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Chapter 603

The two races, who originally shared the same ancestor, had an irreconcilable hatred for each other because of the river. When the Puchetti, under the leadership of King Tremoni, put aside their old prejudices and formed an alliance with the Mesapi, the Puchetti's power grew rapidly. They quickly recaptured the city of Canusion, which they had lost previously. They even crossed the Orfanto River several times to invade the lands on the north bank.

While the Downey people were worried about their increasingly powerful opponents in the south, shocking news came from the south six years ago: the Puchetti, their mortal enemy, was defeated by a kingdom called Diónia, and their king, Tremoni, was killed in battle! A few years later, the vast territory of the Puchetti had completely changed owners.

Although the Downey people knew that Diónia was a powerful kingdom, and that the whole of southern Italy was its territory, they had always been calm about it. Some of the Downey people even considered the Diónia as their friends, because Diónia had fought the Puchetti many times in the past, and even defeated the Mesapi coalition seven years ago. However, when the Diónia conquered the Puchetti and expanded their territory to the south bank of the Orfanto River, the Downey people finally panicked.

When the Downey ambassador entered the grand hall of Turií, the King of Diónia received him warmly and readily agreed to sign a two-year peace treaty with the Downey people.

The Downey people put down their worries and spent the next two years in peace. When they proposed to renew the treaty again, this time, the Senate of Diónia made a request — they wanted the Downey people to give the land on the north bank of the Orfanto River to Diónia. The reason was that the Puchetti people had always insisted that the land originally belonged to them, but was later seized by the Downey people. Now that the Puchetti people had become a part of the Kingdom of Diónia, Diónia had a reason to seek justice for its citizens.

Of course, the Downey people could not agree to this request, so the renewal of the treaty failed, the negotiations broke down, and the war broke out.

… …

As a Puchetti, the changes that Ellams had experienced and witnessed over the years were far greater than what he had experienced in the first half of his peaceful life.

More than ten years ago, King Tremoni launched the largest attack on the Downey people, but suffered a crushing defeat and lost the important town of Canusian on the south bank of the Orfanto River. That was the most difficult period that Ellams had ever experienced. Not only was there a lack of food, but he also had to worry about the Downey people's further invasion. Fortunately, Tremoni recognized the reality and took the initiative to sign a truce with the Downey people, and soon formed an alliance with Mesapi. Not only did they obtain half of Brindisi city, but they also defeated the Tarantum army.

Just when Ellams and his comrades thought that their good days were coming, the army of Diónia appeared. In the battle of the Anlerne Hills, Ellams and his comrades were defeated by the Diónia people, even though they had the geographical advantage. Although the losses were not great, they made the brave people fear Diónia, and forced the Mesapi people to sign a truce with Tarantum. Only then did the Diónia people leave Apria. Both the Puchetti people and the Mesapi people breathed a sigh of relief.

In the following years, with the help of the Mesapi people and the nourishment of Brindisi's sea trade, the Puchetti people gradually recovered their strength. King Tremoni could not wait to launch another war against the Downey people. Ellams also picked up his weapon and went to the battlefield … This time, they won and recaptured the city of Canusian, driving the Downey people back to the north bank of the Orfanto River.

Just as Tremoni was about to lead the army to continue to attack the north bank of the Orfanto River, the Mesapi people sent messengers, inviting their king to send troops to attack Tarantum. It turned out that Tarantum foolishly tore up the alliance with Diónia, and even sent troops to attack Diónia. As a result, they suffered a crushing defeat, and almost all the soldiers who went to the expedition did not manage to escape. Moreover, the Diónia people were attacked by another force that was stronger than them, and it was hard to say whether they could win or not. Even the ordinary people thought that this was a great opportunity, so of course, King Tremoni readily agreed to the Mesapi people's proposal. When the news spread, Ellams and his compatriots cheered. After all, the Tarantum people were much easier to defeat than the Downey people, and they were also richer than the Downey people.

Ellams once again went to war with the army. As expected, the Mesapi people easily occupied a large area of Tarantum's land, and advanced to the city of Tarantum. Although besieging the city was a headache, they had 40,000 troops, and there were not many Tarantum soldiers in the city. Ellams saw with his own eyes that there were even old people and young people on the city wall as soldiers to defend against their attack. When Ellams and his comrades saw this situation, they were confident that they could eventually take down the city of Tarantum. However, after more than ten days of continuous attacks, the city of Tarantum still stood firm. Especially in the end, a strange phenomenon occurred. Every time the attack reached dusk, they felt that the Tarantum people were almost unable to resist. Many times, the soldiers of the Mesapi people rushed to the top of the city wall, but by the next day, the defenders at the top of the city wall seemed to have changed, full of fighting spirit and strength.

At this time, there was also a news in the camp that the people of Diónia had completely defeated their enemy, and someone saw a messenger from Diónia enter the main tent of the Mesapi people. Ellams later learned that the messenger came to give an ultimatum, asking them to withdraw immediately, because Tarantum had become a "free city" of Diónia.

Until now, Ellams had no idea what a "free city" was, but he knew that King Tremoni and the archons of Mesapi must have been very unwilling to give up. That was why they launched a large-scale siege the next day. However, the number of guards at the top of the city wall of Tarantum had almost doubled. The final result was, of course, a failure. The actions of the Mesapi people obviously angered the people of Diónia, and soon the next day, bad news came. "Their joint fleet was attacked by the Diónia navy in the Taranto Bay, and only five warships escaped from the battlefield."

King Tremoni and the Mesapi people finally decided to retreat before the army of Diónia returned to Turií. When the news came, Ellams and his comrades breathed a sigh of relief. They were tired of constantly climbing the city wall, but they could not fight the enemy face to face. Deep down, they did not want to fight the terrible people of Diónia.

In the next few years, Ellams lived a very peaceful life, except for occasionally crossing the river with the tribal leaders to attack the Daoli people. But he knew that King Tremoni and the big shots were not comfortable. Although Diónia had always maintained that they did not offend Puchetti, they had repeatedly refused the request of Puchetti and the Mesapi messenger to "form an alliance or sign a friendly agreement with Diónia". Ellams could clearly feel the uneasiness of the tribal leaders. Not only did they summon the people for military training more often, but they even forced people like him, who were over 35 years old and had begun to decline, to participate.

The judgment of the king and the leaders was not wrong. Four years after the siege of Tarantum, Diónia declared war on Puchetti and Mesapi. The reason for the declaration of war was "to seek justice for the two races for tearing up the armistice agreement and joining forces to attack Tarantum."

Ellams was amused every time he thought about it. Didn't Tarantum also tear up the armistice agreement and attack Diónia? Diónia actually wanted to seek justice for Tarantum?! But thinking about it, Tarantum had become a city of the Kingdom of Diónia. Of course, the people of Diónia could only target their revenge on Puchetti and Mesapi, who were still independent.

Ellams, who was almost 40 years old, was inspired by the slogan "Defend the homeland", like his former comrades, so he picked up his shield and spear again and rushed to the front line.

After a period of preparation, rendezvous, marching, reconnaissance, small-scale battles … the Mesapi coalition finally decided to fight the people of Diónia in the territory of Brindisi.

Ellams would never forget the scene of that day. The Mesapi coalition had indeed made careful preparations in the past few years. The number of soldiers was as high as 60,000. It was a huge army that Ellams had never seen in his life. The soldiers lined up from north to south, stretching as far as the eye could see … On the opposite side, the number of Diónia soldiers was even more, and they were all wearing the same armor and weapons. They stood there quietly, like hard black reefs by the sea, daunting …

The warriors of Puchetti and Mesapi were never good at defense, so when the horn was blown, everyone roared and charged forward …

Then, waves and waves of arrows came from the opposite side, as if there would be no end to it …

Then came the more powerful rain of javelins …

Ellams watched as his comrades around him were shot and fell to the ground. The originally thick army formation was shot with holes, like the bark of a tree that had been bitten by insects and ants.

Then he heard the enemy roar in unison and began to charge. Like the dark clouds before a storm, he was so nervous that he almost stopped breathing, and his palms were sweaty.

The two armies collided and engaged in a bloody battle. The young and vigorous warriors of the Puchetti army at the front of the formation constantly attacked the steel formation built by the soldiers of Diónia with their blood and courage. However, like the raging reefs of the sea, their efforts were in vain.

After more than half an hour, the Diónia army did not move, but they were slowly retreating. Ellams, who was in the rear, could hear from the noisy killing sounds that most of the screams came from the mouths of the Puchetti soldiers, so he was terrified.