Chapter 119 Crotone Siege Battle (2)

The slaves staggered to the front of Luzhai, and the soldiers in the city started to fire arrows, and the city screamed again and again...

Just as Klebs and the others bent their bows and arrows and drew their javelins again, the slaves in the city shouted loudly: "Don't let the arrows go, I am Sifnos, the son of Sipacus, Sifnos!"

"I am Pararus! Askamas' neighbor!"

...

The Crotone soldiers were stunned: the people in the city were not slaves, but their compatriots who were captured after the defeat of the previous battle!

"Damn Syracuse! Dionysius who should go to hell!" Askamas angrily punched on the battlement, and the blood immediately stained his fist, he did not expect Dionysius Even ignoring the Greek tradition, let Greek prisoners serve as meat shields for the siege to be consumed.

At this time, Dionysius, who had followed the archers to the mound, looked down at the situation under the city with a sneer on his face. You must know that after the last battle, Syracuse captured nearly 10,000 prisoners. After torture, intimidation, beating, fasting, etc., more than 2,000 people were forced to pull out the deer village under the city and fill it up for Syracuse. A moat in exchange for a promise not to be tortured or sold into slavery. Among these 2,000 people, there are not only Crotones, but also a small number of Cilitin and Trina, that is, no Dionysians. On the one hand, Dionysian soldiers were the least captured, and more than half of them had been replaced by Dionysus, and the rest of the Bruty captives, Dionysius had other uses, and the pure Greeks. And Lucanians are mostly grumpy...

Dionysius did not think about this annoying little problem, he was now proud of this trick he used, and wanted to see how the Crotones would respond, so he ordered the archers not to shoot arrows, but to save energy and arrows Ya, wait until the entire army attacks, and then remove the obstacles for the army.

At the top of the city, the adjutant asked eagerly: "General, what should we do?!"

Askamas didn't answer immediately. He asked the guards to bandage his left hand, and looked sadly at the Crotone prisoners under the city, under the persecution of the Syracuses, walked to the moat, and put the soil bag on their back. Throw it into the moat, and then turn around to destroy the deer village carefully arranged by the defenders.

Askamas scolded these traitors, but he did not dare to order to attack them, because he thought: Crotone's former mortal enemy Turii, their chief general Kunogolata ordered the closure of the city gates , although the whole city was saved, but because it caused the death of some civilian soldiers, the people were reluctant to do so, not only expelling Kunogorata, but also hurting his family, and now he directly ordered the killing of Croto below The prisoners, even if the enemy's attack is repelled, how can the families of the thousands of deceased not hate them in the future, I am afraid their end will be worse than Kunogolata!

Askamas is not a general who only knows how to fight,

Being able to be elected as a general many times in Crotone, a powerful Greek state with tens of thousands of citizens, his political literacy is not low. After a quick weighing of the pros and cons, he told the adjutant: "You go to the town hall immediately, tell the council what is going on here, and let them decide."

After the adjutant left, Askamas saw that a small section of the moat was about to be cut off, so he couldn't help sighing, and instructed the left and right: "Go find some ropes and hang them down under the city, so that they can grab them and climb up. "

He did not dare to open the city gate, for fear that the Syracuses would take the opportunity to flood in.

The soldiers hurriedly found the rope and hung it down under the city, and then shouted to their compatriots: "Come here!! Grab the rope and climb up!!"

After hearing this, some prisoners stumbled across the filled moat, but Syracuse's light infantry immediately shot arrows at them, making these weak prisoners who had never eaten enough food and were easily shot down.

The soldiers at the head of the city fought back angrily. Most of them were unable to hit the Syracuses who were hiding behind the arrow-blocking vehicles. Instead, they accidentally injured their compatriots.

The captives no longer dared to act rashly.

Seeing this scene, Askamas reluctantly gave up the act of rescuing his compatriots.

The Crotone Council was obviously not mentally prepared for Syracuse's use of captives to siege the city, and the debate was fierce, but it was never able to make a decision, which gave the Syracuses plenty of time for the captives to fill in for several long hours. Section of the moat to clean up the deer villages on both sides of the moat.

Askamas looked at all this depressedly, but he quickly forced himself to cheer up: In this case, let's fight face to face!

As if hearing the inner cry of Askamas, the captives were driven back and never appeared again.

Seeing that everything was ready, Dionysius gave an order from the high platform: "Attack!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a chill on his face, and when he reached out and touched it, it turned out to be water.

It's raining? Dionysius looked up at the sky. The previously clear sky became a little gloomy at some point. Although it was only a small raindrop, Dionysius was a little worried because the weight of the siege tower would cause the land to become soft after being soaked by the rain. As a result, the wheels got stuck in the mud and couldn't move.

"Speed ​​up the attack!" he ordered again.

The bugle honked.

Stone bullets whizzed past the city of Crotone, and the dark enemies below the city slowly poured in like a tide...

Bugles, war drums, shouts, footsteps... mixed together, hitting the eardrums of the defending soldiers, making them short of breath.

"It's on." Askamas whispered, picking up the javelin and walking to the battlement.

At this moment, a black spot suddenly passed over the back of his head, followed by another...

He suddenly widened his eyes, looked up, and heard the soldier next to him shouting excitedly: "Our ballista! Our ballista finally started to show its power!!..."

That's not Crotone's ballista... Askamas thought to himself, but when he saw the morale of the soldiers rising, he didn't mind, but felt fortunate in his heart: Fortunately, Dionia and Croto Stand together inside!

The Crotone soldiers were excited, and the Syracuses were anxious, especially Dionysius, who saw with his own eyes that almost all the stone bullets flying out of the city hit near the siege tower not far from the earthen bastion .

He'd heard Fauci Pesas say, 'Dionia had ballistas too. 'Since Crotone had not been used in the past two days, he thought that Dionia had not lent Crotone the weapon, which was complicated in production process, expensive in materials, and powerful. It was used to defend Aspurustum. I didn't expect Crotone to hide until now, and it didn't start to show its power until Syracuse attacked the city with all its strength.

"Cunning Crotones!" Dionysius yelled, he knew that the enemy's ballistas were targeting the siege tower, but he could only be anxious: "Tell our ballistas to put crossbows in the enemy's city. Attack the area of ​​​​the gun!"

Although Dionysius gave the order, he also knew that the accuracy of the ballista was not high, and it was too difficult to hit the enemy ballista without being able to see the position. Approaching the city wall, the ballista can no longer bombard the city wall, so as not to accidentally injure one's own people, it is good to make some attempts to disrupt the city of Crotone.

In front of the huge siege team like the tide, the enemy is only a dozen ballistas, and they can't raise too much waves. The key is to capture the city first! Dionysius made a quick decision. Under his instructions, hundreds of archers on the earthen fort began to throw arrows at the front of the city, suppressing the enemy's attack on the soldiers below the city.

The Crotone light infantry on the top of the city also began to pour arrows on the enemy approaching the moat.

The Syracuses crossed the filled moat, braved the javelins dropped by the Crotones, and raised the ladders they carried to the walls. The ladders specially made by the Crotones after many siege experiences have two curved iron hooks at the head, which can hook the battlements, so that the ladders will not be easily slipped or pushed down.

The Crotone soldiers couldn't push down the ladder quickly, so they had to throw javelins and stones down, attack the enemies who climbed the city, dump tung oil, and burn the ladder with fire...

Syracuse's light infantry also came out from behind the arrow-blocking vehicle, rushed to the bottom of the city, and shot arrows at the city's head to ease the defenders' attack on the siege soldiers...

Syracuse's siege machines are the slowest. The ones running at the front were the covered wooden-wheeled vehicles, pushed by the occupants, and finally arrived on the filled moat. Under the protection of the roof, the occupants picked up the tools and began to re-consolidate the ground without any distractions. Fill the gaps with dirt and planks to keep the heavy siege towers through the moat.

Dionia's ballistas were concentrated not far behind the western city wall, the distance was widened, and there were houses around them, so it was relatively safe. However, due to the wide spread of ballistas, it is impossible to use the same data after attacking the target to adjust the ballistics. There are not so many artillerymen from the School of Mathematics, so Kurdorod proposed a suggestion: ten ballistas bombard at the same time One area or one target can improve the accuracy of the hit. After the ballista himself commanded the first shot, the other ballistas could adjust the firing data according to the height and speed of the stone bullets.

This suggestion has been approved by the Ballista team, and now their primary target is the approaching siege tower directly ahead.

Kurdorod kept watching the observer holding the colorful flag on the city wall. The position he was standing was the direction of the siege tower, and the number he drew in the air with the colorful flag was the distance between the siege tower and the city wall. The hand pointed the bunting to the left, and after repeating this action twice, the number followed by the gesture was the azimuth and distance of the deviation of the stone bullet fired by Kurdorod.

The first two shots failed to hit, and Kurdorod felt the pressure. He wiped the rain on his face to make his vision clearer. He knew that he had to hit as soon as possible, otherwise the rain would keep falling and the crossbow would fall. When the spring group of the gun is damp, the elastic force will change, and it is even more difficult to judge the accurate trajectory.