Chapter 120 Crotone Siege Battle (3)

Thinking of this, he took a deep breath and calmed himself down. After a quick calculation in his mind, he said in a deep voice: "The elevation angle remains the same, the gun body is deflected one degree to the left, the range is reduced by one block, and the original live ammunition weight is still used. "

The gunner did so immediately.

"emission!"

The stone bullets whizzed away, and then one stone bullet after another flew out of the city...

But more stone bullets flew in from outside the city, "Boom! Boom! Boom!..." mixed with exclamations and screams. One of the stone bullets landed near the ballista where Kurdorod was located, and the stone chips were scattered everywhere, with an astonishing momentum. Kurdorod was unmoved. After this period of training, he was no longer a scholar just out of the academy (the nickname given to him by the legionnaires), but a qualified soldier.

The siege tower of Syracuse is far from comparable to the siege tower used by Dionia to break Knapetia before. It is 20 meters long, 10 meters wide and 12 meters high. Trapezoid with a total of seven floors. The topmost layer is a circular wooden vertebral disc, with five archers in it, who can shoot arrows at the city head from a height; the bottom layer also has a battering ram, which can directly hit the city wall; the penultimate layer is almost the same height as the city wall, The drawbridge can be lowered to let the soldiers entering the tower rush to the city head; and the third-to-last floor is slightly below the city head, where another terrible weapon invented by the Syracuses is placed - the abdominal bow... Therefore , this is a super siege tower that requires hundreds of people to push it hard behind and on both sides of the tower.

Dionia's stone bullets kept falling around it, splashing mud flowers one after another, splashing mud mixed with rain and hitting people, rustling in pain. And those who were hit by the stone bullets were even more terrifying, scaring the surrounding soldiers to avoid them one after another. In the case of the siege soldiers advancing densely under the city, there is only a large space near the siege tower.

Of course, the commander of the siege tower also felt a little dangerous. He urged the laborers behind the tower to push the siege tower forward. As long as they reached the city wall, nothing could threaten the siege tower.

At this time, the outer plank of the penultimate layer of the siege tower has been opened, and the two abdominal bows have exposed their true bodies. Its structure is similar to a ballista, except that the device used for launching is a huge bow that is laid flat. Fixed on the launcher. The operator turned the pulley forcefully, pulled the thick bowstring to fix it, and put in an equally huge iron arrow.

The distance of 30 meters is a good aim for the abdominal bow, and the abdominal bowman on the right even aimed the iron arrow at the general on the city head with a colorful tassel on the top of the helmet.

"Huh!!..." With the sound of the huge bowstring, the iron arrow flashed with a screeching sound, and rushed to the city head.

When Askamas "opened the window" of the siege tower, his years of battlefield experience made him feel uneasy, so he subconsciously sat down to the battlement, and heard two shrill screams behind him. With a round shield to shield the soldiers attacked by the arrows from the earthen and siege towers, the iron arrows pierced through the chest,

And the powerful kinetic energy also penetrated the soldiers behind him at the same time, and finally nailed it to the wall behind him, while another iron arrow shot through three people at once, and the surrounding soldiers, including Askamas, saw this, all exposed. Frightened.

The giant siege tower of Syracuse, which played a key role in the capture of the important Carthaginian town of Mortia in Sicily, revealed its hideous face. It was like a giant beast, slowly approaching the city wall, getting closer , getting closer and closer, the soldiers defending the city were panicked and at a loss...

At this critical moment, a black dot flew across the city wall like a meteor, hitting the arrow tower on the top floor of the siege tower with strong kinetic energy, only to hear the sound of "Bang!" A hole was opened, and the scattered sawdust pierced into the faces and bodies of the Syracuse archers in the arrow tower like steel needles, causing them to let out shrill screams. But this was not over yet. The stone bullet that fell into the tower went down the wooden ladder and fell on the foot of a soldier who was winding the bow on the third floor of the siege tower. He screamed, causing the other soldiers to panic. Delayed the firing of the abdominal bow.

"Hit! Hit! Our ballista hit!!..." The city guards cheered, as if they had won the whole victory, using such a move to dispel the fear in their hearts.

Astamas sighed in his heart: Compared with the huge siege tower, the ballista's stone bullets are just a drop in the bucket, not enough to cause great damage to it.

Askamas had just finished sighing when he saw stone bullets flying one after another, smashing into the siege tower.

Just as the soldiers sighed that they missed a hit, and some even began to pray to Apollo, their prayers seemed to work.

A stone bullet flew from the side and hit the side of the middle of the siege tower, causing the enemy to exclaim.

Then, another stone bullet flew into the layer where the baffle was opened and the belly bow was about to be launched. The belly bow was brittle, and various parts and sawdust flew around in the narrow space, in exchange for It was the screams of soldiers and the splashes of blood.

Then another stone bullet smashed through the lower part of the siege tower.

Despite the constant cheers of the defending soldiers, the siege tower, which had been pierced through several large holes by stone bullets, was still slowly approaching the city wall, but during the movement, the tower began to shake, and the loose wooden boards kept falling down, causing the The laborers who worked hard to push it fled in panic, and the siege tower began to collapse from top to bottom...

On the earthen fort outside the city, Dionysius looked at this scene with a livid face. He knew that although under his own supervision, Fascipedas gathered nearly 10,000 people and stepped up the construction project under the command of the engineer. Three towers were built in a few days, but the time was too hasty, making the siege tower not very firm, and the violent impact of the stone bullet must have destroyed the internal structure of the siege tower...

"Look, my lord! The engineering tower has passed the moat!" Damocles shouted excitedly to divert Dionysius' attention.

"Our battering ram has reached the city, and I think the city wall of Crotone will tremble under its impact!" Another subordinate said not to be outdone.

Indeed, Crotone's walls were littered with ant-possessed Syracuse soldiers who attracted most of the defender's attack, leaving siege towers, battering rams, and rams (the previously rammed moat) After it reaches the city, the personnel in the car can use tools such as pickaxes to dig out and pound the hardest shell of the city wall - the stone, so that the city wall collapses), ... these large-scale siege equipment Arrived under the city relatively smoothly. A siege tower was knocked down, which did not affect the battle situation at all. And once these siege machines work together, Crotone's city walls will be in big trouble.

However, Dionysius looked up at the sky worriedly, the dark clouds in the sky were getting thicker and thicker, and the rain was getting heavier and heavier, so that he could hardly open his eyes: if the rain continued like this, it would…

As if responding to his concerns, "Crack!!!...Boom!!!..." A dazzling light flashed in the sky, followed by a rumbling thunder, covering all the hustle and bustle on the battlefield. There were many soldiers on both sides, and they all looked up to the sky.

The wind picks up...

The rain was heavier and soon it turned into a downpour...

Lightning, thunder, strong wind, and heavy rain have become the protagonists of this world.

The soldiers no longer fought, but cowered and hid under the city walls or in the towers, because a lightning bolt that pierced through the sky just hit the ground and split a huge siege tower in half!

Everyone who saw this horrific sight was stunned.

This is the wrath of the god king Zeus! The soldiers on both sides trembled and began to pray to Zeus.

"My lord, it's too dangerous here, let's go down!" The entourage came to persuade Dionysius.

Dionysius looked at the front very unwillingly, but the rain was too dense, and the field of vision was all white...

He reluctantly ordered: retreat immediately!

In such extremely bad weather, the sound of bugles could not be heard at all. Fortunately, the Syracuse soldiers did not need to give orders, and they had already retreated consciously. And the Crotones dared not go out of town to pursue them in such terrible weather. A large-scale siege battle has just begun, and it was aborted under the interference of nature...

As soon as Dionysius got down on the earth, the earth that took several thousand people two days to build was swept away by the rain and slowly collapsed. He reluctantly scolded: Lucky Crotones!"

"It seems that Zeus is blessing them this time." A follower said casually.

Dionysius immediately stared fiercely: "Shut your mouth! This has nothing to do with Zeus, it's just a coincidence."

At the head of the city, Askamas was praying devoutly to Zeus.

There are not many rainy days in Crotone in winter. It can be said that today's heavy rain is rare in the past few years. Therefore, the people of Crotone believe that this is the blessing of the gods. Although it is being washed away by wind and rain, Everyone's morale has been boosted.

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The war between Syracuse and the South Italian Alliance has always been under the attention of many forces because it is related to the hegemony of the Greek city-states in the Western Mediterranean.

Needless to say, Carthage hated Syracuse, who had been fighting with him for a hundred years. But unfortunately, the real predicament caused the Carthaginian Senate to reject Dionia's request for alliance. Of course, they hoped that the army of Syracuse would suffer setbacks and even heavy losses in the war of Great Greece, but the news came But the Syracuses have always been winning. Even Crotone and Dionysus were at risk under the fierce attack of Dionysius' army. The Carthaginians were even more afraid of the power of Syracuse. .

Margo, who was in charge of defense in Sicily, wrote several letters to the Senate asking for a small attack on the allies of Syracuse to divert Syracuse's sight and slow Dionysius' attack on the north. , to prevent him from conquering Greater Greece and integrating a more powerful Syracuse.

The Senate, headed by Hanno, rejected his proposal. In order to prevent him from chaotic, the Senate also specially sent a censor to Lilipi to supervise the mobilization of the Sicilian army.

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The Carthaginian senate was concerned about the progress of the Great Greek War, while the Corinthian offensive and defensive battle continued on the Peloponnesian Peninsula.

However, Agathilaus returned to Sparta, who was ill, and handed over the command of the Spartan coalition in Corinth to Plaque, the uncle of another new king of Sparta, Agasipolis. Thetas, the army that Agesilaus brought back from Asia Minor also stayed in Corinth.