Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Xenophon walked over, and the Spartans who saw him greeted him: "Xenophon, you are here again!"

"Don't worry, old man, with us guarding here, the Dionians can't get on the shore at all, you old people over 60 can rest at home with peace of mind."

"I said that Xenophon, you come here every day, not because you are afraid that we will not be able to keep the coast, but because you are afraid that we will capture a lot of Dionian prisoners, but you will not give it to you.

"Hahaha..."

Hearing the jokes of the soldiers, Xenophon was not upset, and said with a smile: "Do I need you to send me a prisoner? I will catch it myself."

"No, you have no chance." A Spartan warrior joked: "The Council of Elders stipulates that elderly people over 60 can only stay at home. As a final preparation, I think you should go back to the city to listen. Good news for us!"

The soldiers laughed again.

Xenophon liked this atmosphere. He felt the soldiers' confidence in defeating powerful enemies, so he patted his chest and said loudly, "Although I am over 60 years old, I am no worse than you young people! If you don't believe me, come out with me. Contest!" As he said, he lifted his clothes and put on a wrestling posture.

The soldiers booed for a while, you pushed me, I pushed you, but no one wanted to stand up and compete with him. They all felt ashamed to compete with the old man.

At this moment, a high-pitched trumpet suddenly sounded in the camp.

"There is an enemy!!" The soldiers reminded each other loudly, each quickly ran back to their tent, and soon they put on their armors, took up the shield and spears, and formed a team of 10 in front of the tent. Under the leadership of the team officer, he ran out of the camp and ran to the beach.

In just a quarter of an hour, Xenophon's surroundings became empty, and he couldn't help but sigh: If only the Spartan army defending the coast were all such fighters!

It is a pity that there are only more than 300 well-trained, young and strong Spartans here. Although there are more than 500 veteran Spartans who are 50-60 years old, they are not weak, but they are assigned to the camp. The Piriasi and Black Laoshi in the team served as team officers.

So when Xenophon continued to move forward, he saw the old warriors yelling, and the Piriasi soldiers and the Black Rollers were chaotically running around.

He frowned, speeded up his pace, walked through the camp, stood at a higher place, and looked forward: under the sun, the sea was still sparkling at high tide, except for the flying seabirds, it looked very calm. There seems to be nothing unusual.

But Xenophon did not take it lightly. The Spartans built several 5-meter-high outposts on the seashore, and the sentry on the roof would naturally find out the enemy earlier than him.

Sure enough, after only a while, some small black spots appeared in the farthest part of the field of vision. It didn't take long for the black spots to become sails, then into warships, and then quickly covered. Going out of the sea ahead, heading straight towards the bay where I am...

In this process, teams of Spartan soldiers ran to the beach one after another, and under the command of the team officers, they lined up in an arc-shaped array along the flat coast.

…………………………………………………………

These warships of Dionia stopped moving less than one mile from the coast, lined up, then lowered their sails, dropped their anchors, and tried their best to stay still...

Such a scene is not much different from yesterday. Is it another feint by the Dionia fleet?... Xenophon was thinking in confusion, and then saw many small sailless boats sailing out between these tall Dionian three-layer paddle warships, with many soldiers on board, taking advantage of the highest tide. At that time, driven by the tide, with the small draft of the boat, it can be able to pass the underwater ship-stopping pile and continue towards the coast...

The Dionians are really going to land this time!Xenophon was surprised.

The Spartan commander by the sea apparently sensed the enemy's intentions, and the bugle sounded again.

Hundreds of Piriasi crew flocked to more than a dozen small and medium-sized warships moored on the beach and pushed them into the sea.

Sparta suffered a disastrous defeat in the naval battle with Athens last year. There are more than 20 warships remaining in the Gulf of Laconia. As a result, after the arrival of the Dionian fleet, in order to prevent it from being completely destroyed, all of them had to be destroyed. Push ashore.

In order to prevent the Dionian warship from docking, when the Spartans set up a large number of ship-blocking stakes, they specially left a blank space in the sea area more than 100 meters near the shore to ensure that their warships could also participate in the defense.In the last landing operation to block Dionia, the Spartans' warships did play a significant role, this time it was a repeat of the old trick.

These Spartan warships were pushed off the coast, and under the vigorous oars of the sailors, they prepared to meet the Dionian boats heading to the coast.

However, the Dionian boat running at the forefront stopped about 200 meters from the coast, and the infantrymen of the fleet with leather shields and helmets and daggers jumped off the ship.The sea depth here is more than two meters, but the soldiers do not need to waste physical effort to tread water all the time. Instead, the dense boat-blocking stakes are used for their assistance. They only need to be gently supported and they can stay in place to rest.

The crew of Piriasi were surprised to find that after the Dionian soldiers jumped out of the sea, they stayed still, while the boats began to return.If they want to attack the Dionian soldiers floating on the sea, they must pass through the dense ship-blocking stakes, which is undoubtedly more difficult.

Just when they hesitated, they suddenly saw dozens of small black spots flying on the Dionia warship in the distance.

"It's the ballista of the Dionians! Hurry up!" a crew member exclaimed.

"Don't worry too much, the distance is too far, they can't hit us at all." A crew member comforted, the last time the Dionians landed in combat, they used ballistas, but they hardly caused any damage to the Spartan ships. Any loss, so most of the crew are not too worried.

Unexpectedly, dozens of stone bullets roared in, concentrated on the top of the two Spartan warships in the front, and fell down. While smashing a water column, eight or nine stone bullets accurately hit the hull.

In the "Boom! Boom!" tremor, some stone bullets hit the mast, some smashed through the deck, sawdust flew across, and the crew's exclamation and screams were intertwined.

Just when the two ships were in a panic, dozens of stone bullets roared and flew, more accurately fell around the two almost stationary warships, and soon saw the mast break and the hull. Began to overturn.

Sekerian learned the lessons from the previous time, and after the brainstorming of the squadron officers, he specially selected today, when the wind and waves were relatively calm, as the day of attack, and the 40 ballistas borrowed from the land army were no longer scattered. On the 40 warships, the five Raven warships closest to the center of the coast were crossed and moved closer to each other, and they were connected to each other by a crow suspension bridge to form a whole. 40 Ballistas were concentrated on the decks of these ships. First, unified command, use the smallest type of stone bullets (this can increase the range), and focus on attacking one target instead of fighting separately like last time. This greatly improves the hit rate.

The first two rounds of firing hit the enemy ship, which gave the soldiers of the Dionian Ballista team a lot of confidence. Under the command of the team officer, they then focused on the scattered Spartan ships one by one. .

The commander who defended the Spartan territory was Udamidas, the brother of Phoebedas, an outstanding general. At this moment, he was standing on the shore, paying close attention to the enemy situation on the sea. He did not expect Dioni The Asian soldiers will go to sea so far from the coast, and stay in the waters of the boat-blocking stakes, and meet the soldiers on the boats coming from behind. Both the warships and the archers on the shore towers are temporarily unable to respond. They attacked.

He did not expect that the ballistas fired by the ballistas on the Dionian battleship today would be so accurate. Less than half an hour after the Spartan battleship left the beach, seven or eight ships were sunk. , It is destroyed so that it cannot be used.

He had to order the few remaining warships to run aground on the beach.

Unexpectedly, he saw Dionia's ballista again shooting stone bullets. The target was no longer the warship, but the Spartan warriors on the shore.

He yelled anxiously: "Go away! Go away!..."

After all, they experienced it during the last defensive landing. The soldiers were still calm. They looked at the direction of the stone bullet and quickly dispersed and avoided.

The powerful stone bullets fell one after another, and the sand splashed everywhere, but did not cause any casualties.

But when Dionia's ballista turned to attack other troops on the coast, there was an immediate riot, resulting in casualties.

Under such circumstances, Udamidas had to give an order: "All troops retreat beyond the range of the ballista!"

In this way, there was a distance of about 100 meters between the front of the Spartan army and the beach.

Udamidas made up his mind: Once he found that the enemy was about to go ashore, he led the army to swiftly push up and fight with the disorganized enemy. The two sides were close together, and the ballista would naturally not function.

Just as he felt a bit of a headache for the new landing tactics of the Dionian army, he received two bad news one after another: The Laganda Passage Fortress was attacked by thousands of Dionian soldiers from the west. Fierce attack.At the same time, many Dionian soldiers appeared on the seaside trail on the western headland of the Gulf of Laconia, trying to take down the fortress south of Port Ision.

As Agsilius led the main force northward and Messenia had been relatively calm, there were no more than a hundred soldiers remaining in these two important defensive strongholds, and most of the soldiers were Piriasi.