Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 906: Battle of Gela (3)

When the battalion commander hoarsely shouted, "Retreat!" the light infantrymen swiftly fell back in relief. They slipped through the gaps in the phalanx to reach the rear. By this point, only about 700 of them remained, and nearly every man carried a wound.

Fifty meters from the Carthaginian lines, the Eighth Legion slowed its advance and rapidly shifted its checkerboard array into a tight phalanx.

The Balearic Slingers and Lusitanian javelin throwers also took this opportunity to withdraw from the narrow space between the two armies. Despite taking nearly 200 casualties, they had managed to hold a slight upper hand.

Seeing the enemy light infantry retreat, the soldiers of the Eighth Legion slowed their pace further and drew their javelins in preparation.

At that moment, under the orders of their officers, the previously stationary Phoeno-Numidian Infantry suddenly surged forward in great strides, preparing to charge the Eighth Legion.

This sudden movement by the Phoeno-Numidian Infantry completely disrupted the Eighth Legion's rhythm. After hurling their first volley of javelins, the soldiers had no choice but to charge forward and clash with the enemy.

...

Compared to the rapid advance on the right wing, the center and left wing of the Daunian Allied Forces were still moving forward at a slow, measured pace. Across the field, the center and right wing of the Carthaginian army remained stationary. Some units were even still organizing their formations. Compared to the well-trained Phoeno-Numidian Infantry, both the Iberian infantry and the Lusitanian Warriors appeared somewhat sluggish. Fortunately for the Carthaginians, Hasdrubal was stationed in their right wing. Spurred on by his loud shouts and commands, the Iberians and Lusitanians finished forming their ranks and impatiently pushed forward.

The Lusitanians on the far right flank were particularly fast, sprinting ahead at a rapid pace.

A massive force transferred through their round shields into their bodies. Had it not been for the thick, supportive ranks pressing against their backs, the frontline soldiers of Camarina would have been sent flying. Even so, the impact left them staggering, completely ruining their optimal defensive stances.

The Lusitanian Warriors naturally refused to waste such a perfect opportunity, viciously thrusting forward with their sharp falcatas.

Camarina's soldiers screamed as they fell one after another. Even those who managed to block the strikes were left with lingering fear. A trace of dread took root in their hearts as they faced these tall, burly, and ferocious-looking enemies.

...

When the opposing center lines finally clashed, the battle between the Daunian Allied Forces and the Carthaginian army entered full-scale combat. The overall battle line formed a massive diagonal across the field; the northern units were pushed furthest to the west, while the southern units stretched furthest to the east.

The three-li-long battlefront was shrouded in swirling dust kicked up by the struggling soldiers. Battle cries, the clash of weapons, and agonized screams echoed everywhere. Across such a vast, chaotic, and blinding battlefield, it was impossible for Leotychides to see even a fraction of the fight. His only reliance lay with the scout cavalry scattered behind the lines, who constantly reported the battle conditions of their respective sectors back to him at the central rear.

Were the soldiers advancing or retreating? Were their casualties higher than the enemy's? The first question was easy enough to observe, but the second required the scouts to rely entirely on their own judgment. All the intelligence gathered by the scout cavalry was ultimately recorded onto a wooden board carried by Muklu, which was used to evaluate the shifting tides of the battle.

"Commander, look here—" Muklu raised the wooden board in front of Leotychides with a grave expression. "This was the situation right after the initial clash! And this is the situation now! Our left wing has been pushed back significantly, and our center has retreated slightly. Meanwhile, our Eighth Legion on the right wing hasn't advanced much at all!"

Leotychides stared at the board covered in data. In truth, he had heard every report delivered by the scouts and already had a solid grasp of the situation. The wooden board simply provided a more direct and clear representation.

Leotychides's already cold face darkened further. When the battle first began, he had actually felt relaxed because his initial plan had been realized. The Carthaginians had indeed matched his troop deployment step-by-step, turning the battle into a head-on clash of heavy infantry. He believed that the superior defensive capabilities of the Greek Heavy Infantry would force a prolonged stalemate, draining more of the enemy's stamina and facilitating his next tactical maneuver. What he never expected was that after just half an hour of fighting, his left wing would fall into a disadvantage.

He felt he had already placed great importance on this Carthaginian army, yet the enemy's performance still exceeded his expectations.

"Deploy the cavalry legion," he ordered after a moment of deliberation.

Muklu was slightly startled. He knew this wasn't the original plan, which was to wait until both sides were somewhat exhausted from a prolonged engagement, with the Eighth Legion on the right wing hopefully holding a clear upper hand. The 4th Cavalry Legion's charge was supposed to be the final step to seal their victory, but now it was being used prematurely.

Naturally, Muklu didn't try to dissuade him. He understood that the current situation was slightly unfavorable to the allied forces.

"Wait," Leotychides hesitated briefly before speaking with renewed decisiveness. "Have the light-armored infantry battalion and the light infantry battalion follow the cavalry. They will attack the rear flank of the Carthaginian left wing together!"

Muklu froze. This time, he couldn't hold back his warning. "Commander, the light-armored infantry battalion is our only reserve!"

"The Carthaginians have slingers, which pose a great threat to our cavalry," Leotychides replied calmly. "Reserves are meant to be used at critical moments. And that critical moment is right now."

Muklu fell silent. As he dispatched messengers to notify the three units, a trace of unease lingered in his heart. After all, Leotychides was pushing their few remaining winning chips onto the Carthaginian left wing, thereby losing the ability to intervene in the overall battle from then on.

Having waited behind the right wing for half an hour, the 4th Cavalry Legion and their allied counterparts were already growing impatient. The moment they received the order to strike, the Legion Commander took the lead, and the rest of the cavalry immediately followed. The 1,000 riders of the 4th Cavalry Legion formed a long column, four ranks wide, followed by 300 allied cavalrymen.

The Daunian 4th Cavalry Legion was the weakest of the kingdom's four major cavalry legions. Within the territories of Magna Graecia, tribes like the Bruttii, Messapii, and Peuceti were all skilled in horse breeding and possessed the capability to provide cavalry. The Sicily Territory, however, lacked such conditions. Raising warhorses was vastly different from rearing ordinary steeds. They not only required massive amounts of forage but also a diet rich in beans to ensure they had the strength to bear riders. Furthermore, frequent riding—whether in combat or training—made the horses highly susceptible to injury. As a result, a cavalryman's household generally needed to maintain at least two horses to meet basic training and combat needs. Clearly, raising warhorses placed a heavy burden even on the wealthiest citizens of Daionia, as well as on specialized horse breeders and merchants.

The Sicily Territory simply had no tradition of breeding horses. Furthermore, most of its inhabitants were originally refugees who had repeatedly suffered persecution from Syracuse, so very few were wealthy. When the 4th Cavalry Legion was first established, few citizens enlisted. Over the years, the living conditions of the local populace greatly improved, and the Senate of the Kingdom passed numerous bills granting substantial privileges to citizens who became cavalrymen—such as exempting their households from land taxes and having the Ministry of Military Affairs distribute a fixed monthly stipend to each rider. In fact, the cavalry was the only branch of the Daunian military to receive a regular salary. Yet even spurred by these favorable factors, the 4th Cavalry Legion had only just crossed the 1,000-man mark, falling far short of a full complement.

For years, the Fourth Cavalry Legion had remained in their encampments, yet to experience real war. Even in this ongoing conflict, they had only served as a supporting force without any major achievements. The riders all hungered to prove themselves. So, after sweeping around the right wing of the formation and cutting a long arc hundreds of meters behind the enemy's left flank, Legion Commander Astemis—influenced by the extreme, belligerent fervor of the soldiers around him—deliberately ignored Leotychides's instructions. Instead of waiting in place for the light-armored infantry and light infantry battalions to arrive, he decided to launch a probing strike first.

Upon receiving the order to attack, the riders steered their horses into a slow canter. But before they could build up speed, they were struck by a volley of flying stones from the Balearic Slingers. Even from hundreds of meters away, the Balearic projectiles retained considerable accuracy, and the slingers deliberately focused their targets on the horses. Compared to the cavalrymen clad in leather helmets and armor, the highly sensitive warhorses reacted violently when struck by the lead bullets, immediately shrieking and rearing up. They threw their riders to the ground and bolted across the field in panic.

In an instant, the frantic neighing of horses filled the air. The fallen cavalrymen scrambled desperately to chase down their mounts, leaving the scene in total chaos. The attack was forced to a halt.

Astemis finally managed to rally the cavalry. A rough count revealed they had lost over 90 riders—nearly a tenth of the entire legion. His heart ached at the loss, and not daring to act rashly again, he quietly waited for his helpers to arrive.

More than ten minutes later, the two battalions arrived.

The cavalry hadn't been idle while they waited. Astemis had dispatched small squads of riders to scout ahead. After paying the price of a few casualties, they brought back a rough layout of the Carthaginian rear left flank: the enemy slingers were positioned a hundred meters behind their main battle line, arranged in a loose linear formation facing the Fourth Cavalry Legion. Guarding the front of the slingers were several hundred javelin throwers, along with hundreds of foreign light infantrymen—because the Celts mostly fought bare-chested and wore no armor, the Daunian cavalry assumed they were light infantry...