This caused the soldiers to speed up again and again, and Zantiparis, who was almost 60 years old, felt a little overwhelmed even when he was riding a horse.

After entering the mountain pass, even if it was urgent, Zantiparis had to slow down the movement of his troops to prevent being ambushed by the enemy.

And at this moment, the soldiers saw a fire in the distance.

The scouts hurried back to report that the Kautini had retreated and burned the entire town of Palpania.

By the time Zantiparis arrived, the bustling town of the valley had been enveloped in flames, and in the clearing to the south of the town lay three headless corpses, with a wooden sign next to it with a line of Greek written in human blood: I have 134 Dioonians in my hands, and I will exchange them for the captured Samonai warriors, otherwise these corpses will be their fate!

When the soldiers saw this tragedy, they were all furious and demanded to pursue the enemy and rescue the captured people.

The aged Zantiparis was certainly not as impulsive as the soldiers, and he simply asked the soldiers to gather the three corpses and line up in place, waiting for the return of the scouts.

Soon, the news came back to confirm his suspicions: there seemed to be ambushes on the ridges on both sides of the road ahead, and Kautini warriors were waiting at the exit of the road.

Zantiparis did not hesitate to lead the army back, he knew that the long-term peace between Naconia and Dioonia had been broken, and the war had hit the northwest border of the kingdom, he not only had to gather the reserve army as soon as possible to hold on to Edona, but also to notify the Ministry of War as soon as possible, so that it could send more troops or give himself greater leadership power, otherwise it would be difficult for these more than 4,000 recruits to deal with the next war.

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Pompeii was a small Greek city with a small population, and now that most of its inhabitants had been taken prisoner, the Pompeians could hardly resist the premeditated onslaught of Segovani, even if the old men and women took up arms on the city.

The battle lasted until the afternoon, and the city was broken.

The cheers of the fighters made Segovanidon feel refreshed, but he was still not satisfied, and he needed more victories to wash away the humiliation he had suffered.

Leaving some of his warriors behind, he continued his march north along the coast, reaching Herculaneum, only 15 miles from Pompeii, at dusk.

Nestled at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, Herculaneum was also a small Greek seaside city, but it was more affluent than Pompeii because of its proximity to the Gulf of Naples, making it an ancillary trading port for Naples' thriving maritime trade.

But the Herculaneums have their own pride, and they consider their town to be older than Naples, because it was the town founded by Hercules (as can be seen from his name).

Having been informed of the enemy's attack by the fleeing Pompeians, the Herculaneums were ready to defend.

Seeing this, Segovani did not give any more orders for a siege, but camped on the spot.

Herculaneum's messengers had already rushed to Naples to ask for help, but at this time Naples was facing the threat of the Samoneh coalition army from the northeast, and was about to send the Campanian coalition army to repel the incoming enemy, but now they heard that a large number of enemies were attacking from the south, and the Neapolitans, who were likely to be attacked from both sides, suddenly gave up the idea of fighting, and also sent messengers to Dionia by boat to ask for help.

(Note: After the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, it was not only Pompeii but also Herculaneum that was buried under the ash, unlike Pompeii, which has been excavated, and 75% of its towns are still buried, most of them intact.) ）

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After Dionia's successive victories over Ascurome and Venosa, the Samonai were forced to retreat into the mountains, and even the mountain scouts reported that there was no sign of the Samonai in the hills on the border of the Dounie region.

Apparently battered, the Samonai coalition pushed back plans to continue harassing the Douni region. Alexis, the commander of the Oninian kingdom's Oni region, did not take advantage of the situation to lead a large army to attack the Samonai region.

On the one hand, it is because of Davers's solemn reminder before, "There is no absolute certainty, do not enter the Samonai Mountains to fight the Samonai people." "More than ten years ago, Alexis had led the Third Army to fight against the Samonai in the mountains of Lucania, although he won a small victory, but it also made him feel the power of the Samonai warriors in the mountain battle, not to mention that it was in Pothenia at that time, if it was in the Samonai mountains, the terrain was unfamiliar, the transportation was difficult, and it was in the enemy territory, it would undoubtedly encounter more trouble.

The second aspect is the issue of food supply. Alexis gathered three legions and one cavalry legion with a total of nearly 30,000 men, and the rations carried by the soldiers themselves have been eaten, and the food provided by the kingdom every day is not a small amount. And now that King Davos has led a large army on an expedition to the Latin region, the already small amount of military rations will naturally be tilted more towards the expeditionary force.

The Ministry of War has already made a proposal to Alexis: in view of the heavy losses suffered by the Samonai, the invasion of the Dauni region has been stopped, and it is hoped that he will be able to disband part of the army in order to reduce the supply of military rations.

In addition, the prefect of Ogentum had sent a messenger to Dauni a few days earlier and told Alexis that according to pirates who had come to the port to trade stolen goods, Vadarka, the former prince of Puchetti, who had fled across the Adriatic Sea, was recruiting Puchetti, Mesapi and Daoni who had fled to Greece in the Epirus region.

Therefore, Alexis finally decided to let the 9th and 10th Legions and the 2nd Cavalry Regiment return to their respective areas and disband, but the various barracks still kept a brigade as usual, and they had to send another brigade of soldiers with their own rations for four days, and the cavalry regiment sent 200 cavalry to Ascurome City in the Douni region in turn, where Alexis would lead them on duty.

In the barracks in the Dauni area, the 11th Regiment brought its own rations for every two brigades, which rotated once every four days, and were commanded by Kapuse.

The Dauni military camp was in the north and Ascurum was in the south, and at the same time, a total of 4,000 soldiers and 200 cavalry were guarding the border between the entire Dauni region and Samonai, supplemented by the citizens of the neighboring towns, which was enough to deal with the small and medium-sized invasions of the Samonai.

And once the remnants of the enemy who had escaped from Apulia landed in other parts of the Apulia region, the defenders of the other military camps could first resist it, and then the citizens who were waiting for the rest of the country quickly gathered from the towns to the barracks under the quick notice of the heralds, formed a complete legion, and then completely destroyed the enemy, so that the kingdom's military rations were consumed very little, and the security of this area was basically guaranteed.

The reason why Alexis dared to do this was because the Apulia region was a plain, the terrain was basically flat, in addition to the road connecting them, there were also relatively smooth roads between the towns, from the city of Lucenia in the north to the Ogentum in the south, a fast march, only a little more than a day to reach. It's just that in this way, the legionnaires are relatively busy and always on the go, but for the warlike Mesapi and Puchetti, it is exciting to have battles to fight, merit to be gained, and land to be shared.

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In many exchanges with King Davers, the War Department had established that the kingdom's strategy in this war at this stage was to attack in the north and defend in the south.

The army led by Davers was attacking in the Latium area, and Alexis's troops had died down in the Daoni area, while in the Sicilian region further south, the troops led by Leoticides did not retreat from the defense, but took Selinus as a base at the western end of Sicily, and attacked everywhere, plundering all the villages and towns outside the city-states of Mazara, Lilipi, and Segesta, and collecting supplies to ensure that the army had sufficient food supplies and disrupt the order of Carthage's rule in Sicily. The purpose of creating favorable conditions for future operations.

Leoticides adopted an offensive and defensive approach to warfare.

And just as Davos landed on the shores of Latin with his army, the drowned body of Franios, the commander of the Third Fleet of Theonia, had been found in the reef on the coast between Minoa and Agligento, and since the body had decomposed, Leoticides led the whole army of soldiers and sailors of the fleet to hold a solemn cremation and funeral for him in the city of Selinus.

The audience burst into tears.

However, the commander-in-chief of the Sicilian fleet, Seclian, has not yet been found, and Leoticides judged that Secretian was probably captured by falling on the Carthaginian-controlled coast, and when he exchanged prisoners with the Carthaginians, he offered to exchange more prisoners for Secreans.

The Carthaginians did not reply to this.

Since the order signed by Davers "agreeing to transfer the Fourth Fleet to Sicily" had not yet reached the Ministry of War, Stefacas, the former commander of the fleet, temporarily assumed the heavy responsibility of commanding the entire Sicilian fleet (in fact, there are only a few dozen warships left in the Sicilian fleet today).

The Ionian army ravaged the western lands of Sicily, causing distress to the allies and colonial cities of Carthage, who turned to Lilibal for help.

The army in the city of Lilipar was demoralized and disorganized, and Pomilka only wanted to protect himself, where did he dare to go out of the city to fight the Dionian army.

The Iberian army led by Hasdruba stationed in Palermos was capable of driving out the plundering Dionians, but Hasdruba chose to sit on the sidelines at Kisgow's reminder, because the troubled allies and colonial cities had to send emissaries to Carthage for help, so that the squabbling senators knew that the Sicilian military situation was urgent and made a decision quickly.