Northern Route

The 7th Corps marched north from Yaski to the borders of Pripepet. This is what would become the birthplace of Kievan Rus', but most of it is now desolate and uncultivated. After a two-week trek, the Macedonian army reached outside the city of Veneda.

Grand Master Oonos left the Legion, and Bronn and Artemios held it up.

On the eve of the attack on Veneda, the young general Artemios suggested that in order to end the war as soon as possible, the troops should divide into two routes, one to take Veneda quickly, and the other to take Dursis.

Bolon, a veteran of Oonos' command, understood the General's intention in distributing the legions in this way, and objected:

"The Seventh Legion, which the General has cultivated single-handedly, is his pride. There must be no problems under our management. He divided the legion into two parts, one to prevent one of the two of us from making a mistake, and the other to correct and remedy it. Our two teams rely on each other and are foolproof. Therefore, they must not be separated at will.

If we divide our forces, in case we encounter a large army of Dacians or Germans in the jungle, it will not be a loss. ”

Artemios heard that and gave up.

By this time, however, the northern tribal alliance of Dacia had been nearly dissolved, and the regional chiefs of Plipet and Gepid had abandoned their people and fled to the nearby Germanic tribes with their families and belongings. The closest Germanic tribes to here are the Goths and Makomani. The original inhabitants and militias of the Dacian towns of Plipet and Gepid nevertheless organized resistance, and the Macedonian army showed no mercy.

Bolong came to the outside of the city with the main force, surrounded the town, and made siege equipment. He knew that Dacia had no more reinforcements.

That night, Artemios came to Bolon's tent to discuss the next day's attack. Bo Long joked:

"Young people study more, and tomorrow I will take the main force and give you a textbook siege battle."

"General Bolong is the confidant general next to the great general, and he is wise and brave. This is admired by the younger generations.

It's just that......

Will the general give me a chance to attack the city, I see that there are no regular soldiers in Dacia, so let me take Venida with the light cavalry troops. ”

"Hahaha, the little general loves to laugh. When did the light cavalry also become the first echelon of siege? I know that the defenders of the city are weak, but I should not take the enemy lightly. ”

"The Dacians are also a people who pay attention to the development of infantry. They now only have militia, and we can take full advantage of superior cavalry. Infantry, who are not well trained, are the most afraid of cavalry. I only asked the general to send me some archers for the early fire. ”

"The infantry of barbarian countries is often light infantry with short-handled guns. It comes with a certain ability to fight cavalry, so please think twice before you act.

As for the archers who don't need to be seconded, tomorrow I will let all the archers of the legion carry out the early fire strikes to provide you with cover.

In addition, I will send two phalanx of pikes to lead the way into the city, and your cavalry commando will come up later. ”

"This is a very good arrangement, thank you for the kindness of the general. Let the general take the lead in the general. ”

"Hey! A ragged colt may make a good horse. Seeing you so earnestly begging for war today, then I will no longer discourage your enthusiasm. Our soldiers are originally from a legion, and you are also the one I brought up, so there is no need for these polite words. It's just an attack tomorrow, and only a complete victory is allowed, and there must be no mistakes. ”

"Yes, General!"

The next day, the siege began.

Bolon's infantry echelon had already opened three passages into the city, and the archers were still covering it with fire. The defenders in the city were poorly trained, and the casualty rate was high. The effect of the fire strike was very good, and it caused great panic to the enemy.

The time is ripe. The two phalanx of pikemen led the way into the city, and were met head-on by Dacia's swordsmen and light infantry. The phalanx of spears directly split the enemy's encirclement and broke through the counter-attack offensive of the defenders in the city. The pikemen poked these swordsmen back step by step, and the enemy suffered heavy casualties and retreated.

Artemeos's assault team, which had been waiting outside the city walls, swarmed in, caught up with the enemy, and slashed them.

Artemios pursued all the way to the slopes of the city and wiped out the fleeing enemies. From the slope rushed down a large group of Dacian militia. Artemios led the light cavalry to engage directly at the head-on, before infantry reinforcements arrived. The cavalrymen took advantage of the impact of their horses and pushed forward to stab the enemy with their spears.

When the militia saw that the cavalry was better than their own, they panicked and fled in all directions after not holding out for a while.

There were a lot of militia in Dacia, and the ones behind were still running forward, but the teammates in front of them were already in disarray.

Emotions in the army are contagious very quickly, so in the era of cold weapons, people want to fight for the advantage of the first strike.

The rout of the enemy army, coupled with the encouragement of Artemeos, the cavalry was emboldened and marched forward. On the contrary, Dacia's militia was in a state of panic. The ones behind were crowded out of formation by those who retreated from the front, and they themselves were overwhelmed. The defenders of Dacia began to rout one after another. Artemios led the light cavalry to take advantage of the situation, killed countless enemies, and occupied the whole city.

Boron was calm about the cavalry plan from beginning to end, but the rapid breach of the city was a fait accompli, and he praised Artemios for his decisiveness and bravery.

He left Artemios and a small garrison at Veneda, and he himself led the rest of his soldiers to capture Dulcis, Dacia's last remote stronghold in the north.

The Seventh Regiment left Veneda and continued northward, crossing a river into the realm of Gepit.

After another period of marching, he finally came to Dulcis. It's a smaller town, more barren.

However, it was later called Novgorod, and it was the capital of the famous Novgorod dynasty in Russia.

Today, however, the town is still very simple, and most of the inhabitants are nomadic herders. The fortifications of the city were only wooden fences, and even basic arrow towers were not erected. The defenders are even more interesting, amateur soldiers under the banner of Dacia, security forces organized by local residents themselves.

The Seventh Army captured Dulcis without much difficulty.

The town was sparsely populated, and there was no opposition after the breach.

Boron was still very polite to these original inhabitants, telling them to obey the call of the Macedonian kingdom in the future.

At this point, it is already adjacent to the Germanic forest, and the woods are inhabited by those fierce Germanic peoples. Macedonia's first expansion came to a halt.

The Sixth Army of Abrias, which had split up earlier than the Seventh Army, had successfully captured the city of Budapest, and it was not long before the entire Pannonian region was pacified. After Abrias entered Pannonia, he was intervened and even provoked by the Gauls.

They tried to hinder the normal march of the Macedonian army. The Abrias bypassed the Gauls and went straight to Budapest. He didn't want to make a fuss, and the new king wanted to end the war as soon as possible.

Pannonia is the largest sub-faction of the Dacians, and the city of Budapest has a large number of defenders. But instead of going out of the city to face the fight, they defended passively. Abrias made the most of his strengths, allowing javelinmen and archers to get the most out of their role.

Dacia is a loose confederation of tribes. Infighting continues, with various factions fighting each other for power. Scenes of brutal fighting were repeated repeatedly, and activities such as poisoning and assassination among tribal leaders were even more frequent. Lured by Roman money, they also gathered a large army to wage war against the Macedonians.

The Seventh Legion of Oonos attacked the front. Coupled with the fact that Abrias penetrated straight into the rear from the hinterland, the two Macedonian armies were like iron pincers, crushing Dacia's resistance.

The Dacian army was losing ground one after another, and after the loss of Pololison and Yaski, the tribes could no longer sit still. First the chief leader was assassinated, and then the alliance was dissolved, and each fought separately. The Germanic people also intervened in the civil strife and took advantage of the opportunity. Dacia was so weak that he was only waiting to be conquered by Macedonia.