Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 176: The Battle of Crotone (2)

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Davos obviously did not have the patience to wait for the other party to end, and immediately gave an order: "Offensive!"

Dozens of buglers evenly arranged behind the huge array sounded the bugles in their hands one after another.

"Woo!!!..." The majestic trumpet sounded into the sky.

"Vengeance for Chief Dracos and the brothers who died in battle!" The soldiers of the Fourth and Fifth Legions in the middle of the huge phalanx shouted first, and soon received responses from other troops. The shouts of vengeance replaced them. Hades's call, when the voice of the same enemy resented, the morale of the Dionian soldiers had risen to the peak.

"Cunning Daves! Damn Daves!" Dionysius scolded with anger, and the superior Siracusa army was repeatedly taken the initiative by the Dionians, which allowed self-landing He has been suffocated by the smooth wind on the land since Great Greece. The soldiers of Syracuse had not finished their prayers, and the enemy had already begun to attack. Due to the tactical arrangement, he could not wait for the soldiers to finish their prayers before advancing. Therefore, this would inevitably affect the morale of the soldiers. He could only comfort himself. : That young man can only be clever, the real decision to win or lose depends on strength!

"Offensive!" he shouted angrily and grimly.

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

The Dionian Alliance has more than 5,000 people 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, and 6,000 in the Pike Corps. , Hironimos recruited 5,000 Bruti soldiers, Crotone and Trina 5,000 reinforcements, plus about 1,500 Cavalry Corps, 1,000 Mountain Reconnaissance Brigade, and 300 escorts , The total strength of Dionia is more than 58,000.

Daves placed the 7th Army led by Matonis on the far right, near the Tacinadi River, and then arranged to the left in turn. They were Oliver’s Sixth Army and Hironimos’s cloth. Ruti Warriors, Epithenis’ Fourth Legion, Felicius’ Fifth Legion, Amintas’ Second Legion, Antonius’ First Legion, Crotone-Trina Reinforcement, Lai The cavalry regiment of Dess is located on the far left flank, and the spear brigade led by Capus is arranged in a column behind the Kurt reinforcements, perpendicular to the phalanx. The left wing of the Kurt reinforcements, the First and Second Army Corps formed a 15-column row in accordance with Davers's special instructions, and the remaining troops formed 8-10 columns in thickness.

The cavalry regiment is the most special. They spread to the left and back as much as possible in a loose formation, trying to occupy a large area, while covering the enemy's exploration of the own hairy brigade, but also to achieve another purpose before the battle.

When the Syracuse army landed in Great Greece, it had 80,000 infantry, 2,000 Numibian cavalry, 800 Celtic cavalry, and 1,000 Sicilian Confederate cavalry. The Ramato River lost approximately With 4,000 men, Corenia surrendered and provided 4,000 soldiers. Coupled with the addition of some troops from the Lokri allies, the army strength of Syracuse exceeded 90,000.

However, the two newly conquered city-states of Siriting and Trina need to arrange garrisons, especially Siriting as a logistics supply base for the army, the number of garrisons required is not small to prevent Dionia from coming from Bruti The attack, and its navy’s raid from the sea. Also, the camp facing the city of Asprostum also needs to be garrisoned to prevent the enemy from attacking from the city of Asprostum and attacking the rear of the army during the battle. In this way, a total of nearly 13,000 people have been separated.

After conquering the inner city of Crotone, the Siracusa army later counted the number of dead and seriously injured soldiers about 7,000. The Dionian navy fought in the waters of Crotone. As Leptinius listened to Dionysius’s advice, he sent 9,000 elite soldiers to fight on the ship. The result was a disastrous defeat and the loss of about 7,000 soldiers. Therefore, the total strength of the Syracuse infantry who participated in this battle was 62,000, plus 3,500 cavalry (lost in the Battle of Ramato and the looting of Dionia), totaling 65,500. There are 7,500 more troops than Dionia. Among them, the cavalry is more than twice the number of the Dionian cavalry.

So, after Phoebedas had a preliminary understanding of Dionia's army layout, he discussed with Dionysius: the weaker Sicilian city-state coalition forces, plus the army of the League of Lokri, were about 18,000. The people are placed on the left wing under the command of Fascipesas; 10,000 campania mercenaries and 9,000 civic soldiers in Syracuse are led by Dionysius to sit in the middle; and the right wing has been following Dior for many years. 15,000 elite soldiers conscripted by Nisius (mainly mercenaries, which were later granted citizenship and land by Dionysius, most loyal to Dionysius), 10,000 citizens of Syracuse Led by Phoebedas; the far right is 3,500 cavalry. Since the mercenary cavalry did not act according to the previous plan in the last battle, not only did Dionysius warn the two before this battle. The leader of the alien race, and let the grumpy and fierce Astagras serve as the temporary commander of the cavalry from three different forces to facilitate the implementation of the plan.

The offensive bugle 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 passed the "checkerboard"-style small square. Intermittently came to the front and rushed towards the enemy with a loose line. The reason why they moved forward so fast was to force the enemy horsemen cruising in front of the line to retreat, and they could no longer observe some subsequent movements of the Dionian army. The mercenary cavalry also retreated to the right wing of the Siracusa army as they wished, and took a rest to prepare for the next attack

The light infantry in Syracuse had been placed in front of the array long ago, and approached without showing weakness.

When the main heavy infantry forces of the two sides were still 500 meters away, more than 10,000 light infantry of the two sides had already started fighting. For a time, on the horizontal line of about eight or nine miles from west to east, arrows like rain and javelins like hail, collided in mid-air without interruption, then stabbed the soldiers' bodies and took their lives away...

Compared with the left, center, and right directions of the Dionian army formation, they are all advancing at almost the same speed. The situation in Syracuse is different. Slower, the right road is striding forward.

Phoebidas is the forefront leader on the right wing. This powerful right wing with a thickness of 25 ranks composed of 25,000 elite Syracuse soldiers faces the enemy in front with twice the number of steps faster than the soldiers in the center. , And gradually began to separate from the middle.

The cavalry on the far right is faster. With the sound of the cannon, more than 3,500 cavalry accelerated forward with a frontal width of about one mile long, and the four-hooves of the horses quickly increased their speed.

800 Celtic cavalry are at the forefront. This group of fierce races from the foot of the Alps and living on the Po River plain. Their cavalry tactics are different from those of the swift and erratic Numibian cavalry. They disdain to lure the enemy. Harassing and investing in javelins to kill and injure the enemy, he is better at face-to-face charge and killing, especially driving a chariot into the enemy's tight army. It is only because he is employed in Syracuse and the road is far away and it is not convenient to transport the chariot, so he did not carry it. But even without a chariot, the impact of Celtic cavalry is still terrifying. Most of their cavalry armed with swords instead of spears. This makes it easier to cut the neck of the opponent in a cavalry battle, so Astagrass Ranked in the forefront, using its powerful lethality to disrupt the enemy's cavalry formation.

The following more than 1,800 Lumibia cavalry were given the first stage of mass creation, the final Syracuse flag, and under the leadership of Astagras, they just cleaned up the mess and restrained these mercenary cavalry. , Don’t chase, attack the enemy’s left wing together, thousands of horses galloping, once again set off dust and fog, hundreds of times, drums, thunder, the earth is constantly trembling

The more than 1,500 cavalry of Dionia are also advancing, but the speed is not as fast as the enemy, especially the cavalry horse tail dragging branches on the tail, which is easier to stir up the dust on the ground.

When the enemy cavalry was still more than two hundred meters away, the commander of the cavalry corps, Leides looked back at the dust and mist that had begun to diffuse behind him, and shouted nervously to the few cavalry soldiers who followed him: "Retreat. !"

Even if several bugles are sounded at the same time, in a battlefield with thundering horseshoes, there is no guarantee that the Dionian cavalry, who are also in a loose formation and have a frontal formation of nearly one mile in length, can hear them all. Fortunately, before. After many trainings, the cavalry are always paying attention to the movements of nearby teammates.

Just when all the Dionian cavalry were pulling their horses back and running, the Syracuse cavalry had approached within a hundred meters, and the roaring horse hooves behind him beat Leides' nervous heart. He urged his horse forward and tightened. Staring ahead and seeing the wall of people, a heart suddenly hung up: "Steer!" He yelled and dialed his horse to the left.

There was no need for him to yell at all. All the Dionian cavalry who could see this scene quickly separated to the sides according to the previous training.

The cavalry in the rear is always watching the movement ahead, and when they see the direction of their comrades, they immediately follow the change.

…………………………………

When Dionia’s offensive bugle sounded, the Spear Brigade did not immediately advance with the other troops, but quickly elongated the column, and immediately moved to the position of the original cavalry, forming a length of about one. A square array with ten columns in and out, alone adorns the back of the entire army.

Although Capus, who is at the rear of the phalanx, is already a battle-tested general, he is very nervous at the moment: Although the tactics used to deal with enemy horses this time are similar to those of the Trionto River battle, the scale of the war is It was several times larger, and the enemy’s cavalry was stronger, and the quality of the soldiers I led was not as good as the original group of soldiers from the Persian Expeditionary Army. They could withstand the thousands of enemy cavalry who charged forward. NS? !