Iphiclates nodded with relief, with Iason's statement, at least it shows that his efforts were not in vain.

He looked out over the Thessaly barracks, where the flames were already raging, and countless torches poured out of the camp gates, stretching to the north, gradually forming a winding fire dragon......

Iphiclates prayed silently with a solemn expression: May Athena bless the Thessalians on this journey!

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Due to the fluctuation of morale caused by the departure of Thessaly's army, the Greek coalition closed its camp in the following days, and at the same time, out of fear, had to strengthen its defenses.

While Iphiclates was busy reassuring the allied generals and soldiers, he sent messengers to inform the Peloponnesian allies and warn them to strengthen their defenses.

As he expected, Crotocartachus, who had discovered the enemy's situation, sent the First Army from Sparta to the north quickly from Sparta at the suggestion of Printors, and attacked the part of the Greek coalition army besieging Mandinia.

The 1st Army, which had not been able to engage in a battle with the Greek coalition, continued northward, heading straight for Corinth, located on the isthmus.

Iphiclateus, who got the news, did not lead the army to the rescue, but let the main force of the coalition continue to stay in the camp of Leprion, and at the same time put on a posture that would attack the Dionian camp in Messenia at any time, forcing Dionia not to easily transfer away from the army in Messenia, only the Greek coalition forces that had besieged Mandinia before followed the First Army, but once the First Army turned to attack it, they quickly avoided it. But their presence prevented the First Legion from attacking Corinth, which seemed to be heavily defended.

Two days later, the First Army, which had failed to achieve its goal of mobilizing the main forces of the Greek coalition, did not dare to stay in a completely unfamiliar enemy territory for a long time, and the rations it carried had already been consumed, so it turned around again and returned south to Lagnia.

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While the fighting at the Peloponnese had subsided for the time being, and the two sides were in a strange standoff, Iasonn had already led his army across the Gulf of Corinth, landed at Cleucis in Thebes, and made a rapid northward march through the region of Piosia and into the region of Phorgis.

At this time, the Phorgis were no longer as desperately repulsive to the Thessalians as they had been a few months ago, after all, the two sides were now allies, and Phokis was threatened by the Dioonian army stationed in the north, and urgently needed the help of the Thessalian army, so the Thessalian army was welcomed by the Phörkis, and there were also Greek reinforcement generals who rushed to greet them.

After some negotiations, Iason had a general idea of the situation in the north: the Dionian army occupied Heraclia, and at the same time captured the Thermopylae, and for a time continued to move south, besieging the city of Kitignan, but thanks to the timely reinforcements of the Athenians in advance, the Phorgis repelled the attacks of the Dionian army several times, and yesterday the Dionians, perhaps having found out the news of the return of the Thessalian army, had withdrawn from Kitignan.

After some consideration, Iason decided to lead his army north along the coast, first to capture the Thermopae Pass, and then to enter the Lamia region, the reason for this choice was that he considered that the mountains of northern Central Greece were difficult to trek through, which was not conducive to the march of large armies, and that the Dionian army also occupied Heraclia and guarded the northern gateway to the mountains, and he had already seen the defense capabilities of the Dionian army in the Peloponnese, and if he could not capture Heraclia in time, it would be extremely dangerous for tens of thousands of troops to be blocked in the mountains.

Iason knew very well that although the Thermothermal Pass was known for being easy to defend and difficult to attack, the Greeks built this pass to defend against the barbarians in the north (mainly referring to Thessaly), so it was a one-sided pass that was not to defend the north but not the south, which is why the Persian army sent strange soldiers to bypass the Thermothermal Pass from the trail, and it could be easily captured, so the Thessalian army attacked directly from the south, and it should be relatively easy to capture the pass.

But when Iason and his army reached the hot shore, he was dumbfounded: a Dionian military camp stood in front of him, stuck between the mountains and the cliffs of the sea, and behind it was the familiar stone wall of Thermopylaes......

It turned out that before Aifiarte led the main force of the army to attack the hot spring pass on both sides at the same time, although the defenders of the hot spring pass also had some precautions against the mountain road, but after all, they had too few troops, and after a day of fighting, the twelfth army successfully occupied the hot spring pass.

As a result, Ephiarte soon discovered the flaws of the pass, and the main task of the Twelfth Legion was to hold back the Thessaly army returning to the division, but the Thermopylae Pass was unable to defend itself against the enemy from the south. However, this is difficult to help but love Fiarte, after all, the terrain here in the hot spring pass is narrow, the superior forces can not be deployed, which is conducive to less defense and more, this characteristic is the same for the south and the north, so he called the engineering battalion, commanded more than half of the soldiers to build a camp next to the hot spring pass, and he himself led 3,000 soldiers from the coast to the inland, all the way to survey the terrain, after discovering the city of Guñan, quickly surrounded it.

At this time, his purpose in doing this was no longer to expand the results of the battle, but to attract the attention of the enemy and ensure the smooth construction of the camp.

Now Iason looked at the Dionian camp ahead and felt a headache, his army had had enough of attacking the Dionian camp in the Peloponnese, but at this moment he could not retreat, and only by breaking through this camp with all his might could he return to Thessaly.

After the order to attack was given, the Thessalian soldiers, who were eager to return home, were divided into groups and continued to attack the Dioonian camp along the narrow coast.

After the Greco-Persian Wars a hundred years ago, a bloody battle broke out on a grand scale in the vicinity of Thermopylae Pass.

However, compared to the Spartan army that was defending here a hundred years ago, the Dionian army on the defensive side at this time had more advantages.

The first is that the defensive forces of Dionya were not at an absolute disadvantage. The 12th Legion had 8,000 soldiers, and in order to prevent accidents, Ephiarte also forcibly asked Lamia, which had already submitted to Dionia, to recruit 1,000 citizen soldiers in advance as a reserve for the defense of Thermopyla. In addition to the 1,000 Dionian legionnaires stationed on the Acropolis of Lamia and Heraclia, 7,000 soldiers could be mobilized into battle, and these soldiers would constantly pass through the Thermopylae Pass and enter the camp, taking turns to participate in defensive battles. By this time, the Thessalian army had been reduced from the initial 40,000 men to more than 36,000 after fighting in the Peloponnese, and the strength was only more than four times that of the defenders, unlike the Persian army, which was as high as hundreds of thousands.

Secondly, Ephiarte learned the lessons of the Spartan army and built small defenses on several known mountain trails, guarded by Samonian soldiers who were skilled in mountain warfare, to prevent the Thessalian from sneak attacks. Moreover, the 12th Legion was diverse, with heavy infantry, light armor, javelinmen, and archers reasonably matched with each other, and defended in a narrow coastal camp, which could effectively contain the attack of the Thessaries.

In addition, Ephiarte had the soldiers carry several ballistae from the legion to the head of Thermopylae, and the stone projectiles fired could fly over the camp and inflict maximum damage on the attacking Thessalian soldiers.

As a result, the Thessalian army stormed the camp for several days, with little success and at a high cost of casualties.

Just when Iazon in the rear was anxious to break through the Diorians' defenses, the Thessalian soldiers, who were once again preparing to attack the camp, were stunned to see the wooden door of the camp suddenly open, and dozens of Thessalian men in civilian clothes came out, shouting that they were the so-and-so of a certain city-state of Thessaly, and at the same time asking to meet with the citizen soldiers of their city-state.

It turned out that when Iason's army approached Thermopylae, Ephiarte immediately sent messengers to Thessaly to inform the commander-in-chief, Patroclus, that the main Thessalian army had returned.

At this time, more than half a month had passed since the landing army conquered Philae and forced the surrender of Fasalus, because the main powerful states of Thessaly had been controlled by the Dionyan army, the landing army continued to divide its troops and plundered the land, and the city-states of Cesari that had gone to the general trend either surrendered or were conquered, so during this period of time, the Dioonian army basically conquered the southern and northern plains of Thessaly.

The army is marching high, and the Thessaly District Administrator, Hiros, is leading his officials to work intensively. While promising benefits to the common people, they were also attracting celebrities in various city-states, plus they were all born in Thessaly, many of the people of Thessaly began to accept them, so a rumor quickly spread in Thessaly: the king of Thessaly was a Thessaly, a descendant of Hades, and he was more capable of protecting Thessaly than the tyrant Iason, and was more suitable to serve as Thessaly Tagus......

At the same time, the legend of the founding of the Dioonian kingdom by Davers and its rapid rise to prominence began to spread among the Thessalian populace.

After receiving the news from Ephialt, Patroclus was already prepared, and he immediately asked Shiros, who was already in Philae to handle the affairs of the whole Thessaly, to help him, gather the members of the prestigious council of the various Thessalian city-states that had been returned to the kingdom of Theonia, and then clearly told them that Iason was leading the army back, and Dionia was ready to gather the 100,000 troops in Thessaly and defeat it completely.

Many of the councillors of the city-state of Cesari had witnessed the sheer size of Dionia's army and their formidable fighting power, and although the army led by Iason was numerous, most of them did not believe that Iason's victory would prevail. They are very worried about this.