ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 427 Battle of the Ramato River ([-])

The experienced Syracuse soldiers stared coldly ahead through the narrow eyeholes of their helmets. Although they had not yet fought head-on with the Dionians, they knew that a larger attack was coming, so their footsteps were Keep accelerating.

The Dionia light infantry quickly retreated from the passage between the small phalanxes, and the infantry phalanxes in the rear quickly moved forward, quickly connecting the entire Dionia array into one.

At this time, the enemy had already entered within a distance of 50 meters. There was no need for orders from the team officers. Heavy infantrymen such as Efialt stepped forward, raised their arms, and threw...

Tens of thousands of javelins flew out from the two-mile-long battle line in the center of the coalition and attacked the Syracuse phalanx, blocking out the sky and the sun. The Syracuse soldiers who were prepared for it put their round shields on their heads and looked up, down, left and right. Stacked up, forming a long copper wall, and the whirlwind of death caused by the javelin rain made it impossible to cover up the screams of the Syracuse people, so the Syracuse soldiers began to speed up and run.

Effialt and his comrades, who were at the forefront of the front line, did not have enough time to throw the javelin again, so they threw away the other javelin without hesitation. They held the long shield in front of them with their left hand, gripped the spear with their right hand, and accelerated together. Rush forward.They must rush forward as fast as possible in a short distance of 30 meters.

On one side is a huge golden wall, on the other side is a black wave.

"Apollo!!!..."

"Hades!!!..."

In the deafening shouts, the two sides collided with each other, and even the earth was shaking at this moment.

At that moment, Ephialt felt a huge force hit the shield, almost breaking his shield-holding hand, causing his body to lean back involuntarily, and at this moment an equally powerful force surged from behind. The force pushed him back, and the spear he thrust forward was blocked by the opponent's round shield, and his long shield also blocked the opponent's spear. Because the force of both sides rushing forward was too great, even the spears were blocked by both sides. break.

Effialte resisted the pain in his right hand and drew out the dagger at his waist.

The soldiers on both sides were crowded together, and the space for each soldier to move was very small. Regardless of whether the stabbing gun in his hand was broken or not, the Dionian soldiers at the forefront threw it away and replaced it with a short sword. Many Syracuseans on the opposite side also picked up curved sabers, and the close combat began...

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In front of the center composed of the Dionian Legion, the light infantry battle was dominated by the Dionians, but on other fronts, the Syracuse light infantry took advantage.

Because Crotone, Siliting, and Trina did not have the habit of having light infantry harass the front when the heavy infantry phalanx advanced, they suffered a lot.Their solution to this was to speed up their advance and fight head-on with the Syracuse heavy infantry as soon as possible.

Except for Dionia's, the light infantry of the coalition forces are all concentrated on the left end of the left wing of the entire military formation, behind the cavalry.When both sides were fighting together, only this place remained calm.

Felicius knew that in terms of cavalry, the coalition's cavalry was far inferior to Syracuse's cavalry not only in terms of quantity but also in ability.Therefore, he brought together the 500 cavalry led by Sobocos and the cavalry from other city-states to form a team of 1500 cavalry to guard the flank of the coalition's left wing and prevent the enemy cavalry from detouring the flank (because the outside of the coalition's right wing is the Ramato River, Felicius believed that it was impossible for the Syracuse cavalry to be deployed on this side), and warned them not to dispatch easily. Once the enemy cavalry attacks, let the nearly 4000 light infantry behind them disperse them with long-range firepower. , supplemented by cavalry assault, should be able to fight against the fierce Syracuse cavalry.

Felicius's real killing move was on the left wing. The formation he deployed was similar to the strategy used by Davos when he defeated the Brutians on the Cosenza plateau. That is, the weaker troops were deployed on the right wing, relying on the river. To rely on it to ensure the safety of the flanks, and use the enhanced left wing to win the chance of victory.But unlike the Battle of Punat, the left wing of the coalition at this time was weak in cavalry and strong in infantry. 17000 Crotone infantry and tens of thousands of Siliting infantry (a small part of the Siliting infantry was close to the center) formed the left wing. , the array thickness alone is enough to have more than 40 columns.

After Phoebus arrived at Syracuse's right wing, although he did not know the detailed layout of the enemy on the opposite side, he stood in front of the queue and stopped to watch. Just looking at the densely packed upright spears on the opposite side extending back, the experienced man immediately Realize: Once the bugle sounds, the enemy's impact will be staggering!
He quickly made a decision: also thicken his own array!
But in this way, the right wing, which has fewer troops than the opponent, will inevitably have a shorter array length than the opponent, making it easy for the opponent to flank it.

Phoebus made a surprising decision at the same time. He ordered the soldiers on the right wing to immediately arrange themselves into an arc-shaped line, with the convex side facing outward.In this way, when fighting, the Syracuse soldiers were located in the inner circle, which naturally made up for the lack of array length.

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When the bugle sounded, nearly 3 infantrymen on the right wing of the South Italian Allied Forces took great strides and advanced toward the enemy in a mighty manner.

Among the soldiers of Crotone, there are many citizens like Colebus who were captured by Dionia twice. They bear the guilt of defeat, experience Crotone from its glory to its decline, and watch helplessly as their former enemy Daionia With Oniya's rapid rise, she has been feeling a mixture of loss and confusion in her heart.

So today, like their general Ascamas, they will use a victory to prove themselves and prove Crotone's former glory!Although it is not what it used to be, Crotone's strength is far behind that of the Dionia City-State Alliance, but this is the pride of the Crotone people and the character of the citizens of the sports state!
Therefore, even if arrows rained down from the sky, they could not slow down their progress.While trying to maintain their formation, they are gradually picking up the pace...

The huge team made terrible roars, and the Crotone soldiers began to charge...

Everyone's eyes are fixed on the approaching enemy, with tension and excitement intertwined on their faces, just looking forward to that terrifying and crazy moment coming soon!
"Apollo!!!..." They roared wildly and suddenly collided with the people of Syracuse.

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Generally speaking, when the heavy infantry of both sides come together, the entire array will start to move forward from the back row at this time. In order to prevent the opponent from pushing oneself back step by step, and eventually breaking through the line, resulting in In the rout, the rear infantry on both sides not only stayed close to their comrades in front, but thrust their spears as far forward as possible, hoping to help the front-line soldiers increase the threat to the enemy. At the same time, they also used all their strength to push forward, so that the front-line soldiers Soldiers occupy increasingly smaller spaces.

Effialt was not worried. He lunged forward as usual in training, squatting slightly and leaning forward. The long shield almost protected his entire legs, torso and neck. From time to time, he relied on the power coming from behind to take advantage of the situation. Push the long shield forward suddenly with force, and the power is concentrated to the copper semicircular impact horn in the center of the arc-shaped long shield. The force is quite strong. If it hits an enemy without adequate protection, it will be enough to fracture his chest. Slapping it on the enemy's round shield can also make dents appear in the hard copper shield.

On the contrary, the Syracuse soldier's round shield collided with the long shield. First of all, the round collision angle of the long shield easily caused the round shield to slip off and hit the wrong position.Moreover, the powerful force transmitted by the round shield spreads to the entire arc-shaped shield through the circular collision angle, and when it is transmitted to Effialt, the force is much smaller, which gives Effialt enough time to kick and rest. .

While Effialt was using his long shield to try to disrupt the opponent's defense, he grasped the half-meter-long double-edged thick-backed dagger in his right hand and quickly penetrated the gap between himself and the opponent, and then stabbed again and again. Pull out.It's a pity that the two Syracuse soldiers next to him on the other side seemed to have rich experience, and they were dodged by them many times.

The thickness of the troops in the middle of the Dionysian Army and Syracuse is almost the same. When the strength is almost equal, the squeeze to the middle becomes more serious.

Effialt and the enemy on the opposite side were getting closer and closer, and he could even feel the opponent's hot breath blowing out from the small slit under the turbinate in the center of Corinth's helmet.

When he saw those cold eyes suddenly brightening, he instinctively lowered his head and raised his long shield.

"Bang!" The dog-legged saber swung by the opponent was hitting the shield.But when he lowered his head, he suddenly saw something, and he suddenly became excited.

Those are the enemy's feet!Although the Greek round shield was large, it was not as long as the long shield after all. The enemy's feet wearing leather sandals were exposed under the round shield. If Ephialt hadn't lifted the long shield up, it would have been impossible to discover this flaw through the gap below.

He immediately used his long shield to hold up the opponent's round shield with great effort, lowered his head and bent his waist further (if he was wearing a Corinthian helmet, he would not be able to perform such a large bending and lowering his head), and used the short sword in his right hand. With a strong thrust diagonally forward and downward, the sharp sword tip directly pierced the opponent's right instep without any hindrance.

Hearing a shrill scream from the enemy on the opposite side, Effialt quickly drew back his dagger without looking at the outcome of the battle.While thrusting his long shield forward, he took a step forward with his left foot. At the moment when the enemy screamed and fell to the ground, and the enemy behind him was about to catch up, he squeezed forward into a small gap in the opponent's shield wall.

It was too late, but it was too soon. His blood-stained dagger thrust out to the right again like lightning. The enemy next to him was clashing with Effialt's teammates, and he had not yet suffered from the fall of his comrades. He took appropriate precautions, but was immediately pierced by a sword through his right arm, which was not covered by armor. He screamed in pain and even dropped the dog-legged saber on the ground.

(End of this chapter)