ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 1190 Spartan Landing Battle ([-])

Although the terrain of these two places is dangerous, the original construction of these two fortresses was during the great Messenian riots decades ago. Over the decades, the Messenians were basically docile and no major riots occurred ( During the Peloponnesian War, the Messenian helots fled mainly with the support of the Athenians), so these two fortresses were in disrepair for a long time and were seriously damaged.

It was not until the Dionysian army invaded Messenia recently that Sparta urgently repaired it, but the time was short, and it always felt that the repairs were not complete enough, and now it is attacked by enemies with more than 10 times the number of defenders , had to worry him, so even though the Dionians were about to land on a large scale, he still removed 200 soldiers each and rushed to reinforce them.

At this time, the infantry of the Dionia fleet staying near the coast began to advance towards the shore.

According to Dionysian military law, Sephidorus, as the commander of the fleet infantry, should normally sit in the rear. However, the landing operations were special. Due to various difficulties such as sea conditions, transportation, and the concentration and reorganization of soldiers after landing, the Sephidorus Phaedrus sent all the fleet infantry to the coast at once. It was useless to sit in the rear. He might as well take the lead. On the contrary, it could boost morale and give the army in a difficult situation an extra chance of victory. Therefore, Sephidorus, like other fleet infantry, wore leather armor, carried a leather shield and helmet on his back, and swam toward the shore in a breaststroke posture.

Although all Greek fishermen are good swimmers, and most of the fleet infantry are from them, this standard breaststroke posture was taught by Davos, mainly for the purpose of being as silent and energy-saving as possible when swimming with arms.

At this moment, the fleet infantry did not paddle very hard, just like logs floating on the sea, approaching the coast along with the tide.

In the eyes of the Spartans on the shore: a black tide line across the Laconia Bay was rushing toward them quickly.

When the water was already relatively shallow, the soldiers of the Dionia fleet stood up one after another.

After all, Sephidorus was old. He was out of breath and a little cold when he stood up, but he still quickly put on his leather helmet like other soldiers, took off his leather shield, drew out his dagger, and shouted as loud as he could. Shouted: "The whole team!"

The rushing tide prevented his voice from traveling very far, but all the fleet infantry had already understood the entire landing operation plan beforehand. At this time, they were consciously reorganizing their formations. When they stayed in the sea, the soldiers originally followed the combat formations. After a little reorganization, a dense formation nearly three miles long and five columns thick suddenly appeared in front of the Spartan army.

Eudamidas was surprised by the rapidity of the Dionians' formation. This made his attempt to take advantage of the disorder of the Dionians to launch an attack when they came ashore failed. He immediately realized that the Dionians The people came prepared this time, wanting to take advantage of the absence of Sparta's main force and use all their strength to invade Sparta's territory.

I will never let your conspiracy succeed! ... Eudamidas swung his spear forward forcefully and shouted angrily: "Attack!"

Led by Eudamidas, the Spartan army began to run forward. When they stepped onto the soft beach again, dozens of stone bullets roared again. Some Helot soldiers made a commotion, but in Under the stern scolding of the Spartan officers, they had to continue running forward in panic. They were temporarily relieved until the stone bullets fell behind them.

Sephidorus led the soldiers forward steadily. Because the sea water overflowed their crotches, they could not run. Fortunately, with the push of the tide, they were not greatly hindered. When the sea water gradually receded from the waist and crotch to the feet , just when the legs of the fleet infantry were free again, the enemy had already rushed in front of them.

The fleet infantry had neither javelins to shoot nor long shields for defense. They could only raise their leather shields and short swords and push them forward.

The Spartan army consists of nearly 300 Spartan warriors, more than 500 Spartan veterans, 2000 Biliasi soldiers, more than 4000 helots, and 9000 Theonian fleet infantry. (The first fleet of Dionia has nearly 280 crow warships. Each crow warship has 40 fleet infantry personnel. The first fleet has a total of more than [-] fleet infantrymen. Although the last landing battle cost thousands of people Despite the casualties, Sekerian sent out all the fleet infantry without hesitation) and finally fought together on the coast.

Xenophon climbed up to the sentry tower behind the beach and nervously overlooked the battle ahead. He knew that this battle would determine the life and death of Sparta. He wished he could seize the bows and arrows of the archers next to him and shoot Dionysus himself. Demihuman shooting.

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After the battle lasted for a period of time, the situation changed significantly: the right wing, with the Spartan warriors and veteran warriors as arrows, had the upper hand with the ability of the Spartan warriors and the power of the heavy infantry, killing Dai Dai. The left wing of the infantry of the Onian fleet continued to retreat and had retreated into the sea;

The middle road, dominated by Piliasi soldiers, also temporarily occupies a slight advantage. After all, the Piliasi soldiers who often fight with the Spartans have relatively rich combat experience. At the same time, although they wear simple pointed copper helmets and leather Armor, but armed with copper shields and spears, the defense is still stronger than that of the fleet infantry. Coupled with the assistance of sentry tower archers, the fleet infantry, whose defense is not strong, suffers a lot;

Only on the left wing, the helots, who had basically no protection, only held a spear and fought against the fleet infantry wearing leather helmets and holding leather shields and short swords. They were gradually at a disadvantage, even if there were Spartans mixed in. The veterans worked hard to maintain the front line and the shooting of the archers from the rear sentry tower, but the left wing continued to move back... This caused the originally east-west front to gradually change into a northeast-southwest direction.

While Xenophon was sweating for the Spartan army, Sekerian, who was standing on the flagship and listening to the watchman on the mast reporting the battle situation, was even more anxious: "Where are the fleet infantry who came ashore yesterday?! Why haven't they shown up yet? ?!”

"Maybe... maybe we encountered some trouble..." the flagship captain replied carefully.

"Damn it! Something went wrong at the critical moment!" Sekerian cursed angrily, and then said helplessly: "Then...send the reserve team up immediately!"

"Yes!"

In yesterday's military meeting, inspired by fleet infantry commander Sephidorus, other squadron officers also put forward many opinions. One of them was: considering that fleet infantry does not have an advantage in frontal combat with heavy infantry , can the two brigades of the Seventh Army stationed in Messenia be allowed to send part of the heavy infantry to participate in the landing battle?
Later, after everyone discussed and improved it, it was changed to: inviting the Dionian troops stationed in Messenia to counterattack Sparta from the east, and at the same time inviting them to send [-] heavy infantry to participate in the landing operation.

Originally using them as a reserve force, Sekerian still hoped that the fleet infantry could win this battle alone, but now seeing that the battle situation was at a disadvantage and worried about failure, he had to send out the reserve force.

On the 5-meter-square rafts that were urgently made by the crew of the First Fleet, there was a sailor holding a wooden pulp to control them. In the middle stood three or four soldiers of the Seventh Legion in black helmets, passing through the space between the warships. gap.Since the raft had a shallower draft than the boat, it took advantage of the surge of the tide to successfully pass through the sea area of ​​blocking wooden piles, and rowed towards the left wing of the fleet infantry...

"Oh no, Dionian reinforcements!" Xenophon saw this situation on the watchtower and was very anxious: Sparta no longer had any extra soldiers to block the attack of enemy reinforcements, what should we do? !

Xenophon was so anxious that he suddenly saw a group of helots carrying supplies in the camp. He hurriedly came down from the sentry tower and rushed to the camp, hoping to organize these helots to reinforce the front. of the Spartan army.

A dozen old Spartan warriors who were responsible for guarding the helots in the camp learned that the situation was urgent and immediately agreed to Xenophon's suggestion. However, problems ensued: even if the hundreds of helots were organized, they did not Weapons, how to fight?

The Spartans guarded the helots very strictly. Even those helots who were going to participate in the battle were not issued weapons until they went into battle. After the army went to fight, there were still so many helots in the camp. Of course, It is impossible to leave too many weapons behind.

After urgently rummaging through the camp, he found more than a dozen broken spears. Xenophon had to let the helots pull out the wooden poles supporting the tent. He forced the helots with promises and threats. Reluctantly he followed him towards the right flank of the Spartan army.

Previously, the Spartan warriors' fierce attack caused some casualties to the left wing of the fleet infantry. For the sake of honor and the survival of the entire fleet infantry, they could only relieve the pressure from the enemy by retreating continuously. The further they retreated, the deeper they entered the sea. The Bada warriors' attack weakened.The reason is simple. The surging tide and soft seabed have a greater impact on the Spartan warriors who wear heavy armor and move clumsily. They have to devote part of their energy to maintaining body balance, while the fleet infantry has this Then become accustomed to it.

Under such circumstances, the left wing of the fleet infantry gradually recovered some of its decline.

Then the soldiers of the Seventh Legion arrived one after another and immediately launched an attack on the flank of the Spartan warriors.

Under the attack, the Spartans fought bravely without flinching. They knew that their home was behind them, so they could never retreat.

Xenophon led the helots across the beach and rushed to reinforce the right wing. On the battlefield shrouded in the sounds of tides, fighting, and screams, he was so anxious that he could not hear the sentry tower not far away from him. The archer exclaimed: "There are enemy reinforcements! To the east! To the east!!..."

(End of this chapter)