Chapter 21 Memories of Maple's Past (2)

He was very fortunate that he did not blindly follow some people to flee into Brindisi, but fled north to his hometown. Because within a few days, Brindisi fell.

It was only later that he heard that at the time of the battle, more legions of the Dionians emerged from the flanks, detouring to either side of the Messapi and Puchetti formations, and that the cavalry of the Maple coalition was also swept away by Dionysians. The two cavalry corps were defeated, and the Maple coalition had no chance of victory from beginning to end, and was almost completely surrounded and annihilated.

It is said that at the end of the battle, King Tremoney shouted, "Davos of Dionia, dare to fight against me?! Dare to fight against me?!..." He led his elite guards and rushed towards Dai. The king's flag of the Aonia Middle Army was surrounded by the swarming Dionysian legionnaires, and all of them died in battle.

Hearing the news of the king's death, Ellems could only sigh, he believed that all the Puchetti warriors who had experienced that great battle could not have the courage to fight against the Dionysians.

For the next two years, the Puchetti people spent their time in panic, and because of who took over as the new king, several important towns and tribes of Puchetti were quarreling with each other, and even a lot of battles took place...

In the process, news came from the south from time to time.

"Manduria was captured by the Dionians..."

"Ugentum surrendered to Dionia..."

"Odrum has been captured..."

"Udier was captured..."

...

Ellems, who is in his forties, knows that the Dionysians will soon set foot on Puchetti's territory, and with the current chaos in Puchetti's territory, it is impossible to stop the Dionysian Legion from advancing. footsteps, even for a moment.

Sure enough, when the Dionian legions poured into the Puchetti one by one, the Puchetti, who claimed to be more fierce than the Messapi, performed much worse than the Messapi, and the Blera fell, Silvium descended, Barium, Venusia descended, and finally Canusian, where Eloms lived...  

In less than four months, the Dionysians completely conquered the entire territory of Puchetti, but that's okay, Puchetti has already died too many people.

Ellems and the other ethnic groups watched with mixed emotions as the heavily armed Dionian Legionnaires escorted the new ruler of the city into the city, and then the Dionians gathered the Canusian people into the square.

Agarcia is the name of the so-called "Executive of Canusian".

He first comforted the Canusians present not to be afraid, because they were already citizens of Dionia and would be protected by the Law of Dionia, and no one would dare to harm them.

Then, he began to read out the newly promulgated decree of the kingdom of Dionia, the content of which Elems still remembers to this day: "...all the Puchetti tribes in the territory of Canusian must be dissolved, and every Canu Xi'an people will have independent freedom. Except for being under the jurisdiction of the Dionysian administrative agency and abiding by the "Dionian Kingdom Law", you will no longer be governed by other organizations, and you will get your own land. , you only need to pay 1% of the tax burden every year, in addition to military service, no one will force you to do extra labor..."

At the time, Ellems, like everyone else, thought he had heard it wrong.

But the next steps of the Dionians proved that they were not talking empty words. They sent official documents to all the tribes in the Canusian territory: first, to let the tribes hand over their occupied lands and hand them over to the city hall for redistribution; second It is to let all ethnic groups register at the City Hall Household Registration Office.

Ellems knew how much shock this document caused to the tribes of Canusian. In just three days, six riots and disturbances occurred in the territory of Canusian, but they were all overwhelmed by the mighty Dionysian army. It was quickly settled, and batches of leaders and nobles who led the riot were escorted to the square to be beheaded. This was the case for several days.

This situation was also staged in other Puchetti towns, and this bloody killing also killed the courage of the Puchetti people (due to Dionysian's previous conquest of Messapi, the Mesapi tribes The continuous riots and riots made Davos and the Senate realize that the Mesapiens were different from Lucanians and Brutians, and Dionia's current strength gave Davos enough. Confidence, let him make up his mind, not to use the method of subtly and slowly disintegrating the indigenous tribe, but to cut through the mess as soon as he comes up, and completely solve the problem that is farther away from the influence of Greek culture than the fierce Meshapi, who may resist Dai. The Puchetti ruled by Onia).

Obviously, Davos overestimated the ferocity of the Pucherti people. Soon after the riot was quelled, the leaders of the Pucherti tribes competed to show their loyalty to the city hall, including the tribe leader where Ellems was.

A few days later, the Ellems, who had registered as Dionian citizens, were allocated new land. Elems, who had been living in the tribe for the first half of his life, was both dazed and excited: he was dazed because he suddenly lost the support of the tribe, and he felt a little scared and helpless; the excitement was that he was out of the constraints of the tribe, Elms has a sense of freedom.

Although as a tribal warrior, he originally had land, the land that he regained was only required to pay a small tax each year, and the three years after that were tax-free.

The "three-year tax exemption" bill made the Puchetti of the newly allocated land less dissatisfied with Dionia.

Under the rule of Dionia, more than two years have passed, and the city of Canusian has changed a lot. I am afraid that only the Temple of Laikaon is still standing in the city. Every year, many people still come to worship. But this number is dwindling, and more and more people are beginning to believe in Hades from Greece, whose temple is not far from the Temple of Laikaon. Because the priests of the Temple of Hades can treat the people's pain for free, and their medical skills are also good, they also actively help the believers in difficulty. Compared with the priests of the Temple of Laikaon, they are too friendly.

The Canusian youths, on the other hand, fell in love with the rugby and football games invented by the Dionians, including his children. During the slack season, they played from morning to night in the open spaces inside and outside the city. In order to play these games, they also actively learned Greek, because their coaches were all Dionians from across the Gulf of Taranto. .

These Dionysians are recruits who have participated in the conquest of Messapi and Puchetti over the years. Their senate assigned them a place in Canusian. They settled down and were rejected and resisted from the very beginning. , and even disputes and conflicts occurred, and the situation was gradually opened up and gradually accepted by the Puchetti people. The first relied on the popular sports of ball games in southern Italy, and the second was military training.

Under the mandatory decree of the city hall, the young men of Puchetti must participate in military training, and it is these new Dionian Legionnaires who train them to go up and down and fight with them, and the friendship is in Breed in the training of this seven-day training.

For Ellems, it was Dionia's food that attracted him the most. In the past two years, Ellems' farmland on the Ovanto River has had a bumper harvest. Since he does not have to pay taxes, after keeping enough for his own use, he will take the rest of the grain to the market in the city to sell. At the same time, he will raise the sheep every year. Divide a few and sell them to the Cristoya restaurant in the city, and the price is not low.

For this reason, Elems, who has money, is often pulled by his former comrades to the Cristoia restaurant for a small gathering, drinking cool beer, eating delicious food, recalling the joy of fighting in the past, and complaining about the various things today. Change makes them happy. In fact, deep down in their hearts, it's an acknowledgment that life is much better today than it was two years ago.

Just as they were drinking small wine, scolding Dionia, and looking forward to their future life, a piece of news shook the peaceful city of Canusian for a long time: Dionia declared war on the Downeys!

The Puchettis are happy to fight the Downeys. After all, they have been mortal enemies for decades, but Ellems, who has just passed his two-year birthday, is like some old Puchettis, and he is worried about the war. It will make the Puchetti who have experienced many wars and caused a sharp decline in the population bleed again.

It turns out they think too much.

When the mighty army marched in from the south and built a huge barracks not far from the city of Canusian, Ellems knew that the next war would have nothing to do with the Pucherti.

The Puchetti people were a little unhappy, and some young people ran to the city hall or the training camp outside the city to protest, demanding to participate in the war against the Downeys. And some people such as Ellems, under the organization of the city hall, built a temporary market near the military camp to sell the daily needs of the expedition soldiers. The brave Canusian people in the past have begun to have a sense of business. Perhaps this is the biggest change in their concept in the past two years.

Ellems' booth is near the entrance to the temporary market. It's a good location. It's because he got up early this morning. Just when he was thinking about it, there was a shock from the military camp over there. With the cheers of the ears, Ellemston was refreshed: According to yesterday's experience, this should be the end of the soldiers' training.

Immediately, the hawkers in the entire market stopped chatting and hanging out immediately, and they were busy placing the goods for sale on the stalls neatly, such as grapes, olives, boiled beef and mutton, pulp, bread, salted fish, cloth, iron...

As soon as Ellems and his wife were setting things up, they saw a crowd of soldiers pouring into the market.

"Adoris, this is the good-drinking pulp shop I told you." Several soldiers stood in front of Ellems' booth, surrounded by a young man about eighteen or nine years old.

Hearing this, the young man looked at the booth and immediately said, "Bring me a cup."