Along the way, fresh blood continued to join.
They were either northerners who had once been prosperous and were now taking refuge in Crete, or they were native to the region and understood the current crisis.
Many of these people have more formal equipment, and their combat effectiveness is even higher than that of the initial militia.
A few days later, when the army approached Keldonia, the number of people following Xia Zhe had increased from 3 million to 7 million, more than doubling.
After the defeat of Knossos, Antigonus, with his strong military vision, chose the city of Keldonia to retreat to.
It is surrounded by the sea on the east and north, and separated by high mountains on the south, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack!
The Egyptian army commanded by Ptolemy besieged the city for several months but still made slow progress.
Of course, Ptolemy was in no hurry.
He felt that time was on his side.
Antigonus and Minos were trapped in an isolated city with no reinforcements, and failure was inevitable in the long run.
However, new news a few days ago made Ptolemy a little nervous.
What?
The garrison I stationed in Knossos was actually driven away?
The enemy numbered tens of thousands, and they were even planning to enter the ruins of Knossos. Could they be planning to establish their capital there?
Absolutely not!
We must not let this group of people raise the banner!
Otherwise, the effect of conquering the entire Crete will be greatly reduced!
Thinking of this, Ptolemy dared not hesitate and immediately sent troops to counterattack Knossos.
Given that the intelligence said that although this group of enemies only had 10,000 people, their combat effectiveness was still superior to that of Antigonus' main legion.
To be on the safe side, Ptolemy made a huge investment and sent out 500,000 troops at once.
Aren’t those guys very powerful?
Then just rely on numbers to drown them.
In the early stages of dealing with Antigonus' main force, he was too careless and made mistakes.
This time, we must not repeat the same mistake!
The king actually used a butcher knife to kill a chicken, which made the soldiers of the Egyptian legion quite dissatisfied.
However, they still faithfully carried out the king's order, and really mobilized 500,000 people and marched towards Knossos.
Of course, since there are so many soldiers, fifty against one will definitely be enough to kill the enemy easily.
The commanders of the Egyptian Eastern Expeditionary Force did not take the Stobi Army seriously at all.
Along the way, they did not send out any scouts to explore the way.
They all felt that the mysterious army of 10,000 people had most likely fled further east, and the possibility of them foolishly staying there and waiting to die was very low.
The correct approach would be to wait until the army arrives at Knossos and then split up the troops to pursue based on any clues.
Before this, there could be no danger at all.
The first to discover the enemy were the troops under Xia Zhe.
As they got closer to their destination, Xia Zhe became more and more cautious.
Therefore, he sent thousands of scouts to the front of the army, not missing any details.
When the leaders of the Cretan militia heard that the Egyptian army had only 500,000 soldiers, they were extremely excited.
The enemy is a regular army, and we are just militia.
If the numerical advantage is not too great, the Cretan militia actually does not have much confidence in winning.
However, the Egyptian army did not concentrate its full strength, but only sent out 500,000 people.
This battle has to be fought!
All the leaders became excited and started to clamor, asking the king to give orders immediately and fight the enemy head-on!
Do you want to fight head-on?
That's great, just what I want.
Xia Zhe was very happy to see everyone so mysteriously confident.
How can the militia and regular army be qualified to fight?
The battle hasn't even started yet, but it's already clear who will win and who will lose!
But it’s okay this way, because I wanted to lose anyway!
Before arriving in Keldonia, they could start a war with the Egyptian army.
In this way, your promise can be completed ahead of time.
As long as our army is defeated once, I can go back with a clear conscience.
When the time comes, you can't say that I don't keep my word!
"Alright, go ahead and give it a try. But let me make it clear, I won't be participating in this battle. It's all up to you to perform. My clever plan will be used against the enemy's true protagonist, King Ptolemy of Egypt. It's never wise to play your trump card right at the start."
Thinking of this, Xia Zhe nodded heavily and agreed to everyone's request. At the same time, he found a reason to avoid personally commanding and not being able to escape in time.
Upon hearing this, the Cretan militia leaders did not realize Xia Zhe's wishful thinking.
They all smiled happily and left the tent one by one to make preparations.
Seeing that these people knew they couldn't get his guidance but were still so mysteriously confident, Xia Zhe was really a little confused.
However, he didn't think much about it. He just hurried back to his own residence and arranged for Lillian to pack her things, ready to run away at any time.
Of course, the Cretan militia leaders were not stupid.
They are so confident, of course they have something to rely on.
These days, although no one dared to trouble Xia Zhe, out of concern for the upcoming war, these leaders each found their own military advisers - middle and low-level generals in the Stobi army.
Although these junior officers under Xia Zhe were not as powerful as Achilles, Alexander and others, they had also accumulated a lot of experience in military operations after following Wang Dong in many campaigns.
It can be said that any one of them is fully capable of serving as the military chief of a small or medium-sized city-state.
In order to ensure victory in the decisive battle with the Egyptian army, these young Stobi officers did not hide anything.
They carefully guided the various Cretan militias and opened the door to a new world for the Cretans.
Through diligent study, the Cretan militias made great progress. Not only did they broaden their horizons, but they also began to think with their brains.
They discovered many flaws in the Egyptian army's tactics that had once amazed them.
As they conducted in-depth research on these flaws, the young officers of the Stoby Army quickly came up with a number of targeted fighting methods.
It was simply because everyone felt that such a minor incident would definitely not be in the King's eyes. Therefore, no one really mentioned it to Xia Zhe.
This time the Egyptian army was too arrogant and only sent 500,000 troops to fight.
Although Xia Zhe clearly stated that he would not participate in the command, both the Cretan militia leader and the middle and lower-level officers of Stobi still believed that their side would win!
Everyone felt that what Wang said made sense.
Of course, there is no need to use one's trump card to deal with the Egyptian army's detachment.
We already have seven million people on our side and a lot of targeted tactics. Why worry about not winning?
When the time comes to deal with Ptolemy, Wang will make another earth-shattering move, and that will be truly perfect!
The next morning, the seven million Cretan militiamen who had been on high alert were met by the 500,000 Egyptian troops who were still unaware of the situation.
It was not until the battle officially started and the Cretan militia on all fronts launched a charge that the Egyptians came to their senses and hurriedly responded.
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