Chapter 12 Miron's Counterattack
Matonis cursed the timid Crotones, and reluctantly let some soldiers participate in the bridge construction. See ΔΔ Bookstore WWW んW. 『kan→shu→ge. la
The Umbria River is not too wide and not too deep, and with sufficient labor, the soldiers on both sides of the river, under the command of the engineers, will soon build a wooden bridge according to the steps in the "Military Law" to build a bridge. After the construction was completed, Matonis received a return from the scout: about 8,000 Crotone light infantry attacked him!
His listless face suddenly became energetic: "Brothers, get up for me, there is a battle!"
What kind of people bring what kind of soldiers. The soldiers who were lying down and resting immediately turned over and stood up, put on their equipment, quickly approached the mound, and looked out excitedly, and the soldiers who were building the bridge also rushed back after hearing the news.
Before long, they saw the figure of the Crotone.
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After Miron fled back to Crimea, he specifically inquired about the very few surviving soldiers under Philaphus, and came to a surprising conclusion: Philaphus' army turned out to be the light infantry of Dionia. Defeated! But now he has the condition that there are few heavy infantry and more light infantry, and it is also his decision to learn the enemy's tactics. He even let the sailors of part of the fleet docked at the port of Crimesa join the expedition.
8,000 people came ashore from the south bank of the Umbria River outlet. Under his leadership, they attacked the garrison on the south bank of Dionia along the Umbria River in a mighty manner.
Seeing the ditches and earth walls built by the Dionians, Miron laughed instead: The Dionians bound their hands and feet, which was more conducive to the attack of light infantry.
At a distance of two hundred meters from the Dionysians, he spread out his troops loosely, surrounding Dionia, a semi-curved temporary defensive camp backed by the Umbria River.
With an order, the archers advanced to within 100 meters and began to throw arrows.
For the Dionian heavy infantry with the protection of the earth wall, the rain of arrows in the sky seems scary, and the damage to them is not great. They only need to put the round shield on the wall to block the head. The Dionysian soldier also joked: "The Crotones must have known that our bows and arrows were running out in the last battle, so they sent us arrows with kindness." This lightheartedness of the infantry soon disappeared.
The Crotone light infantry continued to move forward at a distance of about 50 meters, and the accuracy of the bow and arrow was greatly increased.
Of course, there is still little damage to the Oria heavy infantry with the protection of the round shield and the earth wall.
but,
Next, when Crotone's javelinmen continued to advance to twenty or thirty meters, the Dionysian heavy infantry felt the pressure. Of course, squatting behind the dirt wall will not suffer any damage at all. Anyway, the enemies are light infantry, and they dare not fight them head-on. But when the tortoise with its head shrinking is not Matonis' style, what's more, once it shrinks to the earth wall, it can't understand the movement of the other party at all. What if they bypass the defense line and go down the river to burn the wooden bridge under construction? !
Matonis, now the commander of the South Shore Force, knows very well what his responsibilities are.
"Javelin!" He roared, suddenly stood up from behind the earth wall, quickly put down the round shield, leaned back, without a run-up, just relying on waist strength and hand strength, the javelin in his hand threw more than 20 meters, piercing a Crow Tone the harpooneer's chest, and immediately crouch down.
The Dionysian soldiers, who had been suppressed by the bow and arrows and suffocated, got the order of Matonis and immediately began to fight back. Countless javelins flew over the dirt walls and trenches, plunged into the army formation in Crotone, and splashed a flower. blood flower. Crotone's arrows and javelins were also poured on the Dionysian heavy infantry, and casualties on both sides began to increase.
Miron was watching the development of the battle in front of the archers, and he began to appreciate the benefits of using a large number of light infantry to attack pure heavy infantry. Unfortunately, the Dionysian heavy infantry was not a traditional Greek heavy infantry.
But Miron believes that it is worthwhile to replace a few light infantry with a heavy infantry. Crotone now has no shortage of freedmen sailors, but citizens who serve as heavy infantry.
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"Captain Epithenis, the enemy on the south bank is attacking fiercely! Captain Martonis wants your reinforcements!" The messenger brought Martonis' message.
"I see!" Epithenes frowned tightly and responded, he thought for a while, and said, "Ampiorex!"
"Subordinates are here!"
"I want you to lead the slingers and immediately cross the river to support Matonis!" Epithenes looked at the captain of his slinger company and instructed: "Remember! Do not enter Matonis' camp, otherwise it will be small. The camp will make it impossible for you to avoid the attack of the large number of light infantry in Crotone! You must go around the enemy's periphery and attack the enemy with the ultra-long range of the slingers!"
"I understand, Captain!" Ampiorex hurriedly gathered his soldiers.
The light infantry brigade (the seventh brigade) in the Dionian Legion was somewhat different from the heavy infantry. According to the "Regulations of the Military Law", the heavy infantry brigade has five companies under its jurisdiction, each with 200 people, and a total of 1,000 people; and the light infantry brigade has only 1,000 people, but only three companies, namely the slinger company. , Archer company, Javelin company, the number of people under the jurisdiction of each company is uncertain.
This is because compared to heavy infantry, light infantry has higher technical content, javelinmen are better, archers and slingers do not undergo long-term training, it is difficult to become a qualified light infantry, so Dionia The composition of a regiment's light infantry brigade is often based on the actual conditions of its region. For example: the light infantry brigade of the first army, the number of the three arms is not much different, but its javelinmen are actually Thracian light shield soldiers; the light infantry brigade of the second army is mainly from the reserve citizens of Turii, most of them are born There are free people and sailors, so there are more archers, and there are also some light shield soldiers; while the light infantry brigade of the Third Legion is mainly from Lucalia, so there are mostly javelin soldiers. Due to the loose formation of light infantry, greater flexibility, and little direct contact with the enemy, the light infantry has more or less arms, which has little impact on command operations.
"Captain, Ampiorex took away the slingers. Will the Crotonian warships moored in the river see our numbers decrease, and take the opportunity to go up the river and come to destroy the wooden bridge we just built..." Qing The captain of the shield company Zeniaris said worriedly.
"I really hope that they will come. Even if we have few soldiers, I have the confidence to destroy them! Instead of being like now, we can neither attack nor retreat, and let the wooden boats staying there hold us back, and we cannot go to reinforce our comrades on the other side!" Epithenes said angrily.
"Since they don't come, let's attack them in the past!" A handsome young man, a guard beside Epithenes, interjected.
Epithenes lightly slapped him on the back of the head and scolded with a smile: "Idiot, where the enemy warships are moored, the river bank is low, we are going there to attack those warships, just like attacking the enemy on the city wall. , I have a big loss, and the enemy has a small loss. What would I, Epithenes, do in a battle that I know will suffer?!"
"Now we are located on the high ground on the river bank, and there is a barrage on the river. The enemy knows that they will be beaten by boating here. Will they do such a stupid thing?!" The handsome guard asked back.
Epithenes was at a loss for words, then he nudged him with his hand, and then laughed and scolded: "Okay, you are making great progress now!" Then, he sighed helplessly: "It seems that we and the enemy's warships are exhausted. On, the commander asked us to protect the wooden bridge, I thought it was an easy task, but now it seems that it is really a troublesome thing!"
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When Miron and Matonis were at war, Davos had already received the news that Miron dared to attack with all light infantry, although Davos was surprised, he was not worried: "Inform Ryders that his The cavalry is temporarily placed under the command of the First Army. I believe Capps will soon be able to push the enemy back!"
The commander of the First Army Corps, who was authorized by Davos, immediately mobilized three heavy infantry battalions and cavalry teams to quickly cross the river, wanting to go around the rear of the Crotones and cut off their retreat.
Unexpectedly, Miron learned that Dionia's reinforcements were coming, and in the case of an advantage, he simply ordered a retreat.
This battle hastily ended. The 2,000 heavy infantry led by Matonis had 500 casualties, most of them wounded. More than 700 of Miron's 8,000 were killed or wounded. But Matonis felt that he had suffered a loss, while Miron believed that Crotone had won a small victory, because the attack against the arrogance of the Dionians would surely delay the progress of their construction of the camp and the siege of Crimea.
But when Miron returned to the city, he immediately received bad news: a large army from the north was entering Dionia's barracks.
That must be Niutum reinforcements! Miron suddenly became nervous.
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In fact, not only 5,000 soldiers from Niutum, but also 3,000 Laos confederates entered the Dionysian barracks, making Dionia's front-line troops as many as 22,000.
The Dionysian Barracks, which was already in high spirits, was full of cheers at this moment...
Davos went out of the camp to meet Avinogis, the consul of Laos, as well as Bagule, the first captain of the third army, the adjutant Asisters, the second captain Lizaru, etc. Several senior officers.
"Lord Commander, we are late!" Asisters saluted respectfully, and said apologetically.
"It took more than three days to get from Niutum to Crimea, is this kind of marching speed still slow?!" Davos returned the salute earnestly, and praised with a smile on his face: "You are here at the right time. , the next battle will depend on you!"