Chapter 22: Stop

The soldiers guarding the gate of the camp, look at Davos and Antonios as they directly pass them. And only after Hielos did they try to stop them. Davos had no time to heed their shout and followed Antonios as he ran north. After running for a while, he then saw a group of people ahead.

Clearchus was having a conversation with the Persian king’s younger brother, Ostanes, who came to meet with them, when they suddenly heard a shout from behind, “Stop! Stop! This is a conspiracy! A conspiracy of the Persians!…”

The 5 leaders and more than a dozen captains, plus 200 soldiers escorting them who intends to go to the market when they passed by it, were shocked and immediately stopped to look back.

Davos rushed to them, faced with the many gazes that were strangely staring at him , he said it loudly while he panted, “This is a conspiracy!… Tissaphernes is ready…ready to kill all of you! If we do not have a leader, we will fall into chaos which will lead to the annihilation of the whole mercenary troops!”

Several leaders subconsciously looked at the Persian envoy, Ostanes.

Ostanes pointed angrily at Davos and shouted, “Who is he?! How dare he say such thing! It was you who asked for the talks, Tissaphernes just responded to the request of Clearchus and treated him warmly. Is this how you repay the Persian general, Tissaphernes?! This is not only an insult to him! It is even more insulting to our king!! I will leave! And I will report this to Tissaphernes and suggest that he report it to his majesty, so that his majesty will cancel the agreement with you Greeks!”

Several leaders hurriedly stopped his horse and even apologized.

Davos didn’t think that this meeting was the request of Clearchus, nor did he gave much thought to it and said eagerly, “Even if the meeting resumes, not all the leaders and captains should go to the Persian camp! We have all been on guard against the Persians! Who knows whether Tissaphernes being friendly to us for ten days, is to lessen our vigilance?! Have you forgotten his previous treachery?!”

As soon as Davos stop talking, Menon jumped out and vented his resentment for these ten days, “Audacious madman! Shameless liar! Not only did you deceive the soldiers in my camp, but you also incited them to oppose me! Now you want to destroy the peace between us and the Persians! You want to make everyone unable to go home!! Someone catch him for me!!”

However, none of the soldiers obeyed his orders. Firstly, he had only 2 captains with him, and didn’t bring other followers. Secondly, some of the soldiers recognized that Davos was the rumored “God’s Favored” in Menon’s camp for quite some time, so they started talking in low voices.

At first, several of the leaders who heard Davos’ words, hesitated. Who knew that Menon’s scolding immediately made them disgusted of Davos. Despite his bad character, Menon and them have been working together for quite a long time, and several leaders also knew that his ability wasn’t weak. An ordinary soldier actually dared to oppose his leader, which was undoubtedly a big taboo for the leaders.

​​Clearchus had a different ideas. He was surprised to think that Menon had found a soldier to act here and wanted to destroy the meeting. Because there was another purpose of the meeting: Tissaphernes promised him that he was willing to openly point out the one that was communicating with the Persian army and creating rumors among the mercenaries.

Clearchus had been speculating that it was Menon. Because Menon had always openly competed with him for the command of the Greek mercenaries since they entered Persia, and he is currently been staying with Ariaeus, who was already close to Tissaphernes, and he had many secret meetings with Socrates and Agias which is definitely in order to oppose him. This time, he must expose this vile character in public, and thus consolidate his command. Because he firmly believes that only he could bring the mercenaries back to Greece intact. This is also why he hated the Persians, but had to endure this humiliation and the burden of peace talks with Persia, and he also hated anyone who tries to destroy the unity of the team.

So, he immediately ‘pushed the boat along the river’ and said, “Now that Menon had already said it, take this clown and send him back to the camp to be lock up. We’ll judge him once we get back!”

He looked around and said firmly, “Now I will go to negotiate with Tissaphernes! Those who believe in me can follow me, and those who don’t can go back!” After that, several soldiers went over and held down Davos, Antonios tried to blocked them and was also taken down.

Clearchus marched northward, Proxenus slightly hesitated and followed. Menon heavily spit on Davos’ face and proudly shouted, “When I return, you are dead!!” After that, he laugh while moving forward. Most of the soldiers also followed their leader, and only a handful of soldiers who had heard of Davos’ “miracle” remained in their place.

Davos didn’t care about Menon at the moment, he was pressed to the ground and ate a mouthful of dirt. He struggled and shouted in the direction where the leaders left, “Clearchus, you fool! Your stubbornness will not only harm you, but also the whole mercenary troops! You will regret it! Oh right, you might not have the time to regret it!…”

However, his cursing did not bring back Clearchus, and the figures of the leaders grew farther and farther away and blurred. Finally, Davos calmed down and sat down on the ground. Previously, he thought that Clearchus was a “famous general” and should be very clear-headed, but he was so stubborn that he doesn’t listen to any opinions. In fact, Davos did not know that most Spartan men are conservative and stubborn, and once they made up their mind, they often do not look back. The most famous one was the Spartan strategos in the Battle of Plataea[1]. Before the battle, the Greek coalition commander ordered the troops to retreat, but a Spartan strategos thought that retreating in front of the enemy would be against the Spartan tradition and refused to retreat even after many persuasions, which made the Spartan troops lag behind the formation and almost led to their defeat.

The advance party continued to move forward, while the soldiers escorting Davos pushed him back. Instead, the soldiers who were left behind introduced themselves and comforted Davos.

At this time, Antonios got free and asked, “Davos, are the leaders really in danger?”

“The sheep negotiating with the wolf, what good results will it lead!” Davos sighed. Such deception were countless throughout the history of ancient and modern China and foreign countries. The success of Tissaphernes’ strategy was mainly due to their illusion about the peace talks, while the others trusted Clearchus more than their fear of their own safety. Or that his influence was still not enough!

“What should we do?” Antonios was slightly nervous.

‘What to do? Of course it is to help ourselves! ! ’ Davos suddenly remembered Xenophon. Why did he boast that he led the retreat in his book? It was because of the — more than 20 mercenary leaders and captains were killed and the entire Greek mercenary leadership faced a change! !

Thinking of this, he threw aside his frustration and renew his spirit, “Fast! Let’s go back!”

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Along the way, Menon added fuel to Proxenus as they talked about Davos’ “misdeed”, which succeeded in arousing their anger, he then secretly hid his excitement, ‘This time, I can completely get rid of this huge trouble!’

Before arriving at the Persian camp, most of the soldiers that were going to the market, bid farewell to their leaders.

Entering the Persian camp, Clearchus saw the same scene as he saw when he left here yesterday and some relaxed Persian soldiers looked at them curiously and talked to each other about, “Why are there so many Greek barbarians coming to our camp?” Such things instead made Clearchus and the rest at ease.

When they arrived at Tissaphernes’ tent, Ostanes went in and informed, “The five leaders can come in, while the others need to wait outside the tent temporarily!”

Clearchus was the first to enter. The light inside was dim, he squinted his eyes and found that there were many people inside the tent. He was shocked and before he could react, he heard a shout, “Capture him!!”

[1] Battle of Plataea was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Greek city-states (including Sparta, Athens, Corinth and Megara), and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I (allied with Boeotians, Thessalians, and Macedonians).

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