Despite Davos being a novice in military affairs, he saw the main purpose of this formation was to prevent the Persians from raiding and protecting the supply unit, and to march on such a wide formation, the speed must not be fast and under the harassment of the Persians, they have no choice.
Several people gathered around to look at the rough sketches on the ground.
Timasion pointed to the two squares at the forefront and said, “Cheirisophus is a Spartan, and his soldiers are Lacedaemon[1]. They have rich combat experience and therefore, they should be the vanguards to open a path for the whole mercenary troops, I think everyone will be assured.”
There was no one who objected the proposal.
“Second…” Timasion thought about where his troops should be responsible.
“Second, I am the youngest and I am willing to be the rearguard of the whole mercenary troops!” Davos excitedly said.
Philesius was startled and thought, ‘In the end, Davos forgot what we previously have discussed and even took the initiative to offer to be the rearguard. He really is still young and inexperienced!’
Philesius did not dare to make any big movement in-front of everyone, and he had no choice but to give a warning glance at Davos.
However, he heard what Timasion said in surprise, “You…you want to be the rearguard?! No! No!” He repeatedly shook his head, “The rearguard is very important, and he must have rich experience in order to face all kinds of complicated situations. If you can’t properly deal with them, you will end up dragging down the whole mercenary troops, I think it’s still better to…have my camp to serve as the rearguard.”
Davos answered back as soon as Timasion finished talking, “Isn’t there another position for the rearguard? I am willing to work with you!”
“No!!” Timasion did not want to loudly reject, “Cleanor, come and join me in the rearguard!” He directly appointed his comrades who fought side by side with him.
Cleanor had a good relationship with Timasion and had no choice but to nod.
The candidate for the rearguard was quickly decided. Philesius still haven’t yet understand that Davos had deliberately set a trap to lure Timasion to the bait, he really wasn’t fit to be an adjutant.
The gully between the eyebrows of Cheirisophus became deeper, he did not appreciate the little tricks that Davos did, he even more hated how he knew that Timasion’s choice was correct, so he simply said to Davos, “Your camp is responsible for protecting the left wing.” Since the mercenaries are gonna march northward along the Tigris river, the left wing will mostly be close to the river bank and should encounter the least danger.
Davos saw the undisguised contempt in the gaze of Cheirisophus, and he clenched his fist secretly and nodded.
Then, Cheirisophus proposed to let Xanthicles to join him in the vanguard.
It was Hieronymus who was similarly unhappy, Cheirisophus took Agasias, the former adjutant in the camp of Proxenus, into consideration, but now the elected leader was replaced by a captain, Hieronymus, and he was the last to arrived, which indicates that there was a great controversy among the soldiers in his camp about who should be the leader, and to be on the safe side, they should let his camp, act as the right wing.
After the leaders finished the war council, it was time to hold the general assembly of the whole mercenary troops.
This wasn’t only a gathering to show the new leaders, but also a good opportunity to unify the thoughts of the soldiers. Therefore, Cheirisophus reminded everyone to speak more words of encouragement.
When he asked the leaders, his gaze was mostly fixed on Davos. He wasn’t confident about this young leader, it was a gathering of ten thousand people and most of them would not even be able speak in such a tense situation. In case Davos screwed up, this carefully arranged oath-swearing will turn into a farce!
So he suggested to Davos that Philesius, the adjutant, could deliver the speech for him.
But Davos insisted on doing it in person.
Cheirisophus appearance was very unsightly, but he couldn’t refuse to let Davos attend because he was the new leader unanimously elected by Menon’s camp which have 1,450 soldiers, accounting 1/9th of the entire mercenary troops. So he arranged Davos to be second, even if Davos did badly, there are still other leaders that will make up for it.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
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It was the end of August, in late summer, the weather in the afternoon was no longer so hot.
A wooden platform was erected in the center of Timasion’s Camp (formerly Clearchus’ camp), and the tents around it had been removed, a large open space has been vacated and are occupied by soldiers from various mercenary camps. They are either standing or sitting, chatting and complaining to each other…
The whole venue was crowded and noisy…
Under the escort of heavily armed soldiers, Cheirisophus squeezed a path through the dense crowd and came to the wooden platform.
Cheirisophus was the first to go onstage
There was a commotion among the soldiers.
Because Cheirisophus deliberate low profile, most ordinary soldiers did not know who he is, they were surprised to see a stranger appearing first on the stage, and so they ask the others of his name.
Around the wooden platform stood dozen of soldiers with loud voices who were responsible for repeating the words of the one speaking, so that thousands of soldiers could hear what they say.
Cheirisophus spoke, “Brothers from all over Greece, I am an ephor of Sparta, Cheirisophus!”
There was an uproar among the soldiers, after the soldiers on the wooden platform repeated what he had said, the shock in their hearts was even greater than when Davos heard about it. The Spartan warriors have fought one battle after another for centuries, subduing the Greeks of other city-states with their bravery and strength. Now, Sparta has become the hegemon of the Greek world, dominating the Mediterranean. How could they not get excited and thrilled when the ephor of Sparta was among the free people. The soldiers who had been terrified of their leaders’s death had suddenly have someone to rely on, their panicked face began to flushed red and began to show curiosities to focus on things beyond survival, ‘Why is an ephor of Sparta, who has a high position, be here?’
So when Cheirisophus asked them to be quiet, the soldiers stopped talking.
“Brothers, we are in a very bad situation right now! Not only did we lose our outstanding leaders, captains and soldiers who have been with us for a long time, but even our former allies Ariaeus and his men betrayed us! However, the more we are in such a critical situation, the more we need to invigorate our spirits as soon as possible, in order for us to bravely face the Persians who want to destroy us and to never give in. We need to defeat the enemy with our shield, spears, and our bravery and slaughter a path for ourselves to return to Greece! Zeus will be together with those who are brave!!” Spartan likes to be frighteningly concise, Cheirisophus had reminded everyone to say encouraging words, but he quickly ended his speech, just as he made the soldiers excited.
When Cheirisophus stepped down fron the stage and passed by Davos, he saw Davos was smiling at him and thought to himself, ‘Oh, it seems that this young leader isn’t nervous, but why did he made the messenger on stage, hold more than a dozen wooden sticks?’
Asistes also did not understand the purpose of Davos making him follow on stage while holding a stick, but when he stood on the stage, he could not think about it anymore, because there were a lot of people in all directions under the stage and it densely stretch to the distance… At this time, the noise he hear from his ears got much louder than when he was under the stage, as if the sea was stirring up a strong wind and waves, while he and Davos was just a lonely boat floating in the deep sea, and are in danger of capsizing at any time.
Asistes couldn’t stop his legs from trembling, he even felt that he might collapse at any time together with the similarly trembling wooden platform beneath his feet.
“Oh! Oh! Look! Who is this?!”
“A little kid who hasn’t grown hairs yet! This isn’t a place you are allowed to come! Get out of here and go home and drink your mama’s milk! HAHAHA…”
“Which camp have elected this new leader?! Are they insane?!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The laughter and doubts were overwhelming.
Asistes was shocked and even retreated a few steps, almost to the edge of the wooden platform. To his admiration, Davos stood firmly in the middle…
The leaders who weren’t on the platform felt slightly impatient, they were dissatisfied with Davos again, now that he was facing thousands of soldiers, but they are a group now.
Timasion complained, “I knew that this would happen, I shouldn’t have let him go on stage. This is simply hell!”
The others also agreed.
Xenophon immediately said, “Let the next leader to go up and quickly replace him.”
Cheirisophus has already regretted his previous decision and nodded his head in agreement.
[1] Lacedaemon – Sparta was known as Lacedaemon in the past. The city-state was named after their king, Lacedaemon, who then renamed it after his wife, Sparta.