Chapter 6 Battle of the Trionto River (4)

Although the light armored soldiers are "light armor", after all, they have "armor", and they also have leather shields and spears in their hands. How can they catch up with a single-clothed enemy. But once they stopped, the enemy's long-range attack began.

What's more worrying is that the enemy in the middle road is gradually divided into three parts when the light armored soldiers are advancing: one part is pulling the light armored soldiers in the formation, and the other two parts circle to the sides of the light armored soldiers.

As the light armour advanced, the flanks were attacked by the enemy. Gu Qian can't take care of the left and right, and Gu left and right can't protect the front. Crotone's light armored soldiers rampaged recklessly like a wild boar. As a result, not only did they not hurt the enemy's hair, but their casualties increased little by little...

"Where's the cavalry?! Why aren't the cavalry here! What is Alisosis doing!!" Seeing the soldiers fall one by one, Philadelphus became impatient and couldn't help but cursed. This was his first time. I realized how uncomfortable it is to fight with pure infantry against an enemy full of light infantry. If you can't fight, you can't catch up, you can't catch up, but instead you become a living target for the enemy.

"Back to the left! Back to the left!!" he shouted, and the guards followed suit. If the excited soldiers couldn't hear what he was shouting during the previous pursuit, now everyone gathered together. The regiment, cautiously avoiding arrows and stones, had begun to be a little afraid and exhausted. Philadelphia's order was exactly what they wanted, and the light armoured soldiers hurriedly retreated.

Unexpectedly, Dionia's light infantry pursued like bone-encrusted maggots.

Philadelphus originally meant to retreat to the left and join the heavy infantry on the left flank, so that their presence could protect the flank of the light armour and reduce casualties before the cavalry returned victoriously. At this moment, Philadelphus was still convinced that the Crotone cavalry would win.

However, he was in the formation, but he didn't know that the heavy infantry on the left flank he thought would be behind him had actually been deflected by the light infantry on the enemy's right flank. Unknowingly, the heavy infantry moved from facing the north to the northwest. As a result, the gap between Crotone's center and the left flank became wider and wider.

The light armored soldiers quickly retreated for a while, not only did they fail to join the left flank, but because they could not achieve better protection during the retreat, the casualties increased rapidly. Now they were forced to turn around again, protected themselves with leather shields, and slowly retreated, dodging the arrows that were shot in a hurry, watching the increasing number of wounded and fallen comrades on the ground in front of them, their throats being cut by the enemy's supplementary knife, The morale of the light armoured soldiers was shaking.

At this time, they heard the dense sound of horses' hooves behind them, because they couldn't look back because they had to avoid the arrows, but they all let out a long breath: "Cavalry! Our cavalry is finally here!!"

Philadelphus wondered in his heart: How did the cavalry of Alisosis go to the back? ! Didn't I tell him that after defeating the enemy's left flank, let him lead the cavalry to flank the enemy on the opposite side! It has no ability at all! ! When they were angry, someone shouted: "Javelin! Be careful with the javelin! They are the enemy!!"

Accompanied by this exclamation, hundreds of javelins roared and attacked from the rear.

Philadelphus was at the rear of the array, and he was wearing a colorful general's helmet. Of course, he was the target of the attack, and he was immediately hit with three javelins. When Philadelphus fell, he did not understand until his death: why did the Crotone cavalry, which had the advantage in force, fail?

The cavalry with high hopes turned out to be the enemy! This became the last straw that crushed the light armored soldiers. They lost their fighting spirit and fled. Dionysian light infantry and cavalry pursued the situation. The light armored soldiers could not outrun these poorly equipped light infantry, let alone the cavalry. Speed, after being caught up, most of the soldiers chose to surrender.

After taking out Crotone's right-wing cavalry and mid-lane light armour, the Dionians focused their efforts on the toughest heavy infantry.

When more than 3,000 Crotone heavy infantry were surrounded by more than 7,000 Dionysian light infantry and cavalry, these heavy infantry knew that their middle and left flank were probably more dangerous, especially the cavalry of Leeds held high. The head of Philadelphus,

Surrounding the army formation of heavy infantry, shouting for them to surrender, the blow to the hearts of these Crotone people can be imagined.

The general in command of this heavy infantry was Philos of Crotone, and the lieutenant was Pausareius, the general of Celestine, and the two had an argument in the face of such a bad situation.

Philos believed that the damage caused by the light infantry to them was not too great. As long as they could persist in advancing to the river crossing, the main force in front would assist the large force in defeating the army of Dionia, and the final victory would still belong to Crotone.

Pausaleus believes: In the case of being surrounded and attacked, the morale of the soldiers is already very low, and the destination to be reached is at least six or seven miles away, and it is almost impossible for the soldiers to persist in reaching the west in the current situation. The steps on the surface of the river reach.

Neither side could persuade the other, and finally parted ways. Pausaleus, with a total of 1,700 Cilitin soldiers and some Trina soldiers, began to retreat, preparing to return to the south bank of the Triwento River; Philos led 1,400 Crotone heavy infantry and began to accelerate westward.

Crotone's sudden division of troops against several of Dionia's generals caused trouble.

Leders and Tspit believed that the heavy infantry advancing west should be surrounded by heavy troops, and the retreating enemy should be driven away with a small amount of troops.

Epithenes objected. He believed that since the enemy has retreated, it shows that the fighting spirit is not strong. As long as we continue to pursue and attack, they will inevitably surrender, and then re-encircle the remaining heavy infantry. Only then can the enemy be completely wiped out. The next plan is implemented. It will be easier to get up. His opinion was supported by Zantiparis.

The situation is urgent and there is no time to argue. Dionia's force was also divided into two, with Epithenes and Zantiparis leading the troops in charge of chasing the retreating heavy infantry.

The people of Sirius and Trina are indeed not strong in fighting spirit. They are not from Crotone, and they do not have much conflict of interest with Dionia. Although the citizens of Sirius suffered a lot of casualties in the raid on Dionia half a year ago, the main reason for participating in the war was because of the covenant. But when the war situation is bad and their lives are threatened, of course they will not fight recklessly. The division of troops, they were welcome, they thought that the attention of the Dionian light infantry would be on the Crotones advancing west, but they did not expect that the Dionians were still in hot pursuit of them, and they were numerous . Panicked, they had just arrived at the footsteps in the lower reaches of the Triwento River. They remembered that they had paid a lot of money when crossing the river before. Now that there are more enemies and the attack will be more violent, their hearts are cold to the bottom of their hearts.

The Trina surrendered first, and then Pasareus surrendered at the rate of the Siridin.

The Crotone Heavy Infantry said that it was going to accelerate, but in fact the speed was not much faster than before. Although the hoplites are well protected, it does not mean that they are not afraid of long-range strikes from bows and arrows, javelins, and stones. The impact of stones on their helmets will make them dizzy. Their thighs, toes, and hands must be careful with bows and arrows. And the linen breastplate does not completely block the javelin's close-range heavy blow. Of course, the large round shields with a diameter of one meter and covered with copper skin that they hold in their hands can completely resist frontal attacks, but the enemy is not only on the front, but also on the sides and rear. How to prevent it?

It is only six miles away from where the Crotone army is located. It usually takes an hour to march normally, but now half an hour has passed, and it has only been less than one mile... Some people are shot and shot down, and they are like a The giant beast, being bitten and bled by the nimble wolves, became weaker and more tired, and there was no hope in sight, but the enemy's arrows and javelins were always so plentiful (Daves Jean The Castronians donated all the arrows and javelins that had been accumulated in the equipment library for many years, and transported them to the rear of the battlefield with pack animals), so when Epithenes and Zantiparis returned with their troops, they seized the Siridin, When Trina's flag was thrown in front of the Crotone heavy infantry and surrendered, the crumbling morale of the Crotones, who had been under siege and were constantly defending against long-range strikes, was finally shattered. At the time of their surrender, fewer than a thousand soldiers remained intact.

………………

Alsinis, who was a recruit half a year ago, is now a squad leader of the First Army Corps. He is in charge of nine soldiers, six of whom are reserve citizens and recruits.

The rapid expansion of Dionia's army in the past six months can be imagined, but of course there are also many problems. Especially in this tragic battle, the quality of the heavy infantry on both sides gradually became apparent with the passage of time. A heavy infantryman is not only a qualified heavy infantryman who wears armor, can use a shield, and can stab with a spear. The most important thing for a heavy infantryman in a battle is trust and tacit understanding. On a closely-arranged front, a heavy infantry soldier holds a shield in the left and a gun in the right. The heavy copper round shield will make him lean to the left with his body, and the round shield will naturally protect his left chest and left side. The right chest of the side comrade, and his right chest is protected by the shield of the right comrade, so that the shield surface is connected in a line to defend against the enemy's stabs, he needs to move the round shield back and forth, this action not only consumes physical strength, but also It is easy to disrupt the array, he only needs to focus on two actions, the right hand keeps jabbing and pushing forward, so trust your teammates, trust him to protect you, this is the key to the successful operation of the heavy infantry phalanx.

A city-state has at least a few thousand citizens and a maximum of tens of thousands of citizens. They are either neighbors or close relatives. They play together since childhood, receive heavy infantry training from their elders when they are young, participate in competitions and study together, and work together when they are adults. Participate in gatherings together... Although the city-state does not have many public collective military trainings every year, the trust stems from their childhood training. As long as they stand on the battlefield, they will naturally stand together and twist into a rope.