While the scholar-officials in Bianjing were arguing constantly, Alexander first met Stratang, the son of Grostratas, the king of Aradas. Although the king himself was serving in the fleet of Autophradatis, Stratan took the initiative to offer Alexander his largest and most prosperous capital Marathus and its nearby island of Aradas, Segon Island, Mariania, and all the territories that came under his and his father's dominion. This was Alexander's first and important success in Phoenicia. In order to show his surrender, Stratang presented Alexander with heavy gifts and put a gold crown on Alexander's head according to local custom.
Alexander stayed at Marassus for a few days. Here he received a letter from an envoy sent by Darius. Darius hoped that Alexander would return his mother, wife and children to him, and proposed that the two countries should become friends and allies. In his letter, Darius attributed Alexander's victory to the providence of a certain god and recalled the early friendship between Persia and Macedonia. He himself, as a king, begged another king to give him his family back. Alexander responded. The reply was sent to Darius by an envoy of equal rank. In his letter he enumerated the harm done to Greece by Persia, the hostility instigated by Darius, and the instigation of his father's murderer by the Persian court. In the letter, he emphasized that he had the power to conquer all of Asia, asked Darius to recognize Alexander as his lord, not an equal king, and threatened that he would pursue Darius no matter where he fled until the end of the world. Until the mission of destroying Persian rule is completed. As a side confirmation of Alexander's character, some of his words in the letter are very thought-provoking: "Respect me as the master of Asia, come and pay my respects, and your request will be fulfilled. But if you refuse to respect me as your king, then you should Stand your ground and fight for your land. For wherever you flee, I will pursue you."
Also at Marassus, Alexander received a group of Greeks from Damascus who were envoys from Sparta, Thebes, and Athens to the court of Darius. Considering the status of these men, Alexander granted them additional leniency. He freed the Thebans but kept the Spartans in his grasp for the time being. Among them was the son of Iphicrates of Athens, the founder of the peltasts, who was placed by Alexander in an honorary position beside him.
Alexander next advanced on Bibulas, and accepted the conditional surrender of the latter, whose king likewise commanded his own detachment in the Persian fleet. According to Arrian, Byblas is the oldest city in the world and controls a considerable amount of land. Out of hatred for the Persians' past misdeeds and jealousy of Tire, Sidon also opened the gates. Tire, the pearl of the entire east coast of the Mediterranean, also sent an envoy led by the son of King Azemikas (who was also serving under Autobradatis at this time) to express surrender, but the condition was that Alexander could not Enter Tire. Alexander replied that he wished to offer sacrifices to the temple of Heracles at Tire. But the Tyrians still refused. Because when entering Ephesus, Alexander had gathered the entire army in front of the temple of Artemis to sacrifice together. If Alexander wanted to make such a sacrifice again now, the Tire people would lose all their freedom. , because they thought that once the Macedonians came in, they would never leave. They were willing to surrender their fleet and loyalty to Alexander, but not their lives, liberty, and pursuit of joy. No doubt they wished to remain independent enough to join Alexander or Darius should either one emerge victorious. They knew that they were equally important to both kings, so they were unwilling to surrender themselves to either party before the situation was determined. If Darius ultimately prevailed (which seemed far from impossible at the time), the Tires would benefit from being the only Phoenician city to remain loyal. Even if Darius loses again, the Tyrians will still be able to hold out for a long time and come to terms with Alexander alone. To the Tyrians this consideration was natural and wise, but they did not understand Alexander. Tire rejected the Macedonian king's terms, the citizens closed the city gates, and the king returned from overseas to defend the city.
Alexander had drawn up a series of very clear strategic plans: first, conduct an expedition to Egypt to complete the conquest of all coastal cities in the Eastern Mediterranean and destroy Persian sea power; and then march to Babylon, as long as he could control the entire coastline and the rear. Macedonia and Greece would then be safe from Sparta and its Persian allies. But the prerequisite for all this is to capture Tire, otherwise he will not be able to safely advance towards Egypt or Babylon with the largest naval base in Phoenicia, and even the largest in the world, at his back. For this reason, Alexander summoned the regimental commanders, battalion commanders, cavalry squadron commanders and allied officers of the partner cavalry and phalanx infantry according to customary or legal regulations to hold a war conference to explain the situation facing the army. The officers agreed that Tire must be captured, but they had no idea how to do so because it seemed impossible. But Alexander replied that no matter what was necessary for anyone, it was by no means impossible. Relying on the vast resources at his disposal, Alexander decided to isolate Tire first and then launch an attack on it. A lengthy siege ensued, which would have given the Persian generals the advantage had they still had Memnon's courage. But Darius had no talent for confronting Alexander. Time is often of the essence in war, but this time it did not become Alexander's enemy.
In this way, Alexander encountered the biggest passive situation in his military career. At this time, the turmoil in Bianjing City was also brewing.
However, those things have nothing to do with Li Ning. Even if the news there reaches Quanzhou, he is too lazy to read it. What he cares about most now is whether he can help Alexander in the Battle of Tire after ending his quarrel over Asia and the Caucasus Mountains. Bring surprises. This is of immeasurable significance to his development in the southern Mediterranean.
At this time, he was under great pressure, and he still knew nothing about his bad situation. Like that night, he was concerned about Li Ning's campaign on the Sochi Plains. Unsurprisingly, the stragglers there posed no threat to Li Ning. In addition, The failure of the Battle of Issus left the local Persian nobles with no will to resist.
Alexander also hoped that he could have such luck, but the reality was quite different.
After reaching Tire, Alexander found that the old city on the mainland had been abandoned and its inhabitants had retreated to the so-called "new city." The latter is located on an island two miles long and slightly narrower in width, separated from the coast by a channel 0.5 miles wide and 18 feet deep, with shallow and muddy water on the shore side. The entire island is surrounded by tall walls. The island has two ports, one is Sidon Port in the north and the other is Egypt Port in the south, both of which partially face the mainland. Even the old city, which was far less fortified than the new city, had withstood Nebuchadnezzar's 13-year siege. The city of Tire has a large number of weapons, heroic people (it is said that the number of its defenders is as many as 30,000, but this is probably the total number of residents who can fight), all war machines that can be used to resist the siege, and a large number of warships , the latter was brought back from the Persian fleet by King Azemikas before the new city was completely blockaded. At the same time, the city also has food that can sustain it for a long time. Alexander hoped to obtain support from the Phoenicians, while the Tyrians believed that their former allies could join their side, rather than helping Alexander destroy his former allies.
Since Alexander had no ships at this time and could only attack Tire from the coast, he decided to build a causeway from the mainland across the strait. According to the plan, the causeway would be 200 feet wide, with wooden piles driven into the sea on both sides and the middle filled with stone, sand and wood. Work began as soon as Alexander arrived at the city, and laborers were recruited from all the surrounding regions. Cedars brought from Mount Lebanon were used as stakes, which were easily driven into the soft seabed. The stone comes from the old city on the coast, a city abandoned by its inhabitants and now dismantled and used against its original owners. Grasses on the coastal wetlands have also been fashioned into strong ropes. To prevent both sides of the causeway from being washed away by waves. Entire trees with branches and leaves were thrown into the sea to slow down the waves driven by strong southwesterly winds. To build this miraculous causeway, Alexander exhausted all the resources of a city and a forest.
Alexander personally supervised every aspect of the project, often encouraging the Macedonian soldiers and other laborers who worked day and night with inspiring words and his personal presence. The project progressed very quickly, but when they approached the deep water area near the city wall and entered the range of the opponent's arrows, the difficulty of the project could only be described as a disaster. The Tyrians mounted their siege engines on the walls and used all their strength to destroy the causeways. They often used warships to attack workers from different directions, and also sent divers to destroy causeways underwater. The skills displayed by the Tyrians were beyond ordinary imagination, and they showed their talents inherited from ancient times to the rude Macedonian successors. Diodorus detailed many of these methods and we will not go into details here. Soon after, Alexander was forced to build two siege towers at the end of the causeway in order to drive the Tyres away. He deployed soldiers and siege equipment on the two siege towers, and also spread animal skins on the front to prevent the siege towers from being ignited by fire arrows shot from the city wall. The Macedonians also built movable bunkers out of wicker and animal skins, and erected fences and boxcars to shield their laborers from attack. After receiving these cover, the project made substantial progress again.
