Before the messenger of Crotone arrived, Milon had received news from the warships cruising the coast of Crimesa: the Dioonians had invaded the Croton Plain!

Milon was taken aback and secretly exclaimed: "Fallen for the Dionians, no wonder they never attacked the city, it turned out that they only attracted my attention, and the Dionians in the southern camp had already gone south!"

But to attack the southern camp of Dionia, he was a little hesitant: after all, Dionia's army was eyeing the city, and once he mobilized his army, they would see it clearly from the high platform, and if they took the opportunity to attack, they would lose Crimesa, and the trouble would be even greater!

……………………

The siege of Asprarustum was in full swing, and Fagris did not expect the Dioonians to storm as soon as they came up, and they were not afraid of death.

The ladder was overturned by a pusher, and it was quickly re-hit. One by one, the soldiers climbed the ladder, the first one was smashed down, and the latter accelerated upwards without hesitation. The light infantry brigade approached the city, not afraid of arrows, and also threw javelins and arrows at the defenders of the city......

The fierce offensive of the Dioonians soon paid off, the defenses of the walls were repeatedly breached, and the Dionian soldiers went up to the city, only to find that these Dionian soldiers in Greek armor were tall, strong, with long hair and shawls, and strange roars, and were clearly not Greeks. They fought so fiercely and with great strength that to kill or drive out one of them, the defenders had to pay for the lives of several soldiers.

Fagris had to send his reserves several times to help the defenders of the first line drive down the enemy who had reached the top of the city, especially the rightmost section of the wall, where the Dionians attacked the most.

General Faglis, who had some experience in defending the city, knew that the Dioonians could not always maintain such a fierce offensive momentum, and as long as they withstood this formation, the Dioonians would be powerless. Therefore, while sending all the reserves, he shouted at the soldiers, encouraging them to bravely continue to fight.

But he didn't know that at the most twisted moment of the battle, under the order of Hieronymus, the commander of the Third Army under the city, his personal guards lined up and collectively shook their round shields at the left side of the city.

The defenders on the far left of the city were concentrating on defending against the enemy's attack, when suddenly a shout came from behind them: "Attack!! ”

The "Crotonens", whom they regarded as comrades-in-arms, stabbed their swords and spears at them, easily eliminating the defenders, and before the soldiers of the Third Legion could come up, these dozens of scout soldiers immediately launched an attack on the neighboring defenders......

When Fagris, who was still commanding the battle at the head of the city on the right, received the news, the Dionian soldiers had captured the head of the city on the left, and a large number of soldiers quickly climbed the battlements, climbed into the aisle, and slashed towards the middle with great momentum......

As soon as the morale of the Crotone was not good, they threw down their shields and spears and ran desperately into the city.

The run immediately triggered a domino effect. Under the onslaught of the Ionian soldiers in front and flank, the defenders finally collapsed, and they scrambled to escape the city, instead blocking the walkways of the lower city. The panicked defenders jumped directly from the seven-meter-high city wall into the city, broke their legs and feet, broke their heads, and lay on the ground wailing.

The people of the city were also terrified, shouting in terror: "The enemy has entered the city!" The enemy has come in!! ……”

They helped the old and the young, and hurried to escape from the south gate and flee to Crotone.

Halfway through, the Crotone reinforcements happened to bump into the fleeing people head-on, and when they learned that the city of Asprarustum had been lost, they were so surprised that they didn't dare to move any further, and immediately turned around and ran back.

……………………

Crotone emissaries rushed to Crimesa, bringing orders for the attack of the council.

Millon, who was no longer the chief general, but a guilty man, finally ended his hesitation and sent 7,000 soldiers, including more than 2,000 infantry, to attack the Dionian camp on the south bank of the Wemblia River.

Davers, who had observed the enemy's movements from the high platform, immediately asked Adrianx, the first captain of the Second Army, to cross the river with 2,000 heavy infantry and 500 light infantry to reinforce the 2,000 soldiers led by the commander of the First Army and the first regiment stationed in the southern camp, Matonis. With a well-fortified camp and reinforcements from the northern battalion at any time, Mattonis was confident that he would repel these outnumbered enemies

However, Crotone's attack was thunderous and rainy, and after suffering a small loss in front of the camp with traps such as "nail thorns" and "hanging meat hooks", he immediately retreated back to the city. Milon certainly wouldn't take the only combat-ready team in Crotone to the well-fortified Dionian camp, and the soldiers lacked the courage to attack, and as soon as he found that the enemy was heavily defended in the camp, he sounded the trumpet of retreat.

The Crotone envoy, however, was furious at the easy retreat of his troops and forcibly ordered Milon to continue the attack, otherwise he threatened to dismiss Milon from his position as leader. However, the soldiers expressed their support for Milon, and the envoy was left Crimesa and returned to the Crotone Council to complain.

However, at this time, the Council of Crotone was in chaos, and the shocking news that "Dionia has captured Asprarustum" was like a thunderbolt in the sky, leaving all the Council members dumbfounded. Outside the council hall, the crowd gathered in the square, shouting for the council to quickly come up with a solution to the crisis.

This time, the call for peace talks was much louder than before, and some even said that Dionia's conditions would be acceptable, as long as tranquility returned to the plains north of Croton.

While the council was still debating the peace talks, two events in quick succession prompted them to finally make a decision: first, the 500 soldiers of the 3rd Dionian Legion, while pursuing the remnants of the enemy, crossed the Tacchinaati River into the heart of the Croton Plains, and for a time approached the city of Crotone, though they soon retreated to the city of Aspraustum. But this shocking sight still shocked the defenders and people in the city. Just as the whole city was in a panic, a passenger ship from Coronia entered the port of Crotone, and the Coronian emissary disembarked from the ship brought even worse news - Lokley had declared war on Coronia! His army had marched on Coronia, and the messenger had come to ask for help from Crotone.

The most feared thing of the Council of Crotone finally happened: the sworn enemy Lockrey took advantage of the quagmire of war in Crotone to brazenly attack Crotone's allies, as the leader of the alliance, it is incumbent on Crotone to send reinforcements, but at this moment, just dealing with Dioria's attack has already made Crotone's manpower inadequate, where is there any surplus troops to aid Coronia, and without Crotone's support, Coronia is impossible to block the attack of Crotone's coalition army, This means that Crotone will face the worst war situation from the enemy, and Crotone will be in danger of annihilation!

All the members of the council immediately stopped arguing and quickly agreed that peace talks with Dionya should be reached as soon as possible!

Lycias had to set off for the north again, and in order to prevent him from being too tough and the negotiations failed, he was accompanied by another emissary, the councillor Sisprotis (the same one who had previously said that "whatever Dionyas proposes, he should agree to restore peace to the plains of Crotton").

…………………

At this moment, in the big tent of the Chinese army in the Dionian camp, there was a joyful atmosphere. The news that "the Third Army captured the city of Aspraustum" cheered every general.

"Your Excellency, Commander, we should take advantage of the good opportunity to seize the panic of Asprarustum and Crotone and launch an attack on Crimesa, and we will definitely be able to take it smoothly!" Drax said eagerly, as the commander of the Second Legion, his troops' achievements could not fall behind the Third Legion.

"The city of Asphorustum is already ours, and it doesn't make much sense for the Crotone people to hold on to Crimesa, I'm afraid they will soon give up Crimesa. We can easily get it, and we don't have to sacrifice the lives of soldiers to attack. Capps said cautiously.

"However, allowing these more than 10,000 Crotone people to retreat will only make it more difficult for us to attack Crotone City!" Drax retorted loudly.

Capuz was momentarily speechless. Indeed, Crotone was a large city, not only with a large area and a large population, but also with walls ten meters high and a moat six meters wide. According to the conventional way of fighting, it is destined to be a protracted siege, but the sea is not under the control of Dionia, and it is impossible to completely blockade Crotone, so there is only a strong attack, but in the face of such a strong city, how many soldiers' lives will it take? Can you capture it? Almost all the generals were beating drums in their hearts. If the defending forces are strengthened, the chances of victory will be even more slim.

Daves, however, looked calm, turned his head and asked, "Lord Avinokis, what do you think we should do next?" ”

After entering the military tent, in addition to congratulating Davers on his victory again, Avinokis, who had been observing in silence, did not shirk in the face of the focused eyes of Dracos and Cappus, and said directly: "Why do we have to attack Crotone City?" Since we now have such a big advantage, why can't we force the Crotone people to make peace with us? ”

"The Crotone people are dying, wouldn't it be too cheap to negotiate peace with them!" Drax immediately objected.

Kapus was lost in thought.

A smile appeared on the corner of Davers's mouth: the archon still thinks about the problem from a different angle than a simple general!

He was about to speak, when Martius, the captain of the guard, asked for instructions to enter, bringing two letters.

One from Philisius, Davers read the letter, his brows furrowed, thoughtful. Then he looked at the second specially marked letter, which was from Aristiras, and his brows furled again.