Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 165: Arriving on the lands of the Lucanians

“Of course, otherwise, we would not have found him so easily.” Replied Antrapolis first.

While Aristias pondered about the purpose of Davos' question.

Davos glanced at him and said with seriousness, “This Crotonian did not do IT well enough. A good spy can not only accurately and timely collect information, but to also distinguish the information's authenticity. And in the event of a war, they can also create chaos within the enemy, alienate the enemy, destroy their unity, destroy the walls, shipyards, weapon storage and other valuable facilities of the enemy state, and provide the greatest help for their city-state to win the battle that they are facing. And so, they will be the secret soldiers of our Thua Union!”

Seeing that the two were lost in their thoughts, Davos then said, “Aristias, would you like to be the one in charge of such an organization for me? Collect intelligence, and train such excellent team to help the alliance?”

This sudden invitation surprised them.

Antrapolis nudged his brother with his elbow excitedly. Aristias was also excited, but he could still maintain his calmness. He hesitated and said, “But Asistes…”

Davos nodded to himself, “Asistes has other important tasks to complete, and will no longer be the head of this organization.”

“I am willing to work for you, Milord!” Aristias straightforwardly answered.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Half a day later, the polemarchos of Crotone, Milo, received the intelligence from the spy, ‘In the early morning, about 4,000 soldiers of Thua Union left Thurii and marched westward.’

Milo pondered about it, ‘As far as the position of Thurii is concerned, there is only one force to its west – the Lucanians. Is it possible that Thurii will go to war with the Lucanians again? Is it Laos or Nerulum?’

Milo suddenly became excited. Although Lucania is far away from Crotone and was separated by several forces, they still have a bit of understanding and little contact with them, ‘The Lucanians are the powerful indigenous forces that the rich and powerful Greek city-state alliance, the alliance of Campania dare not provoke! Thua Union, however, has defeated the Lucanian alliance once before, so did they believe that they could create another miracle by having 4,000 men to win against enemy with only lesser troops? Even if they succeed, aren't they afraid to trigger another war with all Lucanians? Can the Union, who are still under reconstruction, sustain such constant consumption? Maybe the young Archon was daze by his previous victory?!…’

Several thoughts flashed through Milo's mind, which made him suddenly have an idea of just watching a play, ‘Maybe we won't even need to wait for the armistice to end to declare war again. The Lucanians will once more go to Thurii, so we should make our preparation…’

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

While Milo received the intelligence, the Thua Union's troops had reached the entrance to the pass to Lucania. Here, the Union had set up a simple sentry post. Every day, there will be three sentries stationed here, if there is any situation, they will immediately light the beacon fire and informed Thurii to prepare for battle.

The mountain reconnaissance team led by Izam had set out early to find out whether there was any abnormality in the mountain path.

Then the troops began to enter the mountain path.

The widest part of the narrow mountain path can accommodate up to four people in parallel. On both sides are steep mountains and towering trees. The mountain path is not only narrow, but also rugged, and it is all uphill. If they are not careful, they will end up slipping down and wounding their whole body…

In the future, a cold joke of a soldier will then be circulated in the whole army. ‘If the enemy were to push down a large round stone in the mountain path, it will roll down the mountain path and wipes out the entire Thua Union's army….'

The autumn weather in Magna Graecia is still hot during October, the snakes and insects are all still active in the mountains, and the wolves can be seen from time to time. The soldiers trudged along the mountain path with their rations, weapons and equipment weighing nearly 30 kilograms, they are all sweating and are very tired. However, no one dared to fall behind, once they fell behind, they might fall and be injured or get attacked by wild animals.

At night, they were unable to build camps according to the military regulations, so they can only sleep in the mountain path, but it is still necessary to carry out guard duty. Listening to the howling of all kinds of wild animals in the mountains, and looking at the green and dim lights that flashes in the dark, even if the guards have countless comrades lying beside them, they still couldn't help but feel chilled.

For the rest of the soldiers, the biggest difficulty in the mountain is the weather. At the end of autumn, the temperature in the mountain suddenly became cold. The soldiers were well prepared, as they all took out the sheepskin and went to sleep, and moreover, campfires were set up in the middle of the soldiers every ten meters, but it was still a bit cold…when they woke up in the morning, some soldiers ends up screaming, because there were some things near them: Lynxes, hedgehogs, badgers, and the most terrifying are the poisonous snakes…and as a result, several soldiers were bitten.

Most of the soldiers had only one thought in their hearts, that is, to get out of the mountain path quickly and capture Nerulum!

After two nights, the troops began to go downhill. At the reminder of Bagul, Philesius knew that they had traversed more than half of the way, so he ordered the troops to slow down.

The team of Izam had already crossed the mountain and had reached the exit of the mountain path. He asked most of his men to continue to monitor the movement of the surrounding areas and guard the expeditionary troops. He then took advantage of the night to avoid being detected by the sentry post in the pass and rushed to Laos to inform Avinoges.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Tula, the great chieftain of Laos, was in a good mood these days, because Avinoges has finally agreed to move his people to Nerulum, and they have been preparing for the relocation these days.

In the early morning of the next day, he received a report from his men that Avinoges was going to send his people to Nerulum in batches, and now, the first group has left the city for Nerulum.

Tula laughed, “Avinoges, Avinoges! Aren't you a smart person?! How could you be so stupid this time! If you go with all your tribes, then with your overwhelming numerical strength, they won't dare to split you up too much and will just swallow up some of your people. But if you leave in groups, they will gobble them all up! But this is just right, since we won't have to worry about these bastards of Laos anymore!”

Thinking of the days where he had to endure and hold back because he was afraid of the riots caused by Avinoges. Tula took a deep breath and said, ‘The days of fear are finally over!’

He is now much more relaxed, so he immediately asked his servants to bring the beautiful Greek slave, who was offered to him by his servants a few days ago, to have a good time.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alobamus led the team to the exit of the mountain pass. There was originally no sentry here, however, last year, when the army of Thurii invades Laos, though the Lucanian won a great victory, it also made them realize the need to set up sentries.

This exit is just between Laos and Nerulum. As Laos was attached to Nerulum, so Nerulum was the one in charge of the sentry. As a result, it became the place where the Nerulum warriors blackmailed those merchants who go to and fro between Laos and Nerulum to trade.

In the morning, when the sentries saw a huge convoy coming from the south, their first thought was to extort more money, even if they belonged to Avinoges, the famous chieftain of Laos.

Alobamus, the leader of this team, agreed to the sentries' unreasonable demand. After leading the convoy into the sentry post, they suddenly launched an attack, and easily get rid of these ten greedy Nerulum warriors.

Then, Izam, who was hiding in the convoy, ran into the pass immediately. An hour later, the Thua army immediately came out to join Alobamus. The fourth brigade(Lucanian brigade) took off their armor and put it into the carts, then they changed into the tattered leather robes and scattered, while the other three brigades were far in the back.

When Alobamus saw Bagul coming up, he was taken aback, “I heard from Izam that there are Lucanians in the army of Thua Union, but I didn't expect that there are so many of them!”

He was speaking in Lucanian, and Bagul cracked a smile and said in Greek, “Asinu will bless our cooperation.”

“R…ight…”When Alobamus was warmly embraced by Bagul, he had still not fully recovered.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Tula had sent some people to follow Alobamus, to see if they have successfully entered the hands of Nerulum, seeing that the convoy had stayed at the sentry post for a long time, had made them puzzled, then when they saw countless Greeks in armor, they were shocked, “Avinoges has rebelled, he has colluded with the Greeks!”

So, they then immediately returned to Laos like a frightened rabbit.

But Avinoges, who knew Tula very well, was already prepared for it. Tula's men had not yet rushed back to Laos, when the warriors of Avinoges, who were hiding on both sides of the road and were watching for any abnormalities, had rushed to capture them.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Moeris heard the report from his men that there were dust flying in the south and feared that there is a large army coming!

“That must be Avinoges who had brought his people!” He immediately determined.

In the past few days, Avinoges has sent some people to say that they are going to move here, and he had also sent his younger brother, Alobamus, many times to confirm the place where his people will live, where they will graze and where they will work, and had put forward a lot of requirements. It not only made the whole city know about it but had also made the chieftains such as Rhiam have a headache. However, since Avinoges is so serious, it is obvious that he was unable to withstand the pressure of the two cities and so, he could only move.

In the end, the leaders of Nerulum discussed and decided to agree on the request of Avinoges first. But once he enters Nerulum, it will no longer be up to him. At present, they are in urgent need of warriors and strong labor, so they are all looking forward at the fat meat of the tribe of Avinoges.

Moeris went up the wooden wall and soon saw the convoy. There were dozens of carts, and even though there are not a lot of warriors, there are many slaves. Under the threat of the warriors' whip and spear, some of them have carried heavy loads, and some help push the carts…behind them, were many elderly and women, some of them even have children. There are also livestock on both sides of the convoy, which made the whole convoy huge and bloated. In the dust fog, the people were shouting, and the livestock were making a lot of noises.