Rome must fall.

Chapter 91 Storming Canossa

More than 300 newly joined Apulians were divided into two teams, passed through the gaps between the front queues as fast as possible, rushed to the moat, and threw into sacks...

The defenders who saw this happening at the top of the city hurriedly dropped their javelins, and the screams were obviously louder than before...

When Maximus heard these voices at the rear, his expression was relatively calm. In this era, after experiencing many wars, he was already somewhat indifferent to death.

Some newly joined Apulian soldiers were hit by javelins and fell by the moat, but the sacks they dropped paved two paths in the moat (on both sides of the moat with the city gate in the center). The rebel soldiers closest to the passage shouted, rushed across the moat, arrived under the city wall, and put the wooden ladder they were carrying diagonally on the city wall...

At the same time, stones fell from the city like raindrops, and amid the screams, the real siege battle officially began...

At this time, Maximus had already come to the Apulian recruits who had retreated from the front, and said with a sincere face: "Brothers, because of your heroic performance, the army has successfully passed the moat. On behalf of All the soldiers in the army would like to express their gratitude to you! Please don’t worry, the injured brothers will soon be taken care of by the medical team. You guys, have a good rest first. The baggage team will bring you water to replenish your strength and rest again. Wait for the news of our victory!”

The shocked Apulian recruits gradually stabilized after hearing Maximus' warm words. Someone shouted loudly: "Chief... Chief, if Canossa is captured, I can kill Kai." Sodotus is that evil-hearted profiteer! He took away my land and forced my family to death. I will never spare him!"

His words immediately resonated with others.

"Of course! As long as the situation is true, you can all kill your enemies. Our army is to speak for us poor people!" Maximus promised without hesitation, and did not mention anything like a public trial. After all, After the siege, the city of Canossa was owned by the army of Attumus. Since they were ready to plunder the whole city, it should be no problem to have a few people to kill it.

The recruits suddenly became excited, and the man before asked again: "Chief, after capturing the city, can I get my previous land back?"

Maximus's smile froze slightly. His mind was racing. Just as he was thinking about how to answer, another recruit slapped the person who spoke: "Proconsus, are you stupid? Let's do it now." But if you want to fight the Romans and don’t completely defeat the Romans, even if you have land, it will still be taken away, and you will even be hanged on a cross!”

As soon as these words came out, not only Proconsus scratched his head, but other people who also wanted to ask the same question stopped talking.

Maximus looked at the middle-aged man who came to his rescue with interest: "What's your name?"

"Onomax, from Asculum, participated in the Marsi War when he was young. He was just appointed as the temporary centurion of this team two days ago." The middle-aged man answered solemnly.

Maximus nodded to him approvingly, and then shouted: "Everyone, have a good rest!" After saying that, he turned around and left, the smile on his face quickly disappeared and became solemn.

Through this period of time, he learned about the southern recruits who joined the army in the late Campania and the Apulian people who came to seek refuge in the past few days. Most of these new people who joined the army were landless nomads, herdsmen, and some were poor. Sailors, few slaves.

One reason was that slaves were restricted from escaping as far as Campania. But there is another reason. That is, there are many mountains in southern Italy and little flat land. There are no large farms like Campania, so it is impossible to raise a large number of slaves. City-state citizens often only have two or three slaves in their homes, and they tend not many fields. The relationship between master and servant is It was relatively close, and slave defections were not as common as in Campania.

But southern Italy has its own problems. The import of cheap agricultural products from the provinces spread across most of Italy. The homesteaders had difficulty making a living, relied on debts, and eventually had to sell their land. Naturally, the situation also spread across most of Italy. However, the problem with southern Italy is that they were only allies of Rome in the past. , unable to enjoy the benefits of Rome defeating its enemies, acquiring more land, granting Roman landless citizens who served in the military, and establishing colonial cities. Therefore, the landless problem of the poor in southern Italian towns is more serious than that of Latium and Campania. Much more, even in Apulia, which has good land conditions and relatively developed agriculture and animal husbandry.

These poor people in southern Italy who joined the rebel army have more demands than slaves. Just like the recruits just now, many of them hope to find revenge on the rich people who conspired to seize their land, and they also hope to regain land in their hometown... …

When one day, the rebel army decides to march north, leaving Italy and entering the vast mountains, will these people be willing to leave? ... Maximus began to have this worry in his heart.

Maximus rushed back to the command position and once again focused his attention on the battlefield ahead: wooden ladders had been erected on the city wall, and the soldiers attached themselves to them, carrying square shields, and cautiously climbed up. From time to time, soldiers were hit by logs and rolling stones, screaming and falling down... Sometimes the entire wooden ladder was pushed away by the enemy soldiers on the city, and they fell down, crushing a group of soldiers... What made him feel the most palpitating was the enemy soldiers on the city. Soldiers dropped burning oil cans from time to time. Some rebel soldiers turned into burning men and jumped into the moat screaming...

Of course, the soldiers defending the city were not without losses. The javelins thrown by the javelinmen deployed by the rebel army along the moat caused damage to them, but compared to the casualties of the rebel soldiers, they were still much less.

Siege warfare is a bloody and cruel thing. Although Maximus has experienced it once (not counting the raid on Pompeii), he still cannot fully adapt to it. He forced himself not to look away and watched the soldiers fighting carefully, and He tried to stay calm, but his lack of experience made it difficult for him to find clues, which made him feel a little anxious.

"Quintus, how is the situation now?" he couldn't help asking.

"Chief, judging from the current battle situation, what Pygris said before is true. The Canosans were confused by our previous actions and were not fully prepared to defend the city." Quintus pointed to the battlefield ahead. He said seriously: "Look, our soldiers are gathered under the city. If the enemy throws javelins at this time, they can definitely cause us great damage, but they don't. What does this mean? The Canosa people's javelins may have been used." over.

Not only that, they didn't even set up a pot to boil water at the top of the city. Pouring boiling water saves money than pouring oil, and it can be used continuously. Although the fire attack is terrible, judging from the current situation, their oil reserves may not too much.

In addition, you see, the wood and stones they smashed were mainly concentrated on the dozens of wooden ladders we attacked, but there were few attacks on other city walls. This shows that they do not have enough garrison troops and can only carry out key defense..."

After hearing these words, Maximus' eyebrows relaxed slightly: "So we can capture the city today?"       "The Canosa people are poorly prepared and have insufficient troops. It will be difficult for them to defend in the face of our full attack. But -" Quintus said with some caution: "The Canossa soldiers are not as weak as we thought in advance. Their defense is well organized. We have not yet attacked the city."

"That may be because we haven't used our full strength yet." Maximus thought for a moment and shouted loudly: "Akgo, you rush to the west immediately and inform Chief Attumus to ask him to move to the south. The feint army also began to attack the city, thereby thinning the enemy's strength."

"Yes!" Akguo galloped away on horseback.

"Since the city of Canossa belongs to them, of course they must use great strength." Maximus muttered, but did not continue to issue orders for his side to attack fiercely.

At this moment, Cassius reported loudly: "Chief, Frontinus has just sent someone to say that the engineering team has built a siege vehicle, and he is sending people to rush it here."

"This is great!" Maximus said excitedly: "Tell Frontinus to transport the siege engines to the south of Canossa and let Artemus' soldiers push the siege engines to attack. City gate!"

"Yes!"

Maximus's main force was attacking in the East City. Why did he push the siege engines to the South City? Because the city of Canossa has three exits, and the Via Minucchia runs from north to south, there are gates on both sides of the city, and there are stone bridges connecting the moat. The other exit is the river port, which is located to the north of the city and surrounded by city walls.

So why didn't the rebels concentrate their efforts on attacking the southern city of Canosa?
  Because it is located on an important road, merchants come and go every day. Out of vanity, the Canossa people have to spend some energy on repairs, so the condition of the southern city wall is better than that of the east and west sides, and there are many buildings built on top of the city gate. There are city towers and watchtowers on both sides of the city gate. If the rebel soldiers pass through the stone bridge, they will inevitably be attacked by the defenders, and the casualties will be heavy. Everyone considered it carefully before choosing the current attack plan.

"Now that the Canossa javelins have been exhausted, it is estimated that there is not much fuel left. Sending siege engines at this time should be able to work." Quintus said from the side.

Maximus nodded and said with some expectation: "I just don't know what is going on with the soldiers we sneaked into the city. If they can play their role, then taking this city will not be a problem at all."

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

While the rebel army was still marching in the Samnite Mountains, Maximus and Attumus had already decided after discussion that their first target of attack when entering the Apulian region would be Canosa, and Through intelligence collected from many parties, Quintus led the staff team to formulate a preliminary attack plan. However, Maximus later made a "small" suggestion: take advantage of the fact that the Canosa people do not feel the threat of the rebels, and then attack When you are careless, first send a small team to sneak into the city, and cooperate inside and outside to capture the city at the critical moment.

Quintus, Frontinus and others, who had served in the Roman army for many years and were good at attacking cities from the front, their eyes lit up when they heard this proposal. They thought that Maximus used the military operation of raiding Pompeii flexibly, which was a brilliant move. , but they would not know that Maximus was just thinking of Nurhachi in his previous life at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. He was good at using this method and easily captured many important Ming Dynasty towns in the Northeast, which made the Qing people begin to rise.

After careful selection, the leaders of Maximus's army finally decided that Albazus, who had been performing in towns for many years and was eloquent, would lead thirty soldiers dressed as a wheat caravan and quietly go out of the mountain first. The rebels also deliberately slowed down their march.

According to the spies' report: This caravan had successfully entered the city three days ago...

At this moment, the secret team that Maximus was concerned about had just experienced a false alarm.

It turned out that Albazus and the others moved into a business inn after entering the city of Canossa, and announced that he was a steward of the Roman nobles and was sent to sell food in the Samnite Mountains. Unexpectedly, the rebels invaded and blocked the road. They were forced to come here to avoid greater losses. They were willing to lower the price and sell off the wheat in their hands.

Although it is said that the price is lowered, the agriculture and animal husbandry in the Apulia region is already good. The population in Canossa is not large, and there is no shortage of food. People are panicked when they learn that the rebels are coming, so no one comes to buy. Arbazus and his companions also took advantage of this to stay in the city.

To this day, the rebel army began to attack the city. After receiving the news, Albazus gathered the soldiers and prepared to take out the dagger hidden in the carriage, waiting for the right moment to launch a surprise attack. Unexpectedly, at this moment, a city guard officer came to the store, which shocked Albazus, thinking that the matter was exposed.

When the leaders of the various caravans living in the business inn gathered together and listened to the city guard officer's speech in public, they learned that it turned out that the city defenders were insufficient, and the chief executive of Canossa hoped that the caravans staying in the city could provide manpower. , help defend the city.

Why hope instead of compulsion? That's because the administrator of Canossa knew that caravans like this who were capable of long-distance business were either wealthy people in other towns, or were more or less related to Roman dignitaries, and he didn't want to cause trouble for himself.

Some caravan leaders explicitly refused, because the rebels did not surround the entire city. They could escape by water through the river port without much loss.

Unexpectedly, Albazus spoke generously and said something like "As a Roman citizen, you should contribute to the country in times of crisis", which made others unable to step down.

The city guard officers were overjoyed and immediately equipped Arbazus and his caravan men with shields and spears, and soon urged them to climb the west wall with other conscripts.

(End of this chapter)