Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

“Burkes, I haven't seen you for some time. I thought you had forgotten this old friend of yours!” Davos greeted him with a smile.

“How could I forget! I had just came back and so I had a lot of backlogs that needs to be dealt urgently, and I have no spare time for a while” Explained Burkes.

“Oh, so have you finished it now?” Davos jokingly said.

“Still not finished.” Burkes then added, “However, there is an important order from the city hall of Thurii for me to convey.”

“Oh, what's the important order? The lords of Thurii finally remembered us mercenaries.” Davos said teasingly.

“Shall I speak here?” Burkes looked around.

“I'm sorry, this is my negligence, then let's go to my tent.” Davos led them to the center of the camp while he apologized.

“Have you learned this ‘Tug of War’ from Persia?” Asked Burkes.

“I came up with it mainly because I was worried that if the soldiers stayed in the camp for a long time and have nothing to do then some accidents may happen. Therefore, I have them compete in sports not only to consume their energy, but also to exercise their bodies and develop their teamwork. As a matter of fact, there is a reward for the final champion of this competition, and I put out a lot of money myself.”

“You handled these mercenaries very well!” Praised Burkes, and he then change the topic, “But you don't have to worry about it anymore. Soon, you will have some stuff to do.”

Davos was not surprised, “The Lucanians are already started appearing. While Thurii isn't taking any actions, and made me thought that you were ready to give them the land outside of the city.”

Hearing the resentment in Davos' words, Burkes was thinking about how to respond, but the afterglow on his eyes made him see a 4-meter high stone wall inside the wooden wall on the right, which shocked him and said, “Do you still plan to build a stone wall?”

Davos blinked, “The floor of the wooden wall is relatively wet, so it is not strong enough. Therefore, a stone wall is built inside using stone debris to prevent it from being broken.”

“You and your soldiers are so great that the camp you built turned into a city!” Burkes vaguely criticized.

“We can't help it. The number of our people is too small, and if we don't make the camp stronger, once Thurii is surrounded and us mercenaries needs help as we also get surrounded, then who will help us? Therefore, we have to rely on ourselves!” Said Davos frankly.

“The market outside is also related to the defense of the camp?” Asked Burkes rhetorically.

“At first, I just wanted to rely on the market to buy and sell some stuffs that we need for our daily needs. However, I didn't expect that it would become like this…but you don't have to worry, when the Lucanians are defeated, everything will be back to normal.” Davos assured him.

Burkes just wants to gain some psychological advantage in the following conversation. After all, only the city hall and council can make a decision whether to force the mercenaries to close the market, and so he no longer pursued it, but had instead decided to go back and report it to Friis. After entering the tent of Davos, he immediately said, “According to the situation, the Lucanians may attack Thurii in 2 days. After deliberating, the strategoi decided to meet the enemy and ask for you to participate in that battle.”

“Please tell me, what is the plan of the strategoi of Thurii?” Said Davos sarcastically. In fact, he felt helpless, as a participant in this war, he didn't even have the right to participate in the discussion, which he find it really strange. He didn't know that this is the same back when the Greek mercenaries were under the command of Cyrus the Younger, but at that time, the mercenaries accounted for half of their number, and they were powerful. Therefore, Cyrus the Younger heavily relied on them, to add to that, he had cheated the mercenaries in advance and concealed about the rebellion. Therefore, when there was certain demands, he would consult with them such as Clearchus…at the time of Davos transmigration, Cyrus the Younger had died in the war, and so the mercenaries were the main force in everything, so everyone was discussing about everything. Currently, Davos started having a bad feeling just like when he first came to this world, that everything was decided by others and he could not decide his fate.

Burkes was also equally helpless. In fact, Friis once proposed to let the leaders of the mercenaries to participate in the discussion and plan the battle together, but Kunogelata firmly refused saying that it was to prevent incident like with Dionysius. (Dionysius is the tyrant of Syracuse during this time, he was once driven out of power by those democratic. Afterwards, he quietly led the mercenaries into the city and crushed the democratics and thus secure the throne of dictator of Syracuse) The proposal of hiring mercenaries was proposed by Friis, which had been discussed by the strategoi and the council approved it. They then sent Burkes to start recruiting by the recommendation of Friis, and so he need to avoid suspicion.

“According to the scouts, there are more than 10,000 men in the Lucanian coalition. While on our side, you have more than 2,000 soldiers, Drakos also has more than 2,000 soldiers, Taranto has sent 1,500 reinforcements, and Thurii have 4,000 with 200 cavalry, and the total number is close to 10,000…”

Burkes finished introducing the forces of both sides, then picked up a branch and compared it on the ground, “The stragoi plan is that the reinforcements of Taranto will be on the right wing and due to their minimum number a thousand soldiers of Adrien and Sesta will be added to them. The center will be our army, but because of the last defeat, the number of young and middle-aged citizens of Thurii has been greatly reduced, and due to that, more than half of the 4,000 soldiers are citizens over 40 years old. Therefore, we will add a thousand soldiers from Drakos in the center. Because your troops are experienced and powerful you will be in charge of the left wing together with a hundred cavalry. Another 100 Taranto cavalry will be on the right, and of course, this is just a plan. When it comes to the battlefield, it may change depending on the situation of the enemy…” Burkes finished explaining and he looked at the expression of the face of Davos.

Davos held his chin on one hand and looked at the drawing on the ground as he contemplate and said nothing for a long time.

Burkes started to get nervous.

“Would you like to hear my opininon?” Davos raised his head and pointed to the drawing on the ground and calmly said, “This troops allocation given by Thurii should be relatively balanced. And it is obvious that the strategoi wanted to use defense to drag down the enemy's attack through a long confrontation.”

Burkes nodded because Friis had said something similar when he explained it to him about why he had done it this way. Davos really deserved his reputation, from just him looking at the drawing he managed toinfer the intentions of the strategos.

“Although I haven't fought with the Lucanians, but I have fought with many mountain races in Persia. Their fighting characteristics should be similar, they are fierce, loosely organized and poorly equipped. Maybe that is the reason why your strategos have the confidence to take this kind of formation. However, there are a few problems that needs to remind your strategos-” Davos turned around and raised his tone, and said,

“Last year, there are more than 10,000 citizens of Thurii that was killed in the battle with Lucanians, which means that nearly 10,000 sets of excellent Greek hoplite equipment fell into the hands of the Lucanians. They can then use these equipment to completely update their simple equipment, I have encountered this situation while scouting Amendolara. Secondly, according to my scouting, there are at least 13,000 warriors in the Lucanian coalition, which is 3,000 more than us. This mean that their formation will be denser than us, not only will they have greater impact and pushing force than us, but also the threat of getting flanked. They have just won a great victory, and their morale will be much higher when facing us, and as far as I can see, you Thurians are afraid of the Lucanians from the bottom of your hearts, and so it's hard to say who will retreat first after a long battle.” Davos uses the branch to draw on the ground, which represents Thurii's center, “Don't forget, half of your force has ‘old men’ included.”

Burkes confidence about the “Greek hoplite clashing with the savages without being afraid of them in the face of war” was shaken due to the words of Davos.

“Do you want to hear my plan?” Said Davos at this time.