Free Alexander (Vol. 3) (Alexander Trilogy) by Valerio Massimo Manfredi Page B

said, passing his hand over the smooth surface of the small table before him as he spoke. ‘He has had all the potholes filled and the rocks cleared and flattened so that the chariots can reach maximum speed.’
    ‘That may well be, but the fact is that no one has disturbed our approach, we have had no trouble finding supplies in the villages and now we could easily cross the Tigris.’
    ‘Apart from the current.’
    ‘Apart from the current – it must have rained up in the mountains.’
    Just then the other friends arrived and Nearchus was with them as well.
    ‘I see that Mr Secretary General is in a presentable state again,’ said Leonnatus as he came in. ‘What a metamorphosis! Only a few moments ago he looked like a drowned rat!’
    ‘Enough!’ said Alexander. ‘Sit down. There are important matters to discuss.’ Everyone sat down and even Peritas took up position at the King’s feet, chewing on his sandals as he had done ever since he was a puppy.
    ‘It appears that the Great King is waiting for us on a stretch of level ground a day’s march from here.’
    ‘Good!’ exclaimed Perdiccas. ‘Let’s go then, I wouldn’t like him to get bored.’
    ‘The news, which reached us via Eumolpus of Soloi, comes from Persian sources, so we cannot exclude its being a trap for us.’
    ‘Right! Let’s not forget Issus,’ moaned Leonnatus. ‘That son of a bitch was about to sell us all out just to save his own arsehole!’
    ‘Cut it out!’ Perdiccas shut him up. ‘I wonder what you would have done. What motive does he have to betray us? I trust Eumolpus.’
    ‘So do I,’ said Alexander, ‘but this does not mean that we have to believe the information – it may well have been sent to draw us into a blind alley.’
    ‘What do you plan on doing, then?’ asked Lysimachus as he poured some wine into his companions’ cups.
    ‘Tonight Hephaestion will let us know if they are really so far from the river. Tomorrow we will ford the river, we will proceed in the direction of the enemy army and after two or three parasangs’ march, we will send a group of reconnaissance soldiers to see how things stand. At that stage we will hold a war council and we will attack’
    And the scythed chariots?’ asked Ptolemy.
    We will put them out of action and then we will throw everything into the centre. Just as we did at Issus.’
    We win, they lose. Asia will be ours,’ Nearchus gave his view succinctly.
    ‘That’s easy to say,’ said Seleucus, ‘but just try to imagine what things will be like when they set off with those chariots across that plain – the dust, the din of the wheels, the scythes glinting in the sun as they turn at such high speed. I think they will seek to take out our central units while the cavalry will attack our flanks.’
    ‘Seleucus is right,’ said Alexander, ‘but there is no point in trying to lay out a battle plan now, before the fact; as for the chariots, we will do just as the “ten thousand” did at Kunaxa. Remember? The heavy infantry opened up, creating corridors through which the chariots passed without causing any damage and then the archers turned and attacked the drivers and the charioteers from behind. I’m worried instead about the dust – if there is no wind then as soon as the battle starts there will be such a thick haze that we won’t be able to see beyond our noses. We’ll have to use the trumpets to keep the divisions in touch with one another. But let us eat and enjoy ourselves now – there is no reason for us to fret in this way, we have always won and we will win again this time.’
    ‘Do you really think there will be a million men waiting for us down there?’ asked Leonnatus, visibly worried. ‘By Hercules, I can’t even imagine it! But how many men are there in a million?’
    ‘I’ll tell you,’ said Eumenes. ‘It means that each one of us will have to kill twenty for us to win and they would still have some left over.’
    ‘I don’t believe it,’