Riding and Slashing

Chapter 227 Battle of Boshi City

Like most prosperous cities, Boshi City is also close to the shore of the lake and has abundant water sources.

The city is located on the lower reaches of the Sava River, where the gentle waters converge into the wide Sava Lake.

Outside the northern city wall of Boshi City is the lake, and it has the largest inland port in the entire Bacchus Empire.

The port is connected to Boshi City through several water gates. These water gates are actually artificial rivers. Smaller ships can pass through the north city wall through the water gates and directly enter Boshi City.

But now is the dry season in winter, the water level is relatively shallow, and the silt at the bottom can be seen directly through the water gate channel. Only small flat-bottomed barges can pass through the water level less than two meters.

Moreover, the water gate has now been completely blocked by dilapidated shipwrecks—this was not blocked by Governor Justus, but by the rebel army.

Originally, Justus just dropped all the gates and sealed off the artificial river in the city. At that time, it was just to block the Red Death.

But now, a large number of corpses have accumulated in the river, and it is impossible to tell whether these corpses are infected or not.

Today's Boshi City is already on the brink of collapse.

Justus just sent troops to guard the port before, and did not destroy the water gate. After all, there must be a way out when things cannot be done.

Although it is a dry season, the lake outside the port can still be used by boats, at least directly to the vicinity of Warenburg.

But after he sent troops to fight the rebel army, the situation changed...

Since Boshi City had a wall over eight meters high, it was difficult for the rebels to storm the city without siege equipment, so they took another route.

That is, waterways.

Although the winter near Boshi City is not too cold, the water is still bitingly cold, and occasionally, ice blocks washed down from the upper reaches can be seen on the lake.Justus really didn't expect that these gladiators could actually swim and fight in winter.

Now the new leader of the rebel army has a fierce fighting style. He led hundreds of gladiators and sneaked into the city through the waterway in the winter.

When those gladiators, all shirtless and not wearing any armor, appeared in the city, a huge panic broke out in Boshi City.

The nobles and residents were locked in the city for three months. They were already restless, but now seeing the enemy enter the city, their anxiety turned into mania.

Justus had to lead his troops to resist the gladiators' attack, but he couldn't suppress the residents' emotions. As a result, the doctor's city turned into an uncontrollable riot.

Some people are crying and howling, some are killing and setting fire, and some are looting and committing crimes...

This bustling city gradually became riddled with holes.

Justus knew that if nothing else happened, there must be some Snake Worshipers among them who were fanning the flames.

But now I can't spare to check...

However, sometimes riots in the city are not necessarily a bad thing...

After thinking for a long time, Justus removed the guards of the water gate.

As a result, many nobles ran to the water gate in the north when riots broke out in the city, intending to escape from Boshi City.

As a result, they just ran into the attacking rebel army...

After a scuffle with no command from either side, countless corpses were left in the Water Gate River.

Most of the nobles who planned to flee from Boshi City died in the river.

The gladiators retreated with the rebel army, but before they left, they snatched most of the ships in the outer port and scuttled the remaining ships to seal the port.

There is no way out for Boshi City.

Justus had to seal off the waterway and forcibly sent troops to suppress the riots in the city.

But in this way, the north city wall also needs to be guarded, and the chaos in the city must be controlled by someone. More than half of the army guarding the city has been transferred away.

When the number of soldiers on the city wall was greatly reduced, the rebel army outside the city launched a full-scale attack.

Perhaps it was also because of the change of leader that the intensity of the rebel army's attack on the city was far beyond everyone's expectations.

This huge army did not have any siege equipment. The tens of thousands of troops lacked food and clothing, and their weapons were not very neat.

Justus originally thought that the rebel army without siege equipment was unlikely to capture Boshi City.

As the cultural center of the Bacchus Empire, Boshi City's defense measures are quite complete.

It not only has tall and wide city walls, but also has all kinds of defensive reserves.

A large number of crossbow bolts and spears were placed on the city wall, and a lot of raging wood and round stones were also prepared.

There are several huge barbed logs tied with iron chains at the top of the city, and there are still pots burning tung oil inside the city.

Not even a lack of poop.

It's just that there are not many soldiers now, and there are riots everywhere in the city, so they can't get the support of the people.

But Justus still felt he could hold on.

After all, the way these mobs roared and rushed towards the city wall seemed completely disorganized.

However, slaves have the wisdom of slaves.

When this army without any supplies rushed under the city wall, they quickly built many long ladders with bamboo poles and thick wooden poles like a magic trick, and then connected these long ladders side by side!
This is of course not a ladder, but each slave carries a section of bamboo and wood, which are mortised and tenoned together to form a climbing wall ladder like a fishing net!

Probably only these slaves can come up with such a way of siege...

This improvised method of putting together the wall-climbing ladder would of course lead to heavy losses. During the short period of time when they pieced together the wall-climbing ladder, the crossbow arrows in the city easily shot and killed hundreds of unarmored slaves.

If Brutus was leading the rebel army, he would definitely not have done this—after all, Brutus was an officer of the Immortal Legion, and he would not waste the lives of soldiers like this.

But now, this rebel army is all like desperadoes.

At this moment, a team of gladiators in the city held their shields to protect their heads, and put the weird-looking ladders on the city wall.

The soldiers guarding the city wall had never seen this novel tactic. They were all firing crossbow arrows to cause damage, and did not throw rolling stones or wood in the first place.

As a result, after the netted ladder with bamboo and wood structure was built on the city wall, the soldiers used push rods to push it, but found that it couldn't be pushed at all!

Because, after those gladiators put the completed ladder on the top of the city, some of them beat the root of the ladder desperately on the inside of the ladder to make it firmly stuck into the ground and fixed.

The other group of people tightened the climbing ladder to the inside, making it close to the city wall, and began to connect with several other wall climbing ladders.

Gradually, like ants, the slaves connected sections of wood into an unshakable net, like a scaffolding for the city wall.

Moreover, they climb upwards from the inside of the ladder.

This is obviously a method invented by slaves who have been engaged in high-risk jobs such as mines or construction for a long time...

Seeing that the huge wall-climbing ladder could not be pushed, the soldiers under Justus began to throw logs and rolling stones, but the logs and stones rolling down the ladder could not hit the slaves inside the ladder. up.

The climbing ladder was originally made of mortise and tenon joints, and the stones and wood hit the ladder, but it seemed to strengthen the ladder.

Not long after, the ladders were finally connected to each other and formed a net, forming a whole with a width of about ten meters!
The bottom is stuck in the soil, and the top is placed on the top of the city. With the continuous replenishment of slaves, it has formed a grid shape, which looks like a rectangular chessboard on the city wall.

This is indeed a common splicing scaffolding in mines of this era.

Afterwards, a large group of shirtless, shirtless and naked men yelled "Huha" in unison, and then charged forward, and began to climb against the arrows on the city.

It was a team of gladiators, and they were obviously very brave gladiators.

Justus yelled "Put the log!" in shock at the top of the wall

Then commanded the guards to shoot arrows again and again.

While it is true that unarmored gladiators were easy to shoot, slaves climbing ladders continued to proliferate.

The rolling log was still effective. The giant log with thorns rolled down the ladder, sweeping down the dozen or so slaves who were about to climb to the top of the city.

However, there were several brave gladiators in the middle of the ladder, using shields to protect their heads, and they cooperated with each other to form the shield surface into a sloping wall.

The log passed over the shield, then bounced up and flew, falling far away.

Most of these gladiators suffered minor injuries due to the force of the impact, but they protected their comrades under them and continued to climb vigorously.

It was not easy to make and throw the log, and it was impossible to throw it continuously. Some soldiers on the city wall were probably a little scared, and they couldn't move another log for a while.

And the gladiators climbed very fast, climbing to the top of the city within a few breaths!

Seeing that the enemy was so brave and fearless, Justus picked up a torch and shouted: "Spear block! Bring up the hot oil!"

The governor, known for his wisdom, could only solve the problem by force with his own hands.

A group of long spearmen stepped forward on the city wall. The division of labor of the Empire's First Legion was quite detailed, and there were almost all types of soldiers.

The spearmen were still calm, and a group of several people surrounded the ladder and stabbed downwards. Although they were fighting hand-to-hand with the highly skilled gladiators, they had a great advantage of being on top. The advantage of the length of the spears made them quickly control the situation .

However, after standing on the top of the city, without the cover of the battlements, the spears under the city came like locusts.

The slave rebels didn't have any crossbows, but they had throwing guns. Although most of them were crude and homemade throwing guns, they were still usable.

Moreover, the Bacchus are more adept at throwing guns.

Just like the people of Fieldsway like to use throwing axes, the Kingdom of Sarleon likes to use spears, and the people of Ravencrow are good at archery...

Every country always has some special sports.

Spear-throwing is Bacchus' traditional event, and spear-throwing battles can often be seen in the arenas in Bacchus.

Although the spearmen of the Empire's First Legion were fully armored, throwing spears was nothing compared to bows and arrows. Heavy throwing spears could often break armor directly.

The defenders on the city began to suffer damage, and several spearmen were brought down by javelins, and fell to the city on their backs.

Fortunately, the hot oil was finally ready, and when a bucket of oil was poured down, there was a strong smell of burning. Most of the gladiators on the climbing ladder fell down with wailing and howling.

Justus dropped the firewood torch again and ignited the firewood with the hot oil, and he was relieved.

But this climbing ladder is obviously connected by wet new wood, it is not easy to ignite, and occasionally there are flames attached to it, which cannot stop the slaves from continuing to climb upwards.

However, the offensive has indeed slowed down.

If only this side climbs the ladder, the rebel army should not be able to attack.

However, the uprising soldiers under the city were so numerous, they probably felt that this method was effective, and they began to assemble a large number of shields!
It seems that among the tens of thousands of enemies, each of them carried a piece of wood specially used to assemble the climbing ladder...

Just between the two rounds of attack and defense on this side of the ladder, two more scaffolds of the same type were spliced ​​and built!
Finally, Justus looked a little flustered, and kept dispatching people to stop him, and the reserve team also used all of them.

Before long, dozens of imperial soldiers were killed or injured.

Although the loss of the rebel army was ten times that of the imperial soldiers, the number of defenders on the city was small after all. If this continues, when the experienced veterans are all lost, the recruits may not be able to do the work of frontal blocking.

If this continues, as the proportion of casualties increases, perhaps the First Army of the Empire will soon collapse.

There are only a few hundred veterans in Justus's hands...

This city might really be captured by the slaves!
No one expected that these slaves could conjure up scaffolding that was no worse than a ladder with their bare hands.

Justus was on the inside of the city wall, watching the defenders on the wall exhausted, but he didn't know how to arrange it for a moment.

He has made all the arrangements he can make, and sent all the reserve teams up, and there is no one around him available.

If he was a strong man like Kailos or Agathon, he should lead the team to stand in front of those scaffolding now and take the lead in blocking the enemy's offensive.

But he is not, he is a consul who relies on his brain for food. Even when he was young, his martial arts were not outstanding. Now that he is over fifty, of course he is wise not to go to the front line.

The insurgents are trading lives for space, and they are fighting fiercely, relying entirely on numbers.In this case, it is not very useful for Justus to go to battle in person, but it is easy for the soldiers to have loopholes in order to protect him.

After sending out all the reserve teams, there was actually nothing he could do. Hiding behind and not causing trouble was the greatest contribution.

He could only helplessly watch the chaotic battlefield, watching the situation gradually deteriorate...

The number of veterans in the First Imperial Army Corps is decreasing, and the battle damage ratio has gradually shrunk from ten to one to five to one, and the casualties of soldiers are increasing rapidly.

Because gradually there are gladiators standing on the top of the city.

These brave fighters honed from the arena are extremely powerful in the small space like the city wall. When they stand on the city wall, it often takes five or more soldiers to kill them.

As more gladiators stood on the city wall, Justus sat weakly on the steps of the city wall, and he was a little desperate now.

The city is still noisy, those shameless thugs are setting fire everywhere, there is smoke and dust everywhere, and it is a mess.

The prison and the warehouses in the east of the city were full of people infected with the Red Death. Since most of the guards were transferred to the enemy, the control there might soon be out of control.

Most of the nobles died in Boshi City, or died on the way out of Boshi City...

Justus is not sure now, even if he defends Boshi City, what will he face?

Before him, several fierce gladiators climbed onto the city wall, and easily beheaded the soldiers standing in front of Justus.

The gladiators were closing in on him, but Justus didn't flee.

He just looked at those gladiators coldly, without moving.

He knew that he could neither fight nor escape, so he maintained the dignity that an imperial consul should have.

But perhaps, some people are destined not to be extinct.

Just when Justus was about to close his eyes, a clear and urgent trumpet sound came from outside the city.

"Ohh Ohh ohh……"

That's not the sound of the Bacchus Empire's bugle. The Bacchus Empire's bugle is a metal French horn, which usually makes a long and deep sound.

This short sound of the horn is the charge horn of the Sarleon Cavalry Troops!

(End of this chapter)