Chapter 142: Surprise Attack (I)
Timaras, had at first, suggested that some of the spoils should be shipped back to Crotone in advance, since there were too many of it.
However, Melanseus rejected it. His reason is that Roscianum and Krimisa has joined the Crotone Alliance for the first time, so they would need to show them of their results in conquering Thurii and the serious consequences of fighting against Crotone.
In fact, there was another reason in his heart, it was because he was afraid that the spoils that will be shipped back would be privately divided up by the group of people in the city hall, which would end up him having much lesser share of wealth.
As for why they didn’t burn the pontoon bridge? The worry of Davos was totally unnecessary, because Melanseus doesn’t even regard Amendolara at all, and after the destruction of the city of Thurii, there is no longer any force in the northern part of Magna Graecia that could threaten Crotone anymore, and in order to facilitate the migration of the Crotonians to Sybaris, they needed the pontoon bridge.
Crotone’s marching line was 5 kilo-meters long, and most of them were fully loaded carts, so their marching was extremely slow. However, they still manage to arrived in Roscianum by dusk.
The Roscianums were really afraid. The polemarchos, Amikles, led the city’s top officials with a smile on their faces, they opened the city to welcome Melanseus, who had won a victory, and held a grand victory banquet for him, as well as the other strategos of Crotone. At the same time, they euphemistically said to Melanseus, that the city of Roscianum is too small to hold such a large army, and if so many spoils are stored in the city and in case it got lost, it wouldn’t be good if a conflict broke out.
While also saying that the city of Roscianum has prepared plenty of wines and food for the soldiers of Crotone to celebrate their victory and to make up for Roscianum failing in letting them enter into the city.
Melanseus was not a man who would care about his soldiers. Seeing that the Roscianums were so thoughtful, he readily agreed and lead a dozen of his senior officers, such as Timaras, into the city with Amikles.
On their way into the city, Melanseus heard his scout, who had returned, that the people of Amendolara had rushed to the Sybaris plain to help the people of Thurii. Then he said with a laugh, “The Amendolarans are just wasting their efforts, because we will be back soon, and the Sybaris plain can only belong to Crotone!”
When the soldiers of Crotone heard that there was wine and meat to eat, they sped up their march. It was already late when they started camping, and so they just only set up their tents because they couldn’t wait to start drinking and eat the meat to celebrate their victory, and made a lot of loud noises till late at night. However, their tired body couldn’t resist the attack of the God of Sleep, so they fell deep asleep…
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ansitanos did not wrote this part in his book. On this day, the citizens of Amendolara, contrary to their usual training habits, had only set their tents up roughly, and built their camp simply and had all began to sleep. As a matter of fact, during the afternoon, it was mainly the women, teenagers, and elderly Amendolarans who were outside to help the people of Thurii…
For this war, almost everyone in the city have went out.
That night, Davos did not allow the people of Thurii to enter the newly built camp for accommodation, and so the exhausted people fell asleep in the ground and under the cover of the sky. The officers then woke up the soldiers of Amendolara in the camp one after another. While their eyes were still sleepy they began to eat the prepared bread, drink the hot mutton soup, and ate a little mutton and cheese in silence. Although they had dinner a few hours ago, these food will allow them to store more protein and calories, which will be consumed by the following long-distance march and battle. Then they began to put on their armor that they have taken out of the loaded cart, and began checking their spears, kopis and round shields.
At this time, in the middle of the camp, a few torches were erected in an open space. Davos, and the officers were under the faint light of the fire and were carefully observing a terrain model of the camp of Crotone, which was simply made out of clay according to the information that they had gotten from Izam.
“Melanseus was a bit cautious. He made his troops cross the Trionto river and camped in the south of the city of Roscianum, and had thought that they are safe, since the city of Roscianum is blocking the way. However, this would make his soldiers more unprepared.” Davos used a stick to point out in the model of the Trionto river that separates the city of Roscianum from the camp of Crotone, “So Izam has repeatedly tried to cross on the different sections of the river, and he said that there is one section on the river that is completely walk-able and it is located in the middle of the river, which is far away from the camp of Crotone and they weren’t found out. So he sent someone back to report that the ‘Crotonians had spent the night drinking in their camp.’ So I believed that they will be sleeping like dead pigs when we attack them tomorrow.” The words of Davos made everyone laugh.
“They also didn’t dig any trenches, nor set up fences and an abatis, and they might not even have some guards by tomorrow morning. Do they think that they are just walking in their own courtyard?! And made them so relaxed!” The officers were not amused by the situation that Davos introduced, and were infuriated. They were secretly angry, and so they must definitely not let go of these arrogant Crotonians.
“The only thing troublesome is that their tents are very scattered and the space is relatively large. This part of the south protrudes a large part, because this is where they stored the spoils that they had plundered.” Davos made a huge circle over the camp model with his stick and said cautiously, “Our citizen soldiers and the Lucanian brigade led by Bagul are only about 5,000* and in order to be able to encircle the camp of the Crotonians, we can only attack them with a single row of soldiers.” (note: Arpenst sent some of his people to the eastern Mediterranean to recruit about 500 freeman from Thrace, Rhodes, and Crete, in order to make the seventh brigade complete.)
“Don’t worry Legatus, one row is enough! It is indeed difficult to deal with people with only that, but it is easy to deal with a group of sleeping pigs!” The words of Amintas made the crowd cover their mouths and laugh.
Davos smiled and said to Kapus who was besides him, “The south of the camp will be handed over to your first brigade. You will be the one to attack first, and because the area in the south is large, and there are a lot of carts and spoils blocking your path, so you and your subordinates must discuss a way to solve these problems. I have only one request, whether the first brigade can become the first in the whole army depends on whether you can keep up with the attacking speed of the other groups, or even be faster than them!”
At the same time, Kapus, who is usually prudent, was also excited and said, “Rest assured, the first brigade will live up to your expectations!”
Davos nodded and turned to Drakos, “The second brigade will go to the eastern part of the camp, and only after the first brigade attack, can you start your attack. The first thing the frightened enemies will think of is to escape into the city, so you should use the most violent attack to expel their idea!”
Drakos looked at Kapus, and then said, “Legatus, our second brigade will prove that we are no worse than the first brigade!”
“Hmm. that’s the confidence!” Davos nodded then turned to Hieronymos, “The third brigade will be attacking from the west. Although most of your troops are new recruits, I believe that the third brigade will perform well.”
Hieronymos clenched his fist and said, “Rest assured!”
“Epiphanes.”
“Yes.”
“You and Cid will lead the peltast soldiers of the seventh brigade to attack from the north.”
“Legatus, isn’t our number less?” Epiphanes immediately questioned.
“Don’t worry. Is Bagul here?” Asked Davos.
“Here I am!” Said Bagul behind the crowd.
“Come to the front.” Davos beckoned him to come, and then said, “The Lucanian brigade that you lead will join the attack in the north, with Epiphanes as the commander.”
Bagul hesitated to look at Epiphanes, while Epiphanes just gave him a friendly smile. He then lowered his head and said, “Alright.”
“The peltast soldiers are good at close combat, while the impact of your Lucanian warriors are also very powerful, and the enemy may not even consider running north at first because of the Trionto river. And so, I am not worried about your offensive strength, but what I am worried about is your lack of cooperation and the sudden advance might lead a gap. So after you get in position, you should have a good communication and solve the problem of how to improve the cooperation and control the offensive rhythm.”
“And more importantly!” Davos accentuated his voice and said with a serious expression, “Bagul, I have already told you before, and I would like to stress it again that before the battle, whether marching or sneaking, you have to be quiet and must not alert the enemy! So you must warn your tribesmen and for them to take care of their mouths. If anyone disobeys the order and affect this operation, according to 《Amendolara’s Military Law》 those with serious cases will be executed!”
“Roger.” Bagul was secretly frightened, and so, after deciding to go back, he will immediately discussed it with Asistes on how to prevent his people from making mistakes.
“Legatus, will us archers and slingers not take part in this operation?” Arpenst saw that there was no place for him in the deployment, so he was unable to stop himself from asking.
“We of course cannot do without you.” Laughed Davos, “Arpenst, you will lead the archers and slingers to ambush along the road leading to the city of Roscianum in the east of the camp. Once someone comes out of the city to rescue them, you will deal them the greatest damage!”
“Yes!”
“According to the intelligence of Izam, the soldiers of Roscianum who went together with Crotone did not return to the city because they wanted to celebrate their victory in the camp. So there should not be many soldiers in the city who can fight, and their combat strength should not be strong. Oh…there are also the high-ranking officers of Crotone who are having fun in the city. I estimate that their legs will be weak in the morning, and won’t be able to wield their weapons…” Davos finished speaking, and the crowd laughed quietly.
“After you are all in your position, and have deployed your centuria in the attacking row, but you must remember that – there must be no gap in the attacking row between platoons and platoons, between centuria and centuria, and between brigades and brigades!”