ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 1220 Confrontation at Hot Spring Pass

Iphicrates nodded happily. Jason's statement at least showed that his efforts were not in vain.

He looked at the Thessaly military camp, which was already filled with flames. Countless torches poured out of the camp gate, extending to the north, gradually forming a winding fire dragon...

Iphicrates prayed silently with a solemn expression: May Athena bless you and may the Thessalians go well on their trip!
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Due to the fluctuating morale of the army due to the departure of the Thessaly army, the Greek coalition forces closed their camps in the next few days. At the same time, out of fear, they had to strengthen their defenses.

While Iphicrates was busy appeasing the coalition generals and soldiers, he also sent people to notify the allies in the Peloponnese and warned them to strengthen their defenses.

Sure enough, as he expected, Clotocartax, who had found out the enemy's situation, sent the First Army from Sparta to the north quickly on the suggestion of Printols, and went straight to the part of Greece that besieged Mantinia. The coalition forces, the Greek coalition forces that had been ordered by Iphikrates, took the initiative to retreat, and Mandinia was temporarily able to escape.

The 1st Army, which failed to fight the Greek coalition forces, continued northward, heading straight to Corinth on the isthmus.

After receiving the news, Iphicrates did not lead the army to rescue. Instead, he allowed the main force of the coalition forces to continue to stay in the Leprion camp, and at the same time assumed a posture of launching an attack on the Theonian camp in Messenia at any time, forcing Dionia did not dare to easily transfer its troops in Messenia. Only the Greek coalition forces that had previously besieged Mandinia followed the First Army. But once the First Army turned to attack it, they quickly avoided it.But their presence prevented the First Army from launching an attack on the seemingly well-defended city of Corinth.

Two days later, the First Army, which had failed to achieve its purpose of mobilizing the main force of the Greek coalition, did not dare to stay in a completely unfamiliar enemy territory for long. In addition, the rations it carried had been consumed a lot, so it turned around and returned south again, returning to Lagnia. .

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Just when the battle in the Peloponnese temporarily subsided and the two sides presented a strange confrontation, Jason had led his army across the Gulf of Corinth, landed at Cleusis in Thebes, and quickly headed north through Pio. Xia region, entering the Phokis region.

At this time, the Phokis people no longer reject the Thessalians as much as they did a few months ago. After all, the two sides are now allies, and Phokis faces the threat of the Dionian army stationed in the north and urgently needs the Thessalian army. With help, the Thessalian army was welcomed by the Phocians, and Greek reinforcements generals came to greet them.

After some discussions, Jason had a general understanding of the situation in the north: the Dionysian army occupied Heraclea, and at the same time captured Thermopylae, and for a time continued southward and surrounded the city of Kittenion. Fortunately, With the timely reinforcements from the Athenians in advance, the Phocians repelled the attacks of the Dionian army several times. Yesterday, the Dionians may have found out the news about the return of the Thessalian army, and had already arrived from Kittenion. Withdraw and return.

After some consideration, Jason decided to lead his army north along the coast, first capture Thermopylae, and then enter the Lamia region. The reason for making such a choice was that he considered that the mountainous areas in northern Central Greece were more difficult to trek. It is conducive to the march of the army, and the Dionysian army also occupied Heraclea and guarded the northern gate of the mountain. He has seen the defensive capabilities of the Dionysian army in the Peloponnese. Once it cannot conquer Heracles in time, Leah, it is extremely dangerous for tens of thousands of troops to be blocked in the mountains.

Jason knew very well that although Thermopylae was famous in Greece for being easy to defend and difficult to attack, the Greeks originally built this pass to defend against the barbarians in the north (mainly Thessaly). Therefore, it was designed to defend against the north but not the south. It was just a It is a single-sided pass, which is why the Persian army could easily capture the Thermopylae after sending surprise troops to bypass the Thermopylae via the trail. Therefore, the Thessalian army attacked directly from the south and should be able to capture the pass relatively easily.

But when Jason led his army to the steamy coast, he was dumbfounded: a Dionian military camp stood in front, stuck between the mountains and the seaside cliffs, and behind it was the familiar stone wall of Hot Spring Pass. …

It turns out that before, Efialt led the main force of the army to attack Hot Spring Pass simultaneously from the front and the odd side. Although the defenders of Hot Spring Pass were also prepared for the mountain road, they had too few troops after all. After a day of fighting, the No. 12 Legion successfully occupied the hot springs. close.

As a result, Effialt quickly discovered the flaws of this pass. The main task of the No. 12 Corps was to block the returning Thessalian army, but Thermopylae was unable to defend against enemies coming from the south.But this couldn't help Efialt. After all, the terrain here at Thermopylae was narrow and superior troops could not be deployed. It was conducive to defending more with less. This feature was the same for the south and the north, so he called the engineering battalion and commanded more than half of the troops. The soldiers built a camp close to Thermopylae, and he led 3000 soldiers from the coast to the inland, surveying the terrain along the way, and after discovering the city of Kinnion, he quickly surrounded it.

At this time, his purpose of doing this was no longer to expand the results, but to attract the enemy's attention and ensure the smooth construction of the camp.

Now, Jason felt a headache looking at the Dionysian camp ahead. His army had suffered enough from attacking the Dionysian camp in Peloponnese, but at this moment he could not retreat and could only break through with all his strength. This camp was the only way to return to Thessaly.

After the order to attack was issued, the Thessaly soldiers who were eager to return home were divided into teams and continued to attack the Dionia camp along the narrow coast.

After the Greco-Persian War a hundred years ago, a bloody battle on a grand scale broke out again near Thermopylae.

However, compared with the Spartan army guarding here a hundred years ago, the Dionysian army on the defensive side has more advantages at this time.

The first is that Dionia's defensive strength is not at an absolute disadvantage.The 12th Legion has 8000 soldiers, and in order to prevent accidents, Efialt also forced Lamia, which had surrendered to Dionia, to recruit 1000 citizen soldiers in advance as a reserve force to defend Thermopylae.In addition to the 1000 Dionian Legion soldiers stationed in Lamia Acropolis and Heraclea, which cannot be mobilized, Ephialt can have 4 soldiers in the battle. These soldiers will continue to pass through Thermopylae and enter the camp. , take turns participating in defensive operations.At this time, after this period of fighting in the Peloponnese, the Thessalian army had been reduced from the initial 36 to more than 000. The strength was only more than four times that of the defenders. Unlike the Persian army back then, Up to hundreds of thousands.

Secondly, Ephialt learned the lessons of the Spartan army and built small defense facilities on several known mountain trails, guarded by Samnite soldiers who were good at mountain warfare to prevent sneak attacks by the Thessalians. .Moreover, the 12th Legion has a variety of arms. Heavy infantry, light armor, javelin soldiers, and archers are reasonably matched with each other. They can defend the narrow coastal camp and effectively curb the Thessalian attack.

In addition, Effialt also asked the soldiers to move several ballistas from the legion to the head of Thermopylae. The stone projectiles fired could fly over the camp and inflict maximum damage to the intensively attacking Thessalian soldiers.

Therefore, the Thessalian army launched a fierce attack on the camp for several days, but not only had little effect, but also suffered a lot of casualties.

Just when Jason in the rear was anxious because he could not break through the Dionian defense line, the Thessalian soldiers who were once again preparing to attack the camp were shocked to see the wooden door of the camp suddenly opened, and dozens of people came out. A Thessaly man in civilian clothes shouted that he was so-and-so from a certain city-state in Thessaly, and at the same time asked to meet with the citizen soldiers of his own city-state.

It turned out that when Jason led his army to approach Thermopylae, Effialt immediately sent a messenger to Thessaly to inform the commander-in-chief Patroclus that the main force in Thessaly had returned.

At this time, it has been more than half a month since the landing army captured Philae and forced to surrender to Fasalus. Since the main power of Thessaly has been controlled by the Dionysian army, the landing army continued to divide troops and plunder the land. The city-states in Sarri either surrendered or were conquered, so during this period of time, the Dionian army basically conquered the southern and northern plains of Thessaly.

The army was advancing in triumph, and the officials under the leadership of Hilos, the administrator of Thessaly region, were also working intensively.While promising to provide benefits to civilians, they also attracted celebrities from various city-states. In addition, they were all born in Thessaly. Many people in Thessaly began to accept them, so there was a saying that soon spread in Thessaly. Rumor has it that King Dionia is a Thessaly and a descendant of Hades. Compared with the tyrant Jason, he is more capable of protecting Thessaly and is more suitable to serve as Thessaly Tagus. …

At the same time, the legendary story of "Davos's creation of the Kingdom of Dionia and the rapid rise of the Kingdom of Dionia" also began to spread among the people of Thessaly.

After receiving the news from Ephialt, Patroclus was well prepared. He immediately asked Hilos, who was already handling the entire Thessalian affairs in Philae, to help summon all the Thessalians who had surrendered to the Kingdom of Dionia. The prestigious council members of the city-state then told them clearly: Jason was leading the army back, and Dionia was preparing to gather a hundred thousand troops in Thessaly to completely defeat it.

Many of these councilors from the Thessaly city-state have witnessed Dionia's huge army and their terrifying combat effectiveness. Although the number of troops led by Jason is also large, most of them do not think that Jason Be able to win in the end.They are very concerned about this.

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(End of this chapter)