#140 Storm the City of Rome (12)

"The city wall has collapsed!! The city wall of Rome has finally collapsed!!!..." In the cheers of the Dionian legionnaires in front of the trench, a small section of the city wall in the southwest corner of Rome in front of him roared, accompanied by the ground. The tremors caused a cloud of dust to rise, accompanied by the screams of Roman soldiers.

After a while, when the dust and mist dissipated, a large gap in the city wall appeared before everyone's eyes: it was an inverted trapezoid, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, with a width of about four meters at the bottom and more than three meters above the ground. After coming down, a slope was naturally formed on both sides of the gap.

"Rush over! Attack the city of Rome!" The soldiers of the Fourth Legion of Dionia near the gap were so excited that they stepped on the bricks and rammed earth on the ground as if they had been beaten with blood. towards the gap.

The defenders on the city, who had just been shocked by the collapse, also came back to their senses. They ran to the top of the gap and smashed javelins, stones, and wood down, trying to inflict massive damage on the enemy and prevent them from entering the city.

But this could not stop the high fighting spirit of the soldiers of the Fourth Army. When the soldiers in the forefront rushed through the gap, they stopped involuntarily, because not far in front of them was a thick wall of spears, countless people wearing simple clothes The Romans were arranged in dense arrays, the spears gleaming coldly towards them.

"Stop! Quickly stop! Quickly form a phalanx!..." The officer in the forefront of the soldiers shouted loudly, but in this killing sound of the battlefield, the extremely excited soldiers were shouting and rushing in frantically. The organizational order has long been chaotic, and they could not obey the order, but pushed their comrades in front to face the spear wall.

The soldiers in the front row had to hurriedly raise their long shields to protect themselves and rammed towards the enemy.

Soon the open space between the spear wall and the gap was filled by the influx of Dionian soldiers. Commander, this general was born in a poor Roman, but because of his heroic fighting in previous battles, he was promoted several times by Camillous, and became a prestigious Roman squadron from a lowly auxiliary soldier. This time he happened to be in 3000. among the remaining soldiers.

The reason why Scipio the Great chose Mucia to be in charge of the defense line in the west of Rome was not because Scipio the Great had the same vision and mind as Camillous, regardless of his background or ability, but because Under the critical situation of the overwhelming army and the conflict between the Roman nobles and the commoners, his helpless act was to hope that Musia could use his prestige among the commoners to well integrate a large number of people living in the western part of the city of Rome. The power of the poor and the slaves held back the Dionian attack.

In fact, so far, what Mucia has done has exceeded the expectations of Scipio the Great. He not only temporarily relieved the dissatisfaction of the commoners and slaves, but also inspired their determination to participate in the war. He also effectively organized them in the city. He and the city defended the enemy's attack with all their strength, which led to a total of more than 10,000 elite soldiers from the fourth and fifth legions of Dionia attacking this area at the same time.

No noticeable progress has yet been made.

Although the spear and spear formation temporarily formed by Musia did not cause great damage to the Dionysian soldiers, it was not frightened by the fierce attack of the enemy, but stubbornly blocked the enemy's breakthrough.

The most damage to the Dionian soldiers who rushed into the gap was the defenders at the front of the city. The Dionian soldiers at the bottom of the city were so dense that every javelin and stone thrown by the defenders could cause damage. , not to mention kerosene, the unfortunate Dionian soldier was poured into a fire man, which would pose a great threat to the surrounding comrades.

Fortunately, so far, tar and olive oil have been used in large quantities to burn down numerous siege equipment, and now there are not many left, otherwise it will be a battle for the Dionysian soldiers who rushed into the gap. disaster.

Olivers, the commander of the Fourth Army, who had been excited because the city wall was collapsed by the siege vehicles, stomped his feet in a hurry after learning about the situation in the gap: "Order the light infantry to immediately approach the city and attack the city. The enemy, relieve the pressure for the soldiers inside!"

"Let the brothers at the gap retreat quickly to make room for the soldiers inside, so that they can form a phalanx to fight the enemy!"

"Give me a mountain reconnaissance team and let them try, can they climb up to the city from the gap and attack the enemy!"

The messengers accepted the order and ran away one by one on horseback.

"And... immediately go to the Fifth Army Commander Georgris and tell him about the predicament we are in!"

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After receiving the news that the fourth army was in bad condition, Giorgris looked solemn, and he looked forward: under the city wall 100 meters away, among the soldiers who were trying to attack the city with ants, there were burnt siege cities. The car and the arrow-blocking car were emitting thick black smoke, and among them, there were three still intact siege vehicles lined up under the city wall, hitting the city wall without interruption, the "boom" vibration The sound, even Georgris who was behind him could hear it.

He could even see the increasing cracks in the wall, and the dust and stones that kept falling, almost burying the siege vehicles.

"Immediately notify the first brigade, retreat to the trench for me, and form a formation in front of the city wall that is about to collapse! After the city wall collapses, don't be in a hurry, enter the gap in order in a complete formation, and be careful of the enemy's long spear formation behind the gap. !"

"At the same time, I warned the other soldiers of the brigade that they are not allowed to enter the gap without an order, and those who violate the order will be severely punished!"

"Yes, Legion Commander!"

……………………………………

Not far to the west of them, while the fourth and fifth legions were fighting fiercely under the city, the army led by Thormed was fighting fiercely.

Although the total number of Roman troops led by Paulus was less than that of the other side, most of the soldiers under his command were heavy infantry, twice the number of heavy infantry led by Tolmid, and gradually began to fight in the frontal battle. prevailed.

If it wasn't for the constant attacks of the Dionysian 1st and 2nd cavalry regiments from the rear flank of the Roman army, which contained part of the Roman army, then the Roman army would probably make a full frontal assault, forcing the Dionysian Array to step back. .

But as time went on, Paulus became more and more restless: he was charged with the important task of rescuing the city of Rome, but he was blocked here, unable to advance an inch for a long time, and dragged on like this, even if he was finally repelled in person The enemy, I am afraid that Rome has broken the city, and he will also become a sinner of Rome.

Therefore, he finally made a ruthless and ordered the Roman squadron at the rear of the array: only a part of the squadron was left to guard against the Dionian cavalry cruising around, and most of the squadrons ignored the threat of enemy cavalry and immediately deployed to the flanks , then turn to attack the enemy's flank.

Under his urging, the Roman military formation stretched its arms from the original oval shape and switched to the "one" formation.

The two cavalry commanders, Leders and Kuzius, who were at the rear of the Roman formation, felt bad when they saw this. By this time, the javelins of the two cavalry legions had already been used up, and they had the cavalry divide into small groups to gallop back and forth behind the enemy, posing an offensive posture, just to force the Romans to dare not go all out to attack, but now the Romans are ruthless, The cavalry regiments could not allow them to achieve their goals.

"It seems that there is only an attack..." Ryders sighed, he knew that the cavalry attacked the dense heavy infantry, even if the opponent was in motion, the effect would not be very good, especially the damage to the horse, resulting in a large number of cavalry attrition .

On the other hand, the younger Kochius was more ambitious: "Then let the Romans see how powerful our Dionian cavalry charge is! Commander of Legion Leeds, you lead the army to attack the enemy's left side, and I will attack the right side!"

As he said that, he was about to go to Nanchi with his horse.

"Wait a minute!" Ryders stopped him, pointed to the Roman army behind the Roman army formation facing them, and said thoughtfully: "...even if we want to prevent the enemy from forming formations from both wings, these Roman soldiers I'm afraid they will rush to both sides to stop us."

"That's for sure, but they are not large enough to stop our charge!" Kuzius said confidently.

"Then—their departure will expose the place!" Following the direction of Leeds' fingers, Kuzius's eyes lit up: because it was the rear of the Roman army's center line, facing Dionysus. The light infantry, which was a great threat to the cavalry, were gathered there, under the protection of these Roman heavy infantry.

Ryders' voice continued to ring in his ears: "We gathered the cavalry on both sides to attract the enemy's attention, but quietly sent some of the cavalry back, out of the enemy's sight, and then your cavalry regiment moved towards the enemy. When the enemy's flanks launch an attack, these heavy infantry will inevitably rush to the sides to intercept, and the cavalry we have hidden can take the opportunity to charge the enemy's light infantry. The front line of the enemy's middle lane, creating a chance for our infantry in the middle lane to win."

"Good idea! Commander Ryders, listen to you, just do it!" Kuzius responded cheerfully: "When we gather the cavalry of the legion to form an array, we will separate the cavalry and block the enemy's sight. Then each sent four companies (the company of the cavalry regiment was 50 cavalry), rushed to the rear, and waited for an opportunity to act."

Ryders nodded, saluted solemnly, and said in a deep voice, "The time is short, so let's act. May Hades bless us so that we can succeed!"

Kuzius immediately returned the military salute forcefully: "Under the blessing of Hades, we will surely succeed!"