Chapter 673
The javelins that were thrown covered the entire phalanx. Only "boom" sounds could be heard. Some of the javelins slid off the shields, and some pierced into the shields, turning the phalanx into a hedgehog … But this phalanx did not have any soldiers fall, and no one screamed. It stood perfectly intact.
While the Samonians were still in shock, the Greeks suddenly removed their shields. Javelins flew out from the phalanx and were thrown in front of them, where Taruk was standing.
At this time, the distance between the two sides was close to 20 meters.
Taruk did not expect the other party to have such a fatal move. As the tribal leader, Taruk had his own armor and shield, but in order to better pursue the fleeing Greeks, he left them in the village. Seeing the javelins flying straight at him, he could only rely on his instincts to dodge. Then he let out a scream. A javelin pierced through his right leg, and he fell to the ground.
At the same time, seven or eight warriors beside him also fell to the ground, screaming.
"Chief!!!" The panicked shouts of the soldiers rang in his ears. Amidst the pain, Taruk suddenly remembered something mentioned by the previous leader ten years ago.
These enemies in black helmets and black armor should be Diónia!
"They're the Dainians!" Taruk reminded the others loudly.
At this time, the Diónia soldiers had already rushed to the front.
In order to protect their leader, the Cayutini warriors did not retreat. Instead, they hurried forward and fought with the Diónia soldiers.
This was obviously a wrong move. Even if the Cayutini warriors outnumbered the other side, the unprotected Cayutini warriors fighting against the well-protected Legion of Dionysia was like an egg hitting a stone.
After paying a heavy price, the Cayutini warriors had to retreat.
At this time, they heard the sound of hooves behind them.
"It's the Greek cavalry!!" The Cayutini warriors exclaimed.
Dozens of Diónia cavalry who had circled to the rear and galloped over threw javelins at the retreating Cayutini warriors, slowing their retreat.
The Legion of Dionysia soldiers were quickly catching up.
Under the pincer attack, the Cayutini warriors were completely routed and fled in all directions. They would become the targets of the Diónia cavalry.
At that moment, the commander of the Legion of Dionysia stood in front of the unconscious Taruk, looking back at the Campanian army that had just arrived. "Where's the nearest enemy?"
The scout pointed to his right and said, "About 400 meters from here, further west, there are about 300 Kautini people. Your comrades from the third squad and a company of light armored soldiers are preparing to attack them."
After the captain heard this, he immediately shouted, "Brothers of the second team, gather! Other than the few of you who are injured, the rest of you will follow me to the west immediately and coordinate with the third team to attack the Samonai! "
"Captain, this is just a small injury. It's not a problem for us to continue fighting," the injured soldier said unwillingly.
"This is an order, execute it immediately!" After the captain said this, the injured soldiers did not say anything.
"What about the Kautini hiding in the village?" a soldier asked.
"Leave it to the Neapolitans. I think they should be able to handle the remaining soldiers." With that, the captain immediately led the soldiers to the west.
This similar scene happened in many places in the Campanian Plains.
Only in Atella, the situation was different.
Atella was originally a small city built by the Etruscans, and later joined the Campanian Alliance. It was located in the northeast of Naples, in the middle of the Campanian Plains, less than 25 miles away from the city.
Twenty years ago, it was taken away by the Kautini, and since then, Atella had become a forward base for the Kautini to invade the coastal city-states of Campania, as well as a transfer point for looting.
The Campanian Alliance suffered greatly. Therefore, after forming an alliance with Diónia, they took advantage of the fact that the Kautini were defeated by Diónia and were still negotiating with the Devers: Could the Kautini return Atella to the Campanian Alliance?
The Devers agreed.
The Kautini, on the other hand, had no choice but to make concessions due to the circumstances.
This humiliation had always been weighing on the Kautini Great Leader Segovani's heart. Therefore, this time, he wanted to take advantage of the fact that the Campanian Alliance was busy dealing with the invasion of the other tribes to gather a large number of troops, recapture Atella in one fell swoop, and establish his prestige. As for when Diónia sent messengers to accuse him, Segovani had already thought of a way to deal with it. He would use the phrase "Atella originally belonged to the Kautini" to dodge it. Anyway, the Diónia only knew how to threaten him with words and could not harm him at all. When the time came, the deed would be done, and the Diónia could not do anything to him.
Segovani spent two days in Katium to gather about 5,000 warriors from the surrounding tribes and secretly entered the city of Cesarra.
Half an hour after the other tribes began to invade the west, he led his army and set off. As he had specially ordered that "no tribes are allowed to loot along the route from Cesarra to Atella", the journey was smooth and did not encounter any enemies.
Cesarra was less than 20 miles away from Atella, and it was all flat land. An hour later, the army led by Segovani neared the city of Atella.
The Atellans obviously did not expect the Kautini, who had always only looted, to suddenly lead an army to attack the city. There were only a few panicked sentries on the city wall.
Segovani, on the other hand, had made ample preparations. Not only did he let the warriors bring enough scaling ladders, but he also gathered the heavy infantry of Kautini (equivalent to the intermediate infantry of the Greek army) into the army. There were about 3,000 of them.
"Attack!" Segovani immediately gave the order without hesitation. He did not want to give the enemy any time to react.
The warriors roared and rushed towards Atella.
At this time, the scout hurried over. "Great Leader, we found the enemy's cavalry!"
Segovani's heart tightened, but he immediately relaxed. So what if the Greeks found out? Victory was already in his grasp.
"Continue to observe the enemy's movements south, and report to me at any time," he said with a wave of his hand.
"Yes, Great Leader." The scout ran away.
Cavalry! This was a pain in Segovani's heart. The Samonai were a mountainous race and had never had cavalry. But after the Kautini occupied the eastern plains of Campania, he began to plan to build a cavalry to increase the scouting ability of the army and at the same time to assist in battle. But none of the Kautini warriors were willing to try riding a horse. They were more willing to fight the enemy face to face, rather than riding and hiding like cowards. Of course, sitting on the back of a naked horse gave these Kautini warriors no sense of security at all. It was far better to have their feet on solid ground, which made them feel at ease. In the end, the dream of building a cavalry could only go down the drain …
Segovani sighed and threw away this annoying thought. He returned his attention to the battlefield. He was delighted to see that the warriors had already used scaling ladders to cross the trench and force their way to the city wall. Only then did many panicked Greek defenders appear on the city wall …
By the time Naples' reinforcements arrive, I will have already taken this small city! Segovani clenched his right fist confidently.
… …
"What did you say?! More than five thousand Cautini are attacking Atlas! "The Neapolitan general, Aialos, was shocked when he heard this news from the mouth of a scout.
He immediately reacted and shouted with a livid face, "We have all been deceived by the Kautini. This time, they are not just plundering, they are going to invade our land!" Aialos' words were mainly directed at Lizaru.
At this moment, Lizaru, who was sitting in the big tent, had a very ugly expression. After sending out the troops of Legio III to prepare for a surprise attack on the Kautini who had come to invade the Campania Alliance, he had been sitting in the barracks. There was no other way. Because the location of the attack was too wide, the various brigades, companies, and teams of Legio III were scattered in this vast area. He could only rely on the many scouts and messengers, as well as the planning of the staff officers, to barely achieve a general control. There were only 500 light infantrymen left in the camp, and they were reserved for reserve.
Lizaru carefully looked at the map of Campania on the table, then asked loudly, "How many citizen soldiers are there in the city of Atlas?"
Aialos thought for a moment, then came over and said, "Atlas is a small city with only a few thousand people. We can take out nearly 400 citizen soldiers."
Speaking of this, Aialos felt a little regretful. When Atlas was returned to the Campania Alliance, with such an important strategic location, it should have been expanded, strengthened, and stationed more young and strong citizens. However, at that time, the various city-states in the Alliance argued endlessly about how much construction costs and how much land they would get, so this important measure was never implemented. Later, everyone found that the Kautini were very obedient under the strong constraints of Diónia, so they did not bother to make any changes to Atlas. In the past two years, Kautini had begun to attack the Campania Alliance again, but they mainly robbed the property and occasionally robbed the population. They did not attack the cities, so they did not raise any alarm.
Lizaru frowned and asked again, "How many soldiers have you not sent out to fight?"
Aialos hurriedly discussed a few words with the generals beside him, then said helplessly, "According to General Lizaru's previous suggestion, we have kept a reserve force, about 2,000 soldiers."
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