Chapter 272
The messenger continued to relay the Senate's order, "Sir Diomiras believes that the Messappi army attacking Manduria is probably the last force of the Messappi. Therefore, the Senate orders you to return with as many soldiers as possible while ensuring the safety of Brindisi. Rendezvous with the reinforcements from Heraclea and Metapontum, march to Manduria, and completely defeat the Messappi! Completely ensure the safety of the newly occupied territory! "
Archita lowered his head and pondered. Previously, in the battle for Manduria and Brindisi, Tarantum paid nearly 5,000 casualties, and the casualties of the Messappi would not be lower than Tarantum's. This could be seen from the Messappi corpses buried after the battle. Although there were seven or eight city-states in the Mesapi Alliance, the only big city was Rudiae. To be able to send tens of thousands of troops, the manpower of Mesapi should have been stretched to its limit … But why did they not attack Brindisi, which was wedged into the territory of the Mesapi, but Manduria, which was closer to Tarantum and easier to be rescued?
But on second thought, he immediately scolded himself for being muddle-headed. Brindisi was guarded by 8,000 Tarantum militia, while Manduria only had 2,000. It was obvious which city was easier to capture.
He looked up at the messenger who was still waiting for his reply and asked, "How many people did Metapontum and Heraclea send?"
"Due to their heavy losses the last time, it is said that the two cities only sent 3,000 people this time," the messenger replied.
Archita's expression was slightly gloomy. He had fought side by side with the alliance before, of course, he knew how their casualties were. But in the end, Tarantum enjoyed the victory alone, while Heraclea and Metapontum only received some rewards. However, didn't Diónia use this method to defeat their opponents and quickly grow stronger?
Thinking of this, he no longer felt guilty. Instead, he was concerned about the city-state alliance across the bay that gave him mixed feelings, "Did the Senate … send an envoy to Diónia for help?"
The messenger wanted to say something but stopped. He shook his head with a strange expression.
Archita's thoughts turned and he immediately understood that it was not only Diomiras, one of the newly elected Consuls this year, who had always been averse to the Alliance of Diónia, the others also had the same mentality. As a Southern Italian city-state that had been established for 300 years, asking for help from a newly established city-state alliance that had only been established for less than two years was really a loss of face and honor. What would the alliance and the other city-states in Greece think? What's more, unlike Heraclea and Metapontum, Diónia served Tarantum as their master. On the other hand, Diónia and Tarantum were equal allies. Perhaps its overall strength was even stronger than Tarantum. If they asked for Diónia's help, they would have to pay a price. Therefore, Tarantum would never send messengers to Diónia unless it was a critical moment.
Archita pondered for a moment and simply said, "I'm going to let Pebarisius lead 2,000 soldiers to stay in Brindisi. I'll bring 6,000 people back. You'll come with me because I don't have enough cavalry to escort you back alone."
The messenger breathed a sigh of relief and quickly agreed. He was frightened by the elusive light cavalry of the Mesapi people. The cavalry team that escorted him sacrificed more than a dozen lives to send him safely to Brindisi.
In the afternoon, the freedmen who heard the news came one after another and watched the 6,000 Tarantum militia leave the city anxiously. Although Tarantum looked down on the newly established city-state alliance of Diónia that had no historical background, it had begun to learn from Diónia on how to deal with the issue of occupied territory. After capturing the two towns, the Senate immediately promised the foreigners and freedmen in Tarantum that as long as they were willing to move to Brindisi and Manduria, they would get land and become citizens of Tarantum. Brindisi and Manduria would also become affiliated to Tarantum. Therefore, although they knew there was a risk, many freedmen still brought their families and gladly came. Now that the war had broken out again and more than half of Brindisi's defensive forces had left, how could they not be nervous?
Between Brindisi on the east coast of Apulia and Tarantum on the west coast, there was an east-west mountain range. Other than that, the road was smooth. Therefore, Acheta's army could reach Tarantum in two directions. One was to go north around the mountain range and head west to Tarantum, or go directly west, pass through Manduria, go around the mountain range and reach Tarantum. Of course, Acheta chose the former because the road to the north was very safe except for the only Mesapi town, Igratya, that he needed to pay attention to. Choosing the latter meant that he had to always be vigilant against the surprise attacks of some Mesapi towns that were hidden in the dense forest in the south with Udier as the center.
Not long after Acheta's army left the city, they went around the mountain range. At this time, a scout came to report that a small group of Mesapi cavalry had been found spying nearby.
Acheta didn't pay much attention to it. Although Tarantum had taken Brindisi, on the road from Tarantum to Brindisi, there were still Mesapi cavalry patrolling the area from time to time, affecting the flow of people and the transportation of goods between Tarantum and Brindisi. Tarantum had sent soldiers to attack these cavalry many times, but they ran away early because of the speed of their horses. When the troops returned without success, they appeared again. Tarantum couldn't do anything to these Mesapi cavalry, so it could only consider waiting for Brindisi to be completely stabilized before continuously building new villages and strongholds between the two cities to completely occupy this area. Prior to this, Tarantum had specially formed troops to ensure the communication and transportation between the two cities. Heavy infantry and archers were able to deal with these swift cavalry, and Aquita had done the same.
After going around the mountain range, the terrain leading to Tarantum was flat and open. Acheta divided the marching column into five columns, with a smaller number of light infantry in the middle and the heavily armored militia on the outside. The entire marching column was about three miles long. Tarantum and Brindisi were about a hundred miles apart. Acheta estimated that with the current speed of the new army, they could arrive in the evening.
Acheta controlled the marching speed of the troops and moved forward unhurriedly.
However, as time went by, more and more Mesapi cavalry appeared. They patrolled around the marching troops and killed Tarantum's scouts, causing Acheta to have no choice but to recall the small number of cavalry, so he could no longer understand the surrounding situation outside of the troops' field of vision.
As a commander, although Acheta knew very well that after the last war, there were no powerful Mesapi forces near the north of the hills between Brindisi and Tarantum, this feeling of being blind made him feel uneasy. He immediately ordered the troops to speed up and rush to Sigyon as soon as possible.
Sigyon was a village to the north of Tarantum. Before Brindisi was captured, it was built into a small stronghold because it was adjacent to Mesapi's territory. It had strong mud walls and many sentry towers to defend against the Mesapi's invasion.
The bugle was blown, and the officers who received the order began to urge the soldiers who were fooling around.
At this moment, a loud bugle sounded at the front of the troops at the same time.
The soldiers in the vanguard were stunned: Is it our army?
"This is the bugle to attack!" Some of the soldiers had already begun to exclaim.
Just as the troops were in an uproar, Acheta's order came: Stop advancing! Immediately spread out the formation to the west with the light infantry in front and the heavy infantry at the back!
The officers immediately took action and commanded the soldiers to start getting into formation.
Acheta rode to the front of the troops under the protection of the cavalry.
A hundred meters away, the loose Mesapi cavalry stared at him like wolves, and he looked further ahead through the gaps of the enemy cavalry. He was puzzled: Now that the main force of the Mesapi is in Manduria, if it is their army that is coming, how many soldiers can they spare to stop my troops from returning to Tarantum?
Just as he was deep in thought, the marching column of Tarantum began to slowly spread out to the west. The officers and soldiers shouted at each other, looking for their positions, and the noise was earth-shattering.
In front of the formation, Acheta and the Mesapi cavalry not far away were quietly confronting each other …
They're here! Acheta's eyelids twitched, and he blinked hard, widening his eyes even more: A row of small black dots appeared on the horizon a few hundred meters away, gradually becoming bigger and longer …
When the troops got closer, Acheta and the others could see it more clearly: the same outfit with round shields, bronze helmets, and spears, the same dense formation, but they could not be sure that it was Tarantum's troops because the Mesapi soldiers were also equipped with the same equipment. This was the credit of the Athens people!
When they got closer and could see the raised flag, the adjutant exclaimed, "General, it's Igratya's troops!"
Igratya was the northernmost city-state of the Mesapi territory, adjacent to the territory of the Puchetti people. Every time there was a conflict between the Mesapi and the Puchetti, Igratya was the first to bear the brunt. Therefore, as a border city, it had stronger military capabilities and was the closest to Brindisi. When Tarantum attacked Brindisi, the Igratya came as reinforcements, but were repelled by Acheta.
Acheta also specially set up a sentry post in the northwest of Brindisi to monitor Igratya's movements. Now that Igratya's troops appeared here, and Acheta did not receive any warning, it was obvious that the northern sentry post had met with an accident.
At this moment, Acheta was not in the mood to mourn. He stared at the enemy's formation, and with the mind of a mathematician, he quickly estimated that the enemy's strength was less than 3,000 people.
Nearly 3,000 people dared to stop him from returning home?! Acheta did not feel relaxed, but he was even more puzzled.
Comments