Douluo: The Adventures of King Skin

"Soldiers are impermanent, and water is impermanent."

——"Sun Tzu: Virtual Reality Chapter"

In the Northern Hemisphere, due to the influence of geomagnetic deflection on rivers, rivers always wash away on the right bank.In the Pinhos River, the slope on the south bank is steeper, while the tidal flat on the north bank is flatter.

No one can tell how fast the rushing river is in front of them.

In short, it was very fast. In short, the 7000 people left by Philip on the north bank realized that they were about to suffer a disaster. Time was no longer enough for them to reach the south bank, or even for them to escape.

The turbulent water swept away the densely packed people on the vast tidal flats on the north bank, and even the cries of people and the neighing of horses could not be heard in the roar of the river.

It is conceivable that at the pass they passed through before, the power of Pinius, the son of Oceanus, will tear these drowned people into pieces.

The thousand light cavalry that had penetrated the Macedonian queue before, slightly downstream, passed the Pinhos River with great difficulty before the flood arrived.

The Thessalians on the opposite side seemed to see the red flag coming ashore, and there was a faint cheer.

At this moment, Philip's heroic face was horribly distorted.

Now he faces the morale blow of losing 7000 men in an instant, and the risk of being attacked from both front and rear by the enemy.

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Although he could not open his eyes due to the snowstorm, Pyrrhus only felt endless relaxation and joy at this time!

His biggest dilemma in Thessaly has always been the lack of troops.

Not only is the supply capacity limited, but qualified warriors cannot be trained within a few days.

And his most enemies are soldiers.

Just like it was originally thought that Philip had only 1 men, but people mobilized thousands of them from nowhere overnight - not fake troops like Pyrrhus who made up the numbers with civilians, but genuine troops with combat experience. infantry.

If this strategy of using water to replace troops had not been thought of, if this strategy could not be launched smoothly, Pyrrhus would have had no choice but to withdraw with the main force in despair today and implement the family replacement plan.

In order to realize this incredible plan, Pyrrhus mobilized tens of thousands of people a few days ago to build a dam on the upper reaches of the Piones River.

In Greece at this time, such a project cannot be said to be unprecedented, but it is the first time it has been used in field operations.

And no one around Pyrrhus had such experience.

Those who can take on this task must have a certain academic foundation, be familiar with hydrology and geography, be familiar with construction and have command experience.Pyrrhus currently has only two scholars, Desiachus and Stratton, and the navigator Pythias who can meet these conditions.

Stratton also had to assist in the defense of the camp of Onchistas, so the heavy burden fell on Desiachus and Pythias.

The two worked day and night to survey the geographical situation upstream and downstream, and at the same time directed craftsmen to build mechanisms that could cause the dam to collapse at any time.

Now the hard work over the past few days has finally paid off!

"Aminsta! Send the signal! Prepare for battle!"

The low horn sounded again.

The river water stopped rising, and the independent army stopped climbing and began to restore their formation.

There are five rectangular phalanxes, each with ten centurions, most of which are mixed heavy infantry, and a small number of long-range and close combat light infantry. They temporarily stay in the phalanx to assist in thickening the phalanx. thickness.

The first row is heavy infantry armed with short spears and large shields, followed by two rows of pikemen with light shields, and then two rows of a small number of pikemen holding sarissa spears in both hands and most of the light soldiers. The infantry, in total, is five ranks thick.

A row of 1000 people, plus the four gaps between the squares, would line up about ten stadia wide on a slightly sloping terrain.

The Macedonians on the opposite side also stopped at this time. They only formed three large square formations, which were only slightly wider than here.

The rangers scattered in front of the formation gradually sent over the information they saw on the other side.

On the side of the river is a Macedonian spear phalanx with about 2000 people. The thickness varies from 4 people on the left to 5 to 6 columns on the river side. In the middle is a spear phalanx with about 2000 people. The thickness is about 4 or 5 columns; on the side of the mountain is the Greek heavy infantry phalanx, with the tightest formation, about a dozen columns.

Calculated in this way, the two Macedonian spear phalanxes will each face two Thessaly phalanxes, while the Greek heavy infantry phalanx will face one Thessaly phalanx alone.

The Macedonians were obviously preparing to use diagonal tactics on their left and right wings at the same time. The Macedonian spear phalanx had a stronger attack power, while the ultra-thick phalanx of the Greek heavy infantry was not only extremely powerful in pushing, but could also launch an outflank at any time.

In terms of cavalry, the three thousand cavalry on both sides were temporarily behind the infantry formation. In addition, he also had a thousand cavalry across the river led by Hippias and Metyras, who were behind the Macedonians at the moment.

In general the infantry enemy had the advantage, and the cavalry Pyrrhus had the advantage.

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The drums sounded rhythmically, and both sides began to move forward in small steps.

Philip had regained his composure.

At this moment, he was rapidly deducing the course of the battle in his mind.

There are currently three key points that may determine the outcome.

First on his left flank.

The terrain of the Greek heavy infantry here is higher and the troops are the most concentrated. Once the outflanking tactics are launched, the thousands-man phalanx on the opposite side may collapse in an instant.

Pyrrhus had to counter this, and the way to do that was with a cavalry charge.

Although I didn't see the battle clearly on the north bank just now, the Thessalian cavalry clearly mastered the spear attack tactics. Although this was the shield side of the Greek heavy infantry, they still couldn't be careless.

His further response was that no matter how many cavalry Pyrrhus sent, he only needed to send a relatively small number of cavalry to intercept and intercept, and it would be effective.

The second is behind his back.

The thousand Sesali cavalry may launch an attack from behind at any time, so he must leave no less than a thousand cavalry to block the attack.

As a result, the cavalry force he had on hand was stretched thin.

and finally on his right.

He deployed a diagonal line there. As long as it lasted long enough, the Thessalian phalanx would inevitably collapse under the attack of dense spears.

But that will take time, and the winner may well have been decided elsewhere before then.

**

What Philip was thinking, Pyrrhus was also thinking, and he was even more worried about the situation of the infantry.

About 3000 of his [-] infantrymen were recruited from the volunteers.

These people are far inferior to the Macedonians opposite them in terms of physical strength and skills. To put it bluntly, just a small mistake may cause the entire phalanx to collapse!

He is now also troubled by a dilemma:

Should the priority be given to assisting the infantry in stabilizing the front?Or should the cavalry give priority to a decisive battle to determine the outcome?

Prioritizing assistance to the infantry is likely to be a drop in the bucket;

And the priority is cavalry for decisive victory...

Pyrrhus looked at the ground under his feet. It was slippery now and there was a slope. It was very likely that the cavalry assault would be in vain...