Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 7: The Battle of Trionto River (5)

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The freedmen of Dionia are different. They come from various places, run for their livelihoods, and develop self-interested habits. Even before becoming a preliminary citizen of Dionia, most of them have never suffered from serious problems. Infantry training has never been to the battlefield, and more than half a year of intensive training cannot completely eliminate the habit that has been cultivated for a long time. When the enemy's spear shot to the right chest, he should have been handed over to his teammates to defend, and he used the spear spear to fight back, forcing the opponent to return to defense, reducing pressure on his side, but out of instinctive reaction, he retracted his shield to block, as a result Expose half of the body of the teammate next to the enemy’s stabbing gun...This kind of vicious circle causes everyone to take care of themselves, so that the line is no longer close, not only cannot effectively advance together, but also makes the The Rotone squeezed in through the gap and used their personal ability to further confuse Dionia's line.

The First Dionian Corps was originally the regiment with the most veterans and the strongest combat effectiveness. It originally had four veterans, but it was transferred a large number of veterans to serve as the officers of the three regiments at all levels, and Dave Ssi mobilized another 300 veterans to serve as the reserve team, and had to replenish a large number of new recruits, which led to a sharp decline in combat effectiveness. Under the circumstances of occupying a favorable position and taking the lead as soon as the war started, not only did no one take the opportunity to drive off all the enemies on the opposite side. He, on the contrary, after stalemate for a long time, unexpectedly began to slowly retreat under the crazy counterattack of the Crotone people...

Alsinis's team is in the second line of the front. The soldiers in the front have fallen several times. He called out loudly, commanding his soldiers to work together to drive out the incoming enemy and fill the gap again. The prolonged battle made his arms sore and uncomfortable, and commanding these ignorant recruits made him exhausted, but the fierce gaze shot from the helmet of the enemy on the opposite side always reminded him: Fight! Continue fighting! Otherwise, he can only be greeted by failure and death!

"It is the responsibility of the captain to lead your soldiers in brave battles and victory!" This is his former team leader and now the team leader Ktips congratulated him on becoming the team leader. He always remembered his advice. He shouted the name of each soldier, and set an example to remind and teach his men how to apply the skills learned on the training ground to life and death battles with brave but flexible combat.

In the toughest moment of the battle, these low-level team officials of Dionia played an important role as a mainstay.

Heavy infantry battles, and Dionia is at a disadvantage; light infantry battles, and Dionia has the upper hand. Not only is the number of light infantry more than 1,000, and more than half are veterans from Asia Minor. The three types of light infantry: slingers, archers, and light shields are all from the famous Mediterranean light infantry production area of ​​Rhode Island and Croatia. Ritter Island and Thrace, how can Crotone, who don't attach importance to the use of light infantry, can resist. Even with heavy infantry from both sides in the middle, Crotone's light infantry was killed by arrows and stones that were accurately thrown over, and was forced to retreat.

Once the protection of the light infantry weakened, the rear of the Crotone's heavy infantry phalanx was attacked by the Dionia light infantry. It stands to reason that these soldiers at the back of the phalanx have not participated in the fight, and they should be energetic. But on the contrary, most of them were soaked in the river water for a long time. The cold river water in early spring took away a lot of heat from their bodies and made them hungry and exhausted. Therefore, in the face of the enemy's long-range strikes, their response has become a little slow. If the heavy infantry were not well protected, their casualties would be extremely heavy.

Because each side has its own difficulties and each has its own advantages, they have been stuck at each other and fell into a bitter battle.

Milon is not in a hurry to face this situation, and being able to hold each other has achieved his goal. The key to Crotone's victory came from the more than 7,000 people who were roundabout in the lower reaches of the Triwento River. He firmly believed that the final victory must belong to Crotone.

The same idea was held by the Archon of Dionian Daves, but he had already received a good news from the Ryders cavalry: Crotone’s troops on the lower Triwento River were either annihilated or surrendered. No longer exists, Leides, Epithenis and their generals will lead their troops to rest for a while, then they will cross the Triwento River and bypass Crotone's army to attack behind them.

Daves completely relieved his heart and watched Martores scratching his head next to him with a frustrated expression. He couldn't help but jokingly said: "Martonis, is your scalp itchy?"

"Your Excellency Commander!——" Matonis complained loudly: "The last time we captured Niutum, our army failed to fight and missed the triumphal style! This time I was captured by you again. Reserve captain, I'm going to win soon, I'm still idle here, it's too unfair!"

Davers smiled and said: "Don't worry, you should be on the court right away."

Speaking, he issued an order: "Blow the order to change the formation, let the soldiers on the first line retreat and the soldiers on the second line go up!"

"Your Excellency Commander, we are about to win, why bother to make a very difficult formation change! Most of them are recruits, in case something goes wrong and cause the whole phalanx--" Matonis was eager. Fight, but he doesn't want to see the alliance lose.

"The formation we have trained for so long has never been used in actual combat. Now we are about to win. If we do not accumulate experience at this time, when will we have to wait!" Daves said seriously: "Not to mention us Retreating, just to lure all the enemies onto the river bank, when they want to escape, it will be even more difficult for them to escape. Martonis, you have been a recruit instructor. You must have confidence in the results of the soldiers' long-term training and the command of the team leader!"

"You are the commander, you have the final say! Next, is it our turn to go to the battlefield?!" Matonis stopped struggling with this question, but took the initiative to fight.

"Lead your men and rush to the right flank of the phalanx, at the junction of the Second Army and the three reserve brigades. In case, the enemy’s advance will cause chaos to them, you need to rush forward in time to block the enemy’s attack. , To buy time for the soldiers to regroup!"

"Understood, I'm going now! Brothers!--" Martinis cheered up and began to shout.

……………………

Alsinius led the soldiers still fighting hard with the enemy.

At this moment, the sound of a bugle from the rear lifted his spirits. When it sounded the second time, he heard it, it was the trumpet of "formation change".

"Brothers, hold on! Soon we will be able to rest!" Like Alsinius, the front-line team officers reminded the soldiers loudly.

At this time, the second-line array quickly uses companies as the unit, one company stays in place, and its neighboring company has to retreat... After a while, the entire array has changed from a dense snake formation to a single company. A patchy "checkerboard" formation (ie, fish scale formation) formed by small square formations of companies. As part of the frontline soldiers of the entire phalanx did not have the strength of the rear soldiers, under the pressure of the enemy, but also under the command of company drums and military flags, they began to retreat... and finally quickly withdrew to the gap in the rear "checkerboard". rear.

The drums of Alsinis’ company did not sound. He knew that the company he belonged to was not very lucky, and the company that came next did not retreat first, so they could not retreat for the time being.

At this moment, squad leader Ktips shouted: "Brothers, protect our flanks!"

With the retreat of the neighboring company, the enemy took advantage of the influx. Since the front of the Dionian formation did not retreat as a whole, Crotone's offensive array became uneven, and the front lines of both sides formed a canine tooth. Alsinius’s company was under the pressure of being surrounded on three sides, but the enemy who flooded into the gap was also in such a situation, but the Dionian troops were prepared to retreat, and every small phalanx that was in contact with the enemy was in a position. Under the powerful control of the company captain, on the contrary Crotone was unprepared and disorderly. As a result, although Dionia was retreating, Crotone did not seize such an opportunity and caused even greater damage to Dionia. The killing and chaos.

At this time, the company’s drums sounded, and the 20×10 square formed by the four squads began to wave back rhythmically with the central flag, and began to slowly retreat...Alsinius and the others. Using shield spears to defend against enemy attacks, as the rear company retreated, the company they belonged to also began to retreat in an orderly manner. When the rear company stopped moving, Alsinis and the others were able to withdraw from the gap between the scattered company phalanx... After several retreats, the soldiers on the first line retreated to the rear smoothly, and the soldiers on the second line retreated. Arranged into a dense formation, and become the forefront of the entire square in the chat.

The reason why the formation was so smoothly changed without major chaos, Daves’ worries did not become a reality, mainly because the Crotones had never seen a battle where the army dared to fight fiercely. During such a bold and peculiar array conversion, it failed to take effective response measures in time; secondly, when fighting in a dense formation, Crotone’s army was stronger than Dionia, which had a majority of recruits, but once the array was converted When the phalanx of the two sides were all split into small squares, Dionia’s long-term targeted training with detachments and companies as tactical units played a role, and their command was more efficient. Actions are more flexible. On the other hand, Crotone’s operations and training are based on a large phalanx. The command system is originally rough. After the soldiers flooded into the gaps, they lost effective command and fell into chaos. War, but at a disadvantage.

…………………

Miron, who was immersed in the river, heard the enemy’s trumpets and drums ringing together, still wondering in his heart, and then the array that had been stalemate for a long time began to move forward...