Published at 18th of February 2024 8:46 pm

Chapter 879: The End of the Samnite Tribal Alliance (I)

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With the Alfaternum tribe raging in the centre and the allied soldiers charging fiercely in the rear, the Caudini warriors caught unaware and got attacked from both sides fled in panic, some of them shouting to alert the other tribes, “The Nucerians have rebelled! The Nucerians have rebelled!!…”

Despite the constant sounds of fighting and screams resounding in this area, the other tribal warriors in the distant areas could still hear the neat and loud shouts of the Alfaternum people and the Caudini warriors from other tribes. So, while the Caudini warriors alerted the other Caudini tribes, it also let the other Nucerian tribal warriors know the situation and forced them to take immediate action.

As a result, one Nucerian tribal warrior after another began attacking the nearby Caudini warriors.

Segobani had initially separated the Nucerian tribes to make them not dare to rebel and, simultaneously, forced them to fight with all their might for survival. But beyond his expectation, he instead lifted a stone and smashed his own foot, as the sudden rebellion of the tribal warriors of the Nucerians caused the entire military formation of the Caudini army to descend into chaos.

Xanticles noticed the abnormal situation in the enemy's formation, so he immediately took the opportunity to inform the light-armoured soldiers to attack inwardly. Then, with the attack of their allies who had caught up with them, they quickly turned the Caudini army's initial planned retreat into a complete rout.

Even some Caudini warriors began to be paranoid after getting frightened by the constant news of rebellion and swung their spears at their comrades who had accidentally gotten near them. Under the dim sky, the morale of the Caudini warriors dissipated as they trampled and killed each other while escaping, causing countless casualties.

By nightfall, when the allied army stopped their pursuit, only nearly two thousand Caudini warriors managed to escape, including the Great Chieftain Segobani, who eventually fled into the city of Suessula. Meanwhile, the allied force lost less than five hundred men and gained more than two thousand defected Nucerian warriors, giving them another boost in strength.

The following day, after a night's rest, Theonia and their allies split their troops and marched north, with their targets being Suessula and Abella.

Towards noon, the army, mainly composed of soldiers from the Campanian League, arrived at the outskirts of Suessula, only to find it abandoned.

After Segobani led the remnant Caudini army back to Suessula, he realised they could no longer stay in the city after calming down from cursing the rebelling Nucerians. After all, once the enemy attacked, they would only need to allocate some of their troops to surround Suessula, which only had two thousand warriors to defend it. Then, they could lead their main force to attack Abella, located in the mountain pass and left defenceless. Then, they could go straight to the Caudium, which was also left undefended and would result in Caudium falling.

So, that night, Segobani mobilised everyone in Suessula to relocate.

Despite their reluctance, the people of Suessula wanted to avoid repeating Nola's mistakes. Thus, they began carrying their belongings, helped the elderlies and children, and retreated overnight towards Abella and Caudium.

So, when Theonia and their allies arrived at the mountain pass, Segobani led the only two thousand warriors stationed in the small town of Abella to block the enemies heading east.

.............

On the same day, some of the Tenth and Eleventh Legion soldiers led by Kapus, totalling about ten thousand soldiers, fought hard for a day and captured the small town of Aequum. They acted in concert with the forces led by Alexius directly west of the Samnite mountains, as they threatened to encircle the Hirpini territory completely.

With the successive departures of the Caudini and Pentri significantly weakening the military strength in Beneventum, Lesguk had to stop sending his men out of the city to reduce unnecessary casualties. However, it had instead allowed their enemies to approach the city. Fortunately, they didn’t come to attack. Instead, Garni, the chieftain of Abellinum, led his tribesmen here as they kept shouting outside the city.

Garni recounted the defeats suffered by Lesguk since he launched the war against Theonia, as well as the exact number of casualties and captured Hirpini warriors.

He then said, “Fellow Hirpini, you should no longer blindly follow Lesguk and continue fighting against Theonia now that Theonia has captured Aquilonia and Aequum one after another and has already surrounded the Hirpini territory. Otherwise, they would send their troops to capture your towns, destroy your homes, capture your families, and completely wipe out your tribes!…”

At the same time, he also gave his words, “But as long as the tribal chieftains and warriors submit to Theonia, and even better if you can capture Lesguk, not only will you be forgiven for your previous transgression against Theonia, your territories and families will be preserved, and they would release your warriors that they captured to their homes, while the Theonian physicians would treat the wounded warriors with care…”

Garni's repeated shouting in the city greatly impacted the chieftains and warriors of the Hirpini tribe inside the city.

Lesguk then started seeing the chieftains of the various Hirpini tribes quietly gathering their warriors as they secretly discussed something, which alarmed him.

Not long after, the news of the disastrous defeat of the Caudini army in the Campanian plain spread to Beneventum, causing even more anxiety to the people.

At this moment, under the repeated urging of Alexius, the chieftain of Aquilonia rushed from the Theonian camp and also followed Garni in shouting in the city, which finally led to the Aquilonian warriors whom he had initially sent to Beneventum to follow Lesguk on the expedition to be the first ones to come forward and demanded Leguk to allow them to respond to their chieftain's call to leave Beneventum and join Theonia.

As the third largest tribal town of the Hirpini tribe, even after several battles, Aquilonia still has over seven hundred warriors, which accounted for a considerable proportion of the Hirpini army, which now consisted of just over four thousand warriors. Right behind Aquilonia were the warriors of Aequum, who had likewise decided to submit to Theonia to save their captured families.

Within Hirpini, the tribes enjoy equal political status. Although they adhere to the orders of the elected chieftain, such choices are not mandatory by law; rather, they are rooted in the long-standing tradition of the tribe. However, it also stipulates that the tribes had the right to refuse the order of the great chieftain at any time, depending on their situation. Therefore, whether it is the Hirpini tribe or other Samnite tribes, they are still in a loose alliance within themselves.

Perhaps due to the characteristics of people living in the mountains, it was difficult to unify the jurisdictions of the tribes due to the lack of transportation between them, and therefore, more independent and free in political status. However, this made it impossible for Lesguk to force them to stay by coercive means, either politically or militarily (the fact that the Aquilonian and Aequum warriors had a combined total of eight hundred warriors had made Lesguk give in).

Under great helplessness, Lesguk could only make them swear in the name of Savoni that they would not become enemies with any Samnite tribes after surrendering to Theonia.

And so the Aquilonian and Aequum warriors swore.

Then, Lesguk could only command the city gate to be opened and let the warriors of these two tribes leave.

Alexius led the top leaders of this mixed army in welcoming those who came to surrender.

The other tribal chieftains who witnessed the entire process atop the city wall stopped hesitating and made demands to Lesguk to allow them to leave Beneventum and return to defend their hometown.

Lesguk knew these people were telling lies and feared they would all go to the Theonians in the blink of an eye if he really let them out of the city. He already expected this to happen when he let the Aquilonian and Aequum warriors leave. However, these Hirpini tribal warriors who had joined together to force their way out of the city added up to more than a thousand people, so if he didn't let them leave, once they were allowed to make trouble in the city, it would only cause an even bigger catastrophe.

So, after much contemplation, Lesguk finally nodded in agreement.

The Hirpini tribe leaving one after another caused panic among the people in Beneventum. It even affected the Caraceni's army, where its chieftain and warriors begged Konteruk to leave Beneventum and return to their homes.

Despite Konteruk's stubborn and conservative personality, he is also aware that the defeat of the Samnite Alliance has been determined. With them outnumbered, the fall of Beneventum is only a matter of time. So, if the Caraceni army continued to stay in the city, there was a danger of their entire army being wiped out.

Hence, he sent a subordinate to meet Lesguk and used the excuse of being forced by the chieftains of the various Caraceni tribes. He felt apologetic for not personally going to see Lesguk. At the same time, he led his men out of the north gate, crossed the river and left Beneventum.

With the reinforcements leaving one after another, the people in the city completely descend into panic. So the tribal chieftains of Beneventum came together to meet with Lesguk and asked that with the current critical situation where they are all their own, in order to ensure the safety of the various tribes and tribesmen in the city, they hope that Lesguk can lead everyone to surrender to Theonia.

With a gloomy expression, Lesguk looked at the chieftains who came to ask him, which included the elders of his own tribe, making his face even more gloomy. After being silent for some time and under the repeated urging from the chieftains, he coldly said, “Let me think about it…” After saying that, he asked his guards to drive everyone away.

Lesguk felt desolate when looking at the empty room as he remembered the words that Segobani used to scold him about how he didn't deserve to be a great chieftain as he wasn't decisively enough when doing things and his methods were not ruthless enough…

Lesguk gave a miserable smile and muttered to himself, “Segobani, you are right… However, I really want to know how you, with your ruthless methods, will save Caudium. Unfortunately… I am unable to see it…”

That night, Lesguk committed suicide at his residence. The people of the city became horrified that the chieftains gathered urgently and sent envoys to the Theonian camp the next day.

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