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The messenger continued to relay the order of the council, “Lord Diaomilas thought that the Messapian army attacking Manduria might be the last strength of the Messapians. Therefore, the council orders you to lead as many soldiers as possible to return, while ensuring the safety of Brindisi, and then join hands with the reinforcements from Heraclea and Metapontum and march to Manduria and defeat the Messapians once and for all! To completely ensure the safety of our new territories!”

Archytas lowered his head and pondered, “Taranto had lost nearly 5,000 men in the battle for Manduria and Brindisi, and the Messapians had suffered no fewer casualties than Taranto, as can be seen from the bodies of the Messapian that was buried after the battle. Although the Messapian alliance had seven city-states, the only one that can send tens of thousands of troops was their largest city-state Rudiae, therefore, the Messapian’s manpower should have reached their limit…however, why not attack Brindisi, which was wedged into the Messapian territory, instead of Manduria, which was closer to Taranto and be easier to rescue?”

But after a second thought, he cursed himself for being muddled: Brindisi was defended by 8,000 soldiers, while Manduria only had 2,000, so it is without a doubt obvious which was the easier city to capture.

He looked up at the messenger who was waiting for his reply and asked, “How many men Metapontum and Heraclea have sent?”

“As a result of their great loss last time, both cities had said that they can only send 3,000 men this time.” The messenger answered.

Archytas’ expression became slightly gloomy: He had fought side by side with their allies before, and he certainly knew what their casualties were. However, the final result was exclusive for Taranto alone, while Heraclea and Metapontum only got some rewards. However, isn’t it in this way that Theonia had defeated its rivals and grew rapidly?

Thinking of this, he no longer felt guilty, but became concerned about the city-state union across the gulf, which made him feel complicated, “The council…did they send an envoy to Theonia to ask for help?”

The messenger hesitated and shook his head with an odd expression.

Archytas’ thoughts shifted and had immediately understood that it was not only Diaomilas, one of the newly elected archon this year, who had always resented the Theonia Union, but the others too had more or less the same mentality. As a great city-state in South Italia with a history of 300 years, it is a disgrace and dishonour to ask for help from a newly emerging city-state union that has just been established for less than two years, besides, what would their allies and other city-states in Magna Graecia think! What’s more, unlike Heraclea and Metapontum which was dominated by Taranto, Theonia is in an equal offensive and defensive alliance with Taranto, and Theonia’s overall strength might even be better than…Taranto. Therefore, it is impossible to ask Theonia for their help without paying a certain price. Hence why Taranto would never send an envoy to Theonia until they are in a crisis.

Archytas pondered for a moment and simply said, “I am going to let Pebareus stay here in Brindisi together with 2,000 men, while I will take 6,000 men back to Taranto, while you have to return together with me, as I do not have enough cavalry to escort you back alone.”

The messenger was relieved and so he agreed. He had been terrified by the Messapians’ unpredictable light cavalry, and it had cost the cavalry squad escorting him a dozen lives just to get him safely into the city of Brindisi.

In the afternoon, the freemen who got the news came one after another, and watch in fear as 6,000 soldiers of Taranto leave the city. Although Taranto looked down upon the new and historical union of Theonian city-states, they had begun to learn from Theonia how to deal with the problems of their newly occupied territories. After seizing the two cities, the council had immediately promised the foreigners and freemen in Taranto that as long as they were willing to move to Brindisi and Manduria, they would acquire land and become citizens of Taranto, and at the same time, Brindisi and Manduria would also be under Taranto. Therefore, despite knowing that there is a lot of risks, many freemen had still come with their families. But now that a war has broken out once more, and having the defensive force of Brindisi to be reduced, so how could they not be nervous.

Between Brindisi on the east coast of Apulia and Taranto on the west coast would have been a straight road if not for the mountainous strip running east-west. Therefore, the army of Archytas could choose two directions when returning to Taranto: One was to go northward around the mountains and then westward to Taranto; or head straight west, past Manduria and go around the mountains to get to Taranto. Archytas had chosen the former which was naturally due to the road to the north being very safe except for the only Messapian city, Alytia, which they needed to keep in their mind. While choosing the latter means that they will always have to be alert to the raids of some Messapian cities in the dense forest in the south with Rudiae as the centre.

Not long after Archytas’ troops left the city and detoured past the mountains, the scout reported that he had found a small group of Messapian cavalries snooping around.

Archytas didn’t care much, because even though Taranto had taken Brindisi, the Messapian calvaries still swarmed along the route from Taranto to Brindisi from time to time and interfering with the exchange of personnel and transportation of supplies between Taranto and Brindisi, so Taranto had sent soldiers to attack these cavalries many times, but thanks to the speed of their horses, they would always run away early and reappeared when Taranto’s soldiers return in vain. Taranto had no choice besides considering building a new village and fortress between the two cities once the situation in Brindisi stabilised, so as to occupy the area completely. And in the meantime, Taranto had specially set up troops that are a combination of heavy infantry and archers that are a good match for these fast-moving cavalry in order to ensure the connection and transportation between the two cities, and Archytas had done the same as well.

After detouring past the mountains, the terrain leading to Taranto is flat and open, so Archytas divided the marching column into five columns, with a small number of light infantry in the middle, while the heavy infantry on the outside. The length of the whole column is about 1.5 kilometres long. Taranto and Brindisi are about 50 kilometres apart, and Archytas estimated that with their current speed, they would be able to arrive by evening.

Archytas controlled the speed of the troops’ marching and moved forward without slowing down.

However, over time, more and more Messapian cavalries are appearing, roaming around the marching force and attacking their scouts, causing Archytas to take back his already small cavalry and therefore no longer able to get a view of the surroundings beyond what they could see.

As a commander, although Archytas was well aware that there was no more strong Messapian force near the north side of the mountains between Brindisi and Taranto after the last war, this feeling as if he was blind gave him uneasiness, so he immediately ordered the troops to quicken their march so that they could reach Sigeon as soon as possible.

Sigeon is a village in the north of Taranto, and before the capture of Brindisi and due to it being adjacent to the Messapian territory, it was built as a small fortress, with strong earthen walls and multiple outposts to defend against the Messapians encroachment.

The salpinx was then sounded and the commanding officers began urging the noisy soldiers.

Suddenly, a loud salpinx had also sounded in front of the troops, which made the soldiers at the vanguard to be taken aback, ‘Could it be that our army is coming?’

“This is a signal to attack!” Some of the soldiers began exclaiming.

Just as a commotion started in the troops, the order of Archytas’ came, ‘Stop! Immediately spread up to the west, light infantry at the front, the hoplites at the back!’

The officers immediately took action to command the soldiers to go in formation.

Archytas, escorted by the cavalries, rode to the front of the line.

A hundred metres away, the loose Messapian cavalry stared at them like a wolf, while he looked through the gap between the enemy cavalry, and began wondering that if this were the army of the Messapian, how many soldiers could they have spared to prevent their troops from returning to Taranto, now that the main army of the Messapians is in Manduria?

Just as he contemplated, the marching column of Taranto began to spread out slowly to the west. The officers and the soldiers shouted to each other and started looking for their position while making a huge noise.

In front of the formation, Archytas and the nearby Messapian cavalries confronted each other quietly…

‘Here they come!’ Archytas’ eyelids twitched, he blinked hard and widened his eyes, only to see a line of small black dots appearing on the horizon a few hundred meters away, which was gradually growing bigger and longer…

As they got closer, Archytas and the others could see them more clearly: They also have uniformed round shields and bronze helmets and spears, and the same dense formation, but they are still not certain that it is an army from Taranto, because the Messapian soldiers are also equipped with the same equipment, which was all thanks to the Athenians!

When they got closer, the flag could finally be seen and the adjutant of Archytas exclaimed, “Strategos, it’s the army of Alytia!”

Alytia is a city-state in the northernmost part of the Messapian territory, and it is adjacent to the territory of the Peucetians, and whenever there was a conflict between Messapi and Peucetia, Alytia bore the brunt of it, so being a border city, it had a strong military capability and was the closest to Brindisi. When Taranto attacked Brindisi, the Alytians had come to reinforce them but they were repulsed by Archytas.

Archytas had also specially set up sentries in the north of Brindisi to monitor the movement of Alytia, and now that the troops of Alytia are present and Archytas had not been warned, it was clear that something had happened to the sentry post to the north.

At the moment, Archytas was not in the mood to mourn. He stared intently at the enemy’s formation, and with his mathematician’s mind, he had quickly deduced that the enemy’s force is roughly less than 3,000.

‘Nearly 3,000 men dared to stop us from returning?!’ Archytas didn’t feel at ease and was instead felt more confused.

But there was no more time for him to think about it, as the quiet Messapian cavalry rushed forward with a cry. While Archytas led the cavalries to turn their horses quickly and return to the formation. And the light infantry, who were already in the front of the phalanx formation, came forward to shoot their arrows.

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