However, the Persian emperors' insatiable appetite for land and wealth could never be satisfied. Xerxes, like his father Darius I, looked intently across the Aegean to the thriving city-states of Greece.
On this day, Xerxes suddenly summoned the governors and nobles to a meeting, and after talking about the glorious achievements of his predecessors, Xerxes stated his own plan: "I have decided to follow my father's footsteps, and to send a large army to crush the Greeks. This will not only earn us fame, but also a piece of land that is not inferior to ours. I will, with your help, conquer all of Europe, so that not a single piece of land under the sun may lie outside our boundaries." Xerxes had thought that his decision would be unanimously approved by the crowd, but only silence awaited him before his eyes. After a while, Xerxes' uncle Artabano mustered enough courage to say, "Your Majesty, not everything that glitters is gold. The color of gold can only be identified on a touchstone, and it pays to listen to opposing views. Remember the battle of Marathon! That lesson must not be forgotten!"
At the mention of the "Battle of Marathon", the crowd could not help but inhale a breath of cold air, Xerxes' face showed an inscrutable look, seems to be in deep thought. The Battle of Marathon was the first battle of the Hippocratic War and the first major defeat for Persia since the founding of the country. While Athens suffered only 192 casualties, the Persians left behind 6,400 dead bodies and lost seven battleships, and Darius I was left with a grudge.
Xerxes returned to reality from the memories of the past, and thought that although his father suffered a loss, it was caused by the incompetence of the commander-in-chief, and as long as he was in charge of the battle, what attack could not be conquered, and who would not be convinced, and the conquest of the Greeks is not just a reflection of his own ability than his father,
Thinking of it, Xerxes couldn't help but feel the heat of the body, and his ambitions, and he disregarded the dissuasion of his uncle and ordered to prepare for the attack on Greece. gave orders to prepare with all his might for an attack on Greece.
The Battle of Hot Springs
Time passed in 481 B.C.E., which was the 4th year of Xerxes' preparation for the war. Xerxes a***collected an army of 250,000 men from the 46 states and 100 nations that were subservient to Persia, and his battle plan was still modeled on the land-based attack that Darius had taken in his day, traveling through Thrace, Macedonia, and then south to Greece. This road, although long, but than across the Aegean Sea insurance coefficient is large, and is conducive to through a large number of troops to play the advantage of the Persian army of many people.
In the face of the raging Persian invasion army, the Greeks organized a joint action never seen before, more than 30 city-states gathered in Corinth, formed an anti-Persian alliance, swore to share the same enemy, **** the powerful enemy. Leonidas, king of Sparta, was elected commander-in-chief of the army, and the naval commander-in-chief was also assumed by Eurybiades, a Spartan. The army took the most elite Spartan army as the main force, and the navy took Athens, known as a sea power, as the backbone, with an army of 110,000 men and 400 warships.
But again, all the military forces mobilized across Greece were much thinner compared to their powerful Persian opponents. So the allied generals gave their advice and finally decided that the only way to stop the Persian army was to defend the Hot Springs Pass, where the understrength Greek allies could not attack.
The Hot Springs Pass was a narrow passage along the coast, running east to west, with the "Middle Gate" being the key to the pass, and here the Greeks concentrated about 7,000 heavy infantry, including Leonidas' own 300 elite Spartan King's Guards.
With the difficult terrain of the Hot Springs Pass and the narrow mountain passes, which prevented large forces from moving out, and which made cavalry and chariots useless, Xerxes resorted to a strong attack of heavy infantry in turn in an attempt to use his numerical superiority to defeat the Greek allies. Leonidas, on the other hand, utilized the terrain advantage of the Hot Springs Pass, and commanded his troops to use their sharp spears to fiercely stab at the enemies with Persian swords. The Persians fell one batch after another, attacked day after day, but could not move forward. Xerxes had no choice but to put out 10,000 of his best imperial troops into the battle, but apart from throwing down a large number of corpses, he still could not make any progress. Xerxes rose from his throne three times, frowning, twitching his beard and roaring furiously.
That evening, while Xerxes was sulking in his camp, his guards quietly led in a man who turned out to be a local peasant named Ephialtes.
This Greek renegade fell to his knees and said humbly, "Your Majesty the Emperor, I know a path that will allow you to get around to the rear of the Greeks unnoticed, and I will lead your men to it at once, if you will pay me a gratuity."
On hearing this, Xerxes was overjoyed, and immediately ordered the Greek traitor to lead the imperial guard straight into the rear along the thorny trail. Originally, Leonidas had already placed more than 1,000 defenders from the city-state of Phocis on the ridge beside the path. But since there had been no fighting for several days, they let their guard down, and it was only when noisy footsteps came from the silent darkness that they scrambled into battle. The Persians were already on their heels, their arrows raining down, and the Forsythians were defeated. The Persians didn't chase after them and attacked straight behind the Hot Spring Pass.
Leonidas learned that the Persian army had come around to his back, and knew that the tide had turned. In order to save his strength, he transferred the soldiers from other cities and states to the rear, leaving only the 300 soldiers he had brought with him to face the battle. The Persian army came in a tidal wave, and the Spartans, who had their backs against the enemy, fought bravely. They stabbed with their spears, and when their spears were broken, they drew their swords and chopped, and when their swords were broken, they rushed up to the enemy and fought with their fists and teeth. In the blink of an eye, the whole battlefield was filled with blood and corpses.
In the bitter battle, Leonidas, who was badly wounded, collapsed from exhaustion, and there were few Spartan warriors left who were still fighting. Gradually they were reduced to a small hill, but despite their exhaustion, none of them laid down their arms and surrendered. The Persians surrounded the remaining Spartans and rained javelins down on them at the sound of their orders, until the last man fell. Only then was the Hot Springs Pass finally captured.
The bloody battle of Hot Springs Pass, which cost the lives of 20,000 Persian soldiers, was undoubtedly a nightmare for Xerxes. When he thought of the Spartan warriors who fought to the end and preferred to die, he asked his left and right with a shudder, "Are all Spartans like this."
The Battle of Salamis was a complete failure
After capturing the Hot Springs Pass, the Persian army drove straight to the city of Athens. However, the city of Athens was empty, and there was nothing there. Xerxes was furious and ordered the largest and richest city in Greece to be set on fire.
It turned out that in Greece at the time, a prophecy had been circulating that the fate of Greece would be saved by wooden walls! However, Themistokles, the distinguished naval commander of Athens, offered his own unique insight into the ancient prophecy. He said that the future of Greece lay at sea, and that the wooden walls of the prophecy meant great ships. He therefore suggested that all the women and children take shelter in ships on the islands of Trosin in Argos and Salamis in his own country, and that all the men take to the Gulf of Salamis in ships of war and concentrate in the Gulf of Salamis. After much heated debate, the Citizens' Assembly finally accepted his proposal.
Just as the Persian land forces were coming straight at Athens, so the Persian navy rounded the island of Euboea, swept through Attica, and came to the outer harbor of Athens, Birrijus. The Persian fleet completed its encirclement of the Greek fleet in the early hours of September 23rd. On the west end of the Salamis Strait, 200 Egyptian warships arrived at their designated positions on time, blocking the retreat of the Greek fleet; on the east end of the Strait, more than 800 Persian warships lined up in three rows, blocking the sea tightly.
The day had just broken, the sea was misty, and the ambitious Xerxes could not wait to get dressed and ordered the gilded throne to be moved to Mount Egalos overlooking the bay - the death of the Greek fleet, and he wanted to watch the spectacle of the Greek fleet's demise in person. Standing beside him was a historian with pen and paper in hand, ready to record faithfully the glorious victory of the Persian navy. Pushed to the brink of extinction, the combined Greek fleet under the command of Themistokles quickly unfolded its formation: the Corinthian fleet sailed to the western mouth of the bay to hold off the Egyptian onslaught; the main fleet was concentrated at the eastern end of the strait, with 180 Athenian warships on the left flank, 16 Spartan battleships on the right flank, and battleships of the other city-states in the center to fight against the Persian main force.
As the battle began, the strengths and weaknesses of the battleships on both sides in terms of performance were quickly shown. Themistokles played his own ship small fast advantage, witty command of the Athenian warships constantly to the Persian warships as a diagonal impact, the use of the bow of a 5-meter-long copper-clad crossbar, the Persian warships first long oar cut, and then turn the bow of the ship, with the copper bushings of the bow of the ship hard to ram its belly. The Persian warships were sunk one by one.
After a fierce battle, the Persian front fleet could not hold out and was forced to retreat. The Persian battleships, which were being reinforced from behind, were unaware of the battle, and their flutes and drums were sounding in unison as they rushed forward. As the wind was blowing, the backing ships with full sails rushed into the bay and collided head-on with the retreating vanguard ships, resulting in a mess. Themistokles saw this situation, and took the opportunity to command the whole army to attack on all sides. The Greeks fought more and more bravely, until the sun was like blood, the sea was full of fragments of broken ships, the Persian navy is no longer interested in fighting, leaving their comrades in the water, and withdrew from the Strait of Salamis in dismay.
Xerxes witnessed the whole process of the sea battle from beginning to end on the hill, and watched the Persian ships sank, was captured by the captured, his heart like a knife, never thought of his huge fleet failed so miserably, but could not help foot pounding his chest, lost his voice mournful tears, and even his own gorgeous imperial robes were also torn to bits and pieces. A few days later, Xerxes, in addition to leaving a part of the troops in Greece to continue fighting, he led the rest of the troops back to Asia Minor.
The Battle of the Sea of Salamis was the most important battle of the entire Greek-Polish War, and it turned the entire tide of battle. The following year, the Greek allied forces, centered on the Spartan legions, again completely defeated the Persian land forces at Plataea. From then on, the initiative of the Greco-Persian War was completely manipulated by the Greeks, and finally not only drove the Persians out of Europe completely, but also liberated the Greek immigrant city-states along the coast of Asia Minor, which had been occupied by Persia for a long time. In 449 BC, the Greek army completely defeated Persia on the island of Cyprus, and the two sides concluded a peace treaty, the Greek-Persian War was declared over.