"... It was July that the King of Persia ordered us to advance westward. Because the team was too large and the marching speed was slow, it took us two months to arrive at Taposacus. At this time, your Majesty, you have led your army to conquer the Syrian region, so the Persians ordered us to build a camp near Taposacus.

In order to facilitate my departure and contact in the future, the Ksocont tribe army chose the northern periphery of Taposakus as its base, not far from Mount Amanus, so one evening half a month ago, I secretly left the camp and drilled north into the mountains. I was not discovered along the way. Then I circled a big circle before returning here…”

"Izam, this time you risked your life and went deep into the heart of Persia, successfully contacted the Ksokant tribe, and persuaded them to support Dionia and make great contributions to the kingdom. On behalf of the soldiers of the army, I would like to express my gratitude to you!"

Davers saluted him with a serious expression, which made Izam so scared that he quickly stood up and waved his hands repeatedly, not daring to accept the gift: "Your Majesty, as a citizen of the Dionian and a senate, this is my duty! And although I have retired, as a member of the former mountain reconnaissance brigade, this is my duty! I cannot stand your thanks for you and the soldiers of the entire army!"

These words were said very appropriately, and Mariji blinked: You should know that when Izam first followed Davers, he was a barbarian who did not understand etiquette. After decades of influence in Dionia, especially in the past few years of life after retirement, he completely changed his mind.

"Okay, since you still regard yourself as a Dionysian soldier, then I will follow the military's reward and punishment system and first give you a great merit, and wait until the war is over." Davers was satisfied with Izam's performance, with a smile on his face, and then asked: "You have been there for so long, do you know how many Persian troops are? What is their army composition? How powerful is the combat power?"

As the former captain of the mountain reconnaissance brigade, Izam is best at reconnaissance of the enemy situation, so after a moment of thought, he immediately replied: "Your Majesty, according to my observations during this period, the Persians stationed in Taposacus have about 350,000 troops, of which the Persians have about 200,000 troops, and the rest... like Dukeya has 30,000 troops, Taukia has about 10,000 troops, Armenia has about 30,000 troops, Arabia has about 10,000 troops, Scythia has 5,000 troops, Kardan has 10,000 troops, India has more than 10,000 troops... Oh, they also have more than 20,000 mercenaries in Greek.

Among so many troops, the approximately 50,000-60,000 Persian troops who guarded the Persian king should be the most combat-capable. In addition to the undead troops stationed in Babylon, the others are from Susa and Persepolis in the east—”

"Artaxerxes personally led his army to the war?!" Davers interrupted him and asked in surprise.

Izam quickly responded, "I'm sorry, your majesty! I forgot to say just now that the Persian king arrived at Taposacus, who led the Immortal Army at the end of last month. After arriving, he has been in the city and has not shown up."

"Well..." Davers nodded: "You keep talking."

"In addition to these 50,000-60,000 Persian troops, the Persian army has an advantage over us. It has a huge cavalry, including all the cavalry in the affiliated areas, with about 30,000 people. In addition, it also has a number of archers with a total of more than 50,000 people. But they do not have powerful heavy infantry! This is the biggest weakness of the Persian army, but the Dukeian tribe army, the Kardans, and the Greek mercenaries... The infantry combat effectiveness of these troops is quite good, and they are likely to be placed on the first line by the Persians in battle against our legion soldiers.

In addition, there are some special troops in the Persian army that need to attract our attention. One is the sickle chariot. It is said that the reason why Artaxerxes arrived at Taposacus so late was to prepare these more than 200 chariots. I have seen this thing from a distance. Its axle is equipped with long and sharp double-sided blades. When the chariot is driving, the blade will constantly rotate with the wheels. It is very terrible to use it to rush into the formation.

In addition, there are war elephants, brought by Indians, with more than 50 heads in total. Although I have watched elephants many times in Tuliyi Zoo, I have seen someone use them to fight for the first time. Indians have placed a small wooden tower on the back of the elephant, and two people can sit on the tower, one is an elephant husband and the other is an archer. The elephant has a huge body, and using it to rush to the formation should pose a certain threat to our infantry array.

Another one is the Arab camel soldiers. The camels were tall but slow. At first, the Arab camps were very close to the Armenians, but the Armenian war horses were restless because of these camels. The Persians kept the Arabs away from the large army and built their own camp. However, they did not have many camels, and they only had more than 500 heads..."

Izam paused for a moment, and saw Davers silent, he said in a hurry and stressed his tone: "Your Majesty, although the Persian army is huge, its source is too complicated. Except for the tens of thousands of main forces, I found that most of the other troops were disorganized, lacking fighting spirit, and lacking effective organization. The troops were not even able to communicate with each other, making it difficult to cooperate well.

I deeply realized this when I followed the Dukeya tribal army from Opis to Taposacus. The troops lost control after less than an hour of advancing according to the Persian marching route, mixed together and spread across the plain... So every afternoon every day, the entire Persian army had to stop advancing, and then each army regained its own soldiers. This took at least two hours, including the Dukeya tribal army, and often clashed with other troops...

Such a Persian army without fighting spirit, discipline, and disunited cannot compete with our army, even if we are at a disadvantage in number. However, the Persians also realized this. After the large troops arrived in Taposacus, they began to reorganize all the troops-"

"How did the Persians reorganize?" Davers asked seriously.

"For some troops with a small number, such as the Kardans and Arabs, they merged them into the Persian army; for the more numerous troops, such as Dukea and Armenia, they dispatched some Persian generals to their army, on the one hand, they were responsible for conveying the orders of the Persian king, on the other hand, they supervised the execution of the orders of the troops, and at the same time, these generals were also responsible for training these troops and the Persian army... So these days the Persian army has been rushing to train on the plains near Taposacus. Before I left, I felt that the state of the Persian army was better than when I first arrived in Taposacus.

Your Majesty, if the Persians continue to do this, even if we can win in the end, we will pay a considerable price. So——” Izam asked loudly with a solemn expression: “Your Majesty, we should attack this Persian army as soon as possible while it is still loose and has not been pinched together!”

Davers pondered, not immediately speaking.

Seeing this, Mariji immediately changed the topic: "Izam, you have been in the Mesopotamian Plain so much, how do you feel about the people there for the entire Persian army?"

"Of course it won't be too good!" Izam replied disdainfully: "The Persian army is not our Dionysian army that has strict military laws to restrict. Their subordinate troops come from different regions and different races. Not only are the military disciplines scattered, but some also have hatreds with the Persians. For example, the Dukeian tribal army came to a wealthy place like Mesopotamia, looting, destroying, and even forcing women to fight and kill people every day. For this reason, the Persians also organized a large number of military legal teams to deal with these violations of discipline, and even had several major conflicts with the subordinate troops.

But even their Persian soldiers were doing these disgusting things themselves, so when the towns along the way closed the gates and refused to let the soldiers enter, even the same was true for the Persian army... I heard some rumors that some Mesopotamian nobles intercepted the Persian king's carriage on the road several times and sued the Persian army, but the Persian king seemed to have not punished them..."

Hearing this, Davers asked Marigi with interest: "The residents of the Mesopotamian plain seem to be a little dissatisfied with the rule of Persians?"

"Your Majesty!" Marigi replied with a little excitement: "Although Persia has ruled the Mesopotamian Plain for more than a hundred years and has been operating it as a core area, the Persian residents still do not account for the majority in the Mesopotamian Plain. The main ethnic groups on this plain are still the Babylonians and the Medes. However, they have always been obedient to Persia, and Persia treats them almost equally, and outsiders regard them as part of the true Persia.

But in fact, there is still a difference between the two! Especially the Babylonians, who have been ruled by multiple foreign races for hundreds of years, have become accustomed to indifference to wars between countries. As long as they do not infringe on their interests, they can accept anyone who will rule the Mesopotamian Plain. Therefore, when Cyrus led his army from Asia Minor to the Mesopotamian Plain, almost approaching Babylon, without any obstacles along the way, which may be an important reason.

I don't know if Artaxerxes had ever been resentful about this, but the information obtained from Mazayas showed that he obviously trusted the Persian nobles of Susa and Persepolis who gave him great support during that turbulent period. Later, he gave them more power and preferential treatment, and even rewarded them with some land on the Mesopotamian plains. These Persian nobles wantonly expanded their territory in Mesopotamia, which once caused tension in the Mesopotamian nobles and residents of the Persians. Although Artaxerxes later realized this problem and mediated, the dissatisfaction of the Mesopotamians with the Persians would definitely not be eliminated.

Your Majesty, as long as our army has defeated the Persian army, it has no harm to the Mesopotamian people, and has promised to give them some benefits, they will definitely regard us as the masters of this land and open the city gates to welcome us!…”
Chapter completed!