ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 1221
It was not because they had much sympathy for Jason's imminent defeat. Although the tyrant of Philae was not too cruel, he did not lack bloody methods in the process of conquering the entire Thessaly and becoming Tagus. Although with the assistance of Asidamas and others, the integration and governance of the city-states of Thessaly gradually softened, but it has only been a few years, and everyone's memory has not been forgotten.

These Thessaly city-state councilors were worried that the upcoming war would cause the citizen soldiers of their own city-state in Jason's army to suffer heavy casualties, so they asked Patroclus one after another to persuade Jason to The citizen soldiers in the Song army came to surrender.

Patroclus achieved his goal, but he did not let these people set off to Thermopylae immediately. Instead, he first convened an emergency military meeting. In addition to himself, Matonis, and Lizaru, the three military commanders who attended the meeting After some consultations, the four of them finally reached an agreement:
Martonis led nearly 26 men of the Second, Fifth, Ninth and First Cavalry Corps to temporarily garrison Thessaly to continue to stabilize the order in the newly conquered area and prevent turbulence and recurrence. At the same time, he also had to be wary of the West. The people of Epirus in the mountainous area, because one of the kings of Epirus, Alcaitas, was said to have a close relationship with Jason and was likely to help him.In addition, Matonis was to assist Hieros in protecting the upcoming wheat harvest in Thessaly and to provide protection for the baggage trains that would subsequently transport military provisions.

And Patroclus and Lizaru will lead the rest of the troops, a total of more than 4 soldiers, and immediately go south (Patroclus' words to the Thessalians have a lot of water content. At this time, they are in Thessaly. The Dionian army does not have 10 people, because it has to exclude the nearly 2 fleet infantry of the Dionian navy and the 12th Legion defending in Lamia). After solving the hidden danger of Jason, the march is in progress Greece.

For these generals of the kingdom, it was undoubtedly a great honor to be able to lead the army into Central Greece, finally conquer Athens, and wash away the shame of being dismissed as barbarians by the Greeks led by Athens.The reason why Matonis agreed to stay was partly due to the persuasion of Hilos, and partly because as a Thessalian, he was willing to contribute to his hometown from the bottom of his heart.

After solving the problem of who should stay in Thessaly, Patroclus led the army across the southern mountains and entered the Lamia area with high spirits, and then the previous scene appeared.

These Thessalian MPs were all celebrities in their respective city-states. The Thessalian soldiers quickly recognized them and immediately rushed to ask them about the situation in their respective mother states.

When Jason arrived after hearing the news, the news that "the 10 Dionysian army landed in Thessaly and had conquered various city-states, and the people of each city-state were eager for the safe return of citizen soldiers to their homes" quickly spread among the soldiers. , had a great impact on the morale of the army.Citizen soldiers from various city-states gathered around the council members of their own city-states, eagerly discussing matters about returning home. The entire army had begun to show a trend of disintegration.

The furious Jason sent mercenaries to prepare to arrest them on the grounds that "these councilors surrendered to Dionia and are traitors to Thessaly". He wanted to isolate them from the citizen soldiers first, and then go To appease the army soldiers, the arrests of the mercenaries aroused resistance from the citizen soldiers and even triggered small-scale conflicts.

Seeing that the riot was likely to gradually turn into a civil war, Jason had to urgently withdraw the mercenaries. Looking at the angry faces, he felt that he had lost control of these citizen soldiers. Unwilling to do so, he simply He walked alone among the citizen soldiers and loudly assured them that he had no harm to these Thessaly MPs and only wanted to learn the true situation in Thessaly from them.

In the end, several congressmen who had a good relationship with him told him in detail a series of things that happened in Thessaly during this period in front of many citizen soldiers, and also answered all his questions seriously.

During the whole process, the guarded eyes of the citizen soldiers around Jason gradually became more sympathetic, but Jason's face became more and more ugly, and finally he walked out of the crowd with a gloomy expression, got on his horse, and did not He took another look at the restless citizen soldiers and the parliamentarians who caused this terrible scene, but turned his horse's head and left here surrounded by mercenaries.

Jason remained silent on the way back to the rear camp. However, the moment he entered the camp, he suddenly fell off his horse, vomited blood, and fell into a coma. With the rescue of military doctors, his condition improved slightly. .

That night, the guards outside the tent heard Jason murmuring to himself: "Dorus, my good brother! ... Asidamas, I am sorry for you! ... Polyfulon, You devil!... Damn Dionia, you have ruined everything for me!... Dorus, my good brother..."

Throughout the night, Jason's mournful muttering to himself never stopped.

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The arrival of members of the Thessaly city-states completely disintegrated Jason's army. In just one day, the citizen soldiers who were eager to go home put down their weapons and lined up in long lines in accordance with the requirements of the Dionia camp. They passed the camp and Thermopylae in an orderly manner, and then they saw thousands of Dionian soldiers spread across the entire Lamia Plain depression. Not only did they completely believe the words of the congressmen, but some of the luck they might have in their hearts was also Sweep away.

The citizen soldiers of Thessaly left Jason and saw that the situation was not good. Naturally, those indigenous mountain warriors recruited by Jason could no longer fight for Jason, but most of the soldiers were unwilling to put down their weapons. Weapons, so they chose to cross the mountains and trek back to their hometown. Of course, this would involve great risks.

There were only nearly 8000 mercenaries (after becoming Tagus, Jason once increased the number of mercenaries to tens of thousands. This time during his southern expedition to the Peloponnese, he left 3000 mercenaries for Pori. Commander Dorus, stationed in Thessaly), in order to repay Jason for his care and trust in them over the years, they remained loyal to him. When they saw that the army was falling apart and the situation was critical, they quickly rallied to protect the incomplete soldiers. Jason, sober, retreated south.

The scouts sent by the Thermopylae Barracks quickly reported the news to Patroclus, the commander-in-chief who had arrived in Lamia.

The news that Jason's army collapsed without a fight made Patroclus very excited. He issued an order: Legion No. 13 escorted the more than 2 unarmed citizen soldiers back to Thessaly safely.The remaining legionnaires took the time to rest and march into Central Greece early tomorrow morning.

On this day in early September, Patroclus led 9 troops through Thermopylae. The soldiers lined up in neat columns, sang the "Song of the Legions" energetically, and walked south along the coastal road. After marching for 4 After several miles, the troops turned south and began to trek through low mountains and hilly areas. They successfully entered the plains of the Phokis area on the morning of the second day without any hindrance.

The farmers of Phokis who were harvesting in the wheat fields hid in the town in panic, but the Dionian army neither attacked the towns of Phokis nor wreaked havoc on the farmland and villages outside the city. The entire army did not stop. Continuing to march south, the weak city-states of Phokis, in addition to thanking the gods for their blessing and escaping the disaster, dared to send troops to block the march of the Dionian army.

By the afternoon, the cavalry corps, as the vanguard, had entered the Boeotian area and approached Chaeronea, the westernmost city-state of Boeotian.

The people of Chaeronea felt very nervous when facing the dark Dionian cavalry under the city.But the Diorian envoys who entered the city gave them reassurance: Thebes is an ally of Dionia, and Chaeronia is an ally of Thebes. As long as Chaeronia does not attack the Diorian army, The Dionian army will not cause any damage to the Chaeroneian region by taking any hostile action.

The people of Keronia were relieved and immediately said: Dionia is an alliance of Thebes, and of course it is also an alliance of Keronia, and Keronia will do its best to help its allies.

After getting a satisfactory answer, the cavalry legion did not stay long, and continued to gallop southward, getting similar promises from the city-states of Pioxia passing by one by one. The road from Caronia to Thebes was smooth, Although the cavalry regiment rested while walking, they still arrived at the gates of Thebes at noon on the second day.

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In the war between Dionia and the Greek Alliance, Thebes and its Boeotian alliance basically remained neutral, but they have also been paying attention to the battle on the Peloponnese Peninsula. For Ipamironda For Theban senior officials such as Pelopidas and Pelopidas, what they are most worried about is the victory of the Greek Alliance, because it means that the prestige of Athens and Thessaly will greatly increase. Once these two major forces in the northeast and the north are free to join forces, Thebes will be in huge trouble settling old scores.Therefore, although Thebes had to provide some help at the request of the Greek Alliance, such as providing the port of Cleuses, they still expected Dionia to win, but judging from the current situation, the Dionia army was in a The disadvantage makes them a little anxious.

However, Ipamilonda often comforted his colleagues: he firmly believed that the advantage held by the Greek coalition temporarily put together by various city-states could not last long, and the powerful Kingdom of Dionia would definitely fight back.

(End of this chapter)