With the help of many former dynasty elders, Alexander solved the problem of unrest in the country caused by the assassination of his father Philip II, successfully succeeded to the throne, and after ending the civil unrest, he immediately quelled the riots in the southern Greek states, almost all the way without bloodshed, the only military action was taken in the Thessaly region, and finally became the hegemon of the Corinthian League before the arrival of the spring of 335 BC. After this, Alexander embarked on his own path of conquest.
- Settle the rear battles
After pacifying the southern states, gaining the status of Corinthian ally, and becoming the supreme commander of the conquest of Persia, Alexander returned to Macedonia to make a slight adjustment, and soon threw himself into the war of total conquest of the north to complete his father's unfulfilled conquest of the Continent. He pointed the finger at the kingdom of Tribali, which had been only symbolically conquered during the reign of Philip II, and the rulers here were not sincerely subservient, and in order to prevent the enemy from being attacked on the back of the expedition, the potential hidden dangers had to be solved to prevent the kingdom of Tribali from counterattacking. In the spring of 335 BC, Alexander led a part of the Macedonian army (no more than fifteen thousand in total) on the road of conquest of the Danube region.
Kingdom of Macedonia before the death of Philip II
Along the way, the army was overwhelmed, and soon captured the central pass of Dahmas and the Pass of Sipka, and the loot was transported back to the conquered coastal areas and the Macedonian mainland. In the process of continuing the attack to the north, the Tribali soldiers could not resist alexander's cavalry and infantry phalanx at all, and could only flee to Pease Island after the rout, Alexander knew that a forced attack would definitely be badly damaged, so he seized the grain and grass that was in the non-harvest season, the land plundered the surrounding grain, and then waited for them to run out of food and surrender. During the short truce, Alexander crossed the Danube again to attack the Kitti who were trying to rally resistance, and this time the attack received a large amount of food and other supplies in the city.
The city of Thebes fell
Eventually, many countries, including Tribali and Kitty, chose to send envoys to submit to Alexander, becoming allies of Macedonia, and Alexander led an army to attack Illia. Until the end of September, after quelling the Theban rebellion bought by Persia, the resisting Thebans were killed, prisoners of war were sold into slavery, and the city of Thebes was razed to the ground, leaving the rear with no worries. Alexander decided to return home to make repairs in preparation for the next attack on Asia Minor.
- The first clash of the Battle of the Granicas River
After Darius III seized the throne, although the Persian Empire has recovered, but under the continuous internal friction, the empire has become a thousand holes, although the treasury has accumulated a lot of wealth, the land is still vast, the population is large, the soldiers are very strong on the surface, but in fact, in addition to the Greek mercenaries have combat effectiveness, the country's army has become very weak under the continuous corruption, Darius III, who has the ambition to serve the country, actually inherited an old empire. In addition, the biggest problem faced by the Persian Empire at this time was poor mobilization, the number of naval warships in the number of 400 ships, far more than the strength of Macedonia, but allowed Alexander to successfully cross the Dardanelles Strait, did not seize the opportunity to block Macedonia outside Asia.
Enter Asia Minor
The Persian army far outnumbered the Greek army led by Alexander, so at first the vast majority of people did not pay attention to their attack, which allowed Alexander to seize the opportunity to lead his army into Asia Minor. Upon hearing the news, Darius III ordered the governor of Asia, Menon, to gather local troops for expulsion, but at the military meeting, Menon suggested not to act rashly, to observe the movements of Alexander's army first, and then to cut off their rear roads and cut off their supply lines after luring the enemy deeper, so as to completely eliminate them. The governor of the Dardanelles, Assistis, argued that in order to prevent the Greeks from burning houses and plundering every inch of land, an army must be assembled to resist. Eventually only a few generals heeded Menon's advice and assembled a total of 20,000 cavalry, plus infantry of less than 20,000 Greek mercenaries, to line up along the Granicus River to meet Alexander's army.
Persian army arrayed
Upon learning that the Persian army had formed a position across the Granicus River, one of Alexander's generals, Paneuman, immediately suggested to him that it was imperative not to rush to attack at present, but to camp and wait for dawn the next day to cross the river to fight, and analyzed the disadvantages of the battle situation and the importance of the battle. Alexander, though agreeing with Parneumann's thoughtful consideration, still felt that it was a shame to be blocked by such a small river, and that it would be detrimental to the reputation of Macedonians to die in battle, and that the more he was in such a dangerous moment, the more courageous he should be to attack, or else the soldiers would retreat in the face of greater barriers. He chose to fight quickly, so he ordered the whole army to cross the river to fight the Persian army, and soon both sides were ready to deploy, staring at each other, just waiting for the commander's order.
This Persian army relied heavily on Greek mercenaries
When the battle began, Alexander himself led a detachment to attack from the right, he had the generals Amintas and Socrates as the forwards to attack from the front, and then ordered the trumpet to be sounded and cross the Granicus River to the Persian army. The direction of their charge was diagonally angled to the direction of the flow of the river, which made the Persian army only able to attack separately on the long front that was opened, while the Macedonian side could attack the Persian army through a concentrated and dense corps, and then use the breakthrough to disperse the Persian army and break through the divisions.
Persian cavalry
Under the fierce assault of the Macedonian army, the elite Persian cavalry near the river fired a rain of arrows under the leadership of Menon, but the Speed of the Macedonian Army's charge was very fast, especially the team on the right flank, led by Alexander himself, soon landed on the shore and fought with the cavalry, blocking the release of the arrow rain. In this case, the troops behind were also able to land on the riverbank one after another, and in the face of the fierce Macedonian cavalry, the traditional Persian light cavalry was not an opponent at all, it was difficult to resist the spears of the Macedonian phalanx, and the short javelin could not function. Alexander used his spear to pick off the horses of several Persian generals, and in mobile combat, the spear was broken and quickly replenished, and soon from the Chinese army to the two wings, the Persian noble cavalry in the front row could not resist the charge and began to retreat.
Macedonian army fighting across the river
Faced with the retreating Persian cavalry, Alexander did not choose to continue the pursuit, but aimed his spearhead at the foreign troops. Seeing the retreat of the Persian cavalry, the army began to break down, and the Persian civilian infantry, phrygians, Cappadocia, Chiricha, and Pontus fled, and soon the new Macedonian phalanx took advantage of its superiority to surround the Persian Greek mercenaries. After a fierce battle, all but 2,000 mercenaries were captured, and the persian cavalry suffered even heavier losses, except for some senior generals and officers who supervised the battle, the sons, sons-in-law and brothers-in-law of Darius III who were also killed.
Many foreign local armies did not actually enter the war
At the end of the river crossing, Alexander ordered the burial of his own side and all the enemy's casualties, exempted him from local taxes and property taxes on the families of the fallen soldiers who accompanied him, and allowed them not to perform hard labor, and then personally comforted and encouraged the wounded soldiers. As for the captured Greek mercenaries, Alexander ordered them to be handcuffed and handcuffed to Macedonia for hard labor to punish them for betraying the Greeks. The captured 300 sets of Persian armor were returned to Athens and presented to the goddess Athena. After the battle, many cities in Asia Minor surrendered to Alexander, and after occupying the city, Alexander ordered the establishment of a democracy, allowing each region to make its own laws, and taxation in line with the Persian rule. While sending trusted generals to handle the affairs of the surrendered city, Alexander himself led the army on the march.
The macedonian army marching rapidly
- Sweep through Asia Minor
When Alexander led his army to the coastal city of Miletas in Asia Minor, he encountered the Persian navy, which had 400 warships on the Persian side and only 160 in Macedonia. At this time, Paneumann came again, hoping that Alexander could order an attack, he was still more confident in the naval strength of Greece, and stated the significance of this victory on the expedition and the small impact of the defeat.
Alexander pointed out That Paneumann's erroneous analysis this time showed that if the Persian navy were attacked now, it would undoubtedly be a pebble, and Macedonia itself was not good at naval warfare, the crew was not mature in training, the Greek city-state army that was good at naval warfare was small and potentially two-minded, and the other side had mature Phoenician and Cypriot crews. In this case, a hasty attack would certainly fail, and the defeat would not only dampen the courage of the Macedonian soldiers and make the Persian side more united, but also allow other Greek city-states to seize the opportunity to launch a rebellion, as for the eagle representing Alexander himself, Alexander explained that it was on the side of the army, so it was still necessary to defeat Persia on land.
Alexander's Crusade Route
From the judgment and analysis of these two battles, it can be seen that Alexander is not only very brave, but also very intelligent and strategic, able to analyze the situation very calmly. In the end, faced with the provocation of the Persian navy, Alexander chose to ignore it, and docked with them in the coastal area, but occupied the area near the coast, in which case the Persian navy could only get supplies from more distant areas, and for a long time could only choose to evacuate the city of Miletas without any gain. Recognizing that the navy needed to consume a lot of money and supplies, Alexander decided to dismiss the Macedonian navy and let them withdraw to the mainland, on the one hand, because he wanted to attack the Persian hinterland from the land, on the other hand, he thought that the persian navy only needed to send troops to occupy the naval base, and on the other hand, he needed the navy to help Antipat guard Greece and retake the area occupied by Persia.
The Macedonian navy was not strong
After leaving Miletas and marching along the land route, the Macedonian army soon marched to the Heights of Phrygia, after leaving Miletas, and soon after a brief resistance or direct surrender, the Athenians sent emissaries to request the return of the captured Athenians. Considering that during the war with Persia at this time, Alexander should still have the control of other Greek city-states in order to form a deterrent effect on them and prevent them from betraying, so he politely refused the messenger's request, saying that he would not treat these prisoners badly, and the matter would be discussed later. After leaving Gaudia, he soon conquered a large area of Cappadocia west of the Harris River, and the local Persian army fled immediately, so Alexander successfully led his army to take the Silesian Pass and occupy the main city of Tassas.
Sick Alexander
Unfortunately, during the march, Alexander was cold and sick due to tired and hot bathing in the river, he first cramped, then had a high fever, often insomnia, became very weak, and almost died. Many people once thought that he was incurable, and only a doctor named Philip insisted that he could be cured, and he prescribed a very strong laxative and fried it himself. At this time, someone handed Alexander a note, warning him to be careful of Philip, but Alexander had people read the contents of the note in person, and drank Philip's fried medicine in a bowl. Philip was deeply moved, so he took care of Alexander even harder, and Alexander soon recovered.
After Alexander's recovery, the virtues of his trust in his subordinates also spread among the army. It seems that there is a reason why Alexander won the trust of the people and the generals. After this, he will have his first head-to-head duel with Darius III, and the Battle of Issus will be the pinnacle of the Crusade.