Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece - Chapter 527

[Chapter 194 Development of the Super Siege Tower]

After listening to Damocles, his face changed greatly, and he defended loudly: “The ongoing war between Syracuse and Dionia was carried out under the witness of Ares, and any tragic incident during the war is normal. Yes. Sparta did not slaughter Athenian citizens after victory because the Athenian navy ravaged the shores of its territory, and we in Syracuse did not kill the Carthaginians of Sicily after conquering Carthage because it slaughtered the Sicilian city-state many times. All are wiped out, so Dionysus can’t make such harsh demands, this is not the Greek tradition of war!”

“Could it be that the ancient Greek tradition was to allow the Syracuses to hire aliens and slaughter unarmed Greek women, old people and children! Henepolis bared his teeth and roared at him: “Since you say this is war, then we Dionia are willing to continue to fight until we conquer Sirius, and then cut off these hands to occupy Dionia. The head of an alien with blood! Otherwise, once the peace treaty is signed, we can only watch these murderers strutting away. His Majesty Davos cannot accept it! The heroic legionnaires cannot accept it! All the people of Dionia cannot accept it! ”

…Once the contract is signed, we can only watch them leave…” This sentence moved Damocles, and he pretended to be helpless and said: “The conditions you raised are too high, can you change it a little?” For

example, as long as the heads of some of them or the lives of the leaders?”

“No, this is the most basic condition!” Henepolis replied in a strong tone.

Damocles had no choice but to say: “Well, I can’t decide this matter, I have to go back and report to General Dionysius, and he will decide.”

After that, he and Phoebe Das looked at each other next to him, He was then blindfolded by the guards with the permission of Henepolis and sent out of the camp.

Phoebe Das did not leave, he asked to see Davos as a Spartan messenger.

This made it difficult for Henepolis to refuse, so he could only wait here and inform King Davos himself.

Phoebe Das waited for a long time, not because Davos deliberately played tricks, but because he was not near the big tent, he went to the engineering camp.

When occupying the Syracuse camp, the Dionian army harvested a lot of materials, including some siege equipment.

Needless to say, the ballista, Dionia originally copied it from Syracuse, but later made further improvements. Due to the application of the parabola theory, Dionia’s ballista was more refined, Precise.

The abdominal bow is another siege weapon of Syracuse. Its principle is similar to that of the ballista. Engineers can roughly copy it by looking at the structure. After all, the most difficult part of the abdominal bow is the use of pulleys, which happens to be the What the Dionysian Engineering Camp does best.

Others like battering rams, boat carts, arrow-blocking carts, etc. are all very easy to imitate,

but Davos has seen them very carefully. He needs to understand Syracuse from these various siege machines. Human siege methods and ideas.

You know, when Syracuse conquered the big city of Crotone, Davos was really taken aback. Compared with the countless Syracuses who had conquered the city in Sicily, the Dionian army, which had a strong field battle The experience in siege is still quite poor, including Davos himself, so learning from the enemy is the fastest way to improve.

Of course, among these siege weapons, the most striking and the most difficult to make is the siege tower.

Dionia can also make siege towers, but they are nothing compared to the siege towers made by Syracuse.

Although the siege tower in front of me has only completed the construction of the base and the first floor, its scale is quite amazing: it is 20 meters long and six or seven meters wide. It is not so much a tower as a wall.

Davos circled around it several times, turned around and asked Orops, one of the most outstanding engineers in the engineering battalion: “Can it be replicated?”

Dionia’s Corps engineering battalion is rather special.

Its team officers do not need to understand engineering and construction, as long as they can manage and lead troops and have some battlefield experience. Their responsibility is to serve the engineers, ensure their safety, and provide all kinds of materials they need. When the legion issues a construction order It is also responsible for coordinating with other troops and recruiting soldiers to serve as labor. Therefore, most of the team officers of the engineering battalion are veterans who are somewhat disabled after being wounded in the battlefield.

The real treasures in the engineering camp are the engineers.

If it is said that the system of Davos was relatively rough when it first established the engineering camp, it has now formed a fixed engineer assessment system, which not only requires engineers to be able to read and draw pictures, have strong hands-on production ability, but also requires a deeper mathematical theory Knowledge, only in this way can you pass the assessment and become a legion engineer.

In addition to cultivating their own land on weekdays, these engineers have also become sought-after products by the citizens of the alliance to build houses, workshops, furniture, equipment, etc., and the salaries are not low.

When large-scale public works are constructed in various cities, they will be invited to participate. Although the salary paid is small, their names will be engraved on the completed stone tablets, which is a great honor for them.

In addition to engineers, the engineering camp also has highly skilled craftsmen, carpenters, and blacksmiths. They are the assistants of engineers and assist them in making various war utensils.

In addition, there were some slaves in the camp, mainly serving the engineers.

As the legion’s requirements for engineers are getting higher and higher, and after the regularization of the assessment of engineers, because of their higher requirements for knowledge and hands-on ability, most of the engineers of each legion come from the laboratory of Dionia Academy.

But Orops was different. He was originally a mercenary in the expedition to Persia. Because he knew some carpentry, he was recruited after Davos established the engineering battalion, but he studied hard and eventually became a highly skilled carpenter. He also took the initiative to participate in the adult class of the Dionysian School. Through hard work, he soon took off the hat of illiteracy.

Then, because of the agreement between Davos and Mentotik Els, for a period of time, the craftsmen of the legion entered the laboratory of the Mathematical Institute and became the garrison of scholars, but Orops took the opportunity to study advanced mathematics. And finally got the appreciation of Mattikoris, became his disciple, and became an engineer through the examination.

Orops was thus a model of self-taught, revered by the Dionysian artisans and inspiring them to learn from him.

“Your Majesty, copying is possible, but it will take some time.” Orops said cautiously, crouched down, and laboriously picked up a large wooden wheel: “The biggest difficulty in making this siege tower lies in these wooden wheels. On the wheels and axles. Such a large engineering tower and such a heavy weight are finally supported by these wooden wheels and axles, and the requirements for them are very high. What is the diameter of the axles? How thick and wide should the wooden wheels be? Yes How many sets of axles and wooden wheels can be ensured that the siege tower can be pushed smoothly?… These all need to go through repeated tests before they can be finally determined.

And your Majesty, you can see that the size and width of so many wooden wheels can basically be kept the same, there is not a lot of It is very difficult for a skilled carpenter to do it, otherwise these wooden wheels are slightly different in size, and the siege tower may tilt and collapse due to imbalance when being pushed! With the current capabilities of our engineering battalion, we want to do this There are still some difficulties.”

Orops said this with a little regret, stood up, looked at the siege tower in front of him obsessively, opened his arms, gestured with his hands, and continued: “Look, Your Majesty, this siege tower The tower walls on both sides of the tower are not upright, but inclined inward. Although I can’t see the whole picture, I can be sure that it must be a trapezoid, so as to enhance the stability of the base, but what is the angle of the inclination of the tower walls? What is the most suitable place? How high is the height to build the horizontal plate to ensure that the tower wall is evenly stressed and stable?…”

Davos was not too concerned about the technical details that Orops said, he understood Orops The meaning of the words: “In short, you need repeated calculation experiments to make a siege tower that can operate normally.”

“Yes, Your Majesty, we need time.” Orops answered truthfully, He looked at the other people behind him, and said, “For such a huge siege tower, we have fewer people, and this is the first time to make it…”

Although the siege battalions of each legion added up to no less than 500 people , In fact, there are not too many people, but Davos heard the implied meaning in Orops’ words: there are not enough excellent engineers and craftsmen.

Thinking that the Syracuse people built three large siege towers in a few days, Davos was jealous of the thousands of engineering teams in the city of Siriting. The wealth that Firth really longed for.

“I’ll give you time to study and try to make this kind of siege tower, but don’t be too anxious, study its technology thoroughly, and finally master it completely!” Davos encouraged them.

“Thank you, Your Majesty!”

……………………………………

Phoebe Das, who was sitting in the tent, was watched by four guards. This big tent led him to discover a secret: the layout of Davos’s tent was very similar to Dionysius’s military tent, except that the space was not as big as that of Dionysius. The layout is very simple, except for a few armor and weapon racks, a bed covered with straw mattresses and furs, the most eye-catching is undoubtedly the paper rolls, cloth, etc. piled on the wooden table above. , This is obviously the same as Dionysius’s tent. It can be seen that while the consul is on the march to fight, he is also dealing with many affairs in the alliance at any time…

These two tyrants of the Western Mediterranean!

An inexplicable feeling rose in Phoebe Das’ heart.