ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 204 Ambush?

"have not reach yet."

"Notify the front, slow down the marching speed, and at the same time let Philadephus make the momentum louder to attract the attention of the enemy. And... let Alethosis (Captain of the Crotone cavalry) take the scout Pull back, now that the situation is clear, don’t waste our cavalry anymore!”

"Yes!"

After giving the order, Milon turned his eyes to the woods ahead.He is quite familiar with this place, because passing through it and further west is the place where Melanthius's army was attacked. After the peace agreement with Dionia was signed, Milon personally led the team to carry out several soldiers from there. Thousands of corpses, including those from the allies and those from Crotone... That tragic scene would not be forgotten by him for a long time!

Milon tightened the reins: This time Crotone will wash away their shame and avenge them!

The troops walked out of the woods, and in front of them was a flat and higher wilderness. The Trionto River narrowed here, so the water was too deep to be crossed. This was the reason why Melantheus camped here in the first place.

"Enemy! Look at the enemy!!" The soldiers near the river bank became restless.

In front of the team, on the other side of the Trionto River, a heavily armed Dionysian team appeared, marching rapidly westward along the river bank.

It seems that the Dionians have detected their movements and are preparing to prevent them from crossing the river.Miron was not too worried. Although he could not see the full picture of the enemy on the other side, he felt that the number of the team was not too large. As stated in the secret letter, the Dionians sent to Kas Troon's vanguard only had less than 4000 men, and he still had to defend Philadefos. How many enemies could be left in front of him to block his army from crossing the river?
The upper reaches of the Trionto rush through the narrow valley between the hills until it breaks out of the canyon, where it meets flat lowlands. At the same time as the surface width reaches 40 to [-] meters, the water flow also slows down and the depth decreases. After slowly flowing for more than two miles, the river surface becomes narrower and deeper again because of the elevation of the terrain...

At this moment, on the south bank of the Trionto River, Myron arranged his 2 soldiers (including 5000 light infantry) into a column with a thickness of ten and a column length of more than two miles. The long formation of the entire walkable river section, because the enemy with only about [-] people on the other side also formed an formation of the same length as Crotone, but not only was the thickness obviously thin, but the formation was also very loose.Miron firmly believes that even with the help of the Trionto River, the Dionian army with too few troops will be unable to stop the advance of the Crotone army. Their thin front will inevitably be overwhelmed by the thick Crotone army. Break!

"Attack!" Milon, who was located behind the center, gave the command to the buglers with pride.

The high-pitched bugle sounded throughout the quiet flowing Trionto River. Except for the 2000 men led by Milon at the back of the center, they stayed put because he felt that his own troops far exceeded the enemy's and there was no need to put them all into battle. , the entire phalanx began to move slowly towards the river bank...

Colbus was one of the [-] soldiers. After he was captured by the Dionians last time, he spent half a year under guard building roads and suffered a lot. In order to redeem him, his family Owing a large debt, this time he was recruited by the city-state to fight Dionia again. In addition to holding a strong desire for revenge, he also hoped to defeat the Dionia, obtain a lot of loot, and pay off the debt.The river beach here is not soft sand, but pebbles of different shapes and sizes spread all over the ground. The ground is hard but easy to trip over, so Kolebs and the others walked slowly and steadily...

The Trionto River was just ahead. Kolebus, who was at the front, saw many people rushing out of the enemy array on the other side through the eye holes of the narrow Corinthian helmet. Without waiting for the team officer to remind him, he quickly raised his head. Buckler, shielding the chest.

"Ding!" The Dionian's arrow hit his bronze shield, making a harsh sound, but it could not damage it at all. His right foot had already stepped into the river.

"Watch the top of your head!!" The captain's shout echoed in the dense helmet. The voice was weak and distant. He subconsciously raised his head and saw countless black dots falling sharply from the sky.

"Damn it, it's a projectile!" He quickly raised his shield to protect his head.

At this time, I heard the team officer yell again: "Be careful ahead!!"

However, the hearing and vision of the heavily armored soldiers were severely weakened, causing their reactions to be slower than ordinary people. Many people were unable to look back quickly, including Kollebus.He felt as if someone had punched him lightly in the chest, and then there was a hint of pain. An arrow was piercing his left chest. It should have penetrated the several layers of densely woven and glued linen breastplate, but its kinetic energy had been exhausted. It was completely exhausted, and the tip of the arrow just touched his skin. The experienced Krobus knew that the damage was not serious.

On the other hand, the teammate beside him was shot in the thigh without armor protection and fell into the river screaming. The blood immediately turned the river red. Looking at his teammate struggling in the water, Kolebs wanted to help him, but he was unable to do so. With insufficient strength, the cunning Dionians used projectiles and direct shots at the same time to make them all overwhelmed. Seeing his teammates who finally stopped struggling floating on the river, Kolebs felt a little sad in his heart...

"Stride forward! Stride forward!..." the team officers shouted, urging the soldiers to speed up and cross the river.

The water in the river was indeed not deep, just below the knees, but there were many cobblestones at the bottom of the river, which was a bit slippery, so Korebs and the others squatted down, shielded their heads and chests with round shields, and the legs were covered by the river water, and they were shot by bows and arrows. The probability is greatly reduced, but the speed of progress cannot be increased.After experiencing the initial panic, the soldiers gradually calmed down. They moved forward slowly while protecting the arrows. At the same time, they readjusted the somewhat chaotic formation as they advanced.

Almost to the middle of the river, the water depth did not increase much. Even Kolbus, who was on the right side of the phalanx, did not feel any momentum of the water because there was a long array on the left blocking the river.At this time, he observed that some more people rushed out of the enemy formation on the other side and almost ran to the river, less than 20 meters away from them. The tip of the spear in his hand shone coldly in the sunlight... Koleb's heart was beating wildly. Getting up, he instinctively sat down, almost immersing his entire body in the water.

"Be careful with the javelin!!..." The volume of the team officers obviously increased a lot. That's because the damage of javelins to heavy infantry is obviously greater than that of arrows.

Colebus heard a whistling wind next to his ears, followed by a "bang!" sound, and a shrill cry from his teammates behind him. The javelin pierced the round shield, and the spear tip penetrated the copper skin and shattered. The wooden board directly pinned his left arm, and the strong impact pushed him backwards, knocking down the soldiers behind him at the same time. If it weren't for the timely help of his teammates next to him, I'm afraid these soldiers wearing heavy armor would have been killed. The seemingly gentle and harmless river water filled the mouth and nose, causing choking and eventually suffocation. This shows the power of the enemy's javelin, which caused another panic in the front line of the Crotone army.

At this time, the light infantry in the rear also followed closely, and they could finally start to fight back.The arrows they threw fell like raindrops on the river beach on the other side, forcing the enemy's harpooneers to no longer dare to attack the front line at close range.

The casualties of the Crotones were only a drop in the bucket compared to this huge army. Although Milon was a little heartbroken, he didn't take it too seriously. He was just surprised that nearly half of the 5000 enemies on the other side were light infantry, and these The light infantry's skillful coordination, clever tactics, and brutal and precise attacks were something he had never seen before in previous battles, which aroused his vigilance.But there is no doubt about the outcome of this battle, because——

"General! Our troops are ashore! We are ashore!..." The men around him cheered.

Before, Myron thought it would be very easy to cross the Trionto River, but looking at the corpses floating on the river and the relieved expressions of his subordinates, it showed that the strength of the opponent's light infantry was beyond their expectations.

"Beat the war drums! Don't let them escape!" Milon, who was riding a horse, could vaguely see that when the frontline soldiers of his team stepped onto the river beach, the enemy's light infantry had quickly passed through the gaps in their array and retreated to the rear. .

"Yes, General!" As soon as the herald finished speaking, a high-pitched bugle sounded from the opposite bank. The deafening sound required at least ten buglers to blow at the same time.

Milon couldn't hide his shock.Could it be that the troops sent by Dionia to Castellon were more than the 6000 people at the front? !This astonishing idea flashed through the minds of Milon and his men at the same time, and their eyes were fixed on the back of the river beach on the other side.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..." The war drum was beaten quickly and reached the ears of Colebus who had already landed, cheering him up.

"Attack! Attack!..." Without the blows of bows, arrows and javelins, the team officers' orders were full of excitement.

The Crotone soldiers shouted the name of the god "Apollo" loudly, took great strides, and charged towards the enemy in front.

But a louder cry of killing came from the opposite side. A bright red military flag suddenly rose behind the river beach, and then an endless number of soldiers appeared in close formation. Amidst the same passionate drums, they quickly rushed towards them. The comrades in front who served as decoys, and the military flags that were erected one after another and fluttering in the wind, evoked the painful memories of Crotone soldiers who had been prisoners like Kollebus.

be cheated!Ambush!A similar idea appeared in the minds of every Crotone soldier, but this idea was quickly devouring their high morale, causing them to hesitate and linger on the shore, cowering, watching Dionys The Ya army reunited with the previous troops and began to reorganize their formation...

(End of this chapter)