ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 397 Alexis’ avoidance of battle
"But -" Sekerian touched his nose: "Since you are about to take away the First Legion, which has been training with us on the 'new tactics' for several months, my lord, I still need to reunite with the newly-created legionnaires. It won’t take much time to train this tactic. I believe I will soon be able to lead this brand new fleet south to find the Syracuse Navy for a decisive battle. I believe the Syracuse Navy will be surprised!”

Sekerian looked high-spirited and obviously confident in the new tactics.

Davos shook his head gently in his heart and reminded him earnestly: "Seclian, even if you defeat the Syracuse fleet somewhere in the Ionian Sea, our warships will inevitably fail. There is damage. Soldiers who fell into the water need to be rescued, damaged warships need to be repaired, and captured warships also want to be towed back... You have so many aftermaths to complete, but you have to know that Syracuse has more than one fleet. , what if—" Davos emphasized: "While you are busy, enemy reinforcements appear?!"

Davos saw that Sekerian was eager to explain, stretched out his hand to stop him, and continued: "Even if the enemy's reinforcements do not appear, it is not easy for you to handle the aftermath well, and we This is the only fleet we have, and I hope it will grow stronger with each war, rather than become weaker with each war, so I suggest you arrange the first naval battle at..."

After listening to Davos's detailed plan, Sekerian said with conviction: "I understand, sir! I will implement it according to your plan! ... However, now I have one thing that needs your help, otherwise it will affect the navy. preparation for war."

"what's up?"

"With the arrival of warships from other allies, our dry docks will no longer be sufficient."

This is a problem!Davos thought for a while and said: "I will ask Mr. Kunogolata to speed up the construction of more dry docks and naval bases on both sides of the Krati River from Thurii City to the mouth of the sea to meet your needs. !”

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The Third Dionysian Army arrived in the Pinho Valley. The Pinho River is a tributary of the Basento River, the largest river flowing through the city of Potentia. Although it is only a small river, it is enough to meet the water needs of an army. It is necessary, and the valley here has soft soil, luxuriant water and grass, and is surrounded by steep and unreachable mountains on both sides. It is a good place to camp.Therefore, Alexis chose to build his camp in the opening of the valley mouth.

All the soldiers unloaded their equipment and started digging trenches when the reconnaissance captain Krigolu hurried over to report: "Legion commander, brothers discovered that the Samonites were coming here five miles to the north. There are about 2 people. Many people!”

More than 2 people!Alexis was shocked: the Samnites came so quickly, and so many people came, which was beyond his expectation. From this, he could also feel the Samnites' ferocity and desire to revenge against him. Very strong.

Alexis looked at the unexcavated trench in front of him with regret. If he had been given two or three more hours, the Third Army would have been able to build a crude camp, and they would have been at odds with the incoming Samnites. Try your best!

"Retreat!" He gave the order decisively.

What? !The herald thought he had heard wrongly.

"Retreat immediately!!" Alexis shouted again.

After the bugle sounded, after a while, Litolu came.

"Legion commander, why did you have to retreat just after arriving at the camp?! Could it be that the bugler misheard the order?" Litolu asked with a questioning tone in his tone.

"He is right. More than 2 Samnite warriors are rushing towards us. We cannot fight against the Samnite who are twice as strong as us without building a good camp and our brothers are extremely tired. We can only retreat first, and then look for a fighter." Facing the first captain, Alexis specially explained a few more words in order to show respect.

"Retreating before fighting is too destructive to morale! The soldiers and the people of Dionia will think that we are cowardly and afraid of death! We will not be able to hold our heads up in front of other legion soldiers!" Litolu said no. He retorted convincingly: "And I think even if there are 9000 people against 2 people, our legion can withstand the enemy's attack and defeat them!"

"Lord Davos once said that the Samnites are quite fierce. Even if we can defeat them, we will cripple the Third Legion. Do we still want to participate in future battles?! More importantly, this will affect Davos. Your Majesty’s next plan!” Alexis held back her anger and explained a few more words.

"I think repelling the enemy's attack and building a camp here is what Lord Davos wants!" Litoru retorted without showing any weakness.

"Execute the order!" Alexis decided not to argue with him anymore. "The Dionysian Military Law" emphasizes military discipline: During the war, subordinates must absolutely obey their superiors.

Litolu glared at Alexis angrily, but in the end he chose to obey, which also showed that Litolu had broken away from the level of tribal warriors and became a qualified Dionian general.

He reluctantly gave a military salute, and when he turned around to go back, he deliberately said loudly in anger: "If Lord Hieronymus is still the commander of the army, he will definitely not retreat!"

Alexis seemed oblivious to his angry words, and now he had to think carefully about how to retreat safely.

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The city of Potentia is located on the upper reaches of the Basento River. The ground there is relatively flat, but the terrain is higher and should be regarded as a small plateau. The city is built on a huge and gentle hillside.

The Potentians spent decades building a large city with stones.Now Puamot and the tribal leaders were worriedly observing the activities of the Samonites outside the city every day on the city wall.

"Big Chief, look, the Samnite army is heading south!" Shahidat said loudly, pointing to the dusty, noisy distance outside the city.

Puamote's heart moved, so he shouted excitedly: "People, it should be the reinforcements from Dionia that have arrived!"

This sentence immediately made the leaders and warriors excited: the powerful Dionians came to rescue them!
This good news immediately relieved a lot of their worries these days.

"Should we send troops to pick them up?" a leader said excitedly.

"No!" Puamote rejected him without hesitation, and said cautiously: "The only thing we can do now is to desperately defend the city, and then wait for the arrival of reinforcements from Dionia!"

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When the Samones rushed to the Pinho Valley, they saw only an unfinished circular ditch that was several miles long.

"The Dionians were as cowardly as rabbits, and they ran away!" Lesguk panted heavily, and plunged the spear in his hand into the soil with regret.

"Father, most of the Dionians are heavy infantry and should not be able to escape far. We should take this opportunity to catch up and defeat them!" Gailni, who was eager for revenge, said eagerly to the leader of Sirpini.

Of course, Villani was not willing to come in vain, and he immediately ordered the troops to continue the pursuit.

The advancing Samnites were quickly ambushed by the light infantry brigade of the Third Legion. After suffering hundreds of casualties, they were still unable to capture these Lucarian light infantry, which had lighter equipment and was equally good at climbing mountains. Villani had to be cautious even if he was angry.

Therefore, the Third Army was finally able to escape the pursuit of the Samnites and, in the evening, entered a military camp at the junction of Grumentum and Potentia.

Setting off from Grumentum yesterday, they only made a brief appearance in the Pauchentia area, and were forced to return to Grumentum today. Alexis and the soldiers of the Third Army had the same feeling. Somewhat depressed.

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Poseidonia, a coastal city not far north of Aelia (not the city of Poseidonia in the Aegean Sea), was a colonial city built by the Sybarians and was once known for its roses and three goddess temples. The Greek city-state famous in Italy (two temples of Hera and one temple of Athena), however, the Lucanians moved south a hundred years ago, leaving this Greek city-state under the continuous attacks of the Lucanians for many years. It eventually fell and became a town in the Potentian Tribe Confederation.

Poseidonia has not been invaded for decades.Aelia in the south is unable to protect itself, and has no strength to attack others; while the Samnites in the north prefer the mountains, and would rather invade the stronger and better-defended city of Potentia than go to the seaside. Come for a walk.Therefore, when the Lucanians in Poseidonia learned that the Samnites were attacking Potentia, they did not show much concern for the safety of the city. They only took a slight precaution and left More energy was devoted to discussing the issue of "how many soldiers should be sent to reinforce Potentia."

Today, however, the watchtower's sentinel sounded the alarm.

When the leaders and soldiers boarded the city wall one after another, they were stunned: the Samnite people outside the city were so densely packed that they couldn't see the end at a glance, and they didn't know how many people...

Torek, the leader of Pentney, stood in front of the battle, looking at the small city in front of him. He saw the panic and shouts of the Lucanians on the city wall, but he didn't care too much. , but turned around and said to his subordinates: "What are the names of the ones sent by the Syracuseans...?"

"The big leader is called Ballista." A leader next to him reminded.

"I understand, you don't need to say anything more." Tolek glared and said, "Bring up the crossbow...the crossbow and let us see how powerful this thing is!"

The six ballistas were placed in front of the formation, but it was the people of Syracuse who manipulated them.

A lead ball the size of a fist hit the city wall of Poseidonia and scattered stone chips, which only increased the panic of the Lucanians...

(End of this chapter)