ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 470: Continuous Fighting ([-])

"Who said I don't want to send troops?!" Triphias quickly changed his mind, stood up and grabbed him: "Didn't the messenger say that we have to wait for news of the victory of the naval battle? Look..."

Triphias patiently analyzed Matonis: "Once the naval battle is won, it will definitely be impossible to send messages by land. Tarantum's cavalry is cruising south during the day, and your messengers will not be able to come over at all...that is, Said, we can only send troops when we see Dionia's fleet coming from the sea." By then the overall situation has been decided, why not Triphias.

Who knows, Matonis shook his head and said: "Your suggestion is not good, it is too slow! Tarantum's fleet blocked the port of Heraclea, and they will definitely get the news first. Wait until our fleet arrives before acting, The Tarentum people outside the city have already escaped! So——"

Matonis glared at Triphias and said in a deep voice: "We must closely monitor the enemy camp outside the city. Once the Tarentum people want to retreat, we will attack immediately!"

"what?!"

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

After convincing Triphias, Matonis returned to the square and immediately ordered his adjutant to summon the captains of the Seventh Legion to the big tent for discussion (the camp of the Seventh Legion was built in the square of Heraclea).

After a while, the seven captains arrived.

Before they could sit down, Matonis said directly: "Time is very tight, so I will keep the story short. His Majesty Davos led the first and second legions back to Thurii——"

"Ah, Lord Davos is back!"

"Great, Amendolara is saved!"

"Not only will Amendolara be saved, but the Tarantum people will also be doomed! Lord Davos will lead us to defeat them!"

……

Several captains yelled and danced with excitement.

"Shut up!" Matonis roared, making them tremble in fright: "You are all veterans. You should know the provisions of the "Dionysian Military Law". What will happen to subordinates who talk back when their superiors are lecturing them? Punishment?!”

Matonis glared at them fiercely, and several captains subconsciously touched their buttocks: "I have written down the cane punishment first, and then we will see your performance. His Majesty Davos sent an order, and today he The general will lead his army from the sea and land on the coast between Heraclea and Metapontum. We are required to do our best to hold back the enemies outside the city so that the main force can arrive in time and work together to encircle and annihilate Tarentum. Mu people! Do you understand?!"

"Understood!" The captains no longer dared to yell, but their excitement was palpable.

Matonis paced back and forth in front of them, then stamped his foot vigorously: "I know that in the past two days, because I strictly ordered the soldiers not to go out of the city to drive away the enemies in Amendolara, many soldiers in the legion were scolding me in private. , saying, 'I am a cowardly rabbit, a cowardly lamb, not worthy of being a legion commander at all!', and some even scolded my parents!..."

Matonis's roar silenced the captains: "I know that some soldiers in the legion are from Amendolara, but this should not be a reason for them to insult their commanders, 'Soldiers have the duty to obey orders.' This is in military law." The basic rule is that I have written down all these soldiers who scolded me in private. You can go back and tell them that in this attack, if they were not as brave as me and did not attack as fast as me, then what right do they have to scold me? !”

Matonis's eyes widened and he breathed heavily, like an angry bull: "Then after the war is over, I will make them stand in the square for punishment, and let the whole army go up and scold their whole family in turn! Do you understand? ?!"

"Ming...understood."

"Go back and get ready!"

"Yes!"

After the captains left, the adjutant said cautiously: "Legion Commander, will you do this-"

"What?!" Matonis glared and snorted: "There is such a new army that needs equipment but not good equipment and discipline but not strict discipline. If we don't stimulate them like this, how can they have any good performance!"

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

In the afternoon, a speedboat quickly approached the Agri River.

"What did you say?! The Syracuse Navy was defeated, how is this possible?!" the two Tarantum consuls exclaimed in disbelief.

"Did the fleets of other city-states join the battle and help the Dionians?!" Yumakas asked hurriedly.

"No, the Dionian fleet was fighting independently from beginning to end. They installed a wooden bridge on the warship that could hook the warship in Syracuse, and then sent a large number of soldiers to rush onto the deck... "The Clipper Captain recalled the scene he had seen before, and it was still as if he was in a dream. The Dionia fleet's combat method completely subverted the traditional naval warfare training he had received since childhood.

Diomelas was in a daze for a while, and thought of a key question: "Did the Dionia fleet suffer heavy losses?"

The captain shook his head and said: "It seems that their fleet did not suffer much loss."

"Is Hades really protecting these barbaric and rude Dionysians?!" Diomelas looked surprised, but also depressed. He looked at Uumakas in a daze.

Umarchus was looking at him too.

Both of their eyes were full of fear, because they both knew that once Syracuse's naval superiority was broken and the Dionian fleet controlled the Taranto Bay, the strength of the Tarantum fleet would not be able to do so alone. To confront it, Tarantum's coastline will be threatened by the Dionian fleet, so their army far away from the city of Tarantum will be in danger.

The two shouted almost in unison: "We must retreat immediately!"

In order not to attract the attention of the Heracleians, they quietly summoned the officers and gave them the order to retreat.

The Tarantum soldiers began to pack their belongings and pack their bags.

The most troublesome thing for the two consuls was the mountains of grain piled up in the camp.In order to ensure a convenient food supply, the Tarantum people used cargo ships to transport food and pile it in the camp for the use of a huge army of 2 people for more than ten days. Now they suddenly have to retreat, which becomes a problem.

Tarantum did not have a department specifically responsible for logistics and transportation. Considering that this time it was an offshore operation, Tarantum did not consider hiring laborers to transport it from land. The materials were all transported by sea. At this moment, they had to send a speedboat back. Informing the port of Tarantum and summoning a cargo ship to come and transport it is too time-consuming.But with so much food and supplies, they did not dare to burn or discard them easily, because any act of wasting city-state supplies at will would inevitably be impeached by the Senate.

So Diomelas came up with an idea: let some soldiers carry supplies overland to Metapontum, and at the same time recruit the Tarantum fleet that was still cruising in the sea near Heraclea to load the food. In the ship's cabin, transported back to Tarentum.

"What if the enemies in the city come out to attack us?" Umarkas was a little worried.

"These timid Heracleian and Dionian soldiers have been hiding in the city these days. I don't think they suddenly have the courage to take the initiative to attack out of the city. When they know the news of the Dionian fleet's victory, we We have already returned to Metapontum." In fact, based on the Greeks' traditional combat experience, Diomelas did not even think that the Dionysian army could launch an attack immediately after a fierce naval battle. The rescue of Heraclea.

But the performance of the Dionysian Army in the battle with the Map Alliance impressed Diomelas too deeply. He had to be careful. After all, this Tarantum army gathered almost all the Tarantums. Mu's young and middle-aged citizens cannot tolerate any mistakes.So although Diomelas did not think that the retreat of Tarantum's army was dangerous, he still arranged for [-] soldiers to serve as the rear guard.

In order not to attract attention, the Tarantum army did not even dismantle the tents.

But even so, the retreat of the Tarantum army is still delayed and slow. It is impossible for the Tarantum people with little training to make "army retreat" into a specialized training program like Dionia. Training is done every seven or eight days, so it can be done quickly, quickly, with clear division of labor and in an orderly manner.

The Tarentum people thought they could hide Heraclea, but they did not expect that the Dionian Seventh Army had long expected that they would retreat and had been closely monitoring the city. Some signs were quickly discovered by them, such as : The cavalry patrolling in front of the camp no longer appear, there is a lot of noise in the camp, warships frequently enter the Agri River...and so on.

"Commander Matonis!" Triphias asked excitedly at this moment: "It seems that the enemy is really retreating. Could it be...did your fleet really defeat the Syracuseans?!"

"I have already said that His Majesty Davos always keeps his word!" Matonis glanced at him and responded coldly.

"You're right!" Triphias didn't care about Matonis's attitude and continued to ask excitedly: "Should we attack now?!"

Matonis held the battlements with both hands and said calmly: "Don't worry, wait a moment."

"Still waiting?"

"Yes, when all the Tarantum soldiers are ready to leave, when they have begun to cross the river..." Matonis's eyes flashed with a cold light, like a wolf ready to pounce.

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

Diomelas watched the soldiers crossing the pontoon bridge, and a voice in his heart kept urging: Faster!Faster! ...

Diomelas relaxed slightly when he saw groups of soldiers reaching the other side through these pontoon bridges, and other soldiers quickly following suit.

But at this moment, earth-shattering shouts suddenly erupted outside the camp, and his heart suddenly sank: Oops, the enemy troops in Heraclea must have left the city!

(End of this chapter)