"Who said I didn't want to send troops?!" Trifias hurriedly changed his words, got up and grabbed him: "Didn't the messenger say it, wait for the news of the victory in the naval battle." You see......"

Trifias patiently analyzed Matonis: "Once the naval battle is won, it will definitely be impossible to send a message by land, and during the day the cavalry of Tarantum will cruise to the south, and your messengers will not be able to come at all...... In other words, seeing Dionia's fleet coming from the sea, we can send troops. "When the big picture is decided, why not do it.

Who knows, Mattonis shook his head and said, "Your suggestion is not good, it is too slow!" Tarantum's fleet blockaded the port of Heraclia, and they would surely be the first to get the news. Wait until our fleet arrives, and the Tarantum people outside the city have already fled! So—"

Mattonis glared at Trifias and said in a deep voice, "We will keep a close eye on the enemy camp outside the city, and as soon as the Tarantum people want to retreat, we will attack immediately!" ”

"Huh?!"

…………………………………

Having persuaded Trifias, Mattonis, who had returned to the square, immediately instructed his adjutant to gather the captains of the Seventh Legion to the Great Horde (the camp of the Seventh Legion was built on the square in Heraclia).

After a while, all seven captains arrived.

Mattonis didn't wait for them to sit down, and said directly: "Time is short, I'll make a long story short, His Majesty Davers led the First and Second Legions back to Turri-"

"Ah, Master Davers is back!"

"Great, Amendolara is saved!"

"Not only is Amendora saved, but the Tarantum people are doomed! Master Davers will lead us to defeat them! ”

……

Several captains shouted and danced with excitement.

"Shut up!" Matonis roared angrily, making them tremble in fright: "You are all veterans, you should know the provisions of the "Ionian Military Law", what punishment will the subordinates receive when they speak up?!" ”

Matonis glared at them viciously, and several captains subconsciously touched their buttocks: "I'll write down the matter of the cane first, and then it depends on your performance." His Majesty Davers has sent an order that today he will come by sea with his army and land on the coast between Heraclia and Metapontum, and ask us to do everything in our power to hold back the enemy outside the city, so that the main force can arrive in time to encircle and annihilate the Tarantum together! Do you understand?! ”

"Understood!" Several captains no longer dared to shout and shout, but their excitement was palpable.

Mattonis paced back and forth in front of them for a few steps, and then stamped his foot vigorously: "I know that for the past two days I have strictly ordered my soldiers not to go out of the city to drive the enemy in Amendolala, many soldiers in the legion have been scolding me in private, saying, 'I am a cowardly rabbit, a cowardly lamb, and I am not worthy of being a legion commander!'" Some even scolded my parents! ……”

Matonis' roar silenced the captains: "I know that some of the soldiers in the Legion are from Amendolara, but that shouldn't be a reason for them to insult their superiors, 'Soldiers make it their duty to obey orders. This is the basic rule of military law, and I have written down all these soldiers who have scolded me in private, and you go back and tell them that in this attack, if they are not as brave as me, and if they are not as fast as me, then what right do they have to scold me! ”

Mattonis's eyes widened and he gasped like an angry bull: "Then when the war is over, I will have them stand in the square, and let the whole legion go up in turn and scold their whole family!" Do you understand?! ”

"Ming...... I see. ”

"Let's go back and prepare!"

"Yes!"

After the captains left, the adjutant said cautiously, "Legion Commander, will you do this-"

"What will be?!" Matonis glared at him and snorted: "Such a new army that has to be equipped with good equipment and has no strict discipline, if they don't provoke them like this, how can they perform well!" ”

…………………………………

In the afternoon, a speedboat approached the Agri River at a rapid pace.

"What do you say?! The Syracuse Navy was defeated, how is this possible ?! The two archons of Tarantum exclaimed in disbelief.

"Did the fleets of other city-states join the battle and help the Dionians?!" Eumacus asked busily.

"No, the Dionian fleet fought independently from beginning to end, and they placed a kind of wooden bridge on the warship that could hook the ship, and then send a large number of soldiers onto the deck...... "The captain of the clipper recalls what he had seen before, and it was still as if in a dream, the way the Dionian fleet fought completely upended the traditional naval warfare he had been trained in since childhood.

Deomilas was in a daze for a long time, and a key question came to mind: "Did the Diomyan fleet suffer heavy losses?" ”

The captain shook his head and said, "It seems that their fleet has not suffered much losses. ”

"Could it be that Hades is really bless these savage and rude Dionians?!" Diomilas looked surprised and depressed, and he looked at Eumacus in a trance.

Yumacus was also watching him.

Both of them had fear in their eyes, because they both knew that once the naval superiority of Syracuse was broken and the Dionian fleet controlled the bay of Taranto, and the strength of the Tarantum fleet could not be countered alone, and the coastline of Tarantum would be threatened by the Dionian fleet, then their army far from the city of Tarantum would be in danger.

The two shouted almost in unison, "We must retreat immediately!" ”

In order not to attract the attention of the Heracles, they quietly summoned the officers and gave them the order to retreat.

The Tarantum soldiers began to pack their belongings and bags.

The biggest headache for the two consuls was the mountains of grain in the camp. In order to ensure the convenience of food supply, the Tarantum people brought food in cargo ships and piled it up in the camp for the use of a huge army of 20,000 men for ten days, and now they suddenly had to retreat, which became a problem.

Tarantum does not have a department dedicated to logistics and transportation, because considering that this time it is an offshore operation, Tarantum did not consider hiring labor to transport from land, and the materials are transported by sea, and it is too time-consuming to send a clipper ship back to inform the port of Tarantum at this moment, and to summon cargo ships to rush to transport. However, they did not dare to burn or discard so much food and supplies, because the indiscriminate waste of the materials of the city-state would inevitably lead to impeachment by the Senate.

As a result, Deomillas came up with the idea: to transport some of the soldiers from the overland to Metapontum with supplies on their backs, and at the same time to bring back the Tarantum fleet, which was still cruising the waters near Heraclia, to load the grain in the ship's compartment and transport it back to Tarantum.

"What if the enemy in the city comes out to attack us?" Umacus was worried.

"These cowardly Heraclia and Dionian soldiers have been cowering in the city these days, I don't think they suddenly have the courage to attack the city, and by the time they know of the victory of the Dionian fleet, we will already be back in Metapontum." In fact, Theomilas, based on the traditional experience of the Greeks, did not even think that the Dionian army would be able to launch a rescue against Heraclia immediately after a fierce naval battle.

However, the performance of the Dionian Legion in the battle with the Mepp coalition made too much impression on Theomiras, and he had to be careful, after all, this Tarantum army had gathered almost all the young and middle-aged citizens of Tarantum, and there was no room for mistakes. So although Theomillas did not consider the retreat of Tarantum's army dangerous, he arranged for four thousand soldiers to serve as rearguards.

In order not to be obtrusive, the Tarantum army did not even dismantle the tents.

But even so, the retreat of the Tarantum army was still slow and slow, and it was impossible for the Tarantum, who had little training, to make a special training program for the "army retreat" like Dionia, which was trained every seven or eight days, so it could be done quickly, quickly, with a clear division of labor, and in an orderly manner.

The Tarantumites thought they could hide from Heraclia, but they did not expect that the Seventh Legion of Dionya had expected their retreat and had been keeping a close watch on the city, and some signs were soon detected by them, such as the cruising cavalry patrolling in front of the camp, the loud noise coming from the camp, and the frequent entry of warships into the Agri River...... Wait a minute.

"Captain Matonis!" Trifias also asked excitedly at this moment: "It seems that the enemy is really retreating, is it...... Could it be that your fleet has really defeated the Syracuses?! ”

"As I have already said, His Majesty Davers always does what he says!" Matonis glanced at him and coldly replied.

"You're right!" Trifias didn't care about Mattonis's attitude, and continued to ask excitedly, "Isn't it time for us to attack now?!" ”

Mattonis held the battlements with both hands and said calmly: "Don't worry, wait a little longer." ”

"Still waiting?"

"Yes, when the Tarantum soldiers are all ready to leave, when they have already begun to cross the river......" Mattonis' eyes flashed like a wolf ready to pounce.

…………………………………

Theomillas watched the soldiers pass the pontoon, and a voice in his heart kept urging: Hurry up! Faster! ……

Seeing the bands of soldiers crossing the pontoon bridges to the other side, and the other soldiers quickly following, Diomyras relaxed slightly.

But at this moment, an earth-shattering cry suddenly erupted outside the camp, and his heart suddenly sank: Oops, it must be the enemy army in Heraclia that is out of the city!

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