Chapter 178 The Battle of Crotone (4)

But Dionia's spear phalanx was approaching, and the Celts at the forefront were directly facing the threat of a terrifying spear wall. They were already annoyed at being bumped by the Numibians before. Now, in order to escape, some of the irascible warriors among them simply wielded great swords and killed the Numibians who stood in their way. This aroused anger and resistance from the Numibians, and delayed the escape of the entire cavalry group.

The leaders and team officers of the two clans such as Akilita and Gaba shouted loudly, and even sounded the horn to retreat, but to this already dusty, noisy and chaotic battlefield for several miles, their Efforts can only be in vain...

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When the huge figure of the Celtic cavalrymen and horses slammed into Tapirus and the others, Tapirus couldn't help but tensed up, closed his eyes tightly, and subconsciously clamped the spear, ready to withstand the impact of huge force .

All he heard was the miserable neighing of the horses, and a strong force was transmitted to the barrel of the gun, making it almost impossible for him to grip. The soldiers in the first few columns also bumped into him at the same time, pushing him back violently.

"Steady, brothers! Hold on!..." The soldiers behind him tried hard to hold back his body, and while giving him strength, they also cheered them loudly.

The 15-column pike phalanx and the light armored soldiers behind it, the thickness of nearly 20 columns gave Tapirus enough strength to support them, allowing them to stabilize their figure.

Tapirus opened his eyes and saw that the warhorse landed on its hind hooves and raised its fore hooves. Eight or nine spears pierced his neck and chest at the same time, and held it in the air, but it was not dead yet. Stop whining. The enemy on the horse was already pierced by two spears through his left and right chests, lying on the ground, already dead. Horse blood and human blood flow down the barrel of the gun...

The soldiers laboriously pulled their spears out.

Tapirus was surprised to find that although the enemy cavalry was aggressive, there were no major casualties among the soldiers, and the formation remained relatively intact, only a few soldiers' spears were broken. After the cavalry hit this time, the enemy did not dare to continue to charge. Instead, he stopped the warhorse urgently and tried to flee in panic. The front of their battle was a mess...

Tapirus and the rest of the soldiers were relieved of their suspenseful hearts, and their courage was fueled by the cowardice of the enemy.

"Go on, brothers!" Tapirus shouted, and the soldiers responded with roars.

They stepped over the corpses of the enemy, around the dying warhorses, and continued onward.

Capps at the back of the phalanx was pleasantly surprised to see that the entire phalanx successfully blocked the advance of the enemy's huge number of cavalry, and the enemy who was in chaos also made him realize that he could not miss the opportunity.

Lost no longer, so decisively ordered: "Charge!"

Yes, the soldiers of the spear brigade will not only move forward steadily, they can charge like heavy infantry without any armor, and this tactic is the focus of training these days.

The rapid continuous sound of the bugle lifted the spirits of the soldiers.

"Attention! Charge!!..." Tapirus hissed.

The soldiers of the company stopped sticking so tightly, but opened up some distances between them. They still took small steps under their feet, but the cadence was gradually increasing...

The speed of the phalanx's advance accelerated, the enemy horses were stabbed one by one and dismounted, and the screams came one after another.

At the same time, the entire phalanx became no longer continuous, and there were many gaps. The light armored soldiers poured into the array along the gaps, cooperated with the length of the spearmen, and slaughtered the people sitting on horses and standing still. enemy.

When the Dionian cavalry who lured the enemy turned before, a few cavalrymen accidentally bumped into the spear square because of their nervousness. Some cavalry at the rear of the queue were injured and killed by the chasing Celtic cavalry... After suffering some After the casualties, they withdrew smoothly from both sides. At the same time as the phalanx of spears sounded the charge, the Dionian cavalry who had been quickly rectified immediately turned back from both sides, and they bravely blocked the passages on both sides.

"Avenge Soboks!!" Ryders shouted loudly, giving the order to attack.

The infantry has the unyielding hero Drax, and the cavalry also has the dead hero Sobox. At this time, the Dionian cavalry, holding on to the humiliation of being defeated by the Syracuse mercenary cavalry, desperately fought against the enemy regardless of their lives.

On the battlefield where the horses could not run, the difference in riding skills could not be shown, and it would not be useful, which made the Dionian cavalry compete with the Celts and Numibians on both sides. The enemy was even more unable to escape from the battlefield smoothly from both sides, resulting in the compression of the space in the central battlefield and the inability to evacuate from the rear for a while, thus creating conditions for a large number of spearmen and light armored soldiers to annihilate the enemy.

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"Your Majesty, the spear brigade blocked the onslaught of the enemy's cavalry, and is now fighting back!" Hearing Tormid's excited report, Davos's uneasy heart calmed down, but his expression was still solemn: "Now look at the first , Second Legion and Miron are theirs!"

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Phoebe Das, who was in the army, did not know the situation of his cavalry. He was now focused on leading the right flank of Syracuse to stride forward. At the same time, he paid attention to the array line of the entire right flank as he walked, just as he expected. , the entire array is gradually tilted to the left.

The infantry tactics that the Spartans were best at were the "left-hand tactics". During the battle, the Spartans took advantage of the characteristics of the heavy infantry holding a shield on the left, leaning to the right, and the array would gradually deviate to the left during marching, and designed the soldiers on the far right to accelerate forward. After reaching the enemy line, the right flank naturally turned left as a whole , so as to directly attack the flank of the enemy's left flank, causing the untrained enemy to be the first to be defeated when the flank is severely attacked. Most of the time, the battle is over before the other two sides are in direct contact.

At such an important moment of the big battle, Phoebe Das, who was also nervous, chose the tactics he was most familiar with. Although the Syracuse army could not achieve a neat and consistent left-handed strike in the battle like the Spartans who had been rigorously trained since childhood, the Syracuse army also had advantages that the Spartan army did not have. It has Infantry and cavalry in great numbers, and they had more soldiers than the Dionians, and they had more cavalry than the Dionians. After having a rough understanding of Dionia's formation, Phoebe Das was delighted to find that he could concentrate his troops on the right flank, take the lead in defeating the enemy's left flank, and lay the foundation for the victory of the entire battle!

Since the left end of the right flank is connected to the middle road at the beginning of the march (the cavalry connected to the right end has already rushed to the front), according to the previous habit, the instinctive speed of the march is slower than that of the soldiers who have no friendly forces outside the right side, plus The characteristics of the heavy infantry's right-leaning when marching, the Syracuse right flank, whose line was more than two miles long, had a clear inclination after advancing for a while.

In this regard, Phoebe Das rejoiced in his heart and was happy to see it succeed. He figured that the sloping array should be able to cut into the enemy's flank when it came into contact with Dionia's left flank. By then, the cavalry should have dealt with Dionia's cavalry, and then turned to attack the rear of their left flank. Dionia's left flank was attacked from three sides.

Phoebe Das was able to detect the abnormality of the array, and the experienced officers of the Dionysian First and Second Corps on the opposite side were also able to detect it, and the two commanders who kept getting reports immediately realized the situation. Something was wrong, and at this time the two armies were less than 400 meters apart.

Antonios immediately sent messengers to convey his advice to Amyntas, Miron, and Cypros on both ends: stop advancing immediately and reorganize the array to deal with the enemy in front of him.

It was soon agreed by the commander of the Second Army, Armintas.

Antonios couldn't wait for the hesitant Miron and Cypros to respond, and decisively blew the bugle "stop advancing", and then the Second Army issued the same order.

The First and Second Legions are indeed the Dionian Legions with the earliest establishment, the most veterans, and the strongest combat power. The strongest combat power also means the strongest ability to execute orders.

The bugle blew, the flag waved, and the officers and soldiers stopped advancing despite their doubts.

The two Dionian legions stopped their advance, causing the Crotone-Trina reinforcements at the far left to be overwhelmed, and Miron and Cypros, who were still hesitating, had to immediately order: stop advancing!

Their city-state civic soldiers did not have the systematic military training and complex military regulations and preparations like Dionia, and even did not have the bugle "stop advancing" at all, and could only send a lot of messengers before and after the battle. Commands are communicated loudly, so the entire array appears a bit chaotic. Fortunately, they were connected to the First Corps, and the First Corps did not move, which naturally affected the neighboring Ket reinforcements and stopped their advance in a hurry.

At this time, the 1st and 2nd Corps had already started to turn the entire array without haste, and the Kerte coalition had to follow suit, which was somewhat difficult. Because the Dionian Legion marched in a checkerboard array with companies as dense small squares, with strong flexibility, coupled with capable team officers and strictly trained soldiers, the formation was very smooth. Throw it over and let the front of the formation face the enemy again. And the array of the Kerte coalition is a whole dense array, more than half a mile long and 15 columns thick. The soldiers are heavy armor and heavy armor. It is not easy to make an in-situ turn in the usual training, not to mention that this is a battlefield that is killing the sky. In the face of the rapidly approaching enemy army, the Kerte reinforcements want to complete such a complex tactical maneuver. even more difficult.