The battle lasted four hours, and in the end Tarantum lost 15 ships, including four three-oared ships, and four troop carriers; The combined fleet of the Mep lost twenty-three ships, including seven three-ply oars. In the end, the Mapp Navy took the initiative to retreat, while the Tarantum Navy, which was busy rescuing the soldiers who had fallen into the water, had no intention of pursuing, and just wanted to leave this strange sea as soon as possible and reach Brindisi to complete the reinforcement mission.

At the time of the fierce battle at sea, the Mapu coalition had learned that Tarantum was about to reinforce Brindisi from the sea, and launched one of the largest sieges despite fatigue. 20,000 soldiers of the Maupu coalition army carried ladders and pushed siege engines to storm the city of Brindisi in waves......

The defenders of Tarantum, who had been fighting hard for two days, had only a few hundred men left, and they had to rely on the help of the freedmen in the city to support them to this day. Faced with the flood of enemies, the free folk who lacked combat experience panicked......

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The Tarantum navy arrived at the port of Brindisi, had just put the soldiers ashore, and had not yet assembled them in a group. The city of Brindisi was breached, and the defeated soldiers, freemen, and families ran to the harbor in panic, trying to find a sail board and leave the fallen city as soon as possible. The soldiers who came to reinforce also felt bad and asked to get back on board and leave. Everyone rushed to the boat, and then the defeated soldiers and their families cried for help, and the entire port and wharf were full of black and oppressive crowds, and the order was chaotic, and many people fell into the sea in the pushing......

Faced with this situation, the commander-in-chief of the navy had no idea for a while, and let the warships under his command save people. However, the pursuit of the Maple coalition forces caused the desperate fleeing people to push each other and scramble to climb onto the ships, causing the two warships to capsize due to overload.

The Admiral felt bad at this and had to urgently order the fleet to leave the docks. In the process, soldiers and sailors engaged in a fight, which resulted in several ships failing to leave the dock.

By this time, the Meppu warriors had arrived, and they pounced like hungry wolves on the Tarantums, who were trembling with fear, and slaughtered them with spears and swords as they had already surrendered, and the blood that flowed soon stained the sea of the harbor red......

The soldiers of the Tarantum Navy, the sailors, and the survivors of the ship could not bear to witness this tragic scene and fled the harbor in a hurry. Their disaster was far from over, and they were soon intercepted by the previously defeated Maepu Combined Navy, and although there were many Tarantum ships, the fleet full of civilians lost its speed and agility and became the target of the Maepu Combined Warships.

In the course of the fierce battle, the battleship Tarantum was knocked over, but the people who fell into the water did not have a boat to rescue, the sailors were frightened by the tragic situation in the port, and they only wanted to go home, the two sides attacked and defended and transposed, and recently the remaining 45 warships and some troop transports in Tarantum left the battlefield.

However, the victorious combined fleet of Mapp was still in hot pursuit......

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On the fourth day after Polydorus appealed to Dionya, the Maep coalition that had recaptured Brindisi marched westward after a short rest, and by the afternoon they had again besieged Manduria, and the whole city of Tarantum was in a panic, and the emissaries sent to Deoria for help one after another......

Early in the morning of the fifth day, the Dionian reinforcements finally set out.

It's already the beginning of September, and the weather is starting to cool down in the morning.

After saying goodbye to their families, the soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Army Corps lined up in Victory Square.

After counting the number of people, Commander Davers announced the departure.

The whole army marched to the northwest of the city, came to the foot of the temple of Hades, and knelt down in prayer.

The bronze bell rang in the temple, and the presiding priest Plesinas led dozens of men and women Hades temple priests to sing Hades hymns to the soldiers and bless them.

In other city-states, it might be necessary to divinate the good fortune before the expedition, but Davers canceled this procedure, believing that war was a matter of life and death for the alliance, and that victory depended on strength, rigorous training, and careful planning, rather than on ethereal divine grace, and he did not want his soldiers to develop this bad habit.

After the prayer was over, the whole army turned back and headed east, out of the city gates, to the port of Turiyi. The families and civilians of the soldiers who saw them off lined the road to see off the troops.

What made Polydorus sigh was that few family members cried and did not want the soldiers to go to war, and they wished the soldiers safety while encouraging them to obtain military achievements. The rest of the population was more envious of the good fortune of the soldiers who went on the expedition, and were not convinced that they would behave better if they went.

"The Dionians love war!" Polydorus had forgotten who had told him that in the first place, and now it seemed different. He couldn't help but look at the army commander Davers beside him, this 20-year-old young man was now calm and serious above his age: plus the Dioonians have a warlike commander, they will have today's rise!

But in the case of the enemy's large army, the strength of the Dionian army made Polydorus feel a little relieved, because the Dionian army could be relied on!

The harbor is densely packed with hundreds of cargo ships, including those of Theonia, Tarantum, Metapontum, Heraclia, and even Castelón......

Under the guidance of the port management personnel, the troops entered each wharf in an orderly manner, and boarded the ships in turn under the command of the squad leader and the detachment leader, and everything was in order.

Polydorus' passenger ship was the first to leave the docks, as he had to return to Tarantum to inform the Senate and prepare for the Dionian reinforcements.

He was accompanied by Antonios, who needed to coordinate with Tarantum with Dionys's army to enter the port, resettlement, military rations and many other matters, this task should have been undertaken by Felicius, but after Davers left Dionia, Turiyi also needed someone to guard in case of accidents, and Felicius, who was the second man in the army, was naturally the most suitable person. Felicius couldn't go, and the two corps commanders, Capus and Dracos, were people who only knew how to fight and were not sociable, so Davers could only let Antonios, the first captain of the First Legion, be in charge of liaison, in fact, Alexis, the second captain, was also a suitable candidate, but Davers felt that compared to Alexis, who was slightly taller, Antonios was more tactful.

There are also some special personnel of the Dionian Legion on this passenger ship, such as the engineer of the Legion, because the location of the Dionian army in Tarantum has been determined in advance, and the engineer will go to the site first, inspect the terrain, and plan in advance how to build the camp, the size of the camp, the arrangement of the tents, the width and narrowness of the trenches, etc., so that as soon as the army arrives in Tarantum, they can start to build camp immediately.

The soldiers stepped on the rickety deck, put the helmets, linen cuirasses, round shields, shin armor, and bayonets and javelins they were carrying on the side of the ship, and then waved goodbye to their relatives and friends on the shore.

One by one, the ships sailed out of port.

In the morning a strong north-east wind blew in Taranto Bay, and all the ships lowered their sails and sailed straight east with the help of the wind, and from time to time waves beat the hulls from behind the sides, splashing and wetting the soldiers' clothes, but without dampening their spirits.

"I heard that the Tarantum people are very rich, and this time we helped them defeat those natives, will they give us enough silver coins to thank us for our rescue?!" A recruit said excitedly.

"Fool, do you know how many soldiers we have in Tarantum this time? It's 14,000 people! And that's not counting the cavalry brigade, engineering battalion, and medical battalion...... Even if Tarantum gives us dozens of Talientes, how much will be distributed to everyone, excluding the ones that are handed over to the legion fund! Another soldier disapprovingly admonished him: "You might as well kill a few more natives and accumulate a few more battles to come back, so that the alliance can share a few more acres of land for you!" ”

"Speaking of this war, I get angry when I think about it! Their three legions are lucky, they captured Aspraustum and Grummentum, why are there always battles?! Isn't it just that most of them are Lucanians! We finally went out to rescue the city-states in the south, but before the battle began, the Lockley people sued for peace. Tell me, this doesn't make people angry! This time we go to Tarantum, I hope those natives will not learn from the Lockleys, let us go again in vain! The words of the other soldier resonated with the soldiers around him and stirred up their concern.

"Rest assured, the Mesapi are no weaker than the weak Lokry, I have heard that they are very fierce, and the Tarantum have never taken advantage of them. Otherwise, for such a long time, Tarantum would have established several sub-states in the vicinity, and this time Mesapi and the Puchetti have united with the Puchetti and defeated Tarantum one after another, and the morale is rising, maybe there is still an attempt to destroy Tarantum, how can they negotiate peace with us. Said a soldier who knew what was going on in Tarantum.

"That's great! Defeat the Meshapis to show how powerful we are at Dionia, and we will be the heroes to save Tarantum! One soldier shouted loudly, causing the others to applaud excitedly.

"I heard that the women of Tarantum are all good-looking, and when the time comes, we will become heroes, can we marry one back?" Someone said playfully, and was immediately pushed by others: "Don't dream, Pesiars." The citizens of Tarantum are arrogant, and have never looked down on the other city-states of Great Greece, and you think they will marry their daughters to us 'farmers' in their eyes! ”

"Is that really the case, Sitarsis?" Pesias asked curiously.