Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 120: The Siege of Crotone (3)

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Thinking of this, he took a deep breath and calmed himself down. After a quick calculation in his mind, he said in a deep voice: "The elevation angle remains the same. Live ammunition weight."

The gunner did so immediately.

"Launch!"

The stone bullets whizzed away, and one after another stone bullets flew out of the city...

But more stone bullets flew in from outside the city, "Boom! Boom! Boom!..." The sound was mixed with exclamations and screams. One of the stone bullets fell near the ballista where Kurdorod was located, and the stone fragments were splashing in all directions and the momentum was shocking. Kurodorod remained unmoved. After this period of training, he was no longer just a scholar (the nickname given to him by a Legionnaire), but a qualified soldier.

Sirracuse’s siege tower is far from the one used by Dionia’s previous attack on Knapetia. It is 20 meters long, 10 meters wide, and 12 meters high. , The shape is trapezoidal, there are seven floors. The top layer is a circular wooden vertebral dish, and there are five archers in it, who can shoot arrows from the top of the city; the bottom layer also has a siege hammer, which can directly hit the city wall; the penultimate layer is almost as high as the city wall. The suspension bridge can be lowered to allow soldiers entering the tower to rush up to the head of the city; and the penultimate floor is slightly lower than the head of the city, where another terrible weapon invented by the Syracuse is placed-the abdominal bow... therefore , This is a super siege tower, which requires hundreds of people to push it hard behind and on both sides of the tower.

Dionia’s stone bullets kept falling around it, splashing mud flowers one after another, splashing mud mixed with rain and hitting people, causing pain. Those who were hit by the stone bullets were even more terrible, frightening the surrounding soldiers to avoid them. In the case of siege soldiers advancing densely under the city, only a large area was vacated near the siege tower.

The commander of this siege tower certainly felt a bit dangerous. He urged the workers behind the tower to push the siege tower to speed up. As long as it reached the city wall, nothing could threaten the siege tower.

At this time, the third-to-last outer wooden planks of the siege tower have been opened, and the two abdominal bows have revealed their real bodies. Its structure is similar to a ballista, except that the device used for launching is a huge bow. It is placed flat and fixed on the launch frame. The operator turns the pulley vigorously, pulls the sturdy bowstring apart and fixes it, and inserts an equally huge iron arrow.

A distance of 30 meters is a good aim for the abdominal bow. The abdominal archer on the right even pointed the iron arrow at the general on the head of the city with a colored crown on the helmet.

"Huh!!!..." With the sound of the huge bowstring, the iron arrow flashed with a screaming sound and rushed to the top of the city.

When Ascamas was "opening the window" of the siege tower, his years of battlefield experience made him feel uneasy, so he subconsciously sat down on the battlements and heard two screams. Behind him, he was holding a buckler to block the soldiers from the earth ramparts and the siege tower. The iron arrow pierced his chest, and the strong kinetic energy also pierced the soldiers behind him, and finally nailed to the wall behind him, and another iron The arrow shot through three people at a time, and the surrounding soldiers, including Ascamas, showed horror when they saw this.

The giant Siracuse Tower of Siracusa, which played a key role in the Sicily conquering Carthage’s important town of Motia, revealed its hideous appearance. As they got closer and closer, the soldiers who defended the city were panicked at a loss...

At this moment of emergency, a black dot swiftly across the city wall like a meteor, hitting the arrow tower on the top of the siege tower with strong kinetic energy, just hearing the sound of "Boom!", the hard and thick wooden planks A hole was easily broken, and the spitting sawdust pierced the face and body of the Syracuse archer in the arrow tower like steel needles, causing them to scream. But this was not over yet. The stone bullet that fell into the tower followed the wooden ladder and fell to the foot of a soldier who was winding his belly bow on the third floor of the siege tower. He screamed, causing panic among other soldiers. Delayed the launch of the abdominal bow.

"Hit! Hit! Our ballista hits!!..." The defending soldier cheered, as if he had won the whole victory, and used such a move to dispel the fear in his heart.

Astamas sighed in his heart: Compared with the huge siege tower, the ballista's stone bullets are nothing but a drop in the bucket, and they are not enough to cause great damage to it.

Askamas just sighed, he saw stone bullets flying one after another, smashing into the siege tower.

Just when the soldiers sighed and missed the hit, and some even began to pray to Apollo, their prayers seemed to work.

A stone bullet flew from the side and hit the side of the middle of the siege tower, causing the enemy to exclaim.

Then another stone bullet flew unbiasedly into the layer where the baffle was being lifted and the abdominal bow was about to be launched. The abdominal bow echoed and fragile, and various parts and sawdust flew randomly in the narrow space. , In exchange for the soldiers' screams and splashing blood.

Then another stone bullet pierced the lower part of the siege tower.

Despite the constant cheers of the defenders, the siege tower, which was pierced by several large holes by stone bullets, still slowly approached the city wall, but while it was moving, the tower began to shake, and the loose wooden boards continued to fall down. , Let the laborers who were pushing it hard to escape in panic, the siege tower began to collapse from top to bottom...

On the soil fortress outside the city, Dionysius looked at this scene with a sullen expression. He knew: Although under his own supervision, Facipesas had gathered nearly 10,000 people under the command of engineers. The construction of engineering towers was stepped up and three were built within a few days. However, the rush of time made the siege towers not very strong. The violent impact of the stone bullets must have destroyed the internal structure of the siege towers. ...

"My lord, look! That engineering tower has passed the moat!" Damocles exclaimed excitedly to divert Dionysius' attention.

"Our siege hammer has reached the city, I think Crotone's wall will tremble under its impact!" Another subordinate said unwillingly.

Indeed, the walls of Crotone were full of ant-attached Syracuse soldiers. They attracted most of the defenders’ attacks, making the siege tower, the siege hammer, and the city pounding vehicle (that is, the previous The wooden wheeled vehicle for tamping the moat section. After it arrives under the city, the personnel in the vehicle can use tools such as pickaxes to dig out and loosen the hardest shell of the city wall—the stone block, causing the city wall to collapse), ... these large The siege equipment reached the city smoothly. When a siege tower was knocked down, it could not affect the outcome of the battle at all. However, once these siege weapons were used together, the walls of Crotone could be in big trouble.

However, Dionysius looked up anxiously at the sky, the dark clouds in the sky became thicker and thicker, and the rain fell and heavier, making him almost unable to open his eyes: if the rain continues like this, it will be...

It seemed to be responding to his concerns, "Kap!!...Boom!!!..." A dazzling light flashed in the sky, followed by a rumble of thunder, overwhelming everything on the battlefield. The noise shocked many soldiers on both sides, and they looked up to the sky.

The wind is getting stronger...

The rain is heavier, and it soon becomes a downpour...

Lightning, thunder, squalls, and heavy rain have become the protagonists of this world.

The soldiers no longer fight each other, but cower hiding under the city wall or in the tower, because just now a lightning that pierced the sky and the earth struck the ground, actually splitting a huge siege tower in half!

Those who saw the tragedy were stunned.

This is the angry king Zeus! The soldiers on both sides trembled and began to pray to Zeus.

"My lord, it's too dangerous here, let's go down!" The entourage all came to persuade Dionysius.

Dionysius looked forward unwillingly, but the rain was too dense, and the vision was all white...

He reluctantly ordered: retreat immediately!

Under such extremely bad weather, the bugle sound could not be heard at all. Fortunately, the Syracuse soldiers did not need to order at all. They had already consciously retreated back. The Crotones did not dare to go out of the city to pursue them in such terrible weather. A large-scale siege war had just begun, and it was aborted under the interference of nature...

Just after Dionysius descended the soil barrier, it took thousands of people and spent two days to build the soil barrier. Under the violent rain wash, the soil barrier slowly collapsed downwards. He cursed helplessly. : "Fortunately for the Crotone!"

"It seems that Zeus is blessing them this time." An entourage said casually.

Dionysius immediately stared fiercely: "Shut your mouth! This has nothing to do with Zeus, but it's a coincidence."

Askamas at the head of the city is praying to Zeus devoutly.

There are not many rainy days in Crotone in winter. It can be said that today’s heavy rain is rare in the past few years, so Crotone people think this is the blessing of the gods, although they are being affected by wind and rain. Scour, but everyone's morale has been boosted.

……………………………………

The war between Syracuse and the Southern Italian League is always under the attention of many forces because it is related to the hegemony of the Greek city-states in the Western Mediterranean.

Needless to say Carthage, they hated Syracuse, who had been fighting with them for a hundred years. But helplessly, the reality of the dilemma made the Carthaginian Senate rejected Dionia’s request for alliance. Of course, they hoped that Syracuse’s army would suffer setbacks and even heavy losses in the Great Greece war, but the news came. However, the Syracuses have always been winning. Even Crotone and Dionia were at risk under the fierce attack led by Dionysius. The Carthaginians were even more afraid of Syracuse’s strength. .

Marco, who was in charge of defense in Sicily, wrote several times and asked the Senate for instructions, asking for a small attack on Syracuse’s allies to divert Syracuse’s sight and slow Dionysius’ opposition The attack from the north prevented him from conquering Great Greece and integrated into a more powerful Syracuse.

The Senate, headed by Hanno, rejected his proposal. In order to prevent him from coming in disorder, the Senate specially sent inspectors to Lilipi to supervise the movement of the Sicilian army.

……………………………………

The Carthage Senate is watching the progress of the Great Greece battle with fear, while the Corinthian offensive and defensive war on the Peloponnese is still ongoing.

However, Agsilius returned to Sparta, who was ill, and gave the command of the Spartan coalition forces in Corinth to another new king of Sparta, Agsipolis. Uncle Praxitas, the army Agsilius brought back from Asia Minor also stayed in Corinth.