Chapter 513
The Devers obviously did not have the patience to wait for the other party to finish. They immediately ordered, "Attack!"
Dozens of buglers lined up evenly behind the huge formation blew the bugles in their hands one after another.
"Woo!!!" The sonorous sound of the bugles soared into the sky.
"Avenge Commander Dracos and our fallen brothers!" The soldiers of the Fourth and Fifth Legions in the middle of the huge phalanx were the first to shout. Soon, it was echoed by the other troops. The cry of revenge replaced the call for Hades. When the voices of the Diónia soldiers became one, the morale of the soldiers had risen to the peak.
"Cunning Devers! Damn Devers! " Dionysius was so angry that he cursed. The Syracuse army, which had the upper hand in terms of military strength, was repeatedly taken over by the Diónia. This made him, who had been having a smooth sailing on land ever since he landed in Greece, feel suffocated. Before the soldiers of Syracuse had finished praying, the enemy had already begun to attack. Due to the tactical arrangement, he could not wait for the soldiers to finish praying before advancing. Therefore, this would inevitably affect the morale of the soldiers. He could only comfort himself. The young man was only good at playing petty tricks. The real deciding factor of the battle was still strength!
"Attack!" His face was ferocious as he shouted angrily.
On the afternoon of the last day of the year 394 BC, on the Croton Plains, a major battle to determine the hegemony of the Greek city-states in the western Mediterranean Sea began.
The Diónia Alliance had over 5,000 soldiers from the First Legion, 7,000 soldiers from the Second Legion, 12,000 soldiers from the Fourth and Fifth Legions, 14000 soldiers from the Sixth and Seventh Legions, 6,000 soldiers from the Lance Brigade, 5,000 Bruti soldiers from Hieronymus, 5,000 reinforcements from Crotone and Triene, 1,500 cavalrymen, 1,000 scouts from the Mountain Scouts, and 300 guards. The total strength of Diónia was over 58000 soldiers.
The Devers placed the Seventh Legion led by Martonis on the right flank, near the Tachinadi River. Then, they lined up left, followed by Olivers' Legio VI, Hieronymus' Bruti, Epthenis' Legio IV, Felicius' Fifth Legion, Amyntas' Second Legion, Antonios' First Legion, and Crotone and Triene reinforcements. Ledes' Cavalry was on the left flank, while Capus' Lance Brigade was behind the reinforcements. They were arranged in columns, perpendicular to the phalanx. The reinforcements from the Cater Brigade, the First and Second Legions, formed a horizontal formation of 15 columns according to the Devers' instructions, while the rest of the troops formed a formation of 8 to 10 columns.
The Cavalry Brigade was the most unique. They spread to the left and back in a loose formation, trying their best to occupy a large area. Not only did they hide from the enemy's detection of their Long-haired Brigade, they also achieved another goal before the battle.
Syracuse's army had 80000 infantrymen, 2,000 Numibian cavalry, 800 Celtic cavalry, and 1,000 Sicilian cavalry when they landed in Greece. They lost about 4,000 men in the battle of the Ramator River. Later, Corunna surrendered and provided 4,000 soldiers. With the addition of some troops from the Locri Alliance, Syracuse's army now had more than 90,000 men.
However, the two newly conquered city-states, Siletina and Triene, needed to be garrisoned, especially Siletina, which was the logistics base of the army. The number of garrisons needed to prevent Diónia's attack from the Bruti and its navy's surprise attack from the sea. There also needed to be garrisons at the encampment facing the city of Asplustom, in case the enemy attacked the rear of the army from Asplustom during the battle. In this way, a total of about 13,000 men were divided.
After the capture of Ciudad Crotone, the Syracuse army later calculated that the number of dead and wounded soldiers was about 7,000. During the battle of the Sea of Crotone, as Leptinus heeded Dionysius's suggestion and sent 9,000 elite soldiers to fight on the battleships, they suffered a crushing defeat and lost about 7,000 soldiers. Therefore, Syracuse's infantrymen who participated in the battle of the Ramator River and the looting of Diónia's land amounted to a total of 65500 men, which was 7,500 more than Diónia's army. Among them, the cavalry was more than twice the number of Diónia's cavalry.
Therefore, after Phoebidas had a preliminary understanding of Diónia's military formation, he discussed with Dionysius: the weaker coalition forces of other Sicilian city-states and the Lockeri Alliance, about 18000 men would be led by Fasipesas on the left wing; the Campagna mercenaries, 10,000 men and the Syracuse citizen soldiers, would be led by Dionysius in the middle; the right wing would be made up of 15000 elite soldiers who had followed Dionysius for many years (mainly mercenaries, later granted citizenship and land to Syracuse by Dionysius, they were the most loyal to Dionysius), 10,000 citizen soldiers of Syracuse under the command of Phoebidas, and the right wing would be made up of 3,500 cavalrymen. As the mercenaries did not act according to the plan in the previous battle, not only did Dionysius warn the two foreign leaders repeatedly, but he also made the hot-tempered and fierce Astagras the temporary commander of the cavalrymen from three different forces to facilitate the execution of the plan.
The bugle for the attack was blown. The left, middle, and right armies of Diónia advanced steadily at the same time. The light infantrymen of the Seventh Brigade of the various legions quickly passed through the small chessboard-shaped square formation and charged into the enemy's formation in a loose formation. The reason why they advanced so quickly was to force the enemy cavalry to retreat so that they would not be able to observe the subsequent movements of the Dionysian Army. As they wished, the mercenaries retreated to the right wing of the Syracuse army and rested for a while to prepare for the next attack.
The light infantrymen of Syracuse were already positioned at the front of the formation and charged forward without showing any signs of weakness.
When the heavy infantrymen of both sides were still 500 meters away from each other, the light infantrymen of both sides had already begun to exchange blows with each other. In an instant, arrows and javelins were raining down from the west to the east along the eight to nine miles long horizontal line. They collided continuously in the air and pierced into the bodies of the soldiers, taking away their lives …
Compared to the left, middle, and right armies of Diónia, which advanced at almost the same speed, Syracuse's situation was different. Its left and middle armies were advancing at a slower pace, while the right army was advancing with large strides.
Phoebidas was the leader of the right wing. This powerful right wing was formed by 25000 elite Syracuse soldiers. They were moving twice as fast as the soldiers in the middle as they faced the enemy in front of them. Gradually, they began to separate from the middle.
The cavalry on the right wing was even faster. As soon as the cannons were fired, the 3,500 cavalrymen accelerated forward in a line that was about a mile long. The War Horse quickly picked up its speed.
The 800 Celtic cavalry were at the forefront. They were a fierce race that came from the foothills of the Alps and lived in the Po River Plain. Their cavalry tactics were different from the swift and agile Numibian cavalry. They disdained using bait, harassment, and javelins to kill their enemies. They were more adept at charging and killing, especially when it came to driving chariots into the enemy's tight formation. It was only because they were employed by Syracuse that they did not bring their chariots with them due to the long journey and inconvenient transportation. However, even without the chariots, the charging power of the Celtic cavalry was still terrifying. Most of them were armed with greatswords instead of spears. This made it easier for them to slice open the enemy's neck during a battle. Therefore, Astagras arranged for them to be at the forefront, using their powerful destructive power to disrupt the enemy's formation.
The 1,800 Lumibian cavalrymen then gave the first batch of casualties and the last Syracuse flag. Under the leadership of Astagras, they were only there to clean up the mess. After that, they ordered the mercenary cavalrymen not to give chase but to attack the rear of the enemy's left wing together. Thousands of War Horses galloped forward, stirring up a cloud of dust once again. Hundreds of them were repeated. The war drums thundered at the same time, causing the earth to tremble.
The 1,500 cavalrymen of Diónia were also advancing, but they were not as fast as the enemy. This was especially true when the War Horse of the cavalrymen at the rear was dragging branches along with it, making it easier to stir up the dust on the ground.
When they were about two hundred meters away from the enemy, the commander of the cavalry, Ledes, turned around to look at the cloud of dust that had begun to spread behind him. He nervously shouted to the few cavalrymen beside him, "Retreat!"
Even if a few bugles were blown at the same time, there was no guarantee that the Diónia cavalrymen, who were also in a loose formation, could hear the thunderous sound of the hooves on the battlefield. Fortunately, the cavalrymen had gone through many training sessions before this. They were always paying attention to the movements of their comrades nearby.
Just when all the cavalrymen of Diónia had turned their horses around and galloped back, the Syracuse cavalry was already within a hundred meters of them. The thundering hooves behind them pounded on Ledes's nervous heart. He urged his horse forward while keeping his eyes on the front. When he saw the wall of men, his heart instantly skipped a beat. "Turn!" He shouted and galloped his horse to the left.
There was no need for him to shout. All the cavalrymen of Diónia who saw this scene quickly split into two sides according to the training they had received.
The cavalrymen at the rear were constantly watching the movements in front of them. As soon as they saw their comrades changing directions, they immediately followed suit.
… …
When the bugles of Diónia were blown, the Spear Brigade did not immediately advance with the other troops. Instead, they quickly lengthened their formation and immediately moved to the original position of the cavalrymen. They formed a phalanx about a mile long and ten rows thick, trailing behind the whole army alone.
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