ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 218 Invasion of the Northern Plains of Croton

"The free people are out of food?!" Kunogorata asked in surprise.

"The war broke out too suddenly. Many free people didn't stockpile food in advance. By the time they wanted to buy grain, the market had already sold it out." Felicius looked at the two of them, and the instigator was the Alliance itself.

"Then use food as salary and continue to let the free people fight for the alliance. Instead of always shortening the civil inspection period as a reward, making the citizenship of the alliance less valuable! Felicius, the free people can be under the leadership of the consul. If you can achieve great success and defeat the regular army of Crotone under your leadership, then even without the leadership of the Archon, it should be no problem to deal with the intrusion of ordinary sailors of the Crotone fleet, right?" Kunogorata said in a tone of voice asked Felicius stiffly.

Felicius didn't pay attention and said seriously: "Of course there is no problem! My plan is for the free people to form a team of 100 people and patrol all the time on all coasts where they can land. At the same time, send a large team to Tuli Along the Yi-Castellon Avenue, a company is stationed every five miles, with scout cavalry as the liaison between the patrol and the heavy infantry company. When encountering a small group of enemies, the patrol should be able to repel them; When encountering a large number of enemies, the patrol team will first block the enemy's surprise attack. The reconnaissance cavalry will notify the nearest heavy infantry company, and then rush to attack the enemy..."

Kunogolata's expression brightened slightly: "This is a good idea."

"It's because our grain supply is probably going to be tight again. If we want to use the money from the treasury to go to Heraclea to buy grain again, Mercis will blame us again." Cornelus said helplessly.

"There is no way to fight without spending money. As long as the consul can win the final victory, there will be money." Since the victory in the Battle of Trivanto River, Cunogorata, who was afraid of war, had a deep love for Davos. More confidence.

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Miron originally thought that Dionia's army would take the opportunity to attack the city with the help of the high platform, but Dionia's army and the Crotone soldiers on the top of the city confronted for a whole morning, except for the light infantry on the high platform to attack the city wall. Except for the arrows and rocks thrown upward, there was no movement.In the end, even the light infantry stopped attacking because their hands were weak and their muscles were numb.

This strange calm puzzled Milon.Of course he would not know that the 5000 men of Dionia's Third Legion and [-] Laos soldiers had entered the plains north of Crotone and began to destroy farmland and destroy villages, doing the same thing as the Crotone landing sailors. , but Daves had a military order in advance: they were not allowed to kill the people of Crotone.So the soldiers just intimidated and drove them away.

As early as after the defeat of the battle, the Crotone Council had advised the people in the villages on the northern plains to temporarily flee to the city to avoid the war.Because of the spring planting and the fact that there was no sign of the enemy for two or three days, the people of Crotone thought that Milon blocked the Dionysians in Crimesa, so most of the people did not evacuate.Now, a large group of Dionian soldiers suddenly appeared in front of them with ferocity, and the people of Crotone fled south in panic.

In southern Italy, the reason why the Croton Plain is comparable to the Sybari Plain is due to two rivers: one is the Neto River, which originates from the mountains in the southern Apennines and flows from west to east into the Gulf of Taranto. , due to the confluence of many tributaries, the width, depth and flow of this river were ultimately greater than the Craty River on the Subari plain; and the other river was the Tachinadi River, which also originated from the mountains of the southern Apennines. But it flows into the sea from north to south.These two rivers from the east to the south irrigate the Croton Plain, and at the same time cut out an approximately square area from the Croton Plain. On the sea side of this core area is the famous powerful state of Magna Graecia—— Crotone.Because Crotone is close to the Gulf of Taranto, it has one of the few deep-water harbors among the Greek city-states in the Apennine Peninsula.Crotone has fertile plains and an excellent port. The fundamental reason why Sybaris and Crotone went to war a hundred years ago was because Sybaris wanted to destroy potential opponents, and Crotone They wanted to seize the dominance of trade in southern Italy, so a small number of Subaris people fled to Crotone because of disputes, which was just the trigger of the war.

The strange thing is that these two rivers are very close to each other after they flow out of the mountains. Between them, between the mountains and the plain, there is a city called Asprustum, whose founders are the Brutians.To the west of the northern plain of Croton is the continuous Apennine Mountains, which are difficult to pass through, but trekking northwest along the naturally formed valley of the Arve River, a tributary of the Neto River, can reach the only plateau in southern Italy - the Cosenza Plateau , the Brutian people living there originally started from the upper reaches of the Alvor River, followed the valley all the way down, and arrived at Asprostum.

However, when Crotone becomes stronger, it will not allow a foreign city to control the upper reaches of the two rivers, controlling the upper reaches of the two rivers and controlling the plains from the north of Crotone without passing through it. The Neto River, access to the south on foot, and its commanding heights threatened the safety of the Crotones.Therefore, a hundred years ago, Crotone launched a large army to attack the city of Asprostum. After several battles, they finally captured the city and drove the Brutiti people back to the Cosenza Plateau.Up to now, Asprostum has completely become a Greek city. As a colonial city of Crotone, it is completely under the control of Crotone. It is the horn of each other with Crotone. Guarding the safety of Crotone.

The bad news that the Dionians invaded the Crotone Plains reached the city of Crotone, and the people were very panicked.Especially the 3000 soldiers of Laos, who were advancing rapidly all the way, were about to approach the north bank of the Neto River.

The guards on the south bank of the Neto River panicked. In order to prevent the enemy from crossing the pontoon bridge and directly attacking the city of Crotone, they set fire to several pontoon bridges on the river. This caused many people who fled south to stay in the north of the Neto River. shore.

Just when Crotone used boats to ferry them, the Laos army had reached the Neto River. The people of Crotone cried and cried, and were forced to flee northwestward along the Neto River in panic.

When the Greeks first came to this plain, due to the Neto River and its many tributaries and abundant rainfall, there were swamps all over the place, but the Greeks had mature drainage techniques, and after hundreds of years of governance, there were basically no swamps. Swamp exists.But the Crotone people's flight was still full of dangers, because the Laos sent several groups of soldiers to pursue them.

The people of Crotone were frightened and tired.Fortunately, without knowing it, some young people were added to the team. They enthusiastically helped women carry heavy loads, picked up children, and supported the elderly, so that no old, young, women and children lay down in the fleeing team.Finally, the Laos soldiers stopped chasing, and the city of Asprostum appeared in front of the fleeing people.

Fagris, the general of Asprostum who was a citizen of Crotone, opened the city gate without hesitation, and nearly [-] fleeing people covered in dust and with panic on their faces were put into the city.

At this moment, the spies urgently reported: 5000 Dionian soldiers were attacking the city of Asprostum!

When Fagris heard this, he immediately panicked.In the two wars with Dionia, the Asprostum people were mobilized more than 6000 people to join the battle. They were almost meat buns beating dogs, and they never returned.There are only more than 700 citizens in the city who can fight. How could they possibly stop the [-] Dionian soldiers who defeated the Crotone army in the battle? !

Faglis, who lacked actual combat experience, was not confident. When his eyes fell on the panicked refugees in the city, he instantly changed his mind about escorting them out of the city back to Crotone immediately to win the favor of the Crotone Council. .

"People of Crotone! People of Crotone!!" He stood on the stone stairs of the city wall and shouted loudly, but there was chaos below, and only a few people paid attention.Then, the soldiers also began to shout, and finally the fleeing people became quiet, and they all looked up at Asprostum's general.

"People of Crotone, 5000 people from Dionia have come to kill this city!" Fagris just said a word, and the following became agitated: "What! The Dionia people are chasing them!"

"Don't open the south door yet, let us get out of here!!"

……

The people clamored loudly, and Fagris and the soldiers finally calmed them down.

"Of course you can leave. But you have to know that because Crotone launched two wars against Thurii, most of the citizens of Asprostum followed Crotone's army on the expedition, but failed. Coming back, there are not many citizen soldiers in the city now. I am afraid that they cannot stop the overwhelming number of Dionians! The city of Asprostum is the northern barrier of Crotone. Once the Dionians occupy it, , then they can go south smoothly, easily cross the fordable Tachinadi River, and enter the central plain of Crotone. It will be a disaster!... I implore all of you who can pick up a shield and spear Men join us in the defense of Asprostum! That means Crotone!"

What Faglis said was true, because his home was originally outside the city of Crotone. Asprostum is said to be a city, but in fact it is more like a special Demo (from Athens). Administrative division (several villages combined, equivalent to a town), although it has its own council, there is only one general responsible for managing the city-state, which is selected from the "Ten Generals" elected every year in Crotone, so in emergencies Next, Faglis, who is also the general of Crotone, has the right to give orders to the people of Crotone.

The fleeing people fell into silence, and everyone was thinking and weighing the pros and cons of this.

　Thanks to the fans of Wind and Rain, Vanishing Maple, and Reuss for the reward!Your support is my biggest motivation for writing! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)