"My lord, do you already have a plan?" Antonios asked busily.

Davers looked at the two legion commanders, and his eyes flashed with a blazing gaze: "Judging from the experience of the Samonai people with the Third Legion, their commander is a decisive and very actionable person, plus the Samonai people are more arrogant, so ......"

……………………………

The army of Syracuse was tired all night, and accidents were frequent. Therefore, on the second day, almost all the soldiers were resting.

The camp of the army in Syracuse stretched for more than a dozen miles, occupying all the open space of Lockley from the western ridge to the coast, and also cutting off the communication between the north and the south. It is said that it is a camp, but in fact it is a tent set up in a hurry by the soldiers, and there is no simple fence and earthen barrier on the perimeter, and there is no protection at all. Of course, the neighboring hostile city-state of Coronia and the Taurina to the west of the mountain range had long been intimidated by the huge forces of Syracuse, and it was not enough to protect themselves, so how could they dare to take the initiative to attack.

At noon, Dionysius awoke from his slumber, and had just eaten breakfast, and was about to discuss with his relative Demodocus about sending troops, when he received an urgent report from the guards: about 20,000 allied troops of the Southern Italian alliance had appeared in Corennia!

Dionysius was taken aback: his army had just arrived in Locke, and reinforcements from the Southern Italian Alliance had arrived, how could it be so fast? Unless the enemy had known that he would set out on that day, so he had prepared in advance. But how is this possible? He also decided to go on an expedition based on when the Samonites would attack Pothenia and when Davos of Dioonia would leave Turiyi with his army. It had only been two days between the departure of the expedition and the departure of the fleet (although the army had already begun to assemble outside Syracuse, and the fleet had been prepared for a long time, but it had not been moved), and it was impossible for the city-states of Great Greece to react so quickly in such a short time, so he decided to find out for himself.

As the tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysius was not a mastermind who only played with intrigues, he was a hero against the Carthaginian invasion, otherwise he would not have been elected general plenipotentiary when Syracuse was in danger. Even though he was firmly on the throne of tyrant and no longer needed to charge into battle himself, he still led the way from time to time to set an example. A few years ago, he led the army to attack the Carthaginian town of Sicily - Modia, and when he could not take it for a long time, because he heard the surrendered soldiers say, "There is a secret passage, which can directly reach the core area of Modia", he immediately led 2,000 daredevils to climb the steep back mountain path, trying to raid the Motians, but unfortunately was discovered by the enemy and besieged.

At this moment, he quickly galloped north with his military adviser Phoebidas, the important generals of Syracuse, Fasipesas and Astargras, and the leader of the Numibian mercenaries, Asilita, and 500 Numibian cavalry.

More than 60 miles from Lokry to Coronia, along the narrow and winding coast, the horses tread a somewhat bad and undulating dirt road, and after two hours, entered the territory of Corennia, and then Dionysius saw the enemy cavalry patrolling ahead.

Seeing their all-black outfits, Dionysius, who had long studied the army of the great Greek city-states, immediately made a judgment: "It's the cavalry of Dionia!" ”

Hearing this, Phoebidas, who was also surprised by why the reinforcements of the Southern Italian Alliance came so quickly, seemed to have an answer: he had been paying attention to this alliance of large Greek city-states that had humiliated him in recent years, and he also knew a little about the army of Dionia, and this alliance that attached great importance to military affairs like Sparta was indeed very different from other Greek city-states in terms of military affairs, and it was possible to arrive quickly.

The leader of the Numibian mercenaries, Ashirita, whistled a few times, and 30 Numibian cavalry rushed over, and the ten Dionian scouts turned and ran.

The two sides began to chase, and actually let the Numibian cavalry pull the distance closer and closer, only to see that their legs were tightly clamped between the belly of the horses, and in such a fast gallop, they did not use their hands to pull the reins of the horses, but freed their hands, grabbed a few javelins in their left hands, drew one with their right hands, leaned back slightly, and then threw them with all their might.

More than a dozen javelins staggered in the air, followed by a few screams, three Dionian cavalrymen were hit by javelins and planted their horses, and two horses were pierced by javelins, neighing and jumping, throwing the cavalry off their backs.

In just one shot, the ten Ionian cavalry were reduced by half, causing the remaining Dionian cavalry to desperately flee to the camp.

The Numibians captured two horsemen alive and brought them to Dionysius.

Dionysius sat on his horse, looked down at them, and said coldly, "Tell me, how many soldiers have come from the Dionians?" Who is leading the way? What is the battle plan in Coronia? Whoever said it well, said it in the most detail, I let him go. ”

The two Dionian captives looked at each other and did not speak.

Dionysius didn't have the patience to wait for the two nobodies to speak, and snorted coldly: "Since you don't say it, then let the Numebians send you to cross the Styx!" Ashirita! ”

"Lord Dionysius, I'm here!" With a sinister grin, his jagged yellow teeth and his long hair covering most of his face, he dismounted, drew his short sword at his waist, and as he approached, one of the captives began to tense.

When Ashirita grabbed him by the shoulders and aimed the sharp tip of his sword at his throat, he shouted in panic, "I said! I say! ”

Archirita looked back at Dionysius, who nodded.

He let go of the captive and waited for him to speak again.

Then another captive shouted: "Rasibulus, are you crazy! Do you want your family and children to never hold their heads up and be spurned in Turiyi? Do you want to be unable to pass the judgment of hell and your soul to be pushed into the terrifying hell of a mountain of swords and fire? ……”

"What are you waiting for!" Dionysius saw that the hesitation on the captive's face was dissipating when he heard the cries of his companions, and hurriedly shouted.

Ashirita immediately rushed at the other captive with her sword.

The soldier looked at the Numibians who were rushing towards him with a fierce look, his expression calm, and he shouted to his teammates: "I am waiting for you in the Elysée!" ”

The sword slashed through his neck, and blood gushed outward like a spring, but he didn't cry out in pain, gritted his teeth, and finally fell straight down.

Rasibulus looked sad, but his eyes became resolute, he closed his eyes, straightened his chest, and cried out: "Come, give me a sword!" Valhalla's name will be on it! ”

Ashita looked at Dionysius again.

Dionysius became inexplicably irritable, waved his hand vigorously, and then rode forward.

Seeing that the captive was put to death, Phoebidas rode up and exclaimed, "What two warriors! If the Dionian soldiers were like them, this war would be a difficult battle! "You must know that in the war between the Greek city-states, most of the two sides are ordinary citizen soldiers, once the war is unfavorable, it is very easy to break and flee, and it is common to surrender if you are caught, such as Leonida led 300 Spartan soldiers to defend the hot springs and finally all of them were killed. Now in addition to Sparta, there is also Dionia, how can it not shock Phoebeidas.

"That Davers boasted that he was Hades' 'god', and these stupid Greeks actually believed it!" Dionysius said angrily, and then he emphasized in an accentuated tone: "The victory or defeat of the war is determined by strength, and pretending to be a god cannot change the situation of the war!" ”

Phoebidas didn't speak, but there was uneasiness in his heart.

……………………………

"Commander, you see that our legion has been marching since yesterday, and at night it is building a camp, and it has rushed to Coronia early this morning, and it has not rested much. Can we just build the trenches and earthen ramparts today, so that the brothers can sleep well, and tomorrow we will improve the camp? "Epitenis asked Pherisius.

Phellisius hesitated, of course he saw the exhaustion of the soldiers, but now that he was at the forefront of the battlefield, the army of Syracuse could be overwhelmed at any time, and according to the Dionian Military Law, it was necessary to hurry up the construction of a strong camp. So he turned his head and asked Dracos, the commander of the Fifth Army, who was sitting on the other side, "What do you think?" ”

Of course, Dracos replied without hesitation: "Even if you are tired, let the soldiers build a camp according to the provisions of military law, and rest well in the evening." ”

"Your legion has to continue to work, you do it yourself, our legion dug a camp for your legion last night, of course it is much more tired than you!" Epitenis glanced at Dracos and said disapprovingly.

"Alright, alright!" Felicius hurriedly came out to play the round: "The brothers are indeed tired, but ......"

Pherisius was deliberating how to state his decision in more tactful terms, when he saw Soberkos, the captain of the cavalry legion, hurrying up.

While Davers reformed the Heavy Infantry Corps, he promoted the original cavalry brigade to a corps. Cavalry, unlike infantry, was small and expensive in number, and only citizens with war horses were up to it. Davers set up the headquarters of the cavalry corps in Turiyi, and sent training officers to each city in peacetime, organized the cavalry for training according to the plan, concentrated it in wartime, and distributed it to the commanders of various theaters according to the needs of the battlefield situation. By now, the cavalry corps had a total of 2,000 cavalry, and the corps commander Leders, with four subordinate captains, each of whom led 500 cavalry (500 cavalry was already a considerable assault force for the military forces of the great Greek city-states). This time Davers went out to Pothenia and took with him two brigades of 1,000 cavalry, 500 cavalry were sent to the southern front, under the command of Phellisius, and only 500 cavalry remained in Turiyi, patrolling the coastline to prevent the enemy from raiding and landing.