Chapter 137 Continued Combat (2)

"Who said that I don't want to send troops?!" Triphias hurriedly changed his words, got up and held him: "Didn't the messenger say, wait for the news of the victory of the naval battle. Look..."

Triphias patiently analyzed Matonis: "Once the naval battle is won, it will definitely be impossible to send letters by land. During the day, Tarantum's cavalry is cruising in the south, and your messengers cannot come... Said, we can only send troops when we see Dionia's fleet coming from the sea." By then the overall situation had been settled, and Triphias would not be happy.

Unexpectedly, Matonis shook his head and said: "Your suggestion is not good, it is too slow! Tarantum's fleet blocked the port of Heraclea, and they will definitely get the news first. Wait until our fleet arrives before taking action, The Tarantums outside the city ran away early! So—"

Matonis stared at Triphias and said in a deep voice, "We must closely monitor the enemy camps outside the city, and once the Tarantum wants to retreat, we will strike immediately!"

"what?!"

………………………………

After persuading Triphias, Matonis, who returned to the square, immediately ordered his adjutant to summon the captains of the 7th Legion to the big tent (the camp of the 7th Legion was built on the square of Heraclea).

After a while, the seven captains all arrived.

Matonis didn't wait for them to sit down, and said directly: "The time is very short, I will make a long story short, His Majesty Davos led the first and second legions to return to Turii-"

"Ah, Lord Davos is back!"

"Great, Amendolara is saved!"

"It's not only Amendolara who is saved, but the Tarantum people are also finished! Lord Davos will lead us to defeat them!"

...

Several captains shouted and danced with excitement.

"Shut up!" Matonis roared, causing them to tremble: "You are all veterans, you should know the regulations of the "Dionysian Military Law", what will happen to the subordinate when the superior speaks back? Punishment?!"

Matonis glared at them fiercely, and several captains touched their butts subconsciously: "I will write down the slap of the stick first, and then I will see your performance. His Majesty Davos sent an order, and today he The army will come from the sea and will land on the coast between Heraklia and Metapontum. We are required to do our best to hold back the enemy outside the city, so that the main force can arrive in time and join forces to surround Tarantu. Mum! Do you understand?!"

"Understood!" The captains no longer dared to yell and shout.

But the excitement was palpable.

Matonis paced back and forth in front of them, and then stomped his foot hard: "I know that these two days, because I strictly ordered the soldiers not to leave the city to drive out the enemy in Amendolara, many soldiers in the legion were scolding me in private. , said 'I am a cowardly rabbit, a cowardly lamb, not worthy of being a legion commander!', and some people even scolded my parents! …”

Matonis' roar made the captains shudder: "I know that some soldiers in the legion are from Amendolara, but this should not be a reason for them to insult the commander, 'It is the duty of a soldier to obey orders.' This is military law. The basic rule is that I have written down all the soldiers who scolded me in private. Go back and tell them that in this attack, if they are not as brave as me, and their assault is not as fast as me, then what qualifications do they have to scold me? !"

Matonis widened his eyes, panting heavily, like an angry bull: "Then after the war is over, I will make them stand in the square, and let the whole legion go up and scold their family in turn! Do you understand? ?!"

"Ming...understood."

"Go back and get ready!"

"Yes!"

After the captains left, the adjutant said cautiously, "Lord Legionnaire, will you—"

"What?!" Matonis glared at him and snorted: "It's just such a new army with poor equipment and strict discipline. If they didn't provoke them like this, how could they have good performance!"

………………………………

In the afternoon, a fast boat quickly approached the Agri River.

"What did you say?! The Syracuse Navy was defeated, how is this possible?!" The two Tarantum consuls exclaimed in disbelief.

"Did the fleets of other city-states join the battle and help the Dionysians?!" Yumachus asked again.

"No, the Dionysian fleet was fighting independently from beginning to end. They placed a kind of wooden bridge on the warship, which could hook the warship that Syracuse was bombing, and then sent a large number of soldiers to the deck... "The Clipper captain recalled the scene he saw before, and it is still like a dream. The battle method of the Dionysian fleet has completely subverted the traditional naval warfare that he received since he was a child.

Diomilas was in a daze for a while, thinking of a key question: "Did the Dionysian fleet suffer heavy losses?"

The captain shook his head and said, "It seems that their fleet has not lost much."

"Is Hades really bless these savage and rude Dionians?!" Diomilas looked surprised, but depressed, and he looked at Eumacas in a trance.

Eumacas was looking at him too.

Both eyes were full of fear, because they both knew that once Syracuse's naval superiority was broken and the Dionian fleet took control of the Gulf of Taranto, the Tarantum fleet would not be able to stand alone. Against it, Tarantum's coastline would be threatened by the Dionian fleet, and their army far from Tarantum would be in danger.

The two almost shouted in unison: "We must retreat immediately!"

In order not to attract the attention of the Herakleans, they quietly summoned the officers and gave them the order to retreat.

The Tarantum soldiers began to pack their belongings and pack their bags.

What troubled the two consuls the most was the mountains of grain in the camp. At the beginning, in order to ensure the convenience of food supply, the Tarantum people used cargo ships to transport food and stacked it in the camp for the use of a huge army of 20,000 people for more than ten days. Now they have to retreat suddenly, which has become a problem.

Tarantum does not have a special department responsible for logistics and transportation. Considering that this time is an offshore operation, Tarantum did not consider hiring labor to transport it by land, and the materials are transported by sea. Notifying the port of Tarantum and summoning a cargo ship to transport it would be too time-consuming. But with so much food and supplies, they did not dare to burn or discard them easily, because the act of wasting the city-state's supplies at will would inevitably be impeached by the Senate.

So, Diomilas came up with an idea: let some soldiers carry supplies from land to Metapontum, and at the same time call back the Tarantum fleet, which was still cruising on the sea near Heraclea, and load the food. In the cabin of the ship, transport back to Tarantum.

"What if the enemy in the city comes out to attack us?" Yumachus was a little worried.

"These timid Heraclea and Dionia soldiers have been hiding in the city these days. I don't think they suddenly have the courage to take the initiative to attack the city. When they know the news of the victory of the Dionia fleet, we will Already back at Metapontum.” In fact, Diomilas, based on the experience of traditional Greek warfare, did not even think that the Dionysian army would be able to launch immediately after a fierce naval battle. Rescue of Heraclea.

However, the performance of the Dionian Legion in the battle with the Maple Coalition had impressed Diomilas too deeply. He had to be careful. After all, this Tarantum army had assembled almost all the Tarantums. A young and middle-aged citizen of Mumbai can't tolerate a single mistake. So although Diomilas did not see any danger in the withdrawal of Tarantum's army, he arranged for four thousand soldiers to serve as the rear guard.

In order not to be noticeable, the Tarantum army did not even dismantle the tent.

But even so, the withdrawal of the Tarantum army is still protracted and slow, and it is impossible for the seldom trained Tarantum to make a special training program for "army withdrawal" like Dionia. Training is done every seven or eight days, so it can be done quickly, quickly, with a clear division of labor, and in an orderly manner.

The Tarantum people thought they could hide from Heraclea, but they did not expect that the Dionysian 7th Legion had long expected that they would retreat and had been closely monitoring the city. Some signs were quickly discovered by them, such as : The cavalry patrolling in front of the camp no longer appears, there is a lot of noise from the camp, and warships frequently enter the Agri River...etc.

"Commander of the Martonis Legion!" Triphias also asked excitedly at the moment: "It seems that the enemy is really retreating, could it be... Could it be that your fleet really defeated the Syracuses?!"

"I have already said that His Majesty Davos has always kept his word!" Matonis glanced at him and replied coldly.

"You're right!" Triphias didn't care about Matonis' attitude, and continued to ask excitedly: "Should we attack now?!"

Matonis held the battlements with both hands and said calmly, "Don't worry, just wait."

"Wait?"

"Yes, when the Tarantum soldiers are all ready to leave, when they have already started to cross the river..." Matonis' eyes flashed with a cold light, like a wolf ready to pounce.

………………………………

Diomilas watched the soldiers pass the pontoon bridge, and a voice in his heart kept urging: hurry up! Hurry up! ...

Diomilas relaxed a little when he saw the groups of soldiers crossed the pontoon bridges to the other side, and the other soldiers followed quickly.

But at this moment, an earth-shattering cry broke out from outside the camp, and his heart sank: Oops, it must be the enemy army in Heraclea that has left the city!