In Western history, there were four major military commanders, Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Caesar, and Napoleon. Alexander the Great was the king of the Kingdom of Macedonia, and his life was short and glorious, and he traversed several continents in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and built a powerful Alexander Empire.
Make the world your home. Alexander the Great was full of conquest, he was always on a crusade, he wanted to conquer the whole world, and it had to be mentioned that his Macedonian phalanx had to be mentioned. It has been said that Alexander's army could defeat any army before the firearms were widely equipped, and although this judgment has been questioned, it is true that Alexander was never defeated in his time.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the composition of the Macedonian phalanx</h1>
A phalanx is a formation used in infantry combat, arranged in a square formation, which can easily defeat the numerically superior but more chaotic enemy. In history, there are many phalanxes, Roman legion phalanxes, Spanish phalanxes, Swiss super long gun phalanxes, Gustav phalanxes, etc. have been dominant for a while, and ancient China also had phalanxes very early, and the most famous phalanx is the Macedonian phalanx.
The Macedonian Phalanx is the most elite army in Macedonia. During the reign of King Philip II of Macedon, he worked hard to create a powerful Macedonian kingdom and trained a highly effective Macedonian phalanx based on the Greek phalanx tactics. Alexander the Great, the son of King Philip II of Macedon, had been a teacher to the Greek philosopher Aristotle since childhood. This was a true king, who showed excellent military talent at a young age, and after he ascended the throne, he improved and continuously optimized the Macedonian phalanx, and the Macedonian phalanx reached its peak, becoming the most sophisticated army in Macedonia and even in the world at that time, sweeping through countless enemies.
The composition of the Macedonian phalanx can be simply divided into standing troops, light infantry, cavalry, and auxiliary troops. According to the formal establishment, 64 standing troops formed a platoon, 128 men formed a company, 256 men formed a battalion, 1024 men formed a regiment, and 4096 men formed a primary phalanx. At full strength, the phalanx also had 2,048 lightly armed shields, 1,024 auxiliaries, and a cavalry regiment of 1,024 men. One primary phalanx has 8192 people, and the four primary phalanx form a joint phalanx with a total of 32768 people. This extremely advanced organization constitutes an elite force.
The Macedonian phalanx relied on the cooperation of standing troops, light infantry, cavalry, and auxiliary troops, and only by cooperating with each other could they exert greater strength. The standing army is the basis of the Macedonian phalanx, the largest number, equipped with spears, chest armor, shin armor, helmets, large round shields, the main weapon is the spear, the spear of alexander's time is about 6-7 meters long. These densely packed spears form a moving wall of spears to rush towards the enemy, which is daunting, and by training this phalanx, the mobility is very strong, capable of inflicting the heaviest damage on the enemy in a complete horizontal formation. Light infantry had shorter spears and larger shields, and were lined up in loose formations to cover the phalanx. The cavalry consisted of young nobles, responsible for covering the flanks, charging with a spear, and after a blow, they directly changed swords without drawing the spear and continued to slash. Auxiliaries include archers, swordsmen, catapults, gunners, etc., attacking enemies with bows and arrows, stones, darts, guns, etc., reducing the pressure of the phalanx charge, and also responsible for killing scattered enemies after dispersing the enemy. The important thing about the phalanx is to rely on the cooperation of these branches, it is important to protect the flanks and rear, once the enemy rushes into the formation, the soldiers carrying spears can only be slaughtered, and this cooperation was very good in the Alexander period.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Alexander the Great's tactics</h1>
The Macedonian phalanx swept through countless enemies and shook the ancient Mediterranean region, which was inseparable from Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great was adept at using a variety of tactics and constantly changing the Macedonian phalanx, which was an important reason for the numerous victories. Many people discuss how the Qin army will encounter the Macedonian phalanx, some people will feel that a round of bows and arrows will be done, in fact, the Macedonian phalanx encountered countless bow and arrow blocks, and other kinds of javelins, darts, catapults, chariots, arsons, pits, buried tree stumps and other attacks and interceptions are also countless, but Alexander the Great always used different tactics to defuse. As a good commander, you need to use troops flexibly, not just rely on a one-sided strong attack.
At the beginning of Alexander the Great's reign, the first to conquer were the Thracians. The Thracians were known for their bravery and good fighting, and spartacus, the leader of the Spartacus Uprising, the largest uprising in ancient Rome, was a Thracian. Commonly used weapons by the Thracians were the Greek-style recoiled sword, spear, double-sided axe, javelin and bow and arrow, who were able to adapt to a variety of terrains and often resorted to incoherent tactics. This time, too, when Alexander was about to attack the Thracians, they occupied the commanding heights of the mountain on the pass in advance, placing their vehicles in front of the line, one to defend, and the other to push down the Formation of the Macedonian Phalanx from a high place. This is the only passage, a battle that tests the courage and command ability of the commander-in-chief, and the losses of relying on the phalanx will be immeasurable. Alexander showed his excellent command skills, not sticking to the formation of the phalanx, the heavy infantry on the flat ground separated to the sides, and the infantry in the narrow valley were tightly assembled and connected with each other with shields to let the vehicles roll over. In this way, the Macedonian phalanx broke through the defensive line without much loss and defeated the Thracians in one fell swoop. This was followed by the battle to sweep away Persia.
The battle between the Macedonian kingdom and the Persian Empire was an important part of Alexander the Great's conquests. After the Greek-Persian War, the Greek coalition army won, Persia was defeated, and Persia was devastated ever since. The skinny camel was bigger than The Horse, and Persia was still the world's leading power, with far more troops than the Macedonian and other Greek city-states led by Alexander.
The battle between the Macedonian kingdom and the Persian Empire was also the battle between Alexander the Great and Darius III. Darius was a very capable monarch, with a reputation as a warrior, impartial, and enterprising, and the Persian weather was great after his ascension to the throne, but this time the god of luck favored Alexander the Great. Since the landing in Asia Minor and the Battle of the Granicus River, Alexander led his cavalry to attack quickly, breaking one by one, defeating the Persian army and winning the first battle. At this time, Persia was very dependent on Greek mercenaries, and the mercenary general Memnon was deeply trusted by Darius III, and his series of strategies could increase great difficulties if they were to be implemented in Alexander's Crusade, but the god of luck once again took care of Alexander the Great, and Mennon died of illness. Darius III personally led a large army to meet Alexander, and the two main battles were fought between them - the Battle of Issus and the Battle of Gaugamela.
At the Battle of Issus, the Macedonian army had 30,000-40,000 people, persia had about 120,000 people, and the commanders were alexander the great and Darius III, the monarchs on both sides. The Macedonian side was still the Macedonian phalanx, preceded by a scattered line of Thracian javelins and Cretan archers, and the left flank was protected by the Heavy Cavalry of the Hellenic Confederation. The right flank was more powerful, with the Assault Force, with Alexander personally leading the Guards cavalry to form the main force on the right wing, the Guards infantry connecting the Macedonian dense formation on the left, the Tsali heavy cavalry and the Macedonian light cavalry on the right, and the Greek Union guerrilla infantry and Agarian and Thracian javelins on the far right flank. The Persian formation was the same, with Darius and the Cavalry Janissaries in the center, the Greek mercenaries forming the central camp, the Kaldak infantry and The Madia archers on the left flank, the Kardak infantry press on the right flank, and the Persian cavalry and the most elite assault force, the Ironclad Cavalry. Among them, the Madias, a nomadic people from the southwestern part of the Iranian plateau, were known for their excellent archers in the Persian Empire, mainly responsible for blocking the charge of the Macedonian cavalry. In addition, Persia took a defensive position and planted a large number of sharpened tree stumps in the necessary section of the Macedonian front to hinder the charge of the Macedonian heavy infantry.
The layout and tactics of Persia and Macedonia are almost impeccable. In this situation, the left side of the Macedonian phalanx would face the most powerful ironclad cavalry in Persia, and the infantry on the left side of Persia would face the elite Macedonian guards cavalry. Before the battle began, Alexander felt that the left side was too weak, and under the cover of a dense array of guns, quietly transferred a Thessali heavy cavalry on the right flank to the left wing, which became a surprise army. The formal battle followed, with Alexander personally leading the Guards cavalry to the Persian left flank, and after facing three rounds of locust-like arrow attacks from the Mardia archers, he charged closer. The archers were a defeat for Darius in front of the heavy infantry, and the lightly armed archers faced the oncoming cavalry, scattered and scattered the formation behind, and the Macedonian heavy cavalry successfully broke into the Persian infantry line. The cavalry relied on high-speed impact and was not suitable for breakthrough formation combat, at which time the Macedonian infantry and cavalry coordinated their might, and the follow-up Guards infantry threw their spears and drew their swords into the formation, and the Persian left line collapsed. At the same time, the Persian ironclad cavalry also attacked the weak left flank of Macedonia, and the Greek Union cavalry on the left flank was quickly defeated, but the previously mobilized Thessaly heavy cavalry became a surprise soldier, and for a while stopped the ironclad cavalry, but the form was not optimistic. Not optimistic is the phalanx in the middle, due to the disparity in strength, the phalanx is also a large number of casualties. Everything was in Alexander's hands, and while he let the Guards infantry attack the left flank of the Greek mercenaries, while personally leading the Guards cavalry to maintain a formation to attack Darius in the rear, the two sides engaged in a fierce and deathly battle. At the critical moment, Darius fled the battlefield because of the fright of the horse in the carriage, and the morale of the Persian army collapsed, and in an instant it collapsed and was defeated. After this war, Darius lost not only his treasure, but also his family.
After the Battle of Issus, Alexander gradually conquered the western part of the Persian Empire. Although the west fell, Darius still had a strong rule east of the Euphrates River. The defeat of the war did not overthrow Darius, who was accompanied by persian nobles who followed him, and the Persian Empire still had huge financial resources, resources were inexhaustible, and it had to be said that Darius was indeed talented, and it took only two years to rebuild a huge army. Darius fully analyzed all aspects of the defeat in the campaign and formed the most well-equipped and tactical army of the Persian Empire in more than a hundred years. Not only was this army large, but Darius was recruited by elites from all over the world. Darius was also improved in equipment, he specially equipped the infantry with elongated spears and swords, replaced them with larger and heavier shields, most of the cavalry was also equipped with scales, darius prepared at least two hundred sickle chariots with side knives, and also brought 15 war elephants from India. With the formation of this army, Macedonia and Persia fought another battle, the Battle of Gaugamela.
The Battle of Gaulamica was a decisive battle in which both sides threw in their maximum strength. In this battle, Persia invested about 100,000 troops, and Macedonia also poured more than 40,000 troops.
This battle darius was extremely well prepared. Before the battle began, Darius ordered the wells along the road to be buried, harvesting grain, destroying orchards, and clearing the walls without supplying Macedonia, while he chose the more favorable region of Gaugamela as a battlefield to spare. Alexander understood the importance of the decisive battle, recruited more troops from Macedonia, and the two sides were on the verge of a major war.
The campaign officially begins. As usual, in Macedonia, a dense array of heavily armored infantry formed a central camp, with the main force on the left flank being the Tssali heavy cavalry, along with the Greek Union heavy cavalry and the Greek mercenary infantry; the right flank was still led by Alexander's personal Guards cavalry, with the support of the elite Guards infantry. At the forefront of the front were scattered lines of Agarian javelins, mountain warriors from the Thracian tribes, and elite archers from Macedonia or Crete, tasked with containing the onslaught of Persian chariots.
After Alexander launched a flanking attack, Persian chariots rushed first. Most of the chariots were intercepted by the Macedonian front stragglers, and a small number of chariots that rushed to the front were also avoided by the phalanx soldiers. Persia was followed by eastern cavalry rushing to the right flank of Macedonia, fierce battles on various fronts, Persia relied on its elite superiority to suppress Macedonia, both wings of Macedonia were encircled by the enemy, the phalanx infantry missed a fatal gap, Darius immediately let the cavalry break through the dense formation. At the critical moment, Darius did not let the Janissaries who broke through the front attack the Macedonian Front from behind, but let them take the Macedonian camp directly and rescue his mother and children at any cost. The elite Persian cavalry easily captured the Macedonian camp, plundered a large amount of supplies, and rescued the royal family, which also caused Darius to lose a chance to win.
The Macedonian phalanx faced a crisis, which was the worst situation in the Ma conquest. Everything was expected by Alexander, he did not care about the fall of the battalion, at this time his Guards cavalry and Guards infantry had not yet directly participated in the battle, he was waiting for the best time, he was going to fight with his back. When the Persian left flank had been completely squeezed out of its original position, Alexander attacked, leading his army to rush to the core of Darius for decapitation. It was a gamble, the god of luck once again took care of Alexander, Darius did not escape this time but his driver was killed by javelins, many soldiers thought he was killed, causing chaos, the defeat was decided, Darius had to escape again. Alexander the Great won the initial victory, but because of the need to support other troops, he had to abandon the pursuit of Darius. The decisive battle ended with the victory of the Great Emperor of the Pressure Mountain, and the Persian Empire subsequently fell to its demise.
The Macedonian phalanx has won many great victories and played a prestige, which is inseparable from the command of Alexander the Great. Alexander had a lion-like personality, always leading the Guards cavalry charge, making his flank slash tactics repeatedly victorious. Compared with tactics, he is more desperate, sacrificial and domineering, he dares to gamble against the water, in the battlefield Macedonia only has one way to win, failure is doomed, it is impossible to retreat, it is precisely because of this that the Macedonian phalanx he led has won many battles.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the rise and fall of the Macedonian phalanx</h1>
The Macedonian phalanx has a clear advantage, as well as a disadvantage. The dense phalanx is suitable for advancing in a flat and open area, otherwise it is easy to disrupt the formation, the super spear rotation will not be too flexible, and the important thing is that the two wings are weak, once it is attacked into unimaginable.
During the time of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian phalanx reached its peak. Alexander the Great was a recognized military genius in world history, and he could flexibly use the Macedonian phalanx, which could be arranged in an oblique array according to the Macedonian phalanx of different battlefields, with a right triangle or a right angle trapezoid, obliquely facing outward. At the same time, on the way to the Crusade, Alexander the Great absorbed a variety of elite forces, including Greek mercenaries who lived in war, javelins and archers known for shooting and rapid support, professional cavalry from all over the world, mountain warriors from the Thracian tribe, and professional artillery forces that were good at making ballistas and catapults. These are either professional soldiers or warriors with top-level skills, coupled with a lot of daily training and combat experience, becoming a powerful war machine, and the Macedonian phalanx that integrates various elites is also more powerful. It is precisely because of this that the Macedonian phalanx can sweep through Asia, Africa and Latin America, and there is no disadvantage.
After the death of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian phalanx was still the strongest infantry fighting formation, but it was gradually declining. First, Alexander's tactics were not only less developed but more lagging behind, the heavier infantry equipment degraded the flexibility of maneuverability, and the weakening of the cavalry units that should have covered the flanks of the phalanx weakened the flanks of the phalanx. Secondly, the shortcomings of the Macedonian phalanx are obvious, although Alexander the Great solved the problem of mobility, but not the same as solving the problem, he led the cavalry several times straight to the rear of the enemy army, which is actually extremely dangerous, especially after him The shortcomings of the use of the phalanx are more obvious. Finally, there is the development of the Roman legions, the basic units of the Roman legions are detachments, more mobile and flexible, and there is the progress of projectile weapons, the development of iron arrows and iron javelins can kill and injure the soldiers of the phalanx and disintegrate the attack power of the phalanx.
The Macedonian phalanx, which was once rampant, not only suffered a defeat, but also became uncontrollable. In the Second Macedonian War, Macedonia and Rome fought, the Macedonian phalanx was difficult to maintain a formation on the undulating battlefield, the turn was not flexible, the Roman soldiers avoided the front from the flanks to attack the phalanx, using short swords and large shields to kill, and the soldiers carrying spears were difficult to resist. The last battle of the Macedonian phalanx was the Roman legions against the Kingdom of Syria, where the Syrian army was unable to exercise in the narrow valley and was completely annihilated by Rome, and the Macedonian phalanx, which was at its peak after the war, completely disappeared.
Alexander the Great can create a powerful Macedonian Empire is inseparable from the Macedonian phalanx, and the Macedonian phalanx is also inseparable from Alexander the Great, and the Macedonian phalanx with such an excellent commander as Alexander the Great is the strongest.