ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 1145 Landing in Messenia
Half an hour later, the Dionian soldiers saw the city on the coast and said it was an important town. In fact, it was just a small stone city, stuck on the narrow land between the mountains and the coast. There was a row of soldiers wearing red cloaks standing on the top of the city. The spears in their hands reflected the sunlight. From a distance, it was not clear whether they were afraid or excited. They stood motionless all the time. Such a kind of The gesture seemed to be a stimulus to the legionnaires of Dionysia, causing their fighting spirit to soar rapidly.

"Quiet down, everyone! We will land on Messenia Beach soon. You have plenty of opportunities to fight the Spartans!" Max loudly scolded the excited soldiers on the troop carrier: "But now you all give me Stay quietly, conserve your strength, and when the ship docks, be the first one to rush aboard!"

"Don't worry, squad leader! We will never fall behind other squads, and we will definitely be the first to break through the enemy's defense line!" a soldier said loudly, and immediately received a positive response from other soldiers.

"I hope so." Max replied seemingly nonchalantly, but he felt excited inside because his morale was available.

He held the side of the ship with one hand and looked down at the blue water. He couldn't help but recall the embarrassing appearance when he landed at Trina Naval Base in a warship for the first time. But then he followed the army to land in Sicily and defeated 1 Carthage soldiers. The army then landed in Africa and conquered Carthage, having already overcome seasickness.

After the Western Mediterranean War, Max and some Roman aristocratic soldiers were arranged to live in the Thurii region. He was fortunate enough to be incorporated into the First Legion. Later, he went north to conquer Gaul and was promoted to squad leader due to his military exploits, thus crossing the border. Joined the ranks of Dionia officers.

Even more fortunately, he adapted to life in Dionysia and was unwilling to associate with those former Roman nobles who were still resentful of the kingdom. As a result, many Roman nobles were killed in the rebellion in Tuliyi a few years ago. was arrested, but he was not implicated and was not even questioned or examined once. His superiors played a big role in this.

Adoris is his immediate boss, the captain of the Third Battalion of the First Legion. Max has gone round and round and returned to his command again. It is really fate, and Adoris does take good care of him...

Max was still thinking about these past events, and the cheers of the soldiers on the ship brought him back to his senses: "We have crossed the cape, the fleet has turned around, we are almost there!!..."

The southern coastline of the Peloponnese Peninsula is in an "M" shape, forming two bays, the Gulf of Laconia to the east and the Gulf of Messenia to the west. When the fleet skirts the sea formed by mountains, After the corner, the warships of the First Squadron of the First Fleet that were sailing at the forefront were divided into two parts. A small number of warships turned around to the north and approached the beach ahead, while most of the warships turned to the south, in the east of the bay. A formation of ships began to be arranged to guard against possible harassment by enemy ships and ensure the safety of the landing ships.

Countless troop carriers gradually expanded as they traveled north, spreading out on the sea surface of the entire bay. Coupled with the baggage ships following the troop carriers, the entire bay was almost filled with ships.

The ship Max was riding was at the forefront. He looked ahead. As the ship moved forward, the scene in his eyes became clearer: on both sides were the outlines of lush mountains, in the center were flat and wide plains and white sandy beaches, with a white line in the middle leading from the south. Divide it in two to the north... There are no seaside towns built in such an excellent bay. There are only sparse villages, simple docks, and few ships. However, there are flocks of seagulls in the sky, flying up and down and chirping. There are quite a few Share the taste...

Being used to the prosperity and bustle of Turiyi Port, Max's eyes lit up when he saw this barely developed bay.

But this mood soon passed, because some Spartan soldiers appeared on the beach.

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The Spartans went through three wars in the process of conquering Messenia. Especially in the first two wars, Messenian soldiers relied on fortresses and towns to tenaciously resist the Spartan attacks, making the war continue. For a long time, it caused a lot of trouble for the Spartans, so after completely conquering Messenia, the Spartans demolished all the towns on this plain, causing this area to be compared to the Peloponnese Peninsula. The rest of the country can be regarded as the largest plain with only villages and no towns.

But there is a larger military camp in the center of the plain, which is where the Spartans train their warriors. It is also a base where they can form an army at any time and suppress the helot rebellion.

During the war with Thebes, due to Athens' participation in the war, the strength of the Athens navy posed a threat to the sea areas controlled by Sparta. In order to ensure the security of Messenia, Sparta also sent additional troops to Messenia. Some warriors, but after the signing of the Callias Contract, Sparta immediately withdrew its excess citizens, and now there are less than 500 Spartan warriors left in the entire Messenia region.

However, the Spartans firmly believed that even with such a small garrison, Messenia would remain stable because of decades of brutal rule and year after year of bloody killings (that is, Sparta would allow young warriors to Kill any helots you see at a fixed time. On the one hand, it allows young people to see blood and exercise their courage; on the other hand, it prevents the overpopulation of helots.) The helots have already become like cattle and sheep. Tame, and even when foreign enemies invade, they can organize helots to serve as auxiliaries, expand the size of the army, and resist.

The current situation is like this. The Spartan patrol ship hurriedly withdrew to Messenia and reported to the military camp: A huge fleet of Dionia appeared offshore, and it was menacing. I am afraid it has bad intentions.

The commander of the military camp, Dolios, experienced brutal Agego military training since he was a child and became one of the best warriors. Therefore, he was selected into the King's Guard as an adult and fought dozens of times in his 20-year military career. , has made many military exploits and has rich military experience. He was appointed as the military governor of Messenia the year before last and was responsible for the defense of the region.

After hearing the news, Dolios immediately aroused vigilance. Not only did he quickly gather the soldiers in the military camp, but he also sent people to notify the Sheriffs of each village (these Sheriffs were old and frail former Spartans who had retired from the army). Warriors, they were appointed to manage various villages in Messenia. They had three main tasks: to supervise the work of the helots and prevent them from being lazy, to collect most of the harvest after the autumn harvest, and to supervise the daily life of the helots and detect any abnormalities. Immediately notify the military camp for hunting) and ask them to organize all the young and strong helots.

The envoys sent by the Spartan military camp took a small boat to meet the Dionian warship entering the bay, preparing to question why it suddenly invaded Spartan territory without prior notice.

However, the envoy failed to board the Dionian warship at all. The boat was knocked over, and the hostility of the Dionian people was fully revealed.

After receiving the news, Dolios immediately led the Spartan warriors to the seaside, and at the same time ordered the sheriffs of each village to arrive as soon as possible with the Helot teams.

Hurrying to the beach, Dolios took a closer look and couldn't help being dumbfounded: all the Dionian ships in his field of vision were boundless...

This overwhelming momentum made Dolios, who had experienced many battles, feel numb.

The Messenia region ruled by Sparta was not without invasions for decades. During the Peloponnesian War, the Athenian fleet attacked here many times, but the number of soldiers who landed was not large. Most of the time, Before the Spartan reinforcements arrived, they hurriedly fled by boat. Even once they launched an attack on the camp, they were defeated by Spartan warriors who had fewer soldiers than themselves...

At that time, the Athenian army rarely fought head-on with Spartan warriors on land. It was the first time for Dolios to encounter such a large-scale landing operation like today. Fortunately, the Helot troops arrived one after another, and the entire army The number of soldiers gradually increased to 3000. Even though most of the helots only held a spear, let alone armor, and did not even have a shield, Dolios felt a lot comfortable.

But then he frowned again, because he saw the ships on the sea spread out so widely, and it seemed that they were preparing for a full-scale landing: the coast that could be landed was more than 20 miles, and he only had such a small force in his hand, how could he completely Defend!What's more, the number of Helots in this team is several times that of Spartan warriors. Once they are separated from the control of Spartan warriors and go on defense alone, it will be difficult to guarantee their loyalty.And if the Spartan warriors are dispersed into various Helot teams, it will greatly weaken the combat effectiveness of the entire army, especially in the face of the Deolian army, which is rumored to be not weak in combat effectiveness...

Dolios did not dare to take this risk, so he decided not to disperse his army and first concentrate on defending the beach west of the mouth of the Parmisus River.

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"The number of Spartan soldiers seems to be quite large!" Tisias, who had followed Leoticides from the flagship of the First Fleet to another warship, said loudly. The warship he was on was not far from the coast. We were two miles away, so we could see relatively clearly.

"Many of them are helots, and they will not fight with all their strength for the Spartans!" Ionicus put his hand on his forehead, looked ahead, and reminded loudly.

Staff officer Muklu, who was on the side, pointed to the coast ahead and also reminded the army commander: "Sir, the Spartans are concentrated together and do not disperse their defenses."

Leoticides looked at the coast attentively. The battle that was about to begin suppressed his previously slightly fluctuating emotions. He spoke slowly: "Inform the warships to attack! Let the soldiers prepare for landing. !”

(End of this chapter)