Chapter 167: Fasarus Surrenders
Polydorus had a gentle and steady personality and a kind attitude towards the soldiers, and the citizen soldiers preferred to identify with him as a commander, and his death was very strange, which made the soldiers suspicious. And the six ministers including Assi Damas were all very famous people in the great city-states of Thessaly, and it was Iason who had specially selected them to help him unify the whole of Thessaly, but they were killed by Polyflon on trumped-up charges, how could this not make the citizen soldiers from the city-states feel angry, but they were temporarily patient for fear of Polyflon's obscenity.
When the rapid and swift attack of the Dionian soldiers turned the tide of the battle, the unmotivated Thessaly soldiers quickly gave up the battle and chose to flee, and even the Philae citizen soldiers, dissatisfied with Porifron's actions, killed Porifron, who was also fleeing, in the chaos.
When Thessaly's army was defeated, the soldiers were left unrestrained and wanted to flee back to their home states, and they scattered in all directions, leaving the entire region full of routs, which seemed to be somewhat detrimental to the post-battle pursuit of the Dionian army.
Matonis and Lizaru did not expect that the Thessaly's army would be defeated so quickly, but they both thought that the victory in this battle would help them to capture the city of Philae, which might have been completely defended as soon as possible, and completely solve the problem of the supply of food for the Dionian army, which was originally the purpose of their march to the east, so they ordered the light armor, light infantry brigades, and cavalry regiments, which had little strength in the battle, not to pursue the rout, but to hurry to Philae.
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While the armies of Matonis and Lizaru were engaged in battle with the army of Thessaly in the northern plains, Patroclus had already led his army over the mountains into the equally flat southern plains of Thessaly, and the soldiers, despite their fatigue, continued their march northeast into the hilly terrain, and by the afternoon they had reached the center of the southern plains, Pharsalus.
Before the Dionian army landed in the bay of Mariakos, the Lamians had sent a messenger to ask for help from Pharsalus, so the Pharsaros were prepared for the arrival of the Dionyan army, and they even sent a messenger to ask for help from Philae, but when the messenger arrived at Philae, Polyflon had already led the army to Larissa, and he got the news that "Asidamas, who was revered by the Pharsalus, was killed", and he had not had time to send the news back to the city-state.
The people of Pharsalus did not expect the Dionian army to come so quickly, and in such numbers, that the citizen soldiers could only see the boundless black surging from the top of the city, which was terrifying.
The city of Pharsalus was built on a hill, and it was too early to be prepared, and the Dionian soldiers were short of strength after a long march, so Patroclus ordered the army to camp less than a mile from the city of Pharsalus. The two sides were so close that they could easily be attacked, but Patroclus, with his overwhelming superiority in forces, was not only not worried, but happy to see it.
But just as the soldiers began to dig trenches and build camps, he received a report from the scouts: there were many Thessaly routs in the north.
After a moment's thought, Patroclus immediately gave the order: let some of the troops who were building the camp immediately surround the city of Pharsalus, and prevent any rout from escaping into the city. At the same time, cavalry legions and light infantry and light armored troops were sent to pursue the Cesalian rout.
These Thessaly, who had been on the run for several hours, thought they had escaped the pursuit of the Ionian army, but they did not expect to encounter another large Ionian army, which was a big blow to them who were extremely tired, and many of them simply chose to surrender.
Before dusk, the manhunt was drawing to a close, and the Dionian army captured nearly 2,000 Thessalian routs, most of whom were Fasalusians.
Through their interrogation, Patroclus learned about the general movements of the armies of Martonis and Lizaru in the north in the past few days, and was pleased with the results of their successive attacks on Peleus, Larissa, and the defeat of the main forces of Thessaly, but also reminded himself to speed up his military operations and avoid the loss of his prestige due to the lack of success when the two armies met, even though he had chosen to land on the most difficult southern coast at the first time.
So Patroclus selected five captives of high rank and prestige from among the captives of the Pharsalus, first gathered the army, and had these captives follow him to inspect the tens of thousands of high-spirited soldiers, and then called Lamia to explain to him the fact that the Dionian army had occupied Lamia, Heraclia, and Thermopylae to the south.
After this, Patroclus formally spoke with them, telling them that Dionya had sent 100,000 troops to attack Thessaly, and that the main force of his army was far away in the Peloponnese, and that it would be difficult to resist the city-states of Thessaly, but as long as Pharsalus surrendered to Dionia, he could swear in the name of 'Hades, the protector of the kingdom of Dionia', that the Dionian army would not harm the people of Pharsalus and would not plunder the property of the people at will. But if Pharsalus still refuses to surrender before dawn, he will execute the more than 2,000 Pharsalus captives and then lead an army to attack the city of Pharsalus, and after capturing the city, all Pharsalus will become slaves of Dionia.
Soon, Patroclus let the prisoners, who were serving as messengers, into the city of Pharsalus.
The captives hurried to the council of Pharsalus, and conveyed the demands of the Dioonians to the councillors who had not yet left, and told them what had happened in Thessaly in the past few days.
The councillors of Pharsalus were astonished when they heard this: the Dioonians had sent 100,000 troops to conquer Thessaly (although the captives answered in the affirmative based on the number of Dionian troops they had seen in the southern and northern plains of Thessalis, the councillors were still slightly skeptical of such a large number), and had captured Peleus, Larissa, Lamia, Heraclia, and Thermopylae (this information is less skeptical). On the side of the Thessalian Alliance, not only was the temporary commander Polydorus murdered, but the only defensible army in Thessaly had just suffered a crushing defeat in the battle, and what made the Phassalus people even more angry was that their backbone, the respected Asidamas, was executed by Polyflon on the charge of traitor......
With the invasion of the Dionian army already irresistible, and the Iasons untrustworthy, where did Pharsalus go?
As the bells rang in the evening of the city of Fasalus, the councillors urgently convened a citizens' assembly, which was attended by less than 2,000 citizens and less than 500 young and middle-aged citizens, most of whom were either prisoners of Dionya or still in the army led by Iazon.
In fact, the citizens of Pharsalus, who had been intimidated by the large Dioonian army outside the city, and now that they had learned that the enemy was stronger than they had seen and that they were isolated, so the vast majority of the citizens agreed to surrender to Dionia.
The citizens' assembly soon passed a resolution, declaring that the reason for the resolution was to save the lives of their compatriots outside the city, and to prevent the destruction of Pharsalus (after all, the tragedy of the Tegurans' betrayal of the Covenant and the eventual destruction of Dionyas and the loss of an empty city had spread throughout Greece through the efforts of those who wished to do so, and the Pharsalus did not want to repeat the mistakes of the past).
That night, Pharsalus sent messengers out of the city to negotiate surrender with the Dionian army.
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Among these powerful states of Thessaly, Philae is more special, surrounded by undulating hills, limited by the terrain, its urban area is not large, and there is no flat and fertile land in the territory, it is rich because of maritime trade, especially after Iason became the tyrant of Philae, it is a vigorous expansion of the port, so that the area of the port area accounts for almost half of the entire city, so it is difficult to completely separate it from the main city.
There were more than a dozen cargo ships moored at a wharf in the port, and a middle-aged man with an obese body staggered towards this wharf, he hiccuped while greeting the owners of the nearby merchant ships, until he approached the innermost of the dozen cargo ships, he stopped and put on a posture of wanting to get drunk, but after taking the opportunity to quietly scan the surroundings and find nothing unusual, he staggered and jumped onto the ship, and staggered into the cabin.
Compared to the sleeping crew on the deck, there were three people sitting in the small cabin, discussing something in a whisper.
"Captain, I'm back!" The sailor who jumped on board whispered.
The man known as the captain was about 40 years old, with an unusually burly physique, several conspicuous scars on his face and body, and a Hitty momentum between his gestures, he was the current captain of the Ionian Sacred Kingdom Mountain Reconnaissance Brigade - Tegetus.
Why did Tegetus, who was supposed to follow Clotocatacs in the Peloponnese, appear in the port of Philae?
Originally, the military department had drawn up a military plan for the landing and raid on Thessaly, and the Zhongshan Ridge Reconnaissance Brigade was an important part, and since the landing army had to capture Thessaly as soon as possible in order to alleviate the problem of tight food supply, how to successfully capture Philae, the center of Thessaly, became the most important issue. Sending small units to infiltrate the city in advance and cooperate with the main siege force was an important means for the Dionian army to capture the city in all wars, and the Mountain Reconnaissance Brigade happened to be the best unit in this tactic, and it was assigned to infiltrate Philae because of its many achievements.