The Battle of the Great Riverbank (Part 2)

Severa stumbled backward, trying to throw his spear in retaliation, but his already exhausted body, now grievously wounded, gave out. He collapsed and slid down the slope…

Severa’s death did not frighten the warriors who followed. The will to live granted them temporary courage and strength. Soldiers kept falling pierced by spears, and more kept charging forward. Soon the Lucanian warriors had almost reached the top of the slope.

The bronze trumpet sounded urgently in quick succession. The peltasts quickly retreated through the gaps in the mercenary heavy infantry formation. The heavy infantry stepped forward, forming a long, thin, dense phalanx on the ridge, using a wall of steel to crush the enemy’s hopes of escape. Behind them, the light infantry ignored their sore, numb arms and kept launching javelins, arrows, and sling stones, sending them in perfect arcs over the heads of the heavy infantry to land on the slope below. This sustained the killing of the enemy reinforcements, preventing them from forming a continuous assault. Further back, the slaves and Hetushu had already brought bundles of arrows and javelins to replenish the light infantry’s spent ranged weapons.

Drakos stood in the front line of the defense. Facing the enemy who were beginning to charge up the slope, he showed no tension or fear, only fierce fighting spirit. “Brothers, drive them back down!”

“Roooar!!!” Inspired by his words, the soldiers raised their shields and spears and roared in unison.

…

As the Great Leader of Grumentum and the alliance leader of the Lucanian tribal confederation, Acipirus, who was over fifty, naturally could not impulsively join the pursuit like the young warriors. Since he did not pursue, the four hundred elite Grumentum warriors forming his personal guard could not abandon him to chase alone. The same situation applied to Nerulum and Laüs. The three groups combined had about seven hundred warriors.

They advanced at a brisk pace. When they neared the Hot Spring Marsh, they heard the roar of battle and screams ahead, shaking the heavens.

The Great Leaders’ faces changed.

“Hurry up and get there!” Acipirus gave the order urgently.

The rapidly advancing column collided head-on with Davos’s mercenaries, who were likewise rushing to complete the encirclement and seal the pocket.

When Philistos saw the enemy on the mountain path, his heart lurched. Fortunately, his experience allowed him to quickly make his deployment. Capus would take command of the first, second, and third companies to block the surrounded enemy. The fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh companies would follow him to attack the enemy ahead.

At the same time, Philistos summoned a messenger. “Go notify Mesis at once. Tell him to bring the slaves here quickly!”

Seeing that the Greeks dared to divide their forces even as he closed in, Acipirus grew even more uneasy. If there wasn’t something more urgent, would these cowardly Greeks dare to do this?!

He immediately gave the order, “All-out attack!”

The two fully armed forces, both elites from their respective sides, did not form ranks or deploy—they simply collided head-on.

…

Capus led his troops to the west side of the Great River Beach. They ran straight into the panicked Lucanian warriors who had just crawled out of the slope, still shaken by their ordeal.

They were immediately struck hard. Dozens of bodies were left on the slope as they rolled back down. The mercenaries quickly sealed the breach.

Now, the eastern side of the Great River Beach area held the Tarentum reinforcements; the northern side held Drakos’s mercenaries, all the light infantry, and the slave soldiers; the western side held the heavy infantry of Davos’s mercenaries; and the southern side was the rain-swollen Hot Spring Marsh and the Tino River.

More than nine thousand Lucanian tribal confederation warriors were trapped in a narrow, low-lying area about two li long and half a li wide. The total force on the encircling side was only about seven thousand (including slave soldiers), making their blocking line thin—especially on the western side, where Davos’s six hundred mercenaries formed barely a single line of infantry. This line extended northward and linked with Drakos’s mercenary formation, like a thin-skinned dumpling with too much filling, constantly at risk of bursting. Fortunately, the Lucanians inside the encirclement were temporarily chaotic and disorganized, running around like headless flies, unable to form a cohesive force.

In Davos’s plan, the ranged firepower of the light infantry was the main factor in weakening the enemy’s strength. His Persian Expeditionary Force was not only responsible for completing the encirclement but also served as his most trusted offensive force. Now, due to unforeseen events, that expeditionary force had been split. While Davos was anxious after learning of this emergency through scouts, this was still one of several possibilities he had planned for. He had contingency measures.

He immediately sent cavalry to urge Mesis to speed up his march, link up with Philistos’s unit, concentrate their forces, and crush the unexpected enemy in one fell swoop. Then they could rejoin the encirclement and destruction of the Lucanians.

Time was now the key to the Greek victory.

Acipirus also knew its importance.

The two elite forces fought in a bloody melee. On one side were the finest warriors chosen from the entire Lucanian tribal alliance, who had not yet fought a fierce battle and still had plenty of stamina. On the other side were the Greek mercenaries who had marched to Persia, experienced and highly skilled, but endless running had drained their physical strength. The course of the battle, however, shocked Acipirus. He had assumed that without forming a phalanx, the Lucanian warriors, accustomed to this style of fighting, would have the advantage in such a chaotic showdown. Yet the Lucanian warriors were beginning to fall back.

Watching from higher ground in the rear, Acipirus observed that the Greeks often gathered in clusters of several dozen men (in fact, Davos’s unique platoons). They were not only organized and flexible but also cooperated with each other tacitly and were far more lethal. The Lucanians, in contrast, were being cut apart piece by piece, scattered like grains of sand.

This made him realize the gravity of the situation. He quickly dispatched a small squad of warriors with orders to race back to the camp and inform the Great Leader of Pyxous, Sicinag: lead the remaining garrison warriors to come at once, help him crush the enemy before him, and then shatter the enemy’s scheme.

The messengers returning to the camp were attacked from behind by Laedes’s cavalry (last night, Davos had borrowed ten warhorses from Bourkos, allowing the mercenary cavalry squad to be reestablished). Because the rugged mountain road prevented the cavalry from achieving full speed, a few wounded warriors escaped the pursuit and ran all the way to the Lucanian camp.

“Quick… notify Great Leader Sicinag at once! We were ambushed! Send reinforcements immediately!” Under the surprised gazes of the warriors preparing to strike the camp, they collapsed from exhaustion and shouted urgently.

However, the expressions of the warriors gathering around began to turn strange.

“Damn it, they’re Vegiae!” The messenger warriors realized the difference in these men and felt a jolt of alarm.

One person crouched down and asked in a low voice, “What ambush?! What happened?!”

The warrior vaguely remembered the speaker as a Vegium leader named Saru.

…

Acipirus had left the tasks of dismantling the camp to Pyxous and Vegiae. But Sicinag had dumped the entire grueling job on the Vegiae people, staying in his large tent with his son and several leaders to discuss “how to guarantee Pyxous’s interests after occupying the Sybaris Plain.”

A guard suddenly burst in, shouting in panic, “Great Leader, it’s terrible! The Vegiae have launched a surprise attack on us!”

What?! Sicinag was stunned, then cursed furiously, “Those damned Vegiae! Are they tired of living?!”

He strode out of the tent. The scene before him far exceeded his expectations: everywhere in the camp, thick smoke billowed; countless tents blazed in the flames; the Vegiae warriors, armed with spears, split into countless small squads, hunting down the unguarded Pyxous warriors; the Pyxous men fled in utter chaos.

Sicinag’s ears were filled with the piercing screams of his tribesmen, driving him nearly mad. “Ah!!… I told you all, those despicable Bruttians deserve to die, but Acipirus wouldn’t listen!… Grenatus, quick! Organize the warriors to counterattack! Counterattack! Drive them back! Kill them all! And raze Vegium to the ground!!… Ah!!…”

He did not need to say more. Grenatus and several leaders had already rushed out in frantic urgency.

But for Pyxous, the situation was dire. The Vegiae had prepared for this attack, while the Pyxous men had suffered heavy casualties the day before (over a thousand, most of them wounded). Most of the soldiers were in their tents tending to wounded comrades. The Vegiae set fires everywhere, and many Pyxous warriors were burned alive in their tents.