Chapter 137 Storming the City of Rome (9)

Compared with Dionia's light infantry, the siege tower was a greater threat to the defenders of the city.

Every time the belly bow was fired, the arrows were all tragically dead, which made the defending soldiers facing the siege tower tremble with fear, and they retreated one after another, causing several small open spaces to appear on the top of the crowded city.

Of course, with the advancement of the siege tower, the elevation angle between the abdominal bow and the city head increases, and the abdominal bow cannot be raised, so that it cannot accurately shoot to the city head and the threat is greatly reduced, but the legion javeliners at the top of the tower are However, they began to exert their power. Relying on the protection of the wooden fence, they commanded the tower and threw heavy javelins at the city head. This kind of javelin is not as good as an arrow. The Roman heavy infantry will also be injured if they are stabbed, forcing them to raise their shields and be careful. Roman archers also shoot at the top of the siege tower, attacking these unarmored Dionysian symbols gunman.

The suppression of the siege tower on the city head caused the defenders of this section of the city wall to weaken the attack on the Dionian soldiers who were attacking the city with ants, and they were attacked by the opponent one after another. , Roman soldiers have to pay two or three times the cost of casualties.

And now the biggest danger is coming, the siege tower is already slowly approaching the city wall. Even though the Roman defenders kept throwing tar cans at it, constantly igniting the tower, and even turned into a sea of ​​fire on its way forward, nearly a hundred members of the Dionysian baggage team were in the siege tower. Behind the side and rear of the tower, under the shelter of the wooden shed that sticks out of the tower, while constantly dousing the kerosene burning on the ground with sand, the siege tower is pushed forward, even if someone is injured or even falls from time to time, there is no Shake their resolve to complete the task.

In the end, the behemoth finally approached the city wall.

"Get out of there! Get back!" Due to the critical situation, Scipio the Great came to direct himself, and when he saw the soldiers were still crowded around the battlements, he shouted anxiously.

Just as the Roman soldiers retreated to both sides, the wooden clad iron bridge tied to the top of the siege tower smashed down and landed on the battlements, smashing the Roman soldiers still below to the ground.

The Great Scipio didn't have time to feel the pain of the soldiers who were crushed under the wooden bridge, and he shouted loudly: "Korose! Quickly throw the kerosene!!..."

In fact, the Romans did not expect to be attacked by a large army in advance, and there was not a large amount of asphalt in the city. In the past two days, almost all the asphalt used for lighting in the homes of the Romans was swept away. , the Romans had to urgently transport olive oil for consumption.

"Bang! Boom!..." Dozens of clay pots smashed up.

But at the same time, the soldiers of the Dionysian Second Legion who had been prepared in the tower had already shouted the name of Hades and rushed from the siege tower to the wooden bridge. Shoot down the flying clay pot with the long shield.

Of course, some soldiers were splashed with olive oil,

Then, unfortunately, he was hit by a flying torch, and instantly turned into a burning man. He screamed shrilly, but at this moment his comrades did not stop to save him, but turned the vigorous fighting spirit into full of enthusiasm. Furious, without fear of the densely erected spears in front, he blocked the long shield in front of his chest, jumped off the bridge, and jumped into the dense array of Roman soldiers resolutely like the top of Mount Tai, regardless of what was on his body. Gunshot wound, wielding the dagger in his hand, stabs the surrounding enemies like lightning.

Although at this point in the war, the temporarily recruited Roman soldiers had begun to adapt to the atmosphere of the battlefield, and were motivated by the belief in defending their homeland, diluting the fear of death, but they were either too young, inexperienced in combat, or too old , lack of physical strength, and these soldiers of the Dionysian Second Legion are all elites, all of them are like tigers, messing up the array of the Roman defenders, and most of the screams are from the defenders.

Fortunately, Scipio the Great had already anticipated this, and arranged most of the 3,000 young and middle-aged Roman soldiers who stayed in the city of Rome in the defense of the southern city wall, and used 1,000 of them as a mobile force to deal with emergencies. . At this moment, he transferred 400 sturdy soldiers to form a dense array of guns at both ends of the aisle at the head of the city, rushing the Roman soldiers in front to squeeze inward together, trying to attack the Dionian soldiers who rushed to the head of the city in one fell swoop. annihilate.

Unexpectedly, the Dionian soldiers with rich combat experience disregarded their own casualties and continued to expand the space at the top of the city by relying on frantic attacks. The subsequent Dionian soldiers braved the gradually increasing fire and kept rushing to the top of the city... While they were attacking, they were also quickly forming a battle.

When the old, weak and disabled Roman soldiers at the front were wounded, died, and retreated, and when the strong Roman soldiers faced the enemy directly, the Dionysian soldiers had already stood at the top of the city, about sixty people. The shield formation was formed, and the attack before and after the defense was like a rock stuck at the head of the city.

Although the Great Scipio was anxious when he saw this situation, he also understood that this would not be able to solve the battle in a short time. Fortunately, the siege tower was already on fire, and even the top of the tower, which was a great threat to the defenders, was on fire. The harpooneers retreated, and it was impossible for the enemy to use it to rush to the head of the city again, which gave him some comfort.

But soon, his mood fell to the bottom again: "General Scipio! Over there... the siege tower over there is about to approach the city wall!"

The Great Scipio quickly rushed over with 400 strong soldiers.

This time, he decided to learn his lesson and directly let these soldiers guard the city head where the siege tower was approaching, block the enemies rushing from the tower, and never give them a chance to stand on the head of the city.

But after going back and forth and making up for leaks, he found that the strength of the defenders was already a little nervous.

At this time, the messengers who arrived finally brought him good news: the Senate sent more than 1,400 reinforcements.

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Matonis, who had been watching the battle in the distance below the city, sighed at the siege tower that was collapsing in flames, and soon he was excited that another siege tower was approaching the city wall

"Quick, send another company up! This time we not only have to rush to the top of the city, but also to break through the enemy's interception, climb the top of the city for other soldiers, and clear the obstacles!"

"Legion Commander, we... have no more companies to send." The adjutant reminded embarrassingly.

"What?! Didn't you just—" Matonis turned back in astonishment.

There are many people not far behind him, but more than half of them are engineers and craftsmen. They are still busy, rushing to make siege equipment; there are also some people from the baggage battalion, who are not only responsible for pushing the production At the same time, some wounded soldiers were carried back on the way back; there were also doctors and nurses from the medical battalion, who carried out intensive battlefield treatment for the wounded soldiers brought back...

Matonis once again looked at the bloody battlefield ahead.

The dozens of arrow-blocking vehicles in front of the ditch were burnt a lot, and clouds of rising smoke blocked most of their vision; the frequency of light infantry firing arrows at the city head was much slower than before, I am afraid they also felt fatigue.

Under the city, the heavy infantry of the Second Legion were all half-squatting on the ground, hiding their entire bodies under the long shields. When they looked at it in a trance, it seemed that the land under the city was black, and there was a faint black light; there was only one The cloud ladders were erected like big trees, leaning against the city wall, and then the Dionian soldiers crawling on it dyed the gray city wall into black streets, and soldiers kept falling from above. Soldiers continued to fill it up below; from time to time a flame rose under the city, mixed with shrill screams, which made Matonis's heart tighten every time.

Three of the five tall siege towers have been burned down, and the other one was passing through the ditch, because some sandbags were not compacted, which caused the siege tower to break the plank, the axle broke and fell into it, unable to move forward, only as an abdominal bow A platform to attack with the Javelin...

In Matonis' sharp eyes, he also saw that some wounded soldiers were struggling under the shield formed by the soldiers under the city. They were too injured and could not move to the rear. They were successfully picked up by the baggage handlers. .

When Mattonis thought of the dozens of soldiers surrounded by the city, he became anxious: If the city of Rome cannot be captured today, the fate of those soldiers who cannot retreat smoothly on and below the city will be very tragic!

Thinking of this, he put aside what Davos said before the war, "to preserve strength and reduce casualties in order to deal with the next battle", and said loudly: "Let the trumpeters blow the attack hard for me again. Bugle, urge the soldiers to step up their attack! And... hurry back to the camp and tell Your Majesty, I request another heavy infantry brigade!"

"Commander." The adjutant reminded: "I received a notice earlier that four brigades have been sent to intercept Roman reinforcements. There are only two brigades left in the camp. I'm afraid—"

"Don't be long-winded, go!" Matonis shouted irritably with red eyes.

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At this time, in the large tent of the central army, Davos had just received a report from the scout: it was reported that there were nearly 2,000 troops ten miles southeast of the city of Rome, and they were rapidly marching north.

Davos immediately looked at the map, and Cronisus, the staff officer in charge of analyzing the enemy's situation, also quickly made a judgment based on the previous intelligence: "Your Majesty, this is the same team from Prinister, Bonnet, Gabi and other Latin city-states. reinforcements."

He pointed to a red spot on the map and said, "The target they are going to attack is most likely the Sixth Army!"

"Most of the soldiers of the Sixth Legion are attacking the city..." Davos pondered for a while, and said decisively: "Immediately send the heavy infantry brigade of the Fifth Legion who stayed at the camp to intercept it!"

"Your Majesty!" Cronisus reminded: "If you send this heavy infantry brigade, there will only be one light armored brigade of the Second Legion left in the camp!"