Chapter 431: Battle of Allaro River (VII)
Chapter 431: Battle of Allaro River (VII)
“Report! Commander, the enemy repelled our troops that went to block them and are now attacking our right flank!”
Philesius still felt his heart pound after hearing the report even though he was already prepared for it. He looked anxiously at the dusty front and saw that the figures and noises were still the same as before. And the Theonian legion he had high hopes for still showed no sign of breaking through the enemy…
“Commander, what…what should we do?” The adjutant asked nervously.
Philesius became silent. At this moment, the alliance didn’t have any extra forces to block the enemy’s reinforcements and was just holding on to some hope. However, that too was soon shattered.
“Commander, enemy reinforcements appeared on the right! There are…there are tens of thousands of soldiers! They are fiercely attacking the rear formation of the Crotonians…and the Crotonians…the Crotonians couldn’t stop them…and are now retreating…”
“WHAT?!!” Philesius and the others were stunned as if they got struck by lightning.
Philesius, who had stayed on the battlefield for a long time, was the first to recover and immediately shouted, “Retreat! Signal the retreat!! Retreat immediately!!!”
Now that the alliance’s defeat was decided, then…he must bring back the fourth and fifth legions safely as far as possible! Under Philesius’ pained gaze, the salpinx signalling the retreat rang out on the rear of the alliance.
The sound not only surprised the Theonian soldiers, but it also made the officers unable to believe it.
“Is Philesius crazy?! We are about to break through the Syracusan defence, yet he still dares to tell us to retreat at this time!!” Drakos flared with anger. Although a herald explained why Philesius chose to retreat afterwards, he still had trouble accepting it.
“Give me a bit more time! Just a bit more time! Wait until my legion breaks through the enemy before retreating! The Theonian legion has never lost. We can’t lose this honour in our hands! This is a humiliation!…”
Listening to their legatus’ pained shout, those around him bowed their heads dejectedly.
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“We…lost…” After hearing the herald’s words, Epiphanes clenched his horse’s mane tightly that he did not notice his warhorse’s pain and neighing as it kept digging the ground with its front hooves.
“…move the banner.” He squeezed out this sentence from his mouth with difficulty, and tears stained his face.
When the salpinx sounded, the legionaries had to look at the banner’s instruction because the battlefield sound is too noisy that it is difficult to distinguish between the enemy and their salpinx. Thus only with the supplement of the military banner’s instruction could they confirm the order.
“Look! The banner is moving!!” The Theonian soldiers that looked back caused a commotion.
Not only the legion banner, the brigade banner, but also the centuria banner were pointing to the rear one after another…
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“Milord, congratulations! The Magna Graecians are defeated. You are victorious! This is a great victory, and from now on, you would have the final say on this land, milord!” Facing the praises of Damocles, Dionysius wasn’t too complacent. After all, he already expected this victory as he had more than 70,000 men against only more than 50,000 men. But he didn’t expect that the so-called “legions” of Theonia completely suppressed the elite heavy infantry of Syracuse on the battlefield. And the most important thing is that the fourth and fifth legions were composed of aborigines (Dionysius had carefully collected intelligence about Theonia). But if they were to meet the first and second legions that the Theonians boasted, what could the heavy infantry of Syracuse do?
Thus, even if he won, Dionysius remained vigilant, “Although we defeated the enemy, the war is still not over. Continue urging the reinforcements on both flanks to pursue, kill and capture the Magna Graecians, especially the Theonians!”
“Send all the heralds to find Acilita and Gaba. Tell them that I am furious at how they did not obey my orders and help our right flank attack the enemy. And that they would not get paid even one silver coin unless they immediately pursuit those black-armoured enemies, killing as many of them as they can or capture them!”
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Although Appian had practised how to retreat in their previous military training, he didn’t expect to use it when participating in a battle for the first time. After smashing his long shield into the enemy with pain, he turned around and ran with his short sword in his hand. However, he stumbled and nearly fell down after getting hit by his opponent’s thrown kopis.
Appian got up quickly and eagerly chased his unit that was already a dozen metres away from the enemy’s formation as he looked at the fluttering banner.
But the danger is the greatest the moment they turn around and run away. Some soldiers were overtaken by the enemy and were stabbed while their comrades just watched them fall to the ground, crying for help. The legionaries, who have always emphasised unity, could not care less about saving their comrades at this moment as they ran desperately and frantically, hoping to distance themselves from the enemy.
When Appian heard his squad leader shouting, “Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!…” his nervousness eased slightly. And even though the officers shouted, “Hurry! Hurry!” it doesn’t mean to let the soldiers run around randomly. Following the Theonian Military Law, they should gather under the nearest military banner as much as possible and follow them during the retreat to avoid disorganisation.
As Appian ran, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him gradually weaken. When he looked back, he saw that he had pulled away from the enemy by a lot of distance that some even stopped chasing, which calmed him down even more. Thinking about it, he immediately understood that they had exhausted their strength after an hour of continuous fighting while wearing heavy armour. Furthermore, in their usual military training of the Theonian soldiers, one of their most important training was to run around while fully armed. And the Spartans were also doing this training since childhood.
But after running for a while, the troops gradually slowed down.
The original position of the fourth legion was to the right, adjacent to the Terinians. In order to capture the fleeing Terinians, Enamenus led the Campanian mercenaries from the west to the east. At the same time, the fleet’s sailors moored on the riverbank felt that they hit the jackpot when they saw the fleeing enemies. Thus in order to reap the spoils of war, they also came ashore to participate in the interception, making the pursuit net bigger and denser, pressuring the Terinians, a large group of panicking “fish” to flee east, which naturally made the space of retreat of Theonia’s fourth legion smaller.
“Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!…” Standing on the bank of the Corace River, Epiphanes hurried his legionaries to cross the river, no matter whether the soldiers could hear him in such chaos.
On the other hand, Philesius, standing on the other side of the Corace River, felt more pained. He did not expect the river he had chosen as their rear barrier to limit the flanking of the enemy cavalry to become a shackle preventing their retreat. Although the river was neither wide nor deep, the riverbed turned into mud immediately after the rushing and trampling of thousands of soldiers. Thus once a flustered soldier fell, it would be not only a disaster for him but also a disaster for the soldiers behind him.
As countless soldiers tangled in the riverbed, the order disappeared as everyone pushed each other, making the sight more chaotic…
Philesius suddenly seemed to see the reappearance of the tragedy in the Persian canyon. He shouted and reminded the soldiers, but this river, stretching more than 5 kilometres, made his shouts so small that it was completely ignored.
Philesius could only regret and dare not witness such tragedy again. But when he turned his head around, he saw rows of buglers and drummers behind, and an idea flashed through his mind, “Hurry! Play the March to Battle! Play the March to Battle!…”
He shouted like crazy, frightening the buglers into placing the salpinx’ mouthpiece into their mouth. However, due to their nervousness, the first tone they blew out was out of tune, but they gradually played more fluently and louder.
The 《March to Battle》 is also adapted from Davos’ memory that he heard in his previous life. It shows the fearlessness of the soldiers going to the battlefield and killing the enemy with a majestic, strong and fast melody. When the melody echoed in the Corace River, the soldiers of the fourth legion who heard it had awakened their courage and honour, so they gradually recovered their reason, alleviating the chaos in the riverbed…
At the same time, Philesius ordered the light-armoured soldiers to go down the river bed and form a dense formation to separate the Terinians and reduce the interference of the fourth legion’s orderly retreat. And in case of emergency, they would even drive them towards the west by force. At this moment, Philesius was forced to be cruel to his allies.
“Commander, the fifth legion…many soldiers of the fifth legion had still not reached the riverbank!” An adjutant hurriedly reported.
“What?!” Philesius felt that his head was about to explode. With one thing happening after another, Philesius, even with his good temper, had gotten furious, “What is Drakos doing?!!”
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Due to Drakos unwillingness, he hesitated in retreating. So when most soldiers heard the salpinx but saw that the banner did not move, they did not dare to retreat.
It wasn’t until Drakos noticed that the troops on the left and right flanks of the fifth legion were all retreating and that the fifth legion was about to be isolated that he hurriedly ordered the retreat.
Originally, the retreat of the fifth legion should be smoother than that of the fourth legion because Crotone’s fierce attack almost turned Syracuse’s right flank and the left flank where the Crotonian army is located into a half-circle. This resulted in the Crotonian soldiers at the far left end, who were originally facing south and with their backs to the north, almost facing west and with their backs to the east. So after getting attacked by Phacipessas’ reinforcements, they mainly fled in the southeast direction. On the other hand, the Scylletian soldiers led by Asesias were closer to the centre. Thus when they ran, they instinctively headed east because their city-state was not far from the east, and most Scylletian soldiers did not know that enemy reinforcements were coming in the east. Thus, they were crowded with the Crotonians.