Chapter 344 Water Battle

When Pricas's team was annihilated, Iberus's team that participated in the harassment had not yet set out.

Iberus certainly had selfish motives. He wanted to achieve greater results to overwhelm Pricas and win greater prestige for himself, and he also wanted to reduce the casualties of his own people. However, the reason why the team had not set out was because he was waiting for the wind to come.

Iberus and Pricas had negotiated in advance. He led the team to attack the villages on the east coast, and Pricas attacked the villages on the west coast.

Iberus's tribe was very close to the core area of ​​Segestica, and the Nix military camp was not far from his tribe. This meant that it was easy for his team to invade the area controlled by Nix, but it was also easy to be intercepted and attacked by the Nix army.

After discussing with other tribal leaders of Lake Gonam, Iberus decided to attack by water, bypass the Nix camp, and go deep into the heartland controlled by the Nix people. Before the other party could react, they quickly went ashore, attacked the riverside villages, and then quickly returned by boat...

They believed that the Nix people had occupied the territory of Segestica for more than two months, and it was impossible for them to build a fleet capable of fighting on the Sava River in such a short time. After all, even in the past, other tribes in Segestica were not good at fighting on the river, so they could not do anything to the tribe of Lake Gonam...Since the Nix army could not compete with them on the river, it was undoubtedly the safest to travel by water.

And in order to increase the success of their raid, relying on the weather rules they had explored from living here for generations, they discussed with Pricas and finally set the time of attack on this day.

In the morning, the sky was still gray, but the clouds began to float, and the south wind finally came!

More than 100 boats gathered by the tribes of Lake Gonam had long been moored near the northern lake mouth waiting. After Iberus gave the order to set off, all the boats hoisted their sails, and the south wind filled the sails, pushing the boats upstream.

The boat Iberus was on was at the front of the fleet. It was a single-masted shuttle-shaped fast boat commonly seen in Lake Gonam. It was about seven meters long and could usually accommodate eight people. The helmsman was at the tail end, the sailor was in the middle, the poleman was at the head end, and the oarsmen were on both sides. There were also ten spears placed in the boat... Although the boat was small, it was well equipped.

Iberus personally served as the helmsman, skillfully controlling the boat, while traveling upstream in a zigzag route, he could also maintain a relatively fast speed.

Soon, he saw the Nix camp on the shore. The Nix soldiers patrolling on the wooden wall pointed in his direction and shouted something loudly. Then more soldiers gathered on the wooden wall...

The sailors on the ships saw this scene and began to ridicule the Nix soldiers loudly: "Hey, Nix people, stop yelling, come to the river to catch me if you have the guts!"

"Don't look at you on the shore. I can handle both of you on the water!"

"Come on, taste the rice water that grandpa made for you, it's very sweet!"

...

Some sailors even took off their pants and urinated in the river, and their companions laughed at them.

Compared with the wantonness of the tribesmen, Iberus began to feel nervous. He knew that from the moment the soldiers in the Nix camp discovered their fleet, time was crucial for them!

Fortunately, the south wind was getting stronger and stronger, making the ships sail faster and faster.

This is the gods blessing us! ... Iberus looked at the rapidly retreating river bank, and his confidence was soaring.

However, when the fleet was far away from the Nix camp, the crew did not notice that a thick smoke was burning in the Nix camp and rushed straight into the sky.

After a while, Iberus, who had been staring at the river bank in front, suddenly said: "Everyone pay attention! Start to retract the sails and prepare for docking!"

Upon hearing the order, the sailor did not retract the sails all at once, but slowly retracted them. This was to allow the ship to have a slow deceleration process, and finally dock smoothly without damaging the hull. At the same time, it also gave a signal to the ships behind, allowing them to have enough time to make corresponding preparations, so as to avoid chaos in the process of docking.

The ship entered a "U"-shaped river bay during the slow deceleration process.

When the water level rises in the rainy season, the width of the river here can exceed 500 meters, and sometimes the river water will overflow the riverbed and rush into the fields on the east bank. But in winter when there is less water, the river surface is reduced by half, and a large river beach is exposed on the east bank, which is enough to accommodate this fleet of 1,000 people to land.

Moreover, the river bank here is flat, and the tribesmen can get to the ground without much effort, and then launch a surprise attack on a tribe less than a mile away from the river beach...

This is an attack target carefully selected by Iberus and other leaders after consultation. It is located exactly between the main camp of Segestica and the Nix military camp. It takes a lot of time for Nix's reinforcements to get here, enough for them to complete the attack, rush back to the river beach, and return by boat...

The boat landed steadily on the northernmost river beach, and the poleman immediately passed one end of the wooden pole in his hand through the iron ring on the bow, and deeply plunged it into the mud and sand of the river beach, thus firmly fixing the boat.

Iberus jumped off the boat, commanding the boats behind to dock one after another, while constantly urging: "Everyone hurry up!... Hurry up and get off the boat and gather!... Don't dawdle, hurry up!..."

More than 100 boats were moored on the riverbank. Except for the helmsman who stayed to guard the boats, more than 900 people followed Iberus with spears and rushed to the shore, heading for the village ahead.

At this time, it was almost noon. Some villagers were working in the fields around the village. They found a group of people rushing towards them in the distance. They ran to the village in panic, which further stimulated the bloodthirsty impulse of the Gonam Lake warriors.

Just when approaching the village, Iberus saw a thick smoke rising from the village and rushing to the sky. Although the Pannoni people had never had the experience of burning smoke to warn, Iberus, who had been highly vigilant since the departure, felt a strong sense of uneasiness about such anomalies, forcing him to stop and give orders loudly, asking the warriors following him to stop moving forward.

However, only the more than 300 tribesmen of his own tribe obeyed his orders. The warriors of other tribes rushed into the village ahead as if they did not hear him.

This is fine, let them explore the way first... Iberus changed his mind and did not forcefully stop them.

But his tribesmen began to be unhappy: "Chief, we finally got here, why do you let us all stop?!"

"Chief, people from other tribes have rushed in, and we are still standing here stupidly. All the good things in this village will be robbed by them!"

"That's right, we can't wait here stupidly. If you don't let us in, we will--"

The tribesmen shouted in unison, and their emotions became more and more excited. Iberus felt that he was about to lose control. Just when he wanted to nod and agree to everyone to enter the village to plunder, someone suddenly exclaimed: "Enemy! Enemies are coming!"

Then the whole team panicked, because they soon saw a fully armed Nix team coming around from the back of the village. After discovering them, they immediately pounced on them at a faster speed.

At this point, how could Iberus not understand that the enemy was well prepared, and how could the simple weapons and equipment used by the team he led be a match for the regular Nix troops? The situation was urgent and he could not think any more: "Retreat! Retreat quickly! Go back to our boat!..."

Just as he gave the order, the tribesmen had already turned around and ran back. The arrogance on the boat was thrown behind their minds. Everyone rushed to escape, completely abandoning their companions who had already entered the village. After discovering that the enemy was chasing them, they even began to throw away the wooden shields and spears that had become a burden.

It should be said that they reacted very promptly, and they all ran away lightly, while the Nix soldiers were heavily equipped to chase them, and soon left the Nix soldiers far behind.

Iberus led the tribesmen to run back to the river beach in one breath, and they jumped on the boat one after another, and the nervous mood was slightly settled.

"Chief, are we going to sail?!" The oarsman asked loudly.

Iberus, who was sitting on the deck, saw that the Nix soldiers did not catch up, and there was no trace of them in his sight. He thought that the enemy must have given up the pursuit. He breathed a sigh of relief and tried his best to calm himself down.

He stood up, carefully scanned the people on other boats, and then said: "Let's not leave yet, wait a little longer, maybe some of our tribesmen will escape back."

Iberus made this risky decision because he found that those who escaped back to the boat were all from his tribe. As the organizer of this raid, he could not explain to other tribes after he returned. Moreover, he also found that although the warriors with simple equipment could not fight against the Nix soldiers, if they really wanted to escape, the Nix people might not be able to catch up. Maybe some warriors would escape back and be able to rescue some of them, so it would be easier for him to talk when he returned.

Iberus gave this order to the tribesmen, and no one objected. Returning to the boat was like returning home, and their courage returned.

However, during the waiting process, Iberus asked the tribesmen to disperse to all the boats to avoid leaving the boats of other tribes to the Nix people when they left.

As Iberus expected, some tribesmen escaped the encirclement of the Nixes and fled desperately to the riverbank, but just when they were about to reach the shore, they were stabbed down by the Nixes cavalry who caught up with them with spears...

Iberus and his tribesmen watched their compatriots screaming and tumbling down from the shore...

The Nixes cavalry stared coldly at them on the boat, and turned their horses around and left after a moment.