Chapter 286 Offensive Strategy Against Syracuse

Davos had no doubts about Cypros' ability, so he just mentioned a word, then looked away, looked forward, and said in a heavy tone: "Everyone, before we march on the Carthaginian army, we will And all the soldiers who are about to fight the enemy have an important thing to do to go to Paragonia, to pay homage and pay tribute to the 1st battalion of the 7th Legion and the cardinals who persevered in the city of Paragonia and died heroically in the end. All the soldiers of the two reserve battalions of Tanay!"

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After the military conference, Davos left Cypros and Leotidides alone, and expressed his sincere thanks to both of them for carrying them alone when the main Dionysian force was unable to reinforce Sicily. Taking the heavy responsibility of defense, not only finally successfully resisted the invasion of the Carthaginian army, ensured the integrity of the Sicilian territory, but also caused a lot of damage to the Carthaginians, which greatly exceeded Davos' expectations.

In the face of Davos' generous praise, Cypros was very modest: "Our Sicily can finally hold on until your Majesty leads your troops to come, and Lord Prosous has the greatest contribution. If it wasn't for his decisive attack, in Mino Ada defeated the Carthaginians, captured Serinus, and disturbed the entire west."

Leotizides interjected: "Without the full support and protection of Lord Cypros, I would not dare to lead the army to attack, especially when the Carthaginian army invaded the plain of Catania. Lord Cypros understands and appeases the people in the city, and I can stick to Catanai to this day..."

Davos looked at the two of them with a smile and said, "They all say that Prosous is difficult to approach and difficult to deal with. I think you cooperate well!"

Cypros looked at Leotidides and defended him: "Your Majesty, everyone may have misunderstood this, Lord Prosous is not sociable, just because he devoted all his energy to military research. up."

"Of course I know that." Davos smiled, and then led the topic to the next battle: "What do you think about the attack on Syracuse?"

After staying in Catane for so many years, of course, in his spare time, Leotizides pondered how to attack this neighbor, who had had many disputes with Catane, and even went south a few times to secretly survey Syracuse. After being appointed by Davos just now, he had already conceived an offensive plan in his mind, so he immediately said: "Your Majesty, according to previous information, Syracuse can organize an army of at least 20,000 people. , and if it is defending the city, the number of soldiers will only be more. However, the citizens of Syracuse lack sufficient military training, and they have basically not experienced major wars for more than ten years, and lack sufficient combat experience, they categorically I dare not go out of the city to fight with us, but will only defend the city. Although the walls of Syracuse are tall and strong, I have the confidence to take it down.”

Having said this, Leotidides turned his head and shouted to the adjutant Taglu who was waiting outside the door: "Go and fetch the defense map of Syracuse from my room!"

Leotizides suddenly shouted loudly in front of Davos. This behavior was extremely disrespectful, but Davos didn't care. He even stopped Henepolis's rebuke, and he listened carefully and was addicted to it. A narration of a thinking young commander.

"Since Your Majesty, you will lead your army to the west to fight the Carthaginians, there is no threat from the Carthaginians in the east for the time being, and now is the slack season, we can start from Naxos, Sikuli, Catanay, Leotine, Taunis, Sikers, and even Agrigento, Gera and other refugees gathered more people to participate in the siege of Syracuse..."

While Leotidides was gushing about his thoughts,

Tagle had already brought the plank map, he immediately put it on the table, pointed to it, and said: "Your Majesty, please look! Syracuse is a big city, the urban area is very large, and its walls are not small in length. However, most of them are built on the coast and in the hills, and there are two main sections that are really suitable for the army to siege the city. It is about a mile in length; the other is on the west wall, from Puscarmen south to the main port of Syracuse, which is about four miles in length...

The siege plan I envisaged is...to encamp here with the main force of the 7th and 8th legions" Leotizides pointed to the flat area on the map between the west of Syracuse and the Arappus River .

"There is the Swamp of Lusimerai nearby! It's easy for the soldiers to contract diseases!" Cypros, who was also looking at the map, changed his face and reminded loudly: "You must know that the Carthaginian army attacked Thera twice before. Under the city of Kuza, they were all tortured by the plague, which eventually led to a disastrous defeat."

"Of course I am aware of the dangers of the swamps of Lusimerai," Leotizides explained confidently: "It's almost November, the weather is getting colder, and the mosquitoes have decreased. And the civilian population of Syracuse has been steadily increasing over the past few years. The development of the swamp is much smaller than it was 10 years ago. Besides, our legionnaires have special training in how to deal with this harsh terrain in their daily military training. I don't think it will be right What is the problem with the garrison of the army! …”

When Davos heard this, he remembered the Samona war report he had received when he was in Rome before: Alexis led the army into the mountains and was also stationed near the swamp, and there was no major problem.

Therefore, he agreed and said: "As long as you are fully prepared, I think it should not be a problem for the army to be stationed here, you continue to talk."

"Another army, consisting of some reserve soldiers, allied and friendly soldiers of our Sicilian territory, was stationed near Taunis, and such a mixed force must be commanded by General Dionysius, according to the Covenant, and The current senior generals basically have their own appointments, in order to ensure that the offensive on the east side of Syracuse can proceed well, I think..." Leotizides hesitated for a while: "Can I make Brelu Take this position temporarily?"

Davos and Cypros were surprised when he said these words.

Davos looked at him meaningfully and thought to himself: Everyone said that Prosous was indifferent, but he was quite human. The punishment can be reduced after the war is over.

Being watched by Davos like this made Leotidides a little unnatural. The reason why he made this suggestion was partly to meet the needs of the next battle, and more importantly to make up for the guilt in his heart, because in this During the military meeting, he suddenly realized that under the circumstance that the Carthaginian army was under pressure, no matter who was in Brelu's position, he would face the same predicament. Brelu led the Seventh Legion to come to aid, just to support him.

Davers coughed dryly: "I can understand your desire to help Brem. But if you let him lead the army, it will make everyone confused, then the previous punishment will be meaningless, so I can't agree. The army in the east. The commander can be Zantiparis, who has led mixed armies in Campania several times to conquer the towns of Samone, and should have a lot of experience in this. During the attack on Syracuse, you temporarily performed the first task for him. The post of the commander of the Seventh Legion."

"Yes." Leotizides replied with a unchanged expression, and continued: "I heard that when His Majesty led the army to land in Katanai, there was also a team of engineers and skilled craftsmen. The engineering team of 100 people, I hope Your Majesty will allow this team to assist us to manufacture various siege equipment to ease the difficulty of the soldiers sieging the city, so as to put more pressure on the Syracuses.”

"Of course there's no problem." Davos nodded in agreement, and then asked, "The focus of your attack is on these two wall sections, but I'm afraid you won't ignore other wall sections in Syracuse City, right? ?"

As expected of a famous general who has won every battle, he feels quite sharp! Leotidides thought for a moment, and then said: "Except for the city wall on the coast, other wall sections are built on high ground, and it is relatively difficult to attack, but I will also send soldiers to attack to disperse the Syracuse people. of troops, and at the same time confuse them..."

On the map, the east and west sections of the city walls of Syracuse run along the edge of the Epipole Heights, winding diagonally to the north, and finally converging together, looking like a top hat, while columns Otisides' hand was pointing to the place where the two ends of the city walls meet, and he said solemnly: "It is said that it was the siege of Syracuse by Athens that year, and the Syracuses realized that they must not let the enemy occupy the commanding heights of the city. Epipole Heights, so after Dionysius became a tyrant, he mobilized the people of Syracuse to surround the entire Epipole Heights with walls and become part of the city, and the highest part of the city is in Here is the west side of Mount Euriarus.

Dionysius called it the 'key' to Epipole and the whole city of Syracuse, so he built a fort here. But the Epipole area is sparsely populated, and it is even more uninhabited, because it is 5 or 6 miles from the main city of Syracuse, and the traffic is very inconvenient, although Dionysius thinks its location is very important , but the enemy has never attacked here over the years, and the Syracuses seem to take it little seriously.

I have carefully explored here several times. The city wall on the west side of Yuria Rus has been in disrepair for many years. The number of sentries on the city has never exceeded 10, and most of these sentries stay in the fortress and rarely patrol the entire wall section regularly. , it seems that they are very confident in the city wall defense of this lot. But in fact the height of the west side of Yuria Rus is not more than 200 meters, and it is not difficult to climb”