Chapter 45: Spring Breeze
Herpus was focused on treating the patients and had no time to manage the medical camp and maintain order. What’s more, he isn’t good at management and prefer to study medicine. So when everything is working smoothly, Davos had to leave Hielos behind to take charge of the medical camp for the time being. He is wasted being the head of a small medical camp and he can only go find him a suitable position in the future. However, as a trusted subordinate of Davos, Hielos who work steadily and was clever, therefore Davos intends to train him into his powerful arm.
When Davos returned to his quarter, it was close to dusk.
When he finally have spare time, he began to look back on today’s battle in order to analyze his problems in commanding the battle, and to find a better way do deal with it. At the same time, he compared it with the military knowledge he knew in his previous life, this is the homework he must do before he goes to bed every day, and it is also the method he came up with in order to improve his military commanding ability more quickly. Some people engage in war all their lives and has always been a famous generals, others are young enough to turn war into art, but the most important thing is their attitude towards war.
The last battle gave Davos an insight into the limitations of terrain and space on the infantry in the cold weapon era, the trampling caused by fear, and the damage to a dense formation! Today, he understand the inability of the archers in dealing with the hoplites.
What about throwing javelins at the hoplite? Davos thought that it will be more lethal than arrows, he once asked Matonis to throw a javelin into an abandoned armor and he could penetrate the heavy armor at a close range, as for the copper shield, he could also make a hole in it. Therefore, why didn’t Tissaphernes do that? The answer is obvious, he doesn’t have a javelin soldiers, while the Greek mercenaries have nearly 3,000 peltast, and they are mostly Thracians, they are the most powerful peltast in the Mediterranean, with a first-class javelin skill.
He also thought about the javelin[1] used by the Roman soldiers in the future, the shank is very thin and will bend when it struck the shield and it becomes a burden to the movement of the enemy, and they would need to throw away their shields thus effectively reducing the enemy’s defense. He even went on to imagine what would happen if Tissaphernes had such heavy infantry as well. When Davos thought about it, he felt that the Greeks only had one way and that is to surrender. Because even the Battle of Cannae in his previous life, Hannibal dared to use a thin arc front creatively in order to face the thick Roman army. The most important prerequisite was that his cavalry is much stronger than the Roman in order to defeat both wings and completely encircle them. At present, the Persian cavalry was dozens of times more than the Greeks…
Davos kept on thinking while writing down his experience on a papyrus with Chinese characters. This time, he stood in the perspective of Tissaphernes and thought about what the Persians would do next…
Then someone came in, “Leader Davos, there is someone looking for you outside.”
“Olivos, it’s you! Is your injury all right?!” Davos was surpised when he found that it was Olivos was the one standing in front of him, and made him not notice his strange expression.
“I’m okay, Herpus allowed me to return.” Olivos reluctantly explained that he had actually requested to leave on his own initiative. Herpus saw that he had no problem, and that today the medical camp had received too many wounded soldiers, so he let him go.
“Why are you standing guard? You have just recovered and you should rest more. What about Hielos?” Davos asked with concern, and as soon as he spoke, he remembered that he had left Hielos in the medical camp.
Olivos hurriedly went out and brought in the visitor.
The visitor was dressed in an elegant chiton, her head was covered with himation(i.e. a cloak)[2], and the loose linen clothes can hardly hide her graceful figure.
“Cheiristoya!” Davos blurted out.
The visitor stretched out her slender snow-white hand, lifted her himation and showed her beautiful face. She move graceful and bowed, “Leader Davos!”
Olivos winked and went out.
Davos remembered what Olivos said when he just got reborn, ‘Cheiristoya is as beautiful as Aphrodite’.
Cheiristoya saw Davos distracted, and guiltily said, “Leader Davos does not welcome me?”
“Your arrival makes me happy that made me forget what to say, and your beauty makes my mind unable to think!” Davos has a 19 year old body, while his thought is that of a 35 year old. There was a bit of teasing on his praise.
“Leader Davos, you really have a way with words!” Cheiristoya smiled and said, “Over the past few days, I heard everyone praising your achievements in the supply unit! Mithridates and Artaozus, as far as I know, are excellent generals of Cyrus the Younger and they lost to you, it was enough to dispel anyone’s doubts about your ability. I came to congratulate you, I am not sure if it’s too late?!”
“Your words are worth thousands of other people’s words!” Davos laughed, “You didn’t come just to congratulate me, right?”
“I have a request!” Cheiristoya looked at Davos, “You had said that ‘I can come to you if I have any needs.’”
“Of course! Of course! you can say it.”
“I want to go to your medical camp!” Christovia seriously said.
“What?” Davos thought he heard it wrongly, “Someone in the medical camp treated you badly?”
“Mersis is very kind to me.” Cheiristoya paused for a while, thinking about her words, “Everyone is busy with marching and fighting, I am the only one doing nothing… I’ve been to the medical camp several times, and I think I can do what the slaves do, and I can do it better than them!”
“Are you sure you want to go to the medical camp? In there, you will see terrible wounds and scarlet blood every day, you will touch the dirty body of the soldiers, comforting patients who went mad due to pain, and may even be harassed by them…”
Davos tried to persuade Cheiristoya to give up her thoughts, but she looked determined, “I am not afraid! In fact, you don’t know much about the wounded soldiers in your camp, they did not bully them, instead they were very grateful to these former female slaves…” Cheiristoya closed her eyes and seemed to recall what she had observed at that time.
Davos watched her, he feels like seeing a woman struggling to do something meaningful in the face of modern society in order to prove her existence.
“Okay, I approve.”
“Really?!” Cheiristoya opened her eyes in disbelief. The Greek city-states are very conservative towards female citizens. They are under the control of their father before marriage, husband after marriage, and sons when they are old. They have no freedom of their own(of course, common women are exceptions). Cheiristoya was insecure, fearful of doing nothing, being abandoned by the mercenaries, and envious of the respect that the female slaves in the medical camp received. Through contacts with Davos, she found that the young leader is different, and so she tried to request it, but she didn’t expect to get an approval so soon.
In fact, Davos doesn’t know much about the traditional customs of the Greeks. On the contrary, he has long been accustomed to the concept of equality between men and women in the modern society. Women are the majority in hospitals, he only opposed it at first due to him being worried that the beauty of Cheiristoya would cause trouble.
“Really!” Davos earnestly said.
Cheiristoya rushed to him with excitement, and he involuntarily stretched out his hands towards her back and embrace her, and smelled a fragrant scent. At that moment, heaven’s thunder set fire to the earth… (uhm something like the 2 develop their feelings rapidly, like a spark, or well something not suitable for children ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°))
“Olivos, why aren’t you standing on guard, and instead, eavesdropping on the tent?! This is a violation of military rules and you will be expelled from the camp!” Shouted Giorgris, who had come to change post.
“Shh!” Olivos made a silent gesture and mysteriously said in a low tone, “Come and listen, there’s a fierce war going on inside!”
“War situation?” Giorgris was slightly confused.
Olivos pulled him over. Immediately, they heard bloody moans and also heated panting coming from the tent…
“Davos’ spring is coming!” Olivos’ face was full of admiration, “This guy is blessed by gods, and actually took the most beautiful woman in our whole camp…”
Pilum – was a javelin commonly used by the Roman army in ancient times.
Chiton – The chiton was a simple tunic garment of lighter linen and usually pleated that was worn by both sexes and all ages.
Himation -The himation was a simple outer garment worn over the peplos or chiton.