Chapter 178 Disaster in Campania

This caused the soldiers to speed up again and again, and Zantiparis, who was almost 60 years old, felt a little overwhelmed even on horseback.

After entering the mountain pass, even if it was urgent, Zantiparis had to slow down his troops to prevent them from being ambushed by the enemy.

At this moment, the soldiers saw the fire blazing into the sky in the distance.

The dispatched scouts rushed back to report that the Kautinis had retreated and burned the entire town of Papania.

When Zantiparis and his army arrived, the prosperous town built in the valley was already enveloped in raging flames, and three headless corpses were placed in the open space to the south of the town, with one next to it. A wooden sign with a line in Greek written in human blood: I have 134 Dionians in my hands, exchange for the captured Samonite warriors, or these corpses will be their fate!

Seeing this tragic sight, the soldiers were all angry and demanded to pursue the enemy and rescue the captured people.

Of course, the aged Zantiparis would not be as impulsive as the soldiers. He just asked the soldiers to gather up the three corpses and form an array on the spot, waiting for the return of the scout.

Soon, the news returned confirmed his guess: the mountains on both sides of the road ahead seemed to be ambushed, and at the exit of the road, Kautini warriors were lined up.

Zantiparis returned with the army without hesitation. He knew that the long-lasting peace between Nakonia and Dionia had been broken, and the war had hit the northwest frontier of the kingdom. He not only had to assemble the reserve army as soon as possible , defend Enona, and notify the Ministry of Military Affairs as soon as possible to let it send more troops or give itself greater leadership power, otherwise it will be difficult to deal with the next war with these more than 4,000 recruits alone. Heavy.

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Pompeii was originally a small Greek city with a small population, and now most of the inhabitants have become prisoners. Even the old people and women of Pompeii took up arms and went to the top of the city, but it was difficult to resist Segovani's premeditated onslaught.

The battle lasted until the afternoon, and the city was broken.

The cheers of the warriors made Segovanidon feel good, but he was still not satisfied and needed more victories to wash away the humiliation he had suffered before.

So he left some of his soldiers to garrison, and continued to lead his army northward along the coast. At dusk, he arrived at Herculaneum, which was only 15 miles away from Pompeii.

Situated at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, Herculaneum was also a small Greek seaside town, but it was richer than Pompeii because of its proximity to the Gulf of Naples, thus becoming a subsidiary trading port for Naples' prosperous maritime trade.

But the Herculaneum had their own pride, thinking that their town was older than Naples, because it was founded by Hercules (as can be seen from his name).

The Herculaneum had already made preparations for the defense because they had been informed of the enemy's attack by the fleeing Pompeii in advance.

Seeing this, Segovani did not order a siege, but instead camped on the spot.

Herculaneum's messengers have arrived in Naples for help, but Naples is facing the threat of the Samona coalition forces coming from the northeast, and they were planning to send the Campania coalition forces to repel the enemy. When a large number of enemies attacked from the south, the Neapolitans, who were likely to be attacked from both sides, suddenly gave up the idea of ​​fighting, and also sent messengers by boat to Dionia for help.

(Note: After the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, not only Pompeii, but also Herculaneum was buried under the ash. Unlike Pompeii, which has been excavated, 75% of its towns are still buried. , mostly intact.)

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After Dionia's successive victories over Ascurum and Venosa, the Samonites were forced to retreat to the mountains, and even the Mountain Scouts reported that the hills on the border of the Downey region could not be seen. to any Samonite trail.

Apparently the battered Samonai coalition had scrapped plans to continue harassing the Downey area. Alexis, the commander of the Downey region of the Kingdom of Dionia, did not take advantage of the situation to lead an army to attack the Samona region.

On the one hand, it is because of Davos' previous solemn reminder, "There is no absolute certainty, do not enter the Samonay Mountains to fight against the Samonais." More than ten years ago, Alexis led the Third Army in Lucca. He had fought against the Samonites in the mountainous area of ​​Nia. Although he won a small victory, it also made him feel the power of the Samonite warriors in mountain warfare, not to mention that he was in Potentia at that time. If it was in Samonite Mountainous areas, unfamiliar terrain, difficult transportation, and being in enemy territory will undoubtedly encounter more troubles.

The second aspect is the issue of food supply. Alexis gathered three legions and a cavalry legion with a total of nearly 30,000 people. The rations carried by the soldiers had already been eaten, and the food provided by the kingdom every day was not a small amount. Now that King Davos has led an expedition to the Latham area, the limited rations will naturally be tilted toward the expedition.

The Ministry of War has already made a proposal to Alexis: In view of the heavy losses of the Samone, the invasion of the Downey area has been stopped, and it is hoped that he can disband some of the legions in order to reduce the supply of rations.

In addition, a few days ago, the administrator of Orgentum also sent a messenger to Downey and told Alexis a piece of news: According to the pirates who came to the port to trade stolen goods, the pirates who fled across the Adriatic Sea back then The former Puchetti prince, Vadarka, is recruiting Puchetti, Mesapi and Dauni people who have fled to mainland Greece in the Epirus region.

Therefore, Alexis finally decided to let the 9th, 10th and 2nd cavalry corps return to their respective areas to disband, but each barracks still retains a large group as usual, while they must send another group of soldiers to bring their own. Four days of rations, the cavalry regiment sent 200 horses to take turns to the city of Askurom in the Downey region, where Alexis would lead them on duty.

In the barracks in the Downey area, the 11th Army has two battalions of soldiers with their own rations, taking turns every four days, and is commanded by Capps.

Downey Barracks was in the north and Asculum was in the south. At the same time, a total of 4,000 soldiers and 200 cavalry were guarding the entire Downey area and the border adjacent to Samonay, supplemented by the neighboring towns. Citizens, enough to deal with small and medium incursions of the Samonites.

Once the remnants of the enemy who escaped from Apulia landed in other locations in the Apulia region, the defenders of other barracks could defend against them first, and then the citizens who were waiting for the day would quickly gather from various towns under the quick notice of the messengers. Going to the military camp, forming a complete army, and then completely destroying the enemy, this consumes very little of the kingdom's military rations, and basically guarantees the security of this area.

The reason why Alexis dared to do this is that the Apulia region is a plain and the terrain is basically flat. In addition to being connected by avenues, there are also relatively flat roads between towns. To Orgentum at the southern end, march quickly and arrive in just over a day. Only in this way, the legionnaires are relatively busy and are always on the go, but for the belligerent Mesapi and Puchetti, there is a battle to be fought, a merit to be won, and a land to be divided. People are excited about things.

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In many exchanges with King Davos, the Ministry of Military Affairs has established that the kingdom's strategy in this war at this stage is: attack in the north and defend in the south.

The army led by Davos was attacking and fighting in the Latium area. The troops led by Alexis had died in the Dawney area, but in the Sicily area further south, the troops led by Leoticides had not retreated to the defense. Instead, based on Serinus at the western end of Sicily, they attacked everywhere, looting all villages and towns outside the city-states such as Mazara, Liliba, and Segsta, and scavenging materials to ensure sufficient food supply for the army. , to disturb the order of Carthage's ruled area in Sicily and create favorable conditions for future operations.

Leoticides took an offensive and defensive approach.

And when Davos led his army to land on the coast of Ladium, the drowned body of Franios, the commander of the third fleet of Dionia, had been found in the reefs of the coast between Minoa and Agrigento. , Because the body had been decomposed, Leoticides led all the soldiers and sailors of the fleet to hold a solemn cremation funeral for him in the city of Serinus.

The whole place was crying.

However, the traces of the commander-in-chief of the Sicilian fleet, Cykrian, have not yet been found. Leoticides had judged that Cykrian might have fallen into the coast controlled by the Carthaginians and was captured by the Carthaginians. When exchanging captives, he had offered to exchange more captives for Cykrian.

The Carthaginians did not respond to this.

Since the order signed by Davos to "agreed to transfer the Fourth Fleet to Sicily" has not yet reached the Ministry of Military Affairs, the former squadron commander Stefankas temporarily assumed the important task of commanding the entire Sicilian fleet (in fact, the current Sicilian fleet is only left. only a few dozen warships).

The Dionian army raged on the western lands of Sicily, causing the allies and colonial cities of Carthage to complain, and they turned to Lilibe for help.

The morale of the army in the city of Lilibe was low and the military system was in chaos.

The Iberian army, led by Hasdruba, stationed at Palermos had the ability to drive out the plundering Dionians, but Hasdruba, reminded by Kisgo, chose to It was on the sidelines, because the allies and colonial cities in difficult situation had to send messengers to the city of Carthage to ask for help, so that the still quarreling elders knew that the military situation in Sicily was urgent and made a quick decision.