Rome must fall.

Chapter 312 Disaster
"Of course." Bricks nodded affirmatively.

"I have another suggestion." Temagis spoke again, but his voice was a little stammering: "I just don't know... I don't know if it's appropriate to say it out loud?"

Bricks was not unfamiliar with Temajis's conflicted expression. Although Temajis had been a courageous chief in the past, this failure seemed to have dealt him a great blow. He had been looking depressed in the camp for the past two days.

"If you have any suggestions, just tell us and we can discuss it together." Maitilis said soothingly in a gentle tone.

"Well... I think we can try to make peace with the Nixes." After saying this, Temagis simply let it go: "When I was retreating on the battlefield, I saw from afar that many warriors of our tribe were surrounded by the Nixes and then captured. I think your situation is probably the same as mine. Tens of thousands of warriors finally returned with only a few people. It is impossible that all the other warriors were killed by the Nixes. Most of them may have become prisoners of the Nixes...

Before, Segestica went to war with the Nix and suffered a series of defeats. Andres was injured and died of illness, and the tribe was in a mess. Later, Kabudes signed a truce agreement with the Nix and redeemed many Segestica prisoners. Only then did the tribe slowly recover some strength...

Since we are unable to defeat the Nixes now, why don't we learn from Kabudes's approach and send envoys to negotiate with the Nixes, sign a ceasefire agreement, and then find a way to redeem our captured people. We can even pay a price to make the Nixes withdraw from the territory of Segestica."

After hearing this, Metilis and Brix were very interested. In fact, at the tribal alliance meeting held in the main camp of Mazii, Kabudes mentioned the truce agreement signed between Segestica and Nix, and the tribal alliance even postponed the time of attacking Nix for this reason, but they did not think about it because, firstly, they were focused on destroying Nix at that time, so they did not understand the details behind the truce agreement; secondly, their territory was not seriously threatened by Nix.

Because Temajis led his army to stay in the territory of Segestica for a few more days, he had some understanding of the situation in Segestica over the past year. He had also publicly expressed his contempt for Capudes' cowardly behavior. But now that the situation has changed, he wants to follow Capudes' approach to save his severely damaged tribe.

"Now that the Nixes have the upper hand, will they agree to a truce with us, release our warriors, and withdraw from the territory of Segestica?" Metilis suppressed his impulse and reminded them in a deep voice.

"Of course the Nixes won't agree easily. We will definitely pay a considerable price... But as long as we can rescue so many of our captured warriors, I think the tribesmen will not only accept it, but will also be willing to bear it..." After being reminded, Brix, the initiator of the attack on the Nixes, pondered for a while and had to say: "This will not only reduce our losses in this war and allow the tribe to recover as soon as possible, but also give us more time to carefully prepare ways to deal with the Nixes."

"In this case, I agree to negotiate a truce with the Nixes." Metilis said, "But we have to wait for Demicas and Parakis to come back and get their consent before we can send envoys in the name of the tribal alliance."

As soon as Metilis finished speaking, the tent was opened and the captain of the guard came in: "Captain, we found Chief Demicas and Chief Paquilas!"

Brix suddenly stood up and asked in a daze with joy: "Where are they now?!"

It's no wonder that Brix acted so out of control. As the rotating chief of the Panloni Tribal Alliance this year, it was at his suggestion that the war against the Nixes was launched, which resulted in a disastrous defeat. He is certainly responsible. If the two chiefs, Demikas and Pakilas, died in this war, he would have no way to explain to the other tribes.

Pricas, who was standing outside the tent, saw the tent suddenly opened, and the three great leaders, Brix, Metilis and Temajis, hurried out of the camp.

Pricas asked Ancasus and his followers to wait there, and he followed curiously. To the west of the camp was the Kupa River, and on the east bank was a simple river port, which was built by the Brochi people not long ago to transport food for the main force of the coalition. There were many small boats parked in the river port, and some people were being helped out of the river port by Brochi warriors...

They all had unkempt hair and beards, pale faces, thin cheeks, deep cheekbones, tired and weak expressions, and dull eyes, as if one foot was about to step into the grave...

It was not until Brix and his companions came forward and expressed their concern and asked about the two leaders' well-being that Pricas realized that these two were the two great chiefs, Pachilas and Demicas. He had seen these two great chiefs before, but now they had become completely different people and he did not recognize them at all.

Later, he learned from the Brochi warriors that the reason why the two chiefs became like this was that after the defeat in the battle with the Nixes that day, although the armies led by the two chiefs did not suffer too much loss, they retreated to the southeast in panic under the fierce pursuit of the Nix soldiers, and ended up entering the mountains with dense trees.

It was already evening and night was falling. As the army had no fire-starting equipment and no food, the two leaders lost control of their troops. Instead, they wandered around in the mountains in the dark following the increasingly panicked soldiers. After daybreak, they discovered that they were deep in the mountains, lost their way, and many soldiers were lost.

The Pannoni were not good at living in the mountains, especially the large tribes in the north bordering the Boyi. In addition, they were completely unfamiliar with the terrain here and could only rely on the sun in the sky to determine the direction. They were worried that they would encounter the Nyx army if they went west, so they could only march eastward.

Without food, they could only kill horses and eat raw meat to fill their stomachs; without sleeping gear, they slept in their clothes and endured the bites of mosquitoes and poisonous insects; climbing mountains and crossing ridges was extremely painful. The team could barely hold on for the first one or two days, but when all the horses were killed and there was no food, the team encountered the greatest danger - hunger.

The warriors could only go hunting and collect food, but the wild animals in the forest had long stayed away from their huge team of several thousand people, so they had to expand the scope of hunting. As a result, many people never came back after going out. The two great leaders had to issue an order: no one was allowed to leave the team, everyone had to endure hunger, get out of the mountains as soon as possible, find the Brochi people, then they would be saved!
So, the Pannoni warriors tightened their belts and staggered forward. Excessive hunger made them eat whatever they saw in the following days, insects, mushrooms, earthworms... and even tree roots. Many people were poisoned and had diarrhea and fell on the road.

Finally they arrived at the banks of the Kupa River and went along the river before they found the village of Brochi. At this time, only more than 2000 people were left in their team of more than people. Some of them died on the road, some were lost in the mountains, and some were left behind due to illness... So in the next few days, the Brochi people followed the route they had taken to search and rescue their surviving compatriots.

Also during these few days, the two great leaders, Pachilas and Demikas, who had recovered some vitality after recuperation, began to blame Brix, saying that "he first fled first in the battle, causing the entire army to be defeated, and then he only cared about himself and did not extend a helping hand to them trapped in the mountains in time. As the rotating leader of the tribal alliance, his performance was not only unsatisfactory, but he must also bear the main responsibility for the huge losses of other tribes."

Bricks repeatedly argued that the Nixen concentrated their forces and focused on attacking the left wing of the army he was in charge of. His soldiers suffered too many casualties and were outflanked on the flank, so they had to retreat. He retreated very quickly (after retreating to the occupied stockade, Bricks led the 2000 soldiers stationed there and returned along the original route. Since there were some remaining food in the temporary camps on the way, his team did not starve. It took only three days to return to the Brochi territory). That was also to return to the territory as soon as possible to collect supplies to rescue other teams, so he quickly led the team back and met the team led by Metilis who was still wandering on the way. It was only because Pachiras and Demicus led the team to run around in the mountains that he could not find any traces, but he never gave up looking...

Several great chiefs were arguing endlessly, while the warriors under them were busy searching for their compatriots who were lost in the hills and mountains to the west. Ragged and emaciated defeated soldiers returned to the camp one after another... However, regarding the issue of "rescuing Segestika", the tribal alliance meeting had not yet given a clear conclusion. Pricas was anxious, but there was nothing he could do.

However, in the camp, he unexpectedly found more than 2000 Segestica people, including nearly 500 warriors. It turned out that these people were residents of the fourth village of Segestica along the Kupa River. They learned that their army had suffered a disastrous defeat on the banks of the Kupa River and were afraid that the Nixes would take advantage of the victory to attack. So, under the leadership of their leader Gityas, they followed the great leader of the Deisitiatae, Temagis, and fled to the territory of Brochi.

They originally just wanted to take shelter for a while and wait for the main force of the coalition to win before returning home. However, they met Brix who had already escaped in this camp and learned the news that "the main force of the coalition had suffered a crushing defeat". They dared not return to their homes and could only stay in the camp temporarily.

(End of this chapter)