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After a while, a young man holding a baby in his arms handed the baby to a woman beside him and stood up.

The woman grabbed him and whispered in a concerned voice, “You have to be careful!”

The young man felt guilty and avoided the gaze of the woman, “You too!” With that, he strode out of the crowd.

Under his leadership, many people said goodbye to those around them and strode out.

Phragris patted the young man on the shoulder and asked, “Young man, what is your name?”

“Phryntor.”

Phragris then glanced at the woman holding the baby and comforted him, saying, “Don’t worry. Once the enemy is defeated, you will soon be together with your wife.”

Phragris thought that the two were husband and wife, and the young man just nodded his head.

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

The 5,000 soldiers of the third legion led by Hieronymus rushed to Aprustum. Their speed is much slower than the troops of Laos who attacked the northern bank of the Neto river because they have to carry the siege equipment that they had made last night. However, they deliberately set up such a time difference so that the plan could proceed smoothly.

At this time, Hieronymus is talking with Izam while advancing with the troops, “Are you sure your men have entered Aprustum?”

“Of course! I have watched them go inside with my own eyes. If it wasn’t for my appearance being different from the Greeks, I would have gone inside together with my brothers! Legatus, I hope that you can rush to attack the city as soon as possible, because I am afraid that after some time has passed, they will be found out!” Pleaded Izam.

“I understand.” Hieronymus promised it immediately, and asked at the same time, “How many people went inside?”

“56 Soldiers.” Izam said it immediately, because he knows his subordinates like the back of his hand. With the union’s expansion, the legion has also expanded, and due to this, the mountain reconnaissance team has also expanded, and has now become a centuria.

Hieronymus was a little surprised. He didn’t expect that so many soldiers had managed to sneak into Aprustum, which made him more confident in taking over the city. Therefore, he told the people playing the salpinx to increase the pace of their march.

In fact, the marching speed of the soldiers are already in constant increase even without the urging of Hieronymus, because these 5,000 soldiers are from Nerulum, and they had missed the previous battle and so, they are now eager to fight and perform meritorious service.

The upper reaches of the Neto river are neither deep nor wide, but its banks are higher. Hieronymus was the first to arrive at the north bank, and when he saw many enemies on the other bank drawing their bows, he immediately gave his order, “Seventh brigade, attack!”

The light infantry of the third legion quickly formed a long stretch of skirmishers and scrambled down the river bank, braving the arrows that came at them while crossing the river. After paying a small amount of casualties and climbing on the other side, the enemies had already run away.

Then the hoplites who followed after, were carrying ladders and rafts made of trees and crossed the Neto river with ease.

The city of Aprustum is not far ahead and it’s on a higher terrain. However, it’s very easy for the Lucanian soldiers who were living in the mountains. Finally, they stopped in front of the city of Aprustum and began to line up at the command of the officers.

While the soldiers of Aprustum were looking at the enemies under the wall and were nervous, and behind them were the newly joined people, who were even more nervous.

Strategos Phragris saw an old man trembling, and having his shield fall to the ground many times, and so, he went forward and comforted him, “Don’t be afraid, the enemy can’t attack us! And this city has never been conquered by the enemy since the time Crotone owned it! A few decades ago, when we were defeated in the south(referring to the war between Locri and Rhegium against Crotone.) The Bruttians wanted to seize the opportunity to take back Aprustum, and they had a lot more people than the Theonians, but they had still suffered a disastrous defeat and could only go back home!”

His words have reassured the soldiers.

When Phragris walked along the walkway on the wall, inspecting the whole defense from west to east, and seeing that there were enough soldiers at each crenel, it also gave him enough confidence.

Aprustum, like Roscianum and Krimisa, is a small city, but because of its important geographical location, the Crotonians has expanded and strengthened its defense many times. Therefore, Aprustum has a seven meter high wall and a four meter wide trench, and it is also irrigated by the tributary of the Neto river to form a wide moat. Moreover, steep mountains are to its west and it is adjacent to another major tributary of the Neto river to its east, with wide river width and deep water depth. Therefore, it has only two gates, the north and south, and so the forces are concentrated on both sides, which made it convenient for defense.

Izam carefully watched the enemy on the wall, and he suddenly, with a look of joy on his face, ran to Hieronymus and excitedly said in a low voice, “Legatus, my brothers are on the wall!”

Hieronymus, who is always serious, had his countenance and change and impatiently asked, “Where?”

Izam, though excited, remained cautious. Instead of using his fingers to point, he whispered, “On the far left side of the city wall!”

Hieronymus then immediately looked at the far left side of the city wall. It was currently noon, and the sun was hanging in the middle of the sky and shining on the heavily armored soldiers at the top of the city wall. The light shining was dazzling, but there was a place where it was different. The dazzling round shields were neatly connected in a row, but the reflected light was bright and then dark, obviously, these people were turning the round shields in their hands at the same time. Whoelse would do such a boring and physically consuming thing before the battle? Hieronymus then smiled, “Izam, once we capture Aprustum, your team will be the first to be credited!”

“Thank you lord legatus!” Izam was overjoyed.

With the mountain reconnaissance team as the insider, Hieronymus had quickly made a plan to “attack the right side of the enemy to attract the attention of the defenders, while covertly attacking the far left”.

When the salpinx sounded, the soldiers howled like hungry wolves in the mountains and were like tides rushing to the city of Aprustum. Bagul, Asistes, Litom, Kesima, Ulasa and other brigade leaders had also taken the lead and led the charge in person….

The Crotonian soldiers then began to fire arrows at the enemy who entered their range. But for the Theonian hoplites in heavy armor and helmets, their casualties were minimal. The salpinx that sounded the battle had encouraged the wild lucanian soldiers of the third legion, and if an arrow were to hit their arms and thighs, they would just break the arrow shaft and continue to move forward even though they were wounded.

They then quickly reached the moat, and according to their training drill, the soldiers in the front quickly put the five meters long and three meters wide wooden raft on the moat, then the soldiers carrying the ladders stepped on the wooden rafts and crossed the moat and went straight to the wall, followed by soldiers holding the round shield and swords.

At this time, the attack on the city wall began to become fiercer, with arrows, javelins and rocks falling down, and the casualties of the Theonians had suddenly increased….

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

Lysias did not expect that the situation would become so bad as soon as he returned to Crotone.

The people who had fled into the city had spread about the invasion of the army of Theonia, and soon, panic spread throughout the city….

Many statesmen were also very flustered, they had thought that the reason why the army of Theonia could smoothly go south was because the army of Crotone was defeated again and the city of Krimisa was captured, and so they threatened angrily, “Milo must be convicted if he had dared to flee!”

Lysias then retorted, “I have just returned from Krimisa, and when I left, the city of Krimisa is still in the hands of Milo. When you calculate the time, it is impossible for Krimisa to be captured by the enemy in just a few hours and to also reach the north bank of the Neto river. The Theonians must have bypassed Krimisa! I have to admit that the Theonians are too brave, because without a boat, they will not be able to cross the wide Neto river, and as long as Milo holds on to Krimisa, the Theonians invading the plains of Crotone wouldn’t be able to do anything, and they will have to go back in the end.”

“The Theonians can’t cross the Neto river, but they can attack Aprustum!” Someone anxiously said.

“It will not be easy to capture Aprustum, the Bruttians had tried to capture it many times but had failed! I even hope that the Theonians would attack it, and become a great blow to the Theonians!” Someone retorted.

“If we continue to fight like this, then what good is it for us! We Crotonians have suffered huge losses, our farmland has been destroyed, our houses have been burned, the prices are rising, the wealth of our treasury is being consumed, and due to the lack of labor, our trade has also been greatly affected and a large number of our citizens has been captured! The people are already dissatisfied with us. Let us make peace with the Theonians!” Some people said pessimistically.

“Peace negotiation?! Didn’t you hear what Lysias had said about the conditions of the Theonians?! That damned archon of Theonia wants us to disband our alliance, can we agree to that?! Once Aprustum becomes independent, Caulonia, Scylletium and Terina will no longer be our allies, then tomorrow, perhaps Locri and Bruttii would have destroyed them and then come all the way here, to Crotone!” Someone denounced angrily.

“Peace negotiations are like buying and selling things. Theonia has offered us their conditions, and so we can continue to negotiate with them and lower their demands….”

“Peace negotiation is okay, but only after the attack of Theonians is repelled! So that we can stand up proudly and talk to the Theonians loudly!”

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

No one knew when the council had started debating over the issue of “whether to hold peace negotiations with Theonia”. Fortunately, they were able to distinguish their priorities and some emergency measures were quickly implemented: The warships will sail into the Neto river and cruise the banks to prevent the Theonians from sneaking in and building bridges. And at the same time, they will hire freemen in large numbers, some will be guarding Crotone, some will be stationed on the south bank of the Neto river to watch the Theonians on the other side, and a small number of freemen will be sent to Aprustum to strengthen its defense. In addition, they will send people to Krimisa to ask Milo to attack the Theonians who are besieging the city of Krimisa in order to force the invading enemy to withdraw.

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