Chapter 427: Battle of Allaro River (III)
The experienced Syracusan soldiers stared coldly ahead through the narrow helmet’s eyehole. Although they had not fought directly with the Theonians, they knew that a great impact was coming, so they accelerated their pace.
On the other hand, the Theonian light infantry quickly retreated from the gaps between the small phalanxes, and the small phalanxes of infantries in the back quickly moved forward, which soon connected the whole Theonian formation.
At this time, the enemy has entered a distance of 50 metres, so there is no need for the officers to give orders as the heavy Infantry like Appian strode forward, raised their arms and threw…
Tens of thousands of javelins flew out of the kilometre-long front in the centre of the allied army, covering the sky and the sun as it rained down on the Syracusan phalanx. The well-prepared Syracusan soldiers put their round shields on their heads and overlapped them to form a long bronze wall. And the whirlwind of death caused by the rain of javelins made the screams of the Syracusan no longer be covered up, so the Syracusan soldiers began to speed up their pace as they ran fast.
Appian and his comrades, who are at the forefront, did not hesitate in dropping their javelins as they didn’t have enough time to throw their javelins. In exchange, they place the long shield in their left hand in front of them, clench the spear with their right hand, and rush forward together as they advance as fast as possible within a short distance of 30 metres.
One side is a huge bronze wall, and the other is a black tide.
“Apollo!!!…”
“Hades!!!…”
Amidst the deafening cry, the two sides crashed together, causing even the earth to shake at this moment.
In an instant, Appian felt a huge force hitting his shield, almost breaking his hand holding the shield, making his body tilt back involuntarily. At this time, the same powerful force from the rear pushed him back, causing him to stab his long spear towards the front, but the enemy’s round shield blocked it, while his long shield also blocked the other party’s spear. And due to the momentum of both sides being too great, both spears broke.
Appian held back the pain in his right hand and drew out the short sword at his waist.
As the soldiers of both sides crowded together, the space for each soldier to move became narrower. Thus most of the Theonian soldiers at the front threw away their spears and replaced them with a short sword, regardless of whether their spear was broken or not. On the other hand, many Syracusans equipped their curved swords.
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In the front on the centre path, the Theonia legion dominates the competition of light infantry. However, on the other front, it is the Syracusan light infantry that has the advantage.
Because Crotone, Scylletium and Terina were not used to having the light infantry attacking at the front while the heavy infantry unit was advancing. Hence they suffered many losses. Thus their only solution was to increase their pace and fight the Syracusan heavy infantry as soon as possible.
Except for Theonia, the alliance concentrates all their light infantry on the left end of the left flank of the whole army, just behind the cavalry. So while both sides were fighting together, only this place remained calm.
Philesius knew that the alliance’s cavalry was far inferior not only in quantity but also in quality. Thus he gathered the 500 cavalries led by Solikos and the cavalries of the other city-states into a team of 1,500 to defend and prevent the enemy from detouring around the left flank* and warned them not to go out easily. And once the enemy attacks, they should just let the nearly 4,000 light infantry behind them scatter the enemy with a long-range attack, supplemented by the cavalry impact, which should allow them to contend with the fierce Syracusan cavalry. (Because the outside of the right flank of the alliance is the Allaro river, so Philesius thought that Syracuse would not arrange their cavalry on this side.)
On the other hand, Philesius’ hidden card is on the left flank. The formation he arranged is similar to Davos’s strategy when defeating the Bruttians on the Consentian plateau; that is, the weaker troops are positioned on the right side, relying on the river to ensure the safety of the flank, and use the stronger left flank to win. However, the left flank of the alliance army has weak cavalry and strong infantry with 17,000 Crotonian infantry and tens of thousands of Scylletian infantry forming the left flank*, and the thickness of the formation alone has more than 40 columns. (a small part of the Scylletian infantry is near the centre.)
Phidias arrived at the right flank of Syracuse. Although he did not know the enemies’ detailed arrangement, after standing in front of the line and seeing the numerous javelins on the other side, he immediately realised that the enemies would deal significant damage once the salpinx sounded!
So he quickly decided to thicken his own formation as well.
But in this way, the right flank, which has fewer troops than the enemy, is bound to have a shorter formation length and would easily be surrounded by the enemy.
At the same time, Phidias made an astonishing decision. He ordered the right flank soldiers to immediately form an arc-shaped front that convexed outward. In this way, the Syracusan soldiers would be placed in the inner part during the fighting, which naturally makes up for the lack of the formation’s length.
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When the salpinx sounded, nearly 30,000 infantry from the South Italian Alliance’s right flank took huge steps and marched towards the enemy.
Among the Crotonian soldiers, many citizens like Kelebus were captured by the Theonian twice, who are bearing the responsibility of their defeat. So when they saw the decline of Crotone and the rapid rise of their former enemy – Theonia, their hearts were mixed with loss and confusion.
Therefore today, like their strategos – Ascamas, they also want to prove themselves with a victory and prove the glory of Crotone! This is the pride of the Crotonians and the temperament of a citizen of a sporting nation, even though Crotone’s strength is far behind that of Theonia Union!
That is why they will not slow down their marching speed even if the arrows in the air are sprinkled like raindrops. On the contrary, they gradually increase their pace while trying to maintain their formation…
As they began to charge, the huge Crotonian army sent out a terrifying roar…
All of them set their gaze on the approaching enemy, with a mixture of tension and excitement on their faces, just waiting for that terrifying and maddening moment to arrive!
“Apollo!!!…” They wildly roared as they collided with the Syracusan.
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Typically, once the heavy infantry of both sides clashed, the whole formation would begin to play a role from the back to the front. Thus, in order to prevent the other side from pushing their own side, the infantry on the rear of both sides would not only get close to their comrades but also reach forward with their spears as far as possible, which would help the front row soldiers to increase their threat to the enemy. At the same time, they would push forward with all their strength, making the space occupied by the soldiers at the forefront narrower and narrower.
Appian wasn’t worried as he was just doing what they usually trained. He would lunge forward by having his body crouched slightly, leaning forward with half of the long shield protecting almost his entire leg, torso and neck. From time to time, with the help of the power from the back of his body, he would suddenly push the long shield forward, concentrating the power on the semicircular bronze in the centre of the arc-shaped long shield. It is quite powerful because it would fracture the enemy’s chest if they don’t have sufficient protection and make dents appear on the hard bronze shield once it hits an enemy’s round shield.
On the contrary, when the round shield of the Syracusan soldiers hit the long shield: First, the rounded angle of the long shield tends to cause the round shield to slip off. Second, the powerful force transmitted by the round shield through the rounded angle would spread to the whole shield and then to Appian’s body. By then, the force would be much small, giving Appian ample time to recover.
While Appian tried to disrupt his opponent’s defence with his long shield, he saw an opportunity to quickly stab his half-metre long double-edged thick black short sword clenched in his right hand from the gap between himself and his opponent. Unfortunately, the two Syracusan soldiers next to him seemed to have rich experience and avoided it many times.
The thickness of the Theonian legion and the centre of Syracuse is the same, so when their strength is almost equal, the pressure becomes more and more intense.
Appian got closer and closer to the enemy that he could even feel the heat coming from the small gap of the enemy’s Corinthian helmet.
And when he saw that the enemy’s cold eyes suddenly brightened, he instinctively lowered his head and raised his long shield.
“Bang!” When his opponent swung out his sword on the shield, Appian suddenly saw something when he lowered his head, making him excited.
‘It’s the enemy’s feet!’ Although the Greek round shield is large, it is not as large as a long shield, after all. So the enemy’s feet in leather sandals are exposed under the round shield. However, if Appian did not lift his long shield, it would be impossible for him to find this flaw through the gap below.
He immediately crashed his long shield against the other party’s round shield, lowered his head and bent down again (if he were wearing a Corinthian helmet, he wouldn’t be able to bend down and lower his head greatly.) Then the short sword in his right hand stabbed forward, piercing the other party’s right foot without hindrance.
Afterwards, he heard a shrill scream from the enemy. Appian then quickly pulled out his short sword without looking at the outcome of the fighting. Then he pushed the long shield forward with his left foot taking a step forward. After the enemy screamed and fell to the ground, the enemy at the back tried to squeeze into the small gap to fill it up.
However, it was too late. Soon, Appian’s blood-stained short sword stabbed out to the right again like lightning, and the enemy next to him collided with the shield of Appian’s comrade as he did not expect his companion to fall. Then suddenly, he was stabbed through his right arm and shouted with pain that he even threw his sword to the ground.