ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 904 Battle of Jela ([-])

Because Leotizides once again received Minoa's urgent request for help, the Carthaginian army stormed for days, and the siege equipment they made caused heavy casualties to the Minoa defenders, and Minoa was almost unable to withstand it. .At the same time, he also received news from Serinus that the fact that he led the army to leave the port of Serinus by boat could not be concealed from the sentinels of Carthage patrolling the sea. Sicheng launched an attack.

All this made Leotizides eager to deal with the Carthaginian army under the city of Gera as soon as possible, so after discussing with the reinforcements of the Gera people and Camanlina, he decided to have a battle with the Carthaginians. Battle.

In the early morning, Leotizides led 8000 soldiers of the Eighth Legion, 4 cavalry of the 1000th Cavalry Legion, 5000 Gela soldiers, and 3000 Camanlina reinforcements, a total of 17 people, out of the city of Gela , after marching four miles westward, facing the Carthage military camp, they set up a formation.

The huge troop transport fleet entering the port of Gela could not be concealed from the Carthaginian army building a camp near the sea. Therefore, the Carthaginian army did not attack the city in the past two days. Instead, under Kisgo's repeated persuasion, Hasdru Ba summoned about 2000 soldiers stationed at Echinom, leaving only a few hundred.In addition, he also issued an order to the Carthaginian army under his command that participated in the siege of Enna, causing 1500 soldiers to trek through the mountains and arrive at starry night.

Hasdrubal was moved by Kisgo's words: "...According to the situation observed by the sentinels, there are no fewer than 200 Dionia's troop carriers, so at least 1 Dionia soldiers entered Jie Pull. In this way, the number of defenders in the city is about the same as our soldiers, so it is absolutely impossible for the Dionians to just defend the city, but want to defeat us, because the huge army led by Master Margo In comparison, we have a small number of people, but are closest to the territory of Dionia, which poses a great threat to them. As long as we can defeat the Dionia army, we will be able to complete the goal promised by Lord Margo in the Senate as soon as possible-to The Dionians were driven out of Sicily, and Hasdrubal you can also be praised by the people of Carthage!..."

So after learning that the Dionian army had left Jela City, Hasdrubal couldn't wait to start gathering troops in the camp.

While the Dionia coalition forces were in formation, Hasdrubal also led the army to leave the camp, came to the opposite of the Dionia coalition forces, and began to form formation.

哈斯德鲁巴的军队有1万名腓尼基和努米比亚的混合部队、4000名伊比利亚士兵、2500名卢西塔尼亚战士、600名凯尔特战士，还有1000多名特殊士兵，总共是大约18500名士兵。

Since the place where the two sides were about to fight was a flat grassland with an unobstructed view for several miles, the Dionysian coalition started to line up first, thus giving Hasdrubal and Kisgo an opportunity to observe.

The battle formation that the Dionian coalition forces are arranging is about three miles long, and they are all heavy infantry. They overlap one another, like a long iron wall.

Because the unique black helmets and black armor of the Dionian army were extremely conspicuous in the military formation, Hasdrubal first attracted the attention of Hasdrubal. He found that the Dionian army was mainly concentrated on the right side of the battle formation (Dionian army). The left wing of the Dionian coalition), so after a brief discussion, he and Gisgo began to form a formation: 7000 mixed Phoenician and Numibian troops on the left, facing the Dionian legionnaires .

This army was specially formed by the Magonid family after they prepared to develop in Iberia. Due to various considerations, they did not recruit Carthaginians at that time. The Nike allies recruited a lot of poor people and refugees, starting with 20000 people and reaching 4 at the peak. They were the main force for the Magonid family to establish a foothold in Iberia and expand their territory. For more than ten years, under the leadership of Mago and Hasdrubal, they have fought countless battles with the fierce natives of Iberia. They are the most important force that the Magonid family relies on.This time to attack Sicily, Mago brought 2 people, and 1 soldiers stayed in southern Iberia.

In the center, Hasdrubal prepared to let the remaining 3000 Phoenician and Numibian soldiers and 2000 Iberian infantry guard it.

The Iberian infantry is composed of indigenous people living in southern Iberia. Although they are not as fierce as their distant relatives, the Lusitanians, they have a large population and are more united. They once gave the Magonides family a stronghold in Iberia. The conquest of the south caused a lot of trouble, and it took about 6 or 7 years to get most of the tribes to surrender to Mago.

Therefore, Mago did not dare to enslave the southern Iberian race like Carthage enslaved the Numibians. Instead, he listened to his nephew Haka's opinion: as long as they surrendered, they would not be deprived of their territory and allowed to be in their jurisdiction. They live freely within the country, do not tax them, do not interfere in the internal affairs of the tribes, and also trade daily necessities with these tribes at lower prices...

But these races also have obligations that they must abide by: not to violate the laws of the colony (this law is not Carthage law, but a law enacted by Haka based on the situation in southern Iberia). When the Magonid family launches a war with foreign countries, , they need to provide troops. Of course, after victory, they will also receive generous spoils of war; in addition, wars between tribes are not allowed. Once conflicts arise, they will be coordinated and resolved by the Magonid family, which is tantamount to letting the The Magonid family became the chief leaders of the tribes in southern Iberia. The tribe's interests were not harmed, but they received a lot of benefits. The resistance to Magonide was naturally greatly reduced.

So far, Mago's territory in southern Iberia has not only remained generally stable, but also has a large number of free soldiers, which has greatly reduced the military expenses for maintaining the security of the territory and also reduced the number of mercenary soldiers (mainly Phoenician and Numibian troops), in this landing Mago brought 15 Iberian infantry.

The right wing is composed of 2500 Lusitanian fighters and 2000 Libyan soldiers.The right wing had the smallest number of soldiers, but Hasdrubal pinned his hopes of victory on the right wing because of the presence of Lusitanian warriors.

The Lusitanians are actually a branch of the Celts. They are tall and strong, run fast and powerful, and are good at using large shields and phacata short swords. In the use of weapons, they are similar to their relatives, the Iberians. The infantry is similar, except that the Iberian infantry is stable, but they are more violent when fighting and more suitable for attack, so Hasdrubal ranked them on the far right, hoping to use them to open the way to victory.

As for the 600 Celtic warriors, Hasdrubal left them behind the center, not because he had the habit of retaining reserves, but because he had just vaguely observed Dionia The coalition had many cavalry.

Hasdrubal is not like Monte Adeno. He and his uncle Mago have carefully studied the past victories of the Dionians and found that the cavalry plays a very important role in them. They even used this to During the war to conquer southern Iberia, cavalry was used many times to defeat the enemy and reverse the situation. After all, Carthage had very rich cavalry resources, including Carthaginian cavalry, Numibian cavalry, Mauritanian allied cavalry, and even Lusitanian cavalry. There are also many cavalry, and this time there are more than 7000 cavalry in the army led by Mago.

However, since Hasdrubal had to lead the army over the mountains, raid the Sikels, and then attack the rear of the Dionysian army, the cavalry became a burden, leaving no cavalry in the current army, so he must stay The Celts came down to protect another unit and jointly defend against the attack of the Dionian cavalry on the flanks of the military formation.

Of course, the Celtics are unruly and difficult to cooperate with other troops in the battle formation. On the contrary, they will hinder the attack. This is also the reason why they were singled out. For this reason, Hasdrubal also asked Kisgow to take charge. Behind the center, one of the tasks is to restrain this Celtic force.

After making these arrangements, Hasdrubal ran to the right wing. He wanted to personally attack the enemy with the Lusitanians. The leader of a Carthaginian army actually lined up with a group of natives. And he was still at the forefront of the military formation. This was indeed unique for the Carthaginian nobles. Even Mago could not do it, but Hasdrubal used this to win over the Iberians, Lusitanians, Even the Celtics respect him and everyone is willing to obey his command.

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After Leotizides received the reward from the scout cavalry and learned that the Carthaginian army had left the camp, he settled down: today's battle will definitely continue.

He began a more detailed formation: the 6000 heavy infantry of the Eighth Army were arranged from the right wing to the center, with only 8 rows. In this way, the Eighth Army occupied half of the entire length of the army; It is the heavy infantry of Gera, and they increase the rows to 14 columns; to the left of the Gera people is the heavy infantry of Camanlina, also with 14 columns...

The formation of the Dionian coalition is like a hatchet, with a thinner wooden handle on the right and a thick blade on the left. The reason why Leotizides arranged it this way was out of necessity: the Dionian Army and the South Coast After several months of joint fighting with the friendly armies, he had a deeper understanding of the armies of these Greek city-states. Most of them had more skilled heavy infantry combat skills and were brave in battle, but their discipline was loose and the battle could not last long. If defeated, it would be easier to collapse. Out of concern for them, they thickened their array.In this way, even if the frontline soldiers who were wearing thick Greek heavy infantry armor and had limited mobility were timid and wanted to retreat, they had to push forward under the push of the rear soldiers, otherwise they would be more likely to die from the enemy. attack and trample on one's own comrades.

(End of this chapter)