"The freedmen are out of food?!" Kunograta asked.

"The war broke out so suddenly, and many freedmen did not stock up on grain in advance, and by the time they wanted to buy grain, the market was already sold out." Pherisius looked at the two, wasn't the initiator the alliance itself.

"Then pay with food and keep the freedmen fighting for the Alliance. Instead of using the usual shortening of the civic probation period as a reward, the citizenship of the Union becomes less valuable! Philicius, the freedmen can make great achievements and defeat the regular army of Crotone under the leadership of the Archon, so even without the leadership of the Archon, it should be no problem to deal with the infestation of the ordinary sailors of the Crotone fleet, right? Kunograta asked Pherisius in a stiff tone.

Phellisius didn't care, and said seriously: "Of course there is no problem!" My plan was for a group of 100 freedmen to patrol the coast all day long, wherever they could. At the same time, a brigade was sent to the Turiyi-Castron boulevard, where a company was stationed every five miles, and the patrol and the heavy infantry company were to be used as a liaison between the patrol and the heavy infantry company. In the presence of a small group of enemies, the patrol should be able to repel them; In the face of a large number of enemies, the patrol first blocked the enemy's surprise attack, and the scout cavalry notified the nearest heavy infantry company, and then rushed to the enemy ......"

Kunograta looked a little dark: "That's a good idea. ”

"Even our grain supply should be tight again, and if we have to use the money from the treasury to buy grain in Heraclia again, Mersis will have to complain about us again." Cornerus said helplessly.

"There is no war that does not cost money, as long as the Archon can win the final victory, there will be money." Since the victory at the Battle of the Trimeto River, the war-fearing Kunogorata has gained more confidence in Davers.

……………………………

Miron had expected that the Dionian army would take advantage of the siege with the help of the high platform, but the Dionian army and the Crotone soldiers at the head of the city faced off for a morning, and there was no movement except for the light infantry on the high platform throwing arrows and flying stones at the walls. In the end, even the light infantry stopped attacking because of their weak hands.

This eerie calm puzzled Millon. Of course, he would not have known that 5,000 men of Dionia's Third Army and 3,000 Laos soldiers had entered the northern plains of Croton, and began to destroy farmland and villages, doing the same thing as the sailors who landed in Crotone, except that Davers had ordered them not to kill the people of Crotone. So the soldiers just intimidated, drove away.

Even after the defeat at the battle, the Council of Crotone advised the people of the villages of the northern plains to flee to the city for the time being. Because of the spring sowing and the fact that there was no sign of the enemy for two or three days, the people of Crotone thought that Milon had blocked the Ionians in Crimesa, so most of the population did not evacuate. Now, the detachment of Ionian soldiers suddenly appeared in front of them, and the people of Crotone fled south in panic.

In southern Italy, the Croton Plain rivals the Sybari Plain thanks to two rivers: the Neto River, which originates in the mountains of the southern Apennines and flows from west to east into the Gulf of Taranto, which, thanks to the inflow of numerous tributaries, is ultimately greater in width, depth and flow than the Cratti in the Sybari Plain; The other river is the Tacchinadi, which also originates in the mountains of southern Apennines and flows into the sea from north to south. The two rivers to the east and south irrigate the Croton Plain, and at the same time cut the Croton Plain into an almost square area, and on the sea side of this core area is the famous and powerful state of Crotony in Greater Greece. Due to its proximity to the Gulf of Taranto, Crotone has one of the few deep-water ports in the Greek city-states of the Apennine Peninsula. Crotone has fertile plains and excellent ports, and the fundamental reason why there was a war between Cybaris and Crotone a hundred years ago was because Cybaris wanted to destroy potential opponents, and Crotone wanted to seize the dominance of trade in southern Italy, so a small number of Cybaris people fled to Crotone because of disputes, which was just the fuse of the war.

Strangely enough, these two rivers flowed out of the mountains and were very close to each other, and between them, between the mountains and the plains, there was a city called Aspraustum, which was founded by the Brutis. To the west of the northern plain of Croton is the impassable Apennines, but by trekking northwest along the natural valley of the Alvor River, a tributary of the Neto River, leads to the Cosenza Plateau, the only plateau in southern Italy, where the Brutis originally set off from the upper reaches of the Alvor River and descended the valley to Asphorustum.

However, when Crotone became stronger, it would not allow an alien city to be located just over 20 miles northwest of itself that controlled the upper reaches of the two rivers, controlled the passage from the plain north of Clauton, without crossing the Neto River, to the south on foot, and threatened the safety of the Crotoneans. So, a hundred years ago, Crotone launched a large army to attack the city of Aspraustum, and after several battles, finally captured the city and drove the Brutites back to the Cosenza plateau. By now, Asproustum has completely become a Greek city, as a colonial city of Crotone, completely under the control of Crotone, and Crotone is the horn of each other, guarding the safety of Crotone.

When the news of the Dionians' invasion of the Plains of Croton reached the city of Crotone, the people panicked. In particular, Laos's 3,000 soldiers were rushing all the way to the north bank of the Neto.

The guards on the south bank of the Netto River panicked, and in order to prevent the enemy from crossing the pontoon bridges and killing them directly under the city of Crotone, they set fire to several pontoon bridges on the river, which left many people who fled south stranded on the north bank of the Neto.

While Crotone was ferrying them by boat, the army of the Laos had reached the Neto River, and the people of Crotone cried and were forced to flee northwest along the banks of the Neto River in panic.

When the Greeks first came to this plain, it was also full of swamps due to the Neto River and its many tributaries and abundant rainfall, but the Greeks had a sophisticated draining technique, and after hundreds of years of management, there were almost no swamps. However, the fleeing of the people of Crotone was still fraught with risk, as the Laos sent several groups of soldiers in hot pursuit.

The people of Crotone were shocked and tired. Fortunately, unconsciously, there were more young people in the team, and they enthusiastically helped the women carry heavy loads, pick up children, and support the elderly, so that the fleeing team did not lie down a single old and young woman and child. Eventually, the Raos soldiers stopped the pursuit, and the city of Asprarustum was in front of the eyes of the fleeing people.

Born as a citizen of Crotone, General Fagris opened the gates of the city without hesitation, and nearly 900 dusty, panicked-faced fugitives were placed inside the city.

At this moment, the spies urgently reported that 5,000 Dionian soldiers were attacking the city of Asprarustum!

When Fagris heard this, he immediately panicked. In the two wars with Dionia, the Asprarustum were drawn more than 6,000 people to join the battle, almost meat buns and dogs, and never returned. There are only more than 700 citizens in the city who can fight, how can they stop the 5,000 Ionian soldiers who defeated the army of Crotone in the battle?!

Fagris, who lacked actual combat experience, had no confidence, and when his eyes fell on the panicked fleeing people in the city, he instantly changed his mind that he wanted to escort them out of the city immediately to reward them and win the favor of the Crotone Council.

"Citizens of Crotone! The people of Crotone!! He stood on the stone stairs of the city wall and shouted loudly, but there was a mess below, and only a few people paid attention to it. So, the soldiers began to shout as well, and finally the fleeing people fell silent, and they all looked up at the general of Asprarustum.

"Citizens of Crotone, 5,000 people from Dionya are coming to this city!" As soon as Fagris said a word, he became agitated: "What! The Ionians are coming! ”

"Don't open the south gate yet, let's get out of here!!"

……

The crowd was clamoring loudly, and Fagris and the soldiers managed to calm them down.

"Of course you can go. But you must know that because Crotone launched two wars against Turiyi, most of the citizens of Asprarustum City followed Crotone's army on the expedition, but they did not return, so there are not many citizen soldiers in the city now, and I am afraid that they will not be able to stop the Ionians who are outnumbered! The city of Asphorustum is the northern barrier of Crotone, and once the Dioonians take it, they can easily cross the Tarcinady River and enter the central plain of Crotone, which will be a disaster! …… I beg all the men among you who can take up the shield and spear to join us in defending Aspraustum! It's to defend Crotone! ”

Fagris's words were sincere, because his home was originally outside the city of Crotone, and Asphorustum said that it was a city, but in fact it was more like a special Demo (from the administrative division of Athens, several villages together, equivalent to a town), although it had its own council, but there was only one general in charge of governing the city-state, and he was elected from among the "ten generals" elected by Crotone every year, so in case of emergency, Fagris, who was also General Crotone, had the right to give orders to the people of Crotone.

The fleeing people fell silent, and everyone was thinking and weighing the stakes.