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“The Crotonians are oppressing us, so why won’t the soldiers give them a good beating?!!” Stromboli, who wanted to compromise with Crotone, was also angry.

“The soldiers have obeyed the orders of Lord Davos and guarded the city, but they all wanted to eat the meat of the Crotonians raw!” Amintas vented his resentment to Davos.

“Milord Archon, are we just going to watch the Crotonians go wild on our land?” Scambras shouted with reluctance.

“Of course not!” Answered Davos, with a strange gleam in his eyes, “Retracting ones fist in order to hit harder. The army of Crotone is stronger than us, this is a fact. So we have to wait, just like in boxing, a good player always defends first and wait for the opponent to show his weakness, and then land a fatal blow! ”

Everyone in the meeting place was shocked.

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

By the time Archytas landed at Thurii, Melanseus had already returned to the city.

Archytas, on behalf of Taranto, made a serious protest to Melanseus, and Melanseus said with objection, “Crotone has no malice towards Amendolara. I just wanted to go out and greet this young Archon, who was said to be able to win against enemy with more number with only less men. But I didn’t expect that he was too timid to even come out and meet me!”

Archytas breathed a sigh of relief for a moment, and then he dropped a ruthless sentence, “If Crotone goes to war with Amendolara, Taranto will unite with Metapontum and Heraclea, and will not hesitate to fight Crotone!”

At the same time, he also advised Melanseus, “Since Crotone has now occupied Thurii, you have already washed away your shame and won a great glory. Then you should now go back to Crotone and restore peace to the land. Else, I am sure that Locri will be as happy as Taranto!”

Melanseus could naturally hear the threat in the words of Archytas. He was calm and did not respond.

After completing his mission, Archytas rushed to Amendolara.

Once he reach the foot of the mountain, he saw the ruins of buildings, which were burned to ashes and smoke still coming out. He became nervous once more.

When he entered the city, the anger on the people’s faces came into his gaze. Therefore, as soon as he saw Davos, he expressed his sympathy and concern for what had happened to Amendolara, and then frankly said, “Davos, Taranto has no intention to fight Crotone for the time being. I hope that you can understand this.”

“Don’t worry, even though we are angry at the actions of Crotone, we can still hold ourselves back.” Davos then said calmly, “If a man is bitten by a dog, will he still come back to get bitten again?!”

Archytas didn’t smile. The calmer Davos shows, the more uneasy he felt. After the destruction of the Lucanian alliance, the soldiers in Taranto went to celebrate their victory, but Davos and his men went back to camp and sleep, saying that they wanted to recover their strength. However, the next day, he told him that, ‘We have taken back Amendolara!’

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

When the envoy of Taranto arrived at Crotone, the Council in the town hall of Crotone were having a heated discussion on the “follow-up occupation of the city of Thurii”.

Conservatives such as the strategos, Lysias, had suggested that, after plundering the wealth of Thurii, they should support a puppet government that favoured Crotone, and then for them to retreat in order to avoid causing discontent among the surrounding city-states.

Radicals like the polemarchos, Milo* (he has the same name as Milo, a famous athlete of Crotone a hundred years ago. Because this athlete is so legendary, he was regarded as a hero in Crotone, and so many Crotonian childen are named Milo by their parents.) considered that, Thuri and Crotone have already formed a deep hatred, so it is very difficult for a puppet government to keep their seats. Moreover, Thurii is close to Taranto, and so they will need to leave a garrison on it. However, not only will Crotone’s own strength be dispersed, but will also cause hatred between them, and the local people and Taranto over a long period of time. So the best way is to burn the city!

“Burn the city?!!” The other strategoi and members of the council were taken aback.

“Yes, burn the city!” Milo then said excitedly, “Our forefathers defeated Sybaris and destroyed their city twice. The last time was to dig a channel in the Crati river and destroy the city of Sybaris with a flood, which created a great reputation and frightened Magna Graecia. The city of Sybaris was exchange for the prosperity of Crotone and our hegemon of this region! However, since the time we were defeated by the allied force of Locri and Rhegium a few decades ago, some of the city-states no longer respect us as much and has even secretly oppose us. So we need to re-establish the dignity of Crotone! Now, a great opportunity is in front of us. This is a gift from the gods! If we miss it, we will be punished!

Moreover, after the destruction of Thurii, the Sybaris plains will become a land with no owners for a time. So we can first recruit immigrants from the city-states who had become friends with us from Greece or other places. Then after building a new city on the Sybaris plains, we can then send some landless citizens to become new immigrants of the new city, and I believe that with this, the surrounding city-states will not find any fault against us, and the strength of Crotone will expand to the north and strengthened our power…”

The words of Milo were both inspiring and doable, and it was then approved by the majority of the Council.

So, an envoy of Crotone soon arrived at Thurii. At the command of Crotone’s city hall, Melanseus, who was idle, became excited and said happily, “As the third strategos to destroy the city-state on the plains of Sybaris, I will definitely be remembered in history!”

He then moved quickly. First, he asked the freeman to join him and build a pontoon bridge on the Crati river using boats (the original pontoon bridge had been burned by the Thurians.)

Then there was the framing up, claiming to punish those that were behind the killing of the envoy of Crotone. As a result, the rich merchants in Thurii were arrested, tortured, imprisoned and even executed, and all their family’s wealth was confiscated.

Soon, the impatient Melanseus thought that this method was too slow and had no patience. So he simply ordered to plunder all the food and wealth in the city!

All of a sudden, the whole city of Thurii was mourning. The people of Thurii who were lying on the ground and wailing did not expect that a more terrible disaster would befall on them soon after…

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

The scout of Amendolara who was moving outside the city of Thurii, saw from a distance that the soldiers of Crotone were escorting the people of Thurii to go out of the city.

After a while, the city was full of smoke, and soon, a fire broke out…

The scout then immediately reported it to Ledes.

Ledes was shocked and quickly rode across the Saraceno river to confirm it.

At this time, Thurii had become a city of flame, and the people outside the city were mourning…

Soon, Davos received this urgent news, and immediately got dumbfounded. ‘Crotone is destroying the city?! Are they going to retreat?!’

Asistes cursed Crotone for this cruelty, while Davos sat down and rubbed his chin, and pondered what this event will mean to Amendolara.

Then, Asistes saw that Davos got up again and paced up and down the hall with a strange expression.

Davos suddenly asked in a trembling voice, “If Crotone’s army depart now, then where will they possibly be by dusk?”

Asistes thought for a moment and said, “They should not be able to march that fast with so much baggage. So it is estimated that they should arrive at Roscianum by dusk.”

“Will Roscianum allow the army into the city?” Asked Davos urgently.

“That is impossible! These guys have just looted and burned the city of Thurii!”

Davos nodded. Asistes’ opinion was in line with his thought. He walked back and forth a few steps and finally made up his mind, “Tell Ledes to keep an eye on whether the pontoon bridge on the Crati river has been burned down! At the same time, send Izam’s reconnaissance team to follow the army of Crotone, and find out where they will camp and how it is arrange…find all the details, but they must be hidden and don’t let the Crotonians find out! Then I want him to send someone to report to me at all time!”

“Roger!” Asistes replied excitedly. After following him for so long, he knew that Davos must be brewing a big storm. He still was unable to restrain himself and ask excitedly, “Milord, are we going to attack this army of Crotone?!”

“To attack or not will depend on whether the Crotonians will give us a chance!” Sneered Davos, “Crotone, a wolf who owes a lot of blood debts, wants to go back easily, will find it that it won’t be easy. I believe that the just Hades will take care of us! And so, it’s time for us to show our fangs!”

In fact, there is another reason for why he had made up his mind. The destruction of the city of Thurii gave him a greater chance than attacking Lucania, an opportunity to make Amendolara stronger quickly! But this needs him to once again gamble!

The Council meeting was held urgently. When Davos announced the news that “Thurii was burned”, the statesmen were not surprised. Before they came, they had already digested the shocking news. However, the native statesmen were in a complex mood. They once hated the selfishness of Thurii, which had caused Amendolara to suffer heavy losses, but when a more tragic retribution came to Thurii, they found that they did not feel so happy and sympathy overwhelmed their hatred.

But then Davos said with indignation, “Crotone’s crime must be punished! As an ally of Thurii, we Amendolarans have the duty to avenge the people of Thurii! Of course, it is more necessary for us to tell Crotone that the plains of Sybaris is not a place for them to just come and go whenever they want! I declare Amendolara to mobilize for war and prepare to attack the army of Crotone!”

As soon as he said this, there was an uproar at the venue.

“Great! It’s time to beat those damn Crotonians!” Exclaimed Amintas excitedly.

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