Chapter 16 Invasion of the Croton North Plains

"The freedmen are out of food?!" Kunogorata asked in surprise. See ΔΔ Bookstore WWW んW. 『kan→shu→ge. la

"The war broke out too suddenly. Many free people did not reserve grain in advance. By the time they wanted to buy grain, the market was already sold out." Felixius looked at the two of them. Isn't the alliance itself the initiator.

"Then use food as salary, and continue to let the freedmen fight for the alliance. Instead of using shortening the citizen's probation period as a reward, the alliance's citizenship will become less valuable! Felixius, the freedmen can be in the consul's Lord. Under the leadership, they can make great achievements and defeat the regular army of Crotone, so even without the leadership of the consul, it should be no problem to deal with the intrusion of ordinary sailors of the Crotone fleet, right?" Kunogolata said. asked Felixius bluntly.

Felixius didn't care, and said seriously: "Of course there is no problem! My plan is to have every one hundred freemen form a team to patrol all the coasts that can be landed all day long. At the same time, send a large team to Turii - On the side of Castellon Avenue, a company is stationed every five miles. Between the patrol and the heavy infantry company, the reconnaissance cavalry is used as a link. When encountering a small group of enemies, the patrol should be able to hit them. Retreat; when encountering a large number of enemies, the patrol team first blocks the enemy’s surprise attack, and the reconnaissance cavalry informs the nearest heavy infantry company, and then rushes to attack the enemy together…”

Kunogolata's expression changed slightly: "This idea is not bad."

"That is, our grain supply should be tight again. We have to use the money from the treasury to buy grain in Heraclea again, and Mersis will complain about us again." Cornelus said helplessly.

"There is no war without money. As long as the consul can win the final victory, there will be money." Since the victory of the Battle of Triwento River, Kunogolata, who is afraid of war, has a problem with Davos. more confidence.

…………………………

Miron thought that the Dionysian army would take the opportunity to attack the city with the help of the high platform, but the Dionysian army and the Crotone soldiers on the top of the city faced off all morning, except for the light infantry on the high platform to attack the city wall. There was no movement except for the arrow and the flying stone. In the end, even the light infantry stopped attacking because of their weak hands.

Such an eerie calm puzzled Miron. Of course he wouldn't know that Dionysian's 3rd Legion of 5,000 and 3,000 Laotian soldiers had entered the plains north of Croton and began to destroy farmland and villages, doing the same thing as the sailors who landed in Crotone. , but Davos had an order in advance: they were not allowed to kill the people of Crotone. So the soldiers just intimidated and drove away.

As early as after the defeat of the battle, the Council of Crotone had advised the people of the villages on the northern plains to flee to the city temporarily to avoid the fighting. Because of the spring planting and the absence of the enemy for two or three days, the people of Crotone thought that Miron had blocked the Dionians in Crimea, so most of the people did not evacuate. Now,

The brigade of Dionian soldiers suddenly appeared in front of them, and the people of Crotone fled south in panic.

In southern Italy, the Croton Plain is comparable to the Sybari Plain thanks to two rivers: one is the Neto, which rises between the mountains in the southern part of the Apennine Mountains and flows from west to east into the Gulf of Taranto , due to the confluence of many tributaries, the width, depth and flow of this river are finally greater than the Klaty River on the Subari Plain; and the other river is the Tacinady River, which also originates in the mountains of the southern Apennine. It flows into the sea from north to south. The two rivers from the east to the south irrigate the Croton Plain, and at the same time cut out an area similar to a square in the Croton Plain. On the side of the core area by the sea is the famous power state of Greater Greece—— Crotone. Because Crotone is close to the Gulf of Taranto, it has one of the few deep-water ports in the Greek city-states of the Apennine Peninsula. Crotone has fertile plains and an excellent port. The fundamental reason for the war between Xubalis and Crotone a hundred years ago was because Xubalis wanted to destroy potential opponents, and Crotone. They wanted to seize the dominance of the trade in southern Italy, so a small part of the people of Subaris fled to Crotone because of the dispute, which was just the fuse of the war.

The strange thing is that these two rivers flow out of the mountains so close together, and between them, between the mountains and the plains, there is a city called Aspurustum, founded by the Brutes. To the west of the northern plain of Croton is the continuous Apennine Mountains, which are difficult to pass, but following the naturally formed river valley of the Arbo River, a tributary of the Neto River, trudging to the northwest, you can reach the only plateau in southern Italy - the Cosenza Plateau , The Brutians who lived there originally set off from the upper reaches of the Arvo River and went all the way down the river valley to Aspurustum.

However, when Crotone is strong, it will not allow an alien city only 20 miles to the northwest from itself to control the upper reaches of the two rivers, the control from the northern plains of Croton, without passing through The Neto River, the access to the south by foot, and the condescending threat to the safety of Crotones. Therefore, a hundred years ago, Crotone launched a large army to attack the city of Aspurustum. After several struggles, he finally occupied the city and drove the Brutite back to the Cosenza Plateau. Up to now, Aspurustum has completely become a Greek city. As a colonial city of Crotone, it is completely under the control of Crotone, and it is an horn with Crotone. Guarding the security of the inner city of Crotone.

The bad news of the Dionian invasion of the Croton Plains spread to Crotone, and the people panicked. In particular, the 3,000 soldiers of Laos were rushing forward all the way, and they were about to approach the north bank of the Neto River.

The guards on the south bank of the Neto River panicked. In order to prevent the enemy from crossing the pontoon bridge, they directly killed the city of Crotone. They set fire to several pontoon bridges on the river, which made many people fleeing south to stay in the Neto River. shore.

Just as Crotone was ferrying them by boat, the army of the Laos had reached the Neto River. The people of Crotone cried and were forced to flee northwestward along the bank of the Neto River in panic.

When the Greeks first came to this plain, due to the Neto River and its many tributaries and abundant rainfall, there were swamps all over the place, but the Greeks had mature drainage techniques. Swamp exists. But the people of Crotone were still at risk in their flight, as the Laos sent several teams of soldiers in hot pursuit.

The people of Crotone were shocked and tired. Fortunately, there were more young people in the team before they knew it, and they enthusiastically helped women to carry heavy objects, picked up children, and supported the elderly, so that the escape team did not lay down a single old woman or child. In the end, the Laos soldiers stopped chasing, and the city of Aspurustum had appeared in front of the fleeing people.

Asproustum general Fagris, who was a citizen of Crotone, opened the city gate without any hesitation, and nearly 900 fleeing people, all covered in dust and panic, were put into the city.

At this moment, the spies made an urgent report: 5,000 Dionian soldiers were attacking the city of Aspurustum!

When Fagris heard this, he panicked immediately. In the two wars with Dionia, more than 6,000 people from Aspurustum were recruited to join the battle, almost meat buns and dogs, and they are gone forever. There are only more than 700 citizens who can fight in the city. How could they stop the 5,000 Dionian soldiers who defeated the Crotone army in the battle? !

Faglis, who lacked actual combat experience, was not confident. When his eyes fell on the panicked fleeing people in the city, he instantly changed his original plan to escort them out of the city immediately to reward them and drag them down in order to win the favor of the Crotone Council.

"The people of Crotone! The people of Crotone!!" He shouted loudly while standing on the stone ladder of the city wall, but the mess below was made, and only a few people paid attention to it. So, the soldiers also began to shout, and finally the refugees became quiet and looked up at the general of Aspurustum.

"People of Crotone, 5,000 people from Dionia came to this city!" Fagris just said, and the following became agitated: "What! The Dionias are chasing!"

"Don't open the south gate, let's get out of here!!"

...

The people shouted loudly, and Fagris and the soldiers managed to bring them back to peace.

"Of course you can go. But you must know that because Crotone launched two wars against Turii, most of the citizens of Aspurustum went with Crotone's army and failed to do so. Come back, as a result, there are not many citizens in the city now, and I am afraid it can't stop the Dionysians! The city of Asproustum is the northern barrier of Crotone. , then they can go south smoothly, easily cross the Tachnadi River, which can be walked, and enter the central plain of Crotone, which will be a disaster!  …I implore those of you who can pick up a shield and a spear. Join us, men, in the defense of Aspurustum! That is, in defense of Crotone!"

What Fagris said was sincere, because his home was originally outside the city of Crotone, and Asproustum said it was a city, but it was actually more like a special Demo (from Athens). Administrative division, several villages together, equivalent to a town), although it has its own council, there is only one general in charge of managing the city-state, who is selected by the "ten generals" elected by Crotone every year, so in emergency situations Fagris, who was also a Crotone general, had the right to give orders to the people of Crotone.

The refugees fell into silence, and everyone was thinking and weighing the benefits.