ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 970 Hold the fort
"No, don't send any more troops!" Falaikus, who had been standing by and watching before, said: "The terrain at Euryalus Fortress is narrow, and no matter how many troops there are, it is impossible to deploy them. What's more, judging from the current situation, Dai The number of Onian people who captured the fortress should not be large. As long as Stasikos can lead his team to arrive in time, there is a chance to recapture it. What I am worried about now is whether the Dionian army will take advantage of this opportunity. Attack us again."

Everyone was shocked when they heard this.

"What happened?!" The last Syracuse general, Sictas, also arrived.

"You always come the latest!" Kuchias knew that Sictas lived in the port and was the farthest away from the meeting, but he still couldn't help complaining: "If something happens to Syracuse, how can you, a general?" How can you help!"

Logically speaking, Xiktas has long been accustomed to his colleagues speaking to him in such a tone, but these days when he hears these unpleasant words, he always feels a little strange in his heart, just like his face becomes a little uncomfortable at this moment. nice.

The empathetic Teagenis hurriedly said: "Fort Yurialu was captured by the Dionians, and we are discussing to take him back."

"Ah!" Xiktas looked surprised and said nothing more, but his heart was filled with turmoil.

At this time, there was a faint sound of military bugles coming in from outside the door.

The crowd was surprised again.

Kuchias shouted in a slightly panic: "It's our bugle sound! There is enemy situation!" while quickly walking out of the door.

After a while, he returned to the hall and said anxiously: "The sentries in the West City reported for duty. They found that Dionian soldiers were gathering in large numbers outside their camp. It seems that they are preparing to attack us!"

Everyone was nervous.

"I'm going to the western city now and lead the soldiers in the barracks to organize the defense." Theagenis responded immediately: "Parnissus, organize the mobilized citizen soldiers as soon as possible, and hurry up to reinforce the western city."

"Okay!" Parnissus also followed Theagenis out of the hall.

"I think today's Dionians will attack from the east at the same time! Kuchias, hurry up and gather all the citizens responsible for defending the east and rush to the east wall to defend." Falaikus He also said eagerly.

Kuchias was ordered to go.

"Xiktas, you lead the citizen soldiers at the port to sit here. If an unexpected situation occurs, rush to support immediately!" Falekus continued to issue orders.

Most of the people in the port of Syracuse mainly served as crew members of the fleet, but 4000 people were also selected to participate in the defense of the city. Since most of them lived in poverty, they served more as light infantry and were not taken seriously.

After hearing this order, Xiktas had more thoughts in his mind and did not respond in time.

Falekus couldn't help but be a little dissatisfied: "Xiktas, did you hear what I said?!"

"I know." Xiktas replied coldly.

Falekus glanced at him, and didn't have time to worry about it. He ordered another general to organize another [-] citizen soldiers to go to the north for support. At the same time, he also decided to personally organize the people in the city to go to the north to urgently build a defensive line. In case the fortress of Eurealus cannot be recaptured, at least it can prevent the enemy from being able to easily move south.

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Euryalus Fortress is a small square fortress surrounded by stone walls. There are residences, warehouses, reservoirs and other facilities in the fortress, which can accommodate at least 300 soldiers to garrison here for a long time.Moreover, the city wall of Urealus Peak also constitutes a wall of the fortress. Once an enemy situation occurs, the soldiers in the fortress can quickly go to the top of the city to block the enemy.However, the calmness and steep terrain for many days also caused the Syracuse soldiers, who had been in peace and tranquility for a long time, to relax their vigilance. As a result, they were sneak attacked by soldiers from the Dionia Ridge Reconnaissance Brigade.

After Terentus led his soldiers to capture the fortress of Euryalus in a surprise attack, he did not continue to attack the city of Syracuse. Instead, he stayed in the fortress while actively receiving reinforcements.

Originally, the mountains to the west of Euryalus Peak were somewhat gentle and wooded. Dionysius led the people to spend a long time to change the terrain, and burned the trees and weeds under the city, making the top of the city less dense. The sentries can clearly see the enemy's movements under the city at a glance.

It's a pity that Syracuse has been in turmoil after the death of Dionysius. In addition, the external environment is relatively safe, and no one pays attention to the issue of city defense. Trees, which helped the soldiers of the Mountain Reconnaissance Brigade to lurk below the city, but the narrow terrain here also determined that too many soldiers could not approach the city at one time, so more soldiers from the Mountain Reconnaissance Brigade and the two heavy troops of the Eighth Army The infantry brigade and a light infantry brigade were hiding in the dense forest at the foot of the mountain to avoid being discovered by the sentries at the top of the city.

It wasn't until the raiding soldiers climbed up the city, seized the torch from the sentry's hand, and waved it according to the previous regulations to send a signal to the bottom of the mountain, that the soldiers of the mountain reconnaissance brigade, the light infantry of the legion, and the heavy infantry accelerated their climb up the mountain in sequence.

At the forefront was the Mountain Reconnaissance Brigade. Even though these soldiers who had received special training were climbing mountains, they were still very fast, and few fell or fell behind. When they arrived at the city, they did not take a break, but grabbed hold of the enemy. The soldiers who had gone up to the city quickly climbed up the ropes hanging from the top of the city.

After entering the city, they took off the leather shields and daggers they carried on their backs and rushed into the fortress where the sound of killing was everywhere.

Follow-up reinforcements arrived one after another and finally defeated the Syracuse defenders who were still resisting.

While defending the fortress and city walls and waiting for reinforcements, Terentus also carefully inspected the situation inside the fortress. What troubled him was that the fortress had two door openings on the stone wall facing the south of the city, but there were no openings. Put up a wooden door or something else to open and close.

It turns out that when Dionysius built this fortress, he deliberately designed it so that the fortress could only defend against the outside but not the inside.It can be said that Dionysius had a very thoughtful idea, but he did not expect that the sentry later specially made two large wooden planks to cover the entrance of the cave at night, so as not to affect sleep (because the terrain is high and sometimes the wind blows. The mountain wind blows through the entrance of the cave at night, which is not only cold, but also makes a "whooshing" sound, seriously affecting rest).

Terentus found these two large wooden boards near the entrance of the cave, and then asked the soldiers to find a lot of wood blocks and stones from the warehouse to block the entrance of the cave with the wooden boards.

But he was still worried, and in desperation he came up with another idea.

When the light infantry brigade soldiers also entered the fortress one after another, Terentus relaxed a little.

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The ambitious Dionysius at that time included the Epipole Highlands, Accradina and other areas into the city of Syracuse, expanding the entire city area several times. In order to allow the new city to have a sufficient population, He actively recruited as many mercenaries as possible to become new citizens of Syracuse, and at the same time also forcibly moved the people of conquered neighboring city-states to Syracuse, such as Leotini and Catanai.

However, after the South-Italian War, the mercenaries were expelled, and most of the people from other city-states who were forcibly moved returned to their home states. Coupled with years of political turmoil, the population of Syracuse is now smaller than before. More than half of them. As a result, the vast Epipole Highlands became sparsely populated and almost became a wasteland for the people of Syracuse to graze cattle and sheep. Therefore, the defeated troops who escaped from the Euryalus Fortress could not find any nearby. To help, they could only run south to the main city and inform the members of the general's executive committee who were on duty about the emergency military situation, and then he would send troops to recapture the fortress.

The shortcomings of the city of Syracuse, which was too large and lacked manpower, were fully exposed at this time. The Fortress of Euryalus was seven or eight miles away from the main city. In addition, it was late at night and the incident happened suddenly. Staceikos led When 2000 soldiers arrived in front of the Yurialus Fortress, it had been nearly an hour since its fall. The Dionian assault force, which had careful planning and preparation, especially the two heavy infantry brigade, had also entered Yurialus one after another. Inside the Yarus Fortress.

Under the light of the fire, Staxikos saw that the top of the fortress was full of Dionian soldiers, many of whom were wearing dazzling armor. What surprised him even more was that the two holes were also blocked with wooden doors, because he They came in a hurry and did not bring any siege equipment.

Stasikos felt a headache, because according to the design of Dionysius, the Fortress of Euryalus was the center of the defense of the northern end of the city wall. The sentinels could only reach the top of the city through the fortress, so the sentries on the nearby city were all They were dispatched by the fortress, and the stone stairs to the upper city closest to the fortress were found in the middle of the east and west walls.

Dionysius’s design may be based on safety considerations, but now it makes Stasikos feel embarrassed: if he leads the army to turn back now, and then go to the city through the stone ladder, it will give the current enemy too much respite opportunity.

Stasikos made a prompt decision and ordered the soldiers to quickly charge towards the fortress, rush under the stone wall as quickly as possible, and break open the stone cave.At the same time, he asked the messengers to rush back to the main city immediately and report the situation here to the Military Executive Committee.

The fortress of Euryalus was located on a high ground, and the Syracusan soldiers had to protect their heads with shields and lean forward to attack.

The Dionian infantry on the fortress did not need to fire arrows at all. They raised the stones and logs brought from the warehouse and smashed them down. The stones and logs bounced along the terrain and rolled down, and they could injure several people at one time. , causing the attacking Syracuse soldiers to complain endlessly, and soon they were dispersed.

Stacydas had to regroup the soldiers and charged forward himself. Finally, he led the soldiers to the wall, and was immediately attacked by the Dionia soldiers on the wall. Javelins, arrows, stones, etc. , Wood fell down like raindrops, many Syracuse soldiers were injured, and even Stacikos was shot in the arm by a sharp arrow.

(End of this chapter)