Rome Must Fall Chapter 69: Quintus’ siege plan

The middle-aged man named Calpurnius Scarpra said eagerly: "I have served as an engineer in the Roman army for many years, and I can help you make siege equipment. Quintus—— ”

He pointed to the old man beside him: "He has served as the chief centurion for many years and has rich experience in siege. He can teach you how to attack Pompeii——"

He pointed to the rough man who spoke first: "Aulus was once a famous warrior in the Roman army and won the warrior crown. He could summon more than 40 men who were older but experienced in killing enemies. Soldiers, fight side by side with you!"

"What you said made my heart move. It's just a pity..." Maximus sighed twice.

After entering the military tent, Quintus, who had been silently observing the other party, said: "Since you have made a decision, why don't you just ask the leader who originally hosted us to tell us in that camp? Maximus Chief, if you have anything to say, just say it."

After his thoughts were seen through, Maximus was slightly embarrassed. He laughed twice, looked at Quintus, and said in a deep voice: "Although the other leaders are against it, I still want to give it a try. However, the only soldiers under my command are With 800 people, it is definitely impossible to attack Pompeii from the front. If you have no other way, just pretend that I didn’t mention this, and you can go back."

"With 800 people, you just want to capture Pompeii?! That's like——" As soon as the man named Aulus spoke, he heard Quintus yell: "Aulus, shut up!"

He immediately stopped talking.

Quintus looked at Maximus: "Do you have paper and pen?"

"Yes." Maximus quickly brought it to him.

Quintus was not polite and walked directly to the wooden table, lying down and sketching.

Maximus looked closer and saw that the old man quickly used lines and dots to form an oval on the papyrus with his brushstrokes.

He looked up at Marcimus: "This is a map of Pompeii."

Maximus nodded in understanding.

"The walls of Pompeii are about two miles long. The wall facing the land is 700 meters long. The wall facing the land is five to six meters high. The wall facing the sea is two to three meters high. There are six gates in total——" Quintus pointed with his finger at the map he had just drawn: "Herculaneum Gate, Vesuvius Gate, Capua Gate, Nora Gate, Sano Gate, and Sea Gate. Pompeii has a population of more than 6,000 There are 300 people in the city guard. In case of emergency, at least 800 people can participate in the battle. The strength to defend the entire city wall is actually not enough, but that is for your entire team. It can deal with you who only have 800 soldiers. It’s more than enough.”

Maximus said calmly: "I would also like to remind you that only half of my 800 soldiers have armor and weapons, and the other soldiers only have farm tools and sticks."

"What are you—" Upon hearing this, Aulus wanted to speak again, but was quickly stopped by Spukala next to him.

Quintus remained calm and said slowly: "If hundreds of people want to capture Pompeii, a force attack will definitely not work. They can only rely on surprise attacks. It's just that it has been half a year since you came to Vesuvius. Pompeii was quite negligent during the month, and at dusk all the city gates were still wide open, allowing pedestrians and merchants to enter and exit without restriction. However, as the threat to surrounding towns increased, all the land gates of Pompeii began to open. Closed, rarely opened——"

"Are you talking about all the land gates?" Maximus keenly discovered some clues from the other party's words.

"Yes, the land gate, because the sea gate is open." Quintus said, picked up the pen, drew a thin, winding line immediately below the map of Pompeii, then pointed at it and said: "This is the coastline, this is the sea gate. The Pompeii people are afraid of you and have closed all the land gates. They can only rely on sea transportation to communicate with the outside world. The supplies the Pompeii people need can only rely on merchant ships to transport them into the port and through the sea gate. Inside the city, so the sea gate is always open."

"You mean - if we want to raid, the only way is to take the sea route, use ships to transport troops into the port, and then break into the city through the sea gate?" Maximus asked thoughtfully.

Quintus pointed at the coastline on the simple map with his hand, shook his head and said: "The reason why the Pompeii people built the city here is because there is at least a five-meter height difference between the coast here and the city. Only Haimen has built it here. A ramp leads to the port. Since the land gates are closed, even if the sea gate is open, the interrogation will be stricter than before. It may be very difficult for you to sneak in, and it may not be easy to raid the sea gate.

Quintus pointed to somewhere on the coastline: "The port area on this side of the bay is at least a hundred meters away from the Haimen. When your soldiers land at the port, the sentries on the city wall will easily find it. When the time comes, the Haimen At the first level, the Pompeii people are shooting arrows from a high position, and you have nowhere to escape."

"It seems that with the number of people I have, it is impossible to capture Pompeii." Maximus sighed, waved his hand and said, "If that's the case, then I won't keep you any longer——"

"Chief Maximus, don't be anxious!" Quintus saw that the other party was about to see off the guests, and he had no time to make any gestures. He said eagerly: "It is impossible to capture Haimen, but it is impossible to attack the city from the port. It can be done!"

"Oh, why?" Maximus responded calmly, looking like he didn't care much.

"Come and see here." Quintus moved his finger slightly upward, and then tapped heavily.

Maximus then noticed that on the left side of the sea gate and directly above the port, the map of Pompeii originally drawn with thin lines was disconnected and not connected at one point: "This is it?"

"There is about two hundred meters away without a city wall." Quintus said in a deep voice: "It is said that there was no city wall when the city was built. The reason may be that the height difference between the city here and the bay below is more than eight meters, and The **** is steep, making it impossible for enemies to climb up, and it does seem very safe. However, after hundreds of years of Pompeii, the bay below the city has turned into a lush port area, and the bottom of this wall-less city is already full of houses. Some people even blatantly ignored the ban of the Pompeii City Government and built three-story high-rise buildings here so that more houses could be rented to the poor in the port area——"

Quintus paused for a moment~IndoMTL.com~ His indifferent face suddenly became a little distorted, and he sneered: "The only person who dares to do this, but has the city government unable to do anything to him, is the number one in Pompeii. Family, the Vitius family known as the 'Protectors of Pompeii'——"

When Maximus heard this, his heart moved: Aren't the Vitius family the target of this old man's revenge?

Quintus did not pay attention to Maximus's expression and continued: "The Vitius family built several three-story Roman-style buildings side by side in the port area below this unwalled city. The roof of the "Hui"-shaped building is almost flush with the urban area. We only need to go up to the roof and take a four- to five-meter long wooden ladder or plank to easily enter the urban area from the port area.

The Pompeii people are as timid as other Campanians, and have never experienced war. They have the city wall to rely on, and they still barely have the courage to fight you. But once you break into the city, even if you only have one or two hundred soldiers, , if they did not gather more than two or three times the number of people, they would not dare to step forward to stop it. ”

Quintus snorted disdainfully and traced the map with his finger: "After your soldiers enter the city from here, they can directly follow this road and run less than 200 meters to the west, and they will be there. Gate of Herculaneum, kill the guards, open the city gate, and your other soldiers who are ambushing outside the city can rush in. Eight hundred people plus us can completely conquer the city of Pompeii!"

At the end of Quintus's words, he became a little excited, but Maximus just blinked: "Listening to what you said, it seems easy to enter the city from the bay next to it, but how do you let the troop transport ship enter? What about entering the port? Since the Pompeii people were on guard on land, there is no way they would not be vigilant at the port!"