ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 1191 Spartan Landing Battle ([-])

Yesterday afternoon to dusk, under the cover of the 1st Fleet's feint attack, nearly 400 fleet infantry quietly landed on the eastern promontory of the Laconia Gulf. They lurked in the mountains, preparing to rest on the spot for a night. Early on the second day, we headed north over the mountains and ridges to the beach where the main force of the fleet's infantry was to land.

But unfortunately, they encountered a shepherd herding sheep in the mountains. In order to prevent his whereabouts from being leaked, they detained him.

Unexpectedly, this shepherd came from Minoa, a small town facing the sea to the east of the cape (not Minoa on the island of Sicily in the Kingdom of Dionia, but a small town on the edge of Sparta's territory, with mainly residents They were Pilians) not far from the mountain where the fleet infantry was hiding. At the request of the missing shepherd’s family, Minoan residents went up to the mountain to search for it early the next morning. In order to prevent being discovered early, the fleet infantry had to They avoided the people of Minoa and took some long detours. When they hurried to the battlefield, the two sides were fighting fiercely.

Although the fleet infantry were anxious, the temporary commander of the surprise attack did not blindly command the troops to go into battle immediately. He stood high in the mountains and forests, carefully observed the battlefield situation, and quickly formulated an action plan: separate 50 troops Two soldiers held torches and rushed to the camp at the rear of the battlefield; while he led more than 300 soldiers to attack the left flank of the Spartan army and attack its flank and rear.

His move soon had an effect: the helots who were struggling to support themselves were attacked from the rear and began to retreat; when the retreating helots saw the fire burning in the camp behind, they They even shouted in terror, and panic quickly spread among the Spartan army...

The Helots and Pileas fled in all directions, and only the Spartans continued to fight.

Seeing that the defeat was irreversible, Xenophon sighed and joined the fleeing ranks. He had to hurry back to Sparta, and maybe he could give some advice to the panicked Spartan elders.

When Sekerian landed on the coast in a small boat, the battle on the coast was not completely over: more than 360 Spartan warriors (including some veteran warriors) formed a circular formation, surrounded by fleet infantry and soldiers of the Seventh Legion. , still insisting on fighting.

After Sekolian learned about the situation, he believed that the Spartans were completely surrounded and would of course resist stubbornly, so he ordered to give up the northern passage.

The order was carried out quickly, and he had expected that the Spartans would quickly retreat so that the soldiers could pursue them.But the Spartans were still fighting and showed no intention of retreating.

Sekerian thought for a while and simply asked the soldiers to retreat and put distance between themselves and the Spartans.

He was not worried at all that the Spartans would take the opportunity to counterattack, because the Dionian soldiers besieging here not only had an absolute advantage in numbers, but also had an advantage in physical strength. After all, the fleet infantry was lightly armored, and The [-]th Legionnaires joined the battle later.As for how much physical strength the Spartan warriors who have been fighting with all their strength have left, they only rely on the support of the dense circle defense. Once they want to switch from defense to offense, it will naturally be difficult to maintain the formation.

The Dionian soldiers retreated slowly and cautiously, while the Spartan warriors with rich combat experience remained where they were.They stood close together, shoulder to shoulder. The outermost row of warriors all straddled their horses, holding a round shield in one hand and a spear in the other. Most of their bodies were hidden behind the round shield, except for half of their heads. His butt was exposed from the upper edge of the buckler, and his cold eyes looked out through the narrow eyeholes of the helmet warily.

The comrades behind them not only put their shields on their backs to give them support, but also protruded their spears from above their right shoulders to help them fight the enemy... The entire Spartan warriors' formation was like an encounter. A hedgehog that has to hold its body together when in danger.

But when both sides were out of the battle and the sound of fighting disappeared, their rapid breathing could be clearly heard, and the copper shields they held were seen shaking slightly due to fatigue.And around the circular formation lay the corpses of Spartan warriors, and there were also a few wounded soldiers who were so seriously injured that they were trampled repeatedly during the battle and could not move at all. They could only let out a low sigh. The same wail.

Seeing this, Sekerian felt more confident. He walked out of the array of Dionian soldiers and said loudly and proudly: "I am Sekerian, the commander of this Dionian army! Spar Daren, you have already failed! Surrender, I can spare you!"

The entire circular formation was motionless, and the Spartans seemed to have heard nothing.

After a long while, Eudamidas in the center of the formation said loudly and unevenly: "We...we can surrender...or allow you to occupy the ports of Ision and Hilles...but you must swear to God not to lead them." The army enters the city of Sparta!”

After hearing this, Sekerian laughed and said sarcastically: "Spartans, you are still dreaming! It is no longer time for you to dominate Greece and show off your power! We Dionia has captured Messenae Ya, Sparta will be conquered soon, and maybe not long after, your family will become slaves, and the helots who were once slaves will become their masters!

I just see that you are all warriors and can't bear the thought of you being thrown into the wilderness and becoming food for wild wolves and seabirds, so I let you surrender out of compassion.Of course, I can understand why you would choose to die, because after you die, you no longer have to face the painful reality that Sparta no longer exists——"

As Sekerian was talking, he suddenly saw the Spartan warrior in front roaring and throwing the spear in his hand at him.

Sekerian was startled and hurriedly stepped back.He was about 40 meters away from the Spartan circle, and the other side was heavy infantry. He thought this distance would be safer, but he didn't expect that the other side would suddenly make such a move.

Soldiers on both sides rushed forward quickly and protected him with leather shields.

It stands to reason that the range of a well-trained Spartan warrior throwing a javelin with full force exceeds 40 meters, and the leather shield used by the fleet infantry cannot provide good defense.However, the Spartan warriors who had fought so fiercely still had plenty of physical strength. The javelin they threw could not penetrate the leather shield and was easily blocked. It was just a false alarm.

But Sekerian was enraged, he withdrew from the formation with a gloomy face, but did not give an order to attack.

The two sides were in a strange stalemate.

After a while, the Spartans saw the Dionian soldiers retreating in all directions again, and even made a big opening toward the sea.

Then, they saw six wooden shelves with a height of one person placed side by side less than a hundred meters away. Some Dionysian soldiers were operating something behind them, although the Spartans had not seen the crossbows with their own eyes. The detailed appearance, but felt uneasy in my heart.

"Fire!" the ballista commander gave the order, the hook string was released, the spring arm contracted violently, and the stone bullets whizzed out, hitting the Spartan warriors' circle with a small arc accurately.

I saw bucklers flying across the sky, blood splattered, limbs and legs broken, chests and heads broken... The originally perfect defensive formation instantly turned into a horrific and bloody scene. The extremely dense array of the Spartans made the crossbows more powerful. The power can be fully exerted.

Eudamidas, the commander of the Spartan army, fell into a pool of blood before he could even scream.

The living Spartan warriors immediately realized that if they continued to hold on, they could only sit and wait for death: "Fight with the Dionians!!"

They roared angrily and rushed toward the ballista units in a swarm.

The Dionian army, which had long been looking forward to the Spartan warriors doing this, quickly gathered...

............................................................

At the end of the battle, none of the surrounded Spartans surrendered, and all were killed.

The 1st Fleet's landing battle won the final victory, but Sekerian was not too excited because he saw many corpses of fleet infantry since he landed ashore.

"Seize the time and cremate the remains of the soldiers, but keep their belongings and urns well and hand them over to their families in full in the future...Use small boats to quickly transport the medical staff ashore and treat the injured soldiers as soon as possible."

Sekerian said in a low tone, looked up at the sky, and then looked back at the tide: "The tide will start to recede soon. Order all the crew members of the fleet to pull out these wooden piles in the sea and open a channel first. , first let our rations be transported in and unloaded at Port Hilles, otherwise the fleet infantry will have nothing to eat tonight and will have to rob the Spartans."

"Understood, my lord! I will execute it immediately." The subordinate took the order and left.

Only then did Sekerian look forward and shouted energetically: "Follow me to the city of Sparta!"

During the Spartan coast landing battle, the Dionysian army suffered more than 1500 casualties, mostly injured. The casualties mainly came from the attack of the left-wing Spartan warriors and the long-range shooting of the coastal outpost archers; the Spartan army suffered about 2000 casualties. , in which all the Spartan soldiers were wiped out, and most of the Spartan veterans were also killed in the battle, resulting in the loss of the main combat force in the Spartan territory today.

Due to the stubborn resistance of the Spartans, Sekerian was delayed on the coast for a long time. He led 300 soldiers of the Seventh Legion and 1200 fleet infantry to the north. He neither saw his own troops nor fled along the way. of enemy soldiers, but from time to time I saw corpses being eaten by crows and broken soldiers lying on the ground, injured and wailing...

After marching for almost three hours, he could see the dense outline of houses in the distance. Sekerian also saw the resting fleet infantry unit in a wheat field, and soon met its commander. Sephidorus.

Seeing that Sephidorus's right arm was wrapped with a cloth band and stained red with blood, Sekerian asked with concern: "You are injured, are you serious?"

　Thanks to Zhengma Guying for the reward!Your support is my motivation to write! !
　　
　
(End of this chapter)