Chapter 80: The Battle of Thurii (II)
Chapter 80: The Battle of Thurii (II)
The Lucanian alliance stopped their advance a kilo-meter away from the Greeks, and they then also started to get in formation.
The Greeks just quietly waited for them and did not take this chance to attack. This is not surprising, because Thurii hopes to redeem themselves from their miserable defeat during the first war, while the Lucanians also hopes to use this war to completely eliminate the remaining forces of Thurii, and so a war is the common will of both sides.
If they attack the Lucanians at this time, then the Lucanians will only just retreat without them completing their formation, and infantry will have a hard time catching up to the opposing infantry with a gap of a kilo-meter distance, and this will only lead to the delay of the battle. This is unacceptable to the strategoi of Thurii who have already completed their preparations, as well as the citizens of Thurii, because this means that they will remain in a state of anxiety.
The Greeks gave the Lucanians enough time to complete their formation, and the Lucanians have also made full use of it. The Lucanians’ scout reported the general situation of the Greek army’s formation to the leaders of the alliance and after an urgent discussions, the alliance leaders quickly decided their warriors position in the formation: Akpir, the great leader of the city-state Grumentum, will lead 6,000 of his tribal warriors in the center, on the left wing are the 4,500 warriors of the city-state of Nerulum and Laos, while on the right wing are a combined 5,500 warriors, of which 4,000 warriors is led by Cincinnag, the great leader of Pixous, which is another powerful tribe in the Lucania region and is also the main ally of Grumentum, together with 1,500 warriors from a tribe in the Brutium region. The total strength of the Lucanian alliance is 16,000 warriors, with them not having any cavalry.
Grumentum has been fighting for the past 2 years, and its leader, Akpir, can be regarded as a highly experienced on things about military. Before the war, he had sent a lot of spies into the port of Thurii(the port is the place with the largest number of free men, where fish and dragons mixed together, and so it makes it harder to get found out), which allowed Akpir to get a lot of information and combining with the information of the spies that have returned, made him form a plan in his mind: In the Greek army, although many of the citizen soldiers in the center are old, but they are large in number, which could not be underestimated, and so he would personally deal with them. The Greek army’s right wing is the reinforcements from Taranto, and he heard that they have repeatedly defeated the Messapians in Taranto, and their strength is not bad. The one facing them will be Nerulum and Laus, and because they are sister cities, their cooperation wouldn’t pose a problem and so, 4,500 warriors are more than enough to deal with them. The left wing of the Greek army is the least in number, and their difference with the other other two can be seen almost at a glance, due to their number being too small. It is said that this Greek mercenary once traveled to Persia, but after hearing the stories about them, it made Akpir thinks that the rumors about this mercenary were exaggerated. It is precisely because they got defeated in Persia and just fled, it’s nothing more than just the Greeks, who are engaged in trades, boasting about themselves. He had no idea about the distant power in the orient, Persia, and he also believe that the strength of only 2,000 soldiers would be limited, and the bravery of the warriors of Pixous is no less than that of Grumentum, and the ability of its leader, Cincinnag, is not weak, nor that of his son, Gennat(who is also the son-in-law of Akpir), with 4,000 warriors and together with 1,500 Brutians, they have almost 3 times the strength than the other side, so they can completely defeat the left wing of the Greek’s in one fell swoop. Thus the victory of his right wing is already guaranteed.
The Lucanians completed their formation much faster because their formation is not as solid as the Greeks, and their loose formation made their already huge troops looks more massive.
With the long-drawn-out sounds of several ox horn ringing out, an astonishing number of troops slowly advance towards the Greek army…
The battle is about to begin! Friis’ somewhat blurred old eyes caught sight of the enemy’s shadow on the opposite side. He took a deep breath and puffed his shriveled chest, turned around and dismounted, then ordered his slave, “Go get my weapons and helmet!”
Just then, he heard a noise from the soldiers at the front.
“What happened?” He asked doubtfully, and the people around him became doubtful as well. He had to mount his horse once more and look at the front. There was no change, but looking in the direction of the disturbed soldiers, he saw hundreds of soldiers on the left that are rushing out of the formation and running straight to the Lucanians…
What are they doing?…are they going to surrender to the enemy?…when Friis thought of this possibility, his heart went cold: Is it true about what some people said that ‘The mercenaries doesn’t have any sense of belonging and so they are not reliable’!
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Epiphanes and Cid led more than 600 peltast out of the formation and rushed to the right wing of the Lucanian alliance. Of course, they did not go to surrender, but carried out a new tactic that they had been practicing in accordance with the requirements of their leader, Davos. Before the two armies collide, they will have the peltast kill the enemy at a range first in order to crush the enemy’s morale and make their formation in disorder.
In the face of a large number of enemies, the hundreds of lonely soldiers are like small trees in the wind that are in danger of being blown away at any time. This kind of psychological pressure and fear will make the cowards collapse. However, these soldiers have been tempered a hundreds of times in their journey throughout Persia, their spirit has become extremely tenacious, and although their formation is scattered, they are not in disorder. Instead, their speed in charging forward is getting faster.
When they were less than 400 meters away from the enemy, Epiphanes and Cid almost shouted at the same time, “Slingers, get ready!”
The slingers stopped and began to untie the slings around their waist, while the rest of the soldiers continued to advance forward, and as soon as they were 100 meters away from the enemy, the archers halted their advance, while the 400 peltast continue running…
The reason why Gennat is loved by the tribal warriors of Pixous is because he personally takes the lead during every battle and rushes to the front line. At first, he was puzzled when he saw these Greeks in leather armor in two loose lines rushing forward. To the north of Pixous is the Greek city-state of Elea, Pixous has invaded its territory a lot of times, and both sides fought frequently. Therefore, Gennat is familiar with how the Greeks’ fight, but he has never seen such weird behavior. But soon, he was taken a back when the Greeks raised their glittering spears and taking big strides in order to make preparations for throwing the spear, “Watch out for the javelins!!! Defense!!!”
Soon, hundreds of javelins came howling with a fierce wind. The experienced peltast did not throw it in a straight line, but in an oblique direction. Although the Lucanians were equipped with the Greek hoplite’s equipment, they still haven’t learned the principle of ‘I protect the others, and they will protect me’ of the Greek hoplites. They hurriedly protected themselves with the round shields, which made the original loose front line exposed a large gap. The javelins, which had its spearhead specially thickened by Davos, crossed the gap between shields, and most of them penetrated the multi-layered linen armor and into the pleural region of the tribal warriors, as shrill cries sounded and they fell down.
Gennat was quick to respond and blocked the javelins with his shield, but the javelin even manage to pierce the bronze layer of the round shield and get stuck to it. Just as he was planning to pull out the javelin, the man next to him shouted, “Be careful, archers!!”
Arrows and stones fell like raindrops…
Gennnat got hit on the head, and although his head is protected by a helmet, it still made him dizzy and he almost fell down.
This wave of arrows and stones hit the Lucanians. Even though the Lucanians have suffered only a bit of loss, but the first few rows in the middle of the right wing of the Lucania were in chaos. However, the Greek’s peltast took this opportunity to throw a second round of javelins, which greatly increase the javelins lethality…
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Friis and Kunogelata were stunned when they saw this kind of sight, as they could only guessed the strength of the mercenaries of Davos, but they had never thought that it would be such a novel tactic, and its effect is so alarming!
Kunogelata exclaimed excitedly after seeing that some part of the forefront of the enemy’s right wing has almost fallen apart, “We should have learned this tactics from the mercenaries earlier and adopted it!”
Friis shook his head and said, “Our peltast aren’t so courageous in attacking a huge number of enemies with only a few hundreds of meters away from their formation, only these mercenaries who have experienced hundreds of battles dares to use this. I am afraid that this tactic is what they learned from Persia.” There is still a trace of regret in Friis: Before the start of the clash, the strength of Davos’ mercenaries has exceeded his expectations. Perhaps if they have given him another 2,000 mercenaries, just like what the young leader had suggested…
Friis put his thoughts down because the original strategy have been implemented, and it is better to carry it out to the end! This is the experience that he had gained through his many years in the army.
“Get ready to fight, the enemy is about to attack!” He reminded the soldiers that are around him as he dismount and started to wear his helmet.