#139 Storm the City of Rome (11)

"That's great!" Lizaru punched Midorades in front of his chest and said sincerely, "Thank you for your trust, Midorades!"

"It's all for Dionia!" Midorades responded sternly.

"Don't worry, I won't let the fleet infantry suffer a lot of losses!" Lizaru also made a promise, and then said to the adjutant: "Go and call Uraza!"

He was going to let Urraza command the entire Third Army to attack the south bank of Rome on his behalf, and he himself would lead the two infantry brigades and 2,000 Third Fleet infantry left in the camp to go out to meet the Roman reinforcements. After all, he was the commander of the army. Easier for fleet infantry to take his command.

……………………………………

Weiai, a town built by the Etruscans, is located on the north bank of the middle reaches of the Tiber River, about forty miles northeast of Rome, and is one of the twelve alliance city-states of Etruscans. Since the founding of Rome, it has been the great enemy of the Romans. The two sides have fought for control of the land on both sides of the middle reaches of the Tiber River. There have been many wars in the past century.

From the initial passive beating, to winning and losing, to gaining the upper hand, the Romans have gone through ups and downs. Finally, more than 20 years ago, after ten years of siege, Camelus led the army to break through the city of Weiai, based on hatred. And interests, the Romans killed all the Viai people who could resist, captured women and children as slaves, completely occupied the land of Viai, and regarded it as a colonial town in Rome.

Soon after, due to the fierce conflict between the nobles and the commoners in Rome, most of the commoners left the city of Rome in anger and settled in Weiai. Then the Celts invaded and the city of Rome was occupied. After Camelus assembled the Romans and Latins to drive out the Celts, the Roman nobles and commoners once again bridged the contradictions and rebuilt the city of Rome. Many people settled in Victoria. Roman civilians also returned.

In order to prevent Viai from becoming a sanctuary after the conflict between Roman civilians and nobles, thereby weakening the strength of the city of Rome itself, the Senate passed a bill to designate the fertile land south of Viai near the Tiber River as public land for the city of Rome , thus making this great Etruscan city with a population similar to that of Rome and even more prosperous than Rome into a medium-sized colonial city in Rome.

Since the inhabitants of the city of Viai were Roman citizens, it was only after they responded vigorously to Rome's first call (that is, following Camilus' attack on the Herniki people) that they heard that the city of Rome was under attack, and again More than 500 people came to the rescue.

In addition to the troops sent by Weiai to rescue Rome, there is also Caisra, which is also one of the twelve Etruscan city-states. It is located on a hill about fourteen miles from the sea. The north bank of the Tiber River is nearly 60 miles away. Because of its iron mines and the production of high-quality pottery pots, it has a high reputation in north-central Italy, and it has also made the city prosperous and prosperous all the time.

And the city-state is very good at getting along with other powers, and at a time when most Etruscan city-states have had a strained relationship with Rome, it has maintained good relations with Rome, and it has maintained a good relationship with Rome when the Celts invaded and its own cities. In the case of being broken, the Casslerians also sheltered a lot of Roman people who fled because of the fall of the city of Rome in various mountain villages in the territory. Therefore, when the strength of Rome was restored, it began to attack the Etruscan territory. , they were grateful for the kindness of the Casslera, and instead of invading their territory, they invited Casslera to join the Roman League.

At the same time, the Kathrela people also get along very well with the Greeks. It is one of the few non-Greek cities that has a holy vault in Delphi (Delphi generally does not allow non-Greek city-states to have holy vaults). This It's amazing.

This time, Casereira also sent more than 500 soldiers to rescue the lord of Rome.

There were also two reinforcements from the Etruscan Union city-states, volch and tarchna, which were also two near the coast, but built their cities on hills and extremely The city-states with Etruscan characteristics are rich in mineral resources, and also have large ports and prosperous maritime trade.

Volcchi, in particular, became a sea trade center on the west coast of the entire Italian peninsula as early as a hundred years ago, and its pottery, bronzes and wines were even exported to the eastern Mediterranean. It was not only a maritime power, but also controlled on land. There are numerous Etruscan tribes and small towns in the surrounding area.

And Tarcuna, like Wei Ai, is a feud with Rome. As early as a hundred years ago, it supported the overthrown Roman king Targivin against Rome. However, these two powerful city-states have declined in the past few decades due to the continuous southward invasion of the Celts and the harassment of the Romans, and the large-scale invasion of the Celts more than ten years ago caused the two cities to suffer. At the time of heavy damage, the city fell, and the people were plundered...

They had not yet recovered from the war, when the Celts were driven out, and the Roman army, greatly supported by Carthage, invaded their territory again. After being defeated in successive battles, the people of the two cities had to choose to surrender.

Rome divided parts of the territory of the two cities, and established two colonial cities, Sutrium and Cosa, as Roman fortresses for control of southern Etruria, and at any time. The movements of the two cities were monitored, so this time Rome sent a messenger to ask for help, and the two cities also sent reinforcements.

Of course, Sutelium and Xhosa were also followed by reinforcements, adding up to more than 2,000, and counting the soldiers sent by other Etruscan tribes and towns that had surrendered to Rome, there were more than 4,000 in total.

Reinforcements from the towns of Viai, Kesslera, and Walch gathered together one after another, and soldiers arrived in scattered pieces, but they got the report from the spies, "The Dionysians are in a hurry to attack the city of Rome." , the situation has not allowed them to wait here slowly, especially the Roman citizens of Wei Ai have been clamoring to rush to the rescue, so the leading generals from the Roman colonial city and the Etruscan city-state quickly reached an agreement, respectively. Leading their respective civic soldiers, they dragged their way towards the Roman Shibashi Bridge.

When they were still two or three miles away from the Dionysian camp, they received the report of the spies again: about 4,000 Dionysian soldiers were marching fast, and they must pass by!

Several generals listened to it, and they were as surprised as Paulus' reaction: Aren't the Dionians attacking the city with all their strength? ! How can there be enough soldiers left to fight us in the field? !

But time was running out and they couldn't think much, so they hurriedly started to set up.

The more than 4,000 Roman reinforcements came from multiple Etruscan city-states, tribes and Roman colonial cities. It took a lot of effort to determine the affiliation of each army and arrange the position of the array. Before the formation was unfolded, the Dionysian army appeared in their field of vision.

Lizaru's army consisted of 2,000 fleet infantry and a brigade of light armour, so it moved quickly, with only one brigade of heavy infantry trailing slightly behind.

When he arrived at the battlefield, Lizaru found that the Roman reinforcements, as he had imagined in advance, did not expect the Dionysian army to attack, so he did not prepare in advance, and the entire army was still in a group, such a great fighter, he again How could he let it go? Before the heavy infantry brigade arrived, he gave the order to attack: the fleet infantry attacked the enemy's left side, the light armoured brigade attacked the enemy's right side, and left the frontal space for the heavy infantry brigade that arrived later. .

Although neither of these units were heavy infantry, according to the reconnaissance report: the number of heavy infantry in the Roman reinforcements was far less than half (the elite civic soldiers had been recruited to attack the Herniki before). Therefore, Lizaru firmly believed that the two well-trained troops could completely suppress the enemy by attacking and persist until the heavy infantry brigade arrived.

The bugle of the attack sounded, and the two troops that were originally lined up in a battle column, in the process of slowing down their progress, quickly threw the entire long column over and turned it into a horizontal column, and then there was no need to change positions. , start accelerating forward.

The weapons and equipment of fleet infantry and light armor are actually the same. They are leather helmets, leather armor, leather shields, and short swords. The biggest difference is the size of the leather shield and the javelin. Because the light armor is fighting on land, the leather shield held by them is relatively small. At the same time, like the heavy infantry, they carried two javelins; the fleet infantry had to fight at sea, and in order to maintain a better balance, the leather shield was smaller and did not carry javelins.

However, this time, because the heavy infantry of the 3rd Corps had to climb up the embankment to attack through the crow warship, it was inconvenient to throw the javelin, so they stayed in the camp. Lizaru asked the fleet infantry to carry the javelin before calling the troops out to meet the enemy. , although they do not use javelins in battle at sea, they are often trained in normal training, because javelin throwing is one of the four must-kill skills of Dionian infantry (the other three are unarmed Fighting, shield sword fighting, shield spear stabbing).

The rapid approach of the Dionian army forced the Roman reinforcements to no longer be able to form a smooth formation. Of course, they could not shrink into a group and were passively beaten, so the bugle of the attack was forced to sound, and the generals of the reinforcements led the army of their city-state in a hurry. He killed the Dionysian army that was pushing towards him.

Originally, the distance between the two sides was a few hundred meters away, but it was quickly shortened in the screams of killing.

"Javelin! Javelin! Javelin!..." In the shouts of the officers, Dionia's fleet infantry and light armoured troops quickly stopped, and quickly threw two rounds of javelins, knocking the enemy's The momentum of the charge was interrupted, causing the enemy's formation to become more confusing, and then they shouted the name of Hades and rushed to the past...