The cunning Mesapi cavalry swept quickly in front of the slanting, exposing the infantry formation behind them.

Then, Mesapi's army stopped advancing and once again entered a confrontation with Achita's army a hundred meters away.

But Achita could no longer wait. He had twice the force of the enemy. Coupled with the uneasiness in his heart, he immediately ordered: the trumpet of attack!

In Tarantum, many people were jealous or looked down on the Dionys League, but Achita did not. Not only did he have a good relationship with Dionys consul Davers, he also carefully studied Dionys' military tactics, and absorbed some of them and applied them to his own troops. Increasing the number of light infantry, forming individually, and fully leveraging its long-range attacks was a major change in the army he led.

When the light infantry attacked the enemy first, Achita sat in the rear of the right wing of the enemy's phalanx, commanded the right wing heavy infantry to advance, preparing to form an encirclement on the enemy's left wing.

The Mesapi people's square formation remained unmoved, and they were moving the Mesapi cavalry surrounding the Tarantum array on the periphery. They rushed up from all directions and threw javelins at the Tarantum soldiers, in an attempt to disrupt and block the enemy's advance.

Achita was unmoved, the sound of attack trumpets kept blowing, and the heavy infantry soon entered a distance that could charge.

"Woo!...Woo!..." The long and powerful horn sound suddenly rang on the battlefield.

Achita was shocked: The sound came from behind?!!

"There are enemies behind! There are enemies behind!!" Some soldiers located at the back of the right wing of the phalanx began to scream in panic. You could already see the shadowy human figures in the morning mist dispersed in the distance, and hear the rumbling footsteps.

Being trapped! The Mesapi set up an ambush here! Acheta's heart skipped a beat, and this thought quickly flashed through his mind: Should he continue moving forward or retreat? He must make a decision immediately.

Fortunately, he learned the practice of the Dionian army, and the commander did not lead the way in the square, but was outside the square. Previously, because of this, someone accused him in the Senate of: practicing a corrupt aristocratic style in battle and not fighting side by side with the citizens is a greedy act of life and fear of death.

He did not change his approach because of criticism, so now he can make adjustments before the battle: "Stop advancing! Retreat to the left and rear immediately with the overall formation!" Achita immediately issued an order to the messenger and the troop soldiers. He hoped to transform the bad situation of front and back attacks into a front-facing attack against these two enemies through retreat.

The trumpet was sounded. The messengers ran and shouted loudly behind the phalanx.

For the usual Greek city-state army, retreating to the left is a complex tactical action, which is difficult to do during training, let alone on the battlefield, but Achita believes that the army he led has been fighting for half a year, and like the army of Dionia, he can do it.

During his many battles with the Mesapi people, he learned the courage and tenacity of this race. He had no confidence that he could defeat the enemy in the west, which was twice as powerful as his troops in a very short time, and did not want to fall into a dangerous situation of being attacked from the front and back. The only way was to immediately leave the current battlefield and re-arrange the attack. Since the main force of the Mesapi people was attacking Mandulia, he believed that even if there were more enemies here than his army, there would not be much more. He had the confidence to defeat them in a frontal battle!

The square formation stopped advancing and began to slowly retreat, but the Tarantum army did not advance, and the Mesapi infantry began to charge. At the same time, the Mesapi cavalry also began to strengthen their attacks. They howled and even drove their horses to the square formation to disrupt the Tarantum people's retreat.

The Mesapi cavalry's desperate fighting style shocked Achita. He felt that the Mesapi people were determined to annihilate his army here, and it was difficult for him to keep his previous calm in his heart.

Should I continue to retreat or strengthen my defense? Achita is once again in a difficult choice.

But time was tight, and the Mesapi cavalry had already rushed to the front of me. The light infantry hurriedly retreated to both sides. Obstructed by the Mesapi cavalry, the Tarantum heavy infantry, who could not retreat with all their might, had to turn around to fight, and fell into a passive position from the beginning.

Achita had no time to regret it. Faced with such a dilemma, he asked the light infantry to disperse the Mesapi cavalry with arrows, informing the team officials to shorten the length of the heavy infantry phalanx and thicken the column; at the same time, the soldiers at the back of the phalanx quickly turned back and faced the upcoming enemy and marched forward for more than ten meters. In this way, the entire array changed from the original "one-character long snake formation" to the "two-character formation", and two parallel arrays protected each other's rear.

Achita believes that even if his troops are temporarily passive, they can still fight off the Mesapi people with their strong defense!

The Mesapi cavalry in the rear had retreated to both sides, and the rumbling footsteps and the deafening shouts came clearly from the morning fog...

When the dark enemy approached, the Tarantum soldiers were shocked: not only were the number of enemies amazing, but they were not the outfits of Mesapi soldiers, holding wooden shields and spears, wearing simple helmets and breastplates.

"Master Achita, it's Pucheti! It's Pucheti!!" After receiving the report from the scout, Achita was also shocked: Mesapi and Pucheti joined forces! For decades, Mesapi and Pucheti, who have always had hatred and often had war conflicts, actually joined forces!!

Seeing more and more Puchetti soldiers rushing over, Achita was trembling all over, not only worried about the safety of this army, but also about Tarantum's situation...

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"Congratulations, King Puchetti! The Tarantums are surrounded by us!" Timoglas, the consul of Igratiya, shouted complimentally.

"Yes, the Achita who made you lose a lot was surrounded by my brave soldiers. Hurry up and eliminate them! Then attack Brindisi!" King Tremoni, Pucheti, looked happy and did not forget to mock the Mesapi people.

However, half an hour later, the Tarantum military flag in the encirclement remained standing. The Map coalition did not make substantial progress except to compress the encirclement even smaller. Instead, due to the concentration of Tarantum soldiers' forces, the attack was subject to greater resistance.

King Pucheti personally led the expedition and brought more than 10,000 soldiers, plus Igratia's soldiers, and his troops were more than twice that of the Achita army.

The battle was so difficult when it was already surrounded by the other side.

King Pucheti, the consul of Igratiya, and the general Pucheti stared at the battlefield filled with dust and smoke, with a serious expression.

"Fight! Tarantums fight! The descendants of the hero Taras should not stop waving your spear! Remember, every time you kill an enemy, your parents, wife, and children will get a safety!..." Achita rode back and forth in the center of the encirclement, avoiding the flying arrows and javelins, shouting loudly to boost morale.

His voice was hoarse, and his war horses were spraying heat, but he was unaware of it. He knew that this time he would be in danger, but even if he died in battle, he would still be severely injured by the enemy and reduce the threat to his mother country.

Tarantum's formation has changed from "two" to round. Under his encouragement, the light infantry in the center kept shooting arrows in their hands, regardless of the fingers being cut by the bowstrings, and the muscles of their arms were strained. The heavy infantry were close to each other, working together to resist the powerful squeezing of the enemy. At the same time, they raised the spear in their hands and stabbed outwards from above the closely arranged shield wall. Once the spearhead broke, they immediately pulled out their swords and continued to stimulate the slash and slash... They knew that the road to life was broken, so they could only fight to the death, so their comrades around them kept falling down and did not shake their fighting spirit.

…………………………………

An hour later, King Pucheti's face was ashen, because Tarantum's military flag was still standing, while his generals asked for a pause in the attack because the soldiers were tired and suffered heavy casualties.

"Waste, a bunch of waste! Are you still the descendants of the heroic King Lycaon of Arcadia? Look at the Greeks surrounded by you, they are not as tall as us, nor are they as many as us. If you are all afraid of this, I can only replace you and let the real warriors lead my warriors!..." Trimony cursed, waved his arms, and almost swept the spear in his hand to the face of the general in front of the war horse.

"Dear King Pucheti, Achita is indeed a famous general of Tarantum, and the army he commands is indeed powerful in combat! We must also regain Brindisi, so we should not lose too much of our troops here!" Timoglas suppressed his gloating mood and persuaded him.

"You mean to stop fighting?" Teremony glanced at him and said contemptuously.

"The reason why the Tarantums fought to the death is that they had no way to escape. If our encirclement could make a clear path..." A mysterious smile appeared on Timoglas's face.

"You mean-"Tremoni was not a king with mediocre talents. When he was young, he led his army to fight for Pucheti's strength. At this time, he was too persistent in victory. After Timoglas' reminder, he immediately woke up and turned his eyes to Mesapi and Pucheti cavalry waiting on both sides of the battlefield. They united, with nearly a thousand cavalry, but they lost their place of use because the enemy was surrounded.

"I have the same idea!" Trimoni raised his chest and said loudly to cover up his previous loss of composure. He drove his horse forward, pointing his spear to the Tarantum military flag standing in the middle of the chaotic battlefield: "Just don't let Achita go!"

Because Pucheti's soldiers were numerous and Mesapi needed their help urgently, the Mepu coalition forces chose to give up the pathway by the Igratiya infantry surrounded in the west.
Chapter completed!