Douluo: The Adventures of King Skin

"Always remind yourself that you are just a mortal body."

——Menander

Just when the two armies were about to engage in battle, Philip suddenly burst out laughing!

The cavalry attendants around looked at him in surprise.

Philip laughed and explained to everyone easily:

"I thought Pyrrhus left all his light infantry on the north bank, but he fled without a fight. He must have been pretending to be a civilian.

"But how can an army not have light infantry? I guess not only there are, but there are quite a lot of them, and these light infantry are now pretending to be heavy infantry!

"I was still worried about the lack of cavalry just now, but now I find that the gap between our infantry is far greater than I thought!"

Philip sighed with emotion: "I really admire Pyrrhus for coming to fight us with just such a force!"

Then he sent an order to divide the cavalry into three.

A thousand defenses circled the Thessalian cavalry behind;

One thousand assisted the Greek heavy infantry in the attack;

One thousand were on standby with him. As soon as Pyrrhus's line was broken, he would personally lead the cavalry to launch an assault!

And this location, he judged, was most likely in the middle of the battle line!

**

Just when there were only a dozen steps left, both parties accelerated in small steps with tacit understanding!

Ten thousand infantrymen collided together on a slope ten stads long. The howling wind, rain, and snow in the valley could not cover up the earth-shattering war roars of the soldiers!

As soon as the two sides came into contact, after a brief stalemate, the Thessalians were forced to retreat step by step!

Pyrrhus was right. The Independence Army soldiers were far inferior to each other in terms of skill and physical strength, so now they could only desperately maintain the front.

The heavy infantryman in front buried his head under the big shield, and his feet were pushed into the muddy ground with two deep footprints; while his teammates in the second row held the shoulders of the comrades in front with their left hands, and helped him stabilize while pushing. He kept his body in place while using his other hand to cover his head and thrust forward; the person behind him didn't care about attacking at all and could only push with all his strength!

After persisting like this for more than ten breaths, the Macedonian man's strength retreated slightly. Both sides freed their hands and began to stab each other. The battle suddenly reached a climax!

In the second phalanx on the Thessalian left wing, there was relatively little pressure here.The light infantry in the rear row quietly withdrew from the battle line under the command of the sergeants, and then gathered at the junction of the right wing, one riding on one shoulder, and launched a volley at the spear-holding side of the Macedonian central phalanx that was difficult to defend.

Bows and arrows were no longer usable, but the dense javelins and stone bullets were mixed with ice rain. With each round of blows, the relatively weak Macedonian central queue was shaken.

The Macedonian spearmen didn't care about prodding anymore and buried their heads in their shields. Suddenly, the efficiency of the attack was greatly reduced.The Thessalian central phalanx took the opportunity to counterattack and pushed the opponent back.

At the same time, the sharp peaks of the Macedonian spears on the north side and the super thick front of the Greek heavy infantry on the south side kept pushing the Thessalians back.

Viewed from the air, the entire front line has almost curved into a right angle.

At this moment, the outflanking cavalry led by Hippias was about to launch the first round of assault, and Philip's reserved cavalry immediately faced them.

Hippias and Metilas each led 500 horsemen, divided into two groups up and down the slope, and the Macedonians divided their troops accordingly.

Then Hippias and Metilas each sent 200 cavalry to conduct the first round of assault at the same time, and the Macedonians met them with more troops but less troops.

The lance lengths of both sides are similar, but the Macedonian cavalry holds the lance upside down and stabs it diagonally downward, while the Thessalian cavalry uses a flat-end lance.The Thessalians seem to have some advantage in length, but the difference in strength is almost 2.5 times!

700 men and horses collided with each other, causing blood, sawdust, and muddy water to fly all over the sky!

Although neither side could reach the maximum horse speed, the cavalry's charge still caused terrible casualties.Both the upper and lower sides had similar results. Almost more than a hundred people were killed in all four teams, which meant that the Thessalians lost more than half!

The surviving Thessalian light cavalry turned their horses' heads desperately and retreated backwards.

The Macedonians were cheering for the enemy's retreat, when another two teams of 200 horses each crashed into them!

And they were still almost standing there!

**

Although the Macedonian infantry had the advantage, the too curved battle line at this moment put Philip's infantry at risk of being cut into two sections. If the situation continued, no one could predict what the outcome would be.

Seeing that the cavalry behind him was about to engage in battle, Philip no longer waited and immediately ordered the Greek heavy infantry to start outflanking tactics.

Then he himself came to the center of the battle line with a thousand cavalry, and divided the troops into three groups, each in a column, so as to pass through the gaps in the line.

No matter which side would gain the upper hand later, as soon as a gap appeared in the line, he would immediately launch a spear attack and defeat the Thessalian phalanx!

When the Greek heavy infantry received the order, they had already pushed Thessaly's right-wing First Phalanx back far away.

Their right-wing spear-holding side was already facing the spear-wielding side of the Thessalian right-wing second phalanx, and the two sides began to bloody each other without protection!

When Andro Cleon, who was solely responsible for commanding the infantry, saw this situation, he immediately mobilized the light infantry in the back row to gather together and join the battle with long swords and axes.

Both sides maintained a balance amidst rising casualties!

On the left wing of the Greek heavy infantry, soldiers were drawn out and began to outflank, one column after another. This time the spear-bearing side of the Thessalian phalanx faced the Macedonian shield wall, which gradually became difficult to withstand.

At this time, the Thessalian cavalry moved.

**

Pyrrhus saw Philip's move.

At this time he had a total of four thousand cavalry.

One thousand of them are relatively elite. They have mastered the fighting methods of the Alpha team and have all been handed over to Hippias and Metilas;

Only one thousand of the two thousand in hand have mastered the combat skills of the Beta team, and the other thousand can only attack at low speed.

The remainder were five hundred each of melee cavalry and mounted infantry.

Seeing that the first phalanx on the right wing was in danger of collapse, Pyrrhus sent out [-] cavalry at one go.

Among them, 300 cavalrymen were divided into 3 teams and attacked the Greek heavy infantry phalanx in turns; the other 500 cavalrymen held special long spears with weights and rushed directly towards the thousand Macedonian cavalry who were already watching eagerly and preparing to intercept; then Followed by 500 melee cavalry.

Pyrrhus looked at the boiling Piones River, and it seemed that the water surface was already receding.

He ordered Oandros and Philonides to take 500 cavalry and 500 mounted infantry to the left wing and wait for maneuver. Once enough width appeared on the river, they would immediately circle back and attack the back of the Macedonian phalanx.

Now he has 200 cavalry left, of which more than [-] are capable of cavalry hedging. The rest are not skilled in martial arts and can only defend or backstab.

Pyrrhus had already made up his mind. He asked Nedian to whisper for a moment, then left all 500 men and horses with him, and took 200 men and all the mounted attendants to the center of the battle line.

At this time, the five phalanxes of the Thessalian army had been squeezed into a triangle, and the two spear phalanxes of the Macedonian army were about to completely break.

Pyrrhus came to the right side of the central square and asked the riders to retreat to a charging distance to prepare. He rode his horse to the front to observe.

I saw just behind the crowded battle line, less than half a stadia away, three or five cavalrymen surrounded a tall rider.

The rider wore a gorgeous Boeotian helmet with a red mane crown and two white swan feathers in front.

He seemed to recognize Pyrrhus. He took off his helmet and smiled and waved to Pyrrhus.

This was the first time Pyrrhus met Philip.

He took off his helmet and waved back.

I heard the shouting from the other side:

"Pyrrhus! There is no need to let soldiers die needlessly! Let's show off!"