Douluo: The Adventures of King Skin

“First, he rules over people.”

——Agaton

The Greeks had a bad habit of fighting, which was to require the commander to fight together in the queue, so as to gain the trust of the soldiers. This was determined by the city-state system and the citizen soldier system.

However, this puts the commander at risk of dying in battle, and secondly, it is not conducive for the commander to have an overview of the overall situation and issue instructions.Although the Macedonians did not pay much attention to this, most of Pyrrhus' heavy infantry came from Greece.

Fortunately, with the promotion of Alexander's tactical system, this requirement has now been reduced a bit - commanders can fight with the cavalry, but they still cannot leave the battle to command exclusively - many soldiers think that Pyrrhus was in the Battle of Philae It was too late to join the battle, which was also an important reason for the post-war events at that time.

Moreover, the team officer class still has to fight on the front line and even lead the charge. This cannot be changed.

Traditionally, Greek heavy infantrymen were armed with bayonets and large shields. In the phalanx, only the first four rows of people could reach the bayonet, and the four rows behind could only play a role in pushing tactics.No matter how many people there are, the tactical significance will not be great, because both the pushing force that the human body can withstand and the pushing force that the array can transmit are limited.

The main function of a 16-layer thick array like the one in Imeda is actually to defend the flanks; in some battles, in order to ensure the width of the battle line, the troops often do not even have enough troops to line up in an 8-layer array.

For example, in Pyrrhus' previous battle at Philais, there were only four rows, and his opponent only had six rows.

Therefore, the Greek heavy infantry was customarily organized into a column of eight people. After training, comrades in the same column could closely cooperate, support each other and even replace each other in battle.

Pyrrhus paid more attention to the cultivation of this collective fighting method, so he combined the two columns into one camp team, each with 20 people.

At the same time, this allows him to implement a captain-sergeant dual-track system in the basic queue.

Each team has the strongest and bravest soldier as the captain. He is the core of team operations. He ranks second in one column and first in the left column in two columns.

He also set up a sergeant position in the team to be filled by relatively experienced veterans.The sergeant holds the flag at half-mast and is mainly responsible for organizing the defense behind and on the sides. He is also responsible for taking over command if the captain dies in battle.

And setting up a centurion in the higher-level centurion-yes, this is another position that must take the lead.The centurion has his own camp, called the chief camp, and he ranks third in line in combat formation.

Similarly, a sergeant major was set up, who belonged to the flag bearer camp team.There is also a standard bearer in the standard bearer, who is the strongest soldier and is responsible for protecting the centurion's flag.

In Pyrrhus's vision, sergeants and sergeants majors would gradually take over the real command power.

The spears used by the pikemen were longer than the spears and shorter than the salissas, and they wore a small shield held in one hand.The pike phalanx is generally composed of mercenaries and conscripted free people. Traditional Greeks looked down on the combat effectiveness and fighting will of the pikemen, so they were often placed in the middle of the heavy infantry phalanx. Their role was actually to fill the battle line.

The Sarisha spear is made of two pieces of wood joined together with tenons. The joint in the middle is made of bronze and requires both hands to hold. The matching small shield is usually hung around the neck and used with the assistance of the left arm.Once caught in close combat or the spear breaks, the second half of the Sarisha spear also has a bronze pointed tail called a 'lizard cone', which is both a counterweight and can be used for combat.The Macedonian spear phalanx has the longest attack range, and people in the first five rows can join the battle. Alexander arranged the Macedonian spear phalanx into 16 rows during the battle.But Pyrrhus saw no need for this, and there were not so many men to waste.

The attack ranges of these three common melee infantry were originally complementary, so Pyrrhus originally wanted to completely mix the heavy infantry, pikemen, and spearmen, but he encountered strong opposition from everyone.

——After all, it is a tactic that has been refined for hundreds of years, and the soldiers have always been very stubborn in this regard.

So he settled for the next best thing and wanted to mix the three at the Centurion level.The pikemen and Macedonian pikemen agreed, but they still could not convince the heavy infantry.

In the end, the camp teams of pikemen and Macedonian pikes had to be mixed into pike centuries, so that the more mobile pikes and the more powerful pikes could complement each other.

In addition, there are light infantry in the infantry ranks.

Traditional light infantry often mixes long-range arms such as slingers and archers with various poorly equipped foreign mercenaries.

Archers generally come from ancient city-states on the southern archipelago, or peoples such as Persia, Egypt, and Nubia who are good at using bows and arrows; slingers are often mountain people with a tradition of animal husbandry, and they hone their slinging skills while driving herds - There are many similar examples in the world.

No wonder the Greeks did not pay attention to long-range attacks. After all, they were good at heavy infantry tactics that restrained long-range attacks. The projectile weapons they occasionally used were various light and heavy javelins.The most powerful evidence is that Alexander led a Macedonian spear phalanx using smaller shields to defeat the Persian Empire, which was equipped with a large number of archers.

However, Pyrrhus didn't think so. He believed that the concentrated use of long-range troops could play a key role, especially now that the main combat targets were the Macedonians who used spears.So line up the archers and slingers separately.

The so-called alien mercenaries are either Gauls who wear trousers and are bare-chested and like to use long swords; or they are Phrygian mountain people who use weird sickle-shaped swords and wear simple animal skins.Their character was capricious and undisciplined, and they were not trusted by the Greeks. However, they were often brave in battle, agile and easy to die, and were suitable as skirmishers to disrupt the enemy in front of the battle.

It happened that Democharles, the rich man in Athens, sent Pyrrhus a batch of armor and helmets. Pyrrhus wanted to strengthen the equipment for these people - but they wore them happily.

Poor people are easy to talk to!

As Pyrrhus and Hippias rode forward, they told them about the big and small things they encountered in the process of running the army.They are all seniors who have been in battle for a long time, and they are also rare people around Pyrrhus who have held senior military positions, so I have to take this opportunity to ask them for more advice.

Androcleon and Nedion discussed the matter and told Pyrrhus their experiences and opinions, but Hippias remained silent.

It was not until the end that he said to Pyrrhus:

"Your Majesty, I heard Achilles tell you some things that happened after the war at Philais."

Pyrrhus knew what he was talking about, and he frankly admitted:

"I took them to take risks to fight against the superior enemy, which resulted in such heavy casualties. This was the result of my wrong decision as the general."

"Your Majesty, that's not what I want to say." Hippias shook his head:

"In war, once the general deems it necessary, it is legitimate to issue an order, whether it is to fight more with less, or with less, to fight more. In other words, it is precisely because of such matters that the army needs a general.

“You can appease them this time if they turn against you after the war; what if next time they turn against you before the war?

"Please don't forget the failure your father experienced."