Douluo: The Adventures of King Skin

"As we said, time is passing cruelly. Seize the moment and have less expectations for tomorrow."

——Quintus Horace Flaccus

As Cassander expected, Pyrrhus was indeed prepared to destroy the Macedonian Eastern Route Army, which was further outside and had fewer troops.

When he first learned that Cassander had divided his forces, Pyrrhus had been thinking about a question - how would Cassander prepare to join his Eastern Route Army?

In military terms, there are only three purposes for dividing troops:

The first is to reduce the supply pressure and make the troops disperse to eat. Whether it is feeding food thousands of miles away, carrying food in, or getting food on the spot, the fewer people, the more convenient it is;

The second is to quickly occupy territory, which is what Cassander is doing;

The third is to deliberately reduce one's own cards, increase the enemy's willingness to engage in a decisive battle, and prevent the enemy from "not following" all the time.

Pyrrhus’ tactics also have three points:

The first was scorched-earth tactics, which trapped Cassander in supplies, which also prompted Cassander to divide his forces;

The second was to build fortifications overnight and engage in positional warfare with Cassander, which made it difficult for the Western Route Army to maneuver;

The third is to pretend to "follow", but in fact to trick Cassander into "smiling proudly" here, he went to another card table to beat his son.

"Everyone, now Cassander's West Route Army has failed, but he may have anticipated this situation from the beginning. If the West Route Army fails, will he rejoin the East Route Army? If so, then Where will we meet?"

Pyrrhus looked around at the generals in the tent and continued: "Zinas told me that if Cassander wants to join the Eastern Route Army, there is only one possible place, and that is Tempe Valley."

At this point, Zenas took over: "The Tempe Valley is the only thoroughfare connecting Magnesia in northern Thessaly. The task of the Eastern Route Army is nothing more than to sweep Magnesia from south to north. If they don't leave, Here we have to go further north to the Petra Pass at the foot of Mount Olympus, which already reaches the border of Macedonia.

"Of course, it is not impossible for the Macedonians to join forces via the Petra Pass. If the Western Route Army's strategy fails, Cassander may simply abandon the hinterland of Thessaly and retreat all the way back to Macedonia."

"Oh! I understand." Metilas suddenly realized: "He may go to Petra or Tempe Valley, so the probability of both sides is [-]-[-]!"

Everyone: "..."

"What? Did I say it wrong?"

Hippias's face was full of hatred, but Nedian patiently explained to him: "Cassander may directly return to Macedonia, provided that his communication with the Eastern Route Army is open.

"Now both the Bobes Valley in the south and the Tempe Valley in the north have been blocked by our volunteer activities. In this case, if the Eastern Route Army goes north to the Meripoa area outside the Tempe Valley, But they have been unable to wait for the Western Route Army, so they must use force to break through the Tempe Valley to obtain the situation on this side of the mountain."

Maitilas: "..."

Pyrrhus was too lazy to pay attention to him and continued:

"Our overall strategy is based on the above ideas. Now there is news from the Onchistas camp that Cassander has seen through our strategy and should be making an all-out breakthrough to the north. We don't know how long Scopas and the others can hold back. In short, our chance of defeating the Eastern Route Army is within one or two days!"

The generals agreed in unison.

At this time Creon spoke: "Well... I don't understand military affairs, but what if the Macedonian Eastern Route Army cannot reach Tempe Valley, and Cassander also comes from the south?"

"We also have plans for this situation." Pyrrhus replied:

"That is to continue north, rush through the Petra Pass, and fight all the way into the heart of Macedonia! Fight until Cassander has to propose peace talks!

"Although I don't want to do this, for the sake of Thessaly, this is a last resort."

"What if Cassander also learned our scorched earth tactics?"

"Then we can retreat from the western Illyria region and return to Thessaly in a roundabout way. I have already sent people to communicate with my adoptive father, King Glaucias.

"Of course, regardless of whether we retreat or not, if Thessaly continues to maintain a protracted war, you must preside over it."

Creon nodded heavily.

"Everyone!" Pyrrhus clapped his hands: "I've finished talking about strategy. I have a new system to promote in the army!"

"You..." After saying this, Pyrrhus turned around and saw little Nicesi blinking behind him.

"Um...Nikesi, bring me what I prepared!"

"Yes! Your Majesty!" Nicesi went out obediently.

Pyrrhus then lifted up his hem and turned around to show it to everyone.

"Look! Is it energetic? Is it neat? Isn't it cumbersome at all?"

The generals looked confused.

…………

…………

The gunners pushed the winch, and the winch made a "creak" sound.

When the machine gun was in place and the ammunition was placed, the officer gave the order and the gunner smashed the machine gun. In an instant, dozens of stone bullets flew towards the Thessaly position with a muffled sound of wind.

Little Antipater expected that the Salians would not take the initiative to attack or counterattack with slings, so he unscrupulously placed the crossbow in front of them and bombarded the opposite side.

The Thessalians quickly counterattacked.

They also set up a large leather curtain in front of the formation. Although they could not see it, the sound of the stone bullets hitting the bronze shield soon ceased to be the "dong-dong" sound, and instead became a "dong-dong" sound. "Puff, puff, puff" sounded like a broken drum.

Young Antipater had anticipated this move and ordered the ballista team to replace the stone bullets with crossbow bolts.

At this time, in the darkness in the distance, the Thessalians were already digging earth to build walls and erecting wooden palisades...

Young Antipater knew nothing of this, nor did he care.

The ballista can only suppress and disrupt. Its real purpose is to attract the attention of the Thessalians, and then win through assault in the field!

**

The light infantry of the Independent Army took the risk of being hit by the crossbows and inserted the torches two or three stadia in front of the array - this distance was just beyond the assault distance of the cavalry troops, just as they were preparing to continue to extend the lighting range forward. , suddenly the forward heard the roar of horse hooves!

So they threw the torches forward and retreated quickly.

When Scopas got the signal, he immediately became nervous and ordered the cavalry to get ready!

It is definitely not possible to carry out multiple waves of assaults at night, so counterattacks are only a one-shot deal.After hammering, if you can get out of the battle smoothly, you can hammer again.

The light cavalry could only form a horizontal line in the darkness, extending as far to the right as possible, waiting for the opponent to show their traces in front of the torch and then swarm them!

Upon hearing the order, the captains and sergeants of each camp opened the prepared blackout lanterns and lit the oil ropes hanging from the spear heads.The oil rope was soaked in water and coated with oil, giving off a little light like a bean in the dark night. It was this light that would guide the team to attack.

At this time, the torch thrown by the farthest light infantry on the ground was suddenly covered by a black shadow, and soon disappeared completely.

The enemy has appeared!

Soon, the true face was gradually revealed in the denser firelight ahead. It was the Macedonian spear phalanx!

A bugle sounded, and the light cavalry formed a wide horizontal column and began to trot towards the enemy, gradually increasing their speed!

The Macedonian commander on the opposite side couldn't believe it when he saw the dots of fire rushing toward him:

Just crazy!

What on earth were the Thessalians thinking?

Are they going to use their cavalry to charge the Macedonian spear phalanx head-on?

He hissed:

"Stop! Spear forward!"