ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 560: The Remaining Brave Should Pursue the Poor Bandits

Mathias didn't care too much, and led the soldiers to forcibly move into the village and ordered the villagers to prepare food.

The exhausted soldiers barely filled their stomachs and fell into a deep sleep. Only Macias tossed and turned and could not sleep: the news of the riots in Syracuse made him very worried about the situation outside Syracuse. The situation in the mercenary villages, after all, the tragic situation in the Katanai mercenary village made him secretly alert, hoping that the hundreds of mercenaries who stayed in the village could defend their homes!By the time he leads his army back to Syracuse tomorrow, more than a day has passed since the riot. A lot of things can happen in this day and more. If the rioters are really allowed to occupy the whole city, then they and Di The mercenaries who have close relationships with Onisius will probably be expelled and become homeless.I hope Lord Philistos can quell the riot. Even if he cannot, he must control and hold on to part of the city and wait for his reinforcements to arrive!
After worrying about Syracuse, he then worried about how to lead this army back to Syracuse safely.When heading to Mearo, he led his army north along the flat coast, passing through Taunis, then detouring to Leotini to recruit troops, and then passing through Catanai, finally reaching Siculi. It can be said that it was he who Taking away the defense power of these city-states along the way gave the rebels an opportunity, leading to large-scale riots.

But now is not the time to regret this. Judging from today's situation, Catanai is probably completely occupied by the rioters. Otherwise, how could there be spare power to send troops out of the city to attack them.Even if Sikuli was not completely occupied, the Dionians were so close to it that it would be a matter of time before it fell.The Leothenes were forcibly removed by Dionysius, with half of their population. The remaining people may have long been resentful of Syracuse. Under such a trend, there was no need for the free people and slaves to rebel, and its citizens would They would take the initiative to overthrow the tyrants supported by Lord Dionysius, so Mathias was not optimistic that the pro-Syracuse Leotianians could resist this rebellion.

On the contrary, he has some confidence in Taunis and Mathias, because Taunis has always been a subordinate ally of Syracuse and has never betrayed him. He was dissatisfied with the tyrants he supported in time and would not rush to attack Syracuse. The army of Zhan.What's more, the port of Taunis is anchored by the Syracuse fleet that retreated from the Gulf of Naxos. With their help, even if there is a rebellion in Taunis, the possibility of success will not be too high.

Therefore, Macias finally made a decision: after setting off tomorrow, the team will bypass Catanai to avoid possible attacks by the Leotians, then walk to the seaside, pass Taunis, and finally reach Syracuse... This is A long journey of hundreds of miles, full of unknown risks, but in order to get back to Syracuse as soon as possible, he could only take this risk.Otherwise, for the sake of safety, he could skip the coast and take a detour to the almost uninhabited mountainous area on the west side of Leotini. Although the mountains there are not too high, the roads are rugged and difficult, which will undoubtedly slow down the journey, and the food supply is also a big question...

Mathias thought a lot, and finally couldn't resist the sleepiness and fell asleep...

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The next day, at three o'clock in the morning, he was still sleeping soundly when he was woken up by the guards. Only then did he realize that something big had happened while he was snoozing: When he woke up in the morning, the soldiers found that dozens of horses were missing, and the village's The number of residents was also reduced by more than half. Of course, the soldiers suspected that the residents of the village had done something good. They were angry and immediately arrested all the villagers who had not escaped for interrogation. In the process, the former mercenaries who had regained their energy returned to their old ways, robbing, Rape, killing... some of the most common evil deeds they experienced while following Dionysius in his conquest of Sicily were repeated in this village.

This aroused dissatisfaction and anger among a small number of Katana mercenaries in the team, because this was a village under their jurisdiction.A conflict broke out between the two sides, and finally the angry Kartana mercenaries left the team, reducing the number of the entire army to 3000.

Faced with such a difficult situation, Mathias was helpless. He even believed that without the Catanai holding them back, they would be able to march faster and consume less food, not to mention other annoying problems.Although they were all compatriots from Campania, they had been comrades fighting side by side until today and had a deep friendship. Now that the disaster is approaching, they can only take care of themselves.

Mathias ordered his soldiers to plunder all the food in the village, and set off at once.

Under the supervision of Mathias, this team of more than 3000 people, almost all composed of former mercenary citizens of Syracuse, set off in a hurry with the expectation of returning to Syracuse as soon as possible and defending their homeland.

As they marched southeast, they encountered broken troops in twos and threes from time to time, and Mathias took the opportunity to include them all in the team.

At the same time, this team was also spied on by many reconnaissance cavalry squads. While sending out cavalry to drive them away, Mathias urged the soldiers to speed up their march.

His premonition came true.Soon a team of 800 people came from the northeast. They did not wear armor, held bows, arrows and javelins, and moved quickly to launch long-range attacks on Mathias' team.

Mathias was almost certain that the enemy came from Catanai, and he hastily ordered his soldiers to attack.

But when the Syracuse soldiers formed their formation and began to attack, the light infantry from Catanai retreated.But when the Syracuse soldiers resumed column formation and continued marching, they appeared again.

After repeating this several times, Mathias understood: the Catanai rebels only wanted to attack him, but did not really want to fight head-on.

But Mathias couldn't ignore it, otherwise the javelins and arrows fired would continue to take away the lives of the soldiers and destroy their low fighting spirit, so he left more than 50 cavalry and nearly 500 The light infantry was placed at the tail to be able to counter the enemy's attack.However, he did not allow the soldiers to pursue excessively, because this not only consumes physical strength, but also separates them from the large army and makes them easy to be ambushed. Now the entire army has only one goal - to go home.

The Syracuse army fought intermittently and only walked out of the Catania plain in the afternoon. The terrain in front began to narrow, with the sea to the east, mountains to the west, and a flat seaside corridor less than five miles wide in the middle.

Mathias was originally worried about the appearance of the Leotini rebels, but fortunately they did not appear, and it may be that the narrow terrain restricted the mobility of the Catana rebels, so they did not continue to harass the team behind. The Syracuse soldiers could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

The Syracuse army accelerated their march because the city of Taunis was ten miles away.

After the city of Taunis came into view, the defeated soldiers of Syracuse, who thought they had escaped the disaster, suddenly saw: not far to the north of Taunis, there was a troop of 5000 people in front of them arranged in a neat phalanx, blocking the way. Entering this seaside corridor, the all-black armor of most of the soldiers made their excitement suddenly fall to the bottom: they are Dionians!It's Dioria's legion! !How did they get ahead of us? ! ! …

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Yesterday's bitter battle ended with the defeat of the Syracuse army.

While the First Legion of Dionysia was pursuing, Anton Rios finally saw the messenger sent by Antrapolis. After learning that "Catanai has been captured and the Syracuse riot was successful" After the news, Antonios finally breathed a sigh of relief: the First Army had paid the price and finally gained a foothold in Sicily.

But even though he was happy, he could not relax, because Antrapolis hoped that the First Army could intercept the Syracuse army to prevent them from returning to Syracuse and causing riots in Syracuse. Action brings great changes.

To be honest, Antonios really didn’t want to follow the advice of the spy leader. Although the First Army finally won this battle, nearly a thousand people were killed or injured, and several senior team officers died, including his close comrade Zipit. They are also unconscious. From the 8000 people (excluding auxiliary troops) before the outbreak of the war, the First Army has only nearly 4000 people left. The number has been reduced by more than half. They have made huge sacrifices. Logically speaking, they should rest and replenish. However, the current environment does not allow it, and the danger has not completely passed. The last step is missing from our efforts.

Antonios certainly did not want the expedition of the First Army to fall short because of the defeat and the escape back to Syracuse. The habit of "the Dionysian Army has always taken advantage of the victory to pursue it to the end after a victory" made him reluctantly agree. Antrapolis' suggestion: Jointly operate with Catanai to completely wipe out the Syracuse army on their way back!

After seeing off the messenger, Antonios rushed to the port after contemplation. The sailors of the Dionia fleet were sending the families of the exiles off the warship.

Antonios soon met Flarios, who was commanding the fleet in place of Sekerian. After discussion, Flarios agreed that the fleet would not return to Ligium, but stay overnight in Mearo in order to arrive earlier the next day. Take part in military operations.

There is no military port in Mearo Port and no dry dock to park warships. This means that the warships of the Dionia fleet can be pushed onto the beach, which requires taking great risks.One of the main reasons why the Athenian fleet was completely wiped out by Lysander in the Battle of the Sheep River was that the Athenian warships were parked on the beach and had no time to go to sea when they were attacked...

To this end, Flarios led the sailors, with the help of the exiled people, towed the warships to the beach one by one, then set up strict sentries, and asked the lighthouse sentries to closely monitor the sea, and arranged all the clippers to , taking turns patrolling the bay all night long...

　Thanks to horadrim, Vanishing Maple, and jjjvjj for the rewards!Your support is my biggest motivation for writing! !

　　I've been taking care of my children and dogs at home for the past two weeks, and I'm really bored. I'm going to play football tonight to relax!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)