Chapter 33 Crotone's Appeal

Although the Loclery fleet had fewer warships, it still launched the attack without hesitation. The warships of both sides quickly sailed towards each other and passed each other. The advance, beyond the expectations of the Crotones, allowed them to easily disengage from the Crotone fleet at the slight cost of one or two warships. WWW.SUIMENG.lā

Did the Locles want to run away? ! Askamas was surprised to see the performance of the Lochry fleet.

However, the action of the Lochry fleet again exceeded his expectations. After pulling a distance from the Crotone fleet, the Lochry fleet turned its bow again and assumed a posture of attacking.

Askamas didn't think about it for a while: What did the Lokri do so much?

His fleet followed suit.

The two fleets quickly approached again, but this time the Lokri fleet did not escape.

The warships of the two sides were intertwined, circling and colliding with each other.

The battle at sea is different from that on land. The battle on land is very particular about the formation. Once the formation is broken, it often means failure. Once the battle at sea starts, the formation will disperse. It is often a duel between warships and warships. Wanting to win depends on the quality of the warships and the skilled ship-handling skills of the captains and sailors.

Crotone and Locri have had decades of grievances and know each other very well. Askamas is very clear about the strength of the fleet, the composition of the crew, and even the characteristics of the generals. He firmly believes that with six more three-layer warships in his fleet, a total of 10 warships in the Loclery Fleet will be surpassed. The victory of this naval battle is only a matter of time.

During the battle, Askamas's ship retreated very skillfully and quickly, and escaped the collision of the enemy ship on the middle of the ship. The front of the bronze ram. This is a great opportunity, how could he let it go, and immediately let the sailors beat back quickly, and the ship quickly turned from backward to forward.

But the enemy ship also spun quickly, turning its bow toward Asmachus' ship.

Although the enemy ship responded quickly, the experienced Askamas did not give up. The ship was approaching the enemy ship at a high speed, and when it was about to get close to each other and staggered past, Askamas shouted: "Clear the pulp!"

The bosun, who listened to the order in the bottom warehouse, immediately conveyed to the sailors that they were well trained to immediately withdraw the wood pulp, and the enemy ship had just fallen over the bow and had not had time to collect the pulp. With the huge inertia of the forward rush, most of the wooden oars of the enemy ship on the side close to it were broken, and the enemy ship was in a predicament that it could not run out of oar and could not move forward.

while the sailors cheered,

When Askamas was about to turn the bow and sink it completely, a fleet of three-layered warships suddenly appeared behind the Crotone fleet, and immediately launched an attack on the Crotone warship.

The Crotone fleet was in danger of being attacked by the north and the south.

In the end, the Crotone fleet was disastrously defeated, with ships sunk, captured, and badly damaged, and Askamas led a handful of ships out of the enemy's siege.

On the way to Crotone, Askamas has been thinking bitterly in frustration: Where did Locri's extra warships come from?

……………………

Victory at the naval battle inspired the Lochry army that besieged Coulonia. In the early morning of the next day, when the Crotone reinforcements arrived near the city of Cologne, the Lochry army immediately launched a battle regardless of the fatigue of attacking the city of Cologne for a while.

The Crotone army did not shy away from the challenge.

As a result, the two sides launched a fierce battle on the outskirts of the northern city of Coronia.

In terms of military strength, Loclery is more, but since part of the troops is to be divided to besiege Coulonia, the number of the two sides is almost the same. But Lockley's army was dominated by heavy infantry and light armour, while Crotone had a clear advantage in light infantry composed of carefully selected freemen.

General Locri thickened the column, fearing the impact of the Crotone heavy infantry. The Crotones, because of their limited conditions, learned a lot from the painful lessons of fighting against the Dionysian army. Just after the formation was completed, they immediately sent light infantry forward to attack. The number is too small, and it will soon be defeated.

Next, the Crotone light infantry began throwing javelins at Locri's army formations, and the Locri infantry suffered considerable casualties.

In this case, the Locles immediately sounded the horn of attack.

In the face of the overwhelming heavy infantry charge, the Crotone light infantry did not have the strict organization and discipline of the Dionysian light infantry, nor did the experienced veterans stabilize the army, nor did the light infantry such as Epithenes and Tspit. , Alpins and other excellent light infantry generals are subtly and flexibly commanded, and there is no stimulation of material rewards such as citizenship and land, and the heavy infantry in Crotone has no extra space for them to retreat. They can only In a panic, they fled the battlefield from both sides. As a result, many light infantry did not have time to escape and were killed under the charge of the Lochry heavy infantry. After finally escaping, with the efforts of the general, the light infantry tried to regroup, but was immediately attacked by the Lockley cavalry and dispersed again.

However, the harassment of the light infantry also consumed and distracted the Loclery infantry, and now only infantry-to-infantry battles remain on the battlefield. One side just got out of the sea of ​​suffering from Dionia, and the body has not yet fully recovered; One side had few soldiers, but had the belief to wash away shame and defend the territory; one side had more soldiers, but suffered a blow from light infantry before, and morale was slightly low.

The two sides fought for nearly two hours, and Locle finally gave up and retreated from the battlefield.

In this battle, Crotone and Locri had similar casualties, about one person, but more of the casualties in Crotone were freedmen.

Lochry, though defeated, with few casualties, withdrew from the siege of Coulonia.

The Crotone reinforcements were able to enter the city of Corenia smoothly and were warmly welcomed by the people in the city, but the situation was not favorable for Crotone.

Lochry's army retreated to the south of the city of Corenia and camped, still eyeing the city of Corenia.

The Lokrie fleet was cruising at sea, blocking the sea route of Crotone, and the pain that Dionia had suffered before, Crotone had also suffered at this moment.

At this time, the city of Crotone was already full of elite troops, and Lochry still had spare strength. Two days later, more than a thousand Lochry soldiers landed on the coast between Crotone and Sirius, burning, looting and looting all the way to the north. Invade Crotone territory.

After experiencing the shock of the fiasco in the naval battle, the people of Crotone were again terrified when they heard the news of the invasion of the Locris. The council accused Lysias of going his own way, leaving the city empty and unable to send an army to repel the enemy's invasion.

Lycias did not refute the council's criticism of him, and he was equally shocked by the fiasco of the fleet. At this time, he could only propose to the council to mobilize the whole city and send messengers to Dionia and Asprustus. Mu City asks for help.

In this case, Crotone has no other way to think about it. He just ended the war with Dionia, and the scolding of the whole Crotone against Dionia has not disappeared. At this moment However, they have to beg for help, and both members of the parliament and the public are a little embarrassed.

Asproustum was not far from Crotone, and Hisprotis rushed to the south gate of Asprustum in less than two hours.

Although Dionia has achieved peace with Crotone, the defense of Asprostum has not been relaxed, but has become more fortified. There were sentries patrolling back and forth on the city, and guards were stationed in front of the city gate. Although there were only a few pedestrians entering and leaving the city gate, they still carried out their tasks seriously, which enabled Thesprotis to patiently accept the guards. Check.

When the captain of the city guard appeared before him again, he brought the order of the chief executive, Hiros: he was allowed to enter.

As soon as he entered the city, he was stunned by the sight in front of him: the not-so-wide main street under his feet was full of dust, some people were digging ditches with T-shaped picks on both sides of the street, and some people were beating and stacking them with hammers and awls. The stones on the side of the road, and then the cut stones are laid on the dirt road, and some people will remove some buildings that hinder the smooth flow of the road, and rebuild the brick walls...

Earth-moving, stone-carrying, garbage-carrying... Countless sturdy men were busy, turning this place into a big construction site. Everyone was working in full swing, and almost no one stopped what they were doing, so take a look at him.

"What is this doing?" Thesprotis asked curiously.

The captain of the city guard replied: "Because we will move here in the future, we are building our own homes. The roads in this city are too narrow, and the roads are not even. There are garbage and sewage everywhere..."

The captain said a lot about the city's ills. Hisprotis found it very funny. He often came to Asprostum City and felt that it was no different from Tarantum City. How could there be Dionysus? When the Asians said those questions, they immediately asked, "Aren't you Greeks?"

"We are Lucarians, but we are citizens of Dionia!" exclaimed the captain of the city guard.

"You speak Greek well." Thesprotis praised, and then changed the topic: "I heard that your Lucania region is all mountainous, the land is barren, and you often don't get enough to eat. The living environment still cares so much.”

"Since our tribe joined Dionia, we have not been hungry for a long time!" The captain shouted with a blushing face as if he had suffered humiliation: "The place we used to live in is indeed not comparable to the houses here, but here Compared with the Turii I have seen, it is far worse!"