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“I am afraid that instead of saving Manduria first, Taranto would make us rescue Brindisi first! Because at least for now, Manduria is safe, while Brindisi, with only two thousand soldiers and is far away from Taranto, was in much more danger!” Kapus said anxiously.

“If that is the case, we must not agree!” Drakos looked at Davos and said firmly.

“Milord, if we don’t repel the enemies that are in Manduria and we instead venture north, the Messapians could cut off our transport routes once Manduria is captured and we would be in danger of being pincered on both sides. So it would be best if we could gain command of the allied force, but if we can’t take command, then at least the autonomy of our Theonian army must be guaranteed!” Philesius also suggested solemnly.

Davos nodded in agreement.

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

After Kapus and Drakos had gone, Davos was left alone with Philesius.

“How is the preparation for the army that would go in the expedition progressing??”

“All the soldiers of the first and second legions have returned to the city for standby, but there are still many soldiers who have not yet changed their weapons and equipment.” Said Philesius, seeing that Davos’ face was slightly uneasy, so he hastily explained, “It is not that they didn’t actively replace them, but that there are only three weapon shops in Thurii and Amendolara. So they are unable to complete the production of tens of thousands of new armour and shields in just a few months, as just tanning the cowhide is already a time-consuming process, and with its quantity being so many that if it were not for the fact that we have the Lucanians of Nerulum and Grumentum grazing large numbers of livestock, it would have taken us years just to get enough hides…”

“In that case, we’d better use old equipment in this battle, while making the soldiers go to the weapons shop and temporarily exchange their original bronze helmets and shields.” Davos said with slight regret when he suddenly remembered something, “I heard that a Corinthian businessman built a large weapon workshop in the economic development zone of Amendolara, we could consider giving him some orders, but I do not know if he is willing to accept a trade-in.”

“The merchant’s name is Tios. I have spoken to him and he is more than happy to accept it.”

“Oh, he is a smart man, but too bad, he is a foreigner.” Davos thought of the simple water-powered forging hammer that had been successfully developed by the Institute of Mathematics and was considering finding a suitable big merchant to cooperate with. As a machine that could greatly save manpower and improve the efficiency of forging copper and iron, so naturally, Davos had to put it in his own hands for confidentiality.

“In addition, I have contacted the civil shipping association of the port(this is an unofficial shipping organization proposed by Davos and planned by Marigi, which has just been established, and all the Theonian merchant ships and passenger ships have joined its purpose in order to maintain the order of the port, prevent vicious competition, improve the efficiency of the industry, and facilitate cost management). Polidorus also said that Taranto’s ships will also come to the port to help with the transportation so that we can transport all the soldiers of the two legions to Taranto’s port at one time. Maybe the day after tomorrow, our army will be ready to sail to Taranto.” Philesius continued with slight excitement.

“Philesius, how many days does it usually take for a Greek city-state to go to war from mobilizing its citizens?”

Davos’ question has made Philesius to be taken aback, and he thought that Davos wanted to make a comparison, so he said, “From the mobilization of war to the selection of citizens, to the arranging of their household’s affairs, to the preparations of the weapons and equipment and food, to the forming the army and determining the officers…would take at least about three to four days, while we only need two days at most.”

“What if tens of thousands of people were to be mobilized?”

“Then it might take longer, maybe six or seven days, but for us, Theonia-” Before Philesius finished speaking, Davos waved his hand and said, “Then there is no need for us to be in too much of a hurry, as we can just set out after five days.”

Philesius thought that he had heard wrong, so Davos looked at Philesius and said in a deep voice, “In the past, although Taranto often fought with the Messapians, they had never attacked the Messapians with such complete disregard for the lives of their citizens as they did this time, do you know why?”

Philesius was not a fool, after more than a year of being the Chief of Military, both of his administrative ability and vision improved a lot, and he replied immediately, “It’s because of us.”

“Yes, it is due to us!” Davos added firmly, “The rapid increase of our union’s strength has put pressure on Taranto, and South Italia is not big enough that it can only accommodate for one hegemon, and that hegemon can only be Theonia! Now that Hades has helped us by putting Taranto in a difficult position, we must, therefore, seize this opportunity.”

Then came a sneer from Davos, “We can abide by the alliance agreement and help Taranto repel the Messapi-Peuceti alliance, but it should not be to help Taranto destroy their enemies and stabilize their newly occupied territories!”

Davos behaved calmly that one might even say he was cold because even his friendship with Archytas has not affected his decision on political matters.

As the second-in-command of the army, Philesius had helped Davos for more than two years, and he knew more about this leader of theirs than the other strategos, such as deliberately delaying the attack and causing heavy losses to the citizens of Amendolara, deceiving Cornelius into becoming an archon for life, and so on. The young archon was not as honest and upright as he appeared to be, but perhaps that is why he was able to lead the mercenaries to the heights that they have now reached, something that rough men like him, Kapus, Amintas and so on., who only knew how to fight, could never have achieved.

Philesius exhaled lightly, breathing out of his mind the enthusiasm that Davos had shown when facing Polidorus and the cold expression that he now wore…

“I understand, milord.”

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

In the next few days, Davos entrusted Avinoges, the archon of Laos, who was still watching the game and enjoying the food at Thurii, to find out all he could about the Bruttians to confirm whether the words of Siprus of Terina were true.

While spending the rest of his time in his mansion reading carefully the information collected by Aristias about Taranto and Messapi. And if he has time, he would use it to accompany his wife, Cheiristoya, and his son Crotokatax, who is now more than one year old.

Polidorus, however, was anxious day by day that he kept visiting Davos and Philesius several times, but they had rejected him with legitimate reasons. Besides, it is a fact that there are more and more soldiers gathering in Thurii every day, and mobilizing tens of thousands of soldiers to fight would take a longer time. However, the situation in Taranto is getting worse every day that they urgently needed the Theonian army to rescue them.

On the day after the defeat of Archytas, a fast messenger from Brindisi returned to Taranto to inform the council that when Archytas died in the battle, the Messapi-Peuceti alliance threw his head into the city and built a “mountain of corpses”, using the thousands of corpses of Taranto’s soldiers, outside the city, and threatens the garrison of Brindisi to open the city and surrender, which caused the people in the city to panicked. And after the Messapi-Peuceti alliance had waited for a long time and had still not received a reply, they then began their attack on the city.

Brindisi urgently asked Taranto for help and claimed that the enemy forces were too strong and the defenders were few. Moreover, they did not get enough time to completely repair the broken city wall, and if they did not get reinforcements, Brindisi would fall in two~three days.

When the Council of Taranto was discussing urgently “how to rescue Brindisi”, another news came regarding the Messapian army that was besieging Manduria to disappear!

The statesmen of the council, led by Umakas and Diaomilas, were not relieved to hear this news. Although it was impossible to know the direction of the main force of the Messapians because of the blockade by the Messapian cavalry, everyone could still roughly guess even without thinking that the Messapians were most likely heading east to join the Peucetian army, and means that Brindisi is in danger!

Although it has already been reported that Theonia would send more than ten thousand reinforcements, however, they would certainly not arrive within a short time. But if Taranto wants to send their troops to reinforce from the land, in the face of the blockade of tens of thousands of Messapi-Peuceti alliance, the Council thinks that this is simply them seeking death, so they finally decided that they would reinforce Brindisi from the sea so that they would be able to hold out until the allied force of Taranto and Theonia comes to their rescue.

Taranto then sent 80 ships, including 40 triremes, which are almost all of Taranto’s naval force, escorting a convoy filled with 4,000 soldiers to Brindisi.

After bypassing the “Heel” of the Italian Peninsula, the fleet was intercepted by the Messapi-Peuceti united fleet near Hodrum, a city-state of the Messapians.

Although the Peucetians’ navy is not strong, and they only have one port city, Barium, it is already good enough for them to scrape together half a dozen ships. However, the Messapians are different, as most of their city-states such as Alytia, Brindisi, Mesania, Uzentum, Hodrum are port cities. On the contrary, their largest city-state Rudiae is an inland city, located in the centre of the Messapian region and it is the capital of the former Messapian kingdom. Due to this, the Messapians were not weak in seafaring and had a more developed marine trade, and later, thanks to the Athenians, they were not only able to build their own triremes, but were also skilled in using the advanced naval warfare techniques of the Greeks, which had caused Taranto a lot of trouble at sea previously, and this time, the largest naval battle between Taranto and Messapi is about to break out. The Messapians have gathered all their city-state’s ships, 58 in all, including 25 triremes, plus the six ships of Peuceti, making a total of 64 ships.

One side is in a hurry to reinforce, while the other has to fight tooth and nail to intercept, and so both sides started engaging in a fierce battle at sea…

Although the Messapians had fewer ships, they attacked bravely, and even though Taranto had many ships, they had to consider the transport convoy behind them, so they were instead timid in their attack.

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