Chapter 4: Davos

Chapter 4: Davos

“Yes, your highness!” Tissaphernes couldn’t help but look at Masabates and thought, ‘No wonder this guy looks ugly, if the queen mother Parysatis¹ knew that her most beloved son was beheaded and his hands got cut off, then she absolutely won’t give up.’

“Tissaphernes, do you think the Greeks will surrender?”

“Your highness!… With my knowledge of the Greek mercenary’s main leaders, I’m afraid…it would be hard. However, there may be a small number of people that is willing to obey your majesty’s will!” Tissaphernes said cautiously.

“It’s also good to cause internal strife among them.” Artaxerxes rubbed his finger across his jaw. Yesterday, the rapid impact of the Greek hoplite caused him to have a lingering fear, “…If they do not want to surrender, then they must be… expelled. This rebellion has already killed too many Persians! Don’t let these rude and savage Greeks continue plundering our property on my land! and killing my people!” Artaxerxes sighed. He has a gentle nature and does not like to argue with others. Otherwise, he would not tolerate Cyrus the Younger until now, which led to this great chaos. Even when Cyrus the Younger had started his army, he still hesitated and wanted to retreat eastward. If it had not been for his ministers’ vigorous dissuasion and full support, yesterday’s battle would not even have happened.

“Your highness, you love the empire’s people like your own children! It is a great joy for the empire to have such a kind monarch as you!” Tissaphernes’ words came from his heart. In fact, this character of Artaxerxes has won the support of the vast majority of ministers and nobles, which made Cyrus the Younger’s rebellion have no major turmoil in the core area of the empire.

“Your highness, this one has an idea!… It’s better to drive the Greeks to the north…” Tissaphernes said.

Artaxerxes pondered about it as he knew that Tisaphenes did not want the Greeks to once more trample on his jurisdiction – Asia Minor.

“Northward…” His eyes lit up, and he thought of the unyielding and unruly mountain tribes, such as the Carducians.

‘Have them fight those barbarians!’ He thought, with a smile on his lips.

“You are entirely responsible for this matter! I await your good news in Persepolis!” After saying that, he couldn’t wait to go home due to the news yesterday that another riot had occurred in eastern Persepolis. So he must return to the capital city as soon as possible. Moreover, he also began to miss his queen Stateira.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Early in the morning, mist covered the Cunaxa area, and the entire Greek military camp was quiet as most people were still asleep.

Davos stepped out of the tent and looked curiously at the strange place.

Yes, he is no longer Davos himself; his soul is from 21st century China. As a government civil servant, he suffered for more than ten years before being promoted to director of the city’s high-tech development zone. His friends arranged a feast to celebrate his promotion, causing him to be very drunk. But when he woke up, he found himself in a strange place and became someone else.

He had pinched his thighs several times just to prove that he was dreaming, and to this day, his thighs still hurt.

After a long night of adaptation and his strong adaptability, he no longer wondered why he was here. Back when he joined the government office, he was first in the civil service examination in the whole city. Yet, he was sent to a remote and impoverished mountain area as a village official and stayed there for several years. Still, he persevered and won the favour of the county leaders with excellent performance, and he was recalled to take an important task.

…just that his parents and his girlfriend, who he is about to marry…now they are separated by time and space, and they won’t meet again…he took a long breath and tried to dispel away his sadness.

He slowly walked a short distance to calm his mood a bit. After he wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes and warned himself, ‘Now that I had arrived at a new world, let’s live tenaciously.’

According to the memory of this body, he knew that “he” was a Thessalian. Two years ago, at the age of 17, he went out to work as a mercenary with his village friends to earn money because of their livelihood. A year ago, Macedonia and Thessaly clashed with the Macedonian cavalry attacking his hometown, killing his parents and capturing his relatives; now, he’s alone. Currently, he was following the mercenary leader Meno to fight for Prince Cyrus the Younger of Persia.

Last night, his companions thought he was asleep, but in fact, he had been listening to their conversation, which allowed him to learn more about the situation. As a promising young man of the 21st century, he barely counts as an impatient youth. And when he was a village official, he spent most of his time surfing the net in order to survive the long lonely night on some military forums, and it had almost become his sideline. Thus he came to know a lot about history and military knowledge, so he knows that he may have been in a period after the Peloponnesian War.

As for the Greek mercenaries who helped the Persian prince usurp the throne, which part of Western history is involved? As someone whose career does not relate to history, he really can’t think of it as the requirements are too high. Thus it was not until someone said the phrase “We are the ten thousand Greek infantry”, which evoked his memory that was hidden.

Those forums once advocated that one must read some books in order to understand the ancient history of the west. And one of the books listed in the list is 《Anabasis²》, which aroused his curiosity, ‘Did the ancient west also have a long march?’ Because the author happens to be a famous historical person he knew, he conveniently searched the net. Only then did he find out that it originated from the famous ancient western historical event “Retreat of the Tens Thousand Greeks³”.

As Davos vaguely remembered that the rebellious prince died in the incident due to his rashness, he ended up blurting it out in a moment of urgency. But he did not think that the other had more or less hoped for Cyrus the Younger to be victorious and everyone’s desire to make a fortune together, so they completely could not accept his guess.

Faced with the questioning one after another, he did not want to have a conflict with his companions after he first arrived and perhaps he also had a slight fantasy in his heart, ‘maybe this isn’t that historical event.’ So he kept quiet.

As a result, everyone was left unhappy. That night, he didn’t sleep well as the strange environment and the fear of the future made him toss and turn, giving him a hard time falling asleep.

Early the following day, he walked out of the tent and faced this strange new world for the first time. He saw tents one after another, which seemed endless at a glance.

Breathing the damp and fresh air, he summoned up the courage to move forward. Occasionally, he saw some people coming out of the tent and would come to greet him, so he responded with a smile. While the warriors who knew he was wounded will ask him about his injury with concern, he will stop to express his gratitude and take the opportunity to chat a few words to get some information from the others. Obviously, it is not because he is an important person that people will treat him kindly; it is because the mercenaries under Meno, some of whom are Thessalians, and many of them even fought side by side with him for more than two years, and they are familiar with each other. And as he continued his walk, the strangeness that he felt gradually dissipated.

Not far came the neighs of the horses and the sheep’s baa, attracting him to go forward. In the memory of Davos, this vast area enclosed by wooden fences and located in the centre of their military camp was the mercenary camp led by Meno. Besides the numerous packed horses and mules, there are also some cattle and sheep that they looted along the way and a batch of food distributed to Meno by Cyrus the Younger. In addition, there are merchants stationed inside, and when passing through the big cities, there will even be nearby people coming here to earn money.

But when he came to the entrance, a guard with spears stopped him.

“No one is allowed to enter without Meno’s orders!” A fatty angrily shouted behind the guard.

Davos looked at him and turned around as he didn’t want to get into trouble. Behind him, he could hear the fatty reprimand the guards, “The next time someone comes, you have to be more fierce. Otherwise, you would not suppress the thieves! From last night till now, we have already lost five sheep. So before Meno could punish me, I will punish you first!”

‘It seems that the mercenary has a serious shortage of food!’ He doesn’t know how much food the Persian troops looted yesterday, so he began thinking about it while walking. Before he knew it, a simple wall with branches and sticks loosely inserted in the soil blocked his progress. Although there were still dense tents ahead, he realised that they were the camps of the other mercenary groups.

By this time, the sun had risen to a high altitude and the dense for gradually dispersed, allowing him to see far away. With the high and vast sky, Davos indulged in the refreshing wind for a while… Listening to his companions, the city ahead should be Babylon and not far away is the Euphrates River: one is the capital of one of the four ancient civilisations, the legendary Hanging Garden⁴ that makes one yearn, and the other is the famous mother river of Mesopotamia. But he doesn’t know if he will have the chance to see it.

However, the sudden seething camp alarmed him. A feeling of uneasiness surged into his mind, and he returned quickly.

At this time, the soldiers rushed out of the tent one after another and began talking with each other with a nervous and uneasy look. And the words that came into his ears were converted into four words: Cyrus the Younger died!

His heart sank: This is really the great Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks! Next, they were going to spend the next few days running!

1. Parysatis – the mother of the Persian king Artaxerxes II, Cyrus the Younger, Ostanes and Oxathres.

2. Anabasis – the book Xenophon wrote about their journey through Persia and it is also known as The March of the Ten Thousand.

3. The Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks – the event after Cyrus the Younger died and the Greeks have to retreat back to Greece.

4. Hanging Garden – one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World as listed by Hellenic culture, described as a remarkable feat of engineering with an ascending series of tiered gardens containing a wide variety of trees, shrubs, and vines, resembling a large green mountain constructed of mud bricks, and said to have been built in the ancient city of Babylon.