Chapter 90
Both Sinsinag and Sedorum cast their hopeful eyes on Akepiru.
Akepiru watched all this, and he knew very well that the Wiggs did not fight with all their strength. After all, they were the Bruti, not the Lucaria. Of course, what Sedorum said might be the truth. They had saved the right wing and contributed to the victory of the battle! He knew Sinsinag very well. It was his style to bully the weak and fear the strong. It was not surprising that he had such a performance. It was his duty as the leader of the alliance to reward merit and punish mistakes, but he could not really follow the alliance agreement. Picossis was the most important ally of the Grumentum. It was because of his support that the Grumentum was strong today. Moreover, Picossis was also a powerful tribal alliance in Lucania Municipality. Criticizing or even punishing the great leader of Picossis in front of the Bruti would definitely cause dissatisfaction in Picossis, and thus cause the Lucania tribal alliance to be divided.
The area where the Bruti lived bordered the southern part of Lucania. The tribes there were independent and not unified, so they were relatively weak. They were the next target of the Grumentum's conquest after defeating the Turií and occupying the Sebari Plain. Wigg was the closest Bruti city to the Lucaria territory. Its voluntary surrender (under the coercion of the Lucania tribal alliance) gave the Grumentum a springboard to enter the Bruti territory. Therefore, they could not be too harsh on it, but they could not let it be confused because the Lucanians were the masters, and the Bruti were destined to be enslaved! …
After making up his mind, he slowly said, "It is the result of everyone's joint efforts that we can win this battle! When we occupy this place, I will give each of you rich spoils of war according to your contributions! But — "His sharp eyes made Sedorum's heart tremble." As an ally, killing a comrade who fought side by side with you is an ugly act of breaking a promise. Even the gods will punish you! Therefore, Vigor City had to pay a fine that would satisfy Picossis to compensate for their losses! At the same time, offer the lives of the same number of Vigo warriors as a sacrifice! "
"What!!!" When the Vigo warriors heard this, they all exploded and shouted angrily.
The Grumentum and Picossis warriors immediately surrounded them.
"Sedorum, do you agree or disagree with my decision?!" Akepiru stared coldly at the leader of Vigor City.
Sedorum lowered his head and clenched his fists. His face was pale, and his forehead was covered with sweat. He remained silent.
"Great Leader, you can't agree to it! The Lucanians have humiliated us like this, and we will not stand for it! Let's go back!! "Sarroux shouted angrily.
"Yes! Let's go back! Leader, let's go back!! The Wiger warriors were furious.
"Go back?!" Sinsinag sneered and said to Akepirus, "You see, the Bruti people are really unreliable. They want to quit the alliance they swore to the gods so quickly! If that's the case, why don't … "
Hearing this, Sedorum was shocked. He raised his head abruptly and saw the ferocious sneer on Sinsinag's face and the cold expression of Akepirus. He looked around.
The Lucanians raised their shields and spears and surrounded his people. Although the Vigo warriors struggled with all their might, they were too few in number. They only wore leather armor and did not have bronze shields. They only had one spear. Their equipment was too simple … Sedorum's nails dug deep into his palms … He squeezed out a sentence with difficulty, "I … I agree …"
"Great Leader!!" The sorrowful cries of the Vigo warriors were like a big hammer, hammering on Sedorum's already extremely fragile heart. He staggered a few steps and fell to the ground.
"Udrell will be in charge of supervising the execution of the punishment," Akepirus said. He was worried that Sinsinag would agitate the Bruti people again and cause a riot, so he chose to be neutral.
"Okay." Udrell, the great leader of Neutum, replied.
"When we occupy this place, I will allocate a piece of land in the Sybari Plain for Sedorum and your people to graze cattle and sheep according to the contributions of Vigo City. It is much more fertile than the land of the Bruti!" After Akepirus gave the punishment, he gave Vigo City a sweet reward.
"Thank you … Great Leader …" Sedorum endured the pain and thanked him.
Akepirus did not wait for Sinsinag to speak and asked kindly, "Gneinath, my dear child, how are your injuries?"
Gneinath endured the pain and straightened his chest, "Great Leader, I'm fine. They are just flesh wounds."
"That's good. You have to protect yourself. I don't want my dear daughter to become a widow at such a young age. I'm still waiting to hold my grandson!" Akepirus laughed loudly, and the warriors around him also laughed along, making Gneinath a little embarrassed and shy.
Sinsinag breathed a sigh of relief. Since Akepirus still valued Gneinath, his promise to Picossis would not change because of this setback.
"What Lucania's number one warrior? To be so embarrassed by the Greeks who outnumber you so much, what a disgrace to the Lucanians!" There was sarcasm in the warrior's laughter.
Gneinath looked in the direction of the voice. It turned out to be Sevilla, the leader of a tribe in Grumentum. He had once proposed to Akepirus' daughter, but the great leader married his daughter to Gneinath for the sake of the tribe's interests. Since then, Sevilla had not been nice to him.
Not to be outdone, Gneinath said, "If you have the ability, then go ahead and attack. I don't believe you can take down this camp!"
"Well, I'll show you the power of us Grumentum warriors!" Sevilla was provoked and did not decline. He turned around and shouted, "Brothers —"
"Enough, Sevilla!" Akepirus' deep and majestic voice immediately stopped the young leader's impulse. "Let's go back to camp!"
As soon as his voice fell, Sinsinag shouted first, "Go back now?! Aren't we going to continue to attack this camp?! "
Akepirus looked up at the sky and said, "It's almost dusk, and the warriors are very tired. We have killed the last Turií militia, and they are powerless to stop us Lucanians from taking root in this land. When we go back, we will take care of the wounded, recover our strength, and prepare the tools. Tomorrow, we will build a city here, a city of Lucania! " Akepirus' voice became a little excited. "These mercenaries are not worth worrying about at all. As long as they dare to come out, we will defeat them. If they don't come out, we can lock them up so that they can't get the support of the Turií, and they will naturally be finished. As for the reinforcements from Tarantum, I heard that the relationship between Tarantum and the Mesapi is tense, and they will not stay here for long!"
The people around were thoughtful.
Udrell asked, "Akepirus, are we not going to Amendola?"
"We will go tomorrow." Akepirus glanced at Sinsinag. Although on the surface he did not take the mercenaries seriously, in fact, the combat power of this team surprised him a little. The tribe that had captured Amendola did not join the Lucanian tribal coalition as per his orders. If he led the army at this moment, Amendola was likely to refuse to open the gate. Although his forces were more than ten times that of the other party, siege was not the Lucanians' forte. Moreover, it was a mountain city. If they could not capture it quickly, at night, the warriors would be extremely tired and had no food. Behind them, there was the threat of mercenaries and Tarantum reinforcements, and there was a group of unstable Zwegs in the team. They were afraid that something unexpected would happen. There was no need for the Lucania Tribe's allied forces to take this risk when they were confident of winning.
"If the leader of that small tribe in Amendolara is smart, they should escape to the mountains tonight like last time. Otherwise, I'll let them know who's in charge of the Lucania region tomorrow!" Akepiru sneered with a bloodthirsty smile on his face.
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