Chapter 143: Surprise Attack (II)
Davos stood up and looked around the crowd, and said with a deep and powerful voice, “The first battle tomorrow morning will determine the ownership of the Sybaris plain! Will determine the future of us, citizens of Amendolara! When the battle starts, there will be no salphinx and no shouting! We must be cruel! Be fierce! Be quick! Destroy the enemy in their sleep with the fastest speed! Rush to the center with the fastest speed! The faster we advance, the closer and thicker the formation will be, and the more flustered the enemy will be. We will then surround them in the center and force them to surrender! Brothers, the Crotonians are like a pot of barley porridge now, and so let’s see which brigade will eat the fastest and eat the best!”
The crowd didn’t reply, but there was a burning sense of battle in their eyes…
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On the early summer night in the southern part of the Apennine Peninsula, the weather is still relatively cool. Unfortunately, there is no moon nor star in the dark sky.
Amendolara’s troops began to set out. The first platoon of the first centuria of the first brigade left the camp in turn. The head of each company held a lighted torch to illuminate the road ahead. The five thousand strong troops marched quietly and orderly. The sound of the river, the sound of the insects and frogs, and even the howling of wild animals in the distance covered up the sound of their marching and the collision of their armor. From a distance, you could only see the faint flash of fire every few hundred meters.
Crossing the pontoon bridge at night was one of the biggest trouble of the march. The troops march in two columns to ensure that there is enough space on the bridge deck and both sides will take care of each other. Fortunately, most of the soldiers in the first brigade who walked at the front had participated in the Persian expedition. So they were very experienced at marching at night, they manage to successfully crossed the first pontoon bridge and then passed the second one as well. Their good performance gave confidence to the subsequent troops.
The second brigade had also manage to arrived on the other side.
The speed of the third brigade’s marching began to slow down once they reach the bridge. Arsinis stepped on the board that goes ups and downs, looking at the dark river that was flowing under the pontoon, and imagining its depth, his body could not help but shake along with the bridge’s board, and his body was about to learn out. At this time, a hand firmly grasped his arm.
“Don’t panic, look up at the front and don’t look down at your feet!” It was the voice of Xethippus, the squad leader, who was in parallel with him. He stabilized his mood and did it according to the squad leader’s method, which was much better.
After a few steps, he heard a splash behind him, followed by a cry for help.
Someone fell into the water! Arsinis was shocked.
“Don’t look back, and move forward!” The voice of Xethippus, who usually love to nag, was unusually calm at this time.
Arsinis finally manage to set foot on the junction of the two rivers. With this experience, it made crossing the second pontoon bridge much easier.
In order to help the Lucanians cross the river smoothly, Epiphanes had thought of a way, which is to let a Greek and a Lucanian walk side by side on the pontoon bridge. With the help of these veterans, most of the Lucanians had also manage to cross the river smoothly.
When he reach the south bank of the river Crati and set foot on solid ground, Arsinis’ nervous mood fell to the ground, then he ask the squad leader, “What about our comrades who have fallen in the river?”
“The Legatus has asked the military officer, Philesius, to arrange some people on both sides of the river to rescue them. As long as they throw away their round shields, spears, and helmet, and swim to the shore, of course, and also depends if they trained their swimming skill seriously. Now you realize the importance of training, every training should be completed seriously, because maybe you will use it one day in the future.” Xethippus seized every opportunity to educate the recruits.
Arsinis nodded seriously.
Two hours later, the troops approached the city of Roscianum and all the torches were extinguished. Being led by the squad of Izam, they came to the middle reaches of the Trionto river(Roscianum was located at the mouth of river Trionto), they then formed eight columns and the soldiers held their spears in front of and behind each other (the shield is hung on the shoulders of the soldiers and the helmet is hung on the neck.) and wade through the river. Although this section of the river is the widest, its depth doesn’t even reach the waist, and the current is not rapid. In addition to a lot of pebbles, the river crossing on the river Trionto didn’t cause any trouble to the soldiers.
The camp of Crotone wasn’t far away.
It’s still currently deep in the night, and the sky still haven’t yet brightened. And under the leadership of the mountain reconnaissance team, each brigade quietly and unhurriedly went to their predetermined position and began to lie down and rest to recover their stamina. The officers went closer to observed the camp of Crotone, comparing it with what they saw in the previous map, they began to adjust and arranged the attack position of their teams.
As soon as there was a glimmer of light in the eastern sky, the officers began to wake up the rest of the soldiers. While they were tidying up their weapons and equipment, the platoon captains made a quiet pre-war mobilizations. For the veterans, just saying ‘These arrogant Crotonians have the courage to insult our Lord Davos and burned our buildings. And now, we have to make them pay the price with blood, with our spears and shields.’ That was enough to ignite their anger. For the recruits, in addition to encouragement, they should also be reminded of some details that needs to be paid attention to in the battle, such as ‘Don’t just focus on charging by yourself, but move forward with your whole team. When the spear goes into the body of the enemy and can’t be pulled out, then don’t waste time in pulling it out, and just draw out your kopis and continue slashing them’ and so on.
Arsinis began to line up together with his comrades, and then putting on his heavy Corinthian helmet, but he didn’t feel the usual sense of being isolated from the world. Although he couldn’t sense his teammates that were behind him (because they are in a separate column). However, through the eye hole of his helmet, he saw not only the tents erected by the Crotonians a hundred meters away, but also the thin front rank formed by his Amendolarans comrades which have reflected the light in the corner of his eyes, which extended infinitely along the terrain and encircled the camp in an arc until it was out of his sight…
Arsinis stepped forward and approached the camp of Crotone. The nearest tent was less than 40 meters away, and there was still a dead silence ahead.
Arsinis was both excited and regretful. He wanted to fight the sober Crotonians in order to show his developing skill.
At this time, there was a loud scream from the front of the camp.
Xethippus said in a low voice, “Advance!”
Everyone then began to stride forward. The shields next to each other rubbed and made a low “bang bang” sound. Their feet in leather sandals stepped on the mud soaked by the dew, leaving rows of clear footprints.
Arsinis had long been aware of the sleeping enemies lying outside the tent, but when he stood in front of them, he became hesitant.
“Do it!” The comrade next to him urged him and at the same time, he stabbed his spear into the throat of the enemy. The enemy suddenly opened his eyes and held his throat with his hands. He wanted to scream, but he couldn’t make a sound. His expression was filled with extreme pain and his whole face was distorted.
When his comrade pulled out his spear, the blood from the wound gushes out like a fountain. The wounded enemy begins to breathe heavily, which made the other enemy woke up from his sleep.
“Why are you not doing it yet!” His comrade once more said. Arsinis finally stopped hesitating, and he quickly stabbed out his spear and pierced the enemy’s chest.
His comrade turned his head and nodded to Arsinis. Although the expression on his face could not be seen due to his helmet, Arsinis still could guess that it must be a satisfied smile. Inspired by that smile, he resisted the discomfort in his stomach and continued killing the enemy that were still sleeping outside the tent.
There is a tent in front of the squad, which blocked their route. Xethippus made a gesture, and the ten soldiers surrounded the tent and then plunged their spears inside. There was a burst of poking accompanied by screams as blood splashed on the curtain.
“Arsinis!” Shouted Xethippus.
Arsinis immediately held up his shield, bent down and went inside the tent, and soon came out and said, “There are four men, two…blerch…two are seriously injured, and the others…blerch…are all dead.”
“Regardless, keep going!” Xethippus waved his hand, then looked at Arsinis and said, “Even if you vomit, do not stop and move forward.”
After a long march, Arsinis saw the enemy coming out of the tent by groups in front of them. They were wearing short sleeve linen clothes, some were even naked and most of them were unarmed. They seemed to still have not been completely awakened from their drunkenness and drowsiness. They looked at Arsinis and didn’t understand what was going on until they saw Arsinis and the others stabbing some of them down. The screams have woken them up, they did not rush forward to fight, but cried out in panic, “There are enemies! There are enemies!…” Under the attack of Arsinis and the others, they fled everywhere. The panic and confusion had made Arsinis remember that when he was a child, he went up on the mountain together with his father and saw some sheep getting chased by hungry wolves.
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Kelebus’ ancestor were the earliest immigrants of Crotone, so they were allocated a large and fertile “share of land” and his whole family lived a relatively rich farming and pastoral life. However, with the passage of time and the rise of trading, many merchant citizens gained amazing wealth, and used the wealth to gain considerable power in Crotone’s political arena, and have become the new nobles of Crotone. Kelebus’ grandfather was an ambitious man, he envied these merchants and was no longer satisfied with farming. So he was determined to devote himself to the business trend and win a brighter future for his family. So he mortgaged their land, loaned a large sum of money, bought several ships, and started to do port transshipment trade with full of goods, sailing between the Greek city-state of Zakynthos in Iberia, Massalia in Gaul, Naples on the west coast of Italy, and back to Crotone.
At first, everything went well and he made a lot of money, but then, when the cargo ship passed through the strait of Messana(Messina), it was caught in a vortex, and the ship was destroyed and the people on board died. Then the family of Kelebus began to decline, and when he grew up, his life was in a state of poverty. Apart from having the status of a citizen of Crotone, he had nothing like a freeman from other city-states. However, he could vote in the ecclesia and join the army to fight.