Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece - Chapter 509

[Chapter 176 The Battle of Crotone (2)]

Davos obviously did not have the patience to wait for the other side to end, and immediately gave an order: “Attack!”

Dozens of trumpeters evenly arranged behind the huge array blew their bugles one after another.

“Ugh!!!…” The majestic trumpet sounded into the sky.

“Avenge the commander of Drakes and the brothers who died in battle!” The fourth and fifth legionnaires in the middle of the huge phalanx first shouted, and they quickly got the response of other troops. The cry of revenge replaced Hades. The call of the enemy, when the voices of the same enemy resounded, the morale of the Dionia soldiers had risen to the peak.

“Cunning Davos! Damn Davos!” Dionysius scolded angrily, and the Syracuse army, which had superior troops, was repeatedly taken the initiative by the Dionysians. , He felt suffocated when he was smooth sailing on land.

The Syracuse soldiers have not finished their prayers, and the enemy has already started to attack. Due to the tactical arrangement, he cannot wait for the soldiers to complete their prayers before moving forward. Therefore, this will inevitably affect the morale of the soldiers. He can only comfort himself. : That young man is only playing tricks, the real decision to win depends on strength!

“Attack!” He shouted in resentment with a ferocious face.

On the afternoon of the last day of 394 BC, on the plains of Croton, a major battle to decide the hegemony of the Greek city-states in the Western Mediterranean began.

The Dionian Alliance has more than 5,000 troops in the First Army, more than 7,000 in the Second Army, more than 12,000 in the Fourth and Fifth Army, 14,000 in the Sixth and Seventh Army, 6,000 in the Pike Brigade, and Heroes. Nimus had recruited 5,000 Brutian soldiers, 5,000 Crotone and Trina reinforcements, about 1,500 cavalry corps, 1,000 mountain reconnaissance brigade, and 300 escorts. The total strength of Nia is more than 58,000 people.

Davos placed the 7th Legion led by Matonis on the far right, near the Tachnadi River, and then arranged to the left in turn, with Olivers’ 6th Legion and Hieronymus’ Brutian warriors. , 4th Legion of Epithenes, 5th Legion of Felixius, 2nd Legion of Amyntas, 1st Legion of Antonios, Crotone-Trina reinforcements, Leeds’s The cavalry regiment was located on the far left, and the spear corps led by Capps was behind the reinforcements of Kerte, arranged in columns and perpendicular to the phalanx.

The left flanks of the Kurt reinforcements, the First and Second Corps formed a 15-column column according to Davos’ special order, and the rest of the formations were 8-10 columns thick.

The cavalry corps is the most special. They spread to the left and back in a loose formation as much as possible, and try their best to occupy a large area. While shielding the enemy’s detection of their long-haired brigade, they also achieve another purpose before the battle.

The Syracuse army had 80,000 infantry, 2,000 Numibian cavalry, 800 Celtic cavalry, and 1,000 Sicilian Confederate cavalry when they landed in Greater Greece

. Later, Coulonia surrendered and provided 4,000 soldiers. Coupled with the addition of some troops from the Locle allies, Syracuse’s army strength exceeded 90,000.

However, the two newly conquered city-states of Siriting and Trina need to arrange garrisoning, especially as the logistics supply base of the large army, the number of garrisons required by Siriting is not small, in order to prevent Dionia from attacking from the direction of Bruti, and its naval raids from the sea.

There is also a need to be stationed in the camp facing the city of Aspurustum to prevent the enemy from attacking the city of Aspurustum and attacking the rear of the army during the battle.

As a result, a total of nearly 13,000 people were separated.

After the capture of the city of Crotone, the Syracuse army later counted the number of dead and seriously wounded soldiers at about 7,000.

The Dionysian navy fought in the Crotone Sea. Because Leptinius listened to the advice of Dionysius and sent 9,000 elite soldiers to fight on the warship, the result was a disastrous defeat and about 7,000 soldiers were lost. Therefore, the Syracuse infantry who finally participated in this battle had a total strength of 62,000 people, plus 3,500 cavalry people (losses in the battle of the Ramato River and the plunder of the land of Dionia), a total of 65,500 people, a full 7,500 more than Dionia’s troops.

The cavalry was more than twice as many as the Dionian cavalry.

So after Phoebedas had a preliminary understanding of Dionysian’s army layout, he discussed with Dionysius: to transfer the weaker Sicily other city-state forces, plus the army of the Locle League of about 18,000 people, from France West Pesas is commanded on the left wing; 10,000 Campania mercenaries and 9,000 Syracuse civic soldiers are led by Dionysius in the middle; while the right wing has followed Dionysius for many years 15,000 elite soldiers (mainly mercenaries, later given Syracuse citizenship and land by Dionysius, most loyal to Dionysius), 10,000 Syracuse citizens by Phoebe Das led; the far right wing was 3,500 cavalry. Since the mercenary cavalry did not act according to the previous plan in the last battle, not only did Dionysius repeatedly warn the two alien leaders before this battle, And let the grumpy and fierce Astagras serve as the temporary commander of the cavalry from three different factions to facilitate the execution of the plan.

The bugle of the attack sounded, and Dionia’s left, center, and right armies advanced steadily at the same time, and the light infantry of the seventh brigade of each legion quickly arrived at the interval of the “chessboard” style small square formation. Before the formation, rush towards the enemy formation with a loose front.

Another reason why they advanced so fast was to force the enemy cavalry cruising in front of the formation to retreat, and they could no longer observe some of the subsequent movements of Dionia’s army.

The mercenary cavalry also retreated to the far right flank of the Syracuse army formation as they wished, and took a break to prepare for the next attack on

Syracuse. The light infantry was already arranged in front of the formation, without any Weakly greeted him.

When the main force of heavy infantry on both sides was still 500 meters apart, more than 10,000 light infantrymen on both sides had already started fighting.

For a time, on a horizontal line that was about eight or nine miles long from west to east, arrows like rain, javelins like hail, colliding in mid-air without interruption, and then stabbed soldiers in the body, taking their lives away…

Compared with the left, center, and right lines of the Dionysian Army, all advancing at almost the same speed, the situation in Syracuse is different. Its left and center main lines advance at a slower speed. On the right is striding forward.

Phoebe Das is the front-line leader on the right flank. This powerful right flank with a thickness of 25 columns, composed of 25,000 Syracuse elite soldiers, faced the enemy in front with two steps faster than the soldiers in the middle. Begin to break away from the middle.

And the cavalry on the far right flank was faster.

As soon as the cannon sounded, more than 3,500 cavalrymen accelerated forward with a width of more than one mile in length, and the horses with four hooves quickly increased their speed.

800 Celtic cavalry are at the forefront. This group of fierce races from the foot of the Alps and living in the Po River plains. Their cavalry tactics are different from the swift and erratic Numibian cavalry. They disdain to rely on lure, harassment and investment. The javelin is used to kill the enemy, and it is better at face-to-face charging and fighting, especially driving a chariot to attack the enemy’s tight army. It is only because he is employed in Syracuse, the distance is long and it is inconvenient to transport the chariot, so he does not carry it.

But even without chariots, the impact of the Celtic cavalry was still terrible. Most of their cavalry held large swords instead of spears, which made it easier to cut the opponent’s neck in a cavalry battle, so Astagras made it Be at the forefront and use its powerful lethality to disrupt the enemy’s cavalry formations.

The 1,800-odd Lumibian cavalry that followed, gave the first phase of mass creation, the last Syracuse flag, and under the leadership of Astagras, they just cleaned up the mess, and then restrained these mercenary cavalry, not to pursue , attacked the rear of the enemy’s left flank together, thousands of war horses galloped, and once again set off a cloud of dust, hundreds of war drums, and thunder at the same time

. Going forward, the speed is not as fast as the enemy, especially the cavalry horses at the tail are still dragging branches on the tail, which is more likely to stir up the dust on the ground.

When he was still more than 200 meters away from the enemy cavalry, the cavalry regiment commander Ryders looked back at the dust mist that had begun to spread behind him, and slightly nervously shouted to the several horn cavalrymen who were next to him: “Retreat!

” Several bugles sounded at the same time, and even on a battlefield with thunderous hoofs, there was no guarantee that the Dionian cavalry, who were also loosely formed and whose frontal formation was nearly a mile long, could hear them all. Fortunately, they had passed by many times before. During the training, the cavalry always keep an eye on the movements of nearby teammates.

Just as the Dionysian cavalry all set their horses to run back, UU reading www.sonicmtl.com The Syracuse cavalry had already approached within 100 meters, and the roaring hoofs behind him beat Ryders’ nervous heart, while he urged the horse. Going forward, he stared straight ahead, and when he saw the wall of people, his heart suddenly hung up: “Turn!” He shouted, and turned his horse to the left.

There was no need for him to shout, all the Dionian cavalry who could see this scene quickly separated to the sides according to their previous training.

The cavalry in the rear kept an eye on the movement ahead, and immediately followed the change when they saw their comrades change direction.

………………………………

When the horn of Dionia’s attack sounded, the spear battalion did not immediately advance with the other armies, but quickly elongated the column and moved immediately. To the position of the original cavalry, a square formation about one li long and ten columns thick was formed, and it was alone behind the entire army.

Although Caps, who was at the rear of the phalanx, was already a battle-hardened general, he was very nervous at the moment: Although the tactics of dealing with the enemy cavalry this time were similar to those of the Trionto River battle, the scale of the war was larger. Several times, the enemy’s cavalry is also more powerful, but the quality of the soldiers he leads is not as good as that of the original group of soldiers from the Persian Expeditionary Army. Can they resist the thousands of enemy cavalry charging forward?

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