But this adjutant has been sent for almost two months, and he usually gets along day and night, and he doesn't even remember the adjutant's name. Fortunately, this adjutant had already understood Leotizides' character better through this period of contact, and he didn't care, but replied seriously: "My lord, my name is Mukru!" ”

"You're from Bruti?" Leotizides asked, looking at his appearance that was different from that of the Greeks.

"Yes, I'm from Cosenza, Bruti."

"Hmm." Leotizides nodded and waved his hand: "Go and give the order." ”

"Yes." The adjutant hurriedly turned around and walked out of the tent, but a smile appeared on his face, and from what he knew about the commander, he knew that he had been recognized by his colleagues in the War Department as "the toughest regimental commander".

In fact, the identity of the adjutant Mukr was not simple, he had participated in the Battle of Crotone with Hieronymus at the age of eighteen, and was wounded, and was condoled by King Davos after the battle. Later, he officially joined the Fifth Army, participated in the kingdom's wars for more than ten years, and made many military exploits, and was about to be promoted to captain, but he asked to study in the staff office of the Ministry of Military Affairs. It was very rare for Dionia's senior officers to ask for further study, so despite his age over 30, Felicius made an exception to transfer him to the staff office.

After being transferred to the General Staff, Muqru won the praise of his colleagues for his consistent diligence. This time, in view of the importance of this war, Felicius was reluctant to send this capable and steady right-hand man. Now it seems that the request of the difficult Leotizides has finally been met.

………………………………………

Among the 15,000 soldiers led by Leotizides on this expedition included 8,000 regular soldiers of the Eighth Legion, 5,000 reserve heavy infantry, nearly 1,000 reserve light infantry, and 1,000 cavalry of the Fourth Cavalry Regiment (the Fourth Cavalry Regiment was always short due to the population and horses of the Sicilian territory).

When the soldiers of the Eighth Legion heard that there was a battle, they were all very excited. The soldiers were rewarded with a lot of money in the war to pacify the Sikels two years ago, and they had been eager to do something new, and now here's their chance!

The soldiers of the reserve are looking forward to performing well in the upcoming battles and adding a strong mark to their military resumes so that they can smoothly transition to full-fledged legionnaires.

Under the leadership of the officers, the soldiers ran to the foot of the mountain in an orderly and rapid manner and began to arrange a chessboard-like formation.

As soon as they finished arranging their formation, the soldiers heard a loud commotion ahead.

The chaotic and thunderous footsteps grew louder and louder......

Soon, they saw the black-pressed rout in front of them roaring and rushing towards them like a torrent in a torrential rain pouring down to the lowland.

Some of the Ionian recruits began to swallow with some nervousness.

"Order all detachments to quickly line up in shield formation!" Diocassis, who had been an inspector of Naxos two years ago, was now the company commander of the 1st Company of the 1st Brigade of the 8th Legion, and he calmly gave orders.

Other officers gave similar orders.

This time, Dionia's shield array was different from the previous ones, and the soldiers of each detachment not only erected their shields on the periphery of the front, back, left, and right of the small phalanx, but also laid their bayonets flat in the front, back, left, and right directions, like hedgehogs with strong thorns erected.

At the same time, the soldiers kept shouting, "Go through the gap!! Walk from the void!! ……”

In order to facilitate the retreat of the routed troops, the interval between the small phalanxes of the various detachments of the Eighth Army Corps was much wider than the position during the usual training.

Seeing the densely flattened bayonets, as long as they are not fools, they will not take the initiative to hit up, not to mention that there are voices to remind the routs, and there are light armor soldiers at the front to guide, and the routs naturally split into a trickle in front of the Dionian formation, and ran to the rear along the gap between the small phalanxes.

Of course, there were also routs who crashed into the shield wall due to pushing and panicking, and were poked by bayonets and let out terrible screams, but the Dionian soldiers would not withdraw their bayonets and rescue the wounded, they held their positions and did not move. The screams of their companions will warn others to stop in front of the shield and not to collide.

"Catch up! Don't let them run away! ......" Millefio, who was on horseback, followed the Templar troops and rushed forward, shouting excitedly, regardless of whether the soldiers running around him could hear him.

He sat on his horse, and could see that the soldiers of the Holy Order were well-trained, and even after the pursuit of victory, they could still maintain a relatively complete formation, like a red tide pushing forward, of course, this was also related to the fact that most of the enemies fled directly backwards when they fled, and did not run in all directions.

Whether it was Monte Adno or Millefio, all they knew was that the Dionian coalition had set up camp on the hills on the east bank of the Pletara River, but what was the arrangement? What kind of terrain is it here? They don't know very well. On the one hand, because they did not have a strong sense of actively obtaining information about the surrounding environment of the battlefield and the enemy, on the other hand, Leotizides had the initiative to protect the military secrets of his army from being leaked under the long-term influence of the "Dionian Military Law", so when he was building the camp, he sent all the scouts and mountain reconnaissance teams, and even some light armor soldiers to patrol around the camp, expelling Carthaginian spies and blocking information about the area around the camp.

Therefore, while Millefio, who was in the middle of the battlefield, was in pursuit of the enemy, he did not know very well that there was a hill on each of its left and right sides, on which the enemy's army camp, and even less did he know that there was an even larger hill three miles ahead, blocking their way, on which the army of Dionia, the real enemy of Carthage, was stationed. Now, the three hills are like giant crabs with their claws open, waiting for the rout to lure the unsuspecting Carthaginians into its hungry mouths.

The company led by Diocassis was divided into four small phalanxes, two in the front and two in the rear, and Diocassis stood in the center of a phalanx in the rear, and through the gap between the phalanx in front, he watched the rout intently.

Suddenly, his eyes narrowed, and through the gap between the Allied soldiers who had lost their armor, he saw Carthaginians in brilliant armor.

According to the usual tactical principles of the Ionian army, the small phalanx of the detachments in the back row should move forward quickly, fill in the gaps in the front row, and form a complete dense phalanx, but in this way, these routs who ran at the end would be intercepted in front of the phalanx quickly formed by the Dionian army, sandwiched between the Dionian and Carthaginian armies, and become victims of the confrontation between the two armies.

However, the small phalanx of the various detachments of the Eighth Army Corps did not move, and the soldiers pressed their long shields closer and their bayonets tighter, but they remained in place, motionless.

This was not because they had to take care of these poor Allied soldiers, but because it was originally the tactic of Commander Leoticides.

Some of the pursuing Legion soldiers saw the dense bayonet phalanx in front of them, and stopped their progress in surprise, but they were pushed by their comrades behind and involuntarily met them, so they could only use their round shields to protect themselves and stab their spears at the new enemy; Some of the Holy Order soldiers followed the rout into the gap between the small phalanxes, and then were blocked by the next small phalanx, and some of the Holy Order soldiers blindly followed the rout and turned to the next gap......

"There's an enemy ahead!!"

"It's a Dionian!!"

……

The slightly panicked cries of the soldiers reached Minerfio's ears, and he could see it more clearly on his horse: the Dionian soldiers in black armor gathered in small dense phalanxes, like islands in a torrent under the onslaught of the rout and the soldiers of the Templars, in danger of drowning at any time......

Even though he knew that he had lost control of the Order's army, Minerfio still brandished his spear and hissed and shouted: "Warriors of Carthage, kill me and crush the Dionians!" ”

But in the eyes of Leotizides, who was halfway up the mountain and condescendingly overlooking the entire battlefield, the checkerboard array set up by the Eighth Army had divided the Carthaginian army that was surging like a tide in pursuit into countless trickles, and the Carthaginians, who lacked organization and command and could not form a joint force, could not shake the phalanx of the Dionian detachment, which was as solid as a rock in the torrent!

"Bring the reserves together!" Leotizides gave the order.

Adjutant Mukru hesitated slightly: "Do you want to wait a little longer?" After letting all the soldiers of the allies escape—"

Leotizides' eyes were indifferent: "The current situation is that the Allied soldiers have escaped, and some Carthaginians will also run to the rear of the array, adding unnecessary trouble to our soldiers' next battles, I have given them a chance, only blame them for not running fast enough!" ”

"Yes!" Muqru said no more and immediately accepted the order.

"Also, inform the generals of the allies to gather the routs as soon as possible, and quickly lead them back to their camps to defend against the enemy's impending attack."

"Woo! ......" The high-pitched sound of the military horn sounded on the mountainside.

Officers at all levels of the reserve unit, who had been repeatedly instructed by the corps commander in advance, began to direct the small phalanxes of the various detachments located in the rear of the entire array, and they slowly moved forward and inward with each other.

The torrent composed of the rout and the pursuers passed through the turning of many gaps, flowed to the rear, the impact on the small phalanx had weakened, there were bayonet spears to open the way, long shield defense, accompanied by the screams of the enemy and friendly soldiers, the legion reserve soldiers at the end of the formation relied on the dense array of 50 people, almost without much hindrance smoothly entered the gap in front, and together with the small phalanx of the detachment in front formed a with a thickness of only four columns, but about two miles long, completely cutting off the torrent.

.。 Museum of Literature