"Archers, get ready!" Seeing that the Greeks were within firing range, Pullo immediately gave the order. The difference in height not only extended the range of the archers, but also increased the lethality of the arrows. At the same time, it shortened the range of the enemy archers. In this way, the long-range firepower of the allied forces was greatly superior. This was the advantage of being in a commanding position.
But just as the Pucchetti were drawing their bows, countless black spots whizzed from the foot of the mountain and hit the poorly equipped Pucchetti, causing the archers to cry out in pain.
The Greeks had catapults! Tremoni's heart skipped a beat.
At this moment, the Devers felt that it was a pity that the two light infantry battalions of the two legions, Epthenis and Cspit, only had about 400 catapults, which was not enough to suppress the enemy that was five miles long. They could only disrupt the rhythm of the enemy's shooting.
The arrows were still falling like raindrops. The soldiers held their round shields over their heads and slowly moved forward, one step at a time. The terrain prevented them from using the trump card of the heavy infantry, which was the charge. They could only endure the arrows pecking at the copper surface of the round shields, making a "clang clang clang" sound.
When they began to climb the mountain, the javelins hit the round shields violently, causing some soldiers to be injured.
The injured soldiers fell to the ground, huddled together, and protected their bodies with the round shields, waiting for the medical team to come to their rescue.
In the middle of the entire line was the heavy infantry of Igratya. They were stationed at the lowest point of the ground, which was the focus of Diónia's attack.
"Hurry! Hurry! " Amyntas urged the soldiers. He did not want to lose to the young mercenary, Martonis, so he went against the rules of Diónia's military law and took the lead to run at the front of the battalion. This made the tired soldiers, who had been marching for a long time, shout as if they had been injected with chicken blood.
When they were about 20 meters away from the enemy under the rain of arrows, the whole battalion suddenly stopped moving forward.
"Defend!" Timothy ordered loudly. He thought that the enemy was about to start charging.
The soldiers extended their spears from behind their round shields, forming a terrifying spear formation. Even though the slope was only a few meters high, the height was enough to make the Greeks pay a heavy price!
However, what the Mesapi people were waiting for was not the charge of the Greeks, but nearly a thousand javelins flying towards them. Under the horrified gazes of the Mesapi people, the javelins pierced into the phalanx with a whistling sound, setting off a series of screams.
Timothy did not expect the heavy infantry of Diónia to be able to throw javelins. He had no time to be surprised. He shouted angrily, "Raise your shields! Raise your shield to defend! … "
Amyntas quickly took out the second javelin and shouted, "Charge with me!" After that, he held the shield in his left hand and the javelin in his right. He was the first to charge at the enemy.
The soldiers followed closely behind.
Timothy Grass was surprised to find that when the Greek heavy infantry charged, their formation would scatter. However, the enemies on the other side could still maintain their formation. They were like a thick iron wall pressing down on him, making him feel suffocated.
"Defend! Quick, defend! "He panicked and shouted in a hoarse voice.
However, the soldiers had not recovered from the shock of the javelins, and Amyntas' brigade arrived in an instant. They stepped on the slope a few meters high, took a few big steps, and with the momentum, opened their left arm holding the round shield and pushed it forward. "Clang!" After the continuous sound of metal clashing, the Mesapi soldiers in the front line, who were unable to defend together due to the chaos in their formation, unconsciously retreated to ease the impact.
This retreat caused the densely packed Mesapi soldiers to be unable to take care of their comrades who had fallen to the ground after being stabbed by the javelins, and they fell in a row. Behind them were their comrades who were shouting in panic, and in front of them were the javelins that were stabbing towards them like poisonous snakes. For a moment, they panicked and continued to retreat, leaving most of the soldiers of Amyntas' brigade standing on the slope.
… …
As the leader of the Seventh Brigade of the Second Legion, Cspit had a special characteristic. Before every battle, he would always pray.
Not only did he do it himself, but he also asked his men to do it with him. In the past, he prayed to Ares, the god of war. After following the Devers, his goal changed to the patron saint of Diónia – Hades, Pluto. After chanting the hymn of Hades devoutly, he stood up and said, "The stone throwers will continue to attack the enemy here, and the archers will follow closely behind the heavy infantry. Once they are in range, shoot at the enemy on the hillside. Light shieldbearers, follow me! "
The light shieldbearers' platoon leader, Satirus, hurriedly advised, "Captain, you should stay in command, leave the brothers to me to lead the attack."
Cspit's eyes widened. "Now is a good opportunity to prove that we are light shieldbearers, how can I hide in the back!" In recent months, a view had emerged in the army: the Legion of Dionysia had archers and stone throwers for medium to long range attacks, and the heavy infantry with javelins for close-range attacks, so the role of light shieldbearers was dispensable. It was better to abolish this unit and replace it with light armoured soldiers similar to the Mountain Scouts.
Epicthenis and Cspit, who were originally light shieldbearers, strongly opposed this view, and had been expressing their views to the Devers: the light shieldbearers must not be replaced, they were irreplaceable!
Now was the time to prove the value of the light shieldbearers themselves.
Nearly 500 light shieldbearers, under the leadership of Epicthenis and Cspit, split into pairs of two and groups of three, and passed through the gaps in the "fish scale formation" of the heavy infantry.
Leotychides's unit was at the forefront of the line, and he himself was in the middle of the first line of the phalanx. That day, he had been locked up for half a day for assaulting a comrade. He was going to be beaten with a stick, but the military judge, considering that war was about to break out, postponed the punishment until after the war and allowed him to make amends.
At this time, Leotychides had already begun to climb the slope. Although he was not wearing a helmet, he was carrying more than 40 kilograms of equipment and had to carry weapons in both hands, so it was not easy to stabilize his body while climbing up. Fortunately, it was early autumn, warm and dry. The hillside was overgrown with weeds. It had not rained for more than ten days, so the soil was soft and a small pit was formed when one stepped on it. Leotychides and his teammates slowly climbed up one step at a time.
On the other hand, the attacks from the Mesapi people were even fiercer. Javelins were thrown from a height of more than 30 meters. The javelins struck the round shields with great force. Most of the javelins could pierce through the copper armor, and the remaining force forced Leotizides to lean back. He quickly stabbed the end of the javelin into the soil to stabilize his body.
In his peripheral vision, he saw that some of the soldiers had already lost their footing due to the impact and slid down, bringing down their comrades behind them. Fortunately, Diónia's peculiar offensive formation was like a sawtooth. It was neither continuous nor dense, so it did not affect the orderly advancement of the entire front line.
Ever since Leotychides entered the boot camp, he had been interested in Diónia's unique formation. He found that the setup of this formation was more complicated than the traditional Greek phalanx, but it was very effective and suitable for a variety of terrains. After his private analysis, he once thought that it was more ingenious than the Sparta left-turn tactic that he had been trained since childhood. Later, when he learned that it was the Archon Devers who invented this unique formation alone, he had the impulse to talk to the Devers about some of his views and opinions on this formation. Unfortunately, it was just a fantasy. Because the Devers were the highest authority in Diónia, and his current identity was not the Crown Prince of Sparta, but just a free citizen of Diónia. So, he could only watch the Devers from afar in the boot camp when they were lecturing on the platform of the training ground.
At this time, the javelins of the Puchetti attacked again.
Leotychides cleared his mind of distracting thoughts. He lowered his body, planted his feet, and opened his eyes wide to see the direction of the javelin's flight. He tilted the round shield slightly, and the tip of the javelin drew a string of sparks on the round shield. However, most of the momentum was offset, and the impact on him was reduced.
As soon as Leotychides breathed a sigh of relief, he heard his comrade on the right scream. His body swayed and was about to fall back. He quickly let go of the javelin, stretched out his right hand like lightning, and grabbed the man's arm.
The man was Het Barus. He hesitated for a moment, then immediately shouted sincerely, "Thank you, Prososus!"
Leotychides nodded at him. Although there was a conflict between them, the battlefield was the melting pot that tempered the friendship between men.
At this time, he looked up and saw someone running to the front of the formation.
It was the Light Shieldbearers! Leotychides blinked. He knew this type of soldier. During the War of Peloponnesus, Sparta had employed the Thracian Light Shieldbearers many times to support the heavy infantry. But in the battle order of the Legion of Dionysia, the Light Shieldbearers were regarded as an important force, and their position was no lower than that of the heavy infantry.
These Light Shieldbearers held leather shields in their left hands and long-handled hunting knives in their right hands. They wore thin robes and quickly approached the enemy on the hill in a scattered formation. Most of the Puchetti's javelins were also deftly avoided by them.
How could they be so fast and agile? Because they were holding long-handled reverse blades (in fact, large scythes). This strange weapon with a nearly semicircular blade stabbed into the soil and easily provided a strong aid for them to climb.
Cspit quickly closed in on the enemy, and five or six javelins stabbed at him at the same time.
Cspit was very calm. He suddenly squatted down, and the soft leather armor allowed him to almost stick to the ground along the slope. The leather shield was raised to protect his head, blocking the incoming javelins.
The Puchetti standing on the hilltop found that it was a little difficult for them to stab the enemy who was almost touching the ground and at such a low angle. The terrain was too sloping downwards, and it was easy to lose their balance and roll down the hill. Therefore, they had to move forward.
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