Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 162: Landing in Thessaly (4)

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The Lamians are not too panic about this. Over the past century, they have continued to transform the hills around the city, making the hillside close to the city completely unfavorable for climbing, and the top of the mountain is parallel to the city. The above is a hundred meters away, and the threat of shooting arrows at the Lamians in the city from a high altitude has also greatly diminished.

But soon the Lamians began to panic: the palm-sized boulders continued to whizz down from the tops of the mountains on both sides, and even the strong houses were easily smashed by it like paper, and the people unfortunately got one. , The death was even more miserable. Even the temple of the Acropolis could not escape its attack. After only more than 10 minutes, the core city of Lamia became chaotic.

Just when the people of Lamia were in panic, Patroclus sent an emissary and made a stern request: As long as Lamia surrenders immediately, Dionia will ensure the safety of the people of Lamia, otherwise it will be completely destroyed This city has turned all the people in the city into slaves!

Now Dionian’s war in Greece has become the focus of all Greek people’s attention. Of course, the Lamians know the tragic experience of the people of Tygea before, not to mention that they have just seen the The huge numbers and aggressive methods of Onia's army thought it was difficult to resist, so they had no choice but to surrender.

Patroclus fulfilled his promise and did not harm the surrendered Lamian people, but he sent two brigades to the city's acropolis and completely controlled the city-state.

It was already the afternoon, and it was unrealistic to continue leading the army across the mountains to the north and into Thessaly territory, but Patroclus did not let the soldiers rest, but gave orders to attack south.

Actually, apart from the 12th Army and the Gaul Battalion, the other corps did not participate in the battle. They had enough rest in front of Lamia, and they were more eager to win a victory with their own hands.

So the soldiers of the Tenth, Eleventh, and Third Cavalry Regiments swiftly crossed the Sperkeros River along the route of the Persian army’s invasion of Greece decades ago, and arrived at dusk. Close to Heraclea.

Heraclea is facing the city of Lamia, only a dozen miles away. It is located at the northern foot of the northern mountains of Central Greece. It is the northern gateway to Central Greece from Thessaly. There are two roads to the south through it. One is to go directly to the south, trekking through the trails between the mountains, and finally enter Doris, but the northern border mountains are high and towering, the mountain roads are bumpy, and the transportation is extremely inconvenient, which is not conducive to the passage of large troops. At the beginning, the Persian army did not choose to take this route. Instead, after arriving in Heraclea, they turned to the east, passed the hot springs close to the coast, and then proceeded south along the coast. As a result, the Spartan king Leoni was triggered. The legendary story of the 300 fighters who resisted the Persian army and died heroically.

Since Sparta defeated Athens and became the overlord of Greece, it has kept Heraclea and Hot Springs in its hands. After the Battle of Leuktra, Jason led the Sesali army to destroy Heraclia and took control of the Wenquan Pass, but he soon regretted it because the Wenquan Pass was only a pass, and the area there was extremely narrow, which was not conducive to the great The troops stationed for a long time can only rely on the logistical support of Heraclea, which is very close to it.

In order to control the road to the south for a long time, Jason had to rebuild the city of Heraclea. But a few months later, the Dionian army landed in the Peloponnese and triggered a new war. When Jason led the army to go south again, Heraclea had just built a circle of earth walls without even a city gate. , He left 3,000 soldiers to garrison, and hurried south.

3000 soldiers is a large number for any Greek city-state, even if the city is not perfect, but occupying a dangerous position, it is enough to block the possible attacks of these Greek city-states to the south to ensure the army of Thessaly The safety of the back road.

However, Jason never expected that the attack came from the north, and the number of soldiers was so large, and the attack was so fierce. Three thousand Thessari soldiers were quickly swarmed into the city by the Dionian soldiers. Surrounded and defeated.

At this time, night was about to fall, and Patroclus stood on the dirt wall, looking east. The afterglow of the setting sun coated the earth with a layer of gold, and the scenery that caught his eyes was extremely clear, but even so, he could not see the outline of the nicknamed "Popular Hot Spring Pass (there are many hot springs near the Hot Spring Pass, resulting in It’s always hot there, hence the name).

Pressing down on the regret in his heart, he ordered: Soldiers camp on the spot and raise their spirits to prepare for another fight tomorrow.

……………………………………………………

When the Dionian armies from the south gathered in Lamia, the armies from the north also passed through the valley pass, four infantry regiments and one cavalry regiment, plus one Balearic sling The brigade (2,000 people), a total of nearly 40,000 people, took a rest in Taniguchi. Martonis and Lizaru ordered at the same time: march south and target Larissa.

This time, the army did not make a rapid march. The soldiers lined up in a column with a wide front. Along the south bank of the Pinos River, on the flat and soft land, marching southwards mightily, the Third Cavalry Regiment. Walked at the top of the queue.

The city of Larissa is located in the center of the northern plain of Sesali, on the Pirios River. It has vast farmland and a large population. It was once a strong state in the northern plain of Sesali, and it was also a long-term state of Sesali. Central city. But after Philae's rise, Jason conquered this neighboring city-state and deliberately suppressed it, resulting in its strength being much lower than before. When Jason was mobilizing for the military this time, he also specifically emphasized: Larissa must provide no less than 5,000 soldiers.

For this, Larissa enlisted most of the young and middle-aged citizens to join the army, and just a few hours ago, they received the order of Polydurus: The army of Dionia is landing on the coast of Mildoros, each The city-state will send troops to come for reinforcements as soon as possible!

Larissa had to dispatch another 1,000 citizen soldiers urgently.

When Peleus’s messenger came to ask for help, the Larissas had almost no soldiers to send, but they knew very well; it’s nothing if Peleus was captured, but once the Dionian troops were allowed to pass through the valley pass, It was extremely terrifying to rush into the northern plains of Thessaly.

So Larissa had to piece together nearly 300 soldiers (including some citizens over the age of 50), and asked them to rush to Camp Taniguchi for defense, and at the same time sent a messenger to Polydorus for help.

Larissa’s reinforcements walked halfway, and saw that the ground level in front of them was covered by dust, and even the ground was trembling slightly.

The army of Dionia has arrived! ...Larissa looked at the countless hidden figures of soldiers in the dust and fog, almost frightened, turned around and fled.

At the same time, the Second Dionian Cavalry Corps also spotted them and immediately chased them up. The unscrupulous Larissa reinforcements raised their hands and surrendered.

Although it was already afternoon, Martonis and Lizaru learned from the prisoners who were interrogated that the city of Larissa was vacant and there was a serious shortage of major generals, and the remaining forces of Thessaly were all concentrated on the coast of Armiros. , I don’t know anything about the attack of the Dionian army from Peleus... Both commanders thought it was an excellent fighter opportunity and immediately ordered the army to accelerate.

Larissa was nearly 40 miles away from Taniguchi, and it was all smooth. The soldiers of the Dionian Legion marched normally, and their physical strength had gradually recovered. After receiving the order, they began to run wildly again.

When I saw the outline of Larissa in the distance, the sun had already fallen to the west, only a few afterglows were left on the horizon, and the night was about to fall.

Martonis and Lizaru are both decisive commanders. Now that they have made a decision before, they will never change it easily. The order to "initiate an attack on Larissa" was issued immediately.

The city of Larissa uses the Pinos River and its tributaries as a natural barrier. It originally had a defensive advantage, but they had just sent away reinforcements a few hours ago and have not received any unusual news. Now it’s getting late again. Naturally, there was a slack in my heart, and when the sentry at the head of the city saw the enemy troops coming in like a tide in the distance, the alarm bell sounded in horror.

The panicked Larissa wanted to close the city gates, and at the same time, urgently mobilized the people to defend the city. The city became a mess, and there was no time to burn the pontoon bridge over the river.

Dionian soldiers stepped on the pontoon bridge of the Pinios River and quickly reached the city of Larissa. In the process, they did not even suffer a long-range attack from the city’s bow and arrow or javelin. When they put the wooden siege ladders on the city wall, the Larissa people who drove the ducks to the shelves took the rusty weapons and hurriedly climbed to the top of the city. Naturally, failure was inevitable.

"Report to the two commanders, we have captured Larissa!" The messenger reported loudly to Matonis and Lizaru excitedly.

"Which unit was the first to capture the city?" Matonis asked with a smile.

"The Eighth Battalion of the Second Army."

Martonis smiled brighter and turned to look at his side: "Oh, Lizaru, I'm sorry, my men have won the first prize again!"

Lizaru said coldly: "The Larissa have no resistance at all. This is also a credit? The Second Army just took advantage of the front of the team!"

"I said Lizaru, you don't know good or bad, if it weren't for the Second Army to clear the valley in time, and I will inform you in time, you might still take your troops to climb in the mountains of Macedonia! "

"That's because the Ministry of Military Affairs believed in my ability, so it gave me the most difficult task and the easiest task to you."

……

Two 50-year-old veterans quarreled with each other like children, and the staff and guards around were not able to come out to dissuade them, so they could only smile on their faces and stand like puppets.

The two quarreled for a while, when Martonis suddenly remembered something, and said to the uncomfortable messenger standing aside: "Immediately notify the incoming troops, not to rob the people of Larissa and hurt their lives. , If there is a violation, military law will be punished!"

"Yes!"