Karcidis thought for a while and said, "In addition, I learned from the Naukratis merchants who went to Cyprus for trade. Recently, they were expelled by the Cyprus people and prohibited their merchant ships from entering the Cyprus waters. Some time ago, people often saw a large number of warships appearing in the eastern waters of Cyprus... After analysis, we believe that it is very likely that the Persians have concentrated the majority of the warships of their fleets to ports in eastern Cyprus..."

After hearing this, Davers was still pondering, and Matonis shouted: "It seems that the Persians are gathering their naval and army to prepare for our attack from Egypt!"

Davers did not respond, but looked at Carlsydis again: "Next we will attack Persia, what advice do you have on this?"

Karcidis's expression became solemn. He thought for a while before whispering: "Your Majesty, the military plan for attacking Persia from Egypt by the Ministry of Military Affairs... I think it may need to be modified..."

"Oh?" Davers looked at Carlsidis, who was slightly nervous, tapped the wooden chair with his hand and said in an encouraging tone: "We have no experience in fighting in Egypt. You have the most say. Tell us in detail why we need to modify the plan?"

After Davers said this, the other generals and officials became serious. When Davers signaled Henipolis to place wooden maps of Egypt and Persia carried by the army in the middle of the hall, they all surrounded them.

"Your Majesty, dear Legion!" Karcidis took a deep breath in the face of everyone's eyes, pointing to the icon of Daffinai City on the map. Although his voice trembled slightly, he said in a powerful tone: "Daffinai City is a fortress established by the Egyptians on the easternmost side of the Nile Delta. It was to defend against Persian invasion. It went east from Daffinai City and arrived at the border of Egypt for about two hundred miles. The places they passed were all deserts, without any people, and without any supply points. According to the speed of the marching of the Kingdom army in this terrain, it would take at least three to four days to pass..."

As he spoke, Karcidis's words became fluent. He gestured the march route on the map with his fingers, and finally stayed on a circular icon marked with the word "Gaza": "Not twenty miles away from the Egyptian border is the fortress built by the Persians - Gaza City. It is reported that 1,500 Persian soldiers are usually stationed in the city, and now it may increase to 4,000 people-"

"There are not many 4,000 people. It should be easy for our army to attack north." Lizalu, the commander of the Second Army, interjected.

"I'm afraid it's not easy." Karcidis said solemnly: "The city of Gaza was originally just a frontier supply town for the Persians invaded Egypt, but since the last time we reinforced Egypt and repelled the Persians, the Persians may have been worried that we would attack them through Egypt in turn, so they recruited Jews and Phoenicians two years ago to build a fortress in Gaza. According to the information we have obtained, although the city is not large, the city is high, the walls are thick, and it has sufficient military rations and supplies. It is not easy to capture it.

Moreover, the term ‘Gaza’ comes from Canaanic language, which means that it is surrounded by sand. It is a fortress built on sand and gravel. The nearest Canaan oasis is at least twenty or thirty miles away. This means that we cannot obtain any resources from the city of Gaza to build large siege equipment such as siege towers, moving towers, siege cars, etc. It is even difficult to build siege platforms and causeways, because there is only sand and no soil there, and it is not easy to solidify, but these are not the biggest difficulties-"

And if we let the navy guard, but there is no port to dock and replenish on the long coast from Naukratis to Gaza, the fleet does not get a good rest, the warships cannot be maintained, and when the Persian fleet comes, we must also consider protecting the fleet, and the entire battle situation will not be beneficial to our navy..."

Carlsydis obviously thought carefully and he patiently listed the difficulties one by one. The commanders of the legion were frowning and fell into deep thought.

Davers sighed and said, "It seems that the Military Affairs Department and I have made mistakes in talking about the war on paper and underestimated the difficulties of fighting in the desert. If it weren't for Carlsydis, we might have suffered a lot of trouble! Since you can find the problem, you must have come up with a solution to the problem. Let me tell us in detail how you want to modify the combat plan!"

Facing Davers' encouraging eyes, Karcidis cheered up and said loudly: "I think the first target we are going to attack is not Gaza, but here - Cyprus!"

Everyone's eyes immediately focused on the icon on his finger.

"There are three purposes for attacking it." Karcidis revealed his thought-out plan: "First of all, Cyprus is a large island with larger lakes and rivers, and a larger plain in the north. It has a large population and sufficient food reserves. It also has several well-equipped military ports. It is also easy to land and fight. As long as we capture it, it can be used to moor our fleet and support our army operations nearby.

Secondly, Cyprus is a barrier to the coast of the Persian Near East. We have occupied it and can land north, attack the Gulf of Issus, eastward to attack Syria and Phoenicia, and southeast to threaten Canaan... The entire coast of the Near East is under our threat, thus giving us more initiative in war-"

"Since Cyprus is so important to Persia, the Persians must also attach great importance to it. You mentioned just now that Phoenicia and Cyprus are the main sources of the Persian navy. They are also gathering their own warships. Looking at the map Phoenicia is very close to Cyprus, they can send a fleet in time to intercept our transport fleet!" Lizaru interrupted Karcidis's words and asked questions keenly.

Karcidis said calmly: "This is the third purpose I want to mention! We travel thousands of miles and launch an attack on Persia. The long transportation line is our army's biggest weakness, but as long as we have the dominance of the Eastern Mediterranean, this is not a problem. Therefore, the military plan formulated by His Majesty and the Ministry of Military Affairs considers that we must first eliminate the Persian fleet. Therefore, the Greek coalition first landed in Asia Minor and wanted to lure the Persian fleet northward, but the effect was not ideal. In the end, it only annihilated the Persian fleet, and the main force of the Persian fleet still stayed in the waters of the Near East! But if we attack Cyprus, the Persian fleet would have to go out in full bloom. I think this should be what we expect!"

Speaking of this, Carlsydis looked at Davers.
Chapter completed!