Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 119: The Siege of Crotone (2)

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The slaves hobbled to the Luzhai, and the soldiers on the city began to shoot arrows, and suddenly the city screamed again and again...

Just when Kolebus and the others bent their bows and arrows and drew their javelins again, the slaves in the city shouted: "Don’t shoot arrows, I’m Sifnos, Sifnos, son of Sifnos. !"

"I am Pararus! The neighbor of Ascamas!"

……

The Crotone soldiers were stunned: It was not the slaves who were under the city, but their compatriots who were captured after the defeat of the previous battle!

"Damn Syracuse! Dionysius who should go to hell!" Ascamas fisted on the battlement, and the blood immediately stained his fist. He didn't expect Dior. Nisius actually ignored the Greek tradition and allowed the Greek captives to act as a physical shield for the siege to be consumed.

At this moment, Dionysius, who had already followed the archer with the earth squadron in his hand, looked down at the city, with a sneer on his face. We must know that after the last battle, Syracuse captured nearly 10,000 prisoners. After intimidation, beatings, fasting... and other tortures, more than 2,000 people were forced to pull out and fill up the deer castle under the city for Syracuse. Moat in exchange for the promise of not being tortured or sold as slaves. Among these 2,000 people, not only are Crotones, but there are also a small number of Siritins and Trinas, but there are no Dionians. On the one hand, Dionian soldiers are the least captured, and more than half have been exchanged by Dionian. For the remaining Bruti prisoners, Dionysius has other uses, and the pure Greeks Most of the Lucanians have a tough temper...

Dionysius didn’t think about this annoying little question. He was proud of his strategy and wanted to see how the Crotones would respond. For this reason, he ordered the archers not to shoot arrows and keep them. With physical strength and arrows, when the whole army attacks, they will sweep away the obstacles at the head of the city.

On the top of the city, the adjutant asked eagerly: "General, what should we do?!"

Askamas did not answer immediately. While asking the guards to bandage his left hand, he looked sadly at the Crotone prisoners in the city, under the pressure of the Syracuse, walked to the moat and would bear the burden. Throwing his soil bag into the moat, then turned back to destroy the deer village carefully arranged by the defenders.

Askamas scolded these traitors secretly, but he did not dare to order them to attack them, because he thought: Crotone’s former mortal enemy Turri, their chief general Kunogolata was because of the order Closing the city gates saved the whole city, but because it caused the deaths of some of the citizens, the people were reluctant to do so. Not only did Kunogolata drive out Kuno Gorata, it also hurt his family, and now he directly ordered the killing of the following Crotone prisoners, even if they repelled the enemy's attack, how can the families of these thousands of dead people not hate themselves in the future, I am afraid that their fate will be worse than Kunogolata!

Ascamas is not a general who only knows how to fight. He has been elected as a general in Crotone, a strong Greek state with tens of thousands of citizens, and his political literacy is not low. After quickly weighing the pros and cons, he said to the adjutant: "You go to the city hall immediately, tell the council what is going on here, and let them make a decision."

After the adjutant left, Ascamas saw that a short section of the moat was about to be cut off, he couldn't help but sighed, and said to the left and right: "Hurry up and find some ropes and hang them under the city so that they can hold them. Climb up."

He didn't dare to open the gate of the city, fearing that the Syracuse would take the opportunity to swarm in.

The soldiers hurriedly found the rope to hang down the city, and then shouted to their compatriots: "Come here! Quickly grab the rope and climb up!!!"

Some prisoners heard this and ran across the filled moat, but the light infantry of Syracuse immediately shot arrows at them, making the prisoners who had never eaten enough and were weak to be easily shot. fall.

The soldiers at the city head fought back angrily, and most of them were unable to hit these Syracuses who were hiding behind the shield truck, but accidentally wounded their own compatriots.

The captives no longer dared to act rashly.

Seeing this, Ascamas reluctantly gave up the move to rescue his compatriots.

The Crotone Council was obviously not prepared for Syracuse’s use of captives to attack the city, and the argument was fierce, but it was still unable to make a decision. This allowed the Syracuses to have sufficient time for the captives to fill up. Several long sections of the moat were removed, and the deer villages on both sides of the moat were cleared.

Askamas looked depressed at all this, but he quickly forced himself to cheer up again: In this case, let us fight face to face!

As if hearing the inner cry of Askamas, the captives were driven back and never appeared again.

Seeing that everything is ready, Dionysius smugly issued the command on the high platform: "Offensive!"

As soon as the voice fell, my face suddenly felt cold, and I reached out and touched it, it turned out to be water.

It's raining? Dionysius looked up at the sky. The clear sky before became a little gloomy. Although it was only a small raindrop, Dionysius was a little worried because the weight of the siege tower would cause the land to become soft after being soaked in rain. As a result, the wheels are stuck in the mud and cannot be pushed.

"Speed ​​up the attack!" He gave the order again.

The bugle screamed.

The stone bullets in the sky above Crotone continuously whizzed past, and the dark, crushed enemies under the city slowly surged like a tide...

The sound of bugles, war drums, shouts, footsteps...mixed together, hitting the eardrums of the soldiers who defended the city, causing them to breathe quickly.

"It's started." Askamas whispered, picking up the javelin, and walking to the battlement.

At this moment, a black spot suddenly passed over the back of his head, followed by another...

He suddenly widened his eyes, looked up, and heard the soldier next to him shout in excitement: "Our ballista! Our ballista is finally starting to show off!!..."

It’s not Crotone’s ballista...Ascamas thought to himself, but seeing the morale of the soldiers rise, he didn’t mind, but felt fortunate in his heart: Fortunately, Dionia and Crotone stand together!

The soldiers of Crotone were excited, and the people of Syracuse were anxious, especially Dionysius. He saw with his own eyes the stone bullets flying out of the city almost all hitting the attack not far from the basement. Near the city tower.

He heard Fascipess say, ‘Dionia also has ballistas. 'Since Crotone hadn't been used in the first two days, he thought that Dionia did not lend Crotone this kind of weapon with complex production process, expensive materials and powerful weapons, but It was used to defend Asprostum, but Crotone was hidden until now, until Syracuse fully attacked the city.

"Cunning Crotone!" Dionysius cursed. He knew that the enemy's ballista was aimed at the siege tower, but he could only be anxious: "Notify our ballistas to the enemy's city. Attack the area where the ballista is placed!"

Although Dionysius gave the order, he also knew that the accuracy of the ballista was not high. When the enemy's ballista was not visible, it would be too difficult to hit. The city forces are already approaching the city wall, and the ballista can no longer bombard the city wall, so as not to accidentally injure one's own people, it is good to make some attempts to disturb the inner city of Crotone.

In front of the huge siege team like the tide, the enemy has only a dozen ballistas, which can't make too much waves. The key is to conquer the city head first! Dionysius quickly made a decision. Under his instructions, hundreds of archers on the soil fortress began to throw arrows at the front of the city, suppressing the enemy's attack on the soldiers under the city.

The Crotone light infantry on the head of the city also began to pour arrows at the enemies approaching the moat.

The Syracuse crossed the filled moat, braved the javelin thrown by the Crotone, and put the ladder on the wall. After many times of siege experience, Crotone’s specially-made ladder has two curved iron hooks at the head, which can hook the battlements, so that the ladder will not be easily slipped or pushed down.

The Crotone soldiers couldn't push down the ladder quickly, so they had to throw javelins and stones down to attack the enemies who climbed the city, dump tung oil, and burn the ladder with fire...

The Siracusa light infantry also came out from behind the archery car, rushed to the city, and shot arrows at the front of the city to alleviate the defenders’ attack on the siege soldiers...

The speed of Syracuse’s siege equipment is the slowest. Running at the forefront are those wooden wheeled vehicles with a roof, driven by the people in the car, and finally rushed to the filled moat. Under the protection of the roof, the people in the car picked up the tools and began to re-compact the ground without any distractions. Fill the gap with soil and then lay planks to ensure that the heavy siege tower can pass through the moat.

The ballistas of Dionia are arranged not far behind the Western City Wall, the distances are widened, and there are houses around them, making them relatively safe. However, due to the wide spread of ballistas, it is impossible to adjust the trajectory with the same data after the attack target calculation. There are not so many artillery personnel from several colleges, so Kurdorod made a suggestion: ten ballistas bombarded at the same time A region or a target can improve the accuracy of hits. After the ballista under his personal command was fired for the first time, other ballistas could adjust the firing data according to the height and speed of the stone bullet.

This proposal was approved by the Ballista Team, and now their primary goal is the approaching siege tower right in front.

Kuldorod has been watching the observer holding the colored flags high on the city wall. His position is to indicate the location of the siege tower, and the number he used to sign in the air with the colored flag is the distance between the siege tower and the city wall. , And then the observer hand pointed the colored flag to the left. After this action was repeated twice, the number followed by the sign was the azimuth and distance of the stone bullet fired by Kuldorod before.

The first two launches failed to make a hit. Kurdorod felt the pressure. He wiped the rain on his face to make his vision clearer. He knew he had to hit as soon as possible, otherwise the rain would keep going. Down, when the spring group of the ballista is damp, the elasticity will change, making it even more difficult to judge the accurate trajectory.