Ulla imitated Polet's tone when he persuaded them before and helplessly said, “Elea, the fragile hare that we used to bully, now relied on the Theonians to ally with us…”
Pamot saw his uneasiness, so he wanted to persuade him. Suddenly, he saw his subordinate rush in to whisper something.
Noticing Pamot’s expression changing, Ulla hurriedly asked, “What happened?”
Pamot turned to him and said seriously, “Theonia defeated Syracuse's army.”
“The Theonians really won?!” Ulla's eyes widened in surprise and murmured, “Lord Davos is amazing! Does this mean that Theonia now owns Magna Graecia?!…”
“It's not only Magna Graecia…” Pamot vaguely said. When he heard the report, he could only sigh as his only hope turned into nothing. He said, “While going back to your territory, bring 20 sheep and give them to Lord Alexius as a congratulatory gift…”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Because of his impression of the Samnites from his previous life's history, Davos asked Alexius to lead the army to attack Compsa cautiously.
After Davos lured and defeated the Pentri and Caudini's tribe in Poseidonia, the Samnites' camp in Potentia encountered a camp disturbance that caused heavy casualties on the Hirpini tribe. The Samnite warriors were like lost dogs that were in constant panic in the cold, windy and rainy winter, suffering from hunger, losing their direction while fleeing the mountains, encountering wild animals, catching a cold and encountering the Lucanian search teams.
The tribal chieftains such as Lesguk gathered some Samnite warriors and fled to Compsa. However, none thought that a small city with demoralised and exhausted warriors could block the joint army of the third legion and Potentia, who had high morale, so the Samnites hurriedly fled north.
The Caudini chieftains anxiously led the defeated soldiers back because they were worried that there would be changes in the Campanians near their territory after the Samnites' tragic defeat that would shock central Italia.
Lesguk was also anxious to return to Maloenton. Although the four Samnite tribes used to get along harmoniously, now that the Hirpini tribe suffered such a disastrous defeat and with Pentri and Caudini's proximity, Maloenton would be in some danger once the other tribes have bad intentions. Thus he must return to his territory as soon as possible.
Another important town of the Hirpini tribe, Abellinum, had its great chieftain, Berani, killed and his son, Garni, captured. So the other chieftains who escaped from death were eager to go back and elect a new great chieftain.
However, Abellinum's chaos can't compare to Pentri’s, whose whole tribe’s leaders, from the great chieftain Tolek to the various chieftains, had mostly died or were captured. It would take a long time for the entire tribe and territory to stabilise again.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
After the joint army of Theonia and Potentia easily captured Compsa, they began discussing whether to continue head north.
Polet strongly demanded to continue the attack, arguing that the Samnites suffered greatly and were demoralised. Furthermore, their abandonment of Compsa was evidence that they should take this opportunity to eradicate the Samnite's threat in the north.
On the other hand, Phryntor objected because the mountainous area's terrain to the north of Compsa was getting higher and higher and more complex. In a completely unfamiliar area, the Lucanian soldiers and Potentian warriors would get easily ambushed if they rushed deeply, and it would be difficult to transport the supplies. Most importantly, Theonia's military focus was Syracuse, so it was not advisable to expand the war as Theonia could not afford to maintain two battlefronts.
Although Alexius supported Phryntor's opinion, he also had his idea: That is to try attacking Irna.
Irna is the only seaport city of the Samnites in the west, but the Samnites didn't build it. It was a city-state established by the Campanian Greeks that encountered the same fate as Poseidonia and was occupied by the Samnites a hundred years ago.
More than 20 metres north of Poseidonia is Irna. The terrain between the two cities is flat without any mountains and only lush forest, while soft sandy beaches fill the coast without cliffs and reefs. If the Greeks were to own this land, they would've cut down the trees to make ships, levelled the ground for farming and filled the shoal to build towns and ports, but the Samnites didn't build a town on this land that their tribe had acquired. The scouts had reported that the nearest large Samnite settlement was more than 10 metres away from the coast, near the mountain's edge.
With Irna having no fleet, the Theonia-Potentia joint army could transport the supplies they needed by sea, which was the greatest advantage for the army's preparation to go north. So how could Alexius give up this wonderful opportunity? Thus he quickly decided to attack Irna with the agreement of Polet.
Initially, Alexius wanted to keep Potentia's troops in Compsa, but Polet insisted on participating in attacking the Samnites.
Hence Alexius could only leave Kesima with a brigade and some Potentian warriors to defend Compsa. At the same time, he would lead the Theonia-Potentia joint army of about 5,000 men and march northward along the coast while the fleet loaded with supplies set out from Poseidonia.
The area they were passing through was Hirpini's territory. However, the Samnites of the Hirpini tribe no longer had a leader, and their great chieftain Berani had almost taken out all the young and middle-aged men of each tribe when they invaded Potentia. But now, the Samnites who are lucky to escape death and capture were either fleeing or had returned to their home devastated. Thus no one dared to stop when they heard the Theonian army's attack! Instead, they took their families and fled to the mountains, allowing the joint troops to arrive at the city of Irna without encountering any attack.
Irna was originally a medium-sized city-state, but
Because most Samnite tribes did not want to live by the sea, the medium-sized city-state, Irna, became a small city after the Samnites occupied it. Afterwards, the warriors were conscripted to fight in the south, but only about one-third of the tribal warriors escaped. So when they heard that the Theonian army was coming, the whole city trembled in fear.
In the early days of the Samnites' occupation of Irna, they suffered numerous attacks by the Campanian League, who wanted to recapture the city. But when the Hirpini's chieftain asked for help to defend the city, he gathered a large Samnite army to repel the Campanians, which resulted in the Campanians' failures. As time passed, the Samnites grew stronger and threatened the core area of the Campanian League. Yet the Campanian League, headed by Neapolis, were too busy taking care of themselves that they had no intention to retake the long lost Irna. Thus Irna's territory had not been in war for decades and would only go north to harass the Campanians.
But now that the Theonian army was about to attack, the people in Irna became distressed: They found that the city wall of Irna had been in disrepair for many years, and the city's defence was almost in ruins. At the same time, the Samnite army has suffered a disastrous defeat, so even if they send someone to the chaotic mountain, who else could they look for?!
Even though the people of Irna panicked, they were unwilling to abandon their hometown, where they had lived for a hundred years! So just as they hesitated, Alexius arrived with the army.
But instead of immediately attacking the city, Alexius calmly asked the soldiers to build the camp and unload the supplies delivered by the fleet anchored on a nearby beach.
Two days later, he planted all the Samnite tribe's flags that they captured under the city wall of Irna. Afterwards, he gathered ten ballistae and fired stone projectiles, knocking down a wooden sentry tower behind the city wall, resulting in bursts of shrieks in the city. He then sent people to order the people in Irna to surrender.
As the terrified Samnites urgently discussed, an elder said thought-provokingly, “Everyone, the situation has changed dramatically. Abellinum and Maloenton had suffered hard and wouldn't be able to protect Irna. Besides, with Irna’s distance from the mountains, it is vulnerable to enemy attacks. So even if the Theonians did not attack, the Campanians in the north and the Potentians in the south would take advantage of our losses and take their revenge, resulting in Irna never having peace! We might as well take advantage of this war that resulted in a massive reduction of tribes in the mountains and move out as there are some good settlements for us to choose from…”
After a fierce debate, mostly everyone accepted his proposal. Thus the people of Irna quickly sent messengers out of the city to meet Alexius to say, ‘We, the people of Irna, are willing to give up the city as long as you can let everyone in the city leave safely.’
Polet objected, but Alexius accepted their proposal without hesitation. Allowing a few thousand Samnites to leave with their belongings in exchange for obtaining this strategically important place without bloodshed was not a big deal at all.
As the people of Irna nervously passed through the heavily guarded army camp, the third legion strictly abided by their agreement and did not violate it anyway, which further confirmed Theonia's reputation for “keeping their promises”.
After the third legion successfully entered Irna, Alexius stopped the military operations and had the scouts monitor the Samnties' movements in the mountain while ordering the soldiers to fortify the city.
As there was a convenient sea route, Alexius received the war report of Davos' army defeating the Syracusan army in battle even earlier than Pamot.
