ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 864 Siege of Beneventum

After listening, Pollet turned to Alexis and asked: "It seems that the Beneventum people are already prepared. Do we need to start camping here?"

"This place is too far from the city of Beneventum to oppress them." Alexis observed the terrain ahead intently.

Then, he pointed to the long row of hills on the west side that seemed to be about a hundred meters high, and asked: "How far is the mountain road connecting Kautim and Beneventum from here?"

"It's hard to say, there are several mountains in between." Garni thought for a while, shook his head, unable to give a specific number.

Alexis pointed to the row of lower hills on the east side and asked, "Climb over them. The terrain to the east should be flatter, right?"

"Yes, General Alexis, you remember clearly that from this hill to the east to the Volturno River, although there are some small hills, the terrain is relatively flat." Gairni replied.

Alexis asked the adjutant to bring a simple map of Samona drawn based on the information provided by Gairni and others. While consulting Gairni, he compared the real landforms with the map.

He thought for a long time before making up his mind and said: "After we march three miles further, we will start building a camp. Chief Garni, lead your soldiers to camp in this valley to protect our food transport." aisle."

After hearing this, Gairni took a breath and immediately expressed his stance: "Don't worry, we will guard this place tightly. Even an enemy won't be able to slip through here!"

For the Abenirum warriors, the Sabato River is not only a food transport channel, but also the only way from Beneventum to their homeland. Now that the Abenirum territory is empty of troops, Gharni Of course the said troops will devote 200% of their energy to guard this place.

This was exactly what Alexis intended, and then he pointed at the map and said: "Chief Polet, your army's camp extends from the south bank of the Volturno River to this side, and our Dioni Ya’s army camp is between your two camps.”

Alexis made this arrangement because he had taken into account that Abenirum and Potentia had a grudge more than ten years ago, and it was their first time to fight together. They still lacked coordination with each other. Before, Zantiparis I specifically reminded him that Abenirum had few soldiers and Potentia warriors lacked combat experience. The Dionysia camp was located in the middle and could take care of both sides. At the same time, after the camp was built, it occupied two rivers, not only for drinking water, but also for drinking water. Convenient, it will also cause great oppression to the city of Beneventum.

"I have no objection, but I hope the general can send someone to guide us in building the camp." Pollet has participated in the military training of Dionia. He knows very well that the Dionia army has in-depth research on building camps. In order to ensure that the soldiers The camp was safe, he asked shamelessly.

Before Alexis could respond, Gairni, who was reminded, immediately said: "We also hope that the general can send people to help build the camp."

Although Gairni has not participated in the military training of Dioria, he has visited the military camp in Thurii many times, seen the training of Diorian citizens, and has some understanding of it.Moreover, he considered that Abenirum had the smallest number of warriors and had to build camps and defend against enemy raids. In fact, he needed the help of allies even more.

"Of course there is no problem, I will definitely help with all my strength!" Alexis was very happy that the two of them had such a request, because it would make it easier for him to unify the planning of the entire camp and allocate manpower reasonably.

After the three reached an agreement, Garni led the army straight north, while Alexis and Pollet led their troops over the eastern hills and headed northeast.

Yesterday evening, after the camp of the Allied Forces of Samonei received the news that "the Dionysian army had entered the territory of Abenirum", due to concerns about the safety of Beneventum, Lesguk couldn't wait for other tribal troops to withdraw from the camp , led more than 3000 Hirpini fighters that night, regardless of fatigue, retreated to Abella, and set off in the early morning of the next day, marched quickly, and entered the city of Beneventum at noon.

There were originally 1000 soldiers stationed in the city of Beneventum. It was originally to guard against the Abenirum people in the south. After Lesguk led his team back, the total number of soldiers in the city reached more than 4000. He also heard about other tribes. The soldiers will arrive soon, and the people's confidence will immediately increase.

Lesguk was not satisfied with just waiting for defense. After learning the enemy's movements through the spies sent out, he immediately led the 1000 soldiers originally stationed in the city (the other soldiers needed a good rest due to continuous rapid marches) In order to restore their physical strength), they quietly circled into the mountains to the east and raided the Abenirum people three miles south of the city of Beneventum.

As the commander of the Dionysian coalition, Alexis led his army in an unfamiliar mountainous area. Of course, he would not lose his vigilance, but would be more cautious. He repeatedly requested: Regardless of whether Abenirum or Potenti The runner-up army must allocate half of its troops to defend the camp being built.

Therefore, Lesguk's surprise attack failed and quickly turned into a battle between Bereventum and Abenirum warriors. The two sides first threw javelins at each other and then fought with spears. The number of soldiers he led was small, but they had plenty of physical strength and had some advantages.

But as 1000 Dionian light infantry came from the east for reinforcements, Lesguk could only retreat.

But he did not stop there, and sent 2000 soldiers who were repairing in the city to harass the Potentians from the east. While attracting the attention of the Dionia army, he once again led 2000 soldiers directly to the Sabato River Valley to attack Abenirum people.

However, the number of people used by the Dionian coalition for defense was more than twice the number of existing warriors in Beneventum City. After Alexis discovered that the side of Abenirum seemed to be the target of the enemy's key attack, Simply let a light infantry brigade be stationed in front of the Abenirum camp.

Beneventum's attack failed to cause much trouble to the Abenirum army, but instead caused some casualties. For Beneventum, which lacked troops, the life of every soldier was precious. , Lesguk could only lead his team back in anger.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he returned to the city, he received an urgent report from his men: Thousands of enemies were approaching the city of Beneventum from the east.

This made Lesguk feel nervous. He immediately gathered the soldiers in the city and led them to the city for defense.

Alexis led a heavy infantry brigade and 3000 Potentian warriors to approach the city of Beneventum.

Looking at the seven-meter-high stone wall a hundred meters away, Alexis recalled some of the information about the city provided by Garni: "A dozen years ago, the city of Beneventum was just a wooden city. , and the simple wooden fence around it is often damaged. It is only used to prevent wild animals, not enemies. Because there are few civil wars among the Samnite tribes, and foreign enemies have never threatened the mountains. So they never worried about the safety of their homes.

But after the powerful Kingdom of Dionysia emerged in the south, the situation changed. The Samoni tribe coalition was defeated and surrendered to it in shame. The Dionysia even interfered in the internal affairs of the Samoni people. , caused the confrontation between Beneventum and Abenirum, so the deeply disturbed chief Lescuq called on many rallies to rebuild a strong city of Beneventum to withstand possible attacks. Foreign enemies invade.The tribal chiefs of Beneventum, who were equally uneasy, finally agreed to his proposal.

The Shirpinians had no experience in building stone cities, so Lesguk specially borrowed many Campanian slaves from Cavutim who were good at building cities. Good building stones were found on the north bank of the Volturno River.After 6 long years, with the joint efforts of the tribesmen of Beneventum, the new city of Beneventum was finally built.Lesguk soon invited the priests of the Samnite Tribe Alliance to hold a sacrificial ceremony at Beneventom in the name of celebrating the new city, thus triggering a series of subsequent events..."

Of course, in Gairni's narrative, there was nothing good to say about Lescuq and other tribes in Beneventum. He also accused Lescuc, who proposed to build a new city, of having already planned to go against Dionia. .At the same time, he also mentioned a detail: “The city drawings designed by slaves in Campania included the concept of an acropolis, which interested the Beneventum people so much that they simply built an acropolis on the east side parallel to the Sabato River. The end of this series of hills is included in the city, and the area of ​​​​this hill accounts for half of the area of ​​​​Beneventum, and an inner city was built on the top of the hill."

Since then, the city of Beneventum has been blocked by the Volturno River in the north, the Sabato River in the west, and the hills in the south. Only the east side is relatively flat... This is why Alexi The reason why Si led the team to attack from here.

Alexis looked past the seven-meter-high stone wall and looked at the hill that rose up in the city from south to north and blocked his sight. It was at least 30 meters high. There were no lush trees on it, only densely packed trees. houses, and another stone wall on the top of the mountain... This is one of the reasons why he did not rashly issue an order for the 2 coalition soldiers who had made the arduous journey to get here to immediately attack the city.

"Sir Commander, the ballistas have been deployed."

"Fire." Alexis gave the order. A moment later, ten whistling bullets hit the city wall. The loud sound made the Shirpini warriors exclaim.

The deterrence of the army led by Alexis against the city of Beneventum caused Lesguk to lead the main force to confront it in the city, thereby reducing the harassment of the Dionian coalition troops building camps.

　Thanks to Sniper No. 11 for the tip!Your support is my motivation to write! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)