Novels online

Chapter 257

Thinking of the Devers' possible strategic plans in the future, Zantiparis took a deep breath. "Tormid, it looks like I won't be able to leave the battlefield for the rest of my life!"

"At least you don't have to worry about not having the chance to be a commander, or even a senator in the Senate!" Tormid said excitedly.

… …

Grumentum was a mountain city. Unlike the hill occupied by Amendolara, which was less than 200 meters high, the hill occupied by Grumentum was about 300 meters high.

At first, the wooden walls of Grumentum were built at the foot of the hill. Later, during Akepiru's tenure as chief, the city expanded on a large scale, annexing and incorporating the surrounding small tribes and moving into Grumentum. But because it could not accommodate them, the city had to expand outwards, doubling the area of Grumentum. The entire city was divided into three parts: most of the outer city was inhabited by the newly incorporated tribes; the inner city was inhabited by the tribes that originally belonged to Grumentum; and the core area was the hilltop, also built with wooden walls, where the chief's tribe lived. At the peak of Grumentum, there were nearly 30,000 residents in the city.

However, after the Devers' mercenary army defeated the Lucaria tribe's allied forces and Akepiru was seriously injured, Lusau lacked prestige and found it difficult to unify the tribes of Grumentum. And because of the outbreak of war with Picossis, some tribes in Grumentum's territory began to flee. When Sinsinag seized Grumentum, in order to control the entire city, he used a scheme to kill the leaders of the tribes in the city and those who disobeyed him. This caused the people to feel insecure and divided. There were constantly people from the city who quietly fled the city, so the population of the city was greatly reduced, and the number of people was not enough to defend the city. So after Potentia declared war, Sinsinag moved all the residents into the inner city and burned the outer walls and houses.

After Potentia became the new master of Grumentum, they did not rebuild the outer city. At this time, the inner city had three gates: the east, west, and south, and the north was a cliff.

Borat's initial deployment was to send 500 Potentia warriors to each of the three city gates. Behind them would be the scattered tribes of the original Grumentum, and above them would be the tribes of Lusau. Not only would they act as a reserve force in the event of a war, they would also monitor the movements of these tribes. Once there were signs of a riot, they would attack from above and below, easily quelling the war. Meanwhile, the core region at the top of the mountain would be commanded by Borat, leading 500 elite Potentia warriors.

However, not long after this deployment was implemented, it was destroyed, and the saboteur was Lusau. After his strength increased, he no longer wanted to listen to Boret's orders, especially after he had suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Sinsinag and was almost trapped in the city and captured alive. Therefore, he strongly requested to guard a city gate area.

In the end, Borret was forced to station Lusau at the south gate. Moreover, because of Lusau's oppression of the people in the city, the tribes in the city were unwilling to live in the south city area. Instead, they were more concentrated in the east gate area.

Borret was actually very clear about the current situation in the city, and he was deeply uneasy. However, his prestige and strength were not enough to deter the increasingly arrogant Lusau. At the same time, because of Lusau's reckless behavior, the people of Potentia were also dissatisfied. They followed suit, causing him to gradually lose control of this group of warriors from the various tribes of Potentia. The anger of the people in Grumentum grew day by day. Borret felt as if he was sitting on the crater of a volcano. This sense of crisis made him finally decide to send someone back to Potentia to complain to his elder brother, Puamoth, about his current predicament. He also requested that Lusau be transferred away, and at the same time, more Potentia warriors be sent to stabilize the situation in Grumentum.

After finally making this decision, Borret seemed to be much more relaxed. These two days, he actively patrolled the entire city, and even reprimanded the leader for the careless security at the east gate.

On this day, it was almost dusk when Borret returned to his residence at the top of the mountain. He felt hungry, so he asked the guards to roast a leg of lamb and brought over a pot of wine, ready to eat and drink at the same time.

At this moment, he could vaguely hear the sounds of fighting coming from the bottom of the mountain. After all, this mountain city was a few hundred meters high. To be able to hear the sounds from the top of the mountain, it was obvious that the commotion was not small.

Borret's expression changed. He immediately ran out of his residence and met the sentinel who had rushed over to report the news. "Chief, there's an enemy attacking the city! The people of Grumentum in the city have attacked our warriors! "

"What?!" The sentinel's words were like a bolt from the blue, causing Borret to turn pale with fright.

… …

Dusk was the time for the warriors to eat. The people of Potentia ate cheese, beef, and mutton while venting their dissatisfaction with Chief Borret. Borret had tormented them for the past two days.

When they were full and in a good mood, the bugle suddenly sounded. When the leaders and officers of all clans anxiously drove the warriors out of the camps, many of them still couldn't believe that the war had suddenly come without any sign.

They hurriedly picked up their weapons and reorganized their ranks.

However, the enemy's attack was very swift. Just as they rushed out of the dense forest and exposed themselves to the sentinels in the city, they quickly approached the east, west, and south sides of Grumentum …

The sentinel on the wooden wall of the east gate watched helplessly as the enemies, limited by the uneven hills, dense wooden fences, and deer abatis, were forced to gather into a few narrow mountain paths that led to each gate.

If a large number of arrows and javelins were thrown, the densely packed enemies would definitely suffer serious casualties. However, there were only a few dozen arrows that landed in the midst of the enemy's formation. They could not even cause a ripple.

"Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! The enemy is closing in! " The warrior on top of the city wall anxiously turned around to urge his teammates who were still dawdling at the foot of the city wall. Suddenly, his voice stopped abruptly. Above the Potentia camp, a team of a few hundred people, armed with spears, lined up in a column, rushed down.

It was the reinforcements sent by the people of Grumentum! The warrior on top of the city wall felt a little relieved, but what happened next left him dumbfounded.

This team crashed straight into the rear of the Potentia soldiers who were hurriedly preparing to go up the city wall. They shouted, "Go to hell! Damn Potentia pigs! " They stabbed the spears in their hands at the bewildered warriors of Potentia …

Screams and shouts of killing filled the air. The city was in a mess …

Taking advantage of the chaos in the city, the enemies outside the city had already arrived at the foot of the city wall. They threw the sacks filled with soil on their backs into the trench and quickly filled up a path. Then, they rushed to the wooden wall and built long ladders …

The warriors of Potentia resisted tenaciously, but most of them were fighting fiercely with the tribal warriors of Grumentum inside the city. There were not many warriors on the city wall, but the enemy did not care about their lives and continued to attack fiercely. Not long after, the enemy charged up the city wall …

… …

From the lookout at the top of the mountain, Boret saw the enemies constantly pouring in from the eastern city wall at the foot of the mountain. The line of defense was in imminent danger. He was extremely anxious. "Take my Wolf Fang and immediately tell Lusau that the eastern gate is in danger. Ask him to send some warriors to help defend the eastern gate. Otherwise, if the enemy charges into the city, no one will be able to escape!"

"Yes, Chief!" The guard received the token with a nervous expression.

Watching the guard rush down the mountain, Boret was still worried. He sent someone to order the 500 warriors of Potentia stationed on the mountainside to rush to the eastern gate.

After giving the order, Boret took a breather and had time to calm down and think. Where did the enemy come from?

Were they Picossis's men? Could they still send such a large number of warriors after just suffering a great defeat?

Were they from Diónia? When he thought of the powerful Greek city-state alliance in the south, Boret felt his breath tighten. Even though Potentia was not adjacent to Diónia, they had felt pressure from the south from time to time over the past year. It was not only because of their strength, but more importantly, the Lucanians did not reject this alliance that was dominated by Greeks. That was the most terrifying thing! This terrifying situation made it impossible for the Lucanians to unite and fight against this outsider! This was also why the steady Puamot had finally made up his mind to take down Grumentum. Only by strengthening themselves could they contend with this force that was expanding at an alarming rate. Therefore, when Puamot left, he repeatedly reminded Boret to pay attention to the movements of the Diónia alliance. Of course, Boret attached great importance to it. He sent two hundred warriors from his tribe to guard the pass and sent scouts south to monitor Neutum's movements. However, Neutum was heavily guarded, with many checkpoints set up to block the northern passage, so the scouts returned without success.

Now, there was no abnormal news from the camp guarding the pass, and the enemies attacking the city were all dressed in Lucanian attire. This made Boret's suspicion stop on Diónia for a while before he moved on to the last suspect — Galagusso. As a group of tribes that upheld the most ancient traditions in Lucania Municipality, they preferred to live in the mountains rather than on flat land. They were far away from the center of Lucania Municipality and built the city of Galagusso in the mountains in the northeast. For decades, they rarely participated in the disputes between other tribes and refused to ally with other tribes. They only allied with a few Lucanian tribes. When Acepirus unified southern Lucania, he did not have any intentions of attacking it. Could it be that the conservative Galagusso had changed their tradition this time?

…

At this time, the eastern city wall had been occupied by the Diónia soldiers. They did not rest and continued to advance into the city.

At the forefront were the 500 mercenaries led by Zantiparis. Another 500 mercenaries were led by Tormid to guard Neutum.