Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Not only him, the fourth and fifth corps captains and other company captains also quickly made a decision: let the soldiers rush up quickly, entangle the enemy, and prevent them from escaping!

But the Dionian Legionnaires, who had exhausted their stamina, staggered in pursuit, only making the distance between them and the Roman soldiers further and further.

As for the young Roman soldiers on the two flanks, because the previous attack was too fierce, the arrays on both sides were already intertwined, and they were too close together, making it difficult to withdraw for a while. Especially in the rear of the right flank of the Dionysian army, nearly half of the more than 2,000 young Roman soldiers who came to attack at last had their eyes red, and they only focused on the attack, ignoring the sounds of bugles and shouts from the outside world. unheard.

At this moment, more than 2,000 Volsci people from Antium and Setia quickly arrived, and together with the third brigade of the First Army and the light armoured soldiers, they attacked these young Roman soldiers, and even killed most of them. surrounded.

But for a while, these Roman soldiers did not panic. The squadron behind turned around to resist the attack of the Volsci, while the soldiers in the front row attacked even more desperately, causing the third squadron and the array of light armoured soldiers in front of them to almost collapse. Fortunately, they Knowing the news of the arrival of reinforcements strengthened their confidence.

At the same time, Amintas urgently transferred the soldiers of the second brigade next to the third brigade to strengthen the defense line.

When Volsi's other reinforcements arrived on the battlefield, seeing that the entire Roman army was already in retreat, they immediately began to pursue.

The Dionysian heavy infantry were exhausted and could not continue after only running for a while, only the light infantry and cavalry were still in pursuit.

The seventh battalion, which was all light infantry, was the most physically fit of the First Corps. They ran desperately, trying to get around to the front and intercept the six Roman youth squadrons that had attacked the left flank.

Unexpectedly, these Roman squadrons did not know the news of the arrival of Wolsey reinforcements when they were on the left flank, so they just retreated in response to the military order, not rout, and their morale was not bad. And it was somewhat similar to the way the Dionysian army retreated. They retreated as a squadron as a whole, instead of running around in complete dispersal, and they could immediately organize a counterattack.

After the seventh brigade suffered some losses, they no longer dared to stand in front of them, but ran after them, attacking with javelins and bows and arrows at the same time, thus achieving some results.

The Dionian cavalry's pursuit is more direct, driving the horses directly from the rear, breaking the enemy's squadron, and then stabbing the lone enemy one by one, but this method does more damage to tired horses. Big, the cavalry only used it a few times at the beginning of the pursuit, and then only attacked some scattered enemies that fell behind.

The battlefield was only four or five miles away from the Roman camp, and Camelus took most of the squadrons of young men and veterans, as well as the light infantry,

Unhindered, they retreated to the north gate of the camp.

Frius had already received the news, and he had already opened the camp door, ready to receive Camilus.

Camelus did not enter the camp immediately, but reminded Frius to guard the camp to prevent the enemy from taking the opportunity to attack the camp, and let the light infantry quickly stand on the wooden wall, climb the sentry tower, and attack any enemy who dared to approach the camp. At the same time, he led the army of more than 3,000 middle-aged soldiers and old soldiers, lined up an array 100 meters away from the camp, and launched a rapid attack on the Volsi people who were chasing after a while.

Because the Volsci were only focused on chasing the routed troops, the formation had long since been scattered and disorganized, and was soon routed by the troops of Camillous.

Camillous defeated several Volsian chasing troops in a row, and after securing the safety of the Roman troops, he did not carry out a counter-attack, but led the troops to retreat steadily and stood 50 meters away from the north gate of the camp. Under the protection of the arrows and javelins of the light infantry behind him, he guarded the passage of the route for the escaped soldiers.

By the time the Volsci had to gather all the chasing warriors and re-formed a large army to approach the Roman camp, Camillous had already led his troops into the camp.

Looking at the Roman soldiers densely covered on the wooden wall, the Volsci finally gave up the idea of ​​taking advantage of the situation to attack the Roman camp.

It was only then that the uphill battle was finally over.

Although the battle was won, Amintas looked at the wounded soldiers on the ground, but he was not happy. The rough casualty statistics have come out: the casualties of the First Corps reached more than 2,400, which is already 1/4 of the entire army. In particular, the third brigade and the light infantry brigade were more than half damaged. Although it was said that some of the wounded soldiers were only flesh wounds, after bandaging, treatment and recuperation, they could recover in a short time, but this has already made the first army broken.

Ryders next to him was also sighing: The First Cavalry Corps obstructed the retreat of the Roman food-raising troops at the beginning, and at the end blocked the reinforcements of the Roman heavy infantry and cavalry, so it paid a great price, and the final number of casualties was as high as more than 700 people. , has approached half of the number of legions, especially the wear and tear of the horses is very serious, I am afraid that the horses will take a period of time to recover before they can go to the battlefield again.

This battle is a big loss! Ryders lamented on the side, and the voice was loud enough for Amintas to hear. Although he tried his best to assist Amintas in the battle, this did not prevent him after the war. He vented his anger.

Amyntas didn't refute, and in fact he didn't have the heart to refute it now. He told the messengers to hurry up to notify the medical battalion to come to treat the wounded soldiers, and at the same time asked the soldiers of the escort who were still physically able to help the wounded soldiers to bandage the wounds and carry out preliminary treatment (in normal military training, the soldiers all received trained in this area).

At this time, the soldiers of the First Legion were so tired that they could not even take off their helmets and breastplates, so they lay on the ground and slept soundly. They were too tired to leave the corpse.

Amyntas walked among the soldiers, walking cautiously, lest he would wake them up, but his heart was heavy: he had been the commander of the First Army for nine years, and all the soldiers and officers in the army were very Familiar, now seeing these soldiers and officers who he often gets along with and kills the enemy side by side under his command in wartime fall into a pool of blood, how could he not feel distressed!

At the same time, he was also remorseful in his heart: although before leaving, King Davos told him to pay attention to the Roman army several times, but he still underestimated the Romans, otherwise he would not let the legionaries go through a long march. Also launched attacks on enemies that outnumbered them. He treated the Romans as the Mesapis, Puchetti, and Downeys with whom the Dionian legions had fought in the past. But it turned out that King Davos's concerns were correct. This army, whose organizational form and tactics were somewhat similar to Dionia's, was indeed more effective than Dionia's previous enemies! ...If the First Legion had more stamina and more people, they would never be so passive! Rome... Rome...

Amintas thought as he walked, Heitbarus stood up swayingly in front, his right arm was bandaged, and there was a long bloodstain on his forehead, he could only reluctantly gave a military salute with his left hand: Army... Corps Commander...

Lie down, Hytbarus! Amintas said hurriedly, facing the captain of the third brigade, he rarely showed a gentle and concerned smile.

Legion commander, brothers of the third brigade... Heitbarus had a sad expression, and before he finished speaking, his eyes were filled with tears.

Amintas's smile froze on his face, and he could only say in a deep voice: Thanks to your third and eighth brigade stubbornly blocking the enemy's attack, we won this victory! The medical camp will do its best. Rescue the soldiers under your command! You must also receive good treatment and recover as soon as possible, the First Legion cannot do without you!

After speaking, Amintas left in a hurry.

At this time, the adjutant Aristonos came over and whispered: Captain, Steveros has suffered some minor injuries and is fine. These children of the old Dionysians were compared with each other. familiar.

His injury is too light! Amintas's sigh made Aristonos stunned.

………………………………

In the tent of the Roman camp, Camillous gave Frius a brief account of the battle.

After listening to this, Frius couldn't help taking a deep breath: Camilus, you mean... Dionysian's army marched from Selcher all the way to the south of our camp, without stopping, they headed towards the Our grain requisition force launched an attack, and then... resisted the continuous attack of our more than 9,000 infantry, and finally waited for the arrival of Wolsey reinforcements?!...

Yes! Camillous sighed and said solemnly: The key is that we have a lot more people than them, more than 9,000 heavy infantry plus 2,000 light infantry and 700 cavalry, the troops I lead There are nearly 12,000 people, and the Dionians... After many reports from scouts, they have about 10,000 people, but the heavy infantry may only have 6,000 or 7,000 people, but such a team is weaker than us, and the number is more than that of us. Our small army, our Roman soldiers fought fiercely for more than two hours, but still failed to defeat the opponent!

Over the years, the Roman army was invincible in the Latinum and Etruscan regions, and Frius, who was accustomed to victory, had a hard time accepting the fact that the Roman army was inferior to the Dionysian army. Of course, he knew Camillous, and he didn't think that the venerable old man would distort the truth in order to exonerate himself from the defeat, so he couldn't help but ask again: The fighting strength of Dionia's army is really so strong. ?!

Let's not talk about Dionia's cavalry, you already know the previous situation. As for the light infantry, we don't pay much attention to this, and all of them are provided by the allies, so they are undisciplined and lack training and cooperation. But Dionia's light infantry had slingers who could invest in long-range lead shots, archers and javelinmen. They worked well together and were well trained, so before I arrived with my army, they had only one team. A thousand or so light infantry can suppress our 2,000 light infantry and 700 cavalry...

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