Chapter 210 Marching to Beneventum

Onosius, the chief general of Naples, held a letter in his left hand and said excitedly: "Everyone, I have just received a letter from Adrianx, the administrator of Enona, in which he mentioned, 'Yesterday Dio Alexis, the commander of the Nia army, led his army into the mountains of Samone from the east, joined the armies of Potentia and Abenerum, and encircled and annihilated one of the Samonites left in the mountains. The main force of nearly 7,000 people also forced Aquilonia to surrender"... Today, this Dionian coalition of 20,000 people has reached Abenerum and is ready to attack Bene tomorrow. Ventum attacks!"

"That's great, our disaster is finally over! Belevin and the others are the central town of Shilpini, and the Samone coalition outside the city will definitely withdraw to defend against the attack of our allies!"

"I'm right. The Dionysians have always kept their promises and will definitely come to rescue us in Campania. You didn't believe it at the time, but now?"

"Haha, General Aeos, please forgive our ignorance, because we are not like you who fought side by side with the Dionysian army, and have a relatively deep understanding of them, how could we expect Dionia to ask us for help before? The delay in responding is to suddenly stab the Samonaite's soft abdomen with a knife!"

"General Onosius, after the Samonaites retreat, I hope Naples can immediately send an army to help us retake Pompeii!"

"No! You should help us Herculaneum () first, we are the closest to Naples!"

"And our liternum!"

...

After getting this good news, the haze in the Naples Council was swept away these days. While everyone rejoiced that the disaster was over, they began to quarrel because of their eagerness to rebuild their homes.

In the days after the Samone raids on the Campania League, they not only besieged Naples, but also branched out and attacked other Campania League city-states, except for the likes of Sorrentoum, Anari Outside the city-states with relatively special geographical locations such as aenaria and capeae, many small coastal cities fell one after another, and most of the refugees fled to Naples.

"Don't worry, everyone." Onosius comforted them and said: "Adrianx mentioned in his letter that General Zantiparis, the commander of the Dionian Legion, who will be stationed at Ainona tomorrow, will lead his troops by boat. Naples, join our army and recover the lost town!"

The crowd cheered again and praised: Dionia is indeed a good ally that keeps its promises, she thought too much! The presence of the Dionysian army makes them more confident in recovering their city-state!

then,

Onosius added: "It is also mentioned in the letter that when the Samonai army retreats, I hope we can send troops to harass and hinder it..."

Hearing this, the hall suddenly returned to silence.

After a while, the Naples parliamentarians shook their heads and said, "Let's go out of the city to attack the Samonais?! No! No! This is too dangerous! Since the Samonais are going to retreat, let them retreat, we don't have any. It is necessary to risk the lives of citizens!"

If the Dionysian III Corps helped the Campanian League defeat the Kautini a few months ago, it helped the Campanias regain a little fighting spirit, then this large-scale assault by the Samones not only brought the The fighting spirit shattered, and it deepened their fear of this terrifying mountain race.

Of course Onosius also knew this situation, because he was also one of them, but Aeos argued loudly with them.

Onosius had to cough a few times and draw everyone's attention back to himself: "I want to bring everyone's attention to the retreat of the Samonais. In order to vent their anger, it is very likely that they will burn down the towns they occupied and burn us. farmland, do we want to stop it?!”

In fact, this reminder came from Adriankes, who had been the chief executive of Enona for more than two years and had many dealings with Campanias. They were far from being comparable to the brave and tenacious Volsci and Herniki, so in the letter he did not say at all that the retreating army that had harassed Samona was in order for Alexis to attack Beneventum to win time, but just underscores the point.

Everyone was stunned. Refugees from other city-states certainly did not allow their homes to be burnt down, but the Neapolitans were more worried about the destruction of their farmland. They had been supplying rations for the Dionysian Third Legion some time ago, and they had to take care of the refugees. Allied people, Naples is in short supply of food, and they can't pin their hopes on Dionia, who has just experienced a drought, and they are all looking at this year's autumn harvest.

Although the Kautini invaded and seldom destroyed farmland in the past, it was because they confidently believed that "the food produced by these farmlands will eventually become the property of their next looting", but under the current war situation, it is difficult to guarantee They will not jump on the wall and create more trouble for the Campania confederation.

So, after urgent deliberations, the Naples deputies finally agreed to Adriankes' proposal.

………………………………

Beneventum, the largest town in the Samonite Tribal Confederation. Although the Samonais are a mountain race, it is still a minority of towns built on top of the mountain like Aquilonia. More than half of the tribes and tribal associations live in the valleys and mountains. The place where Beneventum is located is a rare large and relatively flat hill surrounded by mountains, and it is the place where two rivers meet, so the water source is abundant and the land is fertile. It is among the towns of Samona. Both grazing and planting are the most developed.

Therefore, Beneventum has always been at the forefront of the Samonai Tribal Alliance in terms of population and strength. Most of the time, the major tribal leaders in its territory are the major leaders of the Shilpini tribe, and only a few When other Shirpini tribes resented Beneventum's wealth and were dissatisfied with the arrogance of the Beneventum people, they would make concerted efforts to elect the leaders of other regions as the tribal chiefs to compete with Beneventum. Benirum is the first choice.

This town of Shilpini is located about 40 miles south of Beneventoum. It is also a hilly area, but the area is much smaller. There is also a river passing through it, but this is not a big Sa The Beto River eventually flows into the territory of Beneventoum and joins the Volturno River.

Therefore, the Abenerum people always felt that they were shorter than the Beneventoum people, even during the reign of the former Shilpini chief and the capable Abenerom chief Veroni, The Abenirum people still feel a little lack of confidence, and for more than ten years they have been enduring the oppression and humiliation of the Beneventoum people.

It was not until the early hours of this morning that the Dionysian coalition left Abenerum and began to march towards the territory of Beneventum. The Abenerum people rejoiced to bid him farewell, thinking that the day of their revenge had finally come.

3,500 Abenerum soldiers walked in the front with their heads held high, 6,000 legionnaires of Dionia in the middle, and 12,000 soldiers of Potentia in the back, not counting Dionia's engineering battalion , medical battalion, mountain reconnaissance team, and the dragging load team... Its combat troops reached 21,500 people, and they formed a team of dozens of miles long, along the Sabato River, heading north.

After leaving the territory of Abenerum, the enemy began to appear in the mountains and forests on both sides of the river. Although they were not many, they commanded a high position and threw javelins and arrows at the Dionysian coalition army marching in the river valley. , and even pushed the rocks from the mountain into the river, thus hindering the march of the entire team.

Seeing this situation, Alexis discussed with Gellney and Paulette, and each of them sent 1,000 soldiers to leave the river bank and march into the mountains and forests on both sides of the river. large force. During the march in the river valley, the main force also cleared the rocks and broken wood that blocked the road from time to time.

When the sun had reached the middle of the sky, the meandering river suddenly straightened, and the mountain ridge between the river not only became shorter, but also consciously retreated a mile away. The sight of the soldiers was no longer blocked by the lush foliage Blocked by the towering trees, what catches the eye is the flat land on both sides of the river bank, the green grass, the swaying small trees... The Dionysian coalition has entered the territory of Beneventum.

The terrain here is a bit special. Two rows of continuous hills running north-south are like two parallel lines, guarding the Sabato River and extending forward. Between the hills is a flat grass with a width of about two miles. But the Sabato River, which is twenty meters deep and no more than knee-deep.

The vanguard of the coalition forces stopped marching here, and the Abenirum warriors who had been traveling for a long time began to eat to replenish their strength, while waiting for the troops behind to join up.

"Five or six miles ahead is the city of Beneventum." Gellney pointed to the front and said to Alexis and Polert who came one after another: "In the past, this piece of land in front of me was filled with shellfish. The settlements of the tribes of Neventum have now been withdrawn..."

Gellney introduced the situation of Beneventum territory, but he couldn't help but sigh: In fact, most of his impressions of Beneventum still stayed more than ten years ago. Since the South-Italian War, he has The relationship with Leskuk became deadlocked and eventually became a mortal enemy. The only time he came to Beneventum was when the tribal alliance held a big sacrifice here. The priests of Samonai were punished by God. They came and left in fear. How could they still be in the mood to pay attention to the changes in Beneventum's territory? What he is introducing now comes from the information collected by his subordinates over the years. Now he is coming with his troops to completely wash away the humiliation of the past and remove the shadow buried in his heart.