ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 821 Ostia Attack and Defense
I think when the Dionysian army first established the crossbow unit, only one legion of ten ballistas was equipped with a sighter, and they were all from Dionysia Academy, because they needed to accurately calculate the impact point and launch. Curves require deep mathematical knowledge and fast computing capabilities.More than ten years have passed, and now a ballista can be equipped with a sighter, which just illustrates the achievements of the Kingdom of Dionia in citizen education.

At this moment, the crossbow gunner had adjusted the settings of the crossbow under the prompts of the sight hand, opened the spring arm, quickly put in the small stone bullet, fixed it on the smoothbore wooden arm, pressed the firing button, and fixed the stone bullet. The copper ring and the iron hook holding the spring arm bounced away at the same time. The spring arm retracted quickly, and the strong torque pushed the stone bullet out of the gun mount, whizzing towards a Roman ballista that was slowly advancing.

"Balista! Dionia's ballista!" The Roman soldiers pushing the ballista saw the black dots flying in the air, shouted in panic, and wanted to push the ballista to avoid it, but the heavy ballista moved slowly , but the stone bullet arrived in the blink of an eye, hitting not far from the ballista, splashing dust all over the Roman soldiers.

The frightened Roman soldiers then saw eight or nine black dots flying out from the city head and attacking other ballistae respectively. Although they failed to hit in the end, Titus, who was watching the formation from behind, was surprised. He never expected that the Dionians would leave a lot of ballistae in the small city of Ostia, and would also place it at the top of the city to attack their own ballistae. This way of defense he Never seen it before.

While he was still hesitating whether to withdraw the ballista, Dionia's second round of ballista attack had already begun.

Ten stone bullets struck again, and finally a Roman ballista was hit. Although only the force arm was broken, the ballista was a relatively sophisticated siege equipment. Once the balance was destroyed, it could not be put into use again unless it was destroyed. repair.After the Romans obtained the Carthaginian ballistae, they tried to copy it and made some progress. They were only making core components, such as metal ratchets, chains, metal cylinders, etc., which could not be cast like the Carthaginian ballista. So sophisticated, the Dionysians came while they were still improving their technology, so the Carthaginian ballistae was one bad and one missing.

Titus could only order anxiously: "Withdraw the ballistae!"

During the hasty retreat of the Roman ballista troops, a ballista was once again destroyed by stone bullets fired from the city.

Titus looked at the retreating ballista unit in embarrassment, then looked up at the sky that had begun to be dyed red by the setting sun, and then looked at the densely populated enemies at the top of the city. He quickly moved his eyes down and stared at the densely populated deer village in front of the trench... After a while, he withdrew his gaze and turned to look at the soldiers behind him.

These Roman citizens from the colonies had put on armor and picked up weapons. Although the long march made them look a little tired, their eyes looking at Ostia were full of fighting spirit, because they were filled with the desire to regain their motherland. Strength, their fighting spirit also infected Titus, allowing him to suppress his concerns: Although from the previous contact and his own observation, the Dionians' defense of Ostia City is relatively tight, But he no longer had time to let the soldiers recover and prepare for the siege more comprehensively. Instead, he had to recapture the city of Ostia before the arrival of the Dionia reinforcements, so she could only rely on the strong strength of the soldiers. Fighters and huge numbers.

"Inform all troops and prepare to attack!" Titus said in a deep voice.

The messengers were galloping on horseback in the military formation. The squadron leaders called on their soldiers to get ready. The soldiers stood up one after another, and according to the previous arrangement, they picked up the pre-made ladders and javelins from the accompanying pack cars...

After a burst of commotion and noise, "Woo!..." the bugle sounded, and the Roman army made a thunderous roar. Then the soldiers, led by the squadron leader, began to walk toward the east and south of Ostia. Enter (the sea is to the west, the Tiber River is close to the north, and there are lakes and swamps as barriers to the southeast).

Tellis looked at the enemy troops coming like a tide from the city, and subconsciously tightened his fists.

The 300 Dionian archers at the top of the city saw that the enemy was about to enter within a hundred meters, and began to bend their bows and nock arrows.

The ballistas and abdominal bows at the top of the city had already begun to fire stone bullets and iron arrows at the enemies below the city. Although the swarming enemies made their attack hit rate very high, and their death was terrifying, one round of attacks could not defeat them. The casualties of more than a dozen people were just a small splash against the siege wave formed by thousands of Roman soldiers, which could not stop the Romans from advancing at all.

But not long after, the Roman soldiers at the front screamed: "Ah! Pull me up! My feet! My feet are scratched!"

"Be careful of traps! There are spikes buried in the ground!!"

……

Amid the screams and urgent cries of the Roman soldiers, the progress of the entire siege force was hindered.

And just as some Roman soldiers went to help their comrades with bloody legs, while others carefully explored the ground conditions and moved forward cautiously, arrows from the top of the city fell like raindrops. Although there were many at the front, They were Roman heavy infantry, but the traps at their feet forced them to panic and not have time to defend themselves with shields, which resulted in some additional casualties.

What's worse is that they are blocked in the trap area, giving the ballistae and abdominal bows at the top of the city enough time to display their lethality.

After Titus learned about the battle ahead, he felt very anxious. He realized that he had underestimated the Dionians' defense of this small city.

He took a deep breath and calmed himself down: "Quickly send the order to the attacking troops. Don't rush forward. Give me all your strength to remove those traps first!"

The messenger galloped away, and soon a reconnaissance horse came galloping over: "General Titus, the people organized by Adi have arrived!"

Titus was overjoyed, and just as he was about to reply, another scout arrived: "Report to General Titus, the people of Antium are here!"

While Titus led his army to march west, Camillus sent messengers to notify the Roman colonial cities and Latin allies in the west of Latium, hoping that they could send people to assist the army in attacking Ostia. Now these towns responded Camillus's request.

Teams from towns in the west carried supplies and gradually gathered at the rear of the Roman army...

There was joy on Titus's face. He hurriedly expressed his gratitude to the leader, and sent out his capable men to organize hundreds of people to light fires around them, and began to build camps and tents to prepare for a long-lasting war. Combat.

Tellis watched from the east gate tower of Ostia as archers and ballistaeers conducted continuous attacks on the Roman soldiers who had approached the trench, while other soldiers also began to throw javelins at the city.

The entire city of Ostia has two gates, the east and the south. Previously, Telis had people block the south gate, leaving only one east gate for reconnaissance and messengers to pass through. As a result, both sides of the road out of the city were buried. Trap, the road became very narrow, and the Roman soldiers' offensive team here had to line up in a long and narrow team, which was attacked intensively by the soldiers on the city. The trenches were filled with wounded soldiers.

Tellis was not excited about such a victory. He saw the bonfires lit behind the enemy's formation and the Romans who kept coming. He realized that this siege battle would become more difficult. The first thing he thought of was One order is: let the reserve team under the city completely block the east gate with wood and stones.

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

In Rome, there was a sharp contrast between the Roman civilians who went to the square to apply for Dionian citizenship and the Roman aristocrats in the surrounding cities who cried and cried because their relatives were taken away. The people of the whole city were at the two extremes of ice and fire. Agitated...

Davos returned to the Senate, hoping for a moment of peace, but unexpectedly, the Roman administrator Asistes hurriedly came to find him.

"Your Majesty, since you went to worship the temples in Rome, the number of Romans who came to the square to register has increased sharply, and now the number of registered people has exceeded a thousand!" Asistes reported to Daves excitedly This is good news, because it means that Roman civilians have further changed their attitude towards Dionia.

Davos smiled and replied: "I saw it when I passed by the square. This is a good thing, isn't it?"

"Your Majesty, there is one thing I have to ask you for advice." Asistes continued: "Some Roman people asked that their relatives were among the Roman army outside the city, and they wanted their relatives to become Citizens of Dionia, instead of fighting with us, I hope they can go out of the city to persuade and ask us, can we?"

"Oh?..." Davos became interested now. He stroked his chin, thought for a while, turned around and asked, "Klotto, what do you think?"

Crotokatax, who was standing aside, immediately replied seriously: "Father, judging from the situation in the square these two days, we should believe what they said, allow them to leave the city, and persuade their relatives to submit to the kingdom. , this can shake the enemy's fighting spirit, weaken their strength, and at the same time strengthen our strength! Even if some of them are deceiving us and just want to escape from the city, they are all old people, women and children. In general, It can be said that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages..."

Asistes looked at Clotokatax. When he was in Thurii, he visited Davos's mansion many times. From time to time, he could see the king's biological eldest son. Clotokatax was humble and polite. , his enthusiasm for others left a good impression on him, but this time they met, Asistes found that he had become much calmer.

Davos nodded and said approvingly: "Klotto is right, I allow them to leave the city, but not all of them can go out. Only the elderly in the family can go out, and women and children must stay in the city... Also, Let’s take this opportunity to send the gift I promised to Camillus as well.”

Having said this, a mysterious smile appeared on his face.

　Thanks to the other side of remembrance, Gelao Renyi, and book friend 20170627231845962 for the reward!Your support is my motivation to write! !
　　
　
(End of this chapter)