Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece
chapter-212

“Although we have lost in the battle, we could at least organize another 20,000 soldiers. So if Theonia were to attack Krimisa, we will certainly give them a heavy blow! At that time, Theonia would have already been sieging for some time and they would have been exhausted, so their only choice would be to ask for a peace talk, and we will be the one that has the initiative. And we might even be able to find some opportunities to defeat the Theonians during the defense of Krimisa!”

After Milo finished speaking, everyone became lost in their thoughts.

Eurypus then said, “So Krimisa will once again become a battlefield.”

This sentence awakened the statesmen of Krimisa, but Milo immediately said, “Yes, the city of Krimisa is the key to the next war, but it will be the soldiers of Crotone who will defend it. If the people of Krimisa felt that it is dangerous here, then they could board the ship and take shelter in Crotone. We will provide them with sufficient necessity for them to live and guarantee that it will last until the end of the war. If there is damage to the houses and property in the city, Crotone will compensate for it….”

Milo's idea was very considerate, so the Krimisians have nothing to say, and his words also reminded these people in a vague way, ‘The city of Krimisa is filled with soldiers of Crotone. Even if they want to make peace with Theonia in private, they have to ask whether the spears in the hands of Crotone will agree. If the Crotonians were angered, the situation would only get worse!

“Strategos Milo, Krimisa will fully support you in fighting the Theonians here!” Androlis soon made a clear statement on behalf of the council of Krimisa.

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

In the early morning of the next day, Davos with the two legions and the two reserve brigades, with a total of about 16,000 men*, march towards the city of Krimisa. (this refers to the number of soldiers that can fight, excluding the engineering camp, medical camp, logistics camp, cavalry, salpinx and the drummer, and so on.)

In the morning, the army of Theonia arrived in the marsh.

Davos then left one of the engineering camp of the legion to investigate the geographical conditions of the marsh, fill the marsh as soon as possible, and build the roads and bridges on the river, so as to facilitate the smooth passage of future transport of caravans, and at the same time, he had also taken into account the construction of the Roscianum-Krimisa road in the future. In order to prevent them from being attacked by the Crotonians, he had also left two reserve brigades to build a camp here. In addition to protecting the engineering camp and the people of Roscianum who had come to participate in the construction, they are to also protect the transport route.

Davos then took the lead in crossing the marsh with the soldiers.

In the afternoon, the army of Theonia entered Krimisa.

By this time, the more than 5,000 soldiers of Crotone were already on standby on the wall of Krimisa.

After observing for a while, Davos gave up the idea of an immediate attack and instead ordered the building of a camp.

The captain of the engineering camp immediately came to inquire about the requirements of Davos for the camp. Davos then pointed to the city of Krimisa and said, “First surround it from the north.”

He immediately understood what Davos meant and immediately led his men to inspect the topography, terrain and water source, and calculate the area for the base of the camp…and so on., in order to select the site for the camp. Before long, he took his men 400 meters away from the city and began to insert a thin wooden pole every 20 meters….

At the command of the two legatus of the army, Kapus and Drakos, except for the two brigades in charge of defending and the cavalry of Ledes, the rest of the soldiers will immediately become construction workers, some are responsible for logging, some for digging trenches, and some are responsible for making earthen wall…the whole army was operating in an orderly manner, and even Davos had taken part in digging with a pickaxe….

Milo, who was on the wall, noticed that the army of Theonia did not immediately attack the city, which made him somewhat disappointed and also somewhat glad. But then, the sight of the army of Theonia building the camp was so lively and spectacular, and the camp being so close to the city had exceeded his expectation. So he kept on thinking of doing a sneak attack.

However, the two heavily armed infantry and cavalry of Theonia that are patrolling outside the city had made him dismiss this thought. He also did not think that the Crotonian soldiers who had just experienced defeat had the courage to go out of the city to fight against a large number of Theonians.

He could see that the Theonians wanted to besiege Krimisa, but if this delayed their siege, then he was in favour of their approach.

The Theonians were very efficient in building the camps. By dusk, they had dug out a 1.5 kilometer long trench and had built an earthen wall that surrounds the east, west and north of the city of Krimisa. Now, some of the soldiers started setting up an abatis in front of the trenches, and some have begun building the camps inside the wall… Originally, the loaded carts of the engineering camp had timbers that could be quickly disassembled and assembled to immediately build the camp gates, sentries and fences(this is the “modular” that Davos proposed to the engineering camp, which was the result of repeated testing by the engineers and carpenters.), but due to the fact that the loaded carts were easily trapped in the mud in the marsh area, they could not transport it to Krimisa in time.

Even so, Milo was amazed, naturally he would not have known that there is a “Camp Building” in Theonia's military training program. After seeing the uneasiness of the soldiers, he finally made up his mind.

In the middle of the night, he decided to send 500 soldiers to attack the enemy's camp while the Theonians were fast asleep due to the long march and constructing the camp. Even if they could only manage to make a small setback to the enemy, it would still boost their morale.

According to the observations of the warships on the sea during the day, there are also trenches in the north of the Theonian camp. Milo is however afraid of landing and attacking from the coast, north of the camp of Theonia, because once they are found, he is afraid that they won't be able to return, so he chooses the south side of the camp of Theonia near the sea.

The 500 soldiers of Crotone quietly approached the camp of Theonia and while they were carefully crossing the abatis, they were then discovered by the sentry that was hiding behind the earthen wall. He quickly went to a nearby tent and quietly woke up the platoon captain and also woke up the others.

“Larys, you did a great job! Now, you need to go to the rear of the camp with my name plate and inform the cavalry that there is an enemy attack here!” The platoon captain Xethippus, praised the recruit who was also a preparatory citizen and handed him an egg-sized iron statue of a three-headed dog engraved with the legion, the centuria and the platoon units number.

“Roger!” Larys then ran.

Xethippus then asked his subordinate, Thratyllus, to keep the other platoon captain and centurion informed, while he took several soldiers to check the situation of the enemy, and found that their number was not too large, so an idea immediately came to his mind.

The Crotonian soldiers passed through the abatis, climbed over the trench, and over the earthen wall. When they saw that there was still no movement in the enemy camp, they became excited. They then began to light the incendiary they were carrying, but because there was still a distance between the enemy's camp and the wall, they still had to cautiously continue to increase their pace.

All of a sudden, the soldiers at the front suddenly had their feet sunk and their soles were then pierced by a sharp objects, which made them scream. It turned out that after the earthen wall, the Theonians had also set up multiple traps to slow down the enemy once they managed to get through the earthen wall, in order for the Theonians to rearrange their defense and counterattack.

While the enemy was in a panic, the Theonian soldiers ran out from behind the camp and hurled javelins at the Crotonian soldiers. Many of them screamed and fell, and the courage of the rest of the Crotonian to continue fighting had disappeared, they then turned and fled in terror….

And the Theonians continued their pursuit through the safe route in the trap.

In the silence of the night, the sound of fighting was particularly clear. So Davos was woken up and had quickly dressed just as the captain of the guard, Martius, came to report, “Grand legatus, the Crotonians have sneaked in and have been repelled by the third brigade of the second legion, and the cavalry of Ledes started their attack, and I believe that the enemy won't be able to escape.”

Davos nodded, then a map of the distribution of each legion, brigade and centuria in the camp had immediately came to his mind, “The third brigade of the second legion is the brigade of Giorgris…I remember that his brigade was in the easternmost part of the camp, which is close to the sea.”

“Yes milord.”

“The brigade of Giorgris has performed well, and they had strictly implemented the sentry duty system according to the 《Military Law》, and reacted quickly after discovering the enemy, which should be rewarded! And the sentry who had discovered the enemy in time should be rewarded even more!” Said Davos while looking at Aristocrates who had just arrived.

Aristocrates immediately wrote it down and will report it tomorrow.

“What about the other brigades?” Asked Davos once more.

“Each brigade was informed in time and there were no major disturbances.” Replied Martius.

Davos was very satisfied that the troops had managed to still maintain the smooth communication and order while in the dark, the strict training during normal times has played a factor, “The Crotonians wanted to copy our sneak attack, but too bad that we are not like the Crotonians. Everyone, get some sleep, because tomorrow, we will be busy.” With that, he turned around and entered the tent and soon fell asleep.

After speaking a few words with the guards guarding the tent, Martius then left.

Only Aristocrates, who was on the battlefield for the first time, could not calm down and could only stare at the burning brazier in front of the tent for a moment. When night came, it was necessary to set up a brazier in front of the commander's tent and was also stipulated in the “Theonia Military Law”, according to the explanation of Davos: First, it is convenient when reporting the situation at night. Second, night attack and when accidents such as Camp hysteria* occurs, the soldiers can find the location of the commander at a glance in the midst of chaos, in order to stabilize their morale and reorganize the soldiers. In a word, because the commander is the key to the morale and hope of the whole army, so in the dark, it is necessary that the soldiers are able to see the commander’s tent anytime and anywhere, which helps to eliminate their fear of the dark. (T/N: Due to the camp being crowded and the soldiers are exhausted and are under great mental stress, when someone screamed in the night due to nightmares and such, it will often triggers a chain reaction and cause the entire camp to fall into a state of hysteria and might even kill each other.)

Listening to the gentle snore of Davos from inside the tent, and feeling the heat from the brazier, the tension that Aristocrates felt quickly dissipated….

Of the 500 soldiers who left the city, only a few dozen had managed to escape the interception of the cavalry of Theonia and fled back to the city.

After Milo learned about it, he stayed there standing for a long time. ‘This seemingly crude and unfinished camp of the Theonians was unexpectedly so heavily guarded.’ This lesson had made him to finally throw away the last trace of the ‘enemy just being lucky’ and now admits, from the bottom of his heart, that the army of Theonia is a well-trained army!

He then decided to stop taking risks and defend Krimisa with all his strength.