ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 998 Tunnel Warfare

Amyntas was stunned for a moment. When he heard this good idea just now, he was so excited that he forgot that the Carthaginians also had crossbows.

Chalcides had obviously considered this issue, and he said calmly: "The Carthaginian ballistae is indeed worthy of our attention, but in fact the accuracy of their ballistae is not very high, and we can still find a way To overcome, for example... put a taut fishing net on the outside of the wooden city wall, or fill enough soil between the wooden frames...

In addition, since the city wall is made of wood, can we first let the engineering battalion make the frame in the city like we usually do with the erected watchtowers used in the camp, and when the Carthaginian earth hill is completed, we Then they moved the frame of the wooden city wall to the city wall and quickly built it. Then they suppressed the Carthaginians from a high position and suddenly killed the Carthaginian light infantry on the mountain. The Carthaginians spent so much time building the mountain in vain. If they want to regain the initiative, they will have to build a larger foundation to build a higher earth mountain, which will take more time..."

"Good idea! This is indeed a good idea!" Amyntas laughed loudly: "I can't wait to see the faces of the Carthaginians who were proud of themselves but suddenly turned into frustrated and disappointed faces. Aris Thonos, call the engineers from the engineering battalion immediately, ask them to survey the city wall, and then follow Chalsidis's suggestion to build me such a wooden city wall to resist the Carthaginians. attack!"

"Yes, Commander." Aristonos immediately turned around and went down to the city.

Not long after, the slingers from the light infantry brigade arrived at the city. Following Amyntas's instructions, they began to attack the Carthaginian heavy infantry below the city. Heavy lead pellets the size of eggs hit the city within a short distance. The impact on the helmet can make people dizzy, and the impact on the breastplate can make people unbearably painful...

Soon, the orderly long queue of the Carthaginians became chaotic. The soldiers threw down the wooden baskets regardless of the commander's obstruction. They screamed and jumped to avoid the lead pellets that kept flying, and began to fight in embarrassment. Flee back.

The slingers' attack was effective.

But not long after, the Dionian soldiers at the top of the city suddenly shouted in panic: "Be careful! Flying rocks!..."

Amyntas suddenly saw countless tiny black spots flying out of the inner wall of the Carthage camp a hundred meters ahead.

Now it was the turn of the Dionian soldiers at the head of the city to become nervous. They hurriedly raised their long shields at an angle, trying to form a shield wall to provide shelter for themselves and the slingers.

Amidst the groans of pain, Amyntas gritted his teeth: "It must be the slingers of Balearic!"

After the main army landed in Sicily, Leotizides once mentioned to Daves and other senior generals of Dionia that Carthage had thousands of Balearic slingers, and the only one with slingers was Aminta. At that time, Si also asked with concern about the opponent's combat effectiveness, but he did not expect to experience it personally in Selinus.

Of course, the slingers of the First Legion fought back not to be outdone. Countless lead pellets kept intersecting in the air. Other soldiers at the top of the city could hold up their long shields to avoid them, but others could not help the slingers while they were throwing stones. They provide protection, so people are constantly getting hurt.

After all, the number of Dionysian slingers was small, and they gradually became unable to support themselves. In order to preserve their strength, Amyntas had to replace them with the city, so soon he saw a long line of Carthaginian heavy infantry. , carrying the wooden frame on his back, started piling up the mountains of earth again.

At this moment, he heard someone shouting: "General Calcidis! General Calcidis!..."

He stared at the person shouting, vaguely remembering that he seemed to be a captain of the reserve team, and immediately shouted angrily: "What are you shouting for! What's the matter?!"

The captain came to the city in a hurry. Before he could report the situation to Chalcedis, he was reprimanded by Amyntas. Seeing Amyntas' angry face, he immediately remembered the rumors about him and suddenly felt panic.

"Commander Amyntas is asking you something. If you have anything to say, just tell him." Chalcedis quickly woke him up.

"Oh... refers to... Lord Commander... that's it. We discovered an abnormality while digging the trench. The Carthaginians may be digging tunnels!"

Amyntas and those around him were astonished.

"Where did you find it?! Take me there quickly!" Amyntas said eagerly.

It turns out that after Amyntas became the commander of the defense of Selinus City, he also began to build inner walls within the city according to Chalcides' suggestion. In order to ensure that more walls could be built, he moved the first inner wall The wall was built less than 1 meters away from the outer city wall.

Often city walls and trenches were built together, ensuring that the excavated soil could directly become rammed earth for building the city wall.Amyntas also put forward strict requirements: the trench must be 4 meters deep and at least [-] meters wide. The task of digging the trenches was mainly undertaken by the original defenders of Selinus (some reserve soldiers complained about this, but Chalcides reassured them well).

After these days of hard work, the trench was basically dug, and then the soldiers had to bury pointed stakes in the trench. While they were doing this work today, a soldier had just dug a sharp pit. When he was about to bury the wooden piles, he found that the sand continued to seep into the pit and sink. He was shocked. He thought he had offended some monster, so he hurriedly jumped out of the trench, knelt on the ground, and asked Hades A sincere prayer.

Soon, the news spread.

After hearing the news, the captain of the reserve team has more military experience after all. Seeing this strange phenomenon, he immediately felt uneasy. He immediately asked the soldiers to keep quiet, and then carefully jumped into the trench, putting his ears close to the soil and sinking continuously. place, listened carefully, and heard the sound of digging coming from below.

He immediately came to report.

The place where the accident occurred was not far from the North City Gate. After Amyntas and his party hurriedly arrived, he personally climbed down the trench and confirmed the situation reported by the reserve captain. Then he was pulled up by the guards with a gloomy face and lingering fears. He cursed: "Cunning Carthaginians!"

He really did not expect that the Carthaginians were building inner walls and piling up mountains of earth, and they were preparing to attack the city of Selinus on the ground, but secretly they were digging tunnels in order to attack Selinus secretly. city!

Amyntas was completely kept in the dark. Of course, one of the reasons was that after the Carthaginians built the inner wall, they blocked the Dionysian defenders from observing the Carthaginian camp on the top of the city and had no way of knowing. Movement of the Carthaginians in the camp.

"Lord Legion Commander, the Carthaginians may have dug more than just this tunnel!" Chalcedis stepped forward and reminded him in a low voice.

Amyntas nodded and immediately ordered all soldiers to stop digging trenches. The mountain reconnaissance team led the light armored brigade to use the trenches built in the inner city to carefully explore whether there were other tunnels.

After a while, the leader of the mountain scouting team came to report: they also found the Carthaginians digging tunnels under the east and west walls.

Although Amyntas and others were mentally prepared, they were still a little shocked when they heard the news. Adjutant Aristonos even speculated: "It seems that the soil used by the Carthaginians to build these three mountains came from How cunning it is to dig out the underground soil!”

Amyntas's face was livid at this moment, and he issued a stern order: "Hurry up and call the engineers, let them carefully survey the site, estimate the direction and depth of the tunnel dug by the Carthaginians, and then design a tunnel we want to dig. The tunnels can quickly connect to the Carthaginian tunnels, and then -" Amyntas waved his hand vigorously: "annihilate all the Carthaginians in the tunnels!"

The order was immediately carried out, engineers determined the route, reserve soldiers were responsible for digging, and three detachments of the First Corps were responsible for killing the enemy.

Thousands of soldiers dug with all their strength and quickly connected the tunnel. The legionnaires who were ready immediately rushed into the tunnel.

The Carthaginian soldiers were caught off guard. In order to dig, they did not wear armor or carry weapons at all. As a result, they were killed brutally. The Carthaginians who were responsible for transporting earth in the rear fled back in panic.

The legionnaires did not continue the pursuit, but retreated to the rear and allowed the reserve soldiers to come in and block the tunnel.

After working for a while, heavily armed Carthaginian soldiers came in along the tunnel again.

The legionnaires quickly stepped forward to meet the enemy.

As a result, Carthage and Dionia were still engaging in intermittent long-range attacks on each other on the ground, but they were engaging in bloody frontal fights underground.

This fighting lasted throughout the day, with both sides constantly sending soldiers into the tunnels.

In a small tunnel, the superior force cannot be deployed, and it relies more on the individual abilities of the soldiers. In this regard, the superb stabbing skills of the soldiers of the Dionysian First Legion are obviously better than their opponents, coupled with the narrow tunnel It is more suitable for short weapons, so Dionian soldiers clearly have an advantage in the fight.

Based on this, Amyntas did not hesitate to send the various units of the First Legion to the field in rotation.

The Carthaginian army is not without soldiers who are good at using short swords. The Celtic warriors of Lusitania and northern Iberia are all masters of it. However, when Mago asked them to participate in this battle, these mountain races The leaders firmly expressed their refusal. They claimed that their warriors were accustomed to standing on solid ground and fighting bravely against the enemy under the scorching sun, but they hated burrowing into the dark and damp underground like mice.

When the Carthaginian soldiers, the Phoenician soldiers, and the southern Iberian soldiers that Mago relied on were defeated from the tunnels again and again, he finally realized that: in addition to the natives of Iberia, the main force he relied on might be He is not weaker than his opponent in frontal combat, but he is obviously weaker than his opponent in a fight in a small space that relies more on personal ability.

(End of this chapter)