The young Greek emperor Alexander dared to lead an army to attack the Persian Empire and won a great victory, and he captured more than 10,000 Persian noblewomen, and finally...
In 331 BC, the Macedonian king Alexander in his early twenties crossed the sea to the territory of Persia with a majestic army of 50,000. This time, he was going to attack the ancient Persian Empire and seek new territory for the Macedonian Empire.
More than a hundred years ago, Persia, like Alexander now, wanted to conquer Greece. The Persian king Xerxes I led an army to capture Athens, the pearl, but in the end, it was defeated. Now Alexander wants the Persians to taste the pain of the past.
Now the wise new king of Greece wants the Persians to taste the pain of the past. Alexander's crusade was determined to win. He wanted the Persians to pay the blood debts of the year, and also to the shame of his predecessors.
Alexander led the Macedonian phalanx, a special phalanx formation that was invincible on the battlefield at that time. Every 64 people are a platoon, 128 people are a company, 256 people are a battalion, 1024 people are a regiment, 4096 people are a division. Each soldier performed his or her job, and the spearmen, shieldmen, and other auxiliary arms were all in place and closely coordinated.
This phalanx inherited the advantages of the traditional phalanx of ancient Greece, but was more flexible and mobile, both for a strong defense and for a sudden transformation into a fierce attack. It is invincible in the hands of Alexander.
Alexander had used this phalanx to defeat the Theban coalition, leaving Athens with no choice but to submit. He also used it to sweep through disobedient tribes in the north and west. Now, with the power of this phalanx, he will strike at the heart of Persia.
Alexander's plan was decided, and he immediately set into action, crossing the Black Sea with 30,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry, and 160 warships, pointing to the Persian stronghold on the coast of Asia Minor.
Despite the heavy price, Alexander won the first victory of his conquest career here. This victory greatly boosted morale and allowed Alexander to see the gap between his own strength and that of the enemy. This victory made Alexander understand that with his current strength, it was too early to quickly defeat Persia. It is necessary to proceed cautiously and gradually build strength.
So he slowed down and turned to a strategy of fighting and talking. On the battlefield, he managed to avoid the powerful Persian navy and attacked the coastal cities by land. Politically, he declared that all Greek city-states in Asia Minor could remain autonomous in order to buy hearts and minds.
This strategy was so successful that Alexander soon captured all the important cities along the coast and directed his troops into the heart of Persia. Under his enlightened policy, the city-states along the route also generally surrendered without much resistance.
A year passed, and much of Asia Minor was firmly in Alexander's hands. This time, it was the Persians who could not sit still. The Persian king Darius III personally led an army of 100,000 men to fight, and he planned to go around the rear of Alexander's army and cut off the opponent's supplies and retreats.
Alexander was keenly aware of the enemy's intentions and quickly led 30,000 remnants to come to his aid. The two sides fought a decisive battle under the city of Issus. Faced with numerical disadvantages, Alexander, with his excellent command skills, devised the tactics of multi-sided siege and successfully defeated the army of the Persian king Darius III. This victory laid the foundation for his conquest of Persia.
After capturing the Persian capital of Susa, Alexander did not take bloody revenge as the Persians did against Greece. He spared the commoners, only symbolically burned the royal palace in Susa, and stopped the war.
Alexander then made a surprising move: he married more than 10,000 Persian noblewomen in his hands to his own soldiers as the other party's right wife. He also first married Darius's daughter.
For a time, the nobles of Macedonia and Persia forged an inextricable relationship of in-laws. These Persian women, who also changed from prisoners of war to the wives of high-ranking Greek officials, lived a decent life. Alexander also strongly supported autonomy throughout Persia, abolishing some harsh forms of conscription. As a result of his efforts, the Macedonian kingdom's rule over the Persian Empire was increasingly consolidated.
After defeating Persia, Alexander was not satisfied with this, and the desire for heaven in his heart was far from subsiding. He believed that as long as his Macedonian iron horse continued to storm, there would be nothing he could not conquer.
So he led his army to the east, into Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. This time, he finally met a more tenacious opponent than Persia. The nations of the Indian subcontinent were fighting endlessly, and the soldiers began to show fatigue.
Alexander suffered an unprecedented setback in India and had to temporarily stop the crusade and return to Macedonia. Although he conquered most of Asia Minor and Persia, he was still a long way from his ambition to "unify the world."
However, the good times did not last long, and just as Alexander was about to regroup his army and realize his ambitions, he suddenly contracted a serious illness, which could not be recovered and ended in failure. Alexander died of illness at the age of 33, and his unfinished work was disillusioned. The vast empire he built soon fell apart in the struggle for power.
Although he ruled for only a short period of more than a decade, Alexander wrote a legendary journey with his extraordinary courage and courage. His benevolence to the more than 10,000 Persian noblewomen has also become a good story in this history. Although it was ultimately a failure, Alexander's life is still talked about by posterity. His ambition and commanding talent are still breathtaking.
