At this time, Timogolas can be regarded as shooting himself in the foot, and the retreat in the event of an engagement, even if it is only a small part, is very dangerous, and if he is not careful, it will lead to the overall rout.

Thankfully, the Tarantum soldiers were on complete defense for a long time, and most of them had not fully reacted when the enemy in front of them had disappeared. Seeing the enemy retreat in front of them, revealing a large gap, the already extremely tired Tarantum soldiers couldn't believe their eyes, but they were ecstatic.

"The enemy was repelled by us!!"

"The enemy has fled! We...... We won!! ”

In the middle of the battlefield, how could the soldiers, who had been shrouded in the shadow of death for more than an hour, think so much, just like the drowning man who has to hold on to even the slightest straw floating in the water, they cheered, joy seemed to replace exhaustion. They desperately rushed out of the gap, which also caused the neighboring soldiers to involuntarily run out.

When Acheta found out that the situation was unusual, the entire army was like a flood of Duti, and not only the soldiers rushed towards the gap, but the high morale that had been stored up was quickly taken away.

"Stop! Don't mess around! Stay in formation and rush out! ......"Acheta tried desperately to calm the chaotic soldiers, but in vain. Instead, the Puchetti intensified their attack, forcing the Tarantum to flee towards the breach, and Achita was pushed into the breach.

"General, it's useless, let's run away!" The adjutant was eagerly admonished.

The discouraged soldiers were completely unable to resist the full onslaught of the Puchettis, and the casualties began to mount. The continuous screams reached Acheta's ears, making him even more anxious, and seeing the guards around him also became panicked, he had to cheer up and hiss, "Follow me out!" Follow me and kill it!! ……”

Acheta attempted to direct his soldiers to concentrate their forces and charge westward, trying to widen the gap and even crush the Igratians so that more people could escape the encirclement. However, on one side were the victorious enemy, and on the other hand, the soldiers were unmotivated, and most of them were just trying to flee, ignoring his orders.

The citizen soldiers of Tarantum still lack training and experience! He sighed in his heart, and at this time he was still thinking in his mind: what would he do if Davers led the Dionian army in this situation?

Just as he was distracted, the guards were already surrounding him, pushing through the gap under the push of the soldiers.

"General, let's run away!" The adjutant urged eagerly.

Escape, where can you escape? In Archie's vision: in the distance, groups of enemy horsemen were galloping across the flat field, using javelins and spears to reap the lives of the fleeing Tarantum soldiers; Nearby, several groups of enemy horsemen were rushing towards him with great vigour, shouting something loudly......

"It's a pity that I haven't finished working on the lifting machine ......," Acheta sighed again, he had academic regrets, and politically he had always admired that the Greek city-states of southern Italy should unite against foreign enemies, and this ideal, Dionia, seemed to be accomplishing......

At this moment, he put all his attachment and regret behind him, drew his saber, took the lead, and rushed towards the enemy......

……………………………

The sun sets, the tired birds return to their nests, the dust and fog of the battlefield dissipate, the sound of killing is far away, and only the corpses are left all over the field, and the blood flows and drifts.

Accompanied by Timograss and Puchetti, Tremoni came to Acheta's body.

The young military general, a genius of Greek mathematics and a high hope of the people of Tarantum, fell among the carcasses of several horses with three javelins in his body. Strangely, instead of pain or anger on his pale face, he was very peaceful......

"I thought he was a great man, but a young man without a beard!" A Puccietti general grunted disdainfully.

Tremani glared at him until he closed his mouth.

He stared at Acheta's corpse, and after a moment said, "Cut off his head, show it to the Greeks in Brindisi, and bury his body." ”

…………………………

It was not until late at night, when a handful of soldiers fled back to Tarantum with great difficulty, that the people learned that the 6,000 soldiers had been almost wiped out, and the whole city was plunged into great grief.

Compared with the defeat in the battle, the loss of a large number of citizens, and the unknown whereabouts of Acheta, the Senate was more shocked by the union of Puchetti and Mesapi, which doubled the pressure on Tarantum.

An emergency meeting of the Senate in Tarantum was held late at night, and it turned out that the defeat in the battle had reduced the Senate by nearly one-twentieth of its number, as there was no news from at least six senators who were with the army, including Acheta.

With grief, the crowd discussed how to deal with the difficult situation that followed. At the end of this battle, Brindisi will be besieged by the combined Mesapi-Puchetti forces, while the main force of the Puchetti people is still besieging Manduriya. With nearly 6,000 casualties among young and strong citizens, coupled with the repeated battles in the past few months, the losses of the Tarantum citizen soldiers have reached 10,000 people, which can be said to be nerve-wracking, not to mention the nearly 6,000 citizen soldiers trapped in the two cities, so the remaining forces of Tarantum are more than enough to defend and not enough to attack.

But the only way to abandon the territory that the citizens had bought with their blood and lives was unacceptable not only to the senators of the Senate, but also to the people, so the only way was to ask for reinforcements.

But who to turn to for help has become a point of contention. Now it seems that the strength of Heraclia and Metapongtum, which are affiliated allies, is already their limit to be able to send three or four thousand people, and Tarantum will face the attack of the May-Pu coalition army of maybe twenty or thirty thousand people, which is far from enough. Asking for help from a powerful city-state is the only option for Tarantum, so there aren't many targets for Tarantum to choose from.

Sparta in the east, as the mother state of Tarantum, has always had a good relationship between the two, and Tarantum sided with Sparta in the Peloponnesian War, which added weight to the friendship between the two city-states, which was the choice of some conservative senators led by the consul Diomeras; Dionya to the west, an ally of Tarantum, within two years quickly became an alliance of six cities and two dependent city-states, and fought almost without defeat, one of which sent an army of 20,000 men, which was evident in its strength and ability to deal with the outnumbered coalition of Mep, according to the opinion of another consul, Eumarcus and some of the senators; There are also a few patriarchs who mentioned Syracuse in the south, due to the relationship between Sparta, there are still some contacts between Tarantum and Syracuse, but as a city-state of Greater Greece, Tarantum is also wary of Syracuse's involvement in southern Italian affairs, not to mention that Syracuse at this time is still fighting against Carthage, how can there be spare strength to aid Tarantum, so it is not considered.

At the end of the discussion, most people were inclined to ask Dionya for help. As Eumacus said: "When the Dionian consul Davers was the leader of the mercenaries, we in Tarantum helped them selflessly, and Acheta led our citizen soldiers to help them defeat the Lucanians; When they secretly occupied Amendora, it was we who risked offending the other great Greek city-states by selflessly helping them, recognizing the legitimacy of their occupation of Amendora, providing them with food, and protecting them from the attacks of Turiyi; When Turiyi was burned, when Dionya was attacked by Crotone, we extended our hands to them...... It is precisely because of our selfless help again and again in Tarantum that there is today's Union of Ionian City-States (of course, Eumacus directly ignored the fact that Tarantum did not send reinforcements according to the Covenant)! We Tarantum people don't demand anything in return for giving others a favor. But we should also give the Ionians who enjoy our help, and whose hearts have been restless, a chance to repay us! ……”

"That's right, Archon! We should generously give Dionia a chance to repay us! ......Actually, whether it is from the distance between the city-states or the current state of strength, Dionya is the best choice for help, there is an alliance between the two states, and Sparta is still at war with Persia. It was only Tarantum's previous shame about Dionia's several attempts to send troops to aid, and his reserve as a historic powerhouse in Greater Greece, that led to such hesitation. The gracious words of Eumacus satisfied the vanity of the senators, and finally the call for help was agreed.

……………………………

"Acheta is dead?!!" Davers looked incredulous.

"Yes, Lord Archon. This morning, several soldiers who fled back to Tarantum said that they had seen the Mesapi carrying the body of General Acheta on the battlefield......" said Polydorus, the messenger of Tarantum, in a mournful tone.

"How is it possible for a group of soldiers who are busy fleeing for their lives to see clearly?!" Davers still did not want to believe this fact: "Maybe he was wounded and captured? ”

"We also want General Acheta to be alive, but even if he is alive and falls into the hands of the Mesapi, he will ......" Polydorus said, unable to go on.

Davos understood what he meant: Acheta, as the main leading general of the Tarantum army, the Mesapi people fought against him, and they hardly won a victory, especially this attack on Manduria and Brindisi, how much a blow was inflicted on the Mesapis, and the Mesapi people probably hated to drink his blood and eat his flesh! If it really falls into their hands this time, Acheta's fate can be imagined!