ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 931: Ballista Attack and Defense
Not only was a small fortress built in just three months, but a new military camp was also built not far north of Leotini.

The Paragonia Fortress is not a river fortress. It is only used to set up card collection. It is a real defensive fortress.

A 5-meter-wide and 5-meter-deep trench surrounds Paragoria. The bottom of the trench is covered with pointed wooden stakes, and both sides of the trench are filled with densely packed deer villages. This makes it very difficult for siege equipment to reach the city. difficulty.

Although the outer city wall is only 4 meters high, its structure is made of rammed earth, stone bricks, strips of stone and cement from the inside to the outside. It is not only thick and solid, but also smooth and flat with no obvious gaps. The city wall is also covered with thick lime Pink, this is not for aesthetics, but has a certain tactical effect. The white city walls will reflect light under the sun, which will affect the attacking soldiers, and will make it more difficult for ants to climb the city. At the same time, it can also reduce the stone The impact of the bullet on the city wall.

The circular outer city wall allows the defenders to better concentrate their forces for defense, and also allows reinforcements dispatched from the city to reach the city head more conveniently.

Every other section of the city wall has circular wall towers that protrude from the wall. They can strengthen the side attack on enemies huddled under the city or enemies attacking the city. At the same time, their circular walls can also weaken the impact of external forces. .

The walkway at the top of the city is not narrow, and the tops of the connected wall towers are even more spacious. A ballista and a belly bow are placed side by side on the top of each wall tower. There are several boxes of stone bullets and iron items placed on the ground. There are still many defenders beside the battlements, and it doesn't look crowded.

Leotizides gathered all the ballistae and abdominal bows in the Catanai camp to Paragonia, placing them not only on the towers of the outer city wall, but also on the roof of the tower in the center of the city.This tower, which is more than 6 meters high, is also a circular building with a diameter of 50 meters. Not only are there multiple ballistas and belly bows placed on the top of the tower, but a large number of soldiers can also be deployed. They are protected by battlements and can stand condescendingly. Attack enemies who scale the outer walls or enter the city.There are also multiple windows below the tower, which can also be used by soldiers to attack enemies under the tower.

What Mago did not see was that between the outer city wall and the central tower, there was a wall with the same height as the outer city wall, which surrounded the central tower. Once the outer city wall was breached by the Carthaginians, the Dionysian defenders They could quickly retreat to the second wall for defense. If the Carthaginians thought they could seize Paragonia after breaking through the outer wall and relaxed their vigilance, they would undoubtedly suffer a big loss.

The captain talking to the soldiers operating the ballista on the wall tower was the commander responsible for the defense of Paragonia. His name was Temenides, a Locrian, captain of the first group of the Seventh Legion, who took over this place. It didn't take long for him to build the fortress. Seeing that the fortress that he usually only came into contact with in training was actually used in actual combat, and the fortress was larger and more complete in facilities, he was very excited and confident in guarding Paragonia. , these days have been leading the soldiers of the Seventh Legion to familiarize themselves with the structure and facilities of this fortress so that they will not be too busy during the battle.

Today there are nearly 4000 soldiers in the fortress, including the 2000st Heavy Infantry Battalion of the Seventh Legion, the 2000th Light Infantry Battalion, and a Legion Heavy Infantry Reserve Battalion and Light Infantry Reserve Battalion in Sicily, a total of [-] heavy infantry, [-] light infantry (excluding ballista units and medical battalions).Teminides felt that the number of soldiers and the proportion of arms in the garrison were just right for this small fortress.

Although there are four captains in the fortress, and Teminides is new here, the official first captain of the legion has a higher status than other captains of the same legion, and is usually the future legion commander. According to "Theo" The Military Law of Nia stipulates that "in battle, if the commander of the regiment unfortunately dies, the first captain shall act as the commander of the regiment." Therefore, the other three captains respect him more, and he can enforce orders and prohibitions in the fortress.

Temenides walked along the walkway on the city, inspecting the defense work of the soldiers, and chatted with them from time to time. The main target of the conversation was the Sicilian soldiers. The purpose was not only to understand their status, but also to let these Sicilian soldiers know their situation. The Onian citizen soldiers are familiar with him as a commander, which will facilitate future operations.

The Locri soldiers of the Seventh Legion are serious, hard-working, but reserved and taciturn. The only exception is Teminides. He is outgoing, very approachable, and good at getting along with the soldiers. This is why Brelu sent him to Pa. One of the reasons why Lagonia served as commander was because he was able to combine the Locri and Sicilian soldiers very well.

"Captain, the enemy may be about to attack!" A soldier pointed outside the city and shouted.

"That's great! The Carthaginians are ready to give us credit!" Teminides said with a smile.

The surrounding soldiers also burst into laughter. Their faces were full of excitement, and the tension in their hearts also dissipated in the laughter.

The officers began to urge them to prepare for defense, and Teminides also stood behind the battlements to carefully observe the situation of the Carthaginians.

Obviously the Carthaginians have realized that they can no longer follow the previous method of directly sending a large number of soldiers to clear the ground and get close to the city under the long-range attack of the city defenders, so Mago asked the engineers to make a After gathering dozens of arrow-blocking vehicles, the Carthaginian soldiers lined them up side by side to form a wooden wall and began to advance toward the city.His plan was that every time the arrow-blocking vehicle advanced, the Numibian soldiers would follow up with earth and fill the road.

But things were not that easy. Not long after, either the legs and feet of the soldiers pushing the cart were stabbed by wooden thorns and iron hooks buried in the ground, or the arrow-blocking cart fell into a trap and was unable to move forward. The "wooden wall" was very It was quickly falling apart and completely out of shape.

On the top of the city, Dionia's ballistae and abdominal bows also began to exert their power. Stone bullets hit the arrow cart, and broken wood chips flew everywhere, becoming a nightmare for the surrounding soldiers. When the thick and long iron arrows flew in, not only was a big hole broken in the thick wooden board, but the remaining iron arrows could also pin the soldier pushing the cart behind to the ground, causing him to die miserably... not only the soldier pushing the cart The soldiers, including the soldiers preparing to fill in the rear, were all frightened and fled backwards, leaving only the injured soldiers struggling and groaning in place.

Mago was unwilling to give in and ordered the army to push out the ballistae and suppress the ballistae on the city.

However, the Dionysian ballistae occupies a high place and has a farther range than the opponent. Therefore, the Carthaginian ballistae has been continuously attacked by the Dionysia ballistae before it has advanced to the appropriate position, and they are often attacked three times. , four planes concentrated on bombing one, thus increasing the hit rate.

Mago was cruel and simply pushed out all the ballistae and spread them completely around the northern periphery of Paragonia City. He wanted to use their numerical advantage and angle deviation to reduce Dioni The threat of the sub-ballista gained a certain advantage.

But then he was surprised to see that not only were stone bullets continuously shot from various towers on the semicircular city wall in the north, but soon the high tower in the center of the city also began to fire stone bullets.After a while, more than a dozen stone bullets were fired from the semicircular city wall on the south, crossing the entire city and landing near each Carthaginian ballistae. Their accuracy was not low.

This was a large-scale ballista battle, which frightened the soldiers on both sides and made them addictive. However, the thrilling scene of dozens of stone bullets whizzing in the air and constantly interlacing lasted only more than 10 minutes and ended. Nine ballistas of the Taiji army were destroyed and dozens of casualties were caused. Except for a few small holes in the outer wall of the Palagoria Fortress, almost no one on the defenders was injured.

Mago's face was livid. He realized that he still underestimated how difficult it was to defeat Paragonia. He had to suspend the attack and return to the camp. He summoned his generals to discuss together how to capture this difficult stone?
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In October, the weather begins to get cooler, but the temperature in Africa is still a bit hot. At this time in the past, the citizens of Carthage liked to take their families to the interior of Numbia for recreation. There are a series of salt lakes here. Go swimming in the lake, or sit by the lake, enjoy the beautiful scenery, taste all kinds of freshly harvested fruits, and enjoy the service of Numibian slaves.

But this year, few citizens do this anymore. Because the Dionian warships have been patrolling in the western waters of Sicily for a long time and attack merchant ships traveling between Carthage and Sicily from time to time, this has not only caused a lot of depression in the city's port trade, but also Carthage merchants became cautious when setting up ships to go to sea.Although Carthage citizens obtained a bumper harvest in the land of Numbia, almost all of the recovered wheat and other crops were retained for their own use and were purchased by the Carthage government at a cheap price as preparations for the Carthaginian army. Military rations...

Although the war between Carthage and Dionia only lasted a few months, the ordinary people of Carthage have already felt the impact of this huge war on their lives. Not only are they suffering from the sharp drop in family income, The worries were even more worrying about their relatives who were on the expedition to Sicily day and night. Therefore, they paid attention to the progress of the war in Sicily every day. The Greek kingdom that originally had nothing to do with them far north of Sicily has now become the object of their curses day and night.

Some time ago, when the people of Carthage learned that "Mago led an army and successively captured many Greek city-states on the southern coast of Sicily, and invaded the Sicilian territory of Dionysia", there was cheers in the city, and everyone shouted Mago Everyone blessed him with his name, hoping that he could drive the Dionians out of Sicily as soon as possible and make the Sicilian waters a harbor for free trade for Carthage merchant ships again.

(End of this chapter)