ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 693 Dionia vs. Rome ([-])

After much thought, Camillus finally made up his mind: first repel the enemy in front of him, and then retreat!

Now that the decision had been made, Camillus took action immediately. He sent out messengers to convey his order: the Roman army was required to immediately arrange in a three-line formation in the face of the incoming enemy troops.There are ten Roman squadrons composed of young soldiers, forming the front line, with 1200 people; behind them, the center line array consists of six Roman squadrons composed of mature soldiers, with a total of 660 people; and the last column is composed of Composed of six veteran squadrons, also with 660 people, the center alone is equipped with a total of more than 2500 infantry.On the left and right wings, he also arrayed himself in the same way.

The Romans have been waging wars based on new tactics for the past ten years, and they are very familiar with them. In addition, they have already prepared enemy formations based on squadrons, so they only need to move each squadron The small square arrays formed interspersed, moved closer, and spliced ​​together, and it didn't take long to form a huge three-line array that stretched for one mile.

The army brought by Camillus totaled 9000 men, all heavy infantry, with a total of 75 squadrons, plus the three trapped squadrons, a total of 78 squadrons, including 40 squadrons of young soldiers and 25 squadrons of mature soldiers. squadron and 13 veteran squadrons.In the formation, if there were not enough veteran squadrons, he would replace them with squadrons of mature soldiers.When the formation was completed, a total of 7600 Roman heavy infantry were committed.

At this time, he still had 12 squadrons under his command, most of which were composed of young soldiers. He arranged them in the fourth column behind him as a reserve team. While guarding the wounded soldiers, they also took care of Dio who was wandering in the rear. Nian cavalry and light infantry.

He also placed the remaining 500 or so Roman cavalry on both sides of the rear of the array, and dispersed more than 1500 light infantry between the fourth row of reserves, mainly to guard against the opponent's cavalry and light infantry.

While the Romans were setting up their formation, the advance of the Dionysian First Army was slowing down. When it was 200 meters away from the enemy, the entire army stopped advancing and quickly made adjustments according to the opponent's array layout.

Amyntas placed the first, second, and third corps in the front, and the fourth, fifth, and sixth corps in the rear. The length of the entire formation was almost the same as that of the Romans.

Both sides completed their formation almost at the same time.

At a distance of 200 meters, soldiers from both sides were staring and sizing up each other curiously.

Ordinary Dionian soldiers are dressed in black and wear a bowl-shaped hooded helmet with cheek guards. There is a crown on the helmet. Some have no tassels, and some have more or less black tassels. (This is according to the Legion. Soldiers depend on their service years. The longer they are, the denser their tassels are. These are veterans, most of whom are squad leaders. They wear a single layer of black linen breastplate, covered with a layer of chain mail (this is the sign of the establishment of the kingdom. After that, changes were gradually implemented. Compared with the original multi-layer glued linen breastplate, the weight is almost the same, but the hardness of the defense is increased, and it is easy to take off when marching). There are black leather greaves under the legs, and leather feet. He is wearing sandals, holding a long convex shield half the height of a man in his left hand, a two-meter-long spear in his right hand, a sharp dagger hanging on his waist, and two javelins stuck in his back.

Roman soldiers also wore helmets with cheek protectors on their heads. There were two colorful feathers inserted on both sides of the top of the helmet. The one with a horsehair-style red tassel in the middle was the squadron leader.The soldiers wore red short-sleeved lining and chainmail coats. Only the squadron leader wore a bronze breastplate, bronze greaves on his calves, and leather sandals. He held a half-human-high convex long shield in his left hand, and two convex shields in his right hand. Rice spear, waist dagger.

In the Roman formation, except for the flag bearers on the left, center and right wings, each holding a red military flag with an eagle spreading its wings, there were no other flags.In Dionia's military formation, the unit flags, company flags, and brigade flags are orderly distributed in various small square formations, surrounding the central legion flag fluttering in the wind, and the statues of gods on the top of the flag shine with golden light. Like the stars in the night sky, it is really beautiful.

After the two sides formed their formations, the entire battlefield was half black and half red. The soldiers on both sides stood like mighty statues, with the spears in their hands arranged like a dense forest, and the erected shields like towering long walls...

Both sides remained silent, but the thick murderous aura permeating the battlefield was dispersing the dust and fog...

Amyntas, who was always aggressive in attacking, did not immediately issue an order to attack.On the one hand, he wanted to let the soldiers who were running all the way take a breath and regain their strength; on the other hand, he also wanted to delay the time and wait for the Volscians to arrive. After all, compared with the other party, The First Legion had several thousand fewer heavy infantry, and the opponent could quickly form a formation similar to Dionia. He felt that this opponent was very different from previous enemies, so he acted more cautiously. cautious.

But he could wait, but Camillus could not wait. He could roughly guess the reason why the Dionian army stopped advancing after pursuing here.Therefore, after he waited for the Roman soldiers to form a stable formation, he immediately issued the order: "Attack with the whole army!"

"Woo!..." The military trumpet sounded.

The Roman soldiers carried shields and spears and advanced slowly. The four fronts basically maintained a relatively neat array and pressed towards the Dionysian army.

Camillus rode behind the center of the array, and from time to time looked back at the Dionysian cavalry cruising behind the flanks of the Roman array.

At this time, Ledes had already rushed to Amyntas' side on horseback.

"Thank you for your hard work, old friend!" Amyntas nodded in thanks.

"In order to stop the Romans, my legion paid more than 300 casualties!" Leders said with a solemn expression.

Amyntas was silent for a while and asked: "Can your cavalry still fight?"

Leders shook his head: "The horses are very tired from running back and forth, and the cavalry's javelins have been used up. Now they need to restore their horsepower. Only when the Romans retreat can they be put to use again. But...what you said This enemy we face is not an easy one!”

"Don't worry, it's just a joke for the Romans to use the tactics they stole from us to defeat the teacher!" Amyntas said confidently while paying attention to the battle ahead.If Davos heard this, he might feel a little ashamed.

Ryders glanced at the reserve team behind him, which was composed of only light armored soldiers. He felt a little uneasy, but he said no more.

Captain Stepophos (the adopted son of Amyntas), who was at the forefront of his company, clearly saw the Roman soldiers in front of them marching to a distance of 50 meters, and stopped one after another.His eyes narrowed slightly and he shouted loudly: "Brothers, prepare the javelin!"

"Javelin ready!..." The shouts of the officers of the Dionia Army Formation continued one after another.

The soldiers already held javelins in their hands.

"Mars!!!..." The Roman army let out an earth-shattering roar. The strong Roman young soldiers in their 20s were still full of energy even after running around, and they took big steps. , charge forward.

But Stepforos looked carefully and saw that the Romans did not tilt their long shields upward. Apparently they did not understand the characteristics of the Dionysian heavy infantry fighting, and he had a sneer on his face.

As the pace increased, the charging speed of the Roman soldiers accelerated rapidly, creating an indomitable and powerful momentum.

The soldiers of the First Legion of Dionia stood like a mountain, unmoved.

Until the Romans had rushed to a distance of nearly 30 meters, "Javelin!..." In the shouts of the team officers, Dionia's front and rear arrays simultaneously threw the javelins in their hands, and there seemed to be a wave of noise on the battlefield. With a hurricane, the forward momentum of the Roman young soldiers who were charging forward came to a halt. The dense heavy javelins flew over a distance of more than 20 meters and fell into the ten-row thick formation of the Roman young soldiers, easily penetrating their bodies. Chainmail, knocking them to the ground.The heavy javelin that hit the wooden shield was deeply embedded in the shield, and the spearhead was bent and dragged to the ground.

At this time, most of the young Roman soldiers who were inexperienced in combat did not continue to charge forward. Instead, they subconsciously grabbed their teammates who were struggling on the ground or tried to pull the javelin off the long shield. This cast a spell for the Dionysian soldiers. The second round of javelins provided sufficient preparation time, so when the second round of javelins was thrown, more Roman soldiers fell.

Camillus, who had always remained calm and wise in battle, saw the scene on the battlefield and screamed several times in distress.He never expected that the Dionian heavy infantry could even throw javelins, and the unsuspecting Roman young soldiers suffered a big blow.Of course, what he would not have thought of is that "javelins before heavy infantry engages in battle" was originally a characteristic tactic of the Roman legion. However, in previous history, this tactic was established because of the war between Rome and the Samnites. The Samnites, who were good at using javelins, caused the Romans a lot of trouble. They began to learn from their opponents and improved their tactics, allowing the Roman heavy infantry, which was almost a single type of arm, to have medium-range strike capabilities.

Just when the Romans were suddenly attacked and temporarily fell into chaos, all the flags in the Dionysian army were pointed forward, and the soldiers shouted the name of "Hades" and rushed towards the enemy fiercely.

"Fight! Fight!..." The uninjured Roman squadron captains and squadron leaders shouted, taking the lead in rushing to the front to fill the gaps in the fragmented line. The young soldiers in the back row also rushed to the front without hesitation. , they want to avenge their injured comrades.

But before the Roman frontline array was refilled, the charge of Dionian soldiers had already arrived.

The left, center, and right front lines of both sides collided with each other one after another. Although the thickness of the front-line troops of both sides was ten columns, compared with the first, second, and third brigades of the fully loaded Dionia First Army, The Roman youth army, which had just suffered a javelin attack and was broken in formation, was obviously unable to resist it in strength.

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(End of this chapter)