Chapter 156 The Battle of Crotone (1)

Davos could feel the heavy expectations in their words, he smiled lightly and said: "As for the Syracuses, you don't have to worry. What you should worry about is whether we have any problems after defeating the Syracuses. Enough men to govern those lands in southern Greater Greece!"

When the elders were stunned, Davos turned his head and took a deep look at the hills facing the river in the city of Tulii to the east. He knew that his wife and children must also be staring here, looking forward to his early triumphant return. ...

"Let's go." He coughed lightly, turned his horse's head, and stepped onto the wooden bridge with the escort.

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The soldiers of Syracuse burned, killed and looted in the city of Crotone overnight. The free people and foreigners in the port area suffered heavy disasters, and nearly half of the people of Crotone who failed to escape into the Acropolis in time. .

By noon the next day, most of the Syracuse soldiers were still sleeping in the barracks or in their homes in Crotone to recover the stamina that had been exhausted yesterday.

Dionysius got up early in the morning and led his men to deal with military affairs.

The first thing that needs to be solved urgently is the problem of the wounded. Yesterday's victory was brilliant, but its losses were also great. According to preliminary statistics last night, more than 5,000 soldiers were killed or seriously injured, and more than 4,000 soldiers were slightly injured in varying degrees. After this battle, Syracuse lost about 1/8 troops. A series of tedious tasks such as treating the wounded, replenishing troops, and reorganizing troops should be completed as soon as possible.

For the most time-consuming and laborious tasks of cleaning up the battlefield and burying corpses, it is the easiest to complete. It is only necessary to use the tens of thousands of Crotone people who have become prisoners as labor. How many prisoners wept while carefully sorting out the remains of Crotone soldiers who died in battle inside and outside the city walls! How many prisoners quietly kicked and cursed while dragging the corpses of Syracuse soldiers to vent their anger!

For Dionysius, this is not a thing he cares too much about, the second thing he cares about is the Acropolis of Crotone. The Acropolis is located in the south of the center of Crotone city, built on a hill. The Acropolis contains the largest group of Apollo temples in Greater Greece. Therefore, the Acropolis of Apollo in Crotone is also one of the great Greek city-states. biggest.

Although Dionysius should have taken precautions when the city is lost and defending the city is the final defensive strategy often adopted by the Greek city-states, but after breaking the city wall last night, the soldiers of Syracuse were killed due to the fierce battle during the day. He was sexually active, and he carried out crazy killings and looting in the city. Because of the darkness, Dionysius was unable to effectively command the troops, which delayed the fighter plane, resulting in more than half of the Crotone people (including many soldiers) Under the organization of Miron and Lycias, they escaped into the Acropolis, which made the Acropolis have sufficient manpower for defense.

at the same time,

The Acropolis is high in terrain and surrounded by urban residences, so large-scale siege equipment cannot reach the city walls at all. Unless the surrounding houses and buildings are removed, and a firm and wide causeway is built to fill the hills, the siege towers and siege vehicles can reach the city. Otherwise, the soldiers attacking from the bottom up will not only cause casualties. Terrible and difficult to succeed.

But such a siege method takes a long time to prepare, and what Dionysius lacks most now is time, because he has to lead an army to attack Dionia, and he will never allow his greatest enemy to have more Take a breather to stabilize your territory and build more armies.

So Dionysius sent messengers to make the Crotones in the acropolis surrender, threatening the lives of the captive Crotone people and soldiers.

However, the Crotones who hid in the Acropolis condescended last night and witnessed all the atrocities committed by the Syracuses in the city. The Syracuse people both feared and hated them, and coupled with the tyranny of the Syracuse people in the Siridium, they regarded the Syracuse people as "human-eating beasts" and completely disbelieved the messenger's statement that "as long as the Become an ally of Syracuse, send troops to join the army of Syracuse, and Dionysius will release all Crotone captives and return the city of Crotone" proposal.

Because Askamas tried his best to reorganize his troops in order to prevent the Syracuses from entering the city and looting and protecting the people who were fleeing to the Acropolis. They fought with the enemy on the streets of the city and eventually died. The Crotones, who had lost their highest military general, urgently elected Miron, who had saved them, as their general in grief, and neither of them opposed Lysias. At this time, the top officials of Crotone, headed by Lysias and Miron, not only flatly rejected the envoy's request, but also cut off the emissary's ears and ears in order to show their courage and determination to fight the Syracuse Nose, drive him off the Acropolis.

When the messenger clutched the bloody wound and cried to Dionysius, he did not show much anger, but sneered deeply: "Stupid Crotones, you thought you were hiding on that hill. , I can't do anything about you?! There are tens of thousands of people hiding in that small acropolis. It can really improve the defense, but can it defend against hunger and thirst!"

Indeed, the food consumption of tens of thousands of people is a huge amount. It is impossible for the people who rushed up the mountain to carry a large amount of rations. Even if Miron prepared in advance, he could not guarantee it for a few days. What worries the Crotone people is that there is no water source on the hill. Usually, the water used by the temple priests comes from the water storage tank in the temple. Because of the rainstorm a few days ago, the storage tank is full, but for tens of thousands of people demand, it is only a drop in the bucket.

Therefore, Dionysius ordered: send a small number of troops to surround the Acropolis of Crotone.

He believed that the Crotone people would go down the mountain and surrender within a few days of lack of water and food.

He had also wanted to order ballistas to fire stone balls at the Acropolis to increase fear among the Crotones and force their early surrender. But on second thought, there is the Temple of Apollo in the Acropolis. If it is deliberately destroyed, it may affect the morale of the soldiers. Moreover, the sudden torrential rain last time also made him, who has always been arrogant, concerned. At this critical moment, he didn't want any more accidents.

Dionysius knew in his heart that the Crotones hid in the Acropolis to survive and hoped for the rescue of the Dionysians. Dionia was the target that the Syracuse army was about to attack, but the soldiers who had just experienced the tragic siege battle needed to rest. He could only continue to send mercenary cavalry to the north to scout the enemy.

The insatiable Numibians and Celts took their grievances out of not being able to take part in the looting of the city last night.

Dionysius didn't get angry, and even gave these aliens a lot of loot. Because Phoebe Das once said: These alien cavalry are a weapon against the Dionians in the wild.

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A fast ship entered the port of Crotone.

"General, Dionia's fleet is here!" The captain hurriedly reported to Leputines, who was inspecting the naval port and commanding the moored warships.

The Syracuse Navy just moved into the naval port of Crotone this morning. Compared with Sirius, Crotone's naval port is much larger and can accommodate more warships, and its location is closer to Dionysian territory, which is convenient for the Syracuse Navy to understand Dionysian more quickly. The movements of the sub-fleet are better coordinated with the land forces.

I just didn't expect that the fleet had just entered, and the sailors had not completely disembarked, and the fleet of Syracuse came. Leptines was beating a drum in his heart now, and he remained calm on the surface: "How many warships are here?"

It is much more difficult to judge the number of ships at sea than to detect the number of people on land, because when a fleet of hundreds of warships sails on the sea, they often occupy a range of five or six nautical miles. For hiding in a hidden place, so it needs to get close and observe, which requires a lot of risk.

"Well...it feels similar to the number in the last battle." The captain can only give a rough idea.

Then he emphasized: "Those Dionian ships have drawbridges on their foremasts!"

When Leptines heard this, he felt a little flustered, and the fiasco from a few days ago reappeared in front of him.

Fight or not? He couldn't make up his mind for a while, but ran to the city to ask Dionysius.

When Dionysius learned that the Dionysian fleet was coming, he pondered for a moment, and resolutely issued an order: Attack!

In this regard, he has several considerations.

First of all, since the detected situation is that the number of Dionia's fleet is not much different from the last time, and all of them are equipped with the so-called drawbridge, it means that the previous analysis is correct, due to the number of sailors and the difficulty of refitting warships The Onians still used the original warships, and the Syracuse navy had a slight advantage in the number of three-layered warships.

Secondly, as a commander, Dionysius knew how much morale had an impact on the combat effectiveness of the soldiers. The Syracuse Navy suffered a major defeat not long ago. If he did not make up for it with victory in time and chose to retreat, Undoubtedly, "destroy one's own prestige and boost the enemy's morale", then if they encounter the Dionysian fleet in the future, the Syracuse Navy will undoubtedly be a dwarf in fighting spirit.

Furthermore, the army of Syracuse was concentrated in Crotone. Yesterday, after another day of hard fighting, they were resting. If the Dionysian fleet was allowed to cross the sea of ​​Crotone and sail to the rear of the empty force, For example, landing on the coast near the city-states such as Celestia or the city-states such as Corenia, which is not a true surrender, will cause the Syracuse army to be greatly passive, so Dionysius will never allow such a situation to occur.

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Although this is the second time that Cykrian has led a fleet to expedition, in his heart, this is the first time he has truly led a fleet independently. Without King Davos by his side, there is no sense of restraint.