Chapter 1182
This was the scene that Mukrul saw when he arrived. His heart sank to the bottom. 'Oh no, the Tegeans have betrayed the Arcadia Union!
The Mandinian guide, Calisenus, was also dumbfounded. "This … this … the Tegeans have betrayed the Arcadia Union?! General Mukrul, I can swear to Zeus that the Mandinian Union has no knowledge of this! "
Mukrul's face was gloomy. He was not in the mood to listen to Calisenus' explanation. He immediately turned his horse around, squeezed his legs hard, and galloped towards the command center. He had to inform the commander of this terrible change as soon as possible.
Calisenus looked angrily in the direction of Tegea City, and followed Mukrul.
… …..
As a platoon leader, when the fifty soldiers under him were excitedly chasing the enemy, Marques had to try his best to control the whole platoon and not let the soldiers run away.
This was a requirement of the Diónia Military Law. The First Legion was one of the most powerful legions in the Dionysian Army, not only because the soldiers were very skilled in combat, but also because they had a strong ability to carry out military law. However, it was much more difficult to control the formation of the platoon today. This was because the enemies in front were not slow even though they were wearing armor and holding shields and spears. Apart from the initial advantage that the soldiers had at the beginning, when the distance between the two sides increased, the soldiers could no longer catch up with the fleeing soldiers. This made the arrogant soldiers of the First Legion very unhappy. In the annual Dionysian Army Grand Tournament, the First Legion had never fallen out of the top three in the armed race, but now they could not outrun a group of mercenaries!
The soldiers chased with all their might, and naturally did not listen to the orders of their officers. Marques' voice was almost hoarse from shouting, but he could only watch as the whole platoon was about to run away. Just then, he heard the sound of a bugle coming from behind.
He instinctively looked back, and saw the colorful military flags fluttering high in the air in the dust were waving rapidly from front to back.
He did not think too much, and immediately shouted, "Stop advancing, this is the order of the legion! Stop advancing! … … "
The soldiers beside him also shouted along with him. Soon, the soldiers in front of Max stopped chasing. Although they were all panting heavily, they looked at the fleeing enemies with unwillingness in their hearts.
"Assemble! Hurry and gather! Max shouted in a hoarse voice.
In fact, there was no need for him to put in so much effort. The soldiers around him automatically moved closer to him. Some of them were not even soldiers from his division, but the white tassel on Max's helmet gave them a choice. This was an instinct that they had developed after countless times of training.
Just as the soldiers of the 1st Legion were closing in on the platoon leaders and company captains, the routed soldiers at the front also stopped running. Then, they roared angrily and turned back to kill.
"Damn it! They were feigning defeat! Max, who was at the forefront of the army, was shocked when he saw the scene before him. He once again ignored the stinging pain in his throat and shouted with all his might, "Assemble!!" At the same time, he raised his spear in the air and waved it continuously.
Dorios, a former member of the King's Guard of Sparta, was the former military commander of Messenia. Because of the invasion of the Diónia army, he abandoned Messenia without a fight, and was almost expelled from his motherland by the Council of Elders and the Censors. Although he was eventually convicted, his days in Sparta were not easy. The people of Sparta, who had lost their land in Messenia, glared at him when they saw him, and even cursed him loudly. He could only swallow his anger. He had always been the pride of his parents, wife, and children, and had never been humiliated like this. He did not know how he got through those days, but all his patience was for today.
He was almost 50 years old, and today, he was fighting on the frontline as an ordinary soldier. Before this, he had been defending and trying to conserve his strength. But after that, he was wearing heavy armor and was out of breath. After all, time waited for no man, and the soldiers of Diónia were hot on his heels. This was the first time he had encountered such a situation. In the end, he decided to give up on running and stopped. He wanted to kill as many as he could while he still had some strength left. But then, he saw that his pursuers had stopped in their tracks.
This was a situation that Dorios had never seen in previous battles. In the past, when they adopted this tactic, the enemy became more and more disorganized during the pursuit. In the end, they were completely scattered, and many of them had even thrown away their helmets and shields. Therefore, once they counterattacked, it was very easy to defeat the enemy.
But now, through the eyehole of Corinth's helmet, he saw that the soldiers of Diónia were all well-armed and fully armored, and they were actively retreating, trying to regroup.
Dorios was anxious. He could not allow the hard work of his soldiers to go to waste. So, he lightly hit the soldiers around him with his shield and shouted, "Attack!!" Then, he rushed back with his spear in hand.
I must not let the enemy regroup! … With that conviction in mind, he leapt up and swung his spear with all his might, thrusting it towards the Dionian soldier closest to him.
The soldier quickly raised his shield. "Dang!" A crisp sound rang out as the spearhead struck the shield's ram.
Dorios used the inertia of his forward charge to hit the shield forward. The two shields collided with a loud bang, and the body of the Diónia soldier was knocked back by the strong impact.
Dorios stabbed his spear again, and the spear stuck close to the upper edge of the enemy's shield, aiming for the exposed throat of the enemy at lightning speed.
The soldier quickly tilted his head, and the spear knocked off his helmet, leaving a horrible bloody wound on his face. He screamed in pain.
Dorios did not swing his spear again. Instead, he used his shield to push the injured Diónia soldier away and continued to rush forward. He believed that his comrades would completely eliminate the enemy.
After a few steps, a force suddenly hit his back, followed by a sharp pain. Under the pain, the strength that he had accumulated was rapidly draining away. He staggered a few steps and looked back in shock. He saw the injured soldier of Diónia looking at him with a determined expression. The hand that was holding the spear was empty, and he was immediately overwhelmed by the swarm of Sparta soldiers.
Dorios slowly fell to the ground. Before he died, he still had a strong sense of unwillingness: he could not kill a Diónia soldier to clear his name.
When the Sparta soldiers at the rear turned to attack, the soldiers at the front would immediately turn to attack. It took a very short time for the whole army to turn from fleeing to attacking, and there was no need to use the bugle to command. This was the tacit understanding that they had developed since they were young.
The frontline soldiers of the First Legion of Diónia had spread out. Faced with the surging Sparta soldiers, they could not return to their formation in time. However, even though they knew that they were outnumbered, they did not turn and run. Instead, they bravely stood where they were to block the enemy and buy some time for their comrades at the back. This was the result of long-term military training for the soldiers of the Legion of Dionysia.
There were less than 50 soldiers in Márquez's team, but the situation was critical. He could not wait any longer. He immediately shouted, "Turtle Shell Formation!"
The whole team quickly formed a column of five soldiers facing the incoming Sparta soldiers. The soldiers at the outermost layer raised their shields to their chests, forming a shield wall. The soldiers at the inner layer placed their shields over their heads. Then, everyone threw away their spears and drew their short swords. Because in the narrow space enclosed by the shields, the spears could no longer be used effectively.
Almost all the team officers gave the same order. Because the hastily formed phalanx was relatively far away from each other, and there was no friendly support for the time being, the Turtle Shell Formation was undoubtedly the strongest defense in the face of an encirclement.
As soon as Márquez's temporary team was formed, the Sparta soldiers rushed to the front. Although the formation of the Diónia soldiers was strange to them, they did not stop attacking: shield to shield, spear to stab.
The two most commonly used methods of attack were obviously ineffective against the strange formation of the Diónia. Some of the Sparta soldiers simply used their bodies to ram into the formation, but the short swords of the Diónia soldiers darted out from the gaps of the shields like poisonous snakes, stabbing the Sparta soldiers.
The Sparta soldiers who were charging at the front could not do anything to the Turtle Shell Formation for the time being, but the continuous flow of soldiers from the back forced them to move forward.
Not long after, the entire phalanx of Márquez was surrounded by the Sparta soldiers. The Diónia soldiers in the narrow and crowded space could not see what was happening outside, but they could hear the deafening roars of their enemies. They nervously used all their strength to resist the attacks coming from the shields, and at the same time, carefully dodged the spears coming from the gaps of the shields. At the same time, they kept stabbing the short swords in their hands to stab the enemies who were too close to the shield formation …
The small phalanx of Diónia at the front was like a small boat in a turbulent sea, swaying left and right, and could capsize at any time. Every minute and every second seemed so long to the Diónia soldiers in the Turtle Shell Formation.
And for the team officers in the center of the formation, the only thing they could do was to use their hoarse voice to constantly encourage the soldiers, "Brothers, hold on! Our reinforcements will be here soon! … "
… …
Since the right wing of the Sparta army began to feign defeat, Agesilaus had been in a state of tension. From time to time, he would send guards to the front to carefully investigate the situation in the middle. When he learned that the mercenaries on the right end of the middle had begun to retreat and that there was some confusion, he cursed angrily. He even wanted to personally rush over to boost the soldiers' morale, but was stopped by the guards.
Not long after, he received news that the Spartans had stopped retreating and started to counterattack. Moreover, they had even disrupted the Dainian formation. With a face full of excitement, he clenched his right fist and waved it. "Good job!"
Comments