Chapter 75 The First Battle of Syracuse (1)

At dusk, the vanguard of Syracuse actually arrived at the city of Hibernian one after another, from Locle to Medema, to Hibernian, a journey of more than 100 miles, and the army of Dionysius used it. Forcibly marching for more than a day, to actually complete this part of the journey, it can be regarded as a miracle.

The nature of the movement caused by the successive arrival of the Syracuse army alarmed Trina's spies, who had been closely watching the movement of Hibernian, and they quickly returned to Lamato, which is more than 50 miles away from Hibernian. Trina city on the north bank of the river.

Here comes the army of Syracuse! ! !

This astonishing news shook the entire city of Trina, and both ordinary people and members of the council were terrified. They never expected that the Syracuses would approach Trina on the third day after landing.

According to the original plan of the South Italian Alliance, the most important main force for the defense of the Lamato River - Crotone's troops have not yet arrived, and the Siriting has only sent a few thousand civic soldiers to the Lamato River. Upstream, the entire Lamato River defense line has not been established at all, which can be said to be riddled with holes. If the Syracuses attacked tomorrow, it would easily break through the Lamato River and into the plains of Euphemia, and Trina would be the first to suffer from the war.

The situation was urgent, and the Trina Council did not have time to argue. They quickly made a decision under the leadership of the Chief General Cypros, who was elected last year: First, send someone to Crotone immediately, urging him to send it as quickly as possible. The main force rushed to the Lamato River; secondly, sent people to Siriting immediately, asking it to go all out to defend the Lamato River; thirdly, send people to Knapetia immediately, to Dionysian. Ya asks for help; fourth, send someone to Coulonia immediately and ask Dionysian Fourth and Fifth Corps to divide their troops to come to the rescue...

For Cypros, who has always admired Dionia, he trusted the well-trained Dionysian legion more than the procrastinating civic soldiers of Sirius and Crotone, so Trina adopted the Half of the emergency measures were related to Dionysus.

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On this day, the soldiers outside the Dionysian camp in Colonia continued to work hard to improve the defense. However, as the scouts returned quickly, the warning horn of the camp was sounded. The soldiers immediately carried pickaxes, shovels, raised wooden baskets and other equipment, and quickly returned to the camp, closing the camp door.

"The Syracuses are finally attacking!" Drax excitedly put on his armor with the help of the guards, and asked the adjutant, "What instructions does Felixius have?"

"Let us defend ourselves," replied the adjutant.

"It's quite interesting!" Drakes muttered a few times, put on the purple crown helmet that symbolized the identity of the legion commander, and fastened the ear pads on his cheeks: "Go, let's go and see how powerful Syracuse is!"

Dionysian IV and V Legions actually built two camps,

The Fourth Army is on the west side, and the Fifth Army is on the east side, connected by a corridor in the middle.

Therefore, for the convenience of command, the Syracuse-Lochrie coalition also divided the troops into two parts. The Syracuse army led by Fasipesas attacked the east camp, and the general Loclery Diopantos led the army to attack the west camp. .

Due to the lack of time, the Syracuses did not build siege towers, and even did not prepare much for the ladders, but Diopantos still had the confidence to turn the temptation into a storm in return for his work in Croto a few years ago. The shame of being driven back by the Dionian army without fighting in the interior.

The 20,000 attacking troops of Lokri, who were swaying, moved forward slowly under the guidance of the rhythmic sound of the copper horn, until they were about 500 meters away from the Dionysian camp, Diopantos raised his arm high, and the horn stopped. The army stopped moving forward one after another, and the array became uneven.

"Push ballista!" Diopantos ordered loudly. Yes, his reliance is the siege weapon brought by the Syracuses - ballista.

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The Dionysian Legion had a busy day yesterday, and they only dug trenches, built earth barriers and wooden fences, and had no time to dig traps outside the camp. They didn't even set up the deer village. The engineers and craftsmen of the engineering camp were still there. The construction of the outpost is racing against time.

When the first outpost was built, Felixius and Epithenes immediately climbed up the outpost and looked out, just in time to see the Locriians pushing a dozen ballistas out of the team.

Epithenes was not surprised at all, because ten ballistas, one size smaller than the Syracuse ballista, were also neatly placed in the camp just below the sentry tower. He frowned slightly, pointed forward, turned around and asked the young man who was with them on the outpost: "Kordorod, do you think our ballistas can destroy them?"

Kurdorod came from the Mathematics School of Dionysian Academy. According to the newly revised "Dionysian Military Law" two years ago: each legion must be equipped with ten ballistas when going out, and the sighting hand must be equipped with ten ballistas. The outstanding students of Dionia Academy must be in charge, because they can quickly calculate the appropriate landing point according to the parabolic equation to improve the accuracy of its launch.

Although Kurdorod has participated in military training many times, this is the first time he has been on the battlefield. Looking at the densely packed enemies in the distance, he was a little nervous: "It's too...too far, I'm afraid it's...difficult."

Felixus patted him kindly on the shoulder and comforted him by saying, "Take it easy, young man. It's normal to feel nervous when you are on the battlefield for the first time. Don't worry, no matter how many enemies come, our heroic Legionnaires will drove them away."

Kurdorod nodded, he swallowed his saliva, looked forward again, and then gathered up his courage and said, "I... I suggest letting the enemy get closer, so that the power of our ballista can be maximized. ."

"It's the same as what I thought!" While applauding, Epithenes looked at the handsome young man seriously, with a strange light in his eyes: "You are very good, young man."

Seeing this, Felixus coughed a few times.

At this time, the messenger of the Fifth Army rushed to the downstairs: "Commander, Commander Drakes requested that the ballistas be fired after the enemy entered a distance of 200 meters, so as not to scare them away."

"200 meters?!" Epithenes shrugged: "This Drakes is so greedy!"

"He thinks the same as we do!" Felixius laughed.

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As the team leader, Effieart and his teammates stood behind the soil barrier, watching the huge stone bullets whizzing from the enemy's front, hitting the camp, making a loud noise and raising a layer of dust. They didn't show much unease, because in the usual military training, they didn't know how many times they had practiced with the ballista units, and they were quite familiar with this amazing long-range weapon, so despite the momentum caused by the enemy's ballista outside the camp Surprisingly, the soldiers were still in the mood to laugh.

They asked Effieart about the details of going to the Hera celebration, and they were envious of the special treats their newlyweds enjoyed at the celebration, and they all said that they must go to Turui to participate in the Hera celebration when they get married.

As the enemy array gradually approached, the ballista pushed forward, and the impact point continued to move forward.

When the stone bullets fell from the sky, fell in front of the camp, and fell into the ditch, the regiment's sub-captains issued orders one after another: "Cover up against the wall!"

Just as Effieart and his teammates were leaning on the earthen base and falling down, Kurdorod's voice came from the sentry tower: "250 meters!"

"No rush, no rush." ​​Epithenes folded his arms and patted his shoulders, trying his best to suppress his excitement.

"Bang!" A stone bullet hit the wooden fence, and the broken sawdust fell on the heavily armed soldiers without causing any damage.

"Huh!" Several more stone bullets roared, crossed the wooden fence, fell into the camp, and smashed several tents, but there were several screams and laughter.

Kurdorod stared at the ground ahead from the sentry tower. Yesterday, while the soldiers stepped up to build the camp, the ballista team was not idle. They mapped the ground outside the camp and left some marks, which may be a transplanted weed or a strange piece of grass. A rock, an oblique stick...

"200 meters!" Kurdorod shouted excitedly.

"It's ready to launch." Epithenes waved.

"30-degree elevation angle, medium-sized stone bullets, full strings!" Kurdorod quickly reported the data.

The ballista captain, who had been listening attentively, immediately repeated Courdorod's words aloud, and the soldiers quickly turned the pulley, pulled the bowstring, hooked it with an iron hook, and then put about 6 kilograms of stone bullets into the smoothbore (after several years) Further research and improvement of ballistas, Dionia’s ballistas are divided into two types, one is siege ballista, which is large in size and fires stone bullets weighing more than 20 kilograms. The main target of the attack is the city wall. , building, etc., the other is the defensive ballista, which is small in size, light in weight and good in accuracy, and can be carried by two or three people. .

Since it is not a battle, the enemy's formation is relatively loose, but the team of 20,000 people still seems dense, so the good opportunity to attack in the first round must be seized. To this end, Kurdolad first set the ballista's impact point in the center of the enemy's formation.

"Fire!" The ballista captain waved his right arm vigorously.

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Diopantos felt a burst of joy in his heart as he watched the stone bullets whizzing into the Dionysian camp.

At the beginning of the army's movement to the enemy camp within 500 meters, he was also worried about being hit by Dionysian slingers, because he heard that most of Dionia's slingers were from Rhode Island, and the flying stones were thrown far away. Again. But when the troops advanced to 300 meters from the enemy camp, the Dionysians still did not respond, and he was completely relieved.