As an emperor in the eyes of Western countries with a series of halos such as wisdom and courage, omnipotence, and appearance, Alexander the Great, whether made up or not, has always been an open-hanging existence.
In only 13 years, this brilliant emperor unified the whole territory of Greece, swept through the two river valleys, surrendered Egypt, and the Empire of Dipins, advanced to the Indus Valley, and established the Alexander Empire with an area of more than 5 million square kilometers, which greatly promoted the spread of ancient Greek civilization.
At that time, the pressure of the mountain empire, the four major civilizations occupied three of them, so more and more posterity speculated that if Alexander the Great did not die at the age of 33, but led the Macedonian army into the eastern powers at that time, could he replicate the previous achievements and completely conquer the eastern powers?
On this question, the answer of posterity is almost unprecedented, that is, it is absolutely impossible, because Alexander the Great is brilliant, and the eastern powers at that time were BUG-like existence.
For a long time, many people believe that the reason why Alexander's army stopped in the Indus Valley, in addition to the sudden change of young death, the rebellious psychology of the long-term generals, and more importantly, the reason is that Alexander's army was lost.
Because Alexander's army had taken the wrong route from the beginning, it not only missed the opportunity to conquer the eastern powers, but also let itself fall into the steamer cage of India and die.
But if we carefully understand Alexander the Great's marching route and the areas conquered, we may find that the so-called wrong way is nonsense, and the fundamental reason why Alexander went to the Indus River instead of the Eastern Powers was that the Eastern Powers at that time had no way to go.
Because of the existence of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Alexander's way to the east was completely blocked.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the famous diplomat Zhang Qian opened up the overland Silk Road, which continued to develop and reached its peak during the Tang Dynasty.
During the Tang Dynasty, the overland Silk Road mainly consisted of three routes, namely the Steppe Silk Road from the Mongolian Plateau to the west to Central Asia, the Central Silk Road in the Central Plains through the Hexi Corridor and the Southern Silk Road from the Yunnan-Guichuan region to the Hengduan Mountains into the south Asian continent.
Since Alexander's Empire corresponded to the Warring States Seven Heroes era of the eastern powers, the territory of the eastern powers at this time was mainly limited to the area south of the Mongolian Plateau, the Hexi Corridor, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the east of the Hengduan Mountains. Alexander's army wanted to enter the eastern powers of the time, either by crossing the entire South Asian subcontinent and crossing the Hengduan Mountains, or by turning north from the Alashan Pass or the Altai Mountains through the desert or steppe into the Central Plains.
In either direction, Alexander's army would encounter great difficulties.
Although the vast areas conquered by Alexander were basically tropical, the tropical non-Middle Eastern tropics of the South Asian subcontinent, and the rampant malaria and other diseases would lead to the death of Alexander's army before it could be launched.
Judging from the route of the Eastern Jin Dynasty monk Fa Xian and the Tang Dynasty monk Xuanzang's westward journey to India, it is more likely to enter the Central Plains from the northern front, but the question is how did Alexander's army, which was adapted to fighting in the tropics, overcome the difficulties of low temperatures and enter the temperate steppe zone to fight?
And even if the low temperature and desert were overcome, how could Alexander's army, which had traveled a long way, defeat the Xiongnu on the steppe and the Great Qin in the western region?
It should be known that due to the topographical characteristics of Eurasia, the temperate steppe belt extends to the lower latitudes of Central Asia, which has led to the historical steppe nomads always flowing from east to west like a flood of broken embankments rather than the opposite, such as the Xiongnu westward retreat and the Mongol western expedition.
Therefore, this also determined that even if Alexander's army entered the Central Plains from the northern front, it would inevitably be killed by Wanshui Qianshan, and then beaten by the Xiongnu cavalry and the qin state's bows and crossbows.
For a long time, the reason why Alexander was invincible in the southern conquest of the north was that although it relied on the coordinated tactics of infantry and cavalry such as "dragoons", it was still the famous "Macedonian phalanx" that consolidated the results of the battle. The biggest feature of the Macedonian phalanx is that it needs to fight on flat land, and the phalanx can only advance and cannot retreat, because it is rigid and invincible.
However, the eastern powers were never flat Egypt and the Indus Valley, and because of the frequent wars of the Warring States period and the rapid development of military ideas, the traditional chariot charge was gradually replaced by more flexible cavalry and powerful crossbows, which meant that Alexander's army would be beaten back to its original form in the flexible tactics of the Qin state.
And because the Qin state at this time had completed the Shang martingale transformation method, the combat effectiveness increased rapidly, compared with the Macedonian army that came from afar and was logisticsless, what the Qin army could do was to dig the pit as large as possible.
Therefore, if Alexander had known about Izumi, he should be glad that the existence of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau saved them from defeat and late life.
Judging from the rhythm of the development of Chinese civilization over thousands of years, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has not protected Chinese civilization, but protected other civilizations from the "management" of Chinese civilization.
There are many omissions, please axe correction.
I am The History of Quiet Night and look forward to your attention.