ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 711 Siege and Rescue

The huge force of the Romans forced the Volscian warriors and Dionysian reinforcements in the two cities not to leave the city easily, but could only send a small number of light infantry to harass, which obviously had little impact on the Roman army.

Camillus used half of his troops for defense, and the other half of the soldiers plus slaves and civilians who transported baggage participated in building the camp. The two were rotated regularly. As a result, it only took three days to reach Setia and Polai. The Roman camp between Furnham was initially built.

Quintus and Licinius impatiently proposed to attack the city of Setia.

The highly respected Camillus objected at first. He reminded the two military and political officers: In the past few days, the Volscians have been building traps and trenches outside the city of Setia, and the entire city's defense may be stronger than before. , and there are tens of thousands of Volscian reinforcements in the city of Polevernum, not far from Setia, as well as thousands of powerful Dionians. They may come out of the city at any time to assist the Romans in their siege. Combat becomes more difficult.

Therefore, he suggested: Siege and not attack Setia, pin down Pollevnum, and then detach more than 2 soldiers to bypass these two towns and advance directly to the southwest, destroying the Volscian army along the way. Fields, arrived at the city of Selshere, the important town of Wolsey.If the Volscian reinforcements and the Dionians come to rescue, take the opportunity to have a decisive battle with them in the wild; if the enemy does not rescue, then attack Selshe and eventually capture it, thereby changing this stalemate.

Quintus refused.In his opinion: the enemy is right in front of him. With the strong strength of his army, he can completely capture Setia and at the same time fight the enemy troops coming out of Pollenham. There is no need to march another twenty or thirty miles. Taking the risk of being attacked by the enemy and attacking the city of Selshe, which the Volscians call "difficult terrain", would be both dangerous and too troublesome.

Of course, Licinius also supported taking Setia first.

As the most junior of the military and political officers, Frius remained silent, but in his heart he actually supported Quintus' proposal.This is derived from the Roman military tradition of using heavy infantry as the main military force of the city-state. The vast majority of Roman citizens were accustomed to frontal attacks and did not have much concept of roundabout attacks. Even Frius and Camillus worked together for so long. Long.

Camillus did not insist on his opinion anymore, but asked himself to stay in the camp while a new camp was built.

Thus, the Roman attack on the city of Setia began.

Soon they tasted the power of the defense facilities added with the help and guidance of the soldiers of the Dionian First Legion.

First of all, the wide trap belt in front of the trench made the Roman soldiers suffer a lot. Many soldiers were stabbed in the feet by "meat hooks" and "lilies".

Just when they had to patiently clear the traps, the defenders sent hundreds of light infantry who were familiar with the distribution of traps outside the city. They scattered and ran along the safe passages in the trap area, firing javelins and arrows at the Romans who were focused on clearing the obstacles on the ground. The arrow attack not only caused the casualties of some Roman soldiers, but also delayed the progress of their siege.

Therefore, although the ballista 300 meters away from the city has been firing stone projectiles for several days, and even several of them were damaged due to excessive use, the ancient Setia city wall has only recently undergone some repairs. Wherever it could withstand the continuous bombardment, several collapses occurred.

This was a great opportunity to attack the city, but the Romans were hampered by traps outside the city and could not successfully reach the city. They could only watch helplessly as the Volscians used stones and mud oars to repair the gap.But this also gave Quintus, Licinius, and Frius more confidence in conquering Setia Cheng.

They sent thousands of light infantry, risking being stabbed by traps under their feet, to attack the Volscian light infantry who went out of the city to attack, and finally forced the Volscian light infantry to not dare to leave the city easily with heavy casualties.

A few days later, the Roman soldiers paid a certain amount of casualties and basically cleared the traps in front of the trenches.

Quintus and Licinius left nearly 5000 men in the camp, led by Camillus and Phrius, to prepare for the rescue of Polevenum. They led nearly 3 soldiers to attack Setia. The city launched a storm.

Setia's wide and deep trenches and dense deer stockades under the city walls became the biggest obstacle for the Romans to attack, but they were the most powerful helpers for the Volsci to kill and wound the Romans on the top of the city. They poured down javelins and arrows desperately. Arrows, stones, boiling oil...

The Romans took heavy casualties.

After an arduous and fierce battle for most of the day, the Romans finally used siege engines to destroy the gap in the original city wall that had been repaired. The soldiers poured into the city through the gap, and they suddenly discovered that in front of them there was another wall of earth built slightly. The shorter city wall is filled with Volscian warriors.

The Romans realized they had been deceived, but the unsuspecting comrades behind them continued to pour in, and soon the narrow corridor was crowded.

Wolsey was condescending and launched long-range attacks from all directions. Every stone and every javelin could cause damage to the Romans.And the raging flames ignited by a large number of thrown oil cans made the Romans feel like they were in hell...

At the cost of more than 2000 casualties, the Roman army failed to siege the city.

Quintus and Licinius returned to the camp with gloomy expressions. Camillus, knowingly, did not say anything but summoned the doctors and soldiers in the camp to treat the wounded.

The Volscians in Setia were greatly encouraged by this victory and strengthened their determination to defend the city.

After two days of rest, Quintus and Licinius refused to listen to Camillus's dissuasion and insisted on attacking the city again. Due to the support of Phurius, Camillus could only agree.

This time, Camillus alone led nearly [-] soldiers to stay in the camp, including some wounded soldiers.

Three military and political officers, Quintus, Licinius, and Phrius, led more than 3 Roman soldiers, and launched a fierce attack on the city of Setia mainly from the east, west, and south.

The battle was fierce.

By the afternoon, the Romans attacked the city one after another, and the Volscians had to fully retreat to their newly built second city wall. Due to lack of manpower, they even had to arm old men and women and send them to the city to resist. The fierce attack of the Romans.

At this critical moment, reinforcements from Polyfunum arrived, trying to bypass the Roman camp and rescue Setia.

Camillus had been wary of this for a long time. After receiving the reward from the scout cavalry, he left more than 2000 men to guard the camp and personally led 7000 soldiers out of the camp to intercept.

The reinforcements of Pollevnum were 8000 warriors with the First Dionysian Army as the main force. Although its strength was not much different from the last time, the attack of the mixed forces this time was far less violent than the last time.

Camillus felt uneasy when he noticed this.

Sure enough, it didn't take long for the reports from the scouts to confirm his fears: there were thousands of Wolsey warriors approaching the city of Setia from the north.

Where are the Volscian forces in the north? !When Camillus heard the news, he was extremely disturbed and puzzled.

In fact, after Polyfunum received the news early in the morning that the Roman army was once again storming the city of Setia, Printors concluded that it would be difficult for Setia to withstand the prepared Roman army's attack this time, so He made his suggestion, and the Wolsey reinforcements followed the bold advice.

They sent 5000 Volscian warriors, first marching southwest, reaching the swamp area near the coast, and then turning north. They used their familiarity with the terrain to stick to the edge of the swamp area and evade the Roman scouts. Exploring, he made a big circle and appeared in the north of Setia City.

At this time, the siege battle was at its peak.

The newly built earth wall withstood the fierce fighting between the two sides and collapsed in many places.Almost all Setians, whether they were women, old men, or young men, who could hold a spear, were sent to seal these gaps.And Quintus also pressed all his troops forward, hoping to attack the city of Setia in one fell swoop.

When both sides were trying their best, Wolsey's reinforcements appeared, and they were a full 5000 of the strongest warriors. Pollevnum tried his best to save Setia.

When Quintus, Licinius, and Phrius received this shocking news, they felt as if they were hit hard, and then they couldn't control themselves and yelled: "Damn scouts! Why didn't they find out until the Wolsi reinforcements were approaching? ?!!..."

Of course, Quintus also cursed a few words casually, "Why didn't Camillus stop the reinforcements?..."

Of course, this accusation was ridiculous. The other two people thought that Quintus was speaking unintentionally out of anxiety. After all, they had received the news that Camillus was leading an army to resist Poleffna, who was attacking from the south. Mu reinforcements.

The Wolsey reinforcements from the north were rapidly approaching, and the Roman army had already devoted all its strength to the siege, so it was difficult to mobilize troops to stop it for a while.As for the more than 2000 soldiers in the camp, they did not dare to remove them, otherwise the Volscians would sneak attack the camp and lose the mountains of food, grass and ordnance in the camp. This huge army of more than 4 people would also be difficult to fight. Maintain.

"Why don't we let the soldiers use the outer walls of Setia to block the Volscian reinforcements first, and we can concentrate all our efforts on capturing the inner city of Setia." Frius suggested.

"The Volscian resistance in the city is very tenacious. We have tried our best. Even if we capture the entire city of Setia, the exhausted soldiers will not have enough energy to fight against the four or five thousand enemies who have just joined the battle!" Licinius looked at Quintus and voiced his opinion worriedly.

"Retreat." Quintus said simply: "The defense facilities of Setia City have been basically destroyed. It will be difficult to hinder us in a short time, and there are not many Volscian warriors left in the city. Many, these thousands of Volscian reinforcements have arrived at just the right time, and they will become our prisoners tomorrow! Frius, your suggestion is very good, let the soldiers near the outer city wall block the attack of the enemy reinforcements, and prepare for the retreat of the entire army. To gain time."

　Thanks to Gu Yue Sanmei and Hua Xia Wei for the reward!Your support is my motivation to write! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)