Ifikratus nodded with relief. With Jason's statement, it at least showed that his efforts were not in vain.

He looked at the Thessaly military camp, where there was already fire in the sky, and countless torches rushed out of the camp gate, extending to the north, gradually forming a winding fire dragon...

Iphicratus prayed silently with a solemn expression: May Athena protect her and the Thessalians go well!

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Due to the departure of Thessali troops, the morale of the army was fluctuating. In the following days, the Greek coalition forces closed down and did not leave. At the same time, out of concern, they had to strengthen their defense.

While busy pacifying the generals and soldiers of the coalition forces, Ephiclatus sent people to inform the Peloponnese allies and warned them to strengthen their defenses.

As expected, Crotokataks, who had discovered the enemy situation, sent the First Legion to move north from Sparta and attacked some of the Greek coalition forces besieging Mandinia. The Greek coalition forces ordered by Iphicratus voluntarily retreated, and Mandinia was temporarily escaped.

The 1st Legion, which failed to fight the Greek coalition, continued to head north and headed straight to Corinth in the isthmus.

Efikratus, who received the news, did not lead the army to rescue him, but asked the main force of the coalition to continue to stay in the camp of Leprion, and at the same time he would attack the camp of Dionia in Mesenia at any time, forcing Dionia not to easily transfer the troops in Mesenia. Only the Greek coalition forces that had besieged Mantinia before followed the First Legion, but once the First Legion turned to attack it, they quickly avoided it. But their existence made the First Legion not dare to attack the city of Corinth, which seemed to be relatively tightly defended.

Two days later, the First Legion, which failed to achieve the purpose of mobilizing the main force of the Greek coalition, did not dare to stay in a completely unfamiliar enemy territory for a long time. In addition, the food rations he carried had been consumed, so he turned around and returned to Lagnia again.

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Just when the battle in the Peloponnese was temporarily quelled and the two sides showed a strange confrontation, Jason had led his army across the Gulf of Corinth, landed in Cleus in Thebes, and headed north quickly, crossed the Piosha area, and entered the Fokis area.

At this time, the Fokis no longer rejected the Thessalians as much as they did a few months ago. After all, both sides are now allies, and Fokis is facing the threat of the Dionian army stationed in the north and urgently needs the help of the Thessalian army. Therefore, the Thessalian army was welcomed by the Fokis, and Greek reinforcements were also welcomed.

After some negotiations, Jason roughly understood the situation in the north: the Dionysian army occupied Heraclia, and at the same time captured the hot spring pass, and continued to go south for a while, surrounding the city of Kitinian. Fortunately, the Athenians were promptly reinforced by the Athenians, and the Fokis defeated the attack on the Dionysians several times. Yesterday, the Dionys may have discovered the news of the return of the Thessalian army and had withdrawn from Kitinian.

After some consideration, Jason decided to lead his army to the north along the coast, first seize the hot spring pass, and then enter the Lamia region through this. The reason for making such a choice was that he considered that the mountainous areas in northern Central Greece were difficult to travel, which was not conducive to the large army's advance. Moreover, the army of Dionys also occupied Heraclia and guarded the gateway to the north of the mountainous areas. He had already seen the defense capabilities of the army in Peloponnese. If Heraclia could not be conquered in time, it would be extremely dangerous to be blocked in the mountainous areas.

Jason knew very well that although the Hot Spring Pass was known for its easy defense and difficulty in attacking, the Greeks built this pass to defend against the barbarians in the north (mainly referring to Thessaly). Therefore, it was to defend the north but not the south, but it was just a one-sided pass. This is why the Persian army sent surprise troops to bypass the Hot Spring Pass from a small path and could easily capture it. Therefore, the Thessaly army attacked directly from the south, which should be easier to seize the pass.

But when Jason led his army to the hot coast, he was stunned: a Dionia military camp stood in front, stuck between the mountains and the seaside cliffs, behind which was the familiar stone wall of the hot spring pass...

It turned out that Aifei Alt led the main force of the legion Yizheng and Qiqi to attack the Hot Spring Pass at the same time. Although the Hot Spring Pass defenders were also prepared for the mountain road, they had too few troops after all. After a day of battle, the 12th Legion successfully occupied the Hot Spring Pass.

As a result, Efialte soon discovered the flaws of this pass. The main task of the 12th Legion was to block the return of Thessali army, but the Hot Spring Pass could not defend against the enemies from the south. However, this was not difficult for Efialte. After all, the terrain here of the Hot Spring Pass was narrow and the superior forces could not be deployed, which was conducive to defending more with less. This characteristic was the same for the south and the north. So he called the engineering battalion and commanded more than half of the soldiers to build the camp next to the Hot Spring Pass. He himself led 3,000 soldiers to turn from the coast to the inland, surveying the terrain all the way, and quickly surrounded it after discovering the city of Giniang.

At this time, the purpose of his doing this is no longer to expand the results of the battle, but to attract the attention of the enemy and ensure the smooth construction of the camp.

Now Jason looked at the camp in Dionia ahead and felt a headache. In Peloponnese, his army had suffered enough to attack the camp in Dionia, but at this moment he could not retreat. Only by breaking through the camp with all his might can he return to Thessali.

After the order for the attack was issued, the soldiers of Thessali who were eager to return home were divided into teams and continued to attack the camp of Dionia along the narrow coast.

After the Hippopotamian War a hundred years ago, a large-scale bloody battle broke out again near Hot Spring Pass.

However, compared with the Spartan army that guarded here a hundred years ago, the Dionian army, which was on the defensive side, had more advantages.

First of all, the defense forces of Dionys were not at an absolute disadvantage. The 12th Legion had 8,000 soldiers, and in order to prevent accidents, Ifialte forced in advance to recruit 1,000 civilians to serve as reserve forces for the defense of the hot spring gate. In addition to the 1,000 soldiers of the Dionys Legion stationed in the Acropolis of Lamia and Hercules, which could not be mobilized, Ifialte could have 7,000 soldiers into the battle, and these soldiers would continue to pass the hot spring gate, enter the camp, and take turns to participate in defensive operations. At this time, the battle of the Thessalian army in the Peloponnese during this period has been reduced from the initial 40,000 to more than 36,000, and its strength is only four times that of the defenders, unlike the Persian army that year.

Secondly, Efialte learned from the lessons of the Spartan army that year and built small defense facilities on several known mountain trails, guarded by Samonet soldiers who were good at mountain warfare to prevent the Thessalians from sneak attacks. Moreover, the 12th Legion had a variety of troop corpses, focusing on infantry, light on armored soldiers, javelins, and archers, and defending in a narrow coastal camp, which could effectively curb the Thessalians' attack.

In addition, Afialte also asked the soldiers to move several crossbows from the legion to the top of the Hot Spring Pass, and the stone bombs fired could fly over the camp and give the maximum damage to the intensive attacking Thessali soldiers.

Therefore, the Thessali army launched a fierce attack on the camp for several days, not only with minimal results, but also suffered considerable casualties.

Just when Jason in the rear was anxious to be unable to break through the defense line of the Dionians, the Thessali soldiers who were preparing to attack the camp again were stunned to see the wooden door of the camp suddenly opened, and dozens of Thessali men in casual clothes came out. While shouting that they were someone from a certain city-state of Thessali, they asked to meet with the citizens of their city-state.

It turned out that when Jason led his army to approach the Hot Spring Pass, Efialte immediately sent a messenger to Thesali and informed the commander-in-chief Paltross of the news that the main force of Thesali had returned.

At this time, more than half a month had passed since the landing army conquered Philae and forced Fasalus to surrender. Since the main power of Thessali was controlled by the Dionysian army, the landing army continued to divide its troops to plunder the land. The city-states of the Sesari, which had already been out of the way, either surrendered or were conquered. Therefore, during this period, the Dionysian army basically conquered the southern and northern plains of Thessali.

The army was advancing rapidly, and Hilos, the Chief Executive of the Thessali Region, led his officials to work very hard. While promising to give benefits to the civilians, he was also winning over celebrities from various city-states. In addition, they were all from Thessali, and many Thessali people began to accept them. So there was a saying that spread quickly in Thessali: King Dionia is a Thessali native and a descendant of Hades of the Pluto. Compared with the tyrant Jason, he was more capable of protecting Thessali and more suitable for the role of Thesali Tagus...

At the same time, the legendary story of "Davs' creation of the Kingdom of Diony and the rapid rise of the Kingdom of Diony" began to spread among the people of Thessali.

After receiving the news from Efialte, Paltrox was prepared. He immediately asked Hilos, who had already handled the entire Thessali affairs in Philare, to summon the prestigious Council members of the Thessali city-states that had surrendered to the Kingdom of Dionia, and then clearly told them: Jason was leading the army back, and Dionia was preparing to gather the 100,000 troops in Thessali to completely defeat him.

Many of these MPs in the city-state of Thessari have witnessed the huge army of Dioniana and their terrible combat effectiveness. Although Jason led a large number of troops, most of them did not think Jason would win in the end. They were very worried about this.

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Chapter completed!