Not long after, a figure entered the area reflected by the torches inserted on the wooden fence of the camp. They were wearing thin clothes, mostly without armor protection, holding javelins or bows and arrows, and waded towards the camp... At a glance, there were hundreds of people, and enemies continued to enter the fire.

La Kelesis did not dare to neglect and immediately sent soldiers to inform the central army's tent.

Alexis was not asleep at all. After receiving the news of the enemy's attack, he immediately sent two light infantry brigades to reinforce.

When they gathered together to reach the south of the camp, Rakelesis was taking the soldiers under his command to protect themselves with long shields, and then fought back with javelins with some difficulty. Many soldiers had several javelins inserted on their long shields.

Because time was too hasty, the army did not have time to dig trenches and build earthen walls. A simple wooden fence could only block the body and could not give the legion soldiers a height of defense. So when the Samonets approached within 20 meters of the camp and both sides carried out medium-range attacks, the legion soldiers lost their advantage in defense. On the contrary, the Samonets rely on the large number of people, but instead suppressed La Kelesis and the others with their javelins. The Samone archers behind took the opportunity to launch rockets into the camp.

According to the provisions of the "Dionia Military Law", "the construction of field camps should be more than 20 meters away from the wall according to requirements." This not only ensures that soldiers pass smoothly during defense, but also avoids being easily attacked by the enemy from a range.

Considering that the camp did not build a wall, Alexis also increased the distance between the tent area and the wooden fence to 30 meters. However, the Samone archer was too close to the wooden fence, and the rockets launched still ignited several tents, which inevitably caused some chaos in the camp, and the soldiers had to get up to put out the fire.

After 2,000 Dionian light infantry arrived, the situation quickly changed. The Samonets retreated with dozens of dead and injured tribesmen, but they did not stay away, but circled the Dionian camp, making strange roars, occasionally attacking sentries with javelins, or firing rockets into the camp, causing chaos in the camp all night.

But early the next morning, they all disappeared without a trace.

The soldiers of the Legion were tossed for a night, and many people did not rest well. In view of this, Alexis issued an order: All soldiers of the army continued to build camps, and must dig trenches, build solid earth walls before dusk, and set up a few more sentry towers... At the same time, the captains of each squad must arrange the rest of the soldiers reasonably to ensure that they have abundant energy.

In this regard, Adjutant Eumatsius had doubts: "Master Commander, why don't we attack Agueronia immediately? If we delay one more day here, we will consume more food for one day, and will also give the Agueronians time to prepare for defense and increase our attack difficulties..."

"Even if Agueronia has one more day to prepare, it will probably not have much impact on our attack." Alexis looked at the vast mountains across the river Ofanto, and his eyes were filled with a deep light: Compared to the hasty attack, I am more concerned about the state of the soldiers. They are all from the Apulia region. Although they have trained in mountain combat in the barracks, they have never had the experience of living in the mountains. They need some time to adapt quickly and maintain their physical strength and energy to cope with the difficult battles they may encounter in the future."

"Fight hard..." Eumatis thought carefully about this sentence of unknown meaning.

At dusk, with the joint efforts of more than 6,000 soldiers, three-meter-high earth walls and trenches outside the walls were built outside the camp. So although the Samones were attacking that night, the threat to the camp was almost negligible, and the soldiers slept relatively safely.

After dawn, Alexis left 500 heavy infantry garrisons to guard the camp, with 5,500 soldiers and some auxiliary personnel, carrying rations for five days, crossed the Ofanto River, and headed towards the city of Agueronia.

Although they were marching in the lowlands among the mountains, the lowlands were not low, and the higher the way they went north, the higher the terrain. The soldiers trekked between the rugged mountain roads, and what they could see was the long and narrow blue sky split by the mountains on both sides.

In order to prevent ambushing or sneak attack by the Samones, Alexis sent all 100 soldiers from the mountain reconnaissance team, walked towards the large army on the mountains on both sides, and at the same time reconnaissanced the surrounding abnormalities.

Except for the 1,500 heavy infantrymen who were not wearing armor but were carrying forward on their backs, the other soldiers were fully armed (of course they did not have multiple protections). Even so, before the journey was halfway through, most people began to pant.

Fortunately, this mountain road is not unavailable. On the contrary, Agueronians often take this road to the riverside to fish, take a bath, draw water, and grazle cattle and sheep... Therefore, there are almost no headache-provoking thorns on the mountain road, and rocks that hurt the ground.

Although it was already June and the temperature had begun to rise, marching in the mountains not only did not feel very hot, but the more you walked, the cooler it became. But for the soldiers of Pucheti and Doney who had lived in the Apulia Plain since childhood, the march of this section of the mountain road made them feel that they were suffering: the high and low, the winding mountain road made them have to walk carefully, which was very exhausting; while the biting of mosquitoes and the constant scratching of trees and weeds quickly made them feel itchy all over their bodies... The soldiers began to complain.

Rakelesis was moving forward very focusedly, and he was filled with a sense of fire. Five people died and 12 injured in the attack of the Samonai the night before yesterday, and several tents were burned... He kept blaming himself, believing that it was too late to call reinforcements, which led to such a bad result. In the two battles between Askurum and Venosa, the Dionian army easily won a big victory, which gave him an illusion that the Samonai people were easy to deal with.

But in the attack the night before yesterday, the heavy javelin thrown by the Samones was fierce and accurate. When the long shield was hit head-on, it could cause penetration from time to time. This was the main reason for the soldiers' casualties. Although Alexis did not criticize him, he himself made a secret decision: he must conquer Agueronia and avenge the dead and injured brothers!

Therefore, along the way, he kept cheering the soldiers and encouraging them to move forward. Even when he saw some soldiers falling behind when they were tired, he would take the initiative to help the other party carry armor.

Agueronia is only ten miles away from the newly built camp in Dionia, but the army of Dionia trekked for nearly four hours before finally getting out of the narrow lowlands and entering a small semi-circular valley: among the mountains on the east side, there is a shorter mountain, and the slope of the west facing mountains is gentle, unlike other lush and lush mountains. There are few trees on the hillside, but some houses are scattered among the mountains, and dozens of sheep can be seen eating grass leisurely on the hill.

A sharp-eyed soldier looked up and could vaguely see the wooden wall on the top of the mountain, which was the city of Aquilonia. Although the mountain it was located was shorter and not steep enough than other mountain peaks, it was hundreds of meters high! The soldiers were a little worried just by looking at this height, let alone siege the city.

Alexis first looked at the mountains where Aquilonia was located for a while, and then carefully observed the valley.

The engineer came over and told him: the ground in the valley was mixed with gravel, but it was still soft.

"Then build a camp." Alexis said lightly.

The orders can be conveyed to the entire army, and the soldiers' lamentations are heard one after another.

However, before building the camp, the soldiers had to eat dry food and take a break to replenish the physical energy consumed by the marching. Then, under the command of the team officials, they had no choice but to pick up the tools and start digging the ground.

At this time, the captain of the mountain reconnaissance team ran to Alexis panting: "Sir Commander, our reconnaissance soldiers saw thousands of Samonets running quickly from the west on the mountain!"

When Alexis heard the news, he was not shocked, but felt relieved. He asked calmly: "How many people are there? How far is it from here?"

"Because of the hidden mountains, I cannot see the overall picture of the enemy team clearly. It is estimated that... it will not be less than 5,000 people. When I came here, they were at least three miles away." The reconnaissance captain estimated and replied.

Alexis turned around and looked to the west of the valley: the mountains there were not only relatively low and easy to climb, but also there was a mountain road leading to the west between the mountains.

"Master Commander!" Adjutant Eumatsius reminded: "If the reinforcements of the Aquilonians arrive, we will be attacked on both sides. We should immediately withdraw our camp to avoid fighting against the same number of Samones in the mountains!"

"The Samones really hid an army in the mountains to lure us to take the bait!" Alexis sneered and said to his adjutant: "Eumatsius, do you know why I have been communicating with Zantiparis, Polett, and Gelny these days?"

Eumatus's mind flashed with inspiration, exclaiming: "Can it be--"

"Immediately inform the soldiers to stop building camps, put on armor, get weapons, and prepare for battle!"

………………………………………

In fact, the Samonet coalition abandoned the harassment of the Doni region and instead attacked the Campania alliance not only to avoid the strong and attack the weak, but also to increase trouble for Dionia. At the same time, several tribal leaders deeply realized that they could no longer fight against the Dionetian army on the plains, even if it was just harassment, but should use the advantages of the Samonet themselves to fight against them in the mountains.
Chapter completed!