ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 734 Dionia VS Carthage ([-])

But it had been almost two months since this adjutant was assigned, and he didn't even remember the adjutant's name when we usually spent time with him day and night.Fortunately, the adjutant had a better understanding of Leotizides' character through this period of contact. He did not care, but seriously replied: "My lord, my name is Muklu!"

"Are you a Brutian?" Leotizides asked, looking at his different appearance from the Greeks.

"Yes, I'm from Cosenza in Bruti."

"Yes." Leotizides nodded and waved his hand: "Go and give the order."

"Yes." The adjutant hurriedly turned around and left the tent, but a smile appeared on his face. Based on his understanding of the commander, he knew that he had been recognized by his colleagues in the Military Affairs Department as "the most severe regiment commander" .

In fact, the identity of the adjutant Muklu is not simple. He followed Hieronymus to participate in the Battle of Crotone and was injured. After the war, he received condolences from King Davos.Later, he officially joined the Fifth Army Corps. He participated in all the wars in the kingdom for more than ten years and made many military exploits. He was about to be promoted to captain, but he asked to further his studies at the Staff Office of the Ministry of Military Affairs.For senior team officers in Dionia, few actively ask for further study. This is very rare, so even though he is over 30 years old, Felicius made an exception and transferred him to the staff office.

After Muklu was transferred to the staff office, he won the praise of his colleagues with his consistent hard work.This time, in view of the importance of this war, Felicius reluctantly dispatched this capable and stable right-hand man.Now it seems that the request of Leotizides, who is difficult to serve, has finally been met.

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The 15000 soldiers led by Leotizides this time included 8000 regular soldiers of the Eighth Legion, 5000 reserve heavy infantry, nearly a thousand reserve light infantry, and a thousand soldiers of the Fourth Cavalry Corps. Cavalry (the Fourth Cavalry Corps has always been short due to the population and horses of the Sicilian territory).

The soldiers of the Eighth Army were all very excited when they heard that there was a battle.The war that quelled the West Kells two years ago gave the soldiers a lot of rewards. They have been eager to make new achievements, and now the opportunity has come!
The soldiers in the reserve team are looking forward to performing well in the upcoming battles and adding a highlight to their military resumes so that they can smoothly transform into official legionnaires.

Under the leadership of the team officers, the soldiers ran to the foot of the mountain in an orderly and rapid manner and began to arrange in a checkerboard format.

Just after completing their formation, the soldiers heard a huge noise coming from the front.

The chaotic and thunderous footsteps are getting louder and louder...

Soon, they saw the black mass of defeated troops in front of them, roaring and rushing towards them like a torrent pouring down the lowlands in a heavy rain.

Some Dionia recruits began to swallow nervously.

"Order all units to quickly form a shield formation!" Diocasis, who was the inspector of Naxos two years ago, is now the captain of the first company of the first group of the Eighth Army. He calmly gave the order .

Other team officers also issued similar orders one after another.

This time, Dionia's shield formation was different from the past. The soldiers of each unit not only erected their shields on the front, back, left and right peripheries of the small phalanx, but also stabbed their spears towards the front, back, left and right sides. They lay flat in all directions, like a hedgehog with thorns standing up one by one.

At the same time, the soldiers continued to shout: "Go through the gap!!! Go through the gap!!!..."

In order to facilitate the retreat of the broken troops, the distance between the small phalanxes of the Eighth Army's units was much wider than the positions during normal training.

Seeing the densely packed stabbing spears, anyone who is not a fool will not take the initiative to attack them. Moreover, there are voices reminding the defeated soldiers, and there are light armored soldiers at the front to guide them, so the defeated soldiers naturally The streams split into small streams in front of Dionia's formation and ran to the rear along the gaps between the small square formations.

Of course, there were also broken soldiers who ran into the shield wall due to pushing and panic, were stabbed by bayonets, and screamed miserably, but the Dionysian soldiers would not retract their bayonet and rescue the wounded soldiers because of this. They held their position. ,like a statue.The screams of companions will also warn others to stop in front of the shield formation and not to bump into each other.

"Follow them! Don't let them run away!..." Milephio, who was riding a horse, followed closely the Holy Order troops and rushed forward. He shouted excitedly, regardless of whether the soldiers running around him could hear him or not.

He sat high on the horse and could see that the soldiers of the Holy Regiment were indeed well-trained. Even in the pursuit after victory, they could still maintain a relatively complete formation, pushing forward like a red tide. Of course, This is also related to the fact that most enemies fled directly backwards instead of running around when they fled.

Whether it is Monte Adeno or Milefeo, they only know that the Dionysian coalition built a camp on the hills on the east bank of the Pletala River, but what is the specific layout?What kind of terrain is here?They don't quite know.On the one hand, it is because they do not have a strong awareness to proactively obtain information about the surrounding environment and enemies on the battlefield. On the other hand, Leotizides has the ability to protect his own army under the long-term influence of "Dionysian Military Law". He took the initiative to prevent military secrets from being leaked, so when he was building the camp, he sent out all the reconnaissance cavalry and mountain reconnaissance teams, and even some light armored soldiers to patrol around the camp, expel the Carthaginian spies, and shield the area around the camp. Information.

Therefore, when Milephio, who was in the center of the battlefield, was chasing the enemy excitedly, he didn't know very well that there were hills one mile away on both sides of it, with enemy military camps on them, and he didn't know even more. There was a larger hill three miles ahead, blocking their way forward. Carthage's real enemy, the Dionysian army, was stationed on this hill.Now, these three hills were like giant crabs with their claws open, waiting for the rout to lure the unsuspecting Carthaginians into its hungry mouth.

The company led by Diocasis was divided into four small phalanxes, two in the front and two in the rear. Diocasis stood in the center of a phalanx in the rear, looking through the gaps between the phalanxes in front. , paying close attention to the situation of the defeated troops.

Suddenly, his eyes narrowed, and through the gap between the allied soldiers who were taking off their armor, he saw the Carthaginians wearing gorgeous armor.

If we follow the usual tactical principles of the Dionian Army, the small phalanx in the back row should move forward quickly to fill in the gaps in the front row to form a complete dense phalanx, but in this way, running at the end These defeated troops will be intercepted in front of the phalanx that the Dionysian army quickly formed, sandwiched between the Dionysian and Carthaginian armies, and become victims of the confrontation between the two armies.

However, the small square formations of the various units of the Eighth Legion did not move. The soldiers pressed their long shields closer and pulled their bayonet tighter, but they still stayed in place, motionless.

This is not because they have to take care of these poor Allied soldiers, but because this is the tactic of commander Leoticides.

Some of the pursuing Holy Legion soldiers saw the dense phalanx of spears in front and stopped in surprise. However, they were pushed by their comrades behind and they couldn't help but rush forward, so they could only protect themselves with round shields. , thrusting spears at the newly appearing enemies; while some Holy Legion soldiers followed the broken soldiers and rushed into the gaps between the small square formations, and then were blocked by the next small square formation. Some of the Holy Legion soldiers Blindly following the defeated troops, they turned to the next gap...

"There are enemies ahead!!"

"It's a Dionian!!"

……

The slightly panicked shouts of the soldiers reached Milephio's ears, and he could see more clearly while riding on his horse: Dionian soldiers wearing black armor gathered into dense small square formations. Amid the onslaught of Holy Legion soldiers, they were like small islands in a torrent, in danger of being submerged at any time...

Even though he knew that he had lost control of the Holy Order's army, Milephio still waved his spear and shouted: "Warriors of Carthage, kill me and overwhelm the Dionians!"

But in the eyes of Leotizides, who was halfway up the mountain and overlooked the entire battlefield: the checkerboard array deployed by the Eighth Army had divided the pursuing Carthaginian army, which was surging like a tide, into countless trickles. The Carthaginians, who lacked organization and command and were unable to form a joint force, could not shake the Dionian detachment phalanx that was as solid as a rock in the torrent!
"Let the reserves close up!" Leotizides ordered.

Adjutant Muklu hesitated for a moment: "Do you want to wait a little longer? After all the soldiers from the allies escape-"

Leotizides looked indifferently: "The current situation is that all the Allied soldiers have escaped, and some Carthaginians will also run to the rear of the array, adding unnecessary trouble to our soldiers in the next battle. I have given If we gave them a chance, we can only blame them for not running fast enough!"

"Yes!" Muklu said no more and immediately accepted the order.

"In addition, notify the generals of the allied countries to seize the time to gather the defeated troops and quickly lead them back to their camps to resist the enemy's upcoming attack."

"Woo!..." A high-pitched bugle sounded on the mountainside.

The reserve team officers at all levels, who had received repeated instructions from the legion commander in advance, began to command the small phalanxes of each unit located behind the entire array. They slowly moved forward and inward towards each other.

The torrent of broken troops and pursuers passed through many gaps and flowed to the rear. The impact on the small phalanx had weakened. There were spears to clear the way and long shields for defense. Along with the screams of enemy and friendly soldiers, the position was located The legion reserve soldiers at the end of the formation relied on the dense array of 50 people, and smoothly entered the gap in front without much hindrance. Together with the small square formation of the front unit, they formed a line with a thickness of only four columns and a length of about two meters. The dykes here completely cut off the torrent.

(End of this chapter)