ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 439 Rescue Heraclea

If Garacuso was only afraid of the power of Dionia before, now he has a little more respect. In their hearts: Syracuse has nothing to fear, and he can defeat the powerful enemy Samona with less. The Nians will win the final victory.

Therefore, Galaguso took the initiative to go south to harass Metapontum without any request from the Dionysians.

The people of Metapontum discovered that the northern region, which was originally peaceful after joining the Dionian Alliance, was once again ravaged by the Garaguso people after returning to Tarantum, and they began to regret themselves. choice, and complaints about the town hall organized by Itsalocas and Tarantum continued to grow, but of course this is a story later.

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At this time, while strengthening the city's defenses, the Heracleians urgently sent people to Thurii for help.

After receiving Heraclea's request for help, the Dionysian Senate quickly made a decision despite being shocked, and ordered: the only newly-built Seventh Legion left in the city of Turui rushed to Heraclea for rescue.

But at this moment, Turiyi's military strength has been used to the extreme. After taking away the Seventh Army, except for the naval fleet and the free people at the port, Turiyi no longer has any decent defense force on the Subali Plain.

In view of the empty defense of Thurii and the lack of young and middle-aged men, it is not appropriate to allocate manpower to form new troops. In this case, the entire daily city-state affairs of Thurii will be completely paralyzed. Therefore, the Senate made a decision: Immediately form the first army in the Bruti region. The Eighth Army, rushing to Thurii, was responsible for the defense of the center of the alliance.

The resolution was quickly passed.

Petalu, Kadurk, and Bogam, who usually don't speak much in the Senate, all took the initiative to express their willingness to go to the Bruti area to recruit and form troops.

Kunogorata, the rotating chairman of the city, declined politely on the grounds that "Hieronymus has been responsible for military training in various regions and knows the situation of reserve soldiers in the Bruti region very well, so he is the best candidate."

In order not to dissatisfy these Bruti senators, he specifically explained: "My lords, I think you should also know that compared with the armies of other city-states, Dionia's legions are more capable of mobilizing citizens and forming legions. The method is very different. Only people from the military department can understand and implement it, and there are clear provisions in the "Dionia Law" that only the military department is responsible for forming the legion..."

Several Bruti senators murmured dissatisfiedly and sat down angrily.

Hieronymus became the only candidate to go to the Bruti region and form a legion, and the logistics and supply matters he was responsible for were temporarily handed over to Melses.

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The rivers and swamps crisscrossing the territory of Heraclea slowed down the march of the troops led by Diomelas. He finally reached the north bank of the Basento River and joined Uumachus' troops, making Tarentum here The total strength reached more than 15000 people.

After a brief discussion, Tarantum divided his troops again.

Diomelas led 8000 people to rush upstream along the banks of the Basinto River, trying to ford the shallower reaches of the river.

Standing at the top of the city, Triphias saw the enemy's division of troops and immediately understood the enemy's intention.

Even though the force was far inferior to that of the opponent, Triphias still made a decisive decision and sent more than 3000 mixed light and heavy infantry troops to follow the Tarantum people on the other side, trying to prevent the Tarantum people from crossing the river.

This forced Diomelas to carefully continue to move upstream where the water depth was shallower and the river surface was narrower. At the same time, he had to choose to cross a longer section of the river to avoid being easily intercepted by the Heracleians.

After all, the Heraclea region is a small plain formed by the alluvial accumulation of many rivers. The terrain is very flat, and it is also the dry season.In fact, it didn't take long for Diomelas to find a suitable location.

Diomelas ordered his troops to line up in an array about a mile long along the river, and waded across the river together amidst the sound of the attacking bugle.

Faced with such an offensive posture, the Heracleians had no intention of fighting head-on. Their purpose was just to delay the Tarantum people from approaching the city, so they just threw javelins and fired arrows at the Tarantum people. The arrows, coupled with the mud at the bottom of the river, caused some chaos and casualties to the Tarentum people.

By the time the Tarantums came ashore one after another, the Heracleians had already fled far away.

Diomelas reorganized his team and prepared to march east. He must rush to the city of Heraclea as soon as possible, first burn down the bridge on the Agri River not far from the south of the city, and cut off the last reinforcement of Heraclea from Dionia. They then set up pontoon bridges on both sides of the Basento River to help Umacus' troops cross the river and besiege the city of Heraclea.

But at this moment, several Tarantum cavalry rushed across the Basento River and told Diomelas across the Basento River: Dionia's reinforcements had arrived at the Agri River pontoon. the south side of.

Diomelas was shocked: How could the Dionysian reinforcements come so fast? !
Of course he didn't know that the highway connecting Heraclea and Thurii made it only take more than an hour for Heraclea's messenger to reach the city of Thurii. It only took more than an hour to assemble the [-]th Army Corps at the naval base and then set off.

This also included Sekerian's obstruction which delayed some time, and the naval commander even went to the Senate to protest.Originally, it was enough to make him angry to transfer a new legion to Crimesa. Unexpectedly, only one day later, the only legion participating in the training was also transferred. This made Sekerian's more than ten days of training results in vain. , and he also wanted to lead the fleet to defeat the Syracuse Navy with new tactics, give the people of Dionia a huge surprise, and also rectify his own name.Now that there are no infantrymen on the warship, his beautiful idea has come to nothing.

One can imagine Sekerian's anger, but the authority of the Senate cannot be changed by a young general who is not a senator.

In Cunogorata's view, whether the navy can go to war or not is not a major issue. Anyway, they are unlikely to be opponents of the powerful Syracuse fleet. At most, they will be blocked from the ocean.But once Tarantum captures Heraclea, their army will set foot on the territory of Amendolara, which will be a disaster for Dionia, who is currently fully coping with the war in the south!
Therefore, Kunogorata first tactfully criticized him for being short-sighted and disregarding the overall situation, and then comforted him and said: "Lord Davos will return with his army soon, and your naval fleet will not lack the support of infantry..."

Sekerian could only return in despair. He had not yet completely recovered from the joy of being promoted to commander of the navy a few months ago. Only then did he realize: in the Senate, what he said had no weight at all...

After the seventh legion was assembled, the legion commander immediately ordered the troops to march forward.

The leader of the regiment was none other than Matonis, the magistrate of Thurii.

Before Davos led his army to Potentia, Felicius asked him about the two newly-formed legions and the candidates for their leaders.

After consideration, Davers decided to let Matonis and Olivers serve as regimental commanders.Firstly, they have served as brigade captains for many years, and not only have rich battlefield experience, but also have rich experience in commanding large troops; secondly, both of them hold important positions, one is the Sheriff of Turiyi, and the other is The quartermaster adjutant of the Ministry of Military Affairs. The new legion is to defend Thurii, so they can work part-time. Although the two new legions may be canceled after the war, with the resume of the legion commander, they will be promoted to It's much easier to be a formal corps commander.

It can be said that Davers has considered the two very carefully, but neither of them is willing to accept it, especially Matonis. He does not want his teammates to fight hard in the front while he is leisurely in the back.

But Davers treated his former close comrades without even thinking of persuading him. He simply forced them to accept the direct order. Now they finally won the battle: Olivers led the Sixth Army to Crimesa, and Ma Thonis led the Seventh Legion to rescue Heraclea.

Matonis had long been holding back his grievances and had nowhere to vent, so as soon as he received the order, he not only urged the troops to speed up, but he also did not ride a horse and ran at the front of the team.With him leading by example, the Seventh Army Corps naturally marched very fast, running on the flat road, and it only took nearly three hours to arrive at the Agri River pontoon.

In fact, this new legion is not complete. Since it was not long after it was established, they did not have cavalry, reconnaissance squads, and engineering battalions, and most of the soldiers were reserve citizens and registered freemen. They did not have enough money to buy a full set of new Legionnaires are equipped, so their weapons and equipment are not complete. Some heavy infantry brigades look no different from light armored brigades. They even didn't bring doctors and supplies because of their hasty departure.

Due to the defense of the Heracleian soldiers and the escort of the ships, the Tarantum warships in the river failed in many attempts to destroy the pontoon bridge on the Agri River. Instead, two ships were burned by rockets, and they had to anchor in Agri. When the river entered the sea, they happened to observe the arrival of the Dionysian reinforcements, and immediately sent a speedboat to the north bank of the Basento River to report to Umacus. This was how the cavalry urgently notified Diomelas. .

The Tarentum people did not act decisively enough and marched not fast enough, and because the land transportation conditions between Metapontum and Heraclea were poor (compared to the highway in Dionia), and the Heracleians After trying their best to block it, the Dionians took the lead in this marching competition.

Diomilas had seen the Dionysian army fight fiercely, so he was more cautious. Now that the Dionysians came, they could not advance rashly.So he ordered the army to station on the south bank of the Basento River, notified Umarchus to build a pontoon bridge on the north bank, then led the army across the river, regrouped, and waited until he learned the details of the city of Heraclea before proceeding. further action.

Although Matonis fought bravely, he was not a reckless man. When the Seventh Legion arrived at Heraclea, the soldiers were exhausted, so he could only take them into the city to rest.

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Olivers led the VI Corps to Crimesa.

The current administrator of Crimea is Protesilaus.Scombras recommended him to the Senate when his term was about to expire and received the support of Davos. In fact, he took office less than a year ago.At this moment, he had already led the officials of Crimesa City to greet him outside the city.

　Thanks to Funny Funny, Mijie Little Carpenter, Xiwu Tashaxing, Washburn, and Book Friends 20170614090650281 for the rewards!Your support is my biggest motivation for writing! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)