Davers obviously did not have the patience to wait for the other party to end, and immediately gave an order: "Attack!" ”

Dozens of trumpeters evenly arranged behind the huge array sounded their trumpets one after another.

"Uh!! ......" the majestic trumpet rose to the sky.

"Avenge Captain Dracos and the brothers who died in battle!" The 4th and 5th Legionnaires, in the middle of the huge phalanx, shouted first, which was quickly echoed by the other troops, and the cries of vengeance replaced the call to Hades, and the morale of the Dionian soldiers had risen to its peak by the time the voices of the same enemy rang out.

"Cunning Davers! Damn Davers! Dionysius was so angry that the superior army of Syracuse had been repeatedly taken the initiative by the Dionians, which made him feel breathless after being on land since he had landed in Great Greece. The soldiers of Syracuse have not finished their prayers, the enemy has already begun to attack, due to the tactical arrangement, he can not wait for the soldiers to finish their prayers before advancing, so this will inevitably affect the morale of the soldiers, he can only comfort himself: that young man can only play clever, and the real decision to win or lose depends on strength!

"Attack!" He had a hideous face and shouted angrily.

On the afternoon of the last day of 394 BC, on the plain of Croton, a major battle began to decide the overlord of the Greek city-states in the western Mediterranean.

The Dionian Alliance had more than 5,000 men in the First Legion, more than 7,000 in the Second Legion, more than 12,000 in the Fourth and Fifth Legions, 14,000 in the Sixth and Seventh Legions, 6,000 in the Spear Brigade, 5,000 Bruti warriors recruited by Hieronymus, 5,000 reinforcements from Crotone and Trina, about 1,500 cavalry legions, 1,000 Mountain Scout Brigades, and 300 convoys, bringing the total strength of Dionya to more than 58,000 men.

Davers placed the Seventh Army led by Martonis on the far right, near the Thacinade, and then arranged them to the left, respectively, the Sixth Army of Oliverus, the Bruti warriors of Hieronymus, the Fourth Army of Epitenis, the Fifth Army of Phellisius, the Second Army of Amintas, the First Army of Antonios, the Crotone-Trina reinforcements, the cavalry regiment of Rydes on the far left, and the spear brigade led by Cappus behind the Kett reinforcements, arranged in columns, perpendicular to the phalanx. The left flank of the Kett reinforcements and the 1st and 2nd Corps formed a horizontal column with a thickness of 15 columns according to the special instructions of Davers, and the rest of the troops formed a formation of 8-10 columns thick.

The cavalry legions are the most special, they try to spread to the left and backward in a loose formation, trying to occupy a large area, to shield the enemy from probing their long-haired brigade, and to achieve another purpose before the battle.

When the Syracuse army landed in Great Greece, it had 80,000 infantry, 2,000 Numibian cavalry, 800 Celtic cavalry, and 1,000 Sicilian League cavalry.

However, the two newly conquered city-states of Siriting and Trina needed to arrange garrisons, especially the number of garrisons required for Siriting as a logistics supply base for the army, in order to prevent Dioonia from the direction of Bruti and its navy from the sea. The camp facing the city of Sprustum also needs to be garrisoned to prevent the enemy from attacking the rear of the army from the city of Sprustum during the battle. In total, nearly thirteen thousand people were separated.

After the capture of the city of Crotone, the Syracuse army later counted about 7,000 dead and seriously wounded soldiers. The Dionian navy fought a battle on the surface of the Crotone Sea, because Reptines listened to the advice of Dionysius and sent 9,000 elite soldiers to fight on the ships, but the result was a crushing defeat, losing about 7,000 soldiers, so the Syracuse infantry who finally participated in this battle had a total strength of 62,000 men, plus 3,500 cavalry (lost in the Battle of the Ramato River and the plundering of the Dionian land), a total of 65,500 men, which was 7,500 more than the Dionian army. The cavalry of which was more than twice as large as the Dionian cavalry.

Therefore, after Phoebidas had a preliminary understanding of the military arrangement of Dionia, he discussed with Dionysius: the army of the weaker other city-states of Sicily, plus the army of about 18,000 people of the Lockri League, was placed on the left flank under the command of Fasipesas; 10,000 Campanian mercenaries and 9,000 Syracuse citizen soldiers, led by Dionysius himself, sat in the center; On the right flank, there were 15,000 elite soldiers who had followed Dionysius for many years (mainly mercenaries, who were later given citizenship and land to Syracuse by Dionysius, and were the most loyal to Dionysius), and 10,000 Syracuse citizen soldiers led by Phoebeidas; On the far right flank were 3,500 cavalry, and since the mercenary cavalry had not acted according to the prior plan in the last battle, not only did Dionysius warn the two alien leaders again and again before this battle, but also made the hot-tempered and fierce Astaras the temporary commander of the cavalry from the three different forces to facilitate the execution of the plan.

The trumpets of the attack sounded, and Dionia's left, center, and right armies advanced steadily at the same time, while the light infantry of the 7th Brigade of the various legions quickly came to the front of the formation through the intervals of the small "checkerboard" phalanx, and rushed to the enemy in a loose line. Another reason why they advanced so quickly was to force the enemy cavalry cruising in front of the formation to retreat, and it was no longer possible to observe some subsequent movements of the Dionian army. The mercenary cavalry retreated to the far right flank of the Syracuse army as they wished, resting for a moment in preparation for the next attack

The light infantry of Syracuse had already been deployed in front of the array, and they did not show weakness in meeting them.

When the main forces of heavy infantry on both sides were still 500 meters away, more than 10,000 light infantry on both sides had already begun to fight. For a time, on the horizontal line of about eight or nine miles from west to east, arrows rained down and javelins collided in mid-air without interruption, and then stabbed the soldiers' bodies and took their lives......

In contrast to the Dionian army, which advanced at almost the same pace on the left, center, and right, the situation in Syracuse was different, with the main forces on the left and center advancing at a slower pace, and the right on the slower.

Phoebidas was the leader of the front on the right flank, a powerful right flank of 25,000 Syracuse soldiers with a thickness of 25 columns, and met the enemy in front of him with twice the number of steps faster than the soldiers in the center, and gradually began to break away from the center.

And the cavalry on the far right flank was faster. As soon as the cannon sounded, more than 3,500 cavalry accelerated forward with a wide front about a mile long, and the horses with four hooves quickly increased their speed.

At the forefront of the 800 Celtic cavalry, a fierce race from the foothills of the Alps living in the Po River Plain, their cavalry tactics were different from the swift and erratic Numibian cavalry, they disdained to lure, harass, and invest in javelins to kill and wound the enemy, and were more adept at head-to-face charges, especially driving chariots against the enemy's tight formations, only because they were hired by Syracuse, the distance was long, and it was inconvenient to transport chariots, so they did not carry them. But even without chariots, the impact of the Celtic cavalry was still terrifying, and most of their cavalry were armed with swords instead of spears, which made it easier to slice the opponent's neck in a cavalry battle, so Astargoras put them at the forefront, using their great lethality to disrupt the enemy's cavalry formation.

The subsequent more than 1,800 Lumibian cavalry, and then gave the first phase of the crowd, the last Syracuse banner, and under the leadership of Astagras, just clean up the mess, and then restrain these mercenary cavalry, do not pursue, and attack the rear of the enemy's left flank together, thousands of war horses galloped, and once again lifted the dust and fog in the sky, repeated hundreds of times, war drums, and thunder at the same time, and the earth was constantly trembling

The more than 1,500 cavalry of Dionya are also advancing, but the speed is not as fast as that of the enemy, especially because the cavalry horses at the tail are also dragging branches on the tail, which is easier to stir up dust on the ground.

When he was still more than 200 meters away from the enemy cavalry, the cavalry commander Ryders looked back at the dust and fog that had begun to fill behind him, and shouted to several cavalrymen who were following him with a little nervousness: "Retreat!" ”

Even if several trumpets were sounded at the same time, there was no guarantee that all the Ionian cavalry, who were also loosely formed and formed in a frontal formation nearly a mile long, could hear all of the Ionian cavalry in a battlefield with thunderous horse hooves, but fortunately, they had been trained many times before, and the cavalrymen were always keeping an eye on the movements of their nearby teammates.

Just when all the Dionian cavalry turned their horses and ran back, the Syracuse cavalry had approached within a hundred meters, and the roaring hooves of horses behind him knocked on Ryders's nervous heart, he urged his horse forward, and stared ahead, and when he saw the human wall, his heart suddenly hung up: "Turn!" He shouted, and turned his horse to the left.

There was no need for him to shout, and all the Dionian cavalry who could see the scene quickly parted to the sides according to the training they had received before.

The cavalry in the rear kept an eye on the movement ahead, and as soon as they saw their comrades change direction, they immediately followed suit.

…………………………………

When the trumpet of the attacking army of Dionya sounded, the spear brigade did not immediately advance with the rest of the army, but quickly lengthened the column and immediately moved to the position of the original cavalry, forming a phalanx about a mile long and ten columns thick, which was alone behind the whole army.

Although Kapus, who was located at the rear of the phalanx, was already a battle-hardened general, he was also very nervous at the moment: although the tactics against the enemy cavalry this time were similar to those in the Battle of the Trionto River, the scale of the war was several times larger, the enemy's cavalry was stronger, and the quality of the soldiers he led was not as good as the original batch of soldiers from the Persian expeditionary force, could they resist the thousands of enemy cavalry charging head-on?!