Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

have not reach yet.

Inform the front, slow down the march, and at the same time let Philadelphus make it louder to attract the enemy's attention. And... let Alisosis (Captain of the Crotone cavalry) take the scout Withdraw, now that the situation is clear, don’t waste our cavalry in vain!”

Yes!

After giving the order, Miron's eyes turned to the forest in front of him. He was quite familiar with this place, because through it, further west was the place where Melantheus' army was attacked. After the peace agreement with Dionysus was signed, Miron personally led the team to carry out several Thousands of corpses, from allies, from Crotone... That tragic scene made him unforgettable for a long time!

Miron tightens the reins: this time Crotone will wash away the shame and avenge them!

The troops walked out of the woods, and in front of them was a flat and high-lying wilderness. The Trionto River narrowed here, so the water was too deep to walk. This was why Melantheus had camped here.

The enemy! Look at the enemy!! The soldiers near the river bank became restless.

Ahead of the line, on the other side of the Trionto River, appeared a heavily armed Dionian procession marching rapidly westward along the river bank.

It seems that the Dionians have detected their movements and are ready to prevent them from crossing the river. Miron was not too worried. Although he could not see the whole picture of the enemy on the other side, he felt that the number of the team was not too large. Just as the secret letter said, the Dionians sent to Cass. Tron's vanguard had only less than 4,000 men, and they had to defend Philadelphus. How many enemies were left to block his army from crossing the river!

The upper reaches of the Trionto River galloped in the narrow valley between the mountains until it broke out of the canyon and encountered a flat lowland. At the same time as the width of the surface reaches 30 or 40 meters, the water flow also slows down and the depth decreases. After slowly flowing for more than two miles, the river surface narrows and deepens again due to the elevation of the terrain...

At this moment, on the south bank of the Trionto River, Miron was lining up his 22,000 soldiers (including 2,000 light infantry) in a column as thick as ten, the column was more than two miles long, and the winding cover The entire long array that can be walked across the river, because the enemy on the other side with only about 5,000 people also placed an array as long as Crotone, but not only was the thickness obviously thin, but the formation was also very loose. Miron firmly believes that even with the help of the Trionto River, the Dionian army, which is too small in strength, cannot stop the advance of the Crotone army, and their thin front will inevitably be overwhelmed by the heavy Crotone army. Break!

Attack! Miron, who was at the rear of the middle road, gave an order to the trumpeter with pride.

The high-pitched bugle sound resounded on the quiet flowing Trionto River. Except for the two thousand people led by Miron at the rear of the middle road, they stayed still, because he felt that his own troops far surpassed the enemy and there was no need to invest all of them. During the battle, the entire phalanx began to slowly move towards the riverbank...

Klebs is one of the 20,000 soldiers. After he was captured by the Dionians last time, he spent half a year building roads under custody and suffered a lot. In order to redeem him, his family, Having owed a large amount of debt, this time he was recruited by the city-state and fought against Dionia again. In addition to having a strong desire for revenge, he also hoped to defeat the Dionysians, get a lot of loot and pay off the debt. The river beach here is not soft fine sand, but pebbles of different shapes and sizes spread all over the ground. The ground is hard, but it is easy to stumble, so Klebus and the others walked slowly and steadily...

The Trionto River was just ahead, and Klebus, who was in the front row, saw a lot of people rushing out of the array of enemies on the other side through the narrow eyelet of the Corinthian helmet. Before the team officer reminded him, he quickly raised it The round shield is in front of the chest.

Ding! The Dionian arrow hit his copper shield, making a harsh sound, but it couldn't damage it. His right foot had already stepped into the river.

Be careful with the top of your head!! The team officer's shout echoed in the dense helmet,

The voice was faint and seemed distant. He raised his head subconsciously, only to see countless black dots in the air plummeting down.

Damn, it's a projectile! He hurriedly raised his shield and headgear.

At this time, I heard the team officer urgently shout: Be careful ahead!!

However, the heavily armored and heavily armored soldiers were severely impaired in hearing and vision, causing their reactions to be slower than ordinary people. He felt a light punch in his chest, followed by a pain. An arrow was stabbing on his left chest. It should have penetrated the densely glued linen breastplate, but its kinetic energy had been consumed. The arrow tip just touched his skin, and the experienced Klobus knew that it didn't hurt much.

On the contrary, the teammate next to him was shot in the thigh without armor protection, screamed and fell into the river. The blood was about to turn red. Looking at the teammate who was struggling in the water, Klebs wanted to help him, but he was more than enough. Insufficient strength, the cunning Dionian used both projectiles and direct shots to make them all overwhelmed. Seeing the teammates who finally stopped struggling floated on the river, Klebs felt a bit of grief in his heart...

Stride forward! Stride forward!... The officers shouted, urging the soldiers to speed up to cross the river.

The river was really not deep, just below the knees, but the bottom of the river was full of pebbles, and it was a little slippery, so Colebus and the others squatted down, using a round shield to obliquely block the top of their heads and chests, and the river water to cover their legs, and they were shot by bows and arrows. The odds are greatly reduced, but the speed of progress is not fast. After the initial panic, the soldiers gradually calmed down. They moved forward slowly while protecting the arrows. At the same time, they readjusted the somewhat chaotic formation during the advance.

Almost in the middle of the river, the water depth did not increase much, and even Klebus, who was on the right flank of the phalanx, did not feel the momentum of the water flow because of the long array on the left blocking the river. At this time, he observed some people rushing out of the enemy formation on the other side, almost running to the river, less than twenty meters away from them, the tip of the spear in his hand shone cold in the sunlight... Klebus's heart went crazy Jumping up, he instinctively sat down, almost immersing his entire body in the water.

Be careful with the javelin!!... The voices of the team officers increased significantly, because the damage of the javelin to the heavy infantry was obviously greater than that of the arrow.

Klebs heard a whistling wind beside his ear, followed by a loud Bang! and a shrill cry from his teammates behind him. The javelin was stuck straight on the round shield, and the spear tip pierced the copper skin and shattered it. The wooden board directly pinned his left arm, and the strong impact pushed him backwards, and at the same time brought down the soldiers behind. This seemingly gentle and harmless river water penetrated the mouth and nose, causing choking and eventually suffocation. It can be seen that the enemy's javelin throwing force is so powerful that the front line of Crotone's army is panicked again.

At this time, the light infantry in the rear also followed closely, and they could finally start fighting back. The arrows they shot fell like raindrops on the riverbank on the other side, forcing the enemy's harpooneers to dare not attack the front line recklessly at close range.

The casualties of the Crotones were only a drop in the bucket compared to this huge army. Although Miron was a little sad, he didn't take it too seriously. He was just surprised that nearly half of the five thousand people on the other side were light infantry. These light infantrymen are skillful in coordination, skillful in tactics, and precise in attack, which he had never seen in previous battles, which aroused his vigilance. But there is no doubt about the outcome of this battle, because—

General! Our army has landed! We have landed!... The men around him cheered.

Before, Miron thought it would be very easy to cross the Trionto River, but looking at the corpses floating on the river and the relieved expressions of his subordinates, it showed that the opponent's light infantry was beyond their expectations.

Beat the drums! Don't let them escape! Miron, who was riding on a horse, could vaguely see that when the front line of his team stepped onto the beach, the enemy's light infantry had quickly passed through the gap in their array and retreated to the rear. .

Yes, General! As soon as the herald's words fell, he heard a high-pitched bugle sound on the other side. The deafening sound required at least ten trumpeters to play at the same time.

Miron couldn't hide his shock. Could it be that Dionia sent more than the five or six thousand troops in front of Castellon? ! This astonishing thought flashed through Miron and his subordinates at the same time, and their eyes were fixed on the back of the river beach on the other side.

The war drum of Boom! Boom! Boom!... The war drum was quickly beating, and it reached the ears of Klebs, who had already landed, which cheered him up.

Attack! Attack!... Without the blows of bows, arrows and javelins, the orders of the team officers were full of excitement.

The Crotone soldiers shouted the divine name Apollo, strode forward, and charged the enemy ahead.

But a louder shout of killing came from the opposite side, and a bright red military flag suddenly rose from the back of the river beach, and then there appeared soldiers who could not see their heads and lined up closely. In the same passionate drums of war, they quickly rushed to themselves. The comrade-in-arms who served as bait in front, the military flags that were erected one after another and fluttered in the wind evoked the painful memories of Crotone soldiers who had served as captives like Klebs.

be cheated! Ambushed! A similar thought instantly appeared in the minds of every Crotone soldier, and this thought was quickly swallowing up their high morale, causing them to hesitate and linger on the shore, cowering, watching Dioni. The runner-up joined the previous troops and began to rearrange their formations...