Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece - Chapter 948

[Chapter 286 Offensive Strategy Against Syracuse]

Davos had no doubts about Cypros’ ability, so he just mentioned a word, then looked away, looked forward, and said in a heavy tone: “Everyone, before we march on the Carthaginian army, we will And all the soldiers who are about to fight the enemy have an important thing to do to go to Paragonia, to pay homage and pay tribute to the 1st battalion of the 7th Legion and the cardinals who persevered in the city of Paragonia and died heroically in the end. All the soldiers of the two reserve battalions of Tanay!” After the military conference, Davos left

Cypros

and Leotidides alone, and went to the two The people express their sincere thanks to them for taking up the heavy responsibility of defense alone when the main Dionysian army could not reinforce Sicily. Not only did they finally successfully resist the invasion of the Carthaginian army, but also ensured the integrity of the Sicilian territory. , and also gave the Carthaginians a lot of damage, which greatly exceeded Davos’ expectations.

In the face of Davos’ generous praise, Cypros was very modest: “Our Sicily can finally hold on until your Majesty, you lead the troops to come, Lord Prosous is the most credited, if not for his decisive attack, in Mino Ada defeated the Carthaginians, captured Serinus, and disrupted the entire west.”

Leotizides interjected: “Without the full support and protection of Lord Cypros, I would not dare to take the risk. The army attacked, especially when the Carthaginian army invaded the plain of Catania. It was all thanks to Lord Cypros’ understanding and appeasing the people in the city that I could stick to Catanai to this day…”

Davos looked at it with a smile. Looking at the two of them, he said, “It is said that Prosius is difficult to approach and difficult to deal with. I think you are working well together!”

Cypros looked at Leotides and defended him: ” Your Majesty, everyone may have misunderstood this. Lord Prossius is not sociable, just because he devoted all his energy to military research.”

“Of course I know that.” Davos smiled, and then took advantage of the trend. The conversation led to the next battle: “What do you think of the attack on Syracuse?”

After staying in Catane for so many years, of course, in his spare time, Leotizides pondered how to attack this neighbor, who had had many disputes with Catane, and even went south a few times to secretly survey Syracuse. After being appointed by Davos just now, he had already conceived an offensive plan in his mind, so he immediately said: “Your Majesty, according to previous information, Syracuse can organize an army of at least 20,000 people. , and if it is defending the city, the number of soldiers will only be more. However, the citizens of Syracuse lack sufficient military training, and they have basically not experienced major wars for more than ten years, and lack sufficient combat experience, they categorically I dare not go out of the city to fight with us, but will only defend the city. Although the walls of Syracuse are tall and strong, I have the confidence to take it down.”

Having said this, Leotizides turned back to the tower of the adjutant who was waiting outside the door. Gru shouted: “Go and fetch the Syracuse city defense map in my room!”

Leotizides shouted suddenly in front of Davos. This behavior is extremely rude, but Davos Not caring, he even stopped Henepolis from scolding, and listened carefully to the young commander who was already indulging in his thoughts.

“Since Your Majesty, you will lead your army to the west to fight the Carthaginians, there is no threat from the Carthaginians in the east for the time being, and now is the slack season, we can start from Naxos, Sikuli, Catanay, Leotine, Taunis, Sikers, and even Agrigento, Gera and other refugees gathered more people to participate in the siege of Syracuse nearby…”

Leo While Tizides was talking about his thoughts,

Tagluo had already brought the plank map, he immediately put it on the table, pointed to it, and said, “Look at your majesty! Syracuse! It is a big city, the urban area is very large, and the length of its walls is not small, but more than half of it is built on the coast and hills, and there are two main sections that are really suitable for the army to attack the city. Not far from Nice, the Hexa Gate and its adjacent wall section are about a mile in length; the other section is on the west wall, from Puskamen to the south to the main port of Syracuse, which is about four miles in length. …

The siege plan I envisaged is…to encamp here with the main force of the 7th and 8th legions” Leotizides pointed to the flat area on the map between the west of Syracuse and the Arappus River

“There’s the Lysimile Swamp nearby!

”

It is easy to let the soldiers contract the disease!

Cypros, who also looked closely at the map, changed his face and reminded loudly: “You must know that the Carthaginian army attacked the city of Syracuse twice before, both because of the plague, which eventually led to a fiasco.

”

Of course I am aware of the dangers of the swamps of Lysimile.”

“Leotidides explained confidently: “It is now approaching November, the weather is starting to cool, and the mosquitoes have decreased.

Moreover, the civilians of Syracuse have continued to develop the swamp in recent years, and its area has been much smaller than 10 years ago.

What’s more, our legionnaires have special training on how to deal with this harsh terrain in their daily military training. I don’t think it will cause any problems for the army to station!

…”

When Davos heard this, he remembered the Samonai battle report he had received when he was in Rome before: Alexis led the army into the mountains, also stationed near the swamp, and there was no major problem.

So , he agreed and said: “As long as you are fully prepared, I think it should not be a problem for the army to be stationed here, you continue to say.

”

“Another army, composed of some reserve soldiers, allied and friendly soldiers of our Sicilian territory, was stationed near Taunis. According to the Covenant, such a mixed force must be commanded by General Dionia. And now the senior generals basically have their own appointments, in order to ensure that the offensive on the east side of Syracuse can proceed well, I think…” Leotidides hesitated for a while: “Can we make Breeze? Is Lu taking this position temporarily?

Davos and Cypros

were surprised when he said these words.

Davos looked at him meaningfully and thought to himself: Everyone said that Prosius was indifferent, but I didn’t expect him to be very human. Use this opportunity to make Brelu’s merits and reduce the public’s accusations against him, so that the punishment can be mitigated after the war.

Being watched by Davos like this made Leotidides a little unnatural. The reason why he made this suggestion was partly to meet the needs of the next battle, and more importantly to make up for the guilt in his heart, because in this During the military meeting, he suddenly realized that under the circumstance that the Carthaginian army was under pressure, no matter who was in Brelu’s position, he would face the same predicament. Brelu led the Seventh Legion to come to aid, just to support him.

Davers coughed dryly: “I can understand your desire to help Brem. But if you let him lead the army, it will make everyone confused, then the previous punishment will be meaningless, so I can’t agree. The army in the east. The commander can be Zantiparis, who has led mixed armies in Campania several times to conquer the towns of Samone, and should have a lot of experience in this. During the attack on Syracuse, you temporarily performed the first task for him. The position of the commander of the Seventh Legion.”

“Yes.” Leotidides replied with a unchanged expression, and continued: “I heard that when His Majesty led the army to land in Katanai, there was also a team consisting of engineers and engineers. An engineering team of hundreds of people composed of highly skilled craftsmen, I hope that your majesty will allow this team to assist us in manufacturing various siege equipment, so as to ease the difficulty of the soldiers in siege, so as to impose more pressure on the people of Syracuse. A lot

of pressure.”

“Of course there’s no problem.” Davos nodded in agreement, and then asked: “The focus of your attack is on these two wall sections, but I’m afraid you won’t ignore the attack on Syracuse City. other wall sections?”

As expected of a famous general who has won every battle, he feels quite keen!

Leotidides thought for a second, and then said: “Except for the city wall on the coast, other wall sections are built on high ground, and it is relatively difficult to attack, but I will also send soldiers to attack. , distract the Syracuses and confuse them…”

On the map, the east and west sections of the city walls of Syracuse run along the edge of the Epipole Heights, winding diagonally to the north, and finally converging together, looking like a top hat, while columns Otisides’ hand was pointing to the place where the two ends of the city walls meet, and he said solemnly: “It is said that it was the siege of Syracuse by Athens that year, and the Syracuses realized that they must not let the enemy occupy the commanding heights of the city. Epipole Heights, so after Dionysius became a tyrant, he mobilized the people of Syracuse to surround the entire Epipole Heights with walls and become part of the city, and the highest part of the city is in Here is the west side of the peak of Euriarus.

Dionysius called this the ‘key’ of Epipole and the whole city of Syracuse, so he also built a fort here. But Epipole The area is sparsely populated, and it is even more uninhabited, because it is 5 or 6 miles away from the main city of Syracuse, and the traffic is very inconvenient. Although Dionysius thinks its location is very important, it has never been in these years. No enemy has attacked this place, and the Syracuses seem to pay little attention to it.

I have carefully explored this place several times. The city wall on the west side of Yuria Rus has been in disrepair for many years, and the number of sentries on the city has never exceeded 10. Moreover, most of these sentries stay in the fortress and rarely patrol the entire wall section regularly. It seems that they are very confident in the defense of the city wall in this area. But in fact, the height of the west side of Yuria Rus is not more than 200 meters, and Not difficult to climb”