第六卷 双雄会 第一百三十八章 持续作战（下）

“Messenger! Messenger!”

“General, what is it?”

“Go quickly and inform Eumachus: have him lead the soldiers who are still loading grain onto the warships back to the camp immediately. First, coordinate with the camp’s garrison to repel the enemy!” Diomilas finished speaking, but still felt uneasy, so he issued another order: “Order the troops to halt the river crossing, drop their packs, and return to the camp for battle!”

With the orders changing so abruptly, the Tarentine soldiers heading toward the pontoon bridge grew reluctant: Why should others be allowed to lounge on the opposite bank while they had to go back and fight to the death?

Harboring this attitude, they moved sluggishly, assembling at a painfully slow pace.

Diomilas was frantic with worry. Although he had left 4,000 men to defend the outer camp, the increasingly fierce sounds of battle made him fear for the garrison. Seeing the troops before him dragging their feet, anger swelled in his heart, and he finally made a firm decision—risking offense to these citizens, he would issue strict orders to send them back to defend.

He had just led his guard to the pontoon bridge when a fast ship cut through the Agri River, nearly clogged with triremes, and docked at the riverbank. The captain leaped ashore and stumbled toward Diomilas, shouting as he ran: “General, disaster! The Daonian fleet is attacking! Behind them are countless troop transports, packed with soldiers!…”

Diomilas’s mind immediately buzzed with turmoil. In that instant, he had no time to think: Why hadn’t the Daonian fleet rested after the great battle?

At this moment, only one thought occupied Diomilas’s mind: The Daonians intend to surround us!

The soldiers crossing the river nearby all heard the captain’s shouts, and chaos erupted. “Cross the river quickly! Cross quickly!…” the soldiers cried out in panic, pushing and shoving each other, the formation beginning to fall into disarray…

Diomilas steadied himself. Seeing this confusion, he immediately abandoned the decision to return to camp defense. He still hesitated inwardly: Should he abandon those 4,000 soldiers and retreat at once?

But soon, he no longer had to consider that question.

“The Daonians have broken in!!”

“Run for it!!”

“The main camp is breached!!”

…

From the east side of the camp came panicked, disordered shouts, growing louder. Diomilas turned his head and saw fleeing soldiers, which shocked him: How could the camp be broken so easily?!

In truth, the reason the Tarentine garrison collapsed so quickly was simple: The Daonian Seventh Army Corps had prepared meticulously beforehand, and during the assault, Matonis, as legion commander, actually charged at the forefront. Spurred on by him, the soldiers refused to lag behind. Their swift, fierce attack overwhelmed the Tarentine defenders left behind, whose fighting spirit had already been drained by the retreating troops. With no mental preparation, the first thought to arise when encountering resistance was: Why are they retreating while we have to fight hard here?

Thus, when the Heraclean troops arrived close behind and began enveloping the defenders from both flanks, the Tarentine soldiers broke at the first contact.

“Retreat! Retreat immediately!!…” That was the only choice left for Diomilas.

In fact, he didn’t need to give the order; the soldiers had already seen the situation was dire and were retreating on their own…

Midorades led 70 triremes to the waters near Heraclea, where a fast ship reported that the Tarentine warships were clustered at the mouth of the Agri River.

Hearing this, Midorades rejoiced and immediately ordered the fleet to fan out, ready to capture the Tarentine ships in one fell swoop.

The Tarentine warships panicked and tried to flee the riverbank, but in their confusion, they jammed and collided with each other in the channel. Some small warships capsized in the river. The fleeing fleet had no mind to rescue their fallen comrades; their only thought was to escape the Daonian fleet’s encirclement and return to Tarentum’s harbor!

But many Tarentine ships had their holds stuffed with too much grain, severely hampering their maneuverability and speed. Even compared to the Daonian fleet—which was laden with the “Corvus” boarding bridges and heavy infantry and thus somewhat ponderous—they had no real advantage. Worse, as the Daonian fleet rapidly closed in, the Tarentine sailors could not even spare hands to toss out the burdensome grain. Their fate was only to be captured.

Davos’s flagship did not join the naval battle. It sailed with the follow-up troop transports and landed on a stretch of coast not far north of the Agri River mouth.

As soon as Amyntas jumped ashore, he ordered the trumpeter to sound the war horn. Without waiting for all soldiers to assemble and reform their ranks, he directly led the 50-man platoon from his own ship and charged at the retreating Tarentine troops nearby.

The Daonian fleet under Seclian’s command, with the help of the First Army Corps, had already won a great victory, while the Second Army Corps had yet to accomplish anything. How could the competitive Amyntas tolerate this?

The fierce momentum of Amyntas’s platoon actually frightened the already panicked Tarentine soldiers on the north bank of the Agri River, making them forget that they vastly outnumbered the approaching enemy. As they hastily organized resistance, more platoons of the Daonian Second Army Corps arrived in succession, stabbing like sharp daggers into the weakened body of the Tarentine crossing force on the north bank. The Tarentine soldiers collapsed, fleeing in all directions, and some even recklessly tried to cross the river southward.

Amyntas led his troops in pursuit southward. More and more Tarentine soldiers were shoved into the river…

Panic only bred more panic. When the planks of one pontoon bridge gave way under the strain, causing the entire bridge to collapse, hundreds of terrified soldiers plunged into the river, bobbing up and down… The sight of this tragedy chilled the hearts of every Tarentine soldier who witnessed it.

On the south bank, the allied force of 12,000 men from the Seventh Army Corps and the Heraclean army continued pursuing the fleeing Tarentines northward.

The Tarentine soldiers, completely stripped of their will to fight, scrambled to save themselves. The entire army was thrown into utter disarray. Even if the two magistrates shouted themselves hoarse in the press of the crowd, it was impossible to reorganize them or stop the Daonian allies’ assault. They retreated again and again, until finally they were all driven to the banks of the Agri River.

With the several pontoon bridges completely blocked and the Daonian allies pressing a fierce pursuit from behind, some Tarentine soldiers in desperation even shed their armor and jumped into the river. In an instant, the river was filled with bobbing heads, like a giant anthill thrown into a puddle—a horrifying sight.

The soldiers who had not yet entered the river looked at their equally panicked comrades on the opposite bank, and at the black-clad troops behind them gradually forming ranks and encircling them. The Tarentines were utterly crushed. Tears streaming down their faces, they dejectedly threw down their weapons, turned, and surrendered to the advancing, fearsome Daonian allies…

By dusk, the Tarentine army, relentlessly pursued by the most valiant generals of the Daonian army and their corps, was finally encircled on both banks of the Agri River pontoon bridges. Except for nearly a thousand men who had crossed first and escaped, over 12,000 were captured, more than 2,000 were killed or wounded by shields and spears or trampled in the chaos, and over 2,000 drowned in the river.

Additionally, the Daonian fleet captured over 50 Tarentine warships, 35 of which were triremes. Since the Tarentine fleet had no heart to fight and offered little resistance, their sailors suffered few casualties; nearly 7,500 sailors were taken prisoner.

At the same time, the Daonian army seized a large quantity of supplies, including tens of tons of grain.

The Daonian army suffered only small losses in this battle, which could be described as another overwhelming victory.

Thus, Davos, after learning the battle situation, was in an excellent mood. When he saw the arriving chief general of Heraclea, Terpheas, he wore a sincere smile and said, “Lord Terpheas, on behalf of all Daonian citizens, I thank you! If it weren’t for Heraclea bravely blocking the Tarentine attack, their army might have already stormed into Thurii’s territory!”

Terpheas quickly replied humbly, “Lord Davos, Heraclea was only defending itself. Rather, we should sincerely thank Daonia. Under such difficult circumstances, you still sent reinforcements in time. To defend Heraclea, you caused the land of Amendolara to be ravaged. I really don’t know how to…”

Davos had to console him again at this point: “We are allies; we should help each other. Fortunately, Hades protected us. The Tarentines have been essentially annihilated, and neither of us suffered major losses. That is the most gratifying thing!”

“Indeed, I never expected victory to come so quickly!” Terpheas looked at Davos with admiration and exclaimed, “Lord Davos, I never imagined that Daonia could defeat the Syracusan navy. That is astonishing!”

Davos smiled slightly and said in a relaxed tone, “If the Syracusan fleet dares to come again, we will defeat it again. From now on, the Gulf of Taranto ought to change masters!”

Davos’s domineering words made Terpheas fully reassured about maritime safety: “Lord Davos, when… do you plan to attack Tarentum?” Terpheas asked euphemistically, actually wanting to know Davos’s general plan of operations. Since Davos returned to Thurii, in just two days, the entire war situation in Magna Graecia had undergone such a dramatic change, restoring confidence to Daonia’s allies.