an elite light cavalry for Pyrrhus, who has fantasized about armored holy cavalry, armored cavalry, and command cavalry.

No, it doesn’t count as an elite. You should at least change it to a long gun, right?

Unfortunately, it is difficult to practice with a spear right away.

Just think about it, the sprint speed of war horses in this era is almost 40 miles. If you stab someone with a spear at this speed, how can you do it without knocking yourself off the horse?Those speedsters who snatched bags in the previous life did not dare to commit crimes at this speed.

Think about it again, if what you stab is not a human but a horse charging towards you at 40 miles, and the relative speed has reached 80 miles, how can you ensure that your arm will not fly out with the spear when you stab it?

Of course, no one can do it in this era. Pyrrhus and his friends can do it. The cavalry of Alexander and his followers basically use long spears.

But because Pyrrhus had practiced it himself, he knew how difficult it was, so after he got some steel, the first weapon he gave himself was the relatively brainless Yanyue Sword, just for fear of accidentally overturning.

But no matter how hard it is, you have to practice, otherwise how can you beat Cassander's regular army?