Chapter 24: Showing up prominently
Chapter 24: Showing up prominently
Davos saw the huge wound in the man’s abdomen and he could even see the intestines inside, he knew that the man’s life was slim, but he couldn’t bear to just give up, he then said to the soldiers besides him, “Bring him to the field hospital in Menon’s camp as soon as possible and tell them that Davos sent him.”
“Field Hospital?”
“Oh, I know!” Someone answered, so the soldiers carried the wounded soldier, and was ready to go through south of Clearchus camp. The others looked at Davos not knowing what to do.
Davos anxiously said to them, “Quickly inform the officers of each camp, that the Persians violated their promises and massacred the Greek soldiers. I am afraid that the leaders who went to have a meeting have been captured by the Persians, and so they have assembled their soldiers and were ready for a battle!”
The soldiers immediately rushed to their respective camps.
“Davos, what happened?!” At this time, Xenophon arrived at the gate of the camp.
Davos quickly told him about the summary of what happened.
Xenophon looked gloomy and his eyes were filled with regret, “I had also previously persuaded Proxenus, but he didn’t listen, and I did not insist on persuading him…I’m afraid that Proxenus has already…” Xenophon’s trembling voice sobbed.
Davos nodded silently.
Xenophon looked at the Persian cavalry galloping ahead and said loudly, “We should immediately call the entire mercenary troops! We need to attack the Persian camp and rescue Proxenus!”
“That is not a good idea!” Along with the voice, came a sturdy middle-aged man, “Although the soldiers fought with the Persians a lot of times previously, but we had been peacefully camping with them during this time. Now you’re suddenly going to war with the Persians, the soldiers can’t adapt immediately, let alone sieging the Persian camp.”
“At least we should get rid of the Persian cavalry in front, and maybe we can save some of the soldiers that are outside!” Davos reminded.
The man glanced at him and asked, “Who are you?”.
“Davos, a soldier under Menon.”
“What we need to do is a matter for the officers, we don’t need a soldier to teach us!” The man yelled angrily.
Davos wasn’t interested to continue talking.
“Xenophon, you immediately go back to your camp and inform Agasias to immediately bring the troops.” He once more ordered Xenophon.
Xenophon responded and turned and left, Davos immediately followed him and asked Xenophon who that man is, and now knew that he is the adjutant of Clearchus, Timasion.
Clearchus’ troops slowly gathered, the soldiers were wearing their armor while they slowly came out of their tents, and they were still chatting with each other. Obviously, thy did not know the danger they were facing, Timasion was so anxious that he beat and scolded them again till he managed to gather around 500 soldiers.
While Davos and Xenophon had not yet left Clearchus’ camp, the officers from the other camps have arrived with a small number of soldiers, they were: Cleanor of Agias camp, Xanthicles of Socrates camp, Agasias of Proxenus…while Menon’s camp had the largest number of people, including his adjutant Philesius, the captains Antonios and Kapus, of course Hielos’ squad were also among the soldiers. Their arrival made Davos relieved.
After the meeting, some of the officers still doesn’t know what happened and several captains headed by Antonios of Menon’s camp asked Davos to tell them what happened, because he had witnessed the whole thing.
Some of the officers headed by Timasion were surprised at how Davos, who was just an ordinary young soldier, had been greatly respected by the officers of Menon’s camp.
The others looked at Davos curiously, because some of the soldiers who went back started to preach without restraint, saying Davos of Menon’s camp was favored by the gods and had tried to prevent Clearchus and the others from going to the Persian camp, but the leaders did not listen to his “Oracle” which resulted to this disaster. And it soon became known to everyone.
Therefore, Davos facing the complex gazes of everyone, had calmly go through what had happened and briefly explain it.
The officers of each camp quickly reached an agreement, to immediately drive out the Persian cavalry in front of the camp so that the soldiers outside can smoothly come back.
The soldiers began to line up and Davos returned to Hielos team. At this time, Antonios who was in front of the formation shouted, “Davos, come to the front!”
Davos was stunned.
Then, Kapus also began to shout.
“Go.” Hielos gave him a nudge of encouragement, and his teammates looked at him excitedly.
Davos understood. His heart beat faster, but he did not refuse, and with great effort, he pushed forward and the soldiers took the initiative to open a way for him.
“Your position is here.” Antonios pulled him to the left side of Philesius – this is the front of Menon’s troops and seriously said to him, “We might have to negotiate with the Persians later, so we will need your guidance!”
Antonios once more said to Philesius, “Phily, take care of him for us!”
Philesius answered without hesitation, “Don’t worry about it!”
For the first time, when standing in the position of the phalanx commander, Davos was both excited and somewhat forced, he then turned his head and looked at Philesius, who was also looking at him and giving him a gentle smile.
Previously, Davos had had several contacts with Philesius, and learned something about him through Antonios and the others. Davos had a preliminary impression of Philesius, this 45-year-old Thessalian is a good old man who knew military affairs well and doesn’t like to fight for fame and wealth. If you think about it, you can see that Menon, who has a strong desire to control things, will certainly not choose an equally ambitious person as his adjutant, due to how he often goes out to meet Persian dignitaries in order to accept some mercenary tasks, and the affairs in the camp must be presided over and must be handled by someone for a long time, there is also the danger that the soldiers will only recognize the adjutant and not him, therefore, he carefully chose the good-tempered Philesius as his adjutant. At this time, it was without a doubt that Davos had it easy, because Philesius had no objection to a young man standing in the position of a commander, and his attitude was very friendly.
The Greek mercenaries in front of the camp had about 700 hoplites and 200 peltast. The hoplites was in front and the peltast at the rear and with the sound of a bugle, the formation began to move forward slowly. The Persian cavalry didn’t come up, but they instead retreated and the stifling sound started to fade and the dust in front was gradually dissipating. Every now and then, dusty Greek soldiers ran back to the camp, but there were a lot more corpses of their comrades on the ground, their grief and fear was increasing.
“The enemy is coming.” Philesius quietly said.
They saw a Persian troops appearing ahead and slowly approached them. Davos was nervous and excited, was his first battle about to begin?
When the two armies were about 200 meters apart, a group of cavalry rushed out from the opposite side and came to the front of the Greek army, and shouted it in Greek, “The Greeks on the opposite side listen, let your officers and the captains come up and listened to the decree of the king!”
There was a commotion in the Greek phalanx, and the officers whispered to each other, but none of them came forward. The impression of the soldiers who had just been attacked was too deep, and the previous violations of the Persians were alarming.
The Persians shouted again and the Greek army was still calm.
At this moment, a man stepped out of the mercenary troops, armed with a copper shield and a spear, and slowly walk forward without hesitation.
“Who is that?! He is courageous!!”
“That is the Davos from our camp! He is favored by Hades!”
“Is that true?”
“Oh, he is so young!!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The soldiers were curiously talking about him, while the officers were still hesitating, Philesius caught up to him. He promised Antonios that he would keep Davos safe. Then Xenophon also stepped out of the troops, how could he fall behind if Davos, who was younger, dared to move forward.
“What a mess!” Timasion scolded in order to hide his embarrassment and move forward. Subsequently, more than a dozen officers such as Xanthicles, Cleanor and Agasias also move forward one after another.
Davos did so not because he was afraid of the Persian cavalry’s attack, but because he knew that when the mercenaries was in great trouble and the soldiers were panicking, only those who dared to take a risk and take the responsibility could be supported by the soldiers and might even forget that the was young and inexperienced.
He walked unhurriedly, and was always taking a glimpse at both sides, and when he saw that the other officers were catching up, he was slightly relieved. Only then did he found that the hand that was holding the spear was full of sweat.