Before AD [Babylonian Favorites]

The guards swarmed up and restrained Baizus.

In fact, it doesn't matter how much of what he said is true. The important thing is that this half-human, not a ghost, shakes these things out in front of everyone without any scruples.He hated Alexander for treating him so cruelly, but I hated the insulting look in other people's eyes.

For a long time afterwards, Baizus's angry eyes and curse-like laughter were in my mind, lingering.

Alexander squatted down suddenly, and carefully touched my ankle: "Does it hurt?"

I shook my head and gestured to the person opposite me with my eyes.

Alexander leaned close to me: "Go back, let's sleep again. I drank too much last night and I'm a little tired."

He lifted me up.

"Wait." Hephaistion reached out and grabbed the corner of Alexander's coat, his face pale.

"Hephas, let go."

Hephaistion's thin body swayed twice in the wind, his eyelashes were like butterfly wings.He sniffed and whispered, "I can work hard, too."

Alexander stared at him for a while as if he didn't recognize him, then shook his head: "You're too deep."

He pulled out his robe and led me to Ptolemy and the others.

Alexander sent a team to detain Baissus and return to Ecbatan to ensure that the former general of Darius was killed with a single knife under the crowd's onlookers.As traitors, I don't understand why Alexander treated Nabazan and Byssus so differently.It wasn't until Kassander came to see me suddenly one day later that I asked around.

"You don't know anything, Bagoss." He lazily said, "Alexander is not that stupid. He stayed on the sidelines in order to lure Philotas out of the Nabazan incident. After Philotas died, Naba Zan was imprisoned—in fact, in my opinion, he should also be executed. It’s just that Alexander didn’t play hard until this time, and I thought he would just pretend to be a good guy.”

This argument sounds reasonable.

"So, in the future, you have to be careful about everything. Alexander is a man who is very strict with punishment. If you let him waver once, you will have no hope in your life." Kassander held a pearl necklace between two fingers, "I am in a good mood today. , Here, this is for you."

After he left, I stared blankly at the pearl necklace in my hand, with black threads all over my head.what is this?Men wear pearls, and he can really give them out.When she turned around and entered the tent, Naixi was folding clothes, and there was a sense of tranquility from the side view.

"Hey, Kassander is here." I said.

He paused, then continued to move, apparently ignoring the name.

I shook my hand: "He gave me this."

Nancy still doesn't dump me.

Marching as usual for the past few days, setting off during the day and camping at night to rest.The energy of midsummer is coming to an end, and the night is full of wind and sand, so I am reluctant to pay the bill.Alexander seemed to be determined to fight Hephaistion to the end, and devoted himself to his great cause of the Eastern Expedition. Sometimes he even settled for meals in the tent. He was simply a standard nine-to-five office worker.When delivering meals to him several times, I saw him squatting on the ground looking at the sand table and meditating. There are neat pieces of tofu. I guess he drew the Macedonian phalanx.

He has been troubled for many days, and I finally couldn't help asking: "Your Majesty, what problem are you stumped by?"

Alexander glanced at me, got up and walked around the sand table: "It's okay to talk to you, just to clarify my thinking."

"The phalanx my father taught me is very powerful, but it also has many weaknesses. Everyone thinks that we won the Caucasus campaign against Persia easily, but it was not. I took a risk. I led the guard The cavalry on the two wings of the phalanx rushed in first, which was equivalent to breaking through the encirclement of the Persian army alone. At that time, Darius was terrified and thought that our entire team would follow behind, so he fled. In fact, if he had more experience in combat More, I can outflank my cavalry team and wipe them all out, then I am afraid that the winner now is him."

I froze for a moment: "Your Majesty, why did you take this risk? It's too dangerous, if you are caught..."

"I expected that he would not see through it." Alexander said confidently, "The Athenians have never used this phalanx, the Egyptians have never used it, and the Persians have never even seen it. For most people, it is unknown. Things are often associated with fear. Darius' tactics are mediocre, so he naturally thinks my strategy is very unpredictable. Since he praised me so much, why didn't I follow his wishes?"

"You almost died under the swords of the Persian cavalry in this battle," a stern bass voice came from outside the camp, and Krest came in in armor, "It's not something to be proud of. When I brought you back, you were already dead." Injured shoulder-"

He was taken aback when he saw me: "Are you talking about tactics with Bagoss?"

"Master Crest." I bowed my head.

"I just want to clarify my thoughts with the help of narrative," Alexander stretched with a smile, "The phalanx still needs to be improved, but I still have no idea."

"In front of this Persian?" Krest frowned, "You should be more careful."

"Bagoss is all right."

Krest looked at me suspiciously, thought for a while and said to Alexander Road: "In fact, it is okay to maintain this level. His Majesty Philip spent his whole life to adjust the phalanx to its current height, which is more powerful than the fierce Sparta back then. The [-] warriors are still mighty. The next step is the damn mountain road, we have to think of a way again, this phalanx probably has to be reserved for India.”

"Are you here for something?"

Crest's snake eyes rolled: "That bastard boy of Seleucus said that there will be a bonfire banquet tonight. I passed by them and he asked me to tell you. Many people talk and start to drift these days. You have to Be careful. Listen to nice words, don't take them too seriously, and don't let pride and complacency blind your eyes."

After a pause, he added: "Of course, there are feelings."

Alexander patted him on the shoulder affectionately and smiled: "I understand, I will listen to you. Except for my father, you are the elder who cares most about me."

"Alexander," Krest said with a serious but loving expression, "I'm not a very flattering guy. Philip entrusted you to me, and I will naturally do my best. I hope you are better than yours. Father is greater—do you understand, it’s not easy, I walked down with Philip, I know it’s not easy, but you have to work hard.”

Krest left in a hurry.

I still didn't understand: "Your Majesty, where is the weakness of the phalanx?"

"Are you interested in this? I thought you were impatient to listen." Alexander said happily, "Okay, I'll tell you, but you have to promise me that you can't disclose it to anyone."

"I promise."

Alexander nodded in satisfaction, pointed at the square pattern on the sand table with a tree branch and said: "First, it is not an all-round square array, it can only block the attack from the front side, which means that if the enemy makes a detour to the side or rear to attack, it is very difficult It is easy to break through. Of course, there will be cavalry and other light auxiliary soldiers covering the rest of the directions, but it is still a hidden danger. The second is that it is not flexible enough. It is too huge. If you need to change directions immediately to attack It is a strenuous task, and it is easy to be caught by the enemy. Third, it is almost powerless to fight long-distance archers. In order to pursue speed, spearmen use small round shields. The shield can't cover the whole body at all, and the dense arrow rain can quickly defeat it-of course, such nightmarish long-range archers are still rare. Fourth, its own offensive problem, only in the first few rows The soldiers attack the enemy, and the rest of the rear is completely equivalent to the reserve troops."

I'm tongue-tied.My God, such a simple formation full of loopholes can still survive until now, what kind of combat power exists on this battlefield.But after thinking about it, more than 2000 years ago, they should be considered advanced.

I thought about it and pointed to the inside of the formation: "If I remember correctly, Your Majesty, the weapons used by everyone in the phalanx from the first row to the last row are spears?"

Alexander nodded and regretted, "That's right, this is the longest weapon we can make. But we still can't hit many enemies. After all, if you use a spear inside the formation, it's easy to stab your own people."

"Your Majesty," I was startled, and couldn't help blurting out, "Haven't you considered changing some of the people in the middle into long-distance attacking units, such as... uh... archers, stone slingers, spear slingers and so on? Isn't this a way to make full use of our troops?"

Alexander's posture of holding the branch was frozen, he stood there in a daze, but his eyes gradually brightened.

Then he laughed happily, looked at me, and said, "Bagos! My Zeus witness, why are you so courageous? No one has ever thought about this problem! No, since the Spartans created the formation, they have never No one dares to think like this! But I don’t think your statement is ridiculous, am I crazy-it is feasible! But it needs to be adjusted, such as the supplementary problem of the first row of spearmen..."

It really is an ancient man!I nodded and thought, if you know that a single nuclear weapon can blow up the whole world in the 21st century, you will know how precious the era of cold weapons is!

Alexander was very happy, I helped him solve a small problem, so he decided to take me to the open-air banquet in the evening.

The fires were brightly lit at night, and the moon was shining brightly when we reached the Seleucid camp.A lot of people were sitting around talking and laughing, and some barbecues were placed on the fire grills. There were bursts of harp sounds not far away, melodious and pleasant.

Alexander was clearly in a good mood, smiling and nodding to everyone he met.

"Bagos, you can eat whatever you want, and do whatever you want, don't be restrained." He touched my head and smiled softly, "I heard that Ptolemy and the others put on a show tonight , making it mysterious, I will send someone to call you when the meeting starts."

"Your Majesty, what are you going to do?"

"I'll be back soon." Alexander said and got up to leave.

The sound of the harp is like gurgling water, accompanied by the sound of drums and flute, like a woman's soft whisper, blowing through people's hearts.Many people admired the music, and some even started to cheer and applaud.I raised my eyes inadvertently, but I saw the baby face of the player who played was shining brightly by the firelight, and it really was Amyntas.

He gave me a slight nod, and casually picked up a string of welcome music.

There was another rhythmic drumbeat, and suddenly dark clouds enveloped the moonlight, making the night darker.

The sound of the harp gradually faded away.

Someone sat next to me, took a sip of wine, and rubbed his golden fluffy hair: "A good show is about to begin."

I said helplessly, "Lord Ptolemy, you..."

"Shh." He raised his index finger to his mouth, "Look."

Everything was quiet, people sat on the ground, all focused on the harpist in front of them.

A gust of wind blows.At this moment, the winding flute sounded with the wind, and then the harp tinkled, like a beautiful woman wearing a veil, full of mysterious and exotic style.

Behind the harpist, a figure in light gauze and thin clothes suddenly walked out slowly, and finally stopped on the sandy ground in the middle.

No face could be seen in the night.The man stood in the wind, hugged his left shoulder with his right hand, and knelt down on his knees.The clothes are fluttering, the neck outlines a beautiful line, and the posture that is ready to come out is like a laurel tree that Daphne[1] is about to incarnate.

The author has something to say:

[1] Daphne, the daughter of the river god in Greek mythology.Transformed into a laurel tree in order to escape the pursuit of the sun god Apollo. SHE's "Laurel Goddess" is about her.