Chapter 210: Battle of Trionto River (VI)
Chapter 210: Battle of Trionto River (VI)
‘Did we manage to break through? Has Philederus arrived?!’ Milo became excited and had wanted to immediately follow the soldiers to get to the shore, but after a while, his troops stopped moving, and they were then forced to retreat little by little….
“SOLDIERS, HOLD ON! With a little bit more effort, the enemy will be defeated!” Milo, who did not know what was going on, thought that the offense of his troops weakened, even though he knew that his shouts wouldn’t do much, he still kept on shouting in order to boost their morale.
However, the Crotonian army was never able to manage to advance forward.. The forefront of the Theonian army that has managed to complete the formation change is the newly replaced soldiers of the second line. Their physical strength is still abundant, which made up for their lack of experience as hoplites, while the Crotonian soldiers, after fighting for more than three hours, were already exhausted and were struggling to defend themselves, which had naturally weakened their offense.
Just as they were struggling, a cry of alarm came from the rear of the Crotonians as they were retreating to the other side of Trionto river, “Enemy! The enemy is coming!!….”
Milo, who was in the center of the formation, could not hear what they were shouting, but the frightened voices had made him turn his head and subconsciously looked back, and the sight he saw had shocked him: In their rear, he saw hundreds of cavalries rushing towards the fleeing light infantry of Crotone, and behind the cavalry were countless soldiers not wearing armor, then they quickly spread out their formations and held their bows and arrows, javelins, and targeted the location of the Crotonians. ‘Where did they come from?! Where are the troops of Philederus?!!….’ At this moment, Milo was frightened and countless thoughts flashed through his mind, and the only thing that had remained was, ‘We lost!!!’
In fact, he is not the only one who had seen what happened in the rear, many Crotonians have also seen what happened, and the scouts of Theonia standing high on the opposite bank also saw it. Just as Milo was in a state of panic and the morale of the Crotonian soldiers were shaking, Davos gave the order with great enthusiasm, “Everyone, attack!!!”
The salpinx that signal to attack sounded, and then the same sound sounded on the other side. Just as the hoplites of Theonia began their fierce offense, the nearly 6,000 light infantry of Theonia composed of freemen fired the first round of arrows, stones and javelins at the right-wing soldiers of Crotone….
In front of them are the hoplites that are still energetic even after the long battle, at their feet is the cold river water, and the arrows and javelins that were shot to take away their lives. The exhausted soldiers of Crotone could no longer hold on, the right-wing were the first to retreat, then the center, and then the left-wing. The Crotonian’s formation collapsed like an avalanche and the soldiers rushed to the south bank, and the non-stop long-range attack of the freemen had made them retreat even faster. And the Theonian’s hoplites’ charge has made this large-scale retreat even more chaotic. What is it like seeing nearly 20,000 people crossing the river and retreating under the attack on two sides?
Xanticles, who have witnessed the whole process on the south bank, have later talked about the defeat of Crotone in that battle to Ansitanos, who had later wrote the 《History of Magna Graecia》, he recalled, “….all the Crotonians cried out in horror ‘Run for your life! We have lost!….’ The loudness has even overshadowed the sound of our salpinxes. They desperately ran to the south bank and pushed each other, and even the Crotonians, who have fallen behind and were being chased by our soldiers, in order to flee for their lives have frantically knocked down the people in front of them with their shields and spears…alas…although the Trionto river is not deep, almost all the people who have fallen did not stand up again, because once they fall down, not only no one will help them, but also due to their heavy equipments and the constant pushing of their comrades had made them eventually drown in the river…as a matter of fact, neither our hoplites’ pursuit nor our light infantries’ long-ranged attack had caused more casualties to the Crotonians than the river…it must have been the wrath of Poseidon! It has reminded me of the event when the expeditionary army fought the Persians on the Kentrite river…well, when the battle was over, I came back only to see the Crotonians floating on the Trionto river, and it seemed that it had even blocked the river. It really made me shiver! I heard that more than 3,500 corpse were later recovered, not counting the ones that have floated into the sea….”
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The soldiers of Crotone, who had managed to flee back to the south bank, had no time to relax. Although the hoplites of Theonia were tired, they still kept on their chase at the urging of Davos and continued to exert psychological pressure on the defeated soldiers. While the large number of freemen who were light infantry and were not burdened by the heavy armor, were the main force of the pursuit. They rushed up from their flanks and encircled the right-wing of the Crotonians like a dumpling, and the demoralized Crotonians who were in a desperate situation of getting block at the front and getting pursued by the soldiers, have surrendered one after another.
After handing over the captives to the hoplites, the light infantries continued their pursuit.
And now, the cavalry has become the main force of the pursuit. Under the leadership of Ledes, nearly 300 cavalry spread out and crushed the defeated soldiers. The Crotonians were either knocked down by the galloping horses and those who were not hurt were forced to change their direction and were finally captured by the light infantry.
The fleeing Crotonian soldiers were terrified throughout their way, and finally, because of their exhaustion, they fell on the road. Many soldiers, like Kelebus*, who had been captured once, saw no hope of escape, so they just simply squatted down and surrendered…till the end of the day, all the light infantry of Theonia have taken up the task of escorting the captives. (T/N: Author use Teratus but Teratus is a spy of Crotone who is now working with Theonia, so this should be Kelebus)
In the end, the Crotonians fled into the marsh area, and many of them rushed into such a dangerous area in panic. The Theonian cavalry have also followed them into the marsh, but because of the unfamiliar terrain, many horses were trapped in the mud, and because the sky was getting dark, they had to give up on their chase.
The battle that decided the fate of Theonia and Crotone has come to an end.
Crotone has invested about 27,000 men, resulting in 7,000 casualties(because they were defeated, it made it impossible for the wounded soldiers to escape), about 12,000 were captured, 8,000 have fled the battlefield, and only less than 5,000 managed to escaped to Krimisa and more than 3000 men were lost in the forest and in the marsh, some managed to escaped after a few days and some have never come out ever again. And Milo was lucky enough to escape back to Krimisa under the protection of the guards.
Theonia had also invested about 24,000 men, with only 4,000 casualties and won a brilliant victory.
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On this day, the polemarchos of Roscianum, Amikles, had been paying close attention to the development of the war situation. In order to ensure sufficient firepower of the Theonian’s light infantry, because Davos had asked Roscianum to provide enough arrows and javelins. Therefore, Amikles was also the one responsible for organizing and transporting the military materials to the battlefield. When the troops of Crotone, who were at the lower reaches were wiped out, he had gotten the news even earlier than Davos. At that time, he excitedly told the members of the council of Roscianum that Theonia had won.
However, everyone was skeptical. After all, Crotone has been powerful in Magna Graecia for many years, and most city-states were deeply afraid of them. Coupled with the fact that their main force was not harmed.
It wasn’t until an hour later that countless corpses floated down from the upper reaches of the Trionto river, which had caused everyone in the whole city to watch around the port. The guards then went to examine the corpses one by one and determined that they were all Crotonians. After the news came out, the uneasiness of the Roscianums finally disappeared, ‘The Theonians have certainly won! Our Theonian Alliance has won!!’
As the cheers resounded throughout the city, the shadow of the threat of Crotone on the Roscianums were finally removed. The strategos and the members of the council looked at each other with a happy smile: They had endured the threat of the Crotonians and took the risk to support Theonia, and they had made the correct decision!
By the time Davos led his army back to Roscianum, the whole city was illuminated by candles. Amikles then led the statesmen and the people out of the city to greet them. Their momentum was so strong that it had surprised Davos, so he hurriedly dismounted his horse and walked towards them.
“Long live Theonia Union!!!” The crowd erupted into deafening cheers like that of a landslide and tsunamis.
“Lord Davos, congratulations! It is incredible that you have achieved a brilliant victory!!” Amikles sincerely congratulated Davos.
“It is all thanks to Hades! And the full assistance of you, the Roscianums!” Davos responded modestly.
“I am afraid that Crotone will not be able to attack again after this defeat.” Amikles asked in an indirect way what Davos was going to do next.
Davos, had of course, understood his implication and gave a smile, “If we don’t take this opportunity to hunt the wounded lion, then do we wait for it to recover and take revenge?! Tomorrow we will attack Krimisa, we will capture it and go straight to Crotone!”
Amikles was relieved and reminded him, “I think that Crotone may do what they have done last time and come to negotiate peace and ask for their captives to be released.”
“Peace?” Davos sneered and looked at the 12,000 captives who were escorted past his eyes. At first, he wanted to force these captives to be the vanguard in the attack of Krimisa tomorrow and even Crotone, because he thought that the Crotonians would hesitate in the face of their fellow citizens, and make Theonia easily seize the two cities, which was a common tactic used by the Mongols and Jurchen* to take over the world. (T/N: The Jurchen is a term used to collectively describe a number of East Asian Tungusic-speaking peoples who lived in the northeast of China, later known as Manchuria, before the 18th century.)
But Davos, who has lived in this era for a year and a half, changed his mind and chose to give up. Because he knew that the Greeks of this era still retained some of the characteristics of the ancient times. They respected the heroes, advocated strength and are fond of fighting head-on. To kill the enemy in a battle is justifiable, but to use the captives to attack the city and win will undoubtedly make the people despise and look down on them. Therefore, in the wars of city-states in the past, no one has ever dared to do it.