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Chapter 1223

Iphicrates nodded in satisfaction. With Iazon's attitude, it meant that his efforts were not in vain.

He looked at the Thessaly camp. It was already on fire. Countless torches poured out of the camp gate and extended to the north, gradually forming a winding fire dragon …

Iphicrates prayed silently with a solemn expression. May Athens bless Thessaly's people and ensure that everything goes smoothly!

… …

The departure of Thessaly's army caused the morale of the Greek Coalition Army to waver. For the next few days, the Greek Coalition Army stayed in their camp. At the same time, out of worry, they had to strengthen their defenses.

While Iphicrates was busy comforting the generals and soldiers of the Coalition Army, he also sent people to inform the allies of Peloponnesus to strengthen their defenses.

As he expected, Cloto Catax, who had found out about the enemy's situation, under the suggestion of Printos, sent the First Legion from Sparta to the north to attack the Greek Coalition Army that was besieging Mandinia. The Greek Coalition Army, who had received Iphicrates' order, retreated, and Mandinia was temporarily free.

The First Legion, which had not fought with the Greek Coalition Army, continued north, heading straight for Corinth, which was located on the isthmus.

Iphicrates, who received the news, did not lead his army to rescue them. Instead, he let the main force of the Coalition Army stay in the Leprion camp. At the same time, he assumed a posture that he would attack the Diónia camp in Mesenia at any time, forcing Diónia to not easily mobilize its troops in Mesenia. Only the Greek Coalition Army that had besieged Mandinia followed the First Legion. However, once the First Legion turned to attack them, they quickly avoided it. However, their presence prevented the First Legion from attacking the seemingly well-defended city of Corinth.

Two days later, the First Legion, who had failed to mobilize the main force of the Greek Coalition Army, did not dare to stay in a completely unfamiliar enemy territory for long. In addition, they had used up a lot of their rations, so they once again turned south and returned to Lagenia.

… …

Just as the battle in Peloponnesus temporarily subsided and the two sides were in a strange standoff, Iazon had already led his army across the Corinth Bay and landed on the Thebes of Callixis. They quickly went north, passed through the Pioscia area, and entered the Phocis area.

At this time, the Phocians were no longer as hostile to Thessaly as they had been a few months ago. After all, the two sides were now allies, and Phocis was facing the threat of the Dionysian Army stationed in the north. They urgently needed the help of Thessaly's army. Therefore, Thessaly's army was welcomed by the Phocians, and the generals of the Greek reinforcements came to greet them.

After some discussion, Iazon had a general understanding of the situation in the north: the Dionysian Army occupied Heraclea, and at the same time, took down the Hot Spring Pass. At one point, they continued south and surrounded the city of Cytignan. Fortunately, there were timely reinforcements from Athens in advance. The Phocians repelled the attacks of the Dionysian Army several times. Yesterday, the Diónia might have found out that Thessaly's army had returned, so they had already withdrawn from Cytignan and returned.

After some consideration, Iazon decided to lead the army north along the coast, take down the Hot Spring Pass first, and then enter the Lamia region. The reason for this choice was that he considered that the mountainous area in the north of Central Greece was more difficult to traverse, which was not conducive for the advancement of the army. Moreover, the Dionysian Army occupied Heraclea, guarding the northern gate of the mountainous area. He had already seen the defensive capabilities of the Dionysian Army in Peloponnesus. If they couldn't take down Heraclea in time, it would be extremely dangerous for tens of thousands of troops to be stuck in the mountainous area.

Ison was very clear that although the Hot Springs Pass was known in Greece for being easy to defend and hard to attack, the Greeks built this pass in order to defend against the Barbarians from the north (mainly referring to Thessaly). Therefore, it only defended against the north and not the south. It was only a one-sided pass. This was why the Persian army could easily capture the pass after they sent their troops to bypass the Hot Springs Pass through a small path. Therefore, it should be easier for the Thessaly army to attack from the south.

However, when Iazon led his army to the hot coast, he was dumbfounded: a Diónia camp stood in front of him, stuck between the mountain ridge and the cliff by the sea, and behind it was the familiar stone wall of the Hot Spring Pass …

It turned out that Aifiarte had led the main force to attack the Hot Spring Pass from both the main and the side of the mountain. Although the defenders of the Hot Spring Pass were also prepared for the mountain path, they had too few troops. After a day of battle, the 12th Legion successfully occupied the Hot Spring Pass.

As a result, Aifiarte quickly discovered the weakness of the pass. The main task of the 12th Legion was to block the returning Thessaly's army, but the Hot Spring Pass could not defend against the enemies coming from the south. However, this was not a problem for Aifiarte. After all, the terrain around the Hot Spring Pass was narrow, and the superior forces could not spread out, which was beneficial for defending against the enemy. This was the same for the south and the north. Therefore, he called for the engineering battalion and commanded more than half of the soldiers to build a camp near the Hot Spring Pass, while he led 3000 soldiers inland from the coast to survey the terrain along the way. After discovering the city of Chiignan, he quickly surrounded it.

At this time, the purpose of this was no longer to increase the success of the battle, but to attract the enemy's attention and ensure the smooth construction of the camp.

Now, Iazon looked at the Diónia camp in front of him and felt a headache coming on. In Peloponnesus, his army had suffered enough when they attacked the Diónia camp, but at this moment, he could not retreat. The only way to return to Thessaly was to break through the camp with all his strength.

After the order to attack was issued, the soldiers of Thessaly who were eager to return home were divided into teams and attacked the Diónia camp along the narrow coast.

After the Hippocratic War a hundred years ago, another large-scale and bloody battle broke out near the Hot Spring Pass.

However, compared to the Sparta army that guarded the Hot Spring Pass a hundred years ago, the Dionysian Army that was on the defensive side now had more advantages.

First of all, Diónia's defensive forces were not at an absolute disadvantage. There were 8,000 soldiers in the 12th Legion, and in order to prevent any accidents, Aifiarte had forced Lamia, which had already surrendered to Diónia, to recruit 1,000 soldiers as a reserve force to defend the Hot Spring Pass. Other than the 1,000 soldiers of the Legion of Dionysia that were stationed in Lamia and Heraclea, Aifiarte could send 7,000 soldiers into the battle. These soldiers would constantly pass through the Hot Spring Pass and enter the camp, taking turns to participate in the defense. At this time, after the battle in Peloponnesus, Thessaly's army had been reduced from the initial 40,000 soldiers to more than 36,000. Its military strength was only slightly more than four times that of the defending army, unlike the Persia army that had hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

Secondly, Aifiarte had learned a lesson from the Sparta army. He had built small defensive facilities on the known mountain trails, guarded by the Samonai soldiers who were experts in mountain warfare, to prevent the sneak attack of Thessaly's army. Moreover, the 12th Legion had a variety of soldiers, such as heavy infantry, light armor soldiers, javelin throwers, and archers. They could defend the narrow coast camp and effectively stop the attacks of Thessaly's army.

In addition, Aifiarte had also ordered the soldiers to move a few ballistae from the legion to the top of the Hot Spring Pass, so that the stone bullets could fly over the camp and cause the greatest damage to the concentrated attacks of Thessaly's army.

Therefore, Thessaly's army had been attacking the camp fiercely for a few days. Not only did they achieve little, but they also suffered a lot of casualties.

Just when Iazon, who was at the rear, was anxious about not being able to break through the defense line of Diónia, the soldiers of Thessaly who were preparing to attack the camp again were shocked to see the wooden gate of the camp suddenly open. Dozens of men dressed in casual clothes came out, shouting that they were from a certain city of Thessaly and asking to meet with the civil militia of their city.

It turned out that when Iazon's army approached the Hot Spring Pass, Aifiarte immediately sent a messenger to Thessaly to inform the chief commander, Patroclus, that the main force of Thessaly's main force had returned.

At this time, it had been more than half a month since the landing army conquered Phelei and forced Pharsalus to surrender. As the main powerful cities of Thessaly were already under the control of the Dionysian Army, the landing army continued to divide their forces to plunder the land. The cities of Thessaly that had lost their power either surrendered or were conquered. Therefore, during this period of time, the Dionysian Army had basically conquered the south of Thessaly and the plains of Beiping.

The army was advancing triumphantly. The Thessaly's regional governor, Hilos, was also working hard with his officials. While promising benefits to the civilians, he was also winning over the celebrities of various cities. Coupled with the fact that they were all born in Thessaly, many people of Thessaly began to accept them. Therefore, a rumor quickly spread in Thessaly: The King of Diónia was a citizen of Thessaly, a descendant of Hades, the King of Hades. Compared to the tyrant Iazon, he was more capable of protecting Thessaly and was more suitable to be the Thessaly Tarkus …

At the same time, the legendary story of "the Devers founded the Kingdom of Diónia and the rapid rise of the Kingdom of Diónia" began to spread among the people of Thessaly.

After receiving the news from Efyarte, Patroclus was already prepared. He immediately asked Hilos, who was already in Phelei dealing with the affairs of Thessaly, to help summon the prestigious council members of the various cities of Thessaly that had surrendered to the Kingdom of Diónia. Then, he told them clearly that Iazon was returning with his army, and that Diónia was preparing to gather 100,000 troops in Thessaly to completely defeat him.

Many of these councilors of Thessaly had witnessed the huge army of Diónia and their terrifying combat power. Although the number of troops led by Iazon was also large, most of them did not think that Iazon would be able to win in the end. They were very worried about this.