ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 511 Battle of Crotone ([-])

But Dionia's spear phalanx is approaching, and the Celts at the front are directly facing the terrifying spear wall threat.They were already very angry because of the collision by the Numibians.Now in order to escape for their lives, some of the violent warriors among them simply waved their swords and killed the Numibians who blocked them.This aroused the anger and resistance of the Numibians, and delayed the escape of the entire cavalry group.

The leaders and officers of the two tribes, including Axilita and Gaba, shouted loudly and even blew the horns to retreat. However, in this dusty, noisy and chaotic battlefield with a radius of several miles, their Efforts can only be in vain...

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When the huge figure of the Celtic cavalry, including men and horses, collided with Tapirus and the others, Tapirus couldn't help but tensed up his whole body, closed his eyes tightly, and subconsciously clamped his spear, preparing to withstand the impact of huge force. .

He could only hear the miserable neighing of the horse, and a strong force was transmitted to the barrel of the gun, making it almost impossible for him to hold it tightly.At the same time, the soldiers in the first few rows also bumped into him, pushing him back violently.

"Steady, brothers! Steady!..." The soldiers behind him tried their best to hold his body, giving him strength while also loudly encouraging them.

The 15-row spear phalanx plus the light armored soldiers behind it, with a thickness of nearly 20 rows, gave Tapirus and the others enough strength to support them, allowing them to stabilize their figures.

Tapirus opened his eyes and saw that the horse's hind hooves were on the ground, its front hooves were raised, and eight or nine spears pierced his neck and chest at the same time, holding it in the air, but it was not dead yet. Stop whining.The enemy on the horse had already been pierced by two spears through his left and right chests, and lay down on the ground, already dead.Horse blood and human blood flowed down the barrel of the gun...

The soldiers struggled to pull out the spears.

Tapirus was surprised to find that although the enemy cavalry came fiercely, the soldiers did not suffer major casualties, and the formation remained relatively intact. Only a few soldiers' spears were broken.After the cavalry collision this time, the enemy did not dare to continue the attack. Instead, they stopped their horses urgently and tried to escape in panic. There was a messy scene in front of their formation...

Tapyrus and the other soldiers were relieved, and their courage was emboldened by the enemy's cowardice.

"Go on, brothers!" Tapirus yelled, and the soldiers roared back.

They stepped over the corpses of their enemies, around the dying horses, and continued forward.

Capos, who was behind the phalanx, was pleasantly surprised to see that the entire phalanx successfully blocked the advance of a large number of enemy cavalry. The enemy who was in chaos also made him realize that the opportunity could not be missed and would never be lost, so he decisively ordered: " charge!"

Yes, the soldiers of the spear brigade not only move forward steadily, but they can charge like heavy infantry without wearing any armor. The focus of training these days is this tactic.

The bugle sounded rapidly and continuously, which cheered up the spirits of the soldiers.

"Attention! We are about to charge!!..." Tapirus shouted in a hissing voice.

The soldiers of the company immediately stopped sticking together so closely, and instead opened some distance between themselves. They still took small steps under their feet, but the pace was gradually increasing...

The pace of the phalanx's advance accelerated, and enemy knights were stabbed off their horses one by one, and screams came one after another.

At the same time, the entire phalanx became no longer continuous, with many gaps appearing. However, the light armored soldiers poured into the array along the gaps, and cooperated with the spearmen to kill those who were sitting on horses and standing still. enemy.

When the Dionian cavalry who lured the enemy turned around before, a few cavalry accidentally collided with the spear phalanx due to nervousness. Some cavalry at the end of the queue were injured and killed by the Celtic cavalry that caught up... After enduring some After suffering casualties, they withdrew from both sides relatively smoothly.And just as the spear phalanx sounded the charge horn, the Dionysia cavalry, after rapid reorganization, immediately turned back from both sides and fought back. They bravely blocked the passages on both sides.

"Revenge for Sobox!!" Ryders shouted loudly and gave the order to attack.

The infantry has the unyielding hero Drakes, and the cavalry also has the dead hero Sobercus.At this time, the Dionian cavalry held the humiliation of being defeated by the Syracuse mercenary cavalry before they washed away, and desperately fought the enemy regardless of life and death.

On a battlefield where war horses cannot gallop, the gap in riding skills cannot be seen and cannot be used. This makes the Dionian cavalry compete equally with the Celts and Numibians on both sides, and also makes The enemy was even more unable to escape from the battlefield smoothly from both sides, resulting in the space in the central battlefield being compressed and making it impossible to evacuate from the rear for a while, thus creating conditions for a large number of spearmen and light armored soldiers to annihilate the enemy.

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"Your Majesty, the spear brigade has blocked the attack of the enemy's cavalry and is now counterattacking!" Hearing Tormid's excited report, Davos' uneasy heart settled down, but his expression was still solemn: "Now let's look at the first , the Second Legion and Milon’s!”

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Phoebias, who was in the military formation, did not know the battle situation of his own cavalry. He was now focused on leading Syracuse's right wing to stride forward. At the same time, he was paying attention to the entire right wing array line as he walked, just as he expected. , the entire array is gradually tilting to the left.

The infantry tactic that the Spartans were best at was the "left-hand tactic."During the battle, the Spartans took advantage of the heavy infantry's characteristics of holding a shield in its left hand, leaning to the right, and the formation gradually turning to the left while marching. They designed a plan to allow the soldiers on the far right to accelerate forward. After reaching the enemy's position, the right wing would naturally turn left as a whole. , thus directly attacking the flank of the enemy's left wing, causing the enemy who lacked training to be defeated first when the flank was violently attacked.Most of the time, the battle is over before the other two groups come into direct contact.

At such an important moment of the battle, Phoebus, who was also nervous, chose the tactics he was most familiar with.Although the Syracuse army was unable to carry out a uniform left-turn attack in battles like the Spartan warriors who had undergone rigorous training together since childhood, the Syracuse army also had advantages that the Spartan army did not have. There were numerous infantry and cavalry, and they had more soldiers than the Dionians, and they had more cavalry than the Dionians.After having a rough understanding of Dionia's formation, Phoebidas was delighted to discover that he could concentrate heavy troops on the right wing, take the lead in defeating the enemy's left wing, and lay the foundation for victory in the entire battle!

Since when starting to march, the left end of the right wing is connected to the middle (the cavalry connected to the right end has already rushed to the front), according to previous habits, the marching speed is instinctively slower than that of soldiers without friendly troops outside the right side. In addition, The heavy infantry had the characteristic of leaning to the right when marching. After the Syracuse right wing of this front, which was more than two miles long, advanced for a period, the entire array tilted significantly.

In this regard, Phoebidas was happy and happy to see the success.He calculated: When in contact with Dionia's left wing, the tilted array should be able to cut the enemy's flank.By then, the cavalry should have solved Dionia's cavalry, and then turned to attack the rear of their left wing. Dionia's left wing was attacked from three sides, and no matter how strong the heavy infantry was, they probably wouldn't be able to withstand it!
Phoebidas was able to detect anomalies in the array, and some of the experienced combat officers in the first and second Dionysian legions on the opposite side were also able to detect it. The two legion commanders who were constantly receiving reports immediately realized the situation. Something was wrong. At this time, the distance between the two armies was less than 400 meters.

Antonios immediately sent messengers to convey his advice to Amyntas, Myron, and Sipulos at both ends: stop the advance immediately and reorganize the array to deal with the enemy in front of them.

The consent of Amyntas, commander of the Second Army, was quickly obtained.

Antonios couldn't wait for the response of Milon and Sipulos, who were still hesitating, and decisively blew the "stop advancing" bugle, and then the Second Army issued the same order.

The First and Second Legions are worthy of being the Dionian legions with the earliest establishment, the most veterans, and the strongest combat effectiveness. The strongest combat effectiveness also means the strongest ability to execute orders.

The bugle sounded and the military flag was waved. Although the officers and soldiers were puzzled, they stopped advancing one after another.

The two Dionian legions stopped advancing, leaving the Crotone-Trina reinforcements on the far left at a loss. Milon and Sipulos, who were still hesitating, had to immediately give the order: Stop advancing!

Their city-state citizen soldiers do not have systematic military training and complex military doctrine and organization like Dionia. They do not even have a "stop advancing" bugle at all. They can only send many messengers in front of and behind the formation. The order was conveyed loudly, so the entire array seemed a bit chaotic.Fortunately, they were connected to the First Army Corps. The First Army Corps was immobile, which naturally affected the adjacent soldiers of the Kett reinforcements to stop their advance in a hurry.

At this time, the First and Second Legions had already begun to turn the entire array in a leisurely manner, and the Ket coalition could only follow suit, which was somewhat difficult.Because the Dionian Army marches in a checkerboard array with companies as dense small square formations, it has strong flexibility, coupled with capable team officers and rigorously trained soldiers, it can smoothly move the queue Throw it over so that the front of the formation faces the enemy again.The array of the Ket coalition is a dense array, about half a mile long and 15 columns thick. The soldiers are heavily armored. The thick and airtight Corinthian helmets are a bit difficult to receive voice commands. It is not easy to turn on the spot during normal training, not to mention that this is a battlefield where the sound of killing is loud. Facing the rapidly approaching enemy army, the Kett reinforcements must complete such a complex tactical maneuver. It's even more difficult.

　Thanks to Zhanbili and gatsby for the reward!Your support is my biggest motivation for writing! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)