Although these two fortresses were built in the middle of the Messenian rebellion a few decades ago, the Messenians were relatively docile and there were no major riots (during the Peloponnesian War, the Messenian helots fled mainly with the Athenians), so the two fortresses fell into disrepair and were badly damaged.

It was only recently that the Dionian army invaded Messenia, and Sparta urgently repaired it, but the time was short, and he always felt that the repair was not complete, and now it was attacked by an enemy more than 10 times the number of defenders, which had to worry him, so although the Dionians were about to land on a large scale, he drew 200 soldiers each and rushed to reinforcements.

At this moment, the infantry of the Dionian fleet, which had stayed near the coast, began to advance towards the shore.

According to the Dionian military law, under normal circumstances, Sephidorus, as the commander of the fleet infantry, should sit in the rear, but the landing operation situation is special, due to the sea conditions, transportation, and the difficulties of the soldiers to concentrate and reorganize after landing, so Sepheidorus sent all the fleet infantry to the near coast at one time, and it is useless to sit in the rear by himself, it is better to take the lead, but it can boost morale and win one more chance for the army in a difficult situation, so Sephedorus is the same as other fleet infantry, Wearing leather armor and a leather shield and helmet, he swims towards the shore in a breaststroke position.

Although the Greek fishermen were all good swimmers, and most of the fleet infantry came from them, this standard breaststroke position was taught by Davers, mainly to make the armed swimming as silent and labor-saving as possible.

At this moment, the infantry of the fleet did not row very hard, like logs floating on the sea, approaching the shore along the tide.

And in the eyes of the Spartans on the shore: a black tide line running across the Gulf of Laconia was rushing towards them.

When the water was already shallow, the soldiers of the Dionian fleet stood up.

Sephedorus was old after all, and he was a little panting when he stood up, and his body was a little cold, but he still quickly put on his leather helmet like the rest of the soldiers, took off his leather shield, drew his short sword, and shouted as loudly as he could: "Whole team! ”

The roaring tide made his voice not reach far, but all the fleet infantry had already understood the entire landing plan in advance, and at this time they were consciously reorganizing their formations, and the soldiers were gathered according to the combat formation when they were originally staying in the sea area, but now after a little rectification, a dense formation with a length of nearly three miles and a thickness of 5 columns appeared in front of the Spartan army.

Surprised by the speed with which the Dionians were arrayed, Eudamidas' attempt to take advantage of the disarray of the Dioonians when they landed ashore failed his attempt to attack, and he immediately realized that the Dioonians had come prepared this time and wanted to take advantage of the absence of the main Spartan force to attack Spartan territory with all their might.

I will not let your plot succeed! …… Udamidas swung his spear forward and shouted, "Attack! ”

Led by Yodamidas, the Spartan army began to run forward, and when they stepped on the soft beach again, dozens of stone bullets whistled again, and some of the Black Labors soldiers made a commotion, but under the sharp reprimand of the Spartan officers, they had to continue to run forward in a panic, until the stone bullets fell behind them, and they were temporarily relieved.

Sephedorus led his soldiers steadily, unable to run because of the water flowing through their crotches, but fortunately they were not hindered by the tide, and by the time the water gradually receded from their hips to their feet, and the legs of the infantry of the fleet had just regained their freedom, the enemy had rushed in front of them.

The infantry of the fleet had neither javelin fire nor long shield defenses, so they could only raise their leather shields and short swords and go on hard tops.

The Spartan army consisting of nearly 300 Spartan warriors, more than 500 Spartan veterans, 2,000 Biliasi soldiers, more than 4,000 Helots and 9,000 Dionian fleet infantry (the Dionian First Fleet had nearly 280 Raven warships, each Raven warship had 40 fleet infantry, and the First Fleet had a total of more than 10,000 fleet infantry, although the last landing operation cost thousands of casualties, Sekrion did not hesitate to send all the fleet infantry) and finally fought together on the coast.

Xenophon climbed up to the watchtower at the back of the beach and watched nervously the battle ahead, knowing that this battle would determine the life and death of Sparta, and he wanted to take the bow and arrow of the archers next to him and shoot at the Dioonians himself.

……………………………………………………

After the battle lasted for some time, the situation changed significantly: the right flank, with the Spartan warriors and the old warriors as the arrows, with the ability of the Spartan warriors and the might of the hoplites, had the upper hand, and the left flank of the infantry of the Dionian fleet had retreated into the sea;

The middle lane, which is dominated by the Piriasi soldiers, also temporarily occupies a slight advantage, after all, the Piriasi soldiers who often fight with the Spartans have more combat experience, and although they wear simple pointed copper helmets and leather armor, they are armed with copper shields and spears, and their defense is still stronger than that of the fleet infantry, plus the assistance of the guard tower archers, the fleet infantry who are not strong in defense have suffered a lot;

Only on the left flank, the largely unprotected black laborers fought with the infantry of the fleet in leather armor and leather shields and short swords, armed with only a spear, and gradually fell behind, and even as the mixed Spartan veterans struggled to maintain the line and the fire of the rear watchtower archers, the left flank continued to move back...... As a result, the originally east-west front gradually became northeast-southwest.

While Xenophon was sweating for the Spartan army, Sekerion, who was standing on the flagship and listening to the lookout from the mast report on the battle situation, was even more anxious: "What about the fleet infantry who came ashore yesterday?!" Why hasn't it appeared yet?! ”

"Probably...... Maybe it's some kind of trouble......" replied the flagship captain cautiously.

"Damn! Something goes wrong at a critical time! Sekrian scolded angrily, and then said helplessly: "Then ...... Send the reserves up now! ”

"Yes!"

At yesterday's military meeting, under the encouragement of the commander of the fleet's infantry, Sephidorus, the commanders of the other detachments also put forward a number of suggestions, one of which was: Considering that the infantry of the fleet does not have an advantage in frontal combat with the heavy infantry, can the two brigades of the Seventh Army Corps stationed in Messenia send some of the heavy infantry to participate in the landing battle?

Later, after deliberation, it was changed to invite the Dionian troops stationed in Messenia to counterattack Sparta from the east, and at the same time ask them to send 300 heavy infantry to participate in the landing operation.

Originally, with them as reserves, Sekrian still hoped that the fleet infantry could win the battle alone, but now seeing that the battle situation was at a disadvantage, he was afraid of defeat and had to send a reserve.

I saw that on the 5-meter-square rafts urgently made by the crew of the First Fleet, there was a sailor holding a wooden pulp in his hand, and three or four soldiers of the Seventh Army in black armor stood in the middle, passing through the gap between the warships. Since the raft had a shallower draft than the boat, it passed smoothly through the area of the stakes blocking the ship by the tide of the tide, and rowed towards the left flank of the infantry of the fleet......

"Oh no, Dionian reinforcements!" Xenophon saw this situation on the watchtower and was very anxious: Sparta had no extra soldiers to block the attack of enemy reinforcements, what should I do?!

Xenophon was in a hurry, and suddenly saw a group of black laborers carrying supplies in the camp, and hurried down the sentry tower and rushed to the camp as if he were in a hurry, wanting to organize these black laborers to reinforce the Spartan army in front.

The dozen or so Spartan veterans who were in charge of the Helots in the camp learned of the urgency of the situation and immediately agreed to Xenophon's suggestion, but the question arose: even if the hundreds of Helots were organized, how could they fight without weapons?

The Spartans kept a very strict watch over the helots, and even those who were going to participate in the battle were only given weapons before they went into battle, and there were still so many helots in the camp after the army went to battle, of course, it was impossible to leave more weapons behind.

After rummaging through the camp and finding a dozen broken spears, Xenophon had to ask the Blackours to extract the wooden poles that supported the tents, and only then did they force the Blackours to reluctantly follow him to the right flank of the Spartan army.

Previously, the onslaught of the Spartan warriors had caused the left flank of the fleet infantry to pay some casualties, and for the sake of honor and the survival of the entire fleet infantry, they could only relieve the pressure given by the enemy by constantly retreating, and the deeper they retreated into the sea, the weaker the Spartan warriors' attack became. The reason for this was simple: the surging tides and the soft seabed had a greater impact on the heavily armoured, clumsy Spartan warriors, who had to devote some of their energy to maintaining their balance, which the fleet infantry was accustomed to.

Under such circumstances, the left flank of the fleet's infantry gradually regained some of its decline.

Then the soldiers of the 7th Army arrived one after another and immediately launched an attack on the flank of the Spartan warriors.

The Spartan warriors fought without flinching, knowing that their homeland was behind them, so they must not retreat.

Xenophon led the black laborers across the beach, rushing to reinforce the right flank, amid the sound of the tide, the sound of fighting, and the screams...... On the battlefield, he was so anxious that he could not hear the exclamation of the archers on the watchtower not far from him: "There are enemy reinforcements again!" To the east! On the east side!! ……”