ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 409 The first battle with Syracuse ([-])

As for the rumor that "Dionia also has a ballista", he doesn't quite believe it. Lokley, who has been in the state for hundreds of years, can't create such a powerful siege weapon. How could it be possible for the Dionia Alliance to have it in [-]! (The Dionysian Fourth Army attacked Knapetia with ballistas. Due to its remote location, not many people know about it. The Trinas knew it, but at the request of the Dionias, they I tried my best to keep this secret)
"Closer! Come closer!..." Diopantos excitedly urged the Syracusans to move the ballista forward, and for this reason the entire army also moved forward.He wants to make the ballista's bombardment more accurate, and he wants to smash the walls that the Dionysians have built so hard that they will have nowhere to hide!He wanted to watch them hide in panic under the attack of stone bullets, or be forced to leave the camp and come out to fight.

Although the order given by Dionysius to Fasipesus and him was to contain the Dionysian army in Coronia, if there was a good opportunity, Diopantos certainly would not mind defeating them and breaking the Dionysian army. The Onian army has not yet recorded a single defeat in Magna Graecia, gaining greater honor for itself.

Watching the Syracuse gunner in front put heavy stone bullets into the barrel again, Diopantos looked at the Dionia camp with expectation, and then he was surprised to see ten small black dots coming from the enemy camp. Flying out, it roared and fell into Lokri's formation in an instant...

"Calista!!" Diopantos screamed, accompanied by his exclamation, there were countless screams in the team.

Because the stone bullets are dropped in a larger arc, they are not actually very lethal, but the effect is so amazing that they can break hands, break legs, and flatten heads. If you use a round shield to block it, the shield will break. Death.Such a tragic scene, how could it not frighten the surrounding Lockley soldiers who had never experienced a ballista attack, and their morale suddenly dropped by half.

While the team was panicking, Dionia's second wave of stone bombs came again. The Lockley soldiers fled in panic, and the entire formation became chaotic.

"Get back! Get back quickly!!" The stone bullets kept falling, and one of them landed near Theopantos. He was so frightened that he ignored the Syracuse ballista in front and hurriedly gave the order.

But when the retreat bugle sounded, the east, west, and south gates of Dionysian West Camp suddenly opened at the same time, and soldiers who had already prepared rushed out quickly and orderly.The cavalry charged ahead, followed by light infantry, light armor, and finally heavy infantry. Although they were destined to be unable to catch up with the fleeing enemy, they could hold the front for the troops to prevent the opponent from counterattacking.

The Lockley army, which had been demoralized by the constant bombardment of stone bombs and whose array was fragmented, was retreating in a mess. Seeing the entire Dionian army coming out, it was all black (because of the color of the weapons and equipment), and they headed towards the army menacingly. They rushed towards them, and even if Theopantos had the intention to fight back, he had already lost control of the army, and the soldiers lost the courage to fight and rushed back.

Sobokos led the cavalry and pursued the enemy from the outside with the belief of avenging his comrades.

The Dionian cavalry did not use spears, but drove their horses straight into the enemy, making the already scattered troops even more scattered, making it impossible to reorganize.After the thousand cavalry crushed them for a while, the war horses themselves instinctively slowed down. Seeing that the broken troops in front were gradually sparse, Sobokos decisively raised his spear and kept drawing circles in the air.

"Drive them eastward!" cried Sobokos.Under his command, the cavalry began to separate to the left and right, drawing an arc, and began to drive the broken troops eastward. Light infantry and light armor also cooperated with the cavalry's actions.

Most of the defeated troops in Lockley were like headless flies. Under the deliberate drive of the Dionysian soldiers, they could not distinguish between southeast and northwest, and only fled in the direction of least pressure.

At this time, the Syracuse troops outside the East Camp were also bombarded by Dionysian ballistae without any precautions. However, the experienced Syracuseans did not panic and quickly stabilized their position and retreated. After reaching a certain distance, they began to use crossbows to fight back. The two sides were in a confrontation. Lockley's broken troops surged in like a tide, immediately disrupting the left wing of the Syracuseans.

How could Dracos, who was in the camp, miss this great opportunity and immediately ordered: attack with all the troops!

The soldiers of the Fifth Legion quickly rushed out of the camp gate.

Fasipesas saw that the situation was not good and decisively ordered: retreat.

The Syracuse army quickly retreated, while trying their best to maintain a fairly overall formation, and roughly squeezed the scattered Lokri's rout troops behind.

The Dionysian cavalry and the fourth soldiers continued to pursue for five or six miles. It was not until the large group of enemy cavalry came up that Epithenes ordered the troops to withdraw back to the camp because he was deeply impressed by the fierce cavalry of Syracuse. , worried that the exhausted and scattered soldiers would suffer.In fact, the Syracuse cavalry and mercenary cavalry had already gone to Hibernian with Dionysius, and it was only the Locri cavalry that appeared here.

The Fifth Legion, without the help of cavalry, under the supervision of Dracos, pursued them until the feet and legs of the light armored soldiers who were the best at running were weak before blowing the call to retreat.

On the way back to the city, Theopantos, who had lost his armor and armor, met Fasipesas who was in a bad mood after losing the first battle, and was scolded by him...

This was the first time that the Dionysian ballista was used in a field battle, catching the unsuspecting Silo coalition forces by surprise.The ballista itself could only kill dozens of people, but it caused panic in the Locri army and created conditions for the raid of the Fourth Legion of Dionysia. The raid of the Fourth Legion and the subsequent experienced expulsion of the troops caused hope. The Silo coalition army retreated.

In this battle, the Silo coalition suffered more than 1000 casualties, including more than 500 prisoners, mainly Lockli soldiers. It was also a big victory for the Dionia southern front troops.

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

Asistes was shocked when he received Trina's urgent request for help late at night.

The reason why Asistes became the acting administrator of Cnapetia was actually because Davos thought that Asistes had rich administrative experience in the Lucanian mountainous area and rich military experience, so he was suitable. He was won from the Senate on the grounds that he was the administrator of Knapetia, a city inhabited by Brutians and a city on the southern border of Dionia. Since he was not a senator, he could only act as an agent. He served as chief executive, but with the experience of being a city chief executive, he laid the foundation for Asistes to be elected to the Senate the next year.

After Asistes took office, he used the experience he had learned in the Lucania region to effectively ease the racial conflicts between the Brutes and the newly arrived Greeks in the city of Knapethia. Geographical location, vigorously developing trade exchanges with Trina and other southern Italian allies, improved the living conditions of the originally poor Knapetians, made Knapetians stable in the past few years, and did not disappoint Davers expect.

At this time, the news that "the Syracuseans had approached Trina in such a short period of time" made him very uneasy.He is relatively familiar with the South Italian Alliance's combat plan: Trina, Crotone, and Siliting work together to defend the west coast passage, prevent the Syracuse army from invading the territory of the South Italian Alliance, and provide the basis for the main force of Dionia. Try your best to win back the time.

Originally, Asistes estimated in his mind that the three city-states of Crotone, Silitium, and Trina had more than 3 citizen soldiers in total, plus Rama, who had a wide river and a deep bottom. Tuohe is a natural barrier and it shouldn't be a big problem to maintain it for ten or 20 days.Moreover, if there is a shortage of troops in the later stage, the reserve soldiers in the entire Bruti region can provide timely help.

But he did not expect that the Syracusans would come so fast, far exceeding the speed of mobilization, assembly and march of the armies of most Greek city-states.Of course, the army of Syracuse had already been mobilized and assembled, but being able to allow such a large army to complete the process from landing to marching towards Trina in three days is enough to show that the Sicilian dictator Dionysius was prepared for this war. So full and determined!

Will troops be sent to assist?The reason why Asistes hesitated was because Davos personally wrote him a letter a few days ago, reminding him repeatedly in the letter: to strengthen the city defense and strengthen the defense. Once the Syracusans break through the defense line, he must Try every means possible to defend Knapetia and not allow the Syracuseans to step into the Bruti territory!
But Trina has a close relationship with Dionia!Not to mention their firm support for Dionia in the South Italian Alliance, and because the two cities of Knapetia and Trina are very close to each other, they have frequent trade exchanges and have a good relationship.If you don't save it, I'm afraid it will destroy the Trina people's good impression of Dionia, and it will also destroy the good business that the Dionia Alliance has established in Magna Graecia after several years of hard work!
After thinking about it, Asistes finally made up his mind.

He made a promise to Trina's envoy: Hades is on top, and he will personally lead the Knapetian reinforcements to Trina early tomorrow morning!
After sending away the grateful envoy, Asistes decided to write a letter to Hieros, who had just taken over as the administrator of Cosenza, telling him the new trends of the Syracuse army and his worries, and asking him for help.He believes that Davers' former captain will make the right choice!

After finishing writing, he asked his confidants to take the letter and set off immediately, rushing to Cosenza under the starry night.Then, he called the patrol leader who had just fallen asleep and asked him to notify the reserve soldiers of the Fifth Army to gather in the square early tomorrow morning.

After doing this, Asistes returned to his bedroom exhausted physically and mentally.

His wife, Tina, was still awake, and seeing that her husband was preoccupied, she asked concerned in Greek, "What happened?"

(End of this chapter)