Davos and Helpous were discussing how to treat the wounded more efficiently when Menon’s guards summoned him.
As soon as he entered, Menon shouted angrily, “I told you, ‘If you have any new ideas, come to me first!’ And you agreed. But now, you’ve deceived me! You broke your promise!”
“What did I do wrong?” Davos asked, baffled.
“You could revive those unconscious soldiers, and you didn’t tell me beforehand—you went ahead and did it secretly!” Menon’s face was dark with displeasure.
Davos found this amusing. “Respected Leader Menon, the situation was urgent—saving lives came first. If I had to report to you first and then organize people to treat them, Asistus would have been dead by now!”
Davos added sarcastically, “Besides, this isn’t some new idea—it’s a medical skill passed down in my family. I came to be a mercenary, not a slave. I don’t need your approval to heal people!”
Menon was momentarily at a loss for words. The soldiers shouting Davos’s name earlier had clouded his judgment with jealousy, and without thinking, he had angrily summoned Davos, only to end up embarrassed.
He simply said, “I still need a guard. From now on, you’ll be responsible for protecting me. You are not to leave without my orders!” He had a premonition that he had to separate Davos from the soldiers to prevent him from influencing them further, weakening Menon’s control over this mercenary force.
“I’m sorry, Leader Menon. I’m better suited as an ordinary soldier than a guard. Besides, my captain wouldn’t agree!” Davos guessed Menon’s intent and naturally refused.
Menon hadn’t expected a direct rejection and laughed bitterly. “I am your leader! Who would dare disagree with my orders?”
“I disagree!” With a loud shout, Antonios stepped into the hall.
“I disagree too!” Capus followed closely, with several other platoon leaders behind him.
Seeing Antonios nod to him, Davos breathed a sigh of relief—he was safe. He didn’t know that when the guard had aggressively summoned him, Heilos sensed something was wrong and immediately ran to alert Antonios, which was why they had arrived so quickly.
“Who let you in?! Where are my guards?!” Menon was flustered and angry. The unexpected arrival of his major officers unsettled him.
“Leader, the wounded in camp are urgently waiting for Davos to treat them. This can’t be delayed!” Antonios’s calm words carried a veiled threat, making Menon’s heart tighten. The cold stares from the others made him feel even more uneasy.
He chose to back down, stammering, “Well... Davos used his excellent medical skills to revive the unconscious wounded soldiers. I... I’m pleased. So I called him over... to... ahem... appoint him as the camp doctor, to treat more soldiers.”
“I’m very willing to treat my wounded brothers! But I won’t be a doctor, nor the guard you mentioned earlier. I only want to serve as a soldier under Heilos.” Davos answered bluntly. Being a camp doctor might be safer, but it didn’t suit his plans. Besides, he didn’t want to accept Menon’s olive branch. Since the rift was already open, based on his initial understanding of Menon, it would be hard to mend. There was no need to be polite—and sending the wrong signal to these officers who had come to support him.
In front of everyone, Menon felt humiliated by a lowly common soldier’s rebuttal. He roared, “Davos!”
Before he could finish, a deafening roar erupted from outside the courtyard: “Give us back our Davos! Let the soldiers have a chance to live!!”
“Menon, if you don’t release Davos, we’ll break in!!”
The shouts of countless soldiers made Menon tremble with fear.
“Davos, go back first,” Antonios said.
Davos nodded and said loudly, “Thank you all for your help, captains!”
Upon hearing this, Menon glared hatefully at the officers. After Davos left, he said in a low, sinister voice, “Antonios, Capus... you’re starting to oppose me too?”
“Menon, you are our leader, and we naturally follow your orders. But Davos is the God-Touched One of Hades. The soldiers have witnessed many miracles he performed! The gods look down on us from above, blessing us to return safely from foreign lands, and they won’t allow any disrespect.” Antonios replied diplomatically.
Menon understood the implication: We all know what you did to Davos. We can follow your commands, but when it comes to Davos, we must protect him. He wanted to retort to salvage his dignity, but Amyntas, the officer who disliked him most, shouted, “Listen, Menon! Our mercenary contract is over. If you keep messing around, we won’t hesitate to elect a new leader! I’m sure the soldiers won’t choose you again!”
Amyntas’s words struck Menon’s weak point: a mercenary army was a loose military organization. Menon became leader because he had connections, could secure contracts, get paid, and distribute salaries. Now that Cyrus the Younger was dead, Menon had lost his employer. He could no longer get money or pay the soldiers. The soldiers still obeyed him only because: first, returning home safely was a common goal, and they had to stick together—scattered men couldn’t survive on Persian soil. The mercenary chain of command was already in place and working effectively, and the soldiers were used to it. Second, after years of mercenary life, the experienced officers rarely changed; most had good relations with Menon and helped him control the force. But now, for Davos’s sake, both officers and soldiers were united against him, showing that his grip on the army was precarious.
Menon knew he wasn’t well-liked among the soldiers. He used not to care, because as long as he had money, he could replace any batch of soldiers—Greece itself, with its barren land and the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War, had reduced the people to poverty, and there were plenty of young men seeking survival abroad. But now it had become his biggest worry.
Forcing himself to stay calm, he saw Antonios, Capus, and the others out. Only after returning to the hall did he let out a roar of frustration: “I’ll kill that brat!” As soon as he said it, he realized something and hurried to the courtyard gate. The guard who had been with him for over a year had disappeared sometime.
He felt afraid. Restless in the hall, he looked at the mess his anger had made, hesitated for a long time, and finally decided to go see Ariaeus. He’d heard that in the past couple of days, many of Ariaeus’s relatives had come to see him. With their help, the mercenaries might not have to struggle so hard to get back...
With this in mind, Menon formed a plan. He straightened his clothes, went to the courtyard, took a horse, and with a hard kick to its flank, galloped northward.
...
After this incident tested his influence in Menon’s camp, Davos returned to his quarters and actively sought out Helpous to discuss treating the wounded.
Although Davos hadn’t been a doctor in his previous life, he had two thousand years more knowledge than the people of this era—enough to devise a far superior medical plan. First, establish a medical team, with Helpous as the lead, and find one or two soldiers interested in medicine from the camp to serve as part-time doctors. Obtain a few female slaves from the baggage camp to serve as nurses, training them while treating patients—they would soon adapt to their new roles. Second, designate an area as a field hospital to centralize treatment and improve efficiency. Third, create practical medical procedures and instill concepts of sterile hygiene in doctors and nurses. In the army, wounds were the most common. As long as infection could be prevented, given the soldiers’ strong physiques, most moderate injuries would improve. Finally, collect local folk remedies from the Persians along the way. Mesopotamia was one of the oldest civilizations on Earth. People who had lived on this land for millennia surely had their own unique ways of dealing with ailments. By learning from them and using modern analytical methods to discard the dross and keep the essence, Davos could expand the medical team’s range of treatments.
Davos planned to develop this medical team into a permanent, indispensable organization within the camp, for the future.
To control the soldiers’ health was to control their loyalty.
Conflict