ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 513 Battle of Crotone ([-])

After the light infantry retreated, the Dionian phalanx soldiers on the right and center quickly threw two rounds of javelins. When the Syracuse army formation on the opposite side was in some confusion, they held long shields and bayonets and shouted "Haha" In the name of "Dis", he rushed towards the enemy...

At this point, the two armies of Dionia and Syracuse were in full battle.

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News of the battle between the two armies was sent back to the Acropolis by Crotone's spies, which aroused the attention of all the people in the city. After all, the outcome of this battle was not only related to the thousands of Crotone citizen soldiers who went to fight. Life and death are more related to the survival of all the people in Crotone, so many people want to go to the battlefield to watch the battle with uneasiness, including many members of the council.

After deliberation, the remaining hundreds of citizen soldiers in the Acropolis continued to stay to protect the women, children, and elderly people who were inconvenient in the city. Led by Tis and other members of the General's Executive Committee, they descended the hill in fear and came to the ruins of Crotone City, which was already a piece of rubble.

Feeling sad in their hearts, before they could reach the north wall, the deafening sound enveloped them. Many people turned pale after hearing this, their legs were trembling, and they needed help from others to move forward.

Due to the burning of the fire and the wanton destruction of the people of Syracuse, sections of the northern city wall collapsed like an old man's teeth, with gaps everywhere. Only the section connecting to the city gate is still standing relatively intact...

Lysias and the others stepped on the stone steps with a heavy heart, climbed to the top of the city, held on to the battlements, and looked out anxiously: far in the distance, densely packed soldiers were fighting together, filling the vast wilderness of Croton Plain. The huge terrifying sound was like the earth roaring, stirring the dust, and even the color of the sky and the earth changed...

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On the southern seaside of Crotone, more than 80 crow warships led by Midorades were confronting nearly forty remaining Syracuse warships led by Leptinis.

What made Midolades a headache was that once his fleet approached the Syracuse warship, the Syracuse fleet retreated quickly, and the special structure of the crow warship prevented them from catching up with Syracuse in terms of speed. Cuza's ordinary warships; but once the Midorades fleet approached the coast, the Syracuse fleet came over again...

Just when Midorades was hesitating, the troops remaining in the camp in Syracuse sent hundreds of soldiers. They rushed to the seaside with weapons in hand, along with the thousands of Sicilian free people who were usually responsible for transporting baggage, to let Midorades Des's attempt to land sailors to disrupt the rear of Syracuse's army failed.

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Since Trina was captured by Syracuse, a thousand Syracuse soldiers, more than 1000 Hibernian soldiers, and a thousand Coronian soldiers were stationed in the city, a total of more than 3000 people.Being far away from the front line, the defenders of Trina had a very leisurely life until Dionysius' orders came twice from the Crotone camp in the past two days: let them strengthen their defenses and pay close attention to the Crotones in the north. Movement in Napetia City!

The garrison generals immediately cheered up and strengthened their reconnaissance to the north.

Surprising news came from Scouting this afternoon: a fleet of ships docked on the beach of the Euphemia Plain, and about five or six thousand Dionia soldiers landed. After landing, the Dionia troops were heading towards Terry March to Nancheng!

Immediately afterwards, another news came: more than 1000 Dionian soldiers came out of the city of Knapetia and have entered the Euphemia Plain!
……

One piece of news made Trina's general Syracuse restless. Although he was eager to make meritorious service, the attacking enemy with 7000 people was obviously not something he could defeat with this little force in his hand. He immediately ordered: close the city gate , pulled up the suspension bridge, and the soldiers of each unit went to the city wall to defend according to the deployment of the previous drill, and at the same time, they immediately prepared sufficient arrows, javelins, stones, asphalt...

In addition, he also sent two couriers to rush to Xiliting and Crotone camps to report the news.

Hieros led his troops to the city of Trina. After carefully observing the Syracusans' city defense situation, he did not immediately launch an siege. In fact, time did not allow it.

He ordered the army to start building a camp one mile away from the city in the northwest direction, waiting for Knapetia's reinforcements to arrive and join them.

At the same time, in order to prevent the main force of Syracuse in the east from attacking, he sent out the few cavalry squads and mountain reconnaissance squads in the army to scout the Siracusa Grand Army and Crotone. Camp trends.

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"Attack! Attack!..." Martonis, who was standing behind the phalanx, wished he could go into battle in person and have a good fight. Unfortunately, he was already the commander of the legion, and was restricted by the "Dionia Military Law", so he could only order The drummers kept beating, urging the soldiers to intensify their attack.

Although the Seventh Legion was newly built and most of its soldiers were recruits, the great victory of Heraclea gave them victory and honor, and gave them more confidence. They launched a fierce attack on the enemy without fear.

Cregennis was a freeman who had just arrived in Thurii four years ago, but he was lucky enough to become one of the light infantry composed of [-] freemen during the Battle of the Trionto River, and contributed to the defeat of Crotone's partial division. He made a contribution and finally participated in the triumphal ceremony, which gave him a goal to strive for.

At the beginning of this year, he became an official citizen.In the past few years, the Dionia army has been expanding, but when the instructors of the Ministry of Military Affairs in various places are selecting recruits for the legion, he is always eliminated. The reason is that he is thin and not suitable for melee infantry. The instructor suggested that he become a light infantry.But he has always dreamed of becoming a heavy infantry soldier, so he has always been a reserve soldier of the legion, but he is not discouraged because of his resilience. He has been insisting on exercising and honing his combat skills, and finally waited until the war broke out and the new legion was formed.

Originally based on his status and qualifications (formal citizen, three-year legion reserve), legion commander Matonis was going to make him the company captain, but he refused because he felt that he was suddenly promoted after having never served as a team officer. As a mid- to senior-level team officer, he had no experience and was unable to fight on the front line and show the results of his hard training. In the end, he became a squad leader of the Seventh Army.

Now, he is fighting at the forefront, with the long shield in his left hand firmly protecting his body, and the stabbing spear in his right hand hanging above his head, almost keeping still. But once the enemy shows a flaw, it stabs out like lightning, with every stab. He was ruthless and accurate, both of which brought a great threat to the enemy, and he stabbed several people in a short period of time.

He rarely shouted and issued orders like some team officers, but his leading the way greatly encouraged the soldiers under his command, and their morale was greatly boosted...

Olivers, who has always been unconvinced by Matonis and always wants to compete with him, will certainly not let the Seventh Legion excel.Under his strict orders, the Sixth Army also continued to attack...

More than half of the people fighting against these two new Dionian legions were soldiers from Sicilian city-states, such as Catanai, Leotini, Gela, Carmanlina... These city-states are said to be allies of Syracuse , is actually a vassal, and the rulers of its city-states are tyrants directly appointed and supported by Dionysius. Therefore, it was not the intention of these soldiers to attack Magna Graecia, but they won successively during this period and captured a lot of loot. , so their morale is pretty good, and because of the incentive of "win to go home", their fighting spirit is second only to the Syracuse soldiers.

But among the ranks on Syracuse's left wing were soldiers from Syracuse's Magna Graecia allies, the Locrians, Medemas, Hibernians, and Coronians.Especially the Colonians, who were forced to surrender to Syracuse due to circumstances, but were unwilling to do so.Of course Dionysius knew this too, so he left a thousand Coronians in Trina and a thousand in Silitium to replace his own troops, as well as two thousand Coronians. Dispersing them in the front line of the left wing forced them to fight in order to survive, but their fighting spirit can be imagined.

Originally, Dionysius saw that Dionia's right wing was basically soldiers wearing Corinthian helmets, holding round shields and lances, and thought that they were not the main force of Dionysia, so he dared to make such an arrangement.

Unexpectedly, the two new legions, who were not afraid of tigers at first sight, attacked with such ferocity that a total of 14000 soldiers forced the left wing of Syracuse, which had 2 people but was complex and weak in fighting spirit, to slowly retreat...

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Syracuse's left wing was retreating, and so was its center.

The soldiers of the Fourth and Fifth Legions of Dionysia experienced the disastrous defeat of Siritin and witnessed the tragic death of the regiment commander and comrades in arms. Today, they are fighting the enemy with the purpose of washing away shame and revenge, so they are no longer just They are brave, but a little crazy. They all have ferocious expressions and desperately want to get close to the enemy and fight at close range.

The Bruti soldiers who fought alongside him were also infected by it and showed the ferocity of the mountain people.The turmoil in the Bruti region some time ago has greatly affected the perception of other Dionian people towards the Bruti people. Today they need to use their performance to show their loyalty to the alliance.

At the forefront of Syracuse's middle road are the Campania mercenaries. After the last battle, these experienced mercenaries understood the power of the Dionia heavy infantry in close combat, so they tried their best to fight with the Dionia heavy infantry. The soldiers kept some distance and used lances to block the enemy's approach.At the same time, they knew that the heavy infantry's desperate onslaught was very exhausting, and they were patiently waiting for the moment when the Dionians' strength was exhausted before they counterattacked.As a result, the Campania mercenaries and another [-] Syracuse citizen soldiers were both forced and intentional to retreat.

　Thanks to Zhan Billy and Kite 2001. Can you give me more rewards?Your support is my biggest motivation for writing! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)