Chapter 302: Prelude to War (II)

Pian nodded. He could only remind them that although he had been elected as the Grand Chieftain of the newly created tribal union, he, in fact, had no right to interfere with the management of these tribal cities at all. He then turned to ask Sedrum again, "Pyxous and Potentia had agreed to ally with us, so do you think that they will attack Theonia?"

"That's hard to say..." Sedrum said with hesitation, "It is because the Theonians are attacking us and not them. Judging from Cincinnag's cunningness, he will never be the first to attack unless we defeat the Theonians!"

Disappointment flashed on Pian's eyes but soon went back to normal. Pian then shouted to motivate the crowd, "Everyone, as long as we hold off the attack of the Theonians and persist for even half a month and not allow the Theonians to enter the Bruttii mountains, would make their morale to be crushed, their transportation to suffer difficulties, and the Lucanians, who the Theonians oppress, will take this opportunity to rise and revolt, which would surely make the Theonians fall into trouble! At that time, it would be our time to counter-attack, completely defeat the blockade of Theonia and seize the fertile plain land of the Greeks for our future generations! "

Pian's words of encouragement made everyone's blood boil, and Likumu yelled, "DEFEAT THE THEONIANS!"

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Constructing roads in the winding and rugged mountains is a huge and complicated project that costs a lot of manpower and resources and tests the engineering technology of a country. The construction of Thurii-Laos road started early last year, and even though a lot of manpower has been invested in its construction, it is still not been completed yet. Therefore, the 20,000 troops led by Davos and the huge logistics camp travelled in the mountains for five days before they could reach the Lao Fortress.

And Hielos led the fourth legion to the outside of Terina and met the strategoi and council member of Terina that had come out to the city to meet them. The atmosphere is amiable as Siprus started the introduction.

However, Hielos declined the Terinians' invitation to dinner in the city and insisted on staying together with the soldiers, which won the praise of a group of politicians.

He then led his troops to camp on the coast 5 kilometres northwest of Terina, where the exit of the coastal path was only 5-6 kilometres away from Clampetia.

After Hielos arranged for the camp's construction, he immediately took some guards and Siprus to get close to Clampetia.

On the left side is a cliff and on the right is a mountain. This coastal path leading to Consentia Plateau is not wide, but the place where Clampetia is located is even narrower. Even though the city of Clampetia is not more than 200 metres long, it had completely blocked the way in and out. Although the walls are only four metres high, the entire city is on higher ground. From where Hielos is, the road slopes upward and narrows more and more...which would make the soldiers spend a lot more energy just to reach the city, not to mention trying to avoid the enemy's rain of arrows and javelins. Fortunately, its geographical environment is somewhat similar to that of Aprustum, so the soldiers have experience in this kind of terrain due to their regular training.

As Hielos examined the road, he began pondering whether the two siege weapons that had just been equipped in the third legion could be pushed to the city.

Seeing Hielos staring at the city of Clampetia and remaining silent for a long time, Siprus thought that he got intimidated by the difficulty of the siege. So he reminded him by saying, "There are still a few trails in the mountains near here that we could use to bypass Clampetia and go north to Consentia."

"Really?!" Hielos turned his head abruptly.

"Yes, otherwise, how could Siro and the other tribes that rebelled against Consentia escape Bruttii."

"Then those people also know about it?" Hielos pointed to the city of Clampetia ahead.

Siprus understood what he meant, so he affirmed, "Naturally, they do."

Hielos had no luck, but he still decided to send someone to do some reconnaissance first.

"I heard that Clampetia has a port." Hielos once again asked.

"There is, but it is not big." Said Siprus. He then dismounted and went to the edge of the cliff.

Hielos didn't act brave and dismounted the horse, as he did not think that he had excellent horsemanship. In case the horse was frightened and fell off the edge of the cliff, then the fourth legion would have lost one legion leaders even before the battle started.

"There it is!" Pointed Siprus ahead, and his voice sounding a bit wispy under the strong sea breeze.

Hielos fixed his eyes on the cliff jutting out from the land, with a height difference of nearly 100 metres from sea-level, he caught sight of the coast a few kilometres away from the north of Clampetia, where he saw a flat piece of land with a modest beach with a simple port with few dozens of boats docked on it...

Siprus then said, "According to the information from the Siro tribe and from what our ships have observed whenever they pass through the city of Clampetia, the port of Clampetia is built at the estuary of Savuto River-"

"Savuto River"

"The Savuto River is a large river within the territory of Clampetia. Although the city in front of us is either surrounded by mountains or the sea and seems to be barren, in fact, not far to the north is a small plain around the Savuto River, and along the Savuto River is a valley to the north that you can traverse to reach Consentia smoothly." Speaking of this, Siprus showed a contemptuous smile, "It is said that the reason why the Bruttians built the city of Clampetia here is that they were afraid that we would destroy and plunder their farmland and pasture on the Savuto plain. However, we, Terinians, could not even completely farm on all the fertile land on the Ophemia Plain, so we wouldn't even covet this meagre plain. With their city being 5 kilometres away from the Savuto River, it made labour to be inconvenient, so they had to build a small town on the banks of the river-"

"How is the defence of this town?" Hielos abruptly interrupted Siprus.

"I heard that this town doesn't even have a wall."

It made Hielos relieved from hearing it, as he did not want to spend more effort after capturing Clampetia just to capture a small town so that they could completely occupy the territory of Bruttii.

"In the past, Clampetia was not rich in production, and had poor shipbuilding technology and had little contact with other city-states in Italia, so they almost do not have any maritime trade, but-" Siprus said anxiously, "Now that they had established the Bruttii Tribal Union, this port has become the only port for the Bruttians, so I believe they will develop it soon."

Hielos nodded. However, they have no clue that the Bruttians managed to break through the blockade of Theonia and formed an alliance with Pyxous and Potentia.

"Legatus, look!" At this time, his guard reminded him loudly.

Clampetia's gate opened wide, and a group of men rushed out.

"Go!" Hielos order his team to return to quickly return to the camp.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

"See, the Theonians are cowards!" Likumu, who was holding a spear, laughed wildly.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Davos reached the Lao Fortress, where Sesta and Hieronymus had long been waiting.

"Lord archon, the people of Nerulum have been mobilised to listen to the arrangements of the city hall and are ready to carry provisions, constructing camps and transportation of the wounded..." Sesta took the initiative to report.

"Do the Lucanian tribes have any problem with it?"

"No. In fact, they are pleased to see us conquering the Bruttians, as the stronger Theonia is, the safer they will be. In addition, with this, Lucania will no longer only be the non-Greek race of Theonia. Moreover, they are also willing to provide a base for the legion, but in that case, our soldiers will have to be careful of Lucanian women breaking into their tents at night. You should know that Greek citizens of Theonia are very popular now!" Sesta said jokingly.

Davos became amused and laughed hard. He then looked at Sesta and said with some emotion, "Lord Sesta, to think that you were a mercenary that has never held a public office in a city-state or even has experience of managing a city."

Sesta shook his head, "Back then, I worked so hard just to have a bite of bread, so how could I have imagined that I would have today? It is all because you, milord, have brought us unimaginable changes!"

"We should be able to seize the opportunities that have been provided to us. As a mercenary with no experience in managing a city, you have firmly chosen to leave the familiar army and come to this unfamiliar land, facing the Lucanians, who were still hostile at that time, without fearing difficulties, working and boldly solving problems. Now, I can say that Nerulum is fully and completely a Theonian territory! Sesta, you have done an excellent job! Not only do I think so, but so do other members of the Senate! You are now the one with the most administrative experience among the statesman of the Senate in our mercenary army! When your term ends next year, I think the Senate will definitely have more important tasks to give you!" Davos did not spare words in expressing his appreciation for Sesta.

After hearing this, Sesta was both proud and excited while keeping a few moments of clarity, "Milord, you are the one who has to have the most administrative experience in our mercenary!"

"Me?" Davos looked left and right and said, "I do not count. Did you not all say that I am "Favoured of Gods"? All of it is because of Hades!"

Then came a burst of laughter.

"Milord." Hieronymus could not help but say, "What is the mission of our third legion in this war?" The third legion did not have a role when they sent reinforcements to Taranto, and the war mobilisation did not give any specific instructions to the third legion, which made Hieronymus inevitably worried.

Davos looked at this legatus who had completely relocated his home to Nerulum in order to facilitate training and commanding of the third legion that made him not even able to attend the regular Senate meetings. If Sesta had political ambition, this taciturn man had made his home in the military camp. Therefore, even though he was Greek and commanded the third legion that was mostly Lucanians, those Lucanian warriors, who once hated the Greeks, were very obedient to him for this very reason.