Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece - Chapter 487

[Chapter 154 The Fall of Crotone]

“Okay, you are the commander, you have the final say.” Epithenes shrugged at Felixius again, turned around and complained to Agarcia: “I said, Chief Executive, can you get some for the brothers? Wheat flour, if you really don’t have oatmeal, you can at least make porridge and drink it. Brothers have eaten dry beef for two days in a row, and now it’s a bit difficult to even poop.”

“As the commander of the Fourth Army, it’s not that you don’t know. , Half of the soldiers of the Fourth Legion are from here, how can the people here treat their relatives badly. But Asproustum is a small town, with a small population, and it is not rich in wheat, and the people’s surplus food is also used by you. I have eaten all of it in the past few days, where is there any food left!” Agarcia said helplessly.

“Just be patient, the cavalry of Syracuse has cut off our grain transportation route. I have already asked the reconnaissance team to bring the news of ‘our food supply is difficult’ to Your Majesty. The food problem will be solved.” Felixius also comforted him.

“Wait! Wait! Still wait!…” Since Drakes died, Epithenes became more and more restless, and he did not want to stay in the official residence, and said loudly: “I will go to the city to see the situation. ‘

With that, he strode out.

Agarcia looked at Felixius who was sitting in a daze, and he deeply felt that the death of Drakes had a great impact on the two of them, and he himself was not the same.

At the beginning, he invited former comrades such as Timasson and Kryander to Dionia, but these people attacked Crimea without authorization, triggering the second Crotone War. Although Crotone was defeated in the end, Dionia’s power was expanded, and Davos never blamed him, but he blamed himself very much.

Since then, Agarcia has devoted a lot of energy to political affairs in order to forget the guilt in her heart.

After several years of hard work, he became the second person in this group of former mercenary veterans to be appointed as the chief executive (the first was Hiros) because of his good administrative skills.

With the accumulation of political experience, and in Asproustum, he has dealt with Crotone for a long time. He knows how unwilling the Crotone people are to lose the overlord of South Italy, especially in these few days. After their strength recovered in 2010, they played against Dionia a lot in the South-Italian Alliance, so he had another guess in his mind about King Davos’ order ‘not to attack rashly’: His Majesty seems to have let the tin Lacuzza weakens Crotone’s meaning.

But in this way, does Dionia have the ability to independently defeat Syracuse?

!

…………………………

The siege of Crotone has been going on fiercely.

The Syracuses used the archers at the top of the siege tower’s towering body and the abdominal bow in the tower to sweep away the defenders at the head of the city while slowly approaching the city wall.

In the past two or three days, the Crotone people also discussed some ways to defend the siege tower, such as using ballistas to attack from a distance, using rockets to attack; when the siege tower is close,

throw oil tanks, It was burned with fire; at the same time, they also made a long square wood covered with iron sheets, which was used to push the siege tower to keep it from getting close to the city wall…

Even with such efforts, there were several attacking towers .

The city tower approached the city wall and lowered the wooden bridge. Syracuse soldiers rushed to the city head through the siege tower and fought fiercely with the defenders.

Lysias urgently dispatched reinforcements, and after a tragic battle, he drove the enemies off the city one by one.

And just when the Crotones put their main force on the defensive siege tower, the Syracuse soldiers climbed to the top of the city through the ladder many times, and fought fiercely with the defenders.

Crotone, Trina, and Siriting coalition have been stubbornly defending.

In the afternoon, the siege city of Syracuse smashed the northern gate of Crotone, but the Crotones had already sealed the gate with stones and wood.

However, the combined use of several other siege vehicles and boat lion vehicles eventually led to the collapse of a section of the city wall, and the defenders on the city suffered heavy casualties.

The Syracuse soldiers took the opportunity to quickly climb the collapsed slope and wanted to rush into the city.

Fortunately, the reserve team organized by Lycias arrived in time. This team of free people, old people and young people relied on the huge number and the fighting spirit to defend their homeland, barely resisting the fierce attack of the experienced Syracuse soldiers. .

It was dusk, and the sky was getting darker. Lycias, Cypros and other leaders of the coalition forces were all happy, thinking that the battle was finally over.

However, Dionysius had no intention of withdrawing his troops and returning to the camp at all. He let the slaves push wooden wheeled carts filled with wood, asphalt, resin, and piled with oiled hemp. They pushed them to the moat and ignited them with fire, which suddenly ignited piles of fires, illuminating the entire city wall.

Dionysius immediately ordered: sound the bugle of attack, sound the drum of war, and continue to attack the city!

The defenders, who had been struggling and thought that the battle should be over, saw the Siracusa people retreat in waves and attack in waves, endlessly, and the morale of the defenders was depressed.

And the tireless siege efforts of the Syracuses finally paid off.

Under the pressure of the soldiers, after sacrificing countless lives, due to the weakening of the garrison strength, the uphill ramp built by the prisoners finally put sandbags on the city wall.

The Syracuse soldiers who had been waiting for a long time rushed to the head of the city and fought with the defenders who came to intercept them.

And Dionysius, who was anxious in his heart, even let the guards around him throw themselves into the battle at the head of the city.

The defenders could no longer support it and began to retreat, thus allowing the Syracuses to gain a firm foothold at the top of the city and quickly expand in other directions.

“Quick! Quickly find Lysias! Tell him to send reinforcements quickly, or the North City will not be able to defend!” Askamas shouted at the messenger in exasperation.

However, at this moment, the north, west, and south sides of Crotone City are under attack. The east port has to guard against the landing of a large number of enemy ships cruising in the offshore waters. There are extra reinforcements.

Just as Crotone’s generals were overstretched and watched the enemy raging on the city head, “Boom!…Boom!…” There were several loud noises, and a section of the city wall was once again attacked by siege vehicles. beat down.

In the dust, along with the roar of the Syracuses, the Crotones who were fighting for their homes finally showed fear, and under the cover of the night, they began to shout in panic: “Flee! The enemy is coming in. The

city is broken!…”

The reserve team with low morale retreated, and it didn’t take long for the defenders on the city to retreat… The

Syracuses broke through the barriers of the city wall and rushed into the city, and the entire northern city defense was completely broken. .

Lycias, Thesprotis and other high-level officials saw with sadness: the panicked soldiers ignored their dissuasion, ran past them like a tide, and fled to the depths of the city; the people on both sides of the street also helped the elderly He took the young and fled together; cries, screams, and screams resounded throughout the city…

Seeing that the enemy was clearing the defenders of the city wall and advancing towards the center of the city, Lysias was in a state of anger, but he was completely confused. It’s too big, I don’t know what to do.

At this time, a long dragon composed of torches appeared from the depths of the city: “Go to the Temple of Apollo!!! Go to the Temple of Apollo!!!”

This neat shout reminded Crow who was in panic. The people of Thone, under the lighting of the torches, staggered to the Temple of Apollo, where the Acropolis is located near the center of the city.

Lysias and his party also rushed over.

“Who asked you to do this?!” Lysias asked the soldier with the torch in a hurry.

“It’s General Miron!” replied the soldier.

At this time, Miron was not a general at all. His task of defending the port was requested by Askamas, but this did not prevent the soldiers from respecting him.

And Lycias didn’t care about these at this time. On the contrary, he was grateful to Miron in his heart. If he hadn’t taken timely measures to guide the people to the Acropolis, the consequences would have been disastrous.

He looked back at the blazing city wall, and saw that some of the soldiers were still trying their best to block the enemy’s attack.

He reminded the soldiers beside him with concern: “The enemy will come soon, and you have to rush back to the Acropolis as soon as possible!” After speaking, he and the others merged into the chaotic flow of people, and they had to rush to the Acropolis to appease them. The panicked people maintain order in the Acropolis, and at the same time organize the people to defend the last fortress of Crotone, the Acropolis.

…………………………

“Sir, we won! We broke the inner city of Crotone!!” Damocles was very excited.

Dionysius also couldn’t hide his joy. After receiving the blessings of the attendants, he immediately prayed to Apollo to express his gratitude.

Amid the cheers, Phoebe Das, who was in deep thought, looked a little different.

Today’s siege battle gave him a great shock, not only the ingenious and powerful siege equipment, but also the organization of the entire huge siege team was quite orderly, but what shocked him was Dionysius Seriously.

It is unbelievable that Dionysius killed the soldiers and troops who had failed the siege attack and fled the battlefield!

In the traditional Greek war, there was never a practice of dealing with deserters, and even Sparta did not have such a tradition. After all, the atmosphere of the entire Spartan society advocating fighting honor would make deserters have nowhere to go.

But Dionysius not only did it, but also more than once, forcing the soldiers of Syracuse to attack desperately regardless of their lives and death, and even created a miracle of breaking the city of Crotone, a powerful Greek state in one day.

This made Phoebe Das admiration for Dionysius, who used to think that he was not good at field combat, but such a victory was probably based on Dionysius not caring about the number of soldiers killed.