Chapter 1192
Xenophon strolled over, and the Sparta warriors greeted him when they saw him. "Xenophon, you're here again!"
"Don't worry, old man. With us guarding here, the Diónia people won't be able to come ashore. You old people over 60 can rest at home."
"I say, Xenophon, the reason you come here every day is not because you're afraid that we can't defend the coast, but because you're afraid that we'll capture a lot of Diónia captives and not give them to you."
"Hahaha …"
Xenophon was not annoyed by the joking of the warriors. He smiled and said, "Do I need you to send me captives? I'll catch them myself."
"No, you won't have the chance." A Sparta warrior joked. "The Council of Elders has decreed that old people over 60 can only stay at home. As a last resort, I think you'd better go back to the city to hear our good news!"
The soldiers roared with laughter again.
Xenophon liked this atmosphere. He could feel the confidence of the warriors in defeating a powerful enemy, so he patted his chest and said loudly, "Although I'm over 60 years old, I'm not any worse than you young people! If you don't believe me, come out and fight me! "As he spoke, he lifted his clothes and got into a wrestling stance.
The warriors booed and pushed each other, but no one was willing to stand up and fight him. They all felt that it was embarrassing to fight an old man.
At this moment, a loud bugle sounded in the camp.
"Enemy alert!!" The warriors reminded each other loudly and quickly ran back to their tents. Soon, they put on their armor, picked up their shields and spears, and lined up in groups of 10 in front of the tents. Then, under the leadership of the team officer, they ran out of the camp and ran to the coast.
In just a quarter of an hour, Xenophon's surroundings became empty. He could not help but sigh. If only the Sparta army defending the coast were all warriors like this!
Unfortunately, there were only about 300 young and strong Sparta warriors here. Although there were more than 500 old Sparta warriors between 50 and 60 years old who were not weak in combat, they were assigned to the camp as team officers among the Pyriasis and Helaoth.
So as Xenophon moved on, he saw the old warriors shouting and the Pyriasian soldiers and Helots scurrying about in disheveled armour.
He furrowed his brows and quickened his pace. He passed through the camp and stood on a higher ground, looking forward. Under the sunlight, the tide was still glistening. Apart from the flying seabirds, it looked very calm. There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary.
However, Xenophon did not let his guard down. Sparta had built several five-meter-tall sentry towers by the sea, and the sentries on the top of the towers would naturally discover the enemy before he did.
Sure enough, after a while, some small black dots appeared at the farthest point of his vision. Not long after, the black dots turned into sails, and then into warships. Then, they quickly covered the surface of the sea in front of him, heading straight for the bay where he was.
During this process, groups of Sparta soldiers ran to the seaside one after another. Under the command of the team officers, they lined up in an arc-shaped formation along the flat shore.
… …
The warships of Diónia stopped less than a mile away from the coast. They lined up in a row, lowered their sails, dropped their anchors, and tried their best to stay in place.
This scene was not much different from yesterday. Could it be another feint by the Dionysian fleet? Xenophon was puzzled. Then, he saw many small boats without sails between the tall three-decker Diónia warships. There were many soldiers on the boats. Taking advantage of the high tide, the boats pushed by the tide and the shallow draft of the water allowed them to cross the underwater barricades and continue to sail towards the coast.
This time, the Diónia were really going to disembark! Xenophon was shocked.
The Sparta commander on the coast apparently also noticed the enemy's intention. The bugle sounded again.
Hundreds of Peliasi sailors rushed to the dozen or so small and medium-sized warships anchored on the beach and pushed them into the sea.
Sparta suffered a crushing defeat in the naval battle with Athens last year. There were still more than 20 warships anchored in Laconia Bay. When the Dionysian fleet arrived, they had to push all of them ashore to prevent them from being completely destroyed.
In order to prevent the Diónia warships from docking, the Sparta people deliberately set up a large number of wooden barricades in the sea more than a hundred meters away from the shore to ensure that their warships could also participate in the defense. In the last battle to stop the Diónia from disembarking, the Sparta warships played a significant role. This time, it was the same old trick.
These Sparta warships were pushed away from the shore. Under the hard rowing of the sailors, they were ready to face the small Diónia boats that were sailing towards the coast.
However, the Diónia boats at the front stopped about 200 meters away from the shore. The fleet infantrymen carrying leather shields, leather helmets, and short swords jumped off the boat. The depth of the sea here was more than two meters, but the soldiers did not need to waste energy treading on the water all the time. The dense barricades became their help. All they needed to do was to gently hold on to them and they could stay in place to rest.
The Peliasi sailors were surprised to find that after the Diónia soldiers jumped into the sea, they had been staying in place, and the small boats began to return. If they wanted to attack the Diónia soldiers floating on the sea, they would have to pass through the dense barricades, which was undoubtedly more difficult.
Just as they were hesitating, they suddenly saw dozens of small black spots flying up from the Diónia warships in the distance.
"It's the Diónia's ballista! Hide! "A crew member exclaimed.
"Don't worry too much. It's too far away. They can't hit us at all." A crew member comforted them. The last time the Diónia landed on the shore, they used ballista cannons, but they barely caused any damage to the Sparta warships. Therefore, most of the crew members were not too worried.
However, dozens of stone bullets whizzed over and landed on the top of the two Spartan battleships that were closest to them. While water splashed into the air, eight or nine stone bullets accurately hit the hull of the battleships.
"Boom! Boom! Amidst the loud noise, some stone bullets hit the mast, and some smashed through the deck. Wood chips flew everywhere, and the crew members screamed and screamed.
Just when the two warships were in a state of panic, dozens of stone bullets whizzed over and landed more precisely around the two warships that were almost motionless. Soon, the masts were broken and the hulls began to capsize.
After learning from last time's experience and brainstorming by the commanders of the B Squadrons, he specifically chose today, when the wind and waves were calmer, as the day of attack. He no longer scattered the 40 ballista cannons he borrowed from the land army across the 40 warships. Instead, he had the five Raven warships closest to the center of the coast move horizontally towards each other and connect them with the Raven Suspension Bridge. The 40 ballista cannons were then concentrated on the decks of these five warships. Under unified command, they would use the smallest type of stone bullets (this would increase the range) and concentrate their attacks on a single target instead of fighting separately like last time. This greatly increased the accuracy of the ballista cannons.
The confidence of the Diónia ballista cannons was greatly boosted after the first two volleys of ballista cannons hit the enemy's warships. Under the command of the squad officer, they concentrated their attacks on the scattered Sparta warships one by one.
The commander of the defense of the Spartan territory was Eudamidas, the brother of Phobidas and a general with outstanding military achievements. At this moment, he was standing on the shore and paying close attention to the enemy's situation. He did not expect that the Dionysian soldiers would go into the sea so far away from the shore and stop at the sea area where the wooden stakes were blocking the ships. They converged with the soldiers on the small boats that kept coming from behind. Be it the warships or the archers on the watchtowers on the shore, they could not attack them for the time being.
He also did not expect the ballista cannons on the Diónia warships to be so accurate today. Less than half an hour after the Sparta warships left the beach, seven or eight warships were either sunk or destroyed beyond use.
Eudamidas had no choice but to order the remaining warships to be stranded on the beach.
Unexpectedly, he saw the ballista cannons of Diónia firing again. This time, the target was no longer the warships, but the Sparta soldiers on the shore.
He shouted anxiously, "Get out of the way! Get out of the way! … "
After all, they had experienced this the last time when they landed on the shore. The soldiers behaved calmly. They looked at the direction where the ballista was coming from and quickly spread out to avoid it.
The loud ballista fell one after another, causing sand and sand to fly everywhere, but it did not cause any casualties.
However, when the ballista cannons of Diónia turned to attack the other troops on the shore, there was an immediate commotion, resulting in casualties.
Under such circumstances, Eudamidas had no choice but to order, "All troops, retreat out of the range of the ballista!"
As a result, there was a distance of about a hundred meters between the front line of the Sparta army and the beach.
Eudamidas made up his mind. Once he found out that the enemy was about to go ashore, he would quickly lead the army to rush up and engage the enemy in battle. Since the two sides were so close together, the ballista cannons would naturally be useless.
Just when he was having a headache over the new landing tactics of the Dionysian Army, he received two pieces of bad news in a row. The Lagonda Pass Fortress was fiercely attacked by thousands of Diónia soldiers from the west. At the same time, many Diónia soldiers also appeared on the coastal path of the western cape of the Lagonia Bay. They were trying to take down the southern fortress of Port Isión.
Since Agesilaus led the main force north and Messenia had been relatively peaceful, there were less than a hundred soldiers guarding these two important defensive positions, and most of them were Piriasi.
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