ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 544 The Battle of Naxos
Therefore, Leotizides, who always had a cold and arrogant face to everyone, only showed respect when facing Parmenius.

"Help him." Leotizides said, stretched out his hands, grasped the end of the short spear, and pulled it outwards.

However, the force of the abdominal bow was too strong, and Leotizides was unable to pull out the short spear.

"Another strong one!" As he said this, he squatted down and stood up, ready to use all his strength.

At this time, another team leader shouted anxiously: "Company leader, listen up! The enemy's attack is coming again, wait until you escape this round, and then come to clean up the body of the team leader Parmenius!"

Leotizides paid no attention.

The squad leader shouted helplessly: "Shield defense!"

The soldiers hurriedly and skillfully stacked their long shields together to form a shield formation, protecting Leotizides in the center.

"Captain of the company of Hethebarus!" With this shout, Hethebarus squeezed in and stood opposite Leotizides. The captain of the company who was also a soldier under Parmenius also He held the short spear with both hands.

Amidst the sound of stone bullets hitting the wooden wall, the two of them worked hard at the same time and finally pulled out the short spear. Fortunately, this time the abdominal bow did not fire the short spear in this direction, otherwise the long shield might not be able to block it.

Leotizides laid Parmenius' body flat, took off his helmet, stretched out his hand to close his painful eyes, and whispered: "May the Elysée be opened to you."

After speaking, he stood up and said: "Sitalsis, you take over the position of Parmanius's squad leader and send two people to take Parmanius's body to the rear."

"Yes!" Sitalsis, who was once the direct superior of Leoticides, saluted and replied.

"Proseus, we will use the blood of countless Syracuseans to honor Parmenius!" Heterbarus said hatefully.

Leotizides did not speak, but his face was equally gloomy and terrifying.

After this round of stone bombardment, the sentry ran forward to observe the enemy's situation. The wooden wall had basically collapsed, and the view ahead was wide: "Report, the enemy's ballista has moved forward!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a "...creak...boom!" sound. The crumbling sentry tower finally collapsed, and dust flew into the air.

Leotizides glanced at the densely packed Syracuse army on the south bank of the Alcantara River and issued an order: "All soldiers in the army retreat immediately!"

Not just his company, but other companies were doing the same thing.

Mathias on the south bank was giving the order to the ballista unit: "Move the ballista forward another 10 meters!...".

As a general appointed by Dionysius to guard the city of Syracuse, Macias was once a mercenary leader. After the army fought in Magna Graecia, we also have some understanding of the combat characteristics of the Dionian army, and we also pay enough attention to the combat effectiveness of the Dionian army.Although Philistus urged him to eliminate the invaders as soon as possible and alleviate the uneasiness of his Sicilian allies, he still decided to proceed step by step according to his own battle plan.

According to the information constantly sent back by the spies, Mathias estimated that the Syracusans had about 6000 soldiers. Including the exiles, the total strength may be 8000.Although the number of troops he led was much greater than that of the opponent, he did not plan to attack rashly. Instead, he followed the method summarized by Syracuse in the continuous siege battles, first concentrated the ballistae and continued bombardment to weaken the defense of the opponent's city. Destroy the morale of the defenders, and finally send troops to attack.

Meillaro's poor city defense further demonstrated the power of Syracuse's ballistae units. Even though the wooden walls and towers on the south side had been swept away, Macias did not launch an army attack. His plan was to continue bombarding with ballistae. One day, the town of Mearo was completely turned into ruins, leaving the Dionians and Sicilian exiles to consume their energy in anxiety and panic, waiting for reinforcements from the allies such as Gela and Camanlina on the south coast of Sicily to arrive tomorrow. Come, after the military strength has been strengthened again, these Dionians will be annihilated in one fell swoop.Therefore, the most common thing Mathias said that day was "Move forward! Keep moving forward! Blast Meillaro to pieces!..."

Syracuse's style of play was beyond Antonios' expectations. He did not wait for the attack of the Syracuse army. Instead, the leaders of the exiles came to complain frequently, because it was not only Dionia soldiers who were constantly retreating. , as well as these exiles and their families, the whole town was filled with the cries of children and the screams of women, like Tolilaus even hoped that Antonios would lead his army to take the initiative to attack Syracuse People attack.

After being flatly rejected by Antonios, he was so angry that he cursed the Dionians as cowards.

Antonios didn't care too much. Although Syracuse's ballistae gave him a headache, their non-attack also bought time for the First Army. Antrapolis' suggestion made him see that the other party must be planning. What, this gave him hope, but he would not place all his hopes on these spies who were hiding in the dark like mice and spying on secrets.

These Sicilian exiles surprised Antonios. Except for young children and women, these young and middle-aged exiles were able to remain calm in the face of the powerful ballista bombardment, maintain order, not panic, and actively demanded to fight.It was commendable that he could continue to carry out his orders even after being rejected by him.

After Laodicean's explanation, he learned that after their homes were destroyed, these Sicilian exiles fled to the inland mountains and gradually built settlements one after another, but they had to face the plundering and invasion of Syracuse allies. The West Kells raided from time to time.Over the past few years, these surviving exiles have developed courage, improved their fighting skills, and also developed the habit of obeying the collective, because in a dangerous situation surrounded by enemies, if they do not unite, they will only be destroyed.

The performance of the Exiles gave Antonios more confidence. He is most worried about two things now.

The first is grain. Antonios concentrated the grain collected after capturing Mearo and the grain shipped by the Lijim fleet in the barn near the center of the town. Now the landing point of the stone bullets is constantly moving forward, and the barn In the near future, I am afraid that it will also enter its strike range. He can only order Laodicean, Lysiperatus and others to organize the exiles to rush to transport the grain to the north of Mearo town.

The second is the Dionia fleet...

.............................................

Compared to the battle on land, which has just begun, the battle at sea is proceeding at an intense pace.

Syracuse originally had 50 triremes, and on its way north, it gathered warships from the city-states such as Taunis and Catanai. There were a total of 65 triremes, which looked similar to the 60 triremes of Dionia. There is not much difference between the three-row warships, but the Syracuse Navy also has 16 other small and medium-sized warships. With a strength exceeding the 21 warships of the Dionia fleet, it should have the upper hand in this battle. But judging from the situation on the battlefield, the two sides were evenly matched.

Although the Dionia fleet had a small number of ships, under the leadership of Sekerian personally leading the ship and taking the lead, other warships launched a frantic attack on the Syracuse fleet, regardless of the speed of the warships, Still, the response was much faster than that of the Syracuse fleet, especially Syracuse's own warships, which seemed to be sluggish and lifeless. They were passively dealing with them just because they had more experience in handling ships than their opponents.

Paronisus, who was at the rear of the fleet, saw this situation and was anxious but had no choice. What he worried about finally happened: during this period, the resentment of the people in the port of Syracuse against the city-state seriously affected the sailors' fighting spirit!

At this time, the lookout on the mast shouted excitedly: "Sir, the enemy's flagship was hit by our ship and it is going to sink!"

"Great!" Paronisus shouted excitedly.

Although naval battles are different from land battles, due to the vast combat area, they are more about fighting each other. If one party's flagship is sunk, it will not lead to a fragile defeat of the army like the killing of the leader of the land army, but it will also have a certain impact. Perhaps this This is the turning point of this naval battle!Paronisus shouted excitedly and ordered: "Blow the attack horn and urge all warships to step up the attack!"

The sound of the bugle pierced the war fog on the sea. The first thing that stimulated was not the warships of Syracuse and its allies, but the sailors of Dionia. In their eyes, the red battle flag flying high in front of them was slowly rising. whereabouts……

Lord Cyklian is in danger!Both the captain and the sailor had such an idea in their minds.

As the hero of the victory in the Bruti War and the first sailor to hold the flag in the triumphal ceremony, Cykerian made the sailors proud and was regarded by them as the pride of the navy!Then Sekerian served as the commander-in-chief of the navy. Although he was young and energetic, and sometimes cursed because of the poor performance of his men, he was cheerful and straightforward, and could get along well with the sailors. For the benefit of the navy, he dared to ask Davos many times. His Majesty fought hard and won the support of the sailors and generals under his command.

As a result, each warship in Dionia began a more frenzied attack, because every sailor knew very well: it was impossible to rush to the crash site of the flagship immediately, and the only way was to sink it as quickly as possible. The enemy ship in front of you needs to win this naval battle and force the enemy to retreat. Only then can you have a chance to rescue Sekerian who fell into the sea!

Inspired by such spiritual power, the sailors seemed to have forgotten their fatigue, and their paddle speed returned to the peak level when they first entered the battle. They sprinted, stopped suddenly, reversed, and circled... The Dionian sailors worked together. , controlling the warship as freely as his own body.

The sudden increase in the speed and agility of the Dionian warship left the Syracuse warship with no time to react, "Bang!...Bang! Bang!..." One after another, the Syracuse warship was hit by the opponent or the oar was hit. After the pinch and the sinking of the Dionia flagship, the situation of the Syracuse fleet not only did not improve, but became worse.

When Paronisus was in a panic, the lookout shouted: "My lord, there is a warship... a warship has escaped!"

.......................................

"Thesitis, I order you to turn the helm and go back immediately! Otherwise, I will accuse you of deserting the battle to General Paronissus, and you are waiting to be punished by military law!" The captain roared loudly at the helmsman of the warship Thesitis.

　Thanks to Zhan Billy, Yi Jian 68, and Crazy Ryan for the rewards!Your support is my biggest motivation for writing! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)