Maximus patiently listened to his criticism of the wooden wall of the Pannonian village and asked, "So?"
"And there’s no moat dug in front of the wooden wall. If the village over there is , it can be easily breached. When I was campaigning with General Sula in the province of Little Asia, I once saw barbarians use a simple method to breach hastily built wooden camps of the enemy..."
As expected, this old man had long realized the next village would be difficult to capture and was pondering the method to breach Segestica Village alone here... Maximus asked in as calm a tone as possible, "What should be done?"
"Find some sturdy ropes, then a few robust long logs, and more importantly, select a few strong bulls... These are all available in the villages. In theory, horses would also work and can arrive at the village quickly, but unfortunately, when I walked around inside, I didn’t see any horses." Quintus showed confusion: "This is very strange! Even if the Pannonians used to be Illyrians and disliked raising horses, they should have developed the habit after being enslaved by the Scodisqi people from Gaul for so long."
"This matter can wait until after the next village is captured; we can then ask the captives." After Maximus said this, he immediately arranged for Pequot to prepare these things and also selected a dozen soldiers from those left behind who used to feed cattle and sheep for the nobles.
Soon, Maximus, with the Guard in tow, herded eight bulls, marching east along the river.
When they arrived at the village, they found the forces commanded by Oluus indeed faced obstacles attacking the village.
Maximus followed Quintus’ suggestion, distributing many long spears they had seized and brought to each Centurion, then had the Centurions form a turtle formation, approaching under the village wall and throwing spears inside to force the enemy away from the walls...
Then, he sent a team of soldiers to throw the logs, secured at both ends with ropes, across the village wall. The other end of the ropes was tied to the bulls. With short swords, the soldiers stabbed the bulls’ hindquarters, causing them to charge and pull the logs lodged between the wooden village walls. Unable to withstand the bulls’ immense strength, the logs either broke or were pulled down, and the rebel army soldiers, long prepared, surged through the opening...
Two great victories in a row, capturing two villages, and the newly formed Nix Tribe created a radiant achievement in one day.
At this moment, though, Maximus had no time to savor the wine of victory. He had to arrange for the soldiers who captured the village and the personnel of the Supply Team arriving later to transfer all the supplies and captured population in the village to the first captured village before nightfall.
Grain, smoked meat, smoked fish... these foods were the priority transport targets. The Supply Camp personnel brought over a dozen carriages from the temporary camp, but since they also had to transport the supplies from the first village simultaneously, it was not enough.
Fortunately, the village was not short of carriages, as Cabdes often had to transport supplies to support the Wallis Tribe and help continue the assault on the Aldeans. Although the village lacked horses, it had many oxen and donkeys, whose wagons’ craftsmanship was not inferior to those brought by the rebel army from Italy. After all, the Gauls were famous in the Mediterranean for their cart-making skills, and even the Romans’ direction carriages came from learning from them. The Pannonians lived with the Scodisqi people for decades and naturally learned these skills.
Maximus also discovered a simple dock in the village, with four spindle-shaped flat-bottomed single-masted boats that could accommodate seven or eight people. They were unsuitable for transporting soldiers but could carry supplies. Many sailors from Campania and Sarabia were among the rebel army, capable of steering ships on the high seas against winds and waves, so handling a few small boats to transport supplies on the calm Kupa River was a breeze.
At the same time, Maximus felt puzzled: since this village had a dock and boats, why didn’t the village to the west have them? Otherwise, some Pannonians could have completely escaped by boat when they surrounded and captured that village, floating downstream to arrive here, and then the people here wouldn’t have gone to aid, reducing today’s achievements by at least half.
Later, Maximus learned that the Pannonians indeed could build ships and river ports, but that was on the Sava and Delaware Rivers. The invasion of the Segestica Tribe into the midstream plains of the Kupa River happened only four or five years ago. This village’s tribe only settled down at the beginning of the last year, beginning to build a dock, but the timber for shipbuilding needed to dry for at least a year. The tribal leader couldn’t wait that long and instead traded for boats from the neighboring eastern Segestica Tribe. The western Pannonian tribe built its village later and had been busy fighting the Aldeans, so they hadn’t had the time to build docks or make boats...
Maximus was therefore thankful.
The next priority for the rebel army was to transport livestock and poultry: cattle, sheep, donkeys, pigs, chickens, ducks, and geese. The livestock and poultry were abundant and varied, as the land here was fertile, grain plentiful, fish and shrimp abundant in the Kupa River, and lush forests nearby, enabling the Segestica people to sustain more livestock and poultry to provide themselves with eggs, milk, and a variety of food.
Next, they took various tools and materials: iron tools, furs, cloth, timber... Maximus found the Segestica people’s iron plows for farming and long-handled sickles for cutting crops, showing their level of agricultural farming was not minor.
He also discovered a complete set of iron processing tools for leather making used by the Segestica people, including scissors, rubbing sticks, leather punching pliers, cutting knives, awls, and thimbles... crafted delicately, showing their metalworking and skin processing skills were notable.
Finally, they gathered daily life supplies: pottery jars, wooden frames, chairs, tables, barrels, boxes, bed sheets, clothes... In short, the rebel army greedily took whatever they could see and use, given they had damaged and discarded many items while crossing mountains. Now, building a new home meant lacking everything.
As a result, the entire village, apart from the houses and wooden walls, was stripped clean; even the large stone mill in the middle of the village was dismantled and laboriously moved onto the boats for transport.
The supplies in the village had to be taken, and the people here also had to be moved. They were divided into four categories: injured Segestica warriors, young Segestica males, elderly, women, and children of Segestica, and Scodisqi slaves.
The rebel army made the Segestica male residents carry their injured tribesmen on bed boards or door panels, with extra young males carrying sacks full of wheat, leaving them no strength to resist;
The elderly, women, and children supported each other while walking, with those able carrying some daily necessities;
Among the Scodisqi slaves, aside from the young males carrying supplies, the elderly, women, and children could proceed lightly, a noticeable difference in treatment that surprised the Scodisqi slaves.
Taking this opportunity, Maximus arranged for some Illyrian soldiers to announce among the Scodisqi slaves that "they were once slaves too and thus understood the hardships of slavery, viewing the Scodisqi as friends..." Words like these (the Scodisqi could mostly understand what the Illyrian soldiers were saying, due to their decades-long close contact with the Pannonian Tribe, not to mention learning Illyrian during the recent slave years) evidently touched these slaves, most of whom complacently obeyed the rebel soldiers’ commands, with some even actively helping with supplies.