Phaseris was probably the largest city near Lycia.
But the city offered no resistance to Alexander.
A few days ago, when Alexander followed the upper reaches of the Xanses River to its birthplace, Maias, he met with all the coastal cities, including Phaseris, and then agreed to their surrender request.
This scene actually happened when Alexander conquered the Caria region.
But all the cities there, including Hypena, which was the last to surrender when leaving there, are now Alexander's vassals.
And those mature performances undoubtedly brought great inspiration to the nobles of Lycia.
The resistant Halicarnassus became a stage for gunpowder performances, while the non-resisting ones continued their original prosperity.
This means that Alexander's heart was willing to treat those who did not resist preferentially.
And the sun is a very talkative king, such as the city called Hypana, and once made a request that he could not harm the Greek mercenaries in their city.
It was a small test for the Macedonians, for Alexander himself hated his fellow Greeks who fought for the Persians.
But he eventually agreed.
Perhaps it was because of the rush to march into Lycia, perhaps because there was already a lot of Greek culture there, or perhaps it was just to save the soldiers' combat effectiveness.
Therefore, more and more people believe that this young king seems to prefer to beg him with a slight bow. For some older politicians, although this behavior seems despicable, it is not impossible to do.
As a result, more and more people began to surrender to Alexander, and the news of preferential treatment for those who did not resist was indeed like the elixir that opened the door, allowing him to quickly conquer most of Lycia.
He had even begun to judge in his mind who should be the governor of Lycia.
The reason why he was so anxious and bored was that Alexander hoped to make some repairs here and then go to the inland provinces in the north to participate in the Phrygian battle with Pang Ji.
In the previous agreement, Phrygia and Hellestine would be divided into the Song Dynasty as their territory.
This was a victim of the co-optation policy adopted by Alexander and the Macedonian nobles in the face of the powerful Persian army.
However, the Song Dynasty's subsequent war performance did not make them feel that they were losing money. At least now, their losses in the war have been greatly reduced because of the Song Dynasty's investment in gunpowder weapons.
The archer commander Clearchus, who was supposed to have died in the Battle of Halicarnassus, was still active in the Macedonian army, and because he liked to use bows and arrows like Li Ning, he and Li Ning became irreconcilable. pay.
There are actually many similar examples. But the king and nobles could not thank Li Ning for this because they did not know the original history.
What they knew was that the king hoped to use this offensive into the interior provinces to get closer to the Allies. .
The Allies seem to actually need this kind of cooperation, because they seem to often make serious low-level mistakes in large-scale legion operations.
The wise men among the Macedonian nobles explained this more closely to Li Ning's description. That is that the Kingdom of Heaven has been away from war for too long, so it only retains the bravery of the warriors and the advanced weapons, which are suitable for small-scale wars, but there are not enough commanders to deal with large-scale legion operations.
In this regard, Alexander once had a bold idea, which was to let Macedonian officers become commanders of the Song Dynasty army.
He believed that those literati who liked to do things should not be able to have too high attainments in the military, just as they were unwilling to let the debaters in Athens command the army.
Those literati are not suitable for this. Only the senior Macedonian staff know the real art of war.
To be honest, Li Ning actually agreed with this suggestion, but he never mentioned it to Pang Ji.
Because in the Song Dynasty, it was a basic national policy to control military affairs with civil servants, and civilian command of the army was an unshakable fundamental principle. Anyone who violated this would undoubtedly be suspected of rebellion.
So Li Ning will not waste that time arguing with the senior officials of the court on this issue.
Although during the course of the war, he almost always used the deployment provided by the Macedonian high officers as his main reference, almost in disguise, affirming the tactical literacy of the Macedonian staff.
But only those close to him know this. Whether the senior officials of the imperial court can tolerate his reliance on external forces is still unknown.
Since there may be arguments on such issues, there is really no need to argue on more principled issues.
What's more, regarding the issue of marching into inland provinces, Li Ning hoped that Alexander could honestly march north after capturing Perge as he had historically done, because that would reduce the various difficulties brought to him by the butterfly effect.
But he didn't notice that the Macedonian nobles had actually begun to make irresponsible remarks about the movement of troops to the north.
"That Celestial Commander is really bad. If it hadn't been for him, we wouldn't have needed to go to Phrygia."
"That's right. Phrygia has been given to the Kingdom of Heaven in accordance with the agreement. Our king has lost a large piece of territory, but that stupid partner used a disastrous defeat so that we had to go to Phrygia again on his behalf."
"It is somewhat inappropriate to use our soldiers to exchange land for our allies. After all, after the Kingdom of Heaven helped us fight several battles, the king generously gave them a lot of land."
"The king could not be less generous. Didn't you hear them? Those were helpers sent by Achilles and Heracles, the king's ancestors. Who could be ungenerous to a friend who brought such help? "
"But we didn't ask them to help us, but they didn't harm us either. Otherwise, I would have stabbed them to death."
"You might be too careful."
During a heated discussion. Li Ning's representative, Amyntas, who was most inclined to heaven among the Macedonian aristocratic group, finally rushed back from the Greek mainland after a long journey.
Unlike those young men who were reluctant to come back in Macedonia because they went home to visit their new wives, Amyntas went to mainland Greece just to recruit some craftsmen, and his task was completed quickly and easily.
After all, in this chaotic era, there are not many people who can pay a high salary to hire craftsmen, and the cultural atmosphere of Greece allows those who are brave enough to explore the unknown world and new things to have a great degree of freedom, so There are actually many people who are financially strapped but keen on technological exploration.
As for those who have a legitimate livelihood, they will not refuse such a high-paying offer. After all, Usküdar has the potential to become a new academic center.
Opposite him is Byzantium, a well-known trading center.
Therefore, anyone with some skills will not worry about starving to death.
Therefore, Amyntas's process of finding craftsmen became extremely smooth because of this.
In fact, Amyntas's trip mainly focused on plundering craftsmen from the public institutions and wealthy people who issued currency in the occupied Greek city-states. This is something that is not difficult for a winner to do.
But he did not mention his method to Li Ning, but simply stated the general process to Alexander.
Alexander did not raise any objection to his behavior, and Li Ning did not say much because he did not see the craftsmen. Instead, for the purpose of repayment, he proposed to Pang Ji that he should give Amintas some stock dividends as remuneration.
This made Amytas very happy, thinking that the relationship between himself and Emperor Song of Heaven had reached another level, and that he could get more and better things, especially his favorite wine.
Therefore, when he heard that the nobles were making irresponsible remarks in secret, his straightforward temper immediately made him unable to sit still.
"If the Kingdom of Heaven really had any intentions against us, I'm afraid we would have been killed by them long ago. You have also seen the power of gunpowder weapons. But what you don't know is that the Kingdom of Heaven also has a huge fleet, and our King is now Incapable of sustaining the existence of a fleet."
Hearing what he said, everyone became curious. This was the first time they heard news about the Heavenly Fleet.
So someone asked Amyntas about the style of those ships.
But Amytas shook his hand and said.
"What I want to say is not their ships, but the alliance between the two parties, which must be well maintained. His Majesty the King still relies on the Kingdom of Heaven, so don't cause any obstacles to His Majesty the King."
The nobles heard what he said. Most of the people stopped immediately, but there were still a small number of people who didn't want the army to go north.
But soon, Alexander publicly stated to his relatives in a collective event similar to a staff meeting: the attack on Phrygia was in their plan from the beginning. Therefore, this move northward is imperative.
It was at that event that Li Ning heard Alexander state his strategic vision for the first time.
If the Macedonians directly targeted the core area of Persia, then their marching route should be to enter the Hellespont area, and after fighting the Battle of Granicus, go directly eastward into Phrygia and Cappadocia. West Asia region.
But they did not do this. Instead, they went south along the coast from Helles to now, taking over coastal provinces such as Lydia, Caria, and Lycia.
Why do you do that? Of course, this is to avoid worries. If they were left on their southern flank, the army attacking eastward could easily be cut off by them, and they might even pose a more direct threat.
Therefore, the attack southward is very necessary.
Now, Alexander believes that assigning the Allied forces to attack Phrygia has indeed ignored some of the military shortcomings of the Kingdom of Heaven. But he also took this opportunity to understand the military system of the Kingdom of Heaven at a higher level.
At the same time, after accepting help to capture Halicarnassus, it should be emphasized that Alexander has been looking for opportunities to help his allies, so as to save face and make the alliance between the two parties stronger.
Parmenio and other generals who were close to him knew the king's idea very well. But some unpopular nobles will inevitably be full of complaints because of this.
But they stayed in Faselizi long enough for Alexander to waste a little time dealing with these voices that ignored unity.
His speech at this small meeting was one of his ways of dealing with it. At the same time, he actively maintained the militant enthusiasm of the soldiers, and even refused to let go of things like suppressing bandits.
On the road from Phaseris to Perge, there is a small fortress built by the Pisidian tribe.
This fortress is their usual hideout. As for what to do after coming out of the hideout, the local people are a little miserable. This is a group of bandits who often invade the land of Phaselis and plunder their food, property and even their population.
Soon after Alexander arrived here, he immediately started to solve this problem for his new fans, and even personally led the army to quell the little bandits at that time.
Li Ning could only dream of Alexander's vigorous experience, although he himself was also directing and arranging many important affairs through letters. But he's mostly dealing with construction issues, not any thorny issues.
It's easy to draw anything on white paper, but not everyone is good at solving existing problems by stripping them down. Therefore, when Alexander, a not-so-smart man, chose to cut through the mess quickly instead of peeling off the cocoon, no one could tell him how to deal with the problem.
At least Li Ning wouldn't do this stupidly. His life in Fasiris was very boring. Ever since he chopped off the head of Alexander from Linkas, this guy's prestige had quickly climbed to a new level.
Those Macedonian nobles who were loyal to Alexander therefore recognized Li Ning's loyalty to Alexander.
After all, the unpopular Linkas man had already angered many senior members of the companion cavalry. It was just because of the king's face that those people didn't take action to get rid of this guy, but Li Ning did what they couldn't accomplish, which made them happy and felt Li Ning's sincerity and enthusiasm at the same time.
Therefore, more and more people began to interact with the Heavenly people led by Li Ning, and even more people came to visit their military camp.
The soldiers of the Song Dynasty were also very sociable. As a result, many tricks that could only be seen in Bianjing City also appeared in Phaselis, a remote and remote city for them.
But Li Ning fell into a boring situation because of this. Apart from training troops, he could not think of anything else he could arrange for Pang Ji to do.
So he thought of his female slaves, those from Athens, from Persia, and from even more distant "Libya" (as Africa was called at that time).
So while various celebrations were held after Alexander's triumphant return, including sports games and banquets, Li Ning completely started a relaxing activity under the bed.
