ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 543: Ballista siege
"Blow the attack horn and raise the star-filled flag!" Sekerian ordered again.

Although Sekerian is aggressive, he is not reckless, and he knows that the Dionian fleet has only been established for a short time, and the cooperation between warships is definitely not as good as that of its opponents. Therefore, if you want to win, you must use the Dionian navy to win successive battles. When they won, the sailors had high morale and were in good condition, they rushed forward bravely, fought one-on-one, and used their high morale to defeat the enemy.If we temporarily avoid it as the captain of the ship said, not only will the morale of the sailors be dampened, but also the Syracuse fleet will attack. I am afraid that the Syracuse army will also launch an attack on Mearo on land. Dio The Nian fleet retreated in front of the enemy, ignoring friendly forces. I am afraid that what awaits Sekerian after the war will no longer be the smiling face of His Majesty Davos, but the ruthlessness of the "Dionian Military Law"!

Thinking of this, he glanced at the captain fiercely and said simply: "You are not suitable for the position of captain anymore. Go and serve as the stern watchman."

Then, he no longer paid attention to the captain's excuse, walked to the side of the ship, waved to the clippers closely accompanying the ship to signal them to come closer, and then shouted: "Tell the sailors of every warship that this is what we wear The Onian Navy’s last battle in this war is also their last chance to earn merit and win alliance honors and rewards, don’t miss this last good opportunity!”

When the boatswain of each warship relayed Sekerian's words in the bottom cabin, the sailors were all excited and shouted: "For victory, kill the Syracuseans!!!..."

During the previous more than two hours of sailing, the sailors were rowing at a low paddle speed, as if they had just warmed up. After repeated urging by the boatswain, they finished their rations. Under the hot fighting enthusiasm, The wooden paddle in his hand seemed as light as nothing.Under the command of the piper, the sailors began to gradually increase the speed of their paddles...

At this time, someone sang the Hades hymn, and soon all the sailors sang in unison. The sacred and solemn lyrics were sung so passionately that they penetrated the bottom of the cabin and echoed on the blue sea...

When the Dionysian fleet discovered traces of the enemy ship, the Syracuse fleet naturally also saw the opponent. Paronissus had already been waiting for work and arranged the "double column" offensive formation, so he immediately issued an order "Attack" command.

It stands to reason that Syracuse's warship is the first to attack. Whether it is an increase in paddle speed or an increase in warship speed, it should be better than the other side when the two sides are close.But in fact, at the moment of contact, the speed of the Dionia warship was slightly stronger than that of Syracuse, which also shows the gap in the fighting enthusiasm of the sailors on both sides...

.......................................

The vast sea surface and the non-stop sound of the tide cover up the collisions between warships, making the battle on the sea become silent.

On land, Macias led the Syracuse coalition of about 12000 people to the south bank of the Alcantara River. He did not immediately launch an attack on the town of Mayaro as Antonios expected, but The army was ordered to stop advancing and begin to form a formation, and at the same time hundreds of pack cars were driven to the front of the formation.

Seeing so many pack animals, the soldiers on the Mearo watchtower finally understood why the Syracuse army made such a loud "rumbling" sound when they advanced, and then amidst the noisy neighing of pack animals, The sentry's eyes widened when he saw the Syracuse soldiers laboriously moving the ballistas one after another from the trailer.

"You said that the Syracuse army deployed nearly a hundred ballistae on the south bank of the Alcantara River?!" Antonios heard the news and wanted to keep his expression calm, but his slightly trembling tone could not conceal his heart. of shock.

"Yes, Lord Legion Commander. Not only have they deployed nearly a hundred cannons, but they also have a few abdominal bows!" the sentry replied.

Before Antonios could speak, several captains looked at each other and said, "Why are there so many ballistae?!"

"I'm afraid Syracuse has moved all the ballistas in their city. I heard His Majesty say that Syracuse was the first to invent the ballista..."

"It seems that the people of Syracuse are determined to completely eliminate us in Mayaro!"

"That just lets them know how powerful our First Legion is!"

……

"Where are Syracuse's ballistas placed? Can our ballistas attack them?" Captain Xantiparis of the Second Battalion asked a key question.

"...About 500 meters away from the southern wooden wall." The sentry thought for a while and answered.

"That is to say, if Syracuse's ballistae uses five kilograms of stone bullets, it can just attack the wooden wall south of Mearo." Geogris immediately said worriedly: "And if our ballistae wants to attack To reach them, you need to move the ballista forward and get closer to the southern wooden wall, which is not conducive to the launch of the ballista and makes it easy to be attacked. We only have six ballistas!"

Originally, each of the Dionian legions was equipped with ten ballistae as standard, but during the Battle of Crotone, the ballistae and other equipment were left in the camp on the north bank of the Neto River, and then the army quickly marched to surround Siriting. Therefore, the First Legion had no time to retrieve the ballistas belonging to its own legion. In the end, Davers considered that the First Legion's expedition to Sicily would definitely lead to an siege, so he urgently retrieved the ballista from the captured Syracuse camp. Six relatively complete ballistae were collected, and after emergency repair by engineers, they were handed over to the First Army Corps.Syracuse's ballistae has a large body and is relatively bulky. It does not have a ruler or other distance measuring and setting devices, and its accuracy is relatively poor. However, it can fire stone projectiles up to about 30 kilograms.

"It seems that the generals of the Syracuse army are very cautious and have a detailed understanding of our combat methods." Antonios also felt a little worried. He said: "Let the soldiers hide first and survive the initial period. The ballistas will bombard the town, just wait until the enemy begins to attack the town..."

Before Antonios finished speaking, he heard "Boom! Boom! Boom!..." The ear-splitting sounds came continuously, making the senior team officers in the big tent pale.

At this moment, the soldiers on the wooden wall south of Mayaro saw such a terrifying scene: hundreds of stone bullets and short spears were struck at them with strong winds and huge kinetic energy, covering the sky and the sun. It was like a rain of meteorites falling from the sky. Even they who had experienced hundreds of battles were trembling all over at this moment.

"Retreat! Pull down the wooden wall quickly and retreat to the back to hide!..." the team officers shouted anxiously.

Fortunately, when they saw the Syracuse people placing so many ballistas in front of the formation, the officers of the First Army had already begun to withdraw the soldiers who had been sent to the wooden wall. This was just because the wooden ladder was narrow and the enemy's layout was The ballista fired too fast, causing a few soldiers to remain on the wooden wall.

At this time, the soldiers simply jumped down from the wooden wall walkway. The height of only three meters would not cause serious damage to them. After landing, these experienced soldiers ignored the pain in their feet and immediately picked up the long ropes that had been thrown down. Shields were used to protect the top of their heads, and they rolled and crawled back. Not to mention how ugly and embarrassing their posture was, but their self-rescue actions in such a critical situation were correct.

Because the moment they jumped off the wooden wall, they heard a loud bang and the entire wooden wall shook.Some of the stone bullets hit the wooden wall, and the wooden pillars as thick as fists broke; some of the stone bullets crossed the wooden wall and hit the muddy ground, causing dust to fly.And in the diffuse dust and mist, what is even more terrifying are the sawdust flying out due to the broken wooden wall. These hundreds of irregular small sawdust carry the strong force transferred by the stone bullets, scattering in all directions, easily It pierced the legs, feet, and arms of the very few soldiers who had not had time to retreat further back, and some even penetrated the thick breastplates...

After a round of bombardment, the entire southern wooden wall was in dilapidated condition.Some parts were broken at waist level, revealing shockingly large holes; some parts had the entire wall collapse inward, exposing gaps for enemies to break in; several sentry towers behind the curtain wall were also crumbling...

The soldiers took advantage of the enemy to reload stone bullets, rushed forward, and helped their groaning comrades who fell to the ground to the rear.

At this moment, Leotizides heard crying not far away. As a Spartan, what he hated most was crying during war, because it meant weakness and would affect morale.

"What's going on over there?!" He roared, and immediately a soldier ran over in a hurry, and said in a choked voice: "Captain of the company, captain of the Parmenius branch, he...he..."

Leotizides' heart sank and he hurried over.

Seeing him coming, the soldiers hurried out of the way.

A short spear fired from a belly bow pierced Parmanius' left chest directly, nailing him to the wall of the wooden house and dying.

"It's all my fault! It's all my fault! If I hadn't run too slowly and fallen, the squad leader wouldn't have run over to pull me up, but..." A soldier was beating his chest and scolding himself with tears streaming down his face.

Leotizides glanced at the soldier. His thigh was pierced by a wooden thorn. The wound oozed blood and dyed the entire calf red: "Hel him to the back and find a medical camp to treat him."

Several soldiers stepped forward to hold the wounded soldier in his arms, but he still didn't want to leave and was crying to himself.

"Heal my leg quickly, come back to kill the enemy, and avenge Captain Parmenius!" Leotizides let out a low growl, which made the soldier stop crying. Manius' corpse said: "Squad leader, wait for me in the Hall of Valor!"

The injured soldier was helped down.

Leotizides looked at Parmanius with a complicated expression: As his former squad leader, Parmanius gave him a lot of care and attention when he first joined the legion. Although he later lost his temper due to his outstanding performance, Quickly promoted to company captain, Parmenius instead became his subordinate.But Parmanius never pretended to be senior, and always carried out his orders seriously and strictly. This is a respectable and excellent Dionian army officer!
　Thanks to Zhan Billy, Yi Jian 68, and zxcvbnmqdgn for the rewards!Your support is my biggest motivation for writing! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)