Four-Armed Divine Emperor

The night attack was a great success. Perhaps the Persians did not expect that the Greeks, who were far fewer in number than themselves, would dare to take the initiative to attack. With Spartan warriors as the main force, a total of 2,000 troops were dispatched for the night attack. They advanced stealthily and waited until they were close before suddenly launching an attack, setting fires, and shouting various false orders in Greek and Persian that our army was defeated and Xerxes was dead, catching the Persian army off guard. After days of fighting, the Persian soldiers were highly nervous. In addition, they were suddenly awakened from their dreams and heard all kinds of rumors, which triggered a chain reaction. Many soldiers fell into madness and killed anyone they saw without distinguishing between friend and foe. Flames shot into the sky and shouts of killing shook the earth. The Greeks also specially assembled a "cavalry" unit for this attack. There were only a hundred riders, but they brought hundreds of animals. After the success of the frontal night attack, they set fire to the animals' tails from the side of the battle line, causing them to charge into the Persian camp. The night attack troops who received the signal retreated back to the city. Al's crude imitation of the "fiery bull formation" of the Persian War also caused considerable chaos to the Persians.

By the time the sun rose at dawn, the Persian garrison camp outside the city was in a mess, like a woman who had been defeated and bullied by the enemy.

In order to irritate Xerxes I as much as possible and make this self-important "God-King" fight to the death with the Greeks, Al also asked the Greeks to do many things to humiliate and attack Xerxes I, such as cutting gold coins with his portrait in half and throwing them around, or making sheepskin "leaflets" with words such as "Xerxes the Prostitute" and "Xerxes the Usurper" written in Persian.

All this undoubtedly made Xerxes, who called himself the God-King, so angry that he swore that he would never return until Athens was conquered and the whole city was slaughtered. The generals who had already realized that the Greeks were very powerful all looked gloomy. After Xerxes killed three generals who tried to speak up in a rage, no one dared to speak out on the matter anymore. At the emperor's request, he immediately reorganized the army, which had not yet fully recovered from the chaos, and prepared to continue the attack on Athens.

Artemisia, the only one who had the ability and prestige to dissuade Xerxes and would not be killed, was not in Xerxes' camp at the time, but in the Persian Empire's fleet.

She is the commander-in-chief of the navy.

Chapter 113: Great Victory in the Naval Battle

Because Artemisia was away, Xerxes I was a dictator and forced the demoralized Persian army to besiege Athens. However, after seven days, apart from incurring countless casualties on his own side, the best achievement was to capture a section of the city wall.

However, the Greek coalition forces had made preparations. During this period, they built high platforms, watchtowers, and dug trenches in the city for defense. Soon after the Persians broke through the city walls, they were pushed back due to insufficient support.

After a series of victories, the Greek side's morale was at a high level. A few setbacks only made them more determined to fight and could not shake their fighting spirit at all.

On the other hand, the Persian side fought a bloody battle with a powerful enemy but made no progress. The knife of Xerxes I was always hanging over their heads. The army was already old and tired, and was only supported by the belief that "we are strong and the enemy is weak, we are many and the enemy is few".

Although Xerxes was cruel, he was not a brainless fool. He was very harsh in punishing generals who performed poorly in battle, but he also often rewarded his subordinates who performed outstandingly. He also sent out riders to plunder villages and kidnap people to bring them to the army for the soldiers' enjoyment.

He knew that the chances of defeating tens of thousands of Greeks by frontal assault and capturing Athens were not high. Even if he could win, it would be a miserable victory. Athens was only one of the major states in Greece. Besides Athens, there were Sparta, Thebes, and Corinth.

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, Thebes... and other city-states. Even if the coalition forces in Athens were completely wiped out and the Greek forces were severely damaged, they still should not be underestimated.

So after venting his anger again, and after a few days of unfavorable battle reports, Xerxes finally "calmed down" a little, even though the price of his "anger" this time was the lives of tens of thousands of Persian soldiers.

He placed his hopes for a turnaround in the war on the naval fleet led by Artemisia.

In Xerxes' view, naval battles were no different from land battles. The Greeks had walls, fortresses, and passes to rely on, and the ocean was vast, so they had to go straight ahead and compete in numbers and bravery.

So, the naval battle is 800 to 400, and the advantage is on my side!

However, the facts were obviously not as he expected.

After receiving instructions from El, Themistocles gave full play to his command ability. With El's support, his authority in the coalition fleet was unquestionable. The situation in history where the fleets of other city-states felt that the situation was unfavorable to them and wanted to disband and retreat would not happen again. Moreover, Athens had not been lost yet.

When the news of the advantage in the land war was transmitted through express to the Greek fleet under the command of Themistocles, which was fighting the enemy, the morale of the navy was also boosted. Because as long as the land was not lost, their rear was guaranteed and they could devote themselves to fighting the enemy.

The Persian army was not united, and after repeated pulling, testing, and harassment, it was finally unable to continue the stalemate with the Greek fleet.

The royal decree of Xerxes I was delivered to the female villain of the play and the beautiful female general Artemisia through the messenger. The "God King" asked in a stern tone why the fleet with twice the strength of the enemy could not achieve a decisive victory?

As long as the Persian navy does not win a great victory, it will not be able to completely blockade Athens.

Xerxes I, who had failed to gain advantage in the frontal siege, urgently needed the fleet to join and open up a coastal battlefield to reverse the setback he suffered under the city of Athens, and Artemisia naturally had no choice but to follow the advice of the "God King".

She was not stupid, and she had realized that as time went on, her subordinates were becoming increasingly disorganized and the morale of the fleet was declining.

The Persians were not good at naval battles, and floating on the boat for a long time was a test both physically and mentally.

As for the fleets of the vassal states, they were conscripted by Persia to go on the expedition, and their fighting spirit was not high to begin with. The longer the battle dragged on, the more war-weary they would become.

Chapter 106: This is Sparta (V) (7)

So she had no choice but to take the initiative.

Just like in the movie, she sent someone to invite Demistocles to meet, trying to get the coalition leader to defect.

However, Demistocles received an explanation from Ayr:

"The enemy commander, that woman named Artemisia, is very important. Try to bring her back to me safely. If you can't bring her back, don't kill her. If possible, put her back into the Persian army."

Artemisia tried to persuade him, but in Themistocles' eyes, the woman in front of him was the one the angel wanted, so he was not moved at all.

According to Al's explanation, Themistocles did not go to the enemy fleet alone as in the movie. This behavior seemed to Al to be pure madness. The screenwriter described the cruelty and coldness of the Persians, how Artemisia hated the Greeks, and how beautiful she was like a fairy but had a heart of a vicious snake, but here he "kept his promise" to the male protagonist who deceived him into having sex with her, the biggest threat to the enemy, and returned in one piece.

If they had been ruthless enough to kill Themistocles at that time, Greece would have been doomed without the glorious victory of Salamis.

So the two sides met by each sending a boat with only two rowing attendants to meet on an island.

In order not to anger the other party, Themistocles lied that he liked men. In the end, Artemisia had to return empty-handed. Later, she launched a general attack on the Greek fleet.

However, all this was planned by Ayer and Demistocles.

They seized upon the enemy's eagerness to fight and advance, and first pretended to be defeated and retreated to a fjord where an ambush had been set.

Because Athens was not lost, the Attica region where Athens was located naturally belonged to the coalition's defense front line, so there was no need to retreat. Therefore, the naval battle that took place in the strait between Salamis Island and Attica in history could not continue to occur in the same place. The ambush point chosen by Themistocles for the decisive battle was a fjord in southern Attica. There was a port built here, which served as a supply base for the Greek fleet. There were many small islands and reefs around it, which was not conducive to the deployment of a large fleet, and could effectively limit the Persian advantage in ship size and quantity.

The coalition vanguard was defeated and retreated into this area. The Persian fleet detected the situation on the shore and thought that the enemy wanted to escape to the base and rely on the protection of the port to avoid the attack. So, under the order of Artemisia, the Persian fleet gave a full pursuit. This time, Themistocles did not use the historical strategy of feigning surrender, because the situation was completely different. At that time, he was a "man who had lost his city-state". The power gap between Persia and Greece was huge. His "surrender" was reasonable and acceptable. But at this time, the Athenian coalition was still fighting and had a considerable advantage. He was a highly respected naval commander, and was highly regarded by the "angel". It was unacceptable for him to surrender suddenly. Artemisia could not believe it.

Soon, the Persians entered this sea area, but it was also a death trap set for them by the Greek fleet.

Themistocles gave a speech to the fleet to mobilize morale. The Greek fleet retreated, rowed backwards, and deliberately disrupted the formation, pretending to be in a panic to escape.

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Waiting for the moment to strike back.

In order to gain credit, the Persians rushed forward to pursue the enemy because of the Persian generous rewards and severe punishments. However, their organization was far inferior to that of the Greek fleet, which was able to maintain order in chaos and set up a maze. Once they started chasing, they lost unified orders and vigilance, and instead lost their composure. When they reached narrow places, their hulls even collided with each other, and the oars slapped against each other.

After the enemy had chased for a long distance and the main force of the fleet had almost entered the fjord, the Greek fleet, which was almost at the point of no return, stopped. This was because the hydrological and meteorological conditions had changed at this time. The generals and priests (it was Al's suggestion to send clergymen to the ship to boost morale) stood up one after another and delivered various passionate speeches, which mobilized the morale of the entire army and launched a counterattack while the enemy was in chaos.

Everything is like a replica of the original "history".

The first to fight against the Greeks were the Phoenician fleet, which was good at naval warfare. They were a nation good at business and navigation, and after being conquered by the Persians, they served them.

However, under the orders of the Persian commanders, the Phoenician fleet rushed too fast and became disconnected from the main force. Although the Phoenicians were excellent sailors, they could not withstand the Persians whose captains and officers were not good at naval warfare.

As soon as the battle started, the Phoenician fleet was defeated by the aggressive Greek coalition forces. The Greeks were good at javelins, which were more threatening than the Persian arrows in close combat. In addition, they were well versed in water and had efficient command. The defeated Phoenician fleet chose to retreat. However, this move further hindered the Persian fleet that was surging from the rear, causing its formation to be in chaos before it even engaged the enemy. Some Persian warships were even drowsy and could no longer distinguish between friend and foe. When they saw the foreigners and Greek faces (Ionians) on the ships next to them, they thought they were enemies, so they launched an attack and started internal fighting.

The Greek fleet pursued the victory, maintaining as complete a formation as possible, like a ferocious shark, biting only a part of the Persian fleet each time and "taking it" into its bloody mouth. Then, attacks from all directions defeated it in an instant, turning it into debris and remains floating on the sea. A small number of remnants fled backwards in panic and broke into their own formation, making their own chaos even worse.

The battle lasted from early morning to noon. The Persian fleet was already doomed to defeat. Artemisia tried her best to maintain the morale of the army, but a sudden accident completely destroyed her efforts:

Queen Gorgo leads the Spartan fleet to support!

After the death of King Leonidas, the queen was heartbroken. She took the king's remains back to her hometown for burial and brought back El's decree, asking the Spartans to do their best to organize a fleet and form an alliance to march east to support Athens.

Sparta pieced together a hundred and sixty warships, which, under the command of Demistocles, were hidden outside and used as a surprise force.

This is the time for them to show their power.

This fjord is a narrow-bottomed and wide-middle terrain. The Spartans came with a burning desire for revenge. In addition, the Persian fleet's vanguard was defeated, the center army was unstable, and they had lost morale. They quickly attacked and dispersed the Persian ships guarding the fjord and blocked the exit.

At this point, the overall situation has been decided.

After receiving a signal from Themistocles, they intentionally left one or two small gaps to allow the ships that were determined to escape to leave. In this way, the Persian fleet, whose chance of escape was not completely blocked, would only care about their own escape and would not be willing to fight the enemy to the death. In order to fight for the only escape route, they would even fight against friendly forces, showing a courage that was even more determined than when they fought against the Greeks.

Artemisia could not accept such a defeat, so she led her ships in a counterattack, trying to defeat the Greek fleet in front of her and turn the tide of the battle.

However, after receiving Elti's advice, Themistocles, who focused his "attention" on this woman, commanded quickly and immediately arranged thirty Athenian warships to restrain the Persian flagship. He adopted the tactic of first eroding its external forces and then restricting its main body. He first dealt with the small boats following the flagship, and then launched a full-scale attack on this huge guy that no other warship in the whole field could compare with.

Twelve warships rammed into Artemisia's ship at once, inserting their rams into the hull of the ship, and then the boarding battle began.

Even though the Persian female commander was powerful and her followers were also very skilled, how could she turn the tide when facing the Greek heavy infantry who were already on the verge of victory?

Soon they were defeated step by step.

Artemisia intended to jump into the sea, but was caught in a fishing net. Taking advantage of her female identity, she approached Queen Gorgo and tried to kidnap her. The angry Spartan woman twisted her arm, but Themistocles reminded her in time that she was the one El wanted, so she did not die directly at the hands of the queen's guards.

A naval battle ended with an epic victory for the Greek coalition.

According to statistics, the coalition forces had a total of 567 ships, of which 49 were lost. The Persian side had 844 warships, of which 323 were captured. Due to the narrow terrain, they had no way to escape, and when they saw that the situation was not good, they could only escape.

More than 200 ships were lost, and less than a quarter of them escaped. This was an unprecedented and glorious victory.

Chapter 114: The Only Chance

In order to prepare for subsequent plans, when luring the Persians into a decisive battle, Themistocles deliberately set the battlefield far to the southeast of Athens. This was so that after the war, the Persian warships would subconsciously choose to flee eastward back to Asia Minor, preventing Xerxes from receiving support and notification from the returning navy.

And he immediately after the great victory

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The soldiers celebrated their victory and, following Al's instructions, quickly reorganized their fleet and headed north to cut off the Persian army's retreat.

After Xerxes I advanced by both sea and land, broke through the Thermopylae Pass and approached the Attica Peninsula, he established military bases on the Evia Peninsula and on the Marathon Plain, the site of the Battle of Marathon northeast of Athens, to be responsible for logistics transit and ship docking.

This fjord naval battle, also known as the Battle of Delos because it was close to the island of Delos, involved the deployment of the main force of the Persian fleet. The Persians had absolute initiative on both land and sea, so they were not afraid of losing their rear.

Because at that time, the Greek region, the Thessalian Plain where Larissa is located, and the central Greece where the famous Pan-Hellenic sanctuary of Delphi Oracle is located were all "covered" by the Persian forces. In the last war, these areas were conquered by Darius. When Xerxes I came this time, even though these areas were not directly occupied by the Persians, they were still worried. Before the war was decided, they would never dare to take the initiative to attack and provoke a powerful enemy.

Thebes had an ambiguous relationship with the Persians. They became friends with the Persians during the first invasion. Therefore, they remained neutral in this war. If the coalition failed, they would most likely side with Persia.

Therefore, what stood in the way of the Persians were actually half of the Attica region headed by Athens and the Peloponnese Peninsula headed by Sparta in the south. Naturally, they did not have to worry about their own retreat.

However, this "security" undoubtedly no longer exists after the fleet is destroyed.

The Greek coalition won a decisive victory. There is no doubt that the Battle of Delos almost completely destroyed Xerxes' fleet, compared to the historical records where he only lost about two hundred ships.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that in this situation, the "200,000 Persian troops" besieging Athens had their retreat cut off. They used the fleet as a bridge and the fleet as a road to quickly advance into the heart of Greece and arrive at the gates of Athens. But now their way had been blocked.

Chapter 106: This is Sparta (V) (8)

For these 200,000 soldiers, just eating, drinking, defecating and urinating will become a problem in the future!

Themistocles led the victorious coalition fleet, reported the victory to Athens, and headed north at full speed to recapture the island of Evia. At the same time, he attacked the Persian base on the plains of Marathon. On the other hand, he sent part of his main force to the east, pretending to pursue the defeated army, and spread the news to Asia Minor that "the Persian fleet was completely wiped out, and the Persian army of Xerxes I was out of ammunition and food, and would be crushed soon!", in order to instigate and provoke an anti-Persian uprising in the local city-states.

The power struggle within the Persian court was brutal.

Al could predict that when the news of the demise of Xerxes I and his expeditionary army reached back from Greece, a civil war would likely break out in the Persian Empire's homeland.

For an emperor, nothing could be more terrifying than the possibility that his imperial power would be unstable and usurped by others.

In this situation, Xerxes could either withdraw his troops hastily or...

A last-ditch fight.

After all, without ships, Xerxes would not have been able to drag these hundreds of thousands of people north and then east, all the way to Byzantium and then cross the Bosphorus to return to Persia's territory in Asia.

Historically, Xerxes chose to withdraw his troops because he had already occupied Athens. The Persians were defeated in the Battle of Salamis, but they only lost two hundred warships, and their main force was still intact. Whether on land or at sea, the threat faced by the Persians existed, but it was not very big. At least if they wanted to withdraw, no Greek general, not even Themistocles, who had won the war and whose prestige was growing, dared to propose such a crazy idea as pursuing the Persians and annihilating their army.

Now, whether out of a gambler's mentality or an army in desperate situation, their only hope is to move forward, break Athens, win on land, conquer the Attica Peninsula to sweep away the supplies that support them, and then look for an opportunity to return east, such as by withdrawing troops and negotiating in exchange for the Greek side opening up the waterway for them to leave.

But all this was also part of Al's plan.

Put yourself in his shoes. If he were in this position, all he could do was move forward and take another gamble—he couldn't swim across the Aegean Sea, could he?

There is no other way.

But the Greeks reacted much faster than the Persians.

When the news that Themistocles' fleet was almost defeated in the naval battle, the fleet was completely destroyed and Artemisia was captured by the enemy reached Xerxes' army, they had already recaptured the island of Euboea.

The Greeks on the island already hated the Persian invaders. With the power of Themistocles and the coalition forces’ great victory, and the decree of El, the “angel” who was now famous throughout Greece, they could naturally conquer the island with just one order.

In this way, the entire Persian army was basically blocked in the Marathon Plain on the island of Athens, and even basically lost control of the coastline.

In order to resolve the Persian threat as quickly as possible, Themistocles also planned an operation in which he used more than a dozen small boats loaded with incendiary materials to attack several major Persian ports in Marathon at night and set fire to the supplies piled up there.

All this made the Persians who knew the news feel as if the sky was falling and the earth was collapsing. Some people wailed that the power of Angora had grown, and that the kind Ahura did not protect them and was executed by Xerxes.

Zoroastrianism, also known as Zoroastrianism and Zoroastrianism, was the largest religious belief in the Persian Empire at that time. Ahura Mazda, as the bright side of the dualism of good and evil, was given exclusive supremacy and his status continued to strengthen. But who established all this?

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Darius I, father of Xerxes I.

Xerxes called himself the "God King" not because he was arrogant, but because he called himself the messenger and incarnation of Ahura Mazda. The will of God was declared to the world through the emperor, so the emperor was naturally equivalent to a god.

This argument has undoubtedly directly shaken Xerxes' authority. However, blindly suppressing or, in other words, in such a desperate situation, harsh laws and punishments can no longer frighten people as much as before.

It is difficult for a failed general or emperor to gain the continued support of his subordinates. Respect or fear comes from his power and prestige. Without a foundation, it is just a castle in the air.

Xerxes had no other choice. There were only two options before him: continue attacking or retreat.

But there is no doubt that the path of retreat will only lead to failure.

The sea route was blocked, and the supplies wouldn't last long. Even if he abandoned his army and traveled light, he would have to consider whether he could successfully complete such a long circuit with only a few hundred men. If he brought a large army, it would be even simpler. Before he could even get halfway, the hungry and thirsty soldiers would mutiny and overthrow him...

At this point, the only option is to take another gamble.

The Persian army had to gamble that it could capture Athens before running out of ammunition and food, and seize this city that was vital to Greece. It had to seize the strategic reserves of the coalition forces, and then the Persians would be qualified to proceed to the next step, whether it was to negotiate a withdrawal or to continue southward to seize the Peloponnese Peninsula based in Athens.

Unfortunately, Al will not give Xerxes this opportunity.