Chapter 332: Victory in Sight
“These guys are so brave. Do they want to rebel?!” After a night’s rest, Petaru recovered, then he asked for Pian’s order with anger, “Great chieftain, I will take a thousand warriors and drag them here!”
Pian shook his head, loosened his clenched fist and turned to look at the high priest, Phitara, and said in a deep voice, “High priest, I request for you to go…and ask them what exactly they want and try to appease them.”
“Great chieftain!” Petaru shouted hastily, “There is no need to be soft on those guys! Otherwise…otherwise, they will be out of our control and may even…threaten the security of Consentia!”
With only Pian, Petaru and Phitara left in the Tribal Hall, Pian no longer needs to hide his thoughts. He looked at the two with a strong sorrowful expression and sighed heavily, “Our defeat of this battle is all my responsibility! I…I shouldn’t have gambled and fight the Theonians. I thought that even if we couldn’t win, with our knowledge of the terrain, our warriors could have easily get out of the battlefield with our equipment being lighter than the Greeks and then retreat back to the city to defend against the enemy’s siege…alas…I didn’t expect that a battle would cost us too much! Theonia is really different from Crotone and other Greek city-states! I could only apologise to our people!…”
“Chieftain, it was not your fault. It was the collective decision of the Council of Elders to fight Theonia…” Petaru comforted his father-in-law. He hesitated and whispered, “Why…why don’t we make peace with Theonia?”
As soon as these words came out, Pian and Phitara were taken aback.
“Would the Theonians even agree to a truce with everything that had happened?” Phitara expressed his doubt.
“We could give it a try!” Pian’s eye brightened from getting inspiration from Petaru’s words. He thought more and said, “Petaru, send messengers to Theonia’s camp and say to their archon, ‘Consentia is willing to be an ally of Theonia, just like Laos.’ If the truce works, we could temporarily join Theonia, allowing the return of the captured warriors and give us time to regain our strength slowly. If not, we could still continue negotiating with them patiently. As far as I know, the archon of Theonia is not tyrannical as he had even forgiven Roscianum and Crotone. So why can’t he loosen the rope around our neck! At least it would allow us to buy some time to solve those tribes outside the city. Currently, Consentia could no longer endure another riot!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
When Consentia’s messenger arrived at Theonia’s camp, Davos listened to their goal. After hearing it, he pointed out that Consentia could only choose to completely integrate into Theonia Union, as there is no other way to go!
He then flatly refused the messenger’s request for further discussion. Now that they have the absolute advantage, how could he give Consentia a chance to breathe?!
On the third day after the battle, the whole Theonian army pulled out of the camp and marched west. The cavalry spread out to scout the surroundings. The first legion acted as the vanguard. The second legion is on both sides of the centre, escorting the logistics brigade, medical brigade and engineering brigade…and the Theonian soldiers supervised the nearly starved Bruttian captives as they carried the supplies, pushing loaded carts and tending to the livestock. While the legion reserve and the allied troops served as the rearguard…
Even on the vast plateau, the whole army was still out of sight.
Three hours later, Davos saw the huge city standing in front of him, Consentia.
At this time, Ledes, the cavalries’ strategos, rushed in, “Grand legatus, the fourth legion is coming here!”
“That’s great!” Davos was thrilled, he excitedly clamp-on his horse’s belly, and his horse then raised all four hooves and galloped forward. His escort followed closely behind, then followed by the cavalry encircling around him to prevent accidents.
The legatus of the fourth legion, Hielos, likewise received the report and had also speed up his horse from the south. When he saw Davos, he immediately stopped his horse and saluted, “Grand legatus, the fourth legion has captured Clampetia and are ordered to follow!”
“Good job!” Davos solemnly praised. The current Hielos was no longer the ordinary mercenary at the start. His long-term military and administrative handling made him more dignified and less humble, turning him into a now qualified Theonian legatus.
“Milord, I am late. The Clampetians were very tenacious that they have not only delayed our fourth legion for some time but also made us pay more than seven hundred lives of our brothers!” Hielos looked dejected. His gentleness still hadn’t changed much.
“It’s not your fault as my strategic plan was the main reason for why the fourth legion took longer in capturing Clampetia. And the soldier’s sacrifice was not wasted because you have captured a well-defended city by force from the front, which will be the most valuable treasure in Theonia’s military!” Davos encouraged him and then added, “And, the fourth legion has come at the right time!”
With that, he pointed forward with high spirits, “Go, take me to see the warriors of the fourth legion!”
Davos and Hielos then took the lead in galloping forward, followed by 200 escorts wearing red cloaks (including a hundred Besidisian warriors).
Rodom, with one hand on the rein, while the other holding the flag that Martius have given him, followed closely behind Davos, passing by the marching column of the fourth legion.
Seeing them, the soldiers of the fourth legion, who were in front, stopped talking and looked at their grand legatus with burning gazes. And Davos, with a solemn expression, raised his right arm and stretched it forward to salute.
All of a sudden, the soldiers thundered and cheered, “All hail Theonia!!!”
“All hail Theonia!!!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The sight had not only made Rodom’s blood boil but also made him envious, ‘Living a life of obscurity in the valley is boring! A man should be on the battlefield like a commander!’
“Do you hear it? The ones that are cheering loudly are the recruits of the fourth legion. I heard that they have come from Terina, and it seems that they have captured Clampetia. It is no wonder that they are so energetic, but if we hadn’t defeated the main force of Bruttii, how could they have breached the city so easily! These little guys are still lacking! These following days, we have to let them know that we, the first legion, is the best in the Theonian army!…” The soldiers of the first legion watched the cheering of the fourth legion.
At the top of the city wall, the Bruttian warriors watched the sight outside the city with fear. The “long dragon” line coming from the northeast and the southwest merged and gave out a frightening cheer and an imposing momentum.
Pian’s expression became sullen from the news he received yesterday about the “fall of Clampetia”, which he especially blocked from spreading. However, he did not expect that the Theonians would actually perform such a play outside the city and looking at the expression of the warriors, he knew that the blow to them is enormous.
At that moment, Tagli’s voice sounded from behind, “The Theonians are already powerful, yet we are too few! And Consentia is too big to defend with our small number. It’s better for us to surrender!”
When Petaru heard this, he turned pale, wishing he could beat up the old man, but he still held himself back. Yesterday, under the mediation of Phitara, he and Tagli reached an agreement: The Bruttii Tribal Union would return Tagli’s original tribesmen and the tribal chieftains and shall not deprive and interfere with their rights again. In return, they finally agreed to join Pian in fighting the Theonians in Consentia.
However, there is still one issue that they are debating: Tagli and the others demanded the abolishment of the Council of Elders and to delegate the power to deal with the affairs of the union to the Chieftain Association.
For Pian, agreeing to this request of theirs would mean that the Bruttii Tribal Union that he had been striving for with a high degree of centralization would instead become a loose union of tribes, something he could not tolerate. That is why he postponed this important issue by giving an excuse about “Bodiam is not here, and Sedrum is missing”, which cause the discontent of the other tribal chieftains, and now the two sides are at odds with each other.
Facing the pressure of the Theonian army while Consentia is in such a situation. How could they resist the enemy’s attack? This had caused Pian’s distraught.
Fortunately, Davos did not order to attack the city and had instead begun building a camp. Relying on the absolute advantage of having thirty thousand troops, he directly ordered the construction to start a kilometre away from the city in order to prepare to besiege Consentia.
The guards began escorting the captives to dig trenches. With having the first, second, fourth legion, the legion reserve and the allied troops….Davos had enough labour to build a huge camp and enough men to stand by.
Just as Davos was preparing to start a detailed reconnaissance around Consentia, Kapus reported that Sedrum asked to meet him.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
“You have decided? For Vergae to join Theonia?” Davos suppressed the join in his heart and looked at Sedrum calmly.
“Yes, archon of Theonia.” After seeing the arrival of the fourth legion of Theonia, Sedrum immediately realized that what Davos had said to him before was true and that Theonia really had the strength to siege a city. Thus he no longer hesitated and decisively made up his mind, relieving himself of many days of distress, causing the weight on his shoulder to become lighter.
Davos looked at the great chieftain of Bruttii, who he had not seen for several days and had become older, and asked slowly, “So what would you do now?”