ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 604 Battle Strategy
Alexis watched them, and said solemnly: "So I decided to slow down the speed of the formation of the legions tomorrow morning, and wait for the Dauni people to rush to the other side of the Ovanto River, and then we will fight the enemy on the way across the river. And defeat them all in one fell swoop.”

"I agree with Alai...Commander Sir's plan. I have waded through this river many times in the past two days. Although the river is a bit wide, the water is not deep, at most it is above the knees, and the current is not too fast. The bottom is relatively solid. Even if the Dauni people block us in the river, it will be enough for our heavy infantry to exert its power." Amyntas agreed, and other army commanders also agreed one after another.

Alexis continued: "Masters of the Legion, come and see, our crossing point is here tomorrow."

Several legion commanders hurriedly gathered around and looked at the map on the table. The place Alexis pointed to was less than a mile away from the military camp. They had all surveyed the terrain and knew the terrain on both sides of the river three or four miles east. Low and flat, mostly tidal flats. Due to the sun's exposure in summer, the silt on the riverbanks has long dried up and agglomerated, which is very conducive to the formation and march of the army.

"Commander Amyntas, your First Legion is arrayed at this position." Alexis moved his finger to the east and said, "Because your First Legion has the strongest combat effectiveness, the number of veterans in the Legion It’s also the most numerous, so I’ve arranged for you to be in the middle. I hope the first legion won’t advance too fast and keep in touch with the military and political affairs on the left and right wings…”

The troops led by Amyntas have always been known for their ferocious attacks, but as a Dionian veteran who has been fighting for more than ten years, he clearly distinguishes the importance and nodded immediately to express his understanding.

"Commander Olivers, your Fourth Army is on the left wing of the First Army. Commander Geogris, your Fifth Army is on the right wing of the First Army. There are too many recruits in your army. I hope that during the battle across the river , Team officers at all levels must be able to stabilize the emotions of their soldiers and prevent major chaos..." Alexis reminded them while pointing at the map.

"Don't worry, Commander. Although many soldiers have just been incorporated into the corps from the reserve force, they have all been trained in cross-river operations many times in the training camp, and the lowest-level team officer (i.e., the squad leader) is equipped with He is a veteran who has participated in more than four battles, and there will be no problems." Olivers immediately promised.

Geogris also responded. Although the fifth legion he led was mainly Brutian, the Brutian civil strife during the South Italian War and the post-war cleanup caused all the Brutians with different ambitions to be eliminated. After cleaning up, the Bruti people have basically integrated into the kingdom in the past ten years, and the recruits in the legion spent their childhood and grew up after Bruti merged with Dionia. Most of them have read The schools established by Dionia in various towns in Bruti were deeply influenced by Dionia culture. Apart from their appearance, they were not much different from the Greeks, the main ethnic group of Dionia.

As for why so many recruits were replaced in the legion?This issue has to start after the South-Italian War.

The biggest achievement after Dionia's victory at that time was to occupy all the eastern coasts of Magna Graecia and Sicily. After recruiting citizens and soldiers and settling the people of the city-states that were merged into the kingdom, there was still a large amount of vacant land. At that time, the Senate even passed multiple passes in succession. A temporary bill that allows preliminary citizens and registered freemen to allocate land first (only with different tax amounts), and then grant them formal citizenship after reaching a certain age.

At that time, the Corinthian War was taking place in Greece, and in Asia Minor, Sparta led the coalition forces still fighting with Persia. The continuation of the war led to an increase in the number of refugees throughout the Greek world.Under the intentional guidance of Dionia, most of the refugees flocked to Magna Graecia, so the manpower was sufficient. However, most of Dionia's laws were aimed at formal citizens, but the freedom of registration during that period The number of citizens has increased dramatically, and most of them need six or seven years to become official citizens, which has brought great troubles to governance.

Out of practical needs and out of Davos's strategic plan for the kingdom, he launched a war against the Messape and Puchetti people in the autumn of the fourth year of Dionia. After the Battle of Brindisi, he Each legion was replaced with a large number of new recruits who were mainly reserve citizens and free citizens. The purpose was to shorten the number of years they had to become citizens through military exploits. At the same time, it also prevented the older batch of citizens from being allocated too much land due to excessive military exploits. There were too many, and big landowners emerged one after another. As a result, the gap between the rich and the poor among the domestic citizens widened not long after the kingdom was established.

But in this Dauni War, the situation is slightly different, because many of the recruits have been growing up in the alliance since their childhood since the establishment of the Dionian Alliance. This group of people who have only been adults for a few years The new citizens of Dionia have been receiving military training from Dionia since childhood. Although they are recruits, their military quality is not low. This is also the confidence of several legion commanders.

"Leders, your cavalry legions should be equally divided. On both sides of the entire military formation, they are responsible for driving away and defeating the Dauni cavalry." Alexis continued to lay out his attack plan.

"Understood." Rydes nodded in response.

There are now four cavalry legions in the Kingdom of Dionia: the first cavalry legion is headquartered in Thurii; the second cavalry legion is headquartered in Grumentum; the third cavalry legion is headquartered in Katanai; The headquarters of the Fourth Army are in Brindisi.In terms of the quality of the cavalry, the Fourth Cavalry Corps should be the strongest, because most of them are composed of Pucheti and Mesapian people.However, the earliest time when these two regions were integrated into the Kingdom of Dionia was only six years ago. With the unruly and free-spirited nature of these two races, not to mention the cavalry, if they do not obey the command and act randomly during the battle, According to military law, the punishment may range from beheading to beating with a stick, which may cause a lot of trouble to the entire war and even the two newly stabilized areas.After much consideration, Davos decided to mobilize the First Cavalry Corps to participate in the war, so among the teams participating in the war, the Cavalry Corps had the fewest recruits, so Alexis did not give any further instructions.

"When the entire military formation begins to cross the river, I will concentrate all the ballistae and abdominal bows behind you to bombard the Dauni military formation on the other side, disrupt their formation, and prepare for your attack..." Alexis said Let the legion commanders be completely relieved.

"What if the Doni don't fight at all and come to prevent us from crossing the river?" asked Geogristo.

"Then we can easily cross the river and capture their cities one by one!" Amyntas answered for Alexis.

At first, Davos forcibly detained Dionysius's team of nearly 2000 engineers and craftsmen, and later forced Syracuse to send their families to Dionia, and finally left them in Turi Yi, thus making Dionia's metal forging, engineering construction, woodworking production... and other processes suddenly improve a lot.Later, in the conquest wars of Mesapi and Pucetti, with their help, each legion successfully captured towns one after another. Therefore, the Dionysian legion is now very confident in siege.

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

The newly built Dionian military camp near Kanusian is composed of the camps of several legions, and a road runs through the entire camp from west to east.

After the heads of each legion returned to their respective camps, they immediately summoned their respective captains to discuss.

The captains of the First Army Corps were rushing to the army leader's tent through the road. They were met by groups of soldiers returning to the camp. When they saw the senior army officers, they all stopped and saluted to show their respect.There was only one soldier who was also saluting, but his eyes averted and he didn't make a sound. After a hurried salute, he walked away.

The captains of the first legion also seemed to have disappeared. It was not until these soldiers were far away that the first captain Ctissus turned around and said with a narrow smile: "Patroclus, you are so majestic. Even the prince of our Dionia is afraid of you! Look at how he looked just now, he didn't dare to look at you at all."

"I'm talking about Ctissus, our Prince Dionia is a descendant of Hades, how can he be afraid of Patroclus? This is out of his brother-in-law's respect for his future brother-in-law!" Another captain joked said.

"You are mistaken. Prince Adoris is only the adopted son of His Majesty Davos, including his sister, but His Majesty just treats them as his own children and loves them." Ctissus hurriedly corrected him.

"yes?!"

"The older Dionian citizens all know this. If you don't believe it, you can ask this kid. He knows these things best." Ctissus pointed to Patroclus.

"Brothers, the commander of the Amyntas army has urgently invited us to discuss matters. Let's chat here. If we arrive late, he will beat and curse us!" Patroclus quickly changed the subject.

"It's okay, we are not afraid of Lord Amyntas's roar." Ctissus looked indifferent.

"Ctissus, you are not afraid, we are terrible!" the captain next to him screamed.

Ctissus smiled "hehe" and said to the youngest of the eight: "Patroclus, your status will be very different after you marry His Majesty's daughter. Don't forget to help me more." We old brothers.”

His words attracted the approval of others.

"I said brother, His Majesty asked Adoris to join the war as an ordinary citizen, and he should have belonged to the First Legion. His Majesty was afraid that there would be too many acquaintances who knew him, so he specially asked the Ministry of Military Affairs to incorporate him into the Fourth Legion, right? Don't you want someone to take care of him? Your Majesty has such strict requirements on his own children. If I become his son-in-law, I am afraid that the requirements on me will never be lower. It is impossible to get special care from him!" Pa Troklos said seriously.

(End of this chapter)