ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 797: Attacking the City of Rome ([-])

Although their number was less than a thousand, their attack method made the light armored brigade left behind in the camp somewhat confused.

Due to the hasty time left for the Dionian army yesterday, the soldiers only built camps and trenches, and did not set up deer stockades and traps in front of the camp. As a result, the Latin reinforcements were divided into multiple teams and approached the camp from multiple directions. , stood in front of the trench and fired rockets into the camp.

A camp of the Chinese army to accommodate three infantry regiments and two cavalry regiments covers a very large area. It is impossible for a light armored brigade of only 700 people to achieve comprehensive protection. Therefore, tents are lit from time to time, forcing They had to separate their hands to rush back and forth to fight the fire, because once the fire became bigger and part of the camp burned, and the soldiers who were besieging the city saw it, it would definitely affect their fighting spirit.

As a result, the manpower to defend the camp became even more insufficient.

Davos urgently dispatched hundreds of supply battalion workers to help fight the fire. At the same time, he also sent a hundred palace guards as the mobile force for camp defense, which barely managed to cope with the current situation.

The siege has lasted for nearly four hours, but there is still no breakthrough. Davos is sitting in the tent, still calmly watching the staff drawing on the map.

Henepolis, who was originally recording on the side, seemed a little anxious now, walking back and forth in the tent.

Davos had to say: "Henny, sit down quickly, don't make me dizzy by walking around."

Henipolis said anxiously: "Your Majesty, there are more and more enemies attacking the camp. Even enemy reinforcements appeared on the east side of Rome, threatening the camp of the First Army... Now we are surrounded by enemies. There are no more reinforcements in the camp to mobilize, and the legions are still blocked under the city. The soldiers have suffered a lot of casualties. If the stalemate continues like this, if the city of Rome cannot be captured before dark, I am worried... I'm worried..."

Davos waited for him to vent his worries before he slowly said: "Except for Thurii, Rome is the largest city on the peninsula. Even if its main force is not here, it will not be possible to capture it. It's a very easy thing.

It is not that our various legions have made no progress. As you just heard, the Second legion has used the siege tower to have more than 100 soldiers attack the city and gain a firm foothold; the Third legion has also occupied the south bank of the Roman Vertebra Bridge. The bridgehead is expanding the scope of its attack; the Fourth Army smashed down the city wall with siege vehicles, and the soldiers have broken into the gap and are temporarily blocked under the city...

We are like a tug-of-war with the Romans. The Romans have tried their best to be in a stalemate with us, but this burst of power cannot last forever. We are increasing our strength, little by little. Pull the red rope over until it completely overwhelms the Romans' power, at which point they will inevitably collapse! "

Davos clenched his right fist, waved it hard, and said confidently: "As for those Roman reinforcements-"

"Your Majesty, good news! Lord Epithenes led 4000 soldiers to the battlefield, and cooperated with Lord Tormid to completely defeat the Roman reinforcements in the southwest. The [-]st and [-]nd Cavalry Legions are chasing the defeated troops. Tormid And Lord Epithenes is coming with his army!”

"Great!" Henepolis, who used to have a sad look on his face, is now full of joy.

The staff officers in the big tent also applauded and celebrated.

Davos also had a smile on his face: "Immediately notify Tormid and Epithenes and ask them to send a heavy infantry group to defend the camp. The other troops rushed to the rear of the Second Army to gather and wait for me. The command!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Acinalus quickly went out of the tent to notify the messenger, and soon he quickly returned to the tent and said excitedly: "Your Majesty, the reconnaissance cavalry reported that part of the Sixth Army and the First Army have attacked the city! "

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On the surface, the First Army and the Sixth Army adopted conventional siege methods, but Davers once suggested that they try to climb the city with rope hooks.

Climbing the city with a rope hook is the earliest siege method invented by Davos. This method was originally used to capture Amendolara, giving the mercenaries a foothold in Magna Graecia.As Dionia became more and more powerful, various siege equipment was manufactured one after another, and the methods of siege became more and more perfect. This simple rope hook, which was of great help to the mercenaries, had long been forgotten in the corner.

However, Davos did not forget, because considering that after the army arrived in Latium, there might be a lot of siege battles, he specially sent people to take dozens of sets of magic hooks that were already covered with dust from the corners of the armory. It was taken out, polished again and then equipped with ropes to be prepared.

Amyntas has always advocated offense and liked taking risks, and accepted Davos's suggestion without hesitation.The commander of the Sixth Army, Trotilas, was also a member of the Persian expeditionary mercenary force. Turii, who came with Davos, grew from an ordinary soldier to the commander of the army. His combat experience is not without richness, and his military exploits It is not unsatisfactory. Of course, he would not allow his legion to perform mediocrely in this significant siege battle.

Both of them knew very well that in order to succeed in "climbing the city with a rope hook", they had to blind the enemy's sight and conduct a surprise attack. Otherwise, once discovered, there would be a lot of casualties, so both of them unanimously used the rope hook to climb the city. The location was set at the southeast corner of the city of Rome.

Like the southwest corner, the city wall protrudes outward for a section, but unlike the southwest corner, it is folded several times and finally forms a small sharp corner. However, it is far away from several city gates in Rome, and the twists and turns are The city wall also blocks the view and makes it difficult to be discovered.

So in order to achieve this goal, Trotilas let the soldiers of the Sixth Army concentrate on attacking the wall section between the Esquili Gate and the Vimina Gate, which is about 400 meters away from the southeast corner.

Armintas was even more ruthless and asked the soldiers of the First Legion to storm the section of wall between the Capitoline Hill and the Quirilno Hill, which was a full two miles away from the southeast corner.

Trotilas planned to let his light armored corps complete this task. After all, their lighter uniforms made it easier to crawl. For this reason, he also left two heavy infantry corps in the main camp.

Although the camp of the First Army was far away from the main camp of the Chinese army, Amyntas boldly left only one heavy infantry brigade in the camp and asked more than 700 soldiers of the mountain reconnaissance brigade who remained in the camp to perform this task.

However, after observing the terrain many times, the careful Trotilas discovered a problem: Although the southeast corner wall was relatively remote, the Roman city wall was very high, and the soldiers on the city could see far below the city. If the Dionian soldiers on the mission wanted to get close to the city wall, even if they did not carry siege equipment, they would arouse the enemy's suspicion and take precautions. After thinking about it, he decided to let the soldiers do this...

After Davos understood Trotilas's idea, he applauded it, and the Sixth Legion's plan to climb the city with a rope hook was quickly established.

Originally, there were defenders on the southeast corner of the city, but as time went by, the continuous fierce attacks of the First and Second Legions made the Roman generals responsible for the defense feel that their troops were tight, and had to transfer soldiers from other wall sections to strengthen them. For defense, the garrison in the southeast corner that has been doing nothing is of course also within the scope of being mobilized.

Not long after, the defenders on the nearby city saw that hundreds of Roman auxiliaries were being chased by Dionian soldiers in the distance to the southeast, and they fled towards the Roman city in panic, although occasionally they would have soldiers overtaken by the enemy. , stabbed down, but most of the defeated soldiers still climbed over the ditch with difficulty and came to the city in the southeast corner. Perhaps they were afraid of being attacked by the defenders on the city. The hundreds of Dionian light infantry stopped their pursuit. Footsteps, but unwilling to stop and stare in the distance.

The defenders who saw this situation were all guessing which Latin city-state these Roman auxiliaries came from (most of the Roman auxiliaries were citizens of the Latin allies).

Since the enemy was attacking the city, it was certainly impossible for the defenders to allow these broken troops to enter the city. Moreover, the fierce fighting did not allow them to have more leisure to pay attention to the life and death of these allies. However, the appearance of these broken troops showed that Rome's reinforcements were coming. They fought the enemy out of sight, which somewhat boosted the morale of the defenders.

But they did not know that these Roman auxiliaries were disguised as Dionysian soldiers. They put on the armor and equipment of Roman soldiers obtained by cleaning the battlefield after the victory of the battle two days ago, thus deceiving the defenders. They paid attention and successfully arrived at the southeast corner of the city. They avoided the sight of the defenders, connected the ropes wrapped around their bodies, and put on the hook heads. Dozens of rope hooks were quickly made.

The war was still going on, and the Roman soldiers struggled to resist the enemy's attack, gradually forgetting the existence of the defeated soldiers. Occasionally, they glanced at the southeast corner of the city and saw dozens of "Roman soldiers" there. "Soldiers" were stationed, thinking they were sent by the neighboring garrison, and did not attract attention. Even if they saw the Dionian light infantry constantly crawling through the ditch and rushing towards the southeast corner of the city, they did not arouse much vigilance. , after all, they did not carry any siege equipment, not to mention there were soldiers stationed on the city.

But not long after, they discovered that something was wrong: Dionian soldiers began to appear on the southeast corner of the city, and more and more, those "Roman soldiers" did not fight the enemy!

When the two garrison generals Marcus Atilius and Balbus Fabia heard the bad news, they were shocked. The situation was extremely urgent. Even though they were short of troops, they urgently assembled an army. The two generals personally led the troops and rushed to the southeast corner of the city wall from the west and south, vowing to drive the enemy off the city.

(End of this chapter)