Chapter 227

Mathias didn't care so much, and led the soldiers to forcibly enter the village and ordered the villagers to prepare food.

The exhausted soldiers barely filled their stomachs and fell asleep. Only Marcias tossed and turned, unable to sleep: The news of the riot in Syracuse made him very worried about the original city outside Syracuse. The situation of the mercenary villages, after all, the tragic situation of the mercenary villages in Katanai made him secretly alert, I hope the hundreds of mercenaries who stay in the villages can defend their homes! By the time he led his army back to Syracuse tomorrow, more than a day had passed since the riot, and a lot of things could have happened in that day. The mercenaries that Onysius had a close relationship with would probably be expelled and made homeless. I hope that Lord Philistos can quell the riots, and even if it cannot be quelled, he must control and hold on to part of the city, waiting for his reinforcements to arrive!

After worrying about Syracuse, he worried about how to lead the troops back to Syracuse safely. On his way to Meyaro, he led his army north along the flat coast, passing Taunis, then by way of Leothinis to call for troops, then passing through Catane, and finally reaching Siculli, it can be said that he was The defense forces of these city-states were taken away along the way, and the rebels were given a chance, which led to large-scale riots.

But now is not the time to regret this. Judging from today's situation, I am afraid that Katanai has been completely occupied by rioters. Otherwise, how can there be spare force to send troops out of the city to attack them. Sikuli, if not fully taken, was so close to the Dionians that it would sooner or later fall. The Leothinians were forcibly removed half of the population by Dionysius, and the people who remained may have long harbored resentment against Syracuse. Under such a trend, there is no need for freemen and slaves to rebel, and its citizens will die. It will automatically rise up to overthrow the tyrant supported by Lord Dionysius, so Marcias is not optimistic that the pro-Syracuse Leotinians can resist this riot.

On the contrary, I have some confidence in Taunis and Marcias, because Taunis has always been an affiliated ally of Syracuse, and has never been betrayed. He is dissatisfied with the tyrant who supported him in time, and he should not rashly attack Syracuse. Zha's army. What's more, the Syracuse fleet, which had retreated from the Naxos Gulf, was moored in the port of Taunis. With their help, even if there was a riot, the possibility of success in Taunis would not be too great.

Therefore, Macias finally made a decision: after starting tomorrow, the team will bypass Catanay, avoid the possible attack of the Leotinians, then walk to the sea, pass Taunis, and finally reach Syracuse... This is A long journey of hundreds of miles, which is full of many unknown risks, but in order to get back to Syracuse as soon as possible, he can only take this risk. Otherwise, for safety, he could avoid the coast and take a detour to the almost uninhabited mountainous area on the west side of Leotini. Although the mountains there are not too high, the road is rough and difficult to travel, which will undoubtedly slow down the journey, and the food is also a big question...

Mathias thought about it a lot, and finally couldn't resist the sleepiness and fell asleep...

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the next day,

At three poles in the sun, but still soundly asleep, he was woken up by the guards, and only then did he know that something big had happened during his snooze time: when he woke up in the morning, the soldiers found that dozens of horses were missing, and there were fewer residents in the village. Most of the soldiers, of course, suspected that the residents of the village had done something good. They were so angry that they immediately arrested and interrogated all the villagers who had not escaped. …some of the most common misdeeds in their follow-up of Dionysius’s conquest of Sicily reappeared in this village.

This aroused the dissatisfaction and anger of the small number of Katana mercenaries in the team, because this was a village under their jurisdiction. Clashes broke out between the two sides, and finally the angry Kartana mercenaries left the team, and the number of the entire army plummeted to 3,000.

Faced with such a difficult situation, Marcias was powerless, and he even thought that without the Catanes holding back, they would march faster and consume less food, not to mention other annoying problems. Although they were all compatriots from Campania, they had been comrades fighting side by side until today, and they had a deep friendship.

Mathias ordered the soldiers to loot all the food in the village and set off immediately.

Under the urging of Marcias, the team of more than 3,000 people, almost all former mercenary citizens of Syracuse, set off hastily with the expectation of returning to Syracuse and defending their homeland as soon as possible.

On their way to the southeast, they encountered scattered soldiers from time to time, and Marcias took the opportunity to bring them all into the team.

At the same time, the team was also spied on by several scout teams. While sending cavalry to drive away, Macias urged the soldiers to speed up their march.

His premonition has come to an end. Soon, a team of seven or eight hundred people came from the northeast. They were not wearing armor, carrying bows and arrows and javelins, and they moved quickly to launch long-range attacks on Macias' team.

Marcias, who was almost certain that the enemy was from Katanai, hurriedly ordered his soldiers to strike.

But when the Syracuse soldiers formed and began to attack, the light infantry from Catane had retreated. But when the Syracuse soldiers resumed their column formation and continued their march, they reappeared.

After repeating this several times, Marcias understood: the Qatanai rebels just wanted to attack themselves, not really want to engage in a head-to-head fight.

But Mathias couldn't ignore it, otherwise the javelins and arrows would continue to take away the lives of the soldiers and destroy their low fighting spirit, so he would have only more than 50 cavalry and nearly 500 soldiers left. Light infantry was placed at the rear of the line so that they could resist enemy attacks. But he did not allow the soldiers to pursue excessively, because this would not only consume physical strength, but also leave the large army and be easily ambushed. Now the entire army has only one goal - to go home.

The Syracuse army stopped and stopped, and only walked out of the Catania Plain in the afternoon. The terrain ahead began to narrow, with the sea to the east, the mountains to the west, and a flat seaside corridor less than five miles wide in the middle.

Macias was originally worried about the appearance of the Leotinian rebels, but fortunately they did not, and it may be because the narrow terrain restricted the mobility of the Katana rebels, so they did not continue to harass the rear of the team. So that the Syracuse soldiers can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

The Syracuse army accelerated its march, because the city of Taunis was ten miles away.

After the city of Taunis was brought into sight, the defeated soldiers of Syracuse, who thought they had escaped the catastrophe, saw: not far north of the city of Taunis, in front of them there was a troop of four or five thousand people lined up in a neat phalanx, blocking it. Living in this seaside corridor, the all-black armor of most of the soldiers made their excited mood suddenly fall to the bottom of the valley: it is the Dionian! It's the Legion of Dioria! ! How did they get ahead of us? ! ! ...

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Yesterday's hard battle ended with the defeat of the Syracuse army.

While the Dionysian First Army was pursuing, Anton Rios finally saw the messenger sent by Antrapolis. After the news, Antonios finally breathed a sigh of relief: the First Army paid the price and finally gained a firm foothold in Sicily.

But in addition to rejoicing, he could not relax, because Antrapolis hoped that the First Army could intercept this army of Syracuse, so as to prevent them from returning to Syracuse and causing the riots to Syracuse Actions bring great variability.

To be honest, Antonios really didn't want to follow the advice of this secret probe. Although the First Corps finally won this battle, nearly a thousand people were killed and injured, several senior officers died, and even his close comrade Tspit was killed. Also unconscious, the First Corps has only had nearly 4,000 people since the battle of 8,000 people before the outbreak of the war (excluding auxiliary units), and the number has dropped by more than half. However, the current environment does not allow it, and the danger has not completely passed.

Of course, Antonios didn't want the expedition of the First Legion to fall short because the army fled back to Syracuse. The habit of "The Dionysian Legion always pursued the victory after victory" made him reluctantly agree. Advice from Antrapolis: Join forces with Catane to completely wipe out the Syracuse army on the way back!

After sending off the messenger, Antonios mused and rushed to the port, where the sailors of the Dionysian fleet were sending the families of the exiles off the warships.

Antonios soon met Flarios, who was in command of the fleet in place of Cecilian, and after deliberation, Flarios agreed that the fleet should not return to Lijim, but spend the night in Meyaro, so that the next day earlier participate in military operations.

The port of Mayaro has no naval port and no dry dock for warships, which means that the warships of the Dionysian fleet can only be pushed onto the beach, which requires a great risk. One of the main reasons why the Athenian fleet was wiped out by Lysander in the Battle of the Yanghe that year was that the Athenian warships were parked on the beach, and there was no time to go to sea when they were raided...

To this end, Flarios led the sailors, with the help of the exiles, to drag the warships to the beach one by one, and then set up strict sentries, and asked the sentries of the lighthouse to closely monitor the sea, and arranged all the clippers. , taking turns patrolling the bay all night...