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Before long, figures emerged within the range where the torches, mounted on the wooden enclosure of the camp, illuminated. They wore thin clothing with minimal protection and carried javelins or bows as they slowly approached the camp… At a glance, there appeared to be hundreds of them, but more enemies steadily entered the torchlit area.

Lakares could no longer continue waiting and immediately sent someone to notify the command tent.

Alexius, who was still awake, immediately dispatched two light infantry brigades to reinforce Lakares upon receiving the report of the enemy attack.

By the time the reinforcements assembled and rushed to the south of the camp, Lakares was already commanding his men to protect themselves with their long shields while firing their javelins back at the enemies with some difficulties. Many of the soldiers had javelins struck in their long shields.

Due to the lack of time, the army couldn’t dig trenches or build earthen walls, so they only had a simple wooden enclosure as a deterrent, which couldn’t provide a strong defence. Once the Samnites approached within a twenty-meter range of the camp and both sides initiated medium and long-range attacks, the legions lost their defensive advantage. In contrast, the Samnites, with their large numbers, overwhelmed Lakares and his men with javelins. Meanwhile, the Samnite archers at the rear seized the opportunity to launch flaming arrows into the camp.

Per Theonia’s Code of Military, they must construct field camps in accordance with the requirement that the tent area should be more than twenty metres away from the perimeter of the wall, as it ensures the smooth passage for the soldiers during defence and prevents the enemy’s long-range attack from easily reaching them.

But with the camp having no walls, Alexius decided to increase the distance between the tent area and the wooden enclosure to thirty metres. Unfortunately, the Samnite archers had gotten too close to the wooden enclosure, allowing the flaming arrows to reach and ignite several tents, leading to some chaos in the camp and the soldiers needing to put out the fires immediately.

Fortunately, the arrival of two thousand Theonian light infantry led to the situation changing quickly, forcing the Samnites to retreat some distance with dozens of casualties. Still, the enemy didn’t leave and instead went around the Theonian camp, making strange noises, occasionally attacking the lookout with javelins or firing flaming arrows into the camp, causing unrest throughout the night.

Yet the Samnites suddenly disappeared the following day without a trace.

The legion soldiers, who were alert throughout the night, couldn’t rest well. But Alexius still ordered all soldiers to continue building the campsite and ensure they could dig a trench, build a sturdy earthen wall, and set up a few more sentry towers before dusk… At the same time, the senior centurions would arrange for the soldiers to take a reasonable rest so that they would have plenty of energy.

Umateseus expressed his doubts about that order, “Lord Commander, why don’t we go and take Aquilonia immediately? Delaying here for one more day would just consume a day’s rations while also giving the people of Aquilonia more time to prepare their defence, resulting in our difficulties increasing…”

“Our attack won’t get affected that much even if we give them one more day to prepare.” Alexius gazed across the vast mountains on the opposite bank of the Ofanto River, with his eyes glistening, “I am more concerned about the condition of our soldiers who had come from the Apulian region than attack hastily. Despite having trained in mountain warfare in the military camp, they have never had the experience of staying in a mountain range, so they needed more time to adapt and maintain their stamina and energy to cope with the gruelling battles we may encounter.”

“Gruelling battle…” Umateseus pondered over this ambiguous sentence.

At dusk, with the joint efforts of more than six thousand soldiers, they managed to build a three-metre-high earthen wall and trenches outside the camp. Thus, although the Samnites still attacked the camp that night, their threat was almost negligible, which allowed the soldiers to sleep relatively peacefully.

After dawn, Alexius left five hundred heavy infantry in the camp while leading the five thousand five hundred soldiers, some auxiliary personnel, and five days’ ration to cross the Ofanto River and head towards Aquilonia.

While marching through the lowlands nestled between the mountains, it became evident that this so-called “lowland” was not particularly low. As they ventured farther north, the terrain steadily rose. As the soldiers trudged between the rugged mountains, all they could see was the narrow blue sky cut off by the mountains on either side.

To prevent the Samnites’ ambush, Alexius sent out all hundred soldiers from the Mountain Reconnaissance to travel on both sides of the mountain ranges to scout the surrounding area for anomalies.

Except for the one thousand five hundred heavy infantry, who were not wearing armour and were instead burdened with clearing the way, the rest of the soldiers were all fully armed. Even then, most of them were huffing and puffing before they were even halfway through the journey.

Fortunately, this mountain path wasn’t neglected. On the contrary, the people of Aquilonia often use it to go fishing, bathing, fetching water, and herding their livestock into the river bend… Thus, they almost didn’t encounter headache-inducing thorny bushes or rocks blocking the mountain path.

Although it was already the sixth month and the temperature started to rise, they didn’t feel hot marching here in the mountains. On the contrary, the further they go, the colder it becomes. But for the soldiers of Peuceti and Dauni who had grown up in the plains of Apulia, this section of the march through the mountains made them feel like they were suffering, with the high, low, and winding mountain paths forced them to walk carefully and were very physically demanding. In addition, the mosquito bites and the constant scraping of trees and weeds on their skins soon made them feel itchy…as a result, the soldiers began complaining.

Lakares, on the other hand, kept moving forward with great concentration as he held the anger in his heart. During the Samnites’ night assault, five of his men had died, twelve wounded, and several tents burned… Because of that, he blamed himself for calling for reinforcements late, leading to a terrible result. In the previous two battles in Ausculum and Aphrodisia, where the Theonian army easily won huge victories, he had gotten the illusion that the Samnites were easy to deal with.

However, during the Samnites’ attack, their heavy javelins struck with both force and accuracy. Sometimes, when these javelins hit the long shields head-on, they could even penetrate them, resulting in significant casualties among the soldiers. Even though Alexius hadn’t criticised him for it, Lakares was determined to capture Aquilonia and avenge his brothers!

So, along the way, he constantly cheered up the soldiers, motivating them to press onward. Whenever he noticed some soldiers lagging behind due to exhaustion, he would proactively assist them in carrying their armour.

Despite the proximity of Theonia’s newly constructed camp, only five kilometres from Aquilonia, it took the Theonian army nearly four hours to traverse the narrow lowlands and reach a small, semi-circular valley.: One of the mountains on the eastern side of the range was shorter and had a gentle slope towards the west, and unlike the heavily wooded and lush mountains, its slope had only a few trees, yet there were a few houses scattered about and dozen of sheep grazing lazily on the mountain.

Some sharp-eyed soldiers could even vaguely see a wooden wall atop the mountain, which was the city of Aquilonia. Although the mountain was shorter and not steep enough compared to the other mountains, it was still several hundred metres high! The soldiers became scared just by looking at its height, not to mention the fact that they had to attack Aquilonia.

Alexius first looked at the mountain where Aquilonia was located for a while and then carefully observed the valley.

Then, an engineer approached and informed him that despite gravel mixed with the valley’s soil, the ground was still somewhat soft.

“Then let’s build a camp,” Alexius spoke lightly.

Once the command was conveyed to the entire army, they could hear the sound of lamentation of the soldiers rising one after another.

Fortunately, the soldiers were allowed to eat their dry ration and take a break to replenish their consumed strength during the march before building the camp. Then, under the officers’ orders, they reluctantly picked up their tools and began digging the ground.

Suddenly, the leader of the Mountain Reconnaissance Squad ran panting to Alexius and said, “Commander, our scouts saw thousands of Samnites rushing towards here from the west on the mountain!”

Rather than getting shocked from hearing the report, Alexius appeared somewhat relieved. He then calmly asked, “How many are there? How far are they from here?”

“Due to the cover of the mountains, we could not see the enemy’s entire number clearly. However, we estimated that…they have no less than five thousand men. And while coming over here, the enemy was at least two kilometres away from here,” the reconnaissance captain replied.

Alexius turned his gaze to the western part of the valley. There, the mountains were not only relatively low and easy to climb but also had a mountain path leading westward through the mountain range.

“Lord Commander!” Adjutant Umateseus reminded, “We will be attacked on two sides once the enemy reinforcements arrive! So we should immediately withdraw to the camp to avoid fighting an equal number of Samnites in the mountains!”

“It seems they really have hidden an army in the mountains to lure us in!” Alexius smiled coldly. He then asked his adjutant, “Umateseus, do you know what I’ve been discussing with Xanticles, Polet, Garni and the others for these days?”

A flash appeared in Umateseus’ mind, and he exclaimed, “Could it be-”

“Immediately notify the soldiers to stop building the camp, put on their armour, pick up their weapons and prepare for battle!”

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

The Samnites had decided jointly to abandon attacking the Dauni region and instead attack the Campanian League not only to avoid the strong and attack the weak but also to continue causing trouble for Theonia. At the same time, the several tribal chieftains deeply realised that they could no longer fight against the Theonian army on the plains, even if it were just to create disturbance. Instead, they should use the Samnites’ advantage to fight the enemy in the mountains.

Unfortunately, the Theonian army was so cautious that they never marched into the mountains. Therefore, after a discussion, they decided to attack Campania on a massive scale. At the same time, they also wanted to achieve another purpose: To give the Theonian army in Dauni the illusion that their main force was in Campania and that they had left the mountains’ defence empty so that they could lure the Theonian army into the mountains.

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