ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 286 Battle of Anlern Hills ([-])
"Archers, prepare!" Purlo immediately ordered when he saw the Greeks entering the shooting range. The height difference of tens of meters not only extended the archers' shooting range, but also enhanced the lethality of the arrows. At the same time, it also reduced the opponent's archers' shooting range. The shortening and the coming and going gave the Maple coalition's long-range firepower a great advantage. This was the benefit of being condescending.

But just as the Puchettis drew their bows and arrows, countless black spots whizzed down the mountain and hit the poorly equipped Puchettis, causing the archers to scream in pain.

The Greeks had slingers!Tremoni's heart trembled.

What is a pity for Davos at this moment is that the two legions and two light infantry brigades-Epythenis and Zipit only have about 400 slingers, which is not enough to suppress the enemy that is five miles long, and can only Can disrupt its shooting rhythm.

Arrows were still falling like raindrops. The soldiers held their round shields above their heads and moved forward slowly, one step at a time. The terrain restricted them from using the heavy infantry's trump card - charge, and they could only endure the arrows pecking their round shields. The copper skin makes a "dang-dang-dang" noise.

As they began to climb the mountain, more javelins struck the bucklers violently, starting to injure some of the soldiers.

The injured soldiers fell to the ground, huddled together, protected their bodies with bucklers, and waited for rescue by the medical team.

In the middle of the entire front is Igratia's heavy infantry. They are stationed at the focus of the Dionysian attack - the lowest-lying place.

"Quick! Quick!..." Amyntas kept urging the soldiers. He was not willing to lose to the mercenary's junior, Matonis, so he violated the provisions of Dionia's military law and ran first. Being at the forefront of the brigade, this made the soldiers, who were already a little tired after a long march, howl as if they had been given blood, and followed closely behind.

When they rushed to a distance of more than 20 meters from the enemy despite a hail of arrows, the entire brigade suddenly stopped advancing.

"Defense!" Timogras ordered loudly, thinking that the enemy was about to charge.

The soldiers stretched out their spears from behind their round shields, forming a formidable spear formation. Even though the gentle slope here was only a few meters high, this height was enough to make the Greeks pay a heavy price!
However, what the Messapians were waiting for was not the charge of the Greeks, but nearly a thousand flying javelins. In the frightened eyes of the Messapians, with the sound of whistling wind, they powerfully penetrated into the phalanx. , causing a scream.

Timogras did not expect that Dionia's heavy infantry could actually throw javelins. Regardless of his surprise, he shouted angrily: "Raise your shield! Raise your shield to defend!..."

After Amyntas quickly took out the second javelin, he shouted: "Come with me!" After saying that, holding a shield in his left hand and a gun in his right hand, he was the first to charge towards the enemy.

The soldiers followed closely behind.

Timogras was surprised to find: Generally, when the Greek heavy infantry charged, the formation would disperse, but the enemy on the opposite side could still maintain a rough formation, pressing in quickly like a thick iron wall. He had a feeling of suffocation.

"Defend! Defend quickly!" He shouted hoarsely in a panic.

However, the soldiers had not recovered from the panic due to the javelin attack, but Amyntas's group arrived in an instant, stepped onto the gentle slope a few meters high, took a few long steps, and used the momentum to open the left arm of the round shield. He thrust his arm forward, "Bang!..." After the sound of continuous metal collisions, the Messapian soldiers in the front row who were unable to defend together due to the chaotic formation were forced to retreat unconsciously to relieve the impact.

This retreat made the dense Messapian soldiers unable to take care of their comrades who were stabbed by javelins and fell to the ground behind them. They tripped and fell down.Behind them were their comrades who were shouting in panic, and in front of them were stabbing spears like poisonous snakes. They were temporarily confused and continued to retreat, leaving most of the soldiers in Amyntas's group standing on the slope.

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

As the captain of the [-]th Brigade of the Second Army, Zipit has a characteristic. Before every battle, he must pray first.

Not only did he do it himself, he also asked his subordinates to do it with him.In the past, he prayed to Ares, the God of War. After following Davos, his goal changed to Hades, the patron saint of Dionia. After singing Hades's hymn devoutly, he stood up and said : "The slingers continue to attack the enemy here, and the archers follow the heavy infantry. Once they are within shooting range, they will release arrows at the enemies on the hillside. The light shield soldiers follow me!"

Satyrus, the squadron leader of the peltasts, hurriedly advised: "Captain, you should take command. Brothers, just leave it to me to lead the attack."

Zipit's eyes widened: "Now is a good opportunity to prove our light shield soldiers, how can I hide behind!" In recent months, there has been a view among the army: The long-range attacks of the Dionian Legion include archers and Slingers, short-range fire attacks require heavy infantry to throw javelins, and the role of light shield soldiers has become dispensable. It is better to cancel this unit and replace it with light armor soldiers similar to the mountain reconnaissance team.

Of course, Epithenes and Zipit, who were born as peltasts, strongly opposed this view, and have always expressed their views to Davos: the peltasts must not be replaced, they are irreplaceable!

Now is the time to prove the value of the peltasts themselves.

Nearly 500 peltasts, led by Epithenes and Zipit, dispersed through the gaps in the heavy infantry's "fish scale formation" in pairs of two and in groups of three.

Leotizides's detachment was at the forefront of the line, and he himself was in the middle of the first column of the detachment's phalanx.On that day, he beat his comrades and was locked up for a long time. He was originally going to be beaten with a military stick. Considering that the war was about to begin, the military judge postponed this punishment until after the war and allowed him to perform meritorious service.

At this time, Leotizides had already started climbing. Although he was not wearing a helmet and was carrying more than 40 kilograms of equipment, it was not easy to steady his body while climbing up and carrying weapons with both hands. .Fortunately, it was already early autumn, warm and dry, and the hillsides were overgrown with grass. It had not rained for more than ten days. The soil was so soft that when you stepped hard, you would find a small pit. Leotizides and his teammates took one step at a time. , slowly upward.

The Messapian people also attacked them more violently. The javelin, which was more than 30 meters high, was thrown directly and hit the buckler with strong force. Most of them could pierce the copper skin, and the remaining force knocked Leotich. Des was also forced to fall back, and he quickly dug the end of his bayonet into the soil to stabilize his body.

In the peripheral vision of his vision, he saw that some soldiers had become unstable due to the impact, slipped and fell, and brought down their comrades behind them.Fortunately, Dionia's peculiar offensive formation is like a sawtooth, not continuous or dense, so it does not affect the orderly advancement of the entire front.

From the moment Leotizides entered the boot camp, he became interested in Dionia's unique formation. He found that the setup of this formation was more complicated than the traditional Greek phalanx, but it was very effective in operation. It is suitable for all kinds of terrain. After private analysis, he once thought that it was more clever than the Spartan left-hand tactics he had been trained in since childhood.Later, after he learned that it was Archon Davos who invented this unique formation alone, he had the urge to talk to Davos about some of his insights and opinions about this formation. Unfortunately, this was just a fantasy. Because Davos is the most powerful person in Dionia, his current identity is not the crown prince of Sparta, but just a free citizen of Dionia, so he can only watch Dave from a distance in the recruit camp. Si lectured on the training ground platform.

At this time, the Pucheti's javelin struck again.

Leotizides got rid of distracting thoughts, lowered his body, planted his feet, opened his eyes wide, looked at the flight direction of the javelin, tilted the buckler slightly, and the tip of the javelin drew a string of sparks on the buckler, Most of the momentum was removed, reducing the impact on him.

Just as Leotizides breathed a sigh of relief, he heard his comrade on the right yell "Ouch" and his body was shaking and about to fall back.He quickly let go of the stabbing gun, stretched out his right hand like lightning, and grabbed the man's arm.

That person was Heitbarus, he hesitated for a while, and immediately shouted sincerely: "Thank you, Prosous!"

Leotizides nodded vigorously at him.Although there are conflicts between them, the battlefield is the melting pot for men's friendship.

At this time, he looked up and saw someone running to the front of the array.

It's a light shield soldier!Leotizides blinked, he understood this branch of the army.During the Peloponnesian War, Sparta hired Thracian peltasts many times as an auxiliary to its heavy infantry.However, in the combat sequence of the Dionian Legion, the light shield soldiers are regarded as an important force, and their status is no lower than that of the heavy infantry.

I saw these light shield soldiers holding leather shields in their left hands and long-handled hunting blades in their right hands. They wore thin cloth robes and quickly approached the enemies on the hills in the form of skirmishers. Most of the Puchetti javelins were also struck by them. Deftly avoided.

Why are they so fast and agile?Because they are holding long-handled reverse-edged knives (actually scythes), this strange weapon with a blade that is approximately semicircular is pierced into the soil and can easily provide strong assistance for them to climb.

Tsipit quickly approached the enemy, and five or six spears stabbed at him at the same time.

Zipit was very calm, and he squatted down suddenly. The softer leather armor allowed him to follow the slope and almost stick to the ground. The leather shield went up to protect the top of his head, blocking the spear.

The Puchetti people standing on the top of the mountain found it a bit difficult to stab the enemy who was almost touching the ground at such a low angle, because the terrain sloped downward too much, and it was easy to lose their balance and roll down the mountain when exerting force. They had to move forward.

It was too late, but it was too late. Zipit kicked his legs back hard, and his whole body hit him. He quickly stretched out his reverse blade knife and hooked one of the Pucheti warrior's feet, and pulled it down hard.

　Thanks to Feng Yuzhi, a big book fan, and BingHuo for the reward!Your support is my biggest motivation for writing! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)