Chapter 1218
Agur Rios's words caused the other generals to fall into deep thought.
"But even if we don't tell the Greek Coalition Army the news, Thessaly will still send a messenger to Peloponnesus and tell the tyrant, and the Phocians in the north will also …" Someone raised an objection.
"I think Agur Rios's suggestion is very reasonable." Cabrias was the first to express his agreement, "We can first send a messenger to quietly inform Iphicrates, and let him urge the Greek Coalition Army to seize the time to increase the attack on Messenia and Sparta. As for the messenger sent by Thessaly, whether it is by sea or by land, he will inevitably pass through our sphere of influence. We only need to strengthen the patrol of Sarons Bay and the isthmus. Thessaly's messenger will not be able to escape from our hands. We only need to — "Cabrias stretched out his right hand and made a chopping gesture. Everyone understood.
"As for the Phocians, they are more afraid of the people of Thessaly than of Diónia. We only need to send troops to support them, and they will agree with our approach."
After Kablias finished speaking, the surroundings fell silent for a moment. Soon, someone said, "I think Kablias' suggestion is feasible. Even if the tyrant will still receive the news in the end, we've won time. Perhaps during this period of time, we've already taken back Sparta."
"I also agree."
…
The generals of Athens expressed their agreement one after another. Only Kalistratus was still a little hesitant, but the general situation had been decided.
His father, Agur Rios, once again calmly closed his eyes to rest.
… …
After the army set off this morning, Cloto Catax, Printos, and other generals stationed in Peloponnesus had been worried about the important matter of whether the landing on Thessaly would be successful. They waited until late at night, when the fleet returned one after another. Only then did they receive the exact news, and they could finally celebrate the success of the landing.
But this was just the beginning. From tomorrow onwards, whether it was Thessaly, Central Greece, or even the city-states of Peloponnesus, they might know about the news of the Dionysian Army's raid on Thessaly. They would inevitably take corresponding measures, and it was impossible for Diónia to frequently send such a large fleet to Thessaly to transport supplies. After all, the ship owners and crew were not soldiers, so they should not take such a big risk. The army of nearly 100,000 in Peloponnesus consumed a lot of food every day. They must occupy Thessaly as soon as possible in order to obtain all the supplies in Thessaly to support the army. Therefore, the next few days were crucial for both sides.
… …
After killing his second brother, Polydorus, Polydorus, Polydorus, he immediately ordered his trusted troops to surround the central military tent. He arrested all of Polydorus' personal guards on the grounds that "Polydorus was assassinated by Diónia and his personal guards were derelict in their duties." Then, he informed the generals of the army to urgently come to the tent for a meeting.
Before dawn, the generals of Thessaly gathered in the tent. They were shocked to learn that Polydorus was assassinated by Diónia. At the same time, they inevitably had doubts.
But Polydorus did not give them more time to think, nor did he listen to their dissuasion. He directly announced that all the "derelict" personal guards would be pulled out of the tent and beheaded in public.
In an instant, the camp was filled with people's heads and screams.
This scene frightened the generals in the tent. In the face of Polydorus's trusted troops who were sharpening their swords, they quickly admitted that Polydorus would replace Polydorus and become the temporary military commander of Thessaly.
After taking control of the camp, Polydorus first conducted a full blockade of the camp and prohibited anyone from going out. Then, he sent a messenger to the city of Phylai. In the name of Polydorus, the messenger said that "there is an important military matter to discuss with Minister Asidamas and the others. He hoped that they could come to the camp."
Asidamas was worried about the "sudden landing of the Dionysian Army in Thessaly". He did not sleep the whole night. After listening to Polydorus's messenger, he thought that the war situation in Thessaly had changed again. Without thinking carefully, he hurriedly rushed to the military camp outside the city with several other ministers.
As a result, as soon as they entered the military camp, they were arrested by the soldiers sent by Polydorus.
Then, Polydorus sentenced Asidamas and the others to death on the charge of "colluding with the Dionysian Army and intending to rebel". The generals tried their best to dissuade him, but Polydorus insisted on not listening. He forcibly executed Asidamas and the other five people.
When the soldiers brought the heads of the six people into the tent, Polydorus pointed at Asidamas' head and cursed. It turned out that he thought that Asidamas had always looked down on him. Iazon had never given him an important task because of Asidamas and the others.
Of course, killing people to vent his anger was only one of Polydorus's purposes. More importantly, he thought that Asidamas and the others held the administrative power of the City Alliance of Thessaly. With their existence, he would inevitably be obstructed if he wanted to act freely in this land.
At this time, the sky was just beginning to brighten. Polydorus quickly gathered the army and entered the city of Phylai.
In the beginning, the people of Phylai were still excited because with the presence of the army, their safety was more guaranteed.
Unexpectedly, after Polydorus gathered the officials of Phylai, he asked them to mobilize the military in the city, gather all the public militia, and follow his army to fight against the Dionysian Army that was entrenched near Larissa.
When the officials heard this, they immediately refused with the reason that "we only listen to the orders of Sir Asidamas".
Polydorus immediately raised Asidamas' head and also executed the two officials who opposed the most vehemently on the charge of "colluding with the people of Diónia and intending to rebel" on the spot.
Polydorus's ferocity frightened the officials of Phylai, and they could only follow his orders while trembling with fear.
Previously, when Iazon mobilized the entire city of Thessaly, he recruited an army to fight in the south. The more soldiers the other city-states had, the better. However, he only recruited less than 1,000 soldiers from Phylai City. This was because Phylai City, as the place where he started his career, needed enough strength to stabilize the situation in Thessaly after he led his army away.
As Phylai City was already in a state of war preparation, more than 6,000 public militia were gathered in just half a day. Including the 2,000 soldiers that were originally stationed in Phylai City, Polydorus had a total of nearly 30,000 soldiers.
He thought that he had a strong military force. Even when he received the report from the scouts that "the Dionysian Army had captured the city of Larissa", he was still confident that he could lead his army to defeat the Dionysian Army. Therefore, he did not listen to the Phylai officials' advice and quickly led his army out of the city, marching towards Larissa.
… …
On the same morning, Patroclus summoned the commander of the Eleventh Legion, Efyarte, and gave him an order: the Eleventh Legion was to guard Lamia and Heraclea, seize Hot Spring Pass as soon as possible, and at the same time, block the reinforcements of Thessaly from the south.
Accepting this order meant that the Eleventh Legion could no longer participate in the military campaign to conquer Thessaly. After a moment of hesitation, Efyarte accepted the order, but at the same time, he also made a request: if they found an opportunity, could the Eleventh Legion continue to attack the towns in Greece from the south?
Seeing that Efyarte was a veteran general with a lot of experience in war, Patroclus agreed to his request, but at the same time, he emphasized that no matter what kind of military action he took, he must first ensure the safety of Lamia, Heraclea, and Hot Spring Pass.
After Efyarte accepted the order, he immediately began to prepare for the military campaign to seize Hot Spring Pass. Although according to the confession of the Thessaly soldiers who were captured in Heraclea, there were only about 200 mercenaries stationed at Hot Spring Pass, but the dangerous terrain and the legendary story made Efyarte adopt a cautious attitude. He left 2000 soldiers to guard Lamia, 1000 soldiers to guard Heraclea, and he personally led 5000 soldiers and the engineering battalion. At the same time, he also brought a few Lamia guides.
Although the legendary story showed the world how difficult it was to seize Hot Spring Pass, it also told the world that there was a remote mountain road that could go around to the south of Hot Spring Pass. Therefore, Efyarte decided to take the method of "using the main force to contain the enemy from the front, and sending some surprise troops to take a detour through the mountain road" to seize Hot Spring Pass. For this reason, he selected the Samonai soldiers from the light armor brigade and the light infantry brigade to form a surprise troop (the Eleventh Legion was based in Lucenia, and the soldiers were from the Downey region. In recent years, many Samonai came out of the mountains and voluntarily applied to become citizens of Diónia. Most of them lived in the Eastern Plains of Campania and the Downey region). Under the guidance of the Lamia guides, they would use their excellent mountain combat ability to complete the detour and surprise attack on Hot Spring Pass.
While the Eleventh Legion was preparing for the military campaign against Hot Spring Pass, Patroclus had already led the other legions to cross the mountains to the north of Lamia in order to enter the Southern Plains of Thessaly. In order to prevent being intercepted by the Thessaly army in the mountains, he divided the army into three parts, led by the Lamia guides, and advanced into the Thessaly territory through three different routes.
… …
On the same morning, Hilos came to Larissa with a large group of middle-and low-ranking officials from various departments of the kingdom (these officials were carefully selected by the Kingdom's Administrative Office and were ordered to govern the area of Thessaly that was about to be conquered. More than half of them were originally refugees from Thessaly).
Note: According to historical records, after Polefron took over Tarkus, the first thing he did was to arrest and execute eight of the best administrative ministers headed by Asidamas who assisted Iazon and governed Thessaly without any reason. He also banished many officials, and then ruled Thessaly in a brutal way, causing great dissatisfaction among the people of Thessaly.
In less than a year, one of his generals, Alexander, rebelled under the banner of "revenge for Polydorus", killed him, and became the new Tarkus. But this Alexander was also a tyrant. Under his rule, the power of Thessaly declined and eventually fell into turmoil. Later, it was conquered by the rise of Macedonia.
Comments