Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 172: The plight of the Greek coalition forces

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Ipamilunda's words were fulfilled. If the thousands of soldiers sent from Athens did not go to reinforce the Greek allied forces in the Peloponnese, but went to Phokes, which only made the Thebes feel suspicious, then the Thessari army would leave after a few days. The Greek coalition forces hurriedly landed in Port Chleusis, and desperately marched northward, which thoroughly proved that the news they had heard from the Phokes population was true-Dionia sent troops to Thessaly!

This is indeed beyond the expectation of Ipamirunda. In his vision, Dionia may first use the defense to exhaust the Greek coalition forces, and then increase troops to the Peloponnese, thus regaining the disadvantage. . He did not expect that Dionia would send a huge fleet around the Greek mainland and land tens of thousands of soldiers in Thessaly, far away from the battlefield. This is an extremely splendid military operation, how ambitious it is. The boldness!

When Ipamirunda learned of the news, he couldn’t help but screamed and fascinated, but he also knew very well: dare to formulate such an extraordinary military plan and put it into action, there is a powerful national and military force behind it. The Piosha Alliance led by Thebes is simply unable to do so.

However, even if Dionia sent troops to raided Thessaly, the high-level Thebes did not dare to conclude that Dionia had an absolute advantage. Conquer, while Jason is leading his army to return, the slightest negligence of the Dionian landing army is in danger of defeat.

The high level of Thebes’ concerns about the Dionian landing troops did not last long. Jason’s troops retreated from the north and fled into Athens embarrassedly.

Dionia landed an army of 100,000 and conquered Thessaly in more than half a month. Thessaly army collapsed without a fight. Jason was seriously injured... News from the mercenaries shocked. The brains of every high-level Thebes made them stunned, including Ipamirunda, who was once again shocked by the courage of King Dionia and the strength of Dionia.

At this time, every high-level Thebes realized: Dionia’s landing army will soon go south, and the defeat of the Greek coalition forces is set. In the face of such a general trend, Thebes can no longer remain neutral. A decision must be made as soon as possible to ensure the safety of the Piosha Alliance and gain benefits for Thebes before the end of this war.

So, when the Dionian Cavalry Corps rushed to the city of Debes, the Council of Thebes had passed a resolution, and it did not hesitate to agree to all the requirements made by the Dionian army: First, allow wearing The Onian army passed the Piotja area safely and smoothly, and could be stationed in any area within the territory; secondly, some rations were lent to the Dionian army urgently (the soldiers led by Patroclus only carried rations for 5 days) After entering Central Greece, the rapid southward advance, the temporary supply of military food was not available); third, the port of Drian was opened to the Dionian fleet (Drian is a city-state on the northeastern coast of the Piotia region, which is Pio One of the few port towns in the Xia League, not far from Oropus, which calls in Athens, once it opens to Oria, the grain ship from Philae can directly pass through Euboea and Central Greece. It is very convenient for the food supply of the Dionian army to unload the cargo in the port of Drian.)

Even Thebes also proposed that he is willing to immediately take back the Port of Chleusis occupied by the Greek Alliance and hand it over to Dionia for free. And Thebes is willing to fulfill the military alliance treaty signed with Dionian and send troops to fight side by side with the Dionian army.

After Patroclus learned that the Thebes not only readily agreed to his request, but also willing to actively cooperate in the fight, although he despised the Theban’s speculative approach, he delivered the benefits to the door. Don't do it for nothing, he readily agreed to Thebes' request.

So on the fourth day of entering Central Greece, the 40,000 Dionian army joined the emergency formation of 5,000 Theban soldiers near Thebes.

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Athens learned that the "Dionia landing army is about to go south" was not first told by the Jason mercenaries who fled to Athens. Since learning that the Dionian army has landed in Thessaly, in order to be prepared, Athens has sent some merchant ships to the Gulf of Mariakos to investigate the enemy's situation every day.

Why choose only Mariakos Bay? This is because the Pagasa Bay, which belongs exclusively to Thessaly, is too closed and can be easily spotted by the patrolling Dionian warships. There are many ships near Mariakos Bay, mainly from the Euboea city-state. The city-states of the city, the city-state of Locris, and the city-state of Lamia (after Lamia returned to Dionian, the Dionian army allowed it to reopen the port), and the Athens merchant ships were mixed in, making it easy to hide.

After Patroclus led the army into the Lamia region, the merchant ships sent by Athens discovered this situation. They quickly reported the news to the General Executive Committee. After discussion, Callistratos and others thought : Although Jason and Thessaly army are still working hard to break through the hot spring pass, the Dionians have increased their troops to Lamia. Does this mean that they have conquered Thessaly? ? Although the possibility is unlikely, Athens must also prepare in advance.

So the General Executive Committee soon sent a messenger to inform Iphikratus in Peloponnese to lead the army back to Attica as soon as possible.

The action taken by Athens was two days before the Dionian landing army entered Central Greece.

After the departure of Thessaly's army, the Greek coalition forces stayed in the Leprion camp for the first few days, even though the Dionian army (the First Army) rushed into the Arcadia area and rescued Mandinia. Even the northward threatened Corinth, Efekratus remained unmoved, and had been busy in the camp to appease the generals of the city-states and stabilize the military.

Until he felt that the situation had improved, he began to lead the army towards the Dionia camp on the northern border of Messenia, but only made some tentative offensives instead of fierce fighting.

Ifekrates knew very well in his heart: The departure of Thessaly’s army no longer had the advantage of the Greek coalition forces, and the Dionians focused on defense. The coalition forces had no more meaning in fighting here, and instead consumed their armaments. But he couldn't stop fighting or lead his army to leave, because that would mean admitting defeat, and I am afraid that some city-state leaders who had complained would leave, and the entire Greek coalition forces would face disintegration. If they want to regroup, It is undoubtedly more difficult, not to mention that there is a Dionian army staring at him next to it.

Through this period of battle, Iphikratus has realized that Dionia is an extremely difficult opponent, and this powerful opponent who has been defending has not exerted all his strength so far, and he is very disturbed. But now it’s difficult to ride a tiger, and I have to do my best to maintain the integrity of the Greek coalition forces. On the one hand, he hoped that Jason would smoothly drive away Dionian’s landing army and lead his army back to the Peloponnese as soon as possible to join the coalition forces; on the other hand, he hoped that the great assistance promised by Persia could come as soon as possible and strengthen the Greek coalition forces. The forces of...Of course, he still has a vague idea in his mind, that is, to negotiate a peace with Dionia while the Greek coalition forces still occupy the advantage.

However, Athens finally got out of the shadow of the defeat of the Peloponnese, and its national strength gradually recovered. Now Sparta is in decline, and many Greek city-states (including those in the Peloponnese) have joined the Greek alliance headed by Athens. At this time, Athens ushered in the best period to become the hegemon of Greece again. If you negotiate with Dionia at this time, with Dionia’s strength, Athens will definitely lose some benefits, which will not only cause dissatisfaction with other Greek city-states, The disintegration of the Greek alliance will also trigger public protests, so Iphikratus can only think about it in his heart.

Just when he encouraged to maintain the integrity of the Greek coalition forces, he received the news from Athens, and immediately magnified the anxiety in his heart. It was different from the Kallistatus and the others in the back. They were on the battlefield. He has a more keen intuition about the situation: Although it is unlikely that the Dionian army will conquer Thessaly in such a short period of time, in case they dare to increase their troops to Lamia, it is because they really conquered the Serbia. Where's Sally? ! Then Jason’s army is in danger of a rapid collapse. Without his army to stop him from the north, Dionian’s landing army would go south quickly, and Athens would be in danger!

And the messenger from Athens who rushed to the barracks also told a piece of news: When he passed the isthmus, he saw Dionian warships appearing in the Corinth Gulf.

Ifekrates was surprised again, because since the Dionian army invaded the Peloponnese, they had not sent warships into the Gulf of Corinth, so Ifekrates dared to advise Iraq before. Soon went north by boat, and now it seems that the Dionians are most likely looking forward to the return of Jason's army as soon as possible. This is a conspiracy!

Thinking of this, Efekratus was shocked in a cold sweat, and he immediately sent his men to convey an order to the Greek coalition forces: gather the whole army and retreat to Corinth!

As soon as this order was issued, it immediately drew questions from many generals of the Greek city-states.

No matter who came to ask, Iphikrates always answered: Thessaly army led by Jason is not in a good situation in Lamia, and the landing force north of Dionia is likely to go south, Greece The coalition forces need to return to the isthmus to take into account the security of China and Greece.

Effikratus’s remarks were reasonable, but many city-state generals did not think so. They persuaded again and again, seeing that Effikratus still insisted, the commanding general from Ellis expressed angrily We must part ways, because once the army withdraws to Corinth in the northeast corner of the Peloponnese, it will be far away from Ellis in the northwest corner, and there are mountains in the middle, and now the main force of the Dionian army in the south They are all on the northern border of Messenia, very close to the Ellis area. If it attacks Ellis, the Greek coalition forces in Corinth will not be able to rescue them.

Not only the generals of Alice, but also the generals of the Arcadian Alliance city-states also expressed similar wishes, but their words were more euphemistic. After all, the Arcadian region is also adjacent to Messenia and Lagnia controlled by Dionia. Once the Greek coalition forces leave, Dionian counterattacks, the first to suffer is the city-states of the Arcadian League. What's more, the Arcadian Alliance has betrayed the covenant before, and it will definitely be retaliated by Dionia.