“Let's go, Lord Hielos, else we will get delayed again!” Henipolis proudly urged him as he hurriedly walked with the guards.
Hielos could only accept Henipolis coming with the army, so he saluted Bagul once more, “I will leave Laos to you.”
Bagul, somewhat feeling guilty, returned the salute and said, “Leave it to me. May Hades bless you on breaching the city in the south!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
As soon as Davos crossed the Neto River, Tolmides hurriedly came to report, “Your majesty, there is a team of Syracusan scouting cavalries ahead; our cavalries are now chasing them.”
“Ledes' cavalry legion should have long scouted ahead, right? So how come we didn't find them and allowed them to get close to us?” Davos' calm tone carried dignity.
Tolmides hurriedly explained, “It was reported that these enemy cavalries had hidden behind the broken wall of the ruined city of Crotone. Now, Ledes has reorganised his troops and is ready to examine the ruins thoroughly.”
“Dionysius is extremely attentive in checking our army's movement!” Davos mockingly said while sitting on his horse. While watching the Theonian soldiers in small phalanxes, his expression began to turn grave, “I fear that my worst assumptions are coming true…Tolmides!”
“Yes!”
“Inform the soldiers of all the legions to wear their weapons and equipment and march south at normal speed! In addition, tell Ledes not to disperse his cavalry to examine the city of Crotone. Instead, I want his cavalry to keep up with the Syracusan army and report back the enemy's movement often while trying their best to cover our army's movements! Also, have the mountain reconnaissance brigade do the investigation of Crotone.”
“Yes, your majesty!” Tolmides further inquired, “Do we need to inform the Crotonians in the Acropolis that we have crossed the river?”
Davos pondered for a moment, nodded and said, “Send someone to tell Lysias…erm, say that we are leading an army to come to their aid, but there is a possibility of a fierce battle with the Syracusan army, so ask them to try sending an army to join us!”
“Understood, your majesty!” Tolmides immediately turned around and gave orders to the heralds.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
“Milord, my men have returned.” Acilita rushed to Dionysius, “We sent out ten men, but only two returned, and they are all wounded. Yet even with their equestrian skill…but to pass through so many enemy cavalries-”
“I know… The rewards you will receive afterwards won't be less!” Dionysius impatiently interrupted his complaint and asked, “Tell me the situation quickly!”
“The Theonian army has crossed the river in many…many numbers…” The Numidians were far less civilised than Carthage and Greece, so most of them could no longer count after the numbers reached more than ten thousand.
Listening to Acilita's exaggerated words, Dionysius' initial worries dissipated, and a smile appeared on his face. He had only one goal in mind – To defeat the Theonian army. Only by achieving this goal could he completely eliminate the Syracusan army's plight, which Dionysius knew very well since the beginning.
His gaze swept to the nearby Phidias, who nodded at him.
Dionysius then decisively ordered, “Command the whole army to stop retreating, immediately turn around and cross the Targines river and quickly march north!”
At this moment, his troops had just passed the south bank of the Targines river and were just 5 kilometres away from the Neto River, around two hours of normal march. Therefore, he must act quickly to prevent the enemy from fleeing back to the north bank of the Neto River once they find out that they were deceived. Fortunately, he has enough time because it would take more than a few hours for tens of thousands of people to cross the Neto.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Near noon, the fleet entered the port of Clampetia.
However, even after the two praetors expanded the port after their integration with Theonia, it is still not big enough as its inherent conditions are not good. Thus, its capacity to accommodate ships has not significantly improved, so the transport ships can only slowly queue one by one to enter the port…
“Lord Hielos, welcome! It's been more than two years since I last saw you, so when I heard you were coming this time, I especially went to the port early to wait for you!”
Asistes gave Hielos, who had just disembarked, a warm hug, and then he said, “His majesty is really cruel. He just either let me stay in Lucania or sent me to this remote Bruttian area and didn't even give me any leisure time to get together with you old brothers. When you were appointed as Consentia's praetor, I wanted to go to Consentia to congratulate you, but I didn't expect a war to break out so soon…”
Asistes kept talking excitedly, so Hielos could only reply, “His majesty did that for your own good.”
“Of course, his majesty treats me like a brother, so he won't blame me even if I complain a few times.” Asistes cheekily joked around.
“Lord Asistes, hello!” Henipolis came forward to greet him.
When Henipolis went to study in Thurii, Asistes had already gone to Nerulum. Although Asistes had seen Henipolis only several times when he returned to Thurii to report to Davos, he had a deep memory of the only teenager who lived in Davos' residence.
“Lord Henipolis, it's nice to meet you!” Asistes immediately returned his greeting with enthusiasm. Then he remembered something and looked puzzled, “The fact that you are here means that you have retaken Laos, but shouldn't you be in Laos straightening out the city matters after Laos had just gone through a war?!”
Asistes' words had a bit of lecture on it, but Henipolis didn't care as he frankly said, “Lord Bagul is now in-charge of Laos and is doing a good job. So I came with Hielos here to fulfil my promise to his majesty and serve as his clerk. I heard that Lord Asistes was his majesty's first clerk? I have come to ask you for advice and impart more experience on how to serve as his majesty's clerk.”
Asistes' smiled while his eyes darted towards Hielos, but after seeing Hielos nod at him, he could only say, “No problem, we can discuss it together. On the contrary, I think you will do a better job than me because I don't have a good writing ability like you, so I was criticised a lot by his majesty…”
While Asistes modestly encouraged Henipolis, a man behind Asistes came forward, “Lord Hielos, we've been waiting for you!”
“You are?” Hielos looked at the stranger.
“Let me introduce him.” Asistes hurriedly said, “This is Terina's strategos – Phromelas. After the defeat of the South Italian Alliance, he led the Terinians to retreat to Clampetia, allowing them to escape Scylletium's tragic fate.”
Phromelas then seriously said, “Lord Hielos, the citizens of Terina will join you in your fight in taking back our home!”
“Your wish will come true soon!” Hielos promised him with confidence.
“And this one is-” Asistes pointed to another man beside him and introduced him to Hielos, “Fulalios, the captain of one of Theonian fleet's trireme, has come to Clampetia under the order of the navarch – Seclian, and had been waiting for your arrival for a day now.”
Fulalios stepped forward and saluted, “Lord Hielos, our fleet is now anchored in Taurania's port. Navarch Seclian ordered me to discuss with you your attack on Terina. Afterwards, I will immediately return and report to navarch Seclian, where he will lead the fleet, comprised of 4,000 soldiers from Rhegium, to land on the coast of Hipponion, cutting off Locri's reinforcements…”
After hearing this, Hielos couldn't help but sigh, “Now, our navy is stronger that it became much more helpful for our army's attack!”
He turned his head and looked at the port. Although there were only a few hundred soldiers ashore, the transport ships carrying the troops lined up one after another until they reached outside the port.
Hielos then looked at Phromelas, who was looking at him with expectation.
“Strategos Phromelas, how many soldiers do you have?” Hielos asked suddenly.
“500 men.” When Phromelas saw Hielos frowning, he added, “Counting the older citizens, I can lead 900 men to join you.”
“How many soldiers can Clampetia draw?” Hielos asked Asistes this time.
“Clampetia has 1,500 reserve soldiers, and I can send 1,000 to support you.” Asistes said without hesitation.
“How many enemies are there in Terina?” Hielos once again asked.
“Ah…according to our scouts, they might be 4,000 of them. However, more than half are soldiers of Hipponion and Medma.” Phromelas replied.
Hielos lowered his head as he pondered. After a while, he made up his mind and said, “I will return to the ship now and lead the fleet to land on the coast of the Ophemia plain and march into Terina.”
“What?!” Asistes was surprised, so he hurriedly advised, “The soldiers had been on the rough sea for several hours, so they must be allowed to go ashore and rest. It still won't be late to set out tomorrow. What's more-” Back then, Asistes fought alongside Hielos in Persia, so he knew that once Hielos made up his mind, it would be hard to change it. Thus he pointed at Fulalios and said, “You still haven't discussed this with our fleet yet. Furthermore, Seclian hopes that the Rhegian army would attack Hipponion first to lure the enemy in Terina back, allowing you to capture Terina easily once you attack it.”
