Chapter 799 Scouting of Sissilpond Ridge (Part-1)
The general military doctrine of Thesos was that it was mass infantry upon mass infantry that decided the fate of any battle, while cavalry only played second fiddle, working to harass the opponent, protect the infantry's flanks, and chase down the fleeing enemy once the fight was over, thus inflicting massive casualties to these out of formation units and then rendering them unable to fight any subsequent battles.
But this line of thought was in much contrast to Alexander's own doctrine for he really believed in the opposite.
He believed that an infantry's only job was to pin down the enemy, while the heavy cavalry did all the heavy work, swinging around and charging, preferably at the enemy's exposed flanks, thus destroying them.
Now who was right in this you ask?
Well, it really depended on how you looked at it.
For both men's mindsets were a product of their time.
For Menes or rather Thesians, their doctrine came due to the geography and political state of Thesos- a patchwork city-states constantly in war with each other.
Due to their small size and generally the rough topography of the place, training infantry was far more convenient both economically and geographically.
Whereas cavalry, as mentioned earlier took a lot of money, time, and skill to master, as well as needing a robust supply network to keep them properly supplied, something that did not exist given the rough terrain and the decentralized nature of the place.
No single city-state was going to spend money out of its own pocket to build roads connecting to points all around Thesos.
At best it would do so with its close allies and major trading hubs.
But perhaps the biggest point against cavalry was that to utilize cavalry properly you needed sheer numbers- there needed to be a lot of them to be effective.
If you were going to bring cavalry to a battlefield just having one or two hundred horses was not going to cut it.
Then they would just be relegated to skirmishing and harassment, which was what horses were typically used as there.
But for horses to have a stand alone effect on the field, you needed to give at least a thousand.
And this last point was perhaps the biggest stickler for most of the city-states.
They were just too expensive given the limited technology of the time, as simply getting, training, and maintaining such a large number of horses would be enough to bankrupt many of them several times over.
Hence, making do with what they had, the warfare there focused on training their infantry, and over generations of this constant fighting and refinement, Thesos ended up with perhaps the world's best infantry at the time.
Ones who also learned to counter cavalry by simply pointing very long sticks at them.
And since the rough terrains meant Thesian generals could not simply swing around these fixed bristles of spears, proper tactics for using cavalry never developed there.
Knowing all, and given Tibias was the original starting point of Thesos and that they too followed that school of thought, Menes's move to the rough terrain of the ridge made very much sense.
Not only the enemy's greatest strength- his infantry would be neutralized, but also his own disadvantage- the cavalry was not too big a factor given it would not have been much use either way.
But if Alexander was here, he certainly would have chosen the exact opposite.
He would have made his legionary face the enemy head-on and then used the open flat banks to freely swing around the enemy's wing in a deep enveloping maneuver reminiscent of Alexander The Great's hammer and anvil tactic.
Or simply smashed through in a head-on charge reminiscent of medieval knights.
As to why he was so confident in that latter strategy, and not worry that his horses were going to get skewered by infantry holding long pikes?
Well, it was because as the reports read- Perseus was facing a massive manpower shortage and hence it was reasonable to assume his army would most likely made of scraped-together levies.
These untrained peasants would not hold their ground against a good cavalry charge, just like the European peasants could not.
But Alexander was not here, in charge of the army.
He was back in Thesalie, taking care of the political aspect of the conquest, for there were too many things for him to do there, the most pressing of which was keeping all the gathered nobles in check.
There were many who had been there for months and repeatedly started to ask for Alexander's permission to go back, citing reasons which were as numerous as they were varied.
'My son is sick.'
'We are running short on funds to stay in this city.'
'The lands need to be looked after.'
'My favorite horse's is dying.'
And at the end they all promised this- 'We will come back again the moment you call, Lord Pasha.'
But Alexander knew it would not be so easy.
It had taken him five months to get these men together and he was not going to wait another five months for them to reassemble.
So he denied anyone from leaving, but it also inadvertently meant he was denied from leaving the city.
Which was a real shame since Alexander wanted to personally be the one to take Tibias's capital.
So with his feet tied, Alexander decided to let his general Menes lead this time.
'It will be a good experience for them,' He even consoled himself, thinking it was time he learned to lead armies on their own.
After all, all great empire setters had competent generals under them, with perhaps the most famous being Genshin Khan's four dogs, which were General Jebe, Kublai (different than Kublai Khan), Jelme, and Subotai.
And Alexander wanted to emulate that for as competent as he was, he could be only in one place at a time and conduct only one battle.
Alexander did not want to be like Napoleon who was a one-man show.
Because as talented as the man he was not flawless as anyone who studied him would comment.
Many even posed that if the man had commanders as skilled as him, he might have won in Waterloo despite the odds stacked against him.
Alexander wanted to be able to able to conduct multiple campaigns simultaneously and for that, he needed great generals.
Thus through being mired by a host of inconveniences, Alexander decided to let Menes farm some experience this time.
As for the consequence of Menes losing, well where there was opportunity, there were bound to be also risks.
But Alexander consoled himself with the thought that even if the man lost in the worst-case scenario, Alexander at least would get to keep Thesalie.
And as long as he had that, the gate to Tibias would always remain open.
It was with that thought that Alexander sent his regards to the man, as the rematch between Perseus and Menes was soon to start.
"General! Our scouts have sent word. The enemy has camped right on the other side of the ridge.
By their estimate, there should be 40,000 men!"
This was the report an officer brought Menes around dusk.
"40,000!" And this was the shocked answer he got.
'According to Alexander, there should not be more than 20,000!' Hearing the assumed number Menes muttered so in disbelief while at the same time feeling pleased that he had taken this detour.
An outnumbered phalanx formation on the flat plains would have been too dangerous.
But still, although momentary shocked and then elated, the number felt a bit too big to Menes.
His long experience kept gwaning at him.
Because from the reports he read, all multiple times said that Perseus had no way to gather more than 20,000 men.
"How did you scouts count the number?" Hence the general turned to curiously ask.
"By counting the number of tents as well as the amount of lit torches there," The officer quickly replied though he was unsure by he was being asked such a simple question.
This was the standard procedure.
You counted the number of tents in one row and then simply multiplied that number by the amount of rows.
And if you could not see those tents on the other side of the camp, like if it was night, well then counted the small light next to it.
Because every tent had two burning braziers by its entrance to provide light for its inhabitants as well as drive away dangerous insects.
Something that had the unintended consequence of being able to be spotted from far, far away by a man, say standing on a nearby hill.
And hearing this, prompted Menes to then pose, "So it is possible the enemy has set up fake tents and lit more torches than needed? To make us think there are more of them."
"Ah!" This possibility caused the officers to let out a small gasp of surprise.
It was not like this had never happened before in history, but he had not simply considered that.
Why would he?
That was not something you would normally consider.
But now that his general pointed it out, the officer was forced to ponder it and then nodding his head, answered, "Yes. It is possible."
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