Puamot, who was checking on the enemy in the city, was anxious, but he did not dare to send his troops out of the city to stop it, because the city of Pothenia was already surrounded, and the Samonai were far more powerful than he had received beforehand.

Some of the tribes in the southern part of the Pothenian territory thought that the Samonai were still far away from them, and they were careless and did not evacuate in time, and as a result, they were either annihilated or captured by the flood of Samoneans, or they desperately retreated to the Grummentum territory further south in panic.

The panic brought by these fleeing Pothenia tribes naturally spread to the tribes north of Grummentum's territory, and just as they began to clamoring to evacuate to the south, Alexis, who had already received the news from the reconnaissance soldiers, felt that the situation was urgent, and resolutely decided: he could no longer wait for the order of the Senate, and immediately led the more than 8,000 soldiers who had all returned to the barracks to the north.

In the reform of the legion in recent years, Davers not only equipped each corps with reconnaissance hundreds, but also took into account: in the battle in Italy, the mountains and mountains, the light infantry after completing the long-range attack, the arm is numb, but also to assist the heavy infantry to attack the enemy's flank, roundabout pursuit, its physical consumption is no less than that of the heavy infantry, but the combat efficiency is reduced. Therefore, after consulting and discussing with the generals, he added a brigade of light armored soldiers to each regiment, who wore leather helmets, cowhide cuirass, triangular leather shields, leather greaves, leather sandals, and 1.2 meters long double-edged thick iron swords.

At the same time, Davers also reformed the original light infantry brigade. Since the excellent slingers of Dionya mainly came from Rhodes (the Balearic Islands, another rich Slingers, were under the control of the Carthaginians), the scarcity of soldiers made it difficult for the legions established later to recruit slingers, so in addition to the 1st and 2nd Legions and the formation of slingers, the light infantry brigades of the other legions were half archers and half javelinmen. In addition, the number of excellent Thracian light shields could no longer meet the speed of expansion of the Dionian legions, so from the fourth legion, the light infantry brigade did not have a light shield corps, and its functions were mainly undertaken by javelinmen and light armor soldiers, so that the corps was more simplified and more uniform.

Together with the engineering battalion, equipment battalion, cavalry squad, medical battalion and other auxiliary institutions in the legion, the number of a Ionian legion today is close to 8,700 people, which can be said to be a huge corps with complete functions.

While Alexis was heading north, he also sent someone to inform Bagul to prepare for the defense of Grummentum's northern territory.

The Lucania region is predominantly mountainous, and Portentia is the highest region in the region, with an average altitude of more than 500 meters. Fortunately, the vast majority of the soldiers of the Third Army are Lucanians, who have lived here since childhood and have long adapted to the environment here.

The Third Army marched in three columns through the lowlands and river valleys between the mountains, winding like a long dragon between the lofty mountains and mountains, stretching for five or six miles from the bow to the tail of the group......

At this moment, on a hill, Gherni, the son of Villani, the great chief of Hilpine, was closely watching the movement below.

"Chief, look!" The warrior next to him suddenly shouted.

"Stupid, be quiet!" Gherney kicked him and scolded: "Don't scare the enemy away! ”

I saw a little golden light shining in the distance of the mountain road hidden by trees. After a while, this golden light turned into a large banner held high, and the brass statue of Hades holding a double-strand fork at the top of the flag was extremely dazzling in the sunlight, and the bearer was a tall man in military uniform, and he was also dressed in a complete animal fur, so he looked particularly burly (in fact, it was the fur of a large hound, the hounds had the meaning of loyalty and bravery, and Hades's loyal dog was the three-headed dog Cerpalos, and with the modern thinking of Davers, his subordinates were not allowed to hunt animals for the sake of decoration).

"Hmph, good-looking is good-looking." There are Samonai warriors who pretend to be disdainful and mutter: "I just don't know if I can fight." ”

Gherni did not speak, he watched intently at the Dionian army that was slowly approaching him, and he knew very well that this time his father had contacted the two tribes of Putney and Kautini to attack Pothenia together, not only because of the great support and instigation of Syracuse, but also because of the oppression of this powerful neighbor in the south, which had suddenly risen.

At this moment, he had to keep his eyes open and take a good look at what the strange and powerful enemy he was about to face was like.

Behind the bearer was the bearer, a tall black flag embroidered with the letters "Ionian Third Legion" fluttering in the air. Originally, it was a red flag, which was the influence of Davers from Rome in his previous life, but when he became more and more integrated into this era, Hades's faith had penetrated into the hearts of the people of Dionia, considering that Hades was the lord of darkness and admired black, so he changed the color of the military flag.

And behind the Legion's standard-bearers, followed by the flagbearers of the First Brigade, held aloft the Statue of Death, which was one size smaller than the statue of Hades. Then there were the Legion drummers......

Gherney rubbed his slightly tired eyes: Dionia's army looked imposing, but there were too many of these fancy things.

He muttered to himself, and the next appearance of the Ionian legionnaire made his eyes widen: the black bronze helmet was not the Corinthian helmet he had seen in Campania, which covered the entire head with only two eyeholes, but resembled an inverted bowl, the whole face was exposed, and there were cheek guards covering the sides of the face, and its style was very similar to that of the Samoney warriors, except that the crown was not decorated with feathers or a multicolored ponytail. Black linen cuirass, black shin armor, with a bayonet in his right hand and a shield in his left......

This shield ...... Gherney discovered that the shields held by the Dionian soldiers were very similar to those of their Samonai soldiers, half a man high, rectangular in shape, convex in the center, concave on both sides, and the shield was curved. The only difference was that the shields of the Ionian soldiers were all painted black, not red......

Wasn't Dionya a city-state of the Greeks? How come they didn't use the round bronze shields and Corinthian helmets that were traditional to the Greeks, and were so similar to us Samonas?!

Of course, the surprised Gherney didn't know that in recent years, the Dionian consul Davers had finally completed the update of the legion's weapons and equipment, abandoning the cumbersome Collins helmet and round shield, and replacing it with a new helmet and a long curved shield, and of course such a large shield could not be copper-clad, just wooden, covered with a layer of cowhide, which reduced the mutual weight of the soldiers by at least ten catties, enhanced their mobility, and also brought some new tactical changes.

Except for the occasional person wearing a helmet with a red, white, purple and other crown, which is supposed to be an officer and general, the others are almost all black, making the whole team like a black serpent out of hell, filled with the smell of death and coldness.

Geerni unconsciously took two breaths, put on the helmet with a row of colorful ponytails on the top of the crown, pulled down his cheek guard, and ordered in a low voice: "Tell Abrini on the opposite hill to get ready, and when the enemy's front army passes, we will launch an attack and give these enemies who are pretending to be ghosts a powerful look." ”

"Yes, Chief!" The riders waved a red battle flag with a wolf's head painted on the top of the hill, which was invisible to the Ionian soldiers below, and the Samonai on the opposite hilltop also waved the flag in response.

The Samonai warriors held their breath, javelins and stones in hand, and crouched on the ridge as the Ionians passed down.

But at that moment the Dionians stopped advancing, and a general on horseback rushed to the front of the group, as if to say something to the soldiers.

After a while, the procession began to move forward again, but after a few steps, it stopped again, and the general said something to the soldiers.

Three times in a row, stop-and-go. The Dioonians were almost in the ambush circle, but they had been delayed for too much time in this short distance.

Feeling that his patience was running out, Gherney rubbed his stiff body with his hands, and cursed the Ionians for being slow to move.

At this moment, there was a sudden commotion on the top of the mountain.

"The enemy is coming! The enemy is coming! ......," the warriors shouted.

"What's going on?!" Gherney didn't care about the ambush at the moment, and hurriedly asked left and right.

"Chief, Dionian...... The Dioyans have come from the back mountains and want to surround us! The guards who had gone to inspect the situation hurried to report.

In fact, he didn't need to say much, Gherney could already look down on the mountainside behind him, and the little shadows flashed between the trees.

Fooled! The cunning Dioonians have long known that we are in ambush here, and deliberately attracted my attention in front, but they wanted to surround and annihilate us! Such a thought flashed through Gairney's mind, but he did not panic and immediately ordered: "Blow the horn!" Since the Ionians dare to go up the mountain, let them taste the power of our Samonai! ”

The sound of a long trumpet reached the bottom of the mountain, and Alexis, the commander of the Third Legion, who was at the head of the group on horseback, immediately looked up.

"It seems that the Samonai have spotted our roundabout troops." Lizarus, the captain of the First Brigade, said in fluent Greek that since the humiliation he suffered at the Isthmus race, he had come back and spent a lot of time practicing his Greek, and that his Greek had improved significantly.

"Krigoru, are you sure there are only 1,000 Samonai on the mountains on either side?" The Adjutant of the Legion confirmed again to the scout captain Crigoru beside him.