Chapter 430: Battle of Allaro River (VI)
Chapter 430: Battle of Allaro River (VI)
Terina’s herald galloped fast, but because the Allaro River is too deep to wade, he had to make a huge detour north.
After crossing the Allaro River and rushing to the battlefield, blood stained the skin on the inner side of his legs and his horse’s belly, while his whole body was shaking as he rode his horse. Seeing the Theonian scouts coming to meet him, he screamed, “I am…am the herald of Terina! The Syracusan fleet, carrying tens of thousands of soldiers, had passed through the Allaro River to reinforce…hurry! Go and report it to your commanders!…”
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Although Philesius was worried about the disastrous defeat of the alliance’s cavalries for a while, his mood improved when the Syracusan mercenaries busily chased the defeated soldiers rather than helping their infantry pull back the tide on their right flank. Thus, while feeling lucky, he also scoffed in his heart that even though the Syracusan cavalry is powerful, they lack battlefield discipline and see the big picture.
Now Theonia’s left flank, centre and even the right flank is moving forward…
Philesius had just ordered the flag bearer to move the banner forward, but now it seems that they have to move it forward again.
‘Soon! Soon!…’Philesius wondered how long the Syracusans could resist. At this moment, he thought victory was like an apple that is about to ripen and is already within his reach.
But then, the scouts from the west came rushing, “Reporting to the commander! The reinforcements of Syracuse are disembarking on the back of the Allaro River, and there may be tens of thousands!” After receiving the notice from the Terinian herald, they especially rushed to the bank to confirm and was shocked by what they saw.
“What did you say?! The enemy has tens of thousands of reinforcements?!” Philesius, who was in high spirits, felt like getting poured with cold water.
“Yes, commander! There are tens of thousands of Syracusan reinforcements! They are now landing on the riverbank a kilometre behind our right flank!” The scout shouted anxiously, “We must stop them!”
This shocking news caught Philesius off guard. He glanced at the people around him with a bit of panic and saw that they also were nervously waiting for his instructions as he was the alliance commander.
Realising this, Philesius coughed twice to ease his panic, “Order! Immediately send two light-armoured brigades and two light infantry brigades to rush to the riverbank where the enemy are disembarking. Have them stop the enemy at all costs from attacking our rear!”
“Roger!”
“Sound the salpinx again and urge the fourth and fifth legion to step up their attack! And immediately tell the two legatus and the three allied strategoi, Siprus, Asesias and Ascamas, about our current dangerous situation so that they don’t have reservations at attacking the enemy with all their strength!”
They then immediately followed the order.
After Philesius finished giving the arrangement, he finally had the time to think, ‘Where did the enemy get tens of thousands of reinforcements? Is it the army of Medma? However, the Terinians said that Medma is only a small town, so how could they send out tens of thousands of soldiers?…’
Philesius did not consider the Syracusan troops besieging the city of Caulonia because the alliance’s reconnaissance was paying attention to the more than 40,000 Syracuse-Locri troops and saw that they were preparing to attack the city.
But what he doesn’t know is that at this time, in order to help the South Italian army, strategoi Pheidon of Rhegium had even risked his army to attack Medma, hoping to force the Syracusan to return to their aid, which would disrupt Syracuse’s plan.
But from this moment on, Philesius’ uneasiness began to increase…
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From the centre of the formation to the coast where the Syracusans landed was 3 kilometres. Therefore, even though the marching of the Theonian light-armoured and light infantry were fast, it still took some time. So by the time they reached the riverbank, most of the Campanian mercenaries had landed and formed up.
Although the enemy was so numerous that they occupied the entire riverbank, the Theonian soldiers still charged at them bravely according to their usual training.
The 2,000 light infantry rained arrows and javelins into the enemy. At the same time, the 2,000 light-armoured soldiers, armed with leather shields and short swords, ran as fast as they could directly into the loosely formed mercenaries.
Leptines did not expect the Theonian’s assault as he thought that according to the habits of the Greek city-states, both sides should have already invested all their forces in order to win during this time. Unexpectedly, the South Italian Alliance army could still draw out troops to block them.
Of course, Leptines didn’t know that Philesius was unaware of Dionysius’ plan. Instead, it was the Theonian army regulation stipulating that “as a commander, Philesius should keep a reserve unit in battle in order to change the battle situation by sending them during a critical moment in the course of the battle.” Philesius just acted according to this, and the 2,000 light-armoured soldiers were his reserve units. And after completing the initial attack, the 2,000 light infantry retreated to the rear of the formation and became a part of the reserve units.
The sudden impact of the 4,000 Theonian soldiers plunged the newly disembark Campanian mercenaries into a mess for a moment.
At this critical moment, Leptines quickly ordered the remaining ships to land. As the navarch of Syracuse, his original task was only to transport the reinforcements, while Dionysius gave the task of leading the reinforcements to attack the enemy to Enamenus, the mercenary leader. But now, Enamenus was caught in the chaos together with the soldiers, and it was unknown whether he was still alive or not, so Leptines had to take up the heavy responsibility of rescuing them.
He jumped off the ship and ordered the remaining mercenaries to land immediately.
Seeing the situation of their companions while they were still on the ship, the mercenaries became anxious that some jumped directly onto the riverbank before the ship could even stop.
After forming a team in a hurry, Leptines led them around the forefront of the collapsing mercenaries that were forced to retreat. They then braved rains of arrows of the Theonian light infantry to attack the flank of the Theonian light-armoured soldiers, which caused the fierce offensive of the light-armoured soldiers to stop. In reality, the rapid long-distance march and their rapid attack have consumed a lot of the Theonians stamina.
The chaotic front of the mercenaries finally eased as they began using their numerical strength and heavy armour to their advantage, causing the casualties of the Theonian light-armoured soldiers to rise sharply. But if it were the light-armoured soldiers of the first and second legion of Theonia, they would have lasted longer. Unfortunately, most light-armoured soldiers of the fourth and fifth legions had come from Bruttii and Lucania. They were born in the mountains and grew up learning how to avoid the enemy if they are in a weaker position rather than fight them head-on… Although they have received Theonia’s military training and discipline during their years in the union, the thought of saving their lives in times of crisis still prevailed…
The Theonian light-armoured soldiers retreated, so the light infantry without protection also retreated…
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At this time, the battle had lasted nearly an hour. Both the fighting and shouting had weakened the soldiers, but suddenly, both sides blew their salpinx and drums almost at the same time, urging them to attack.
Thus the soldiers on both sides had to fight using their last bit of strength to speed up their offence and defence.
For Dionysius, the only thing in his mind was to resist the enemy’s attack before their reinforcements arrived.
For Philesius, he only had one belief: to break through the enemy’s formation and claim the victory before the enemy’s reinforcements arrived.
Both sides have reached a critical moment in deciding the winner.
Appian, who had several blade wounds on his arms and thighs, was too tired to even lift his long shield, while his hand that was holding the short sword trembles slightly from using his full strength at prolonged duration. He huffed and panted like a seriously ill and dying patient. On the other hand, the enemy he is facing is even worse than him because the armour he is wearing is too heavy that he had even thrown away the round shield and was holding the spear with both hands with his whole body shaking.
Appian didn’t look at them with contempt as the Theonian army couldn’t even use their unique formation*. Therefore, he thought it was because their opponent was giving them too much pressure and sticking to them tightly that the legatus was afraid to switch formation easily. (I.e. interchanging of the rear and front formations.)
In fact, another main reason why they did not implement it was that the fourth and fifth legions had just participated in a battle for the first time and were facing a powerful foe. And it also just happened that the left and right flank are their allies’ troops, and this is also the first time for them to fight together. Thus, Philesius was afraid of rashly changing the formation and causing the soldiers to make mistakes under intense pressure, and the allied troops wouldn’t understand it and cooperate. After all, changing the rear formation to the front formation requires the whole formation to retreat gradually, which may lead to the whole army becoming chaotic.
The loud salpinx was not only to urge the soldiers fighting but also to urge the other forces, such as the Syracusan mercenaries who are chasing the alliance’s cavalries and are returning leisurely. And also the two Syracusan reinforcements who are rushing to the battlefield.
If it were his past habits, the Crotonian strategos – Ascamas would have stood at the forefront and fought the enemy head-on. However, Philesius asked all the alliance’s strategoi to sit in the rear and not participate in the battle to preside over the communication before the battle started. At that time, Ascamas just laughed at the Theonian’s greed for life and fear of death, but now, he should be thanking Philesius for this request because he manages to hear a different salpinx’s sound coming from the opposite side.
The sound of the salpinx came from the outside of the Crotonian army, which is loud and hard and is getting closer and closer…then, in his field of vision, countless soldiers with bright helmets appeared.
‘Syracuse’s reinforcements?!’ Ascamas fell off his horse in a panic as he watched the enemy roar as they rushed towards the rear of the Crotonian soldiers like a tide.
At that dreadful moment, the only thing in Ascamas’ numb brain, ‘Didn’t Philesius say that the enemy’s reinforcements were coming from the riverbank on the right?!…’