Terina's herald galloped fast, but because the Allaro River is too deep to wade, he had to make a huge detour north.
After crossing the Allaro River and rushing to the battlefield, blood stained the skin on the inner side of his legs and his horse's belly, while his whole body was shaking as he rode his horse. Seeing the Theonian scouts coming to et him, he scread, “I am…am the herald of Terina! The Syracusan fleet, carrying tens of thousands of soldiers, had passed through the Allaro River to reinforce…hurry! Go and report it to your commanders!…”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Although Philesius was worried about the disastrous defeat of the alliance's cavalries for a while, his mood improved when the Syracusan rcenaries busily chased the defeated soldiers rather than helping their infantry pull back the tide on their right flank. Thus, while feeling lucky, he also scoffed in his heart that even though the Syracusan cavalry is powerful, they lack battlefield discipline and see the big picture.
Now Theonia's left flank, centre and even the right flank is moving forward…
Philesius had just ordered the flag bearer to move the banner forward, but now it seems that they have to move it forward again.
‘Soon! Soon!…’Philesius wondered how long the Syracusans could resist. At this mont, he thought victory was like an apple that is about to ripen and is already within his reach.
But then, the scouts from the west ca rushing, “Reporting to the commander! The reinforcents of Syracuse are disembarking on the back of the Allaro River, and there may be tens of thousands!” After receiving the notice from the Terinian herald, they especially rushed to the bank to confirm and was shocked by what they saw.
“What did you say?! The enemy has tens of thousands of reinforcents?!” Philesius, who was in high spirits, felt like getting poured with cold water.
“Yes, commander! There are tens of thousands of Syracusan reinforcents! They are now landing on the riverbank a kilotre behind our right flank!” The scout shouted anxiously, “We must stop them!”
This shocking news caught Philesius off guard. He glanced at the people around him with a bit of panic and saw that they also were nervously waiting for his instructions as he was the alliance commander.
Realising this, Philesius coughed twice to ease his panic, “Order! Imdiately send two light-armoured brigades and two light infantry brigades to rush to the riverbank where the enemy are disembarking. Have them stop the enemy at all costs from attacking our rear!”
“Roger!”
“Sound the salpinx again and urge the fourth and fifth legion to step up their attack! And imdiately tell the two legatus and the three allied strategoi, Siprus, Asesias and Ascamas, about our current dangerous situation so that they don't have reservations at attacking the enemy with all their strength!”
They then imdiately followed the order.
After Philesius finished giving the arrangent, he finally had the ti to think, ‘Where did the enemy get tens of thousands of reinforcents? Is it the army of dma? However, the Terinians said that dma is only a small town, so how could they send out tens of thousands of soldiers?…’
Philesius did not consider the Syracusan troops besieging the city of Caulonia because the alliance's reconnaissance was paying attention to the more than 40,000 Syracuse-Locri troops and saw that they were preparing to attack the city.
But what he doesn't know is that at this ti, in order to help the South Italian army, strategoi Pheidon of Rhegium had even risked his army to attack dma, hoping to force the Syracusan to return to their aid, which would disrupt Syracuse's plan.
But from this mont on, Philesius' uneasiness began to increase…
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
From the centre of the formation to the coast where the Syracusans landed was 3 kilotres. Therefore, even though the marching of the Theonian light-armoured and light infantry were fast, it still took so ti. So by the ti they reached the riverbank, most of the Campanian rcenaries had landed and ford up.
Although the enemy was so nurous that they occupied the entire riverbank, the Theonian soldiers still charged at them bravely according to their usual training.
The 2,000 light infantry rained arrows and javelins into the enemy. At the sa ti, the 2,000 light-armoured soldiers, ard with leather shields and short swords, ran as fast as they could directly into the loosely ford rcenaries.
Leptines did not expect the Theonian's assault as he thought that according to the habits of the Greek city-states, both sides should have already invested all their forces in order to win during this ti. Unexpectedly, the South Italian Alliance army could still draw out troops to block them.
Of course, Leptines didn't know that Philesius was unaware of Dionysius' plan. Instead, it was the Theonian army regulation stipulating that “as a commander, Philesius should keep a reserve unit in battle in order to change the battle situation by sending them during a critical mont in the course of the battle.” Philesius just acted according to this, and the 2,000 light-armoured soldiers were his reserve units. And after completing the initial attack, the 2,000 light infantry retreated to the rear of the formation and beca a part of the reserve units.
The sudden impact of the 4,000 Theonian soldiers plunged the newly disembark Campanian rcenaries into a ss for a mont.
At this critical mont, Leptines quickly ordered the remaining ships to land. As the navarch of Syracuse, his original task was only to transport the reinforcents, while Dionysius gave the task of leading the reinforcents to attack the enemy to Enanus, the rcenary leader. But now, Enanus was caught in the chaos together with the soldiers, and it was unknown whether he was still alive or not, so Leptines had to take up the heavy responsibility of rescuing them.
He jumped off the ship and ordered the remaining rcenaries to land imdiately.
Seeing the situation of their companions while they were still on the ship, the rcenaries beca anxious that so jumped directly onto the riverbank before the ship could even stop.
After forming a team in a hurry, Leptines led them around the forefront of the collapsing rcenaries that were forced to retreat. They then braved rains of arrows of the Theonian light infantry to attack the flank of the Theonian light-armoured soldiers, which caused the fierce offensive of the light-armoured soldiers to stop. In reality, the rapid long-distance march and their rapid attack have consud a lot of the Theonians stamina.
The chaotic front of the rcenaries finally eased as they began using their nurical strength and heavy armour to their advantage, causing the casualties of the Theonian light-armoured soldiers to rise sharply. But if it were the light-armoured soldiers of the first and second legion of Theonia, they would have lasted longer. Unfortunately, most light-armoured soldiers of the fourth and fifth legions had co from Bruttii and Lucania. They were born in the mountains and grew up learning how to avoid the enemy if they are in a weaker position rather than fight them head-on… Although they have received Theonia's military training and discipline during their years in the union, the thought of saving their lives in tis of crisis still prevailed…
The Theonian light-armoured soldiers retreated, so the light infantry without protection also retreated…
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
At this ti, the battle had lasted nearly an hour. Both the fighting and shouting had weakened the soldiers, but suddenly, both sides blew their salpinx and drums almost at the sa ti, urging them to attack.
Thus the soldiers on both sides had to fight using their last bit of strength to speed up their offence and defence.
For Dionysius, the only thing in his mind was to resist the enemy's attack before their reinforcents arrived.
For Philesius, he only had one belief: to break through the enemy's formation and claim the victory before the enemy's reinforcents arrived.
Both sides have reached a critical mont in deciding the winner.
Appian, who had several blade wounds on his arms and thighs, was too tired to even lift his long shield, while his hand that was holding the short sword trembles slightly from using his full strength at prolonged duration. He huffed and panted like a seriously ill and dying patient. On the other hand, the enemy he is facing is even worse than him because the armour he is wearing is too heavy that he had even thrown away the round shield and was holding the spear with both hands with his whole body shaking.
Appian didn't look at them with contempt as the Theonian army couldn't even use their unique formation*. Therefore, he thought it was because their opponent was giving them too much pressure and sticking to them tightly that the legatus was afraid to switch formation easily. (I.e. interchanging of the rear and front formations.)
In fact, another main reason why they did not implent it was that the fourth and fifth legions had just participated in a battle for the first ti and were facing a powerful foe. And it also just happened that the left and right flank are their allies’ troops, and this is also the first ti for them to fight together. Thus, Philesius was afraid of rashly changing the formation and causing the soldiers to make mistakes under intense pressure, and the allied troops wouldn't understand it and cooperate. After all, changing the rear formation to the front formation requires the whole formation to retreat gradually, which may lead to the whole army becoming chaotic.
The loud salpinx was not only to urge the soldiers fighting but also to urge the other forces, such as the Syracusan rcenaries who are chasing the alliance's cavalries and are returning leisurely. And also the two Syracusan reinforcents who are rushing to the battlefield.
If it were his past habits, the Crotonian strategos – Ascamas would have stood at the forefront and fought the enemy head-on. However, Philesius asked all the alliance's strategoi to sit in the rear and not participate in the battle to preside over the communication before the battle started. At that ti, Ascamas just laughed at the Theonian's greed for life and fear of death, but now, he should be thanking Philesius for this request because he manages to hear a different salpinx’s sound coming from the opposite side.
The sound of the salpinx ca from the outside of the Crotonian army, which is loud and hard and is getting closer and closer…then, in his field of vision, countless soldiers with bright helts appeared.
‘Syracuse's reinforcents?!’ Ascamas fell off his horse in a panic as he watched the enemy roar as they rushed towards the rear of the Crotonian soldiers like a tide.
At that dreadful mont, the only thing in Ascamas' numb brain, ‘Didn't Philesius say that the enemy's reinforcents were coming from the riverbank on the right?!…’
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