At this time, the Greeks who had been guarding the path had not fought for several days, so they relaxed their vigilance. They even sat on the ground chatting and went to bed at night, looking very comfortable. Until this day

At dawn in the morning, the group of Greeks were awakened by the rapid footsteps of the Persian army.

The Greeks hurriedly took up arms to resist in an extremely panic, but the Persian army was originally prepared this time. How could these more than a thousand Greek warriors resist? So more than a thousand Greek warriors, and then

They were outnumbered and many were killed. In the end, the remaining ones fled quickly, and some even threw away their weapons and fled.

The Persian army, led by Xerxes, faced the fleeing Greeks. They did not conduct any form of pursuit. They only hurried to Thermopylae under the order of the Persian King Xerxes again.

At this point, the Spartans at Thermopylae were immediately attacked from two sides by the Persian army. They suddenly lost their previous advantage and were quickly defeated. However, the brave Spartan warriors were in very good physical condition and still persisted a little.

After a while, but immediately King Leonidas of Sparta realized that the situation was over, so he made a very important decision. In order to preserve the strength of Greece, he issued an order to have all the armies of other Greek city-states retreat, leaving only them

Sparta's three hundred warriors then defended this place, indirectly holding back the Persian army.

With such a good terrain and the strength of the Spartan warriors, the Spartans temporarily held back the Persian army. The armies of other Greek city-states also took the opportunity to retreat.

At this time, the Spartan warriors, who were attacked on both sides, still preferred to die. We have also talked before, and the Spartan custom was that either he died in battle and lay on the big shield his mother gave him, or he returned in triumph.

Therefore, the Spartans were very crazy and were the most excellent warriors! However, the concept of this excellent warrior is not actually a definition given by the laws of nature, but a definition given by us humans through sociology.

But in any case, the current Spartan warriors are indeed very brave, because they also understand that if they are not brave enough, they will die, and if they die, the Persian army will immediately chase and retreat.

warriors from other city-states, which would cause very heavy losses.

The Spartan warriors occupied a relatively high hillock at this time and resisted desperately. During the resistance, the Spartans' spears were broken, so they used short swords and daggers.

It's also broken, so hit it with rocks, punch it, kick it, bite it with your teeth...

In the end, no one of the Spartans surrendered, and no one escaped. They all died on the battlefield.

Let’s talk about something off topic here. In fact, later on, someone built a lion statue at Thermopylae to commemorate the Spartan warriors who died in battle. It was engraved on it: Passers-by, please bring them with you.

Words to the Spartans. We have faithfully kept our promise, sacrificed our lives for our country, and rested here.

Then continue to return to our topic. After the Persian army captured Thermopylae, their morale was greatly boosted because they killed the most powerful Spartans! Although the Persian army suffered more losses, for a group of

For an army with a number of 130,000, it is indeed not much.

Anyway, where the Spartans are currently guarding Thermopylae, corpses are piled up like several mountains. Of course, one of the mountains is almost entirely made up of Spartans. Then King Xerxes of Persia gave an order to collect the remains of the corpses.

Weapons and armor were worn by slaves who had previously joined the army, that is, those in Northern Greece.

Then Xerxes, the king of Persia, went straight to the city of Athens! Because the city of Athens was the humiliating battle of Darius I, and as the king of Persia and the child of Darius I, Xerxes was furious at this moment! Therefore

As soon as they arrived near the city of Athens, they immediately ordered more than 10,000 cavalry to form a formation, followed closely by the infantry with spears, and even the undead army behind them. Behind the undead army were archers, who were preparing an arrow formation to attack Athens.

In Xerxes' mind, he must completely level the whole of Athens! Even this was not enough to extinguish the anger in his heart. After all, Xerxes had been waiting for this day for too long, and in order to be able to completely destroy it all at once

Athens was defeated, so the spies were sent to investigate the situation first. After all, if you want to defeat Athens, you still need to know yourself and the enemy, because Athens is a very large city-state in the Greek Empire, and it is also the richest city.

After the spies returned, they reported to King Xerxes of Persia that the city was empty.

Xerxes was very angry! So Xerxes immediately launched an army into the city of Athens and directly ordered all the soldiers to set fire to the city of Athens. As the largest and richest city in the Greek Empire, Athens was completely buried in the sky.

In the sea of ​​​​fire, the sea of ​​​​fire continued to burn for days and nights without being extinguished.

Although the city of Athens has been buried in a sea of ​​​​fire, and the monstrous sea of ​​​​fire has been extinguished, it cannot extinguish the anger in the heart of King Xerxes of Persia. Therefore, according to the spies' report again, it turns out that the residents of Athens did not suddenly disappear.

Because the residents of Athens and other city-states accepted the advice of the naval commander Themistocles. All women and children took ships and went to Trosin in Argos and the island of Salamis in their own country.

To escape, all the men gathered in the warships in the Gulf of Salamis.

Because at this time, a prophecy from the Sun God was circulating in Greece: Greece's fate could only be saved by wooden walls. According to this prophecy, the commander Themistocles believed that Greece's future lay on the sea, and the wooden walls mentioned by the Sun God were big ships.

At this time, the Persian navy, as well as the Phoenician warriors from the more than 800 warships before, also came to the outer port of Athens, Piliius. They echoed the army heading towards Athens. This momentum seemed to be just

It's like it's going to flatten the whole of Greece.

However, facing the arrogance of the Persian army, the Greek combined naval fleet concentrated in the Gulf of Salamis south of Athens had no confidence in whether it could defeat the Persian army. Some of the Greek combined navy had already

They plan to sail out of the harbor and go back to protect their hometown.

At this critical moment, the commander-in-chief Themistocles held an emergency military meeting to discuss the battle strategy. At this meeting, Themistocles said: It is entirely possible for the Greek coalition to defeat the Persian army, but the prerequisite

It was to concentrate all the warships in the Gulf of Salamis for a decisive battle with the Persian navy. What he meant was that all the Persian warships were made by the Phoenicians, and the Phoenician fleet was only suitable for duels on large seas.

, even indeed very powerful. But in places like small ports, these large fleets seem a bit cumbersome. Even the Persian navy has an absolute advantage in the number of warships. But in this kind of port, because of its narrowness, another

The water is relatively shallow, so Persian warships cannot take advantage of it at all.

Another is that the Persian sailors are only suitable for large-scale naval battles and are not familiar with the water conditions and routes of the bay at all. The Greeks are just the opposite. Their own ships are small in size and very maneuverable, which is very suitable for

Fighting in this narrow shallow bay, and the Greek sailors were also familiar with the water conditions and routes, they were able to fully exert their strength.

We can say that the proposal of commander Themistocles was unanimously approved, and after a brief adjustment of the army, on September 20, 480 BC, the naval battle of Salamis officially began.

Eulibides followed Themistocles' advice and immediately made war preparations. He sent the Corinthian detachment to guard the western strait, with Spartan warships on the right wing, Athenian warships on the left wing, and the warships of other city-states in the center.

, began to launch a fierce attack on the Persian naval fleet.

After the Persian King Xerxes blocked the Strait of Salamis, he mobilized many more warships, so this time he first sent 800 vanguard warships in three lines to the east end of the Gulf of Salamis.

Attack. However, Pusitalia Island in the middle of the strait disrupted the formation of the Persian fleet. At this time, the Persian fleet had to divide the column into two to attack. In addition, the Persian warships were large and difficult to operate in such shallow water bays.

They are heavy and heavy, and it is very difficult to move in such a narrow bay. They can't move forward and have no way to retreat. They collide with each other and become chaotic all of a sudden.

On the contrary, the small Greek warships could shuttle freely among the Persian warships. Because most of the Greek warships at this time were trireme warships, such warships were both fast and flexible.

Therefore, the Greek coalition forces seized the opportunity, gave full play to the advantages of their own warships, and attacked the Persian fleet very violently. Originally, the Persian fleets collided with each other and became a mess, so this coupled with the Greek army's

Attacked and suffered heavy losses immediately.

The Greek fleet, such as the Athenian fleet, had eighteen marines on each warship. They kept firing rockets and throwing stones at the Persian army. Suddenly the Persian fleet was plunged into a sea of ​​fire, and the large Persian fleets were still colliding.

This also set the warship next door on fire.

In this sea of ​​fire, the Persian fleet immediately fell into a very serious panic. What panicked the people on the Persian fleet even more was the Athenian fleet, because the Athenian ships had strong structures and special structures. The bow of the Athenian fleet

It was inlaid with copper rams, and the hull was equipped with a five-meter-long copper-clad crossbar. The Athenian fleet used the copper rams to smash the Persian fleet into pieces. And the Athenian fleet flew next to the Persian fleet.
Chapter completed!