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Chapter 1226

Initially, after the departure of the Thessaly army, Iphicrates still led the somewhat unstable Greek coalition army to suppress the Diónia camp. This was one of the reasons. Now, what he feared had happened. But at this moment, he could not care less. The order had to be carried out.

Of course, it was impossible for Iphicrates to retreat immediately, because the logistics of the Greek coalition army was different from that of the Dionysian Army. According to the regulations, each city-state army was responsible for its own food supply, so there was no special logistics department to manage it. Instead, a market was set up near Leprion for the merchants of the various city-states to sell food and other supplies, while the armies of the various city-states went to the market to buy food. Some merchants even followed the armies of the city-states when they set out. Only the Athens army and the Thessaly army were different. Because the Athens army had the assistance of Persia, and Iazon had unified the various city-states of Thessaly, they had enough financial and material resources to set up a supply camp to meet the soldiers' food supply. So on the morning of the day Patroclus led his army into Central Greece, the small city of Leprion in Peloponnesus was unusually lively. In addition to the soldiers of the various city-states pulling out their tents, merchants from various city-states were also packing up their goods and arranging for their caravans to leave. The whole scene was chaotic.

In order to avoid any accidents, Iphicrates ordered the nearly 20,000 soldiers of Athens that had been gathered to prepare for defense. Their tents and goods were completely handed over to the supply team to pack up.

The Dionysian Army did not appear, but the whole process of pulling out the tents took a lot of time. It was not until the afternoon that the entire army began to march eastward.

During this period, the army of Elis and the city-states of Arcadia left the coalition army one after another, reducing the number of troops under Iphicrates' command to less than 30,000, which made the soldiers a little uneasy.

Iphicrates had been urging the coalition army to speed up the march. Even at dusk, he did not let the army stop to rest. It was not until nightfall when the coalition army arrived at the junction of Mygalopolis and Tegea that he gave the order to rest.

It just so happened that there was a camp built by the Dionysian Army here. Later, when the Greek Coalition Army attacked Lagonia, they used it for a short period of time, so they could set up camp directly.

While the tired soldiers were fast asleep, Iphicrates was still brooding in his tent. The retreat of the Greek coalition army had been smooth, and they had not been harassed or pursued by the Dionysian Army. The scouts he had sent out had also reported to him that the Diónia camp on the northern border of Messenia had not been detected.

Although the Dionysian Army had always held their ground, the Greek army's retreat had caused such a huge commotion. Did they not want to retaliate?! Iphicrates was confused.

On the second day, Iphicrates suddenly asked the coalition army to change their marching route. They were to return to the city of Mygalopolis, and then go straight north through the mountains. This meant that they wanted to go around the Tegea-Mandinia Plains and march towards Corinth.

This method of marching was immediately opposed by the people of Argos. Because the Tegea Plains was next to Argos to the west, the Argos' militia had been fighting for more than two months. They wanted to take this opportunity to go home, but Iphicrates' sudden change of marching route made it impossible for them to realize their wish. The people of Argos immediately rejected the idea.

As the Argos were the strongest nation in the Greek alliance, they had sent 7,000 soldiers, which was second only to Thessaly and Athens. They had a considerable amount of weight in this new alliance, so Iphicrates had to persuade them. For example, he was worried that the Dionysian Army might intercept them in the Tegea region. However, the people of Argos had the same stubborn and conservative character as the people of Sparta. Once they had made a decision, they would not easily change their minds. Otherwise, they would have surrendered to Sparta's dominance over the past hundred years.

Seeing that he could not persuade the people of Argos, Iphicrates changed his mind and immediately proposed a plan of "the Argos army and the Greek coalition army will march separately and converge at Corinth". The people of Argos agreed.

Iphicrates' idea was: Now that the strength of the Greek coalition army had been greatly weakened, if the Dionysian Army dared to intercept them in the Tegea region, they would definitely win. There was a risk of the Greek coalition army being wiped out, so it was better to let the people of Argos test the waters. If the Dionysian Army really intercepted them in the Tegea region, the people of Argos could attract the attention of the Dionysian Army and buy time for the Greek coalition army, which had the majority of the soldiers of Athens, to escape. If not, the Greek coalition army would just take a longer route, and everyone would be happy.

Iphicrates certainly hoped that the latter result would be the result, but unfortunately, his intuition was right.

When Thessaly was gathering the army to move south, Patroclus had the warships of the First Fleet deliver the news to Cloto Catax in Messenia. After discussing with Printos, Cloto Catax believed that the Greek coalition army would retreat soon, so they decided to quietly withdraw the troops stationed at the northern border of Messenia to Lagonia, and the defense of the camp would be replaced by the newly formed Messenian reserve troops.

As the Greek coalition army did not launch any decent attacks on the Diónia camp, Iphicrates did not notice anything unusual.

Cloto Catax also sent scouts to closely monitor the movements of the Leprion camp. As soon as the Greek coalition army began to retreat, the scouts rushed back to Lagonia and reported the news to Cloto Catax. So when the Greek coalition army entered the former Diónia camp in Megalopolis, the First and Seventh Legions of Diónia had already quietly entered the territory of Tegea.

Printos's plan was: when the Greek coalition army marched to Tegea tomorrow, the First and Seventh Legions, as well as the newly formed Lagonia Brigade, would intercept them. When the enemy had no choice but to stop and prepare for battle, Cloto Catax would lead the Fourth and Legio VI, as well as the First Cavalry Legion, which had long been hidden at the northern border of Lagonia, to the battlefield. They would launch a pincer attack and completely wipe out the Greek coalition army.

However, to Printos's surprise, this meticulously laid out net only caught the Agos army, which was neither too big nor too small of a fish. This also delayed the Dionysian Army for more than half a day.

Not only did Iphicrates lead the main force of the Greek coalition army to escape from the encirclement, but he also ordered his troops to abandon the merchants and caravans that followed the army and speed up their advance. Finally, they arrived at the city of Corinth before the Dionysian Army.

The main force of the Greek coalition army, led by Iphicrates, met up with the army that had previously surrounded Mandinia. Their strength was once again restored to more than 30,000 soldiers. However, he soon learned that Thessaly's army had suffered a crushing defeat and that Diónia's army had already invaded Attica. He did not rest for long in Corinth. He anxiously led his army to Attica and defend Athens.

However, at this time, the Greek coalition army was once again divided. Corinth refused to let the civil militia of its city follow because it was also facing the threat of the Dionysian Army from the south. The civil soldiers of Phocis and Locris were worried about the safety of their city. No matter how Iphicrates tried to dissuade them, they insisted on taking the risk of passing through the Pioscia Alliance, which had already declared war on the Greek coalition, to return to their mother city.

As a result, the entire Greek coalition army was left with only about 10,000 soldiers from Athens and its maritime allies. The Greek coalition army was only a name.

… …

After the army led by Patroclus met up with the army of the Thebes, the first target of attack was not any town in Athens, but the city of Orops, which was the easternmost city in the Pioscia region.

Although Orops belonged to the Pioscia region, it had always been attached to Athens and refused to join the Pioscia Alliance. The Thebes had long disliked it, but they were worried that Athens would interfere, so they did not attack it. Patroclus chose it as the first target to express the goodwill of Diónia to the Thebes.

More than 40,000 Diónia coalition soldiers quickly surrounded Orops. Not even a shadow of the reinforcements from Athens appeared. Thousands of Thebes soldiers launched a strong attack on the city of Orops.

After a day of fierce fighting, although they did not manage to capture the city, they had already caused many casualties to the people of Orops. The enemy was strong, and they had lost strong reinforcements. The desperate people of Orops had no choice but to open the city and surrender on the morning of the fourth day.

The morale of the Diónia coalition soldiers was high as they approached the border of Athens.

There were continuous mountains between the Attica region of Athens and the Pioscia region as a natural border dividing line. After receiving the news that the Thessaly army was defeated and the Dionysian Army was heading south, Athens carried out an emergency military mobilization and quickly formed an army of 10,000 people, as well as nearly 8,000 mercenaries from Iazon, and rushed to the border to defend.

The north side used Mount Panisa as the center of defense, and the south side used Mount Sisaron as the center of defense. Considering that Platya, which was controlled by the Thebes, was not far from Mount Sisaron and had a lot of convenience in attacking, Athens deployed more mercenaries in the southern mountains because they were stronger.

Patroclus seemed to be preparing to break through from the southern mountains because he had brought more than half of the army to Platya. But in fact, the north was the center of attack for the Diónia coalition soldiers. The Gaul Reserve Brigade, the Twelfth Legion, and Legio III were all deployed in the north, led by Lizaru, and launched an attack on the line of defense.