“Not only the soldiers but also the people and supplies, leaving the Romans with an empty city,” Davos continued with a gloomy expression, “Despite plebeian soldiers fleeing back to Rome rising to four thousand, Camillus continued to lead the army to relentlessly attack Ostia because he thinks Ostia is important to us. Thus, we must tell them that all that is just their fantasy! And after shattering their illusions, I really want to know if they can continue fighting after losing their hopes, suffering many casualties and having limited military supplies?!”
Davos' words made everyone ponder deeply.
“Tapirus,” Davos looked at his envoy and continued, “We can't just bear the Roman attack alone and must let our allies move! So send envoys to Volsci and Hernici and tell them that we had already captured the city of Rome and are currently engaging with their main force, so they should take this opportunity to attack the defenceless territory of Rome and reclaim their territory!”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“And…those Latin city-states…that were enemies of Rome decades ago, I don't believe they are as good as brothers with Rome! I heard that a few years ago, the Latin city-state, Tusculum, was rumoured to betray Rome and got almost wiped out…so you can go back and see if you can pull a few of those Latin city-states to us. I can even promise that as long as they are willing to become our allies, our army will not harm them and instead protect their safety, just like how we protected Campania and Volsci…”
“I will do my best to complete the tasks you entrusted, Your Majesty!” Tapirus replied excitedly, thinking he finally got a role to play this time.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Everyone dispersed after the meeting.
Davos then called in several officers of the Roman reserve force led by Sextus and announced the order to take over Veii to them.
But unlike his excited colleague, Sextus, despite also being excited, still musted the courage to ask, “Your Majesty, what should we do to the people in the city after occupying Veii?”
“The same as Rome.”
Davos' answer relieved Sextus.
Sextus knew many people from Veii since most of the people who had migrated to Veii had come from Rome, making him confident in the plan proposed by Davos. Of course, he remembered Davos' reminder.
After leaving the Senate and summoning the Roman plebeian soldiers, Sextus had already roughly planned his attack: He would choose a centuria of one hundred and twenty Roman plebeian soldiers, individuals he trusted and who were acquainted with the people of Veii. This centuria would serve as the vanguard to deceive and confuse the guards at the city gate. Meanwhile, he would follow behind while commanding two thousand soldiers, ensuring that no one would leave the army and reducing the risk of someone potentially leaking information to the enemy and causing the operation to fail. Then, as soon as the vanguard successfully seized the gates, he would promptly lead the army to attack.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Unlike Sextus, Phryntor doesn't need to worry about the soldiers because he previously served in the Mountain Reconnaissance Brigade. Izam even highly valued him and once said he was their pride. So when they learned that Phryntor had an important task for the Mountain Reconnaissance Brigade, Izam became thrilled and actively cooperated to improve the plan for the attack on Caisra tonight.
But the problem that worried Phryntor were: With Caisra situated more than thirty kilometres away from the city of Rome, they must start marching now if they want to reach there before evening by land. Yet by doing so, the soldiers of the Mountain Reconnaissance Brigade would have used up their stamina and rendered them incapable of climbing the hill. Fortunately, they had an alternative option: to take the water route, offering both swiftness and less exhaustion. Thus, Phryntor decided to have the soldiers of the Mountain Reconnaissance Brigade split into batches and embark on the ships docked at Rome's new port and head to the port of Ostia first and then take the ship to land on the coast near the city of Caira in the evening.
And the second problem was how they would climb the hill and the walls of Caisra in the dark. Although this would be a massive problem for the soldiers of Theonia's Legion, it wouldn't pose much of a problem for the soldiers of the Mountain Reconnaissance Brigade. It was because when Davos first made this brigade, he had hoped their role in the war would not only be to scout but also use them for special operations. Thus, Izam formulated training programs according to this need during peacetime. In addition, the first word in the name of their brigade had a mountain, so climbing over mountains was their main training program, including climbing it in the darkness of the night. Moreover, Phryntor had drawn a topographical map of the area around Caisra during his previous reconnaissance, so Izam recruited the soldiers with the best climbing skills to study the map and discuss how they should climb the city of Caisra.
After finalising the plan, Izam immediately ordered the soldiers to prepare the supplies and tools.
After noon, the Mountain Reconnaissance Brigade lined up with high morale, arrived at the new port of Rome, and prepared to board the ship and depart.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
When the guards woke up Amintas in the morning, he first asked, “Did the Romans start attacking again?!”
“Legatus, there haven't been any reports of enemy attacks. I woke you up because it's already dawn, and breakfast is ready.”
“No attack?!” Amintas was surprised because the Romans had been attacking the city from dawn until dusk for the past few days, and their fierce assaults had even caused Amintas to palpitate.
He then vigorously rubbed his bearded face, feeling sleepy due to the lack of sleep over the past few days while worrying about the war. However, the guard's words provided him with a few moments of relief.
While eating breakfast, he was still wondering why the Romans didn't launch an attack at this time as usual, speculating if they could no longer support this intensity of attack.
So Amintas decided to hold a war council not long after breakfast during this rare free time.
The legatus of the Fourth Legion – Olivos, the legatus of the Fifth Legion – Giorgris, and the praetor of Ostia – Theris, arrived one after the other (Theris also served as the military commander of Ostia earlier and thus had the right to participate in the war council). Also attending the meeting were Amintas' adjutant – Aristonus, and his personal staff officer – Crotokatax.
The war council began with a report on yesterday's casualties. They had delayed it until today because the battle ended in the evening, and it was difficult to calculate the casualties accurately with tired soldiers and a dimming sky.
The adjutant of the First Legion – Aristonus, stood up with the already summarised data from each legion in his hand and said, “Yesterday, the First Legion suffered two hundred and ninety-three death and five hundred and thirty-seven wounded, the Fourth Legion had five hundred and fifty-eight death and seven hundred and twenty-two wounded, the Fifth Legion had five hundred and thirty-six death and eight hundred and ninety-one wounded, and the reserve force of Ostia had one thousand and twenty-one death and five hundred thirty-seven wounded(the soldiers from the reserve brigades were converted into formal legionaries and joined the three legions)…”
Whether it was the legates or Crotokatax, everyone in the hall had heavy expressions because these cold numbers represented life.
“Yesterday…our casualties reached five thousand, exceeding the total number of casualties from the previous two days!” Amintas exclaimed with a pained expression, slamming his fist on the armchair.
Crotokatax gazed at the furious Amintas, recalling the tragic battlefield he had witnessed atop the city wall in the past few days. A sense of melancholy washed over him, and he even began to question the necessity of the task his father had assigned him because the relentless Roman onslaught had made it incredibly challenging to defend the city, let alone venture outside to engage in battle.
He then noticed the usually humorous Olivos now had lingering fear in his voice, “The reason for our heavy casualties in yesterday's battle was because the Romans had already built an earthen rampart in front of the trench, which was a metre higher than our city wall. Then they deployed much light infantry on the rampart and used javelins and arrows to attack our ballistae atop the city wall, forcing us to move our ballistae below… Later, the Romans pushed their ballistae to the front and began their bombardment, causing several sections of our city wall to collapse, further weakening our advantage of relying on the city walls for defence. And then they increased in numbers as they launched wave after wave of constant attacks…
O Hades from above! This time, I truly witnessed the small phalanx formation tactics of the Romans that were similar to ours. So when our soldiers engaged them in a frontal clash in the collapsed section of the walls, the terrain almost didn't affect their formation. Moreover, the Roman soldiers' bravery was not below ours. On the contrary, their desire to fight was even stronger! I had witnessed with my own eyes how several stabbed Roman soldiers began clutching our soldiers' legs tightly to provide opportunities for their comrades next to them…allowing them to break in through the several openings in the city wall. I felt it was a fluke that we could repel them…”
“What do you mean by ‘its a fluke?!’ It's because our soldiers are far more capable, and the short sword playing is much more lethal in the melee! Olivos, as a legatus of the army, you are a role model for the soldiers. You must always exude courage and confidence to instil the same in your troops, giving them belief in victory!” Amintas swiftly rebuked him, employing a tone reminiscent of twenty years ago when he, a platoon leader of mercenaries, had critiqued Olivos, a regular mercenary soldier.
After getting taken aback, Olivos snapped out of it and instantly apologised, “I apologise for losing my composure, everyone! It was because we had gotten used to fighting smooth battles over the years, and this is the first time we've encountered such a courageous yet very organised and skilful enemy, which has cost us a lot of our men! It seems that His Majesty was right, and the Romans are indeed a formidable enemy. So we should abandon the illusion of an easy victory and go all out to defeat this enemy!”
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