Chapter 101 Bad News

"That's okay."

"I've been in Sarapia for so long, and I haven't seen Nasuya yet. You can just go and see her soon." Maximus reminded again.

The chief executive's residence in Sarapia was quite large, and Maximus arranged for the oldest children in the team to live in it to facilitate work, including Nasuya.

"She is busy studying and doing things now, and she may have forgotten me as her mother." Akonis's teasing words were full of pride.

Karina listened to the cordial chat between the two, and felt a hint of envy in her heart...

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Metapontum is a seaside town on the Gulf of Taranto. Legend has it that it was founded by Nestor from Troy and the Pyrrhians led by him. It was very wealthy because of its agricultural and maritime trade, which attracted Coveted by the mountain folk of the north, they attacked and destroyed the city-state and its neighbor Siris.

Later, the Achaeans rebuilt it and restored prosperity. They also attracted the mathematician Pythagoras to live here and designed coin molds for Metapontum.

For decades, the people of Metapontum lived in peace and contentment and did not even bother to participate in the Marsi War.

However, since February this year, Enomui, one of the leaders of the rebel army, led his troops into the Metapontum area, and the war has been raging. All the countryside has been looted, and the city of Metapontum has been surrounded. . The rebels launched several sieges of the city, and if Metapontum had not been well-equipped with defenses, the administrator Silanus handled it well, and nearby towns provided support by sea, it would have fallen.

On this day in early March, after a few days of rest, the Enomui army once again launched an attack on the city of Metapontum.

The sound of killing outside the city was loud, and a fierce battle was going on between the two sides. Enomui from behind was roaring angrily, and he was extremely anxious.

At the beginning of the year, he and Cross led the army to leave Campania at the earliest, heading south along the Ania Avenue. This march route was chosen by Cross because he believed that the most towns built by the Greeks were in this direction. The Greeks were good at business and would naturally accumulate a lot of wealth, and their army would of course be able to obtain more supplies.

In fact, this was indeed the case. The army swept all the way. Although there was no time to conquer larger towns such as Poseidonia, Brentum, and Brenda, it quickly solved the dilemma of lack of supplies. The army encountered some minor troubles while crossing the Lucanian Mountains, but they finally arrived at their destination, the Turi Plains, relatively smoothly.

The largest town here is Thurii.

The predecessor of Thurii was Subaris. The people of Sybaris were extravagant and licentious, and were eventually destroyed by Crotone. Later, with the initiative and support of Pericles, the great governor of Athens, Thurii was established on the ruins of Sybaris.

The Turii people learned the lesson from the destruction of Sybaris. The city wall was strong and thick, and the defense facilities were well-equipped. With the strength of the two armies of Cross and Enomui, it was impossible to conquer it. However, they settled down in the Tuli Plain and raided the surrounding areas.

Tuliyi did not have enough troops and did not dare to go out of the city to fight with him. He could only watch the rebels from the city head continue to plunder the wealth of farms and villages.

At the same time, the reputation of Free Italy quickly spread throughout the Brutium region (the forefoot region of the Italian boot including the Turi Plain), and landless farmers and poor people in the area flocked to the Turi Plain. Actively demand to become a member of the rebel army.

The great increase in material wealth and the rapid expansion of the team's strength have caused a gap between Cross and Enomui. This rebel army is mainly led by Cross. The two teams are stationed together and often act together. However, due to Cross's more selfish temperament, after obtaining the spoils, he often distributes more to his own team. The more times, the more naturally. This aroused Enomui's dissatisfaction, and the two had a quarrel. Finally, Enomui was so angry that he led his team to leave the Tuli Plain and go north along the coast to find a new campsite alone.

In the end, he chose Metapontum because he felt that this town was relatively wealthy and could support his army, and not far to the east was the territory of Tarentum, where Spartacus led a large army. Stationed there, compared to the selfish and stingy Cross, Spartacus is undoubtedly more trustworthy and can work with him to ensure the safety of his team.

But at the same time, the lessons he learned on the Tuli Plain also made him unwilling to merge into the large army led by Spartacus. This was out of the pride of a rebel leader, and at the same time, he also wanted to prove to Cross that he could lead the army independently. You can also live well.

However, the wealth of Metapontum obviously could not be compared with that of the Turi Plain. After plundering the surrounding areas, he still felt dissatisfied, so he wanted to capture the town. After all, Maximus occupied Pompeii, His team is doing better than anyone else, and he wants to follow suit.

But it turned out that this seaside town, which was much smaller than Thurii, was not so easy to capture. The repeated failures in siege made him extremely anxious. Ignoring the casualties of soldiers and the dissuasion of his subordinates, he vowed to The town was captured not only because of his paranoia, but also because he needed this victory to restore his prestige among the team.

After learning the lessons of the previous failed sieges, and after several days of careful preparation, he launched the attack again, fully expecting that this time he would be successful. However, after a hard morning's fighting, it was not easy for the soldiers to attack. They went up to the top of the city, but were quickly driven back down again, and their efforts fell short.

This made him very angry. In a rage, he simply pressed forward with his entire army. He held the formation at the rear and killed any soldiers who fled. He vowed to break the city today.

However, just as the Enomui army was attacking the city of Metapontum with all its strength, a fleet docked on the beach near the city. A fleet of nearly 150 ships formed by Heraclea and Metapontum. The famous joint cavalry came ashore (Heraclea is located not far west of Metapontum, and the city has a small Roman military port in the Gulf of Taranto. This is one of the reasons why Enomui did not attack it) .

After the cavalry took a short rest, they made a large circle to the north, and then went straight to where Enomui was. At this time, there was only a 20-man escort beside Enomui...

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Under the warm sunshine, the blue water laps the steep coast, and the black and green reefs flicker in and out of the white waves. The shore is covered with green grass and short trees, and it is wide in this vibrant green. The gray-white avenue runs close to the shore, which is undoubtedly very eye-catching.

Due to the presence of the rebels, it was almost impossible to see the bustling flow of people on the avenue, but today there was a team of nearly a thousand people marching on the avenue.

Walking in front of the team was Maximus. Today he was wearing a white tunic, a segmented iron armor that had been polished brightly, a feathered helmet on his head, and riding a black horse, looking majestic. stern.

The fifty cavalry surrounding him were the cavalry he had spent months painstakingly raising, and the 500 fully armed infantry following behind him were part of his bodyguard and were led by Aulus himself.

After the infantry, there was also a baggage team of hundreds of people, of which a dozen horse-drawn carriages mainly carried the food, fodder, and marching tents needed by the team.

The fifty cavalrymen who were at the front of the team and responsible for leading the exploration were from the Spartacus army, and the person leading them was Oakmar.

Two days ago, Okmar came to Sarapia as a messenger and conveyed to Maximus the news of "Enomuyi's death in battle" and the order of the rebel army to pay tribute to him and convene an emergency meeting of officers.

This team of less than a thousand people marched at normal speed until the afternoon, when a seaside town appeared in front of them.

"Is this the city of Barry?" Oakmar made a gesture of looking out, and then asked. When he came, he went directly north. Canosa, which he arrived first, notified Attumus, and then went down the river to Sarapia, so he did not pass through Bari.

"That's right." Maximus stared forward, his expression indifferent, but his tone became more serious: "At the end of last month, Bari surrendered to our Free Italy and promised to contribute a certain amount of supplies every month. Last month they fulfilled it It’s a commitment, which I think is great.”

Oakmar did not expect that Maximus would take the initiative to mention this matter. He was stunned for a moment before he laughed twice: "Chief Maximus, your method is different from what everyone else does."

Maximus smiled and said in a deep voice: "I think this method is better. It can not only prevent our brothers from suffering casualties, but also regularly obtain urgently needed supplies and enhance our strength... Of course we can get it through plundering More, but it’s a one-time thing, as you and I should have realized when we were in Campania. Don’t forget, our biggest enemy is the Romans. They may attack at any time, and we must deal with them with all our strength!”

"Maximus, what you said makes sense, but -" Oakmar changed the topic, his expression became more serious: "Many new brothers think that the towns in Apulia and Calabria are The powerful are also the enemies of our free Italy and must be eradicated as soon as possible to prevent them from joining forces with the Romans to deal with us. However, you, Maximus, are shielding these Roman accomplices. I have a lot of objections to you! "

"Many new brothers? You're probably talking about that idiot named Cleonis." Maximus sneered and said angrily: "Everything has to come first. Barry has surrendered to me a long time ago. , provide me with urgently needed supplies, I promise their safety, and of course I must keep my word.

A few days ago, this guy ignored many warnings from my men and actually led a team to break into Barry's territory and injured the soldiers who tried to stop him. Of course I had to send troops to teach him a lesson, otherwise I would still have the nerve to take this seriously. The leader of free Italy! "

"But Cleonis complained to Spartacus that you arbitrarily robbed him of the supplies he had robbed, let go of the Roman citizens (referring to the people of Bari) who were captured by him, and injured him for this. Few men... However, Spartacus didn't listen to him at all, and he didn't send anyone to ask you about the situation. Instead, he warned him not to lead his troops into Barry's territory again. "

"With Spartacus's shrewdness, of course I believe he will uphold justice. But I heard from my subordinates, what kind of leader does this guy claim to be? How come he can be the leader now?"

Faced with Maximus's question, Okmar explained: "Since we entered the Calabria region and set up camp in the eastern part of Tarantumu, many people have come to seek refuge with us every day, and now it is almost 10 Thousands of people! And several people, like Artemidonus and Tormaas, organized their own teams and asked to join collectively, so Spartacus and Hamilka had to agree with them. Lead alone.

For example, this Cleonis was originally a bankrupt horse breeder in southern Calabria. I heard that he was quite prestigious in that area. This time he gathered thousands of people and asked to join our team, and he didn't Within a few days it more than doubled the size of its ranks.

Spartacus followed his previous practice and allowed him to participate in the meeting of military governors, but he did not have the right to vote or propose. If he wants to become the real leader of free Italy, he must vote and agree with you. The words you heard about the leader and the like are probably just random boasts from him and his men, and there is no need to take them seriously..."

At this point, Okmar sighed: "Similar to the conflict between you and Cleonis, there have actually been several conflicts on our side before. Now there are more people and more ideas. Each army They all want to get enough supplies, and Spartacus and the others have tried their best to coordinate, but... alas!"

Maximus pondered silently.

The team bypassed the city of Bari and turned southwest along the road between the two avenues. After walking for a while, a military camp appeared on the road ahead.

This is the military camp built by Maximus' army. Ever since the rebels in the south showed signs of entering Barry's territory, Maximus decisively sent a force to protect the safety of Barry. After repelling Cleonis who attempted to invade, the Barry people and Mark Sims negotiated an agreement to have this army stationed here for a long time, and the military supplies were mainly supplied by the city of Bari.

Maximus looked up and said, "It's almost dusk. Let's rest here for the night and then rush to Uria early tomorrow morning. How about it?"

"Okay." Okmar responded readily, and then said: "Look, it takes two days to get from Sarapia to Urria. I think your camp is still a bit far away."