Pangeru's expression was grim as he looked at the incoming enemies. The fear on the faces of the soldiers around him worried him. He suddenly drew his sword and shouted, "Warriors of Kenapetia, you have successfully held off the powerful enemies for nearly a month. Now, the biggest test has come. Think of your parents, wives, and children. They are behind us and need our protection. Show your courage. Under the protection of Brutus, we will defeat these cowardly enemies! We, the warriors of the Bruti, will never be slaves! "
"The great leader is right! We cannot lose, we will never be slaves! "
"We will fight the Greeks!"
The morale of the Kenapetia soldiers was boosted by Pangeru's encouragement. They began to draw their bows at the enemies approaching the trench …
… …
Diolidas, a member of the Council of Hundred of Crotone, was the representative of Crotone. He brought several tons of grain and dozens of sheep to Triene to pay his respects to the Legio IV of Diónia in the name of the Southern Alliance. His main purpose was to observe the progress of the war between Diónia and the Bruti. He happened to witness the siege with his own eyes.
After that, he returned to Crotone and described the situation to the council with a face full of amazement: "… The Dionysians invented a terrifying siege weapon. They called it a ballista. It's like a bow and arrow, and it can shoot stones that weigh more than ten kilograms a few hundred meters away, and it can accurately hit the city walls. After a few days of continuous bombardment by this new siege weapon, a large gap appeared in the stone walls of Kenapetia.
The Diónia also created something called the siege tower. It was like a movable wooden tower, taller than the walls of Kenapetia. When the Diónia pushed it closer to Kenapetia, the archers at the top of the tower kept firing arrows at the enemies on the walls. When they approached the walls, a heavy drawbridge was immediately lowered from the siege tower. The Diónia soldiers rushed to the top of Kenapetia's walls through the drawbridge of the siege tower.
The Diónia didn't only use ballistae and siege towers, they also used scaling ladders to scale the city walls. I saw every single one of their soldiers rushing to attack. They rarely flinched when their comrades fell off the wall. Their courage was no less than that of our Crotone citizens. However, the Cnepettian warriors were not as fierce as they had been against us before. Perhaps they were too few in number, or perhaps they were intimidated by Diónia's terrifying siege weapons … In short, the battle only lasted until the afternoon. Diónia's fourth army attacked the city of Kenapetya. Kenapetya's leader, Pangeru, died in battle … "
When Diolidas finished speaking, the council fell silent.
He had just received news that Diónia had conquered Ciudad Abyssinia not long ago, and now Knapetiya had fallen … Since when did the Bruti, who gave Crotone such a headache, become so weak? Or had the Diónia army become stronger, and the Crotone citizens could not compare to them? The people of Crotone were at a loss. When they saw the outbreak of war, they hoped that Diónia would be defeated in front of the Bruti, so that Crotone could take advantage of them. But now, it seemed that this was just Crotone's fantasy. The strength that Diónia had shown terrified the people present.
"This is a good thing!" General Sisprotis stood up and said loudly, "The nightmare that has been troubling the people of Crotone and the other cities for hundreds of years is finally going to end! The people of Crotone will be very happy when they know about this! "
Sisprotis's words made those who had other ideas realize that even if they wanted to hinder Diónia, their suggestions would not be able to pass the council.
At this time, Chief General Lucias stood up and said, "As a member of the Southern Alliance, we should be happy for Diónia's victory! Although Diónia did not invite Crotone to participate in the war, we are still part of the Southern Alliance. Crotone should unite with other allies to give enough military supplies to Diónia to show our support for Diónia! "
… …
On the day of the Legio IV's attack, the army led by the Devers still stayed in the camp on the bank of Punate River.
The soldiers were busy sending the sick and wounded back to Ciudad Abyssinia, while the supply camp transported the rations that Turií transported to Ciudad Abyssinia back to the camp.
The Devers were staring at the map of the Bruti mountains in the military tent, thinking about their next move.
At this time, Tormid came in and said, "Sir, there are a lot of Bruti people outside the camp. The leader is called Hegesitus and wants to see you."
The Devers immediately said, "Quick, let him in!"
It turned out that the previous riot in Cosenza was instigated by Hegesitus. As Piaron's army returned from attacking the fortress, these rebellious tribes, knowing that they were no match for the enemy, fled the city of Cosenza in a panic. At that time, Pienlen was busy dealing with the army of Diónia and did not have the energy to annihilate them. However, these tribes did not bring much food with them. They went into the mountains and suffered a lot. Not only did they suffer a lot, their food was almost exhausted in more than two days.
Therefore, these tribes began to complain to Hegesitus and looked at him more and more unfriendly.
At this time, the tribesmen who went out to gather information brought back a shocking piece of news. The Bruti Alliance and Diónia had a big battle at the Punate River. In the end, the Bruti Alliance suffered a crushing defeat. The huge army that Pienlen led from Cosenza was left with very few survivors.
This news immediately changed the attitude of these tribes towards Hegesitus.
Hegesitus made a prompt decision and led these tribes to seek refuge from the Dionysian Army.
The Devers did not care too much about the sudden increase of more than two thousand mouths that consumed military rations. He was interested in Hegesitus. This was originally a move that he made on the spur of the moment. He did not expect that Hegesitus' first answer would exceed his expectations.
He looked at the man who looked like a Greek, but had a different height and messy long hair. He asked curiously, "How did you convince them?"
"Sir Archon." Hegesitus knew that his opportunity had come. He explained in detail, "Before the establishment of the Bruti Alliance, the Cosenza Alliance, led by Piaron, had been forcefully annexing the surrounding weak tribes. Ever since the establishment of the Bruti Alliance, in order to not arouse the resentment of the great chiefs such as Vig and Abyssinia, Pienlen proposed to establish an organization called the 'Alliance of Chiefs' to gather all the chiefs who surrendered voluntarily or were forced to surrender. It was said that they would be in charge of managing and deciding the affairs of the Alliance. In fact, these chiefs had no power at all. The affairs of the Alliance were decided by the Alliance's Elders Council, which was made up of several great chiefs and high priests. The people of these tribes were completely separated and forced to form their own families. They were directly managed by the Alliance. Of course, they had to pay taxes to the Alliance every year.
The tribal chiefs lost all their power, so of course they would not be willing. The warriors in the tribe were not used to it either. Sir, you should know that every tribe of these indigenous people basically has the same bloodline. After hundreds of years of reproduction, they are all related by blood. Usually, they will help each other if they have any difficulties. Now that they are suddenly separated from the tribe and have to live independently, the lives of many warriors are worse than before. Moreover, in the city of Cosenza, they are easily bullied by the warriors of the big tribes. Therefore, whether it is the chiefs or the warriors, of course, they will be dissatisfied … "
Devers listened attentively and nodded from time to time. He felt that, in fact, this set of measures of the Bruti Alliance was a step further than the original system of the Lucaria Alliance. They were preparing to completely dismantle the old tribal system and centralize the power in the upper echelons of the Alliance. If they really succeeded, they would become a great enemy of Diónia.
"Sir, in order to protect the Xilu tribe, you did not hesitate to start a war with the Bruti Alliance!" Hepscitus flattered Devers a little and continued, "In order to fight, the Bruti Alliance had to suspend the punishment of the tribes that surrendered later. Therefore, after I sneaked into Cosenza, I told them, 'Diónia will defeat the Bruti Alliance and restore the rights and freedom of your tribes!'" At this point, Hepscitus looked at Devers carefully. He was a little worried that his decision would be criticized by Devers.
"You did the right thing!" Devers praised him. From the bottom of his heart, he also hoped that he could do the same as the Bruti Alliance, take away the power of each tribe and put all the Bruti directly under the rule of Diónia. However, the rational him knew that the result of such a reckless action would only intensify the conflict between the Greeks and the Bruti. It would destroy the stability of the region, and it would not be worth it for Diónia. As an organization of the same race, the Bruti Alliance was far more powerful than the other tribes. Even so, these small tribes only paid lip service to them and even rioted. If the Greeks, who had always held a grudge against the Bruti Alliance, implemented this centralization of power, it would not have a good result. Therefore, after conquering the Bruti Alliance, Devers still decided to implement the same strategy as in Lucania. On the surface, they promised the tribe privileges, but secretly exerted a subtle influence on the Bruti Warriors through the army and culture, and finally made them break away from the control of the tribe.
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