After hearing this, Damocles changed his face and defended loudly: "The ongoing war between Syracuse and Dionyya was carried out under the witness of Ares. It is normal for any tragic incident to happen in the war. Sparta did not slaughter Athenian citizens after victory because the Athenian navy ravaged the coast of its territory. We at Syracuse did not destroy all the Carthaginians in Sicily after defeating it because Carthage repeatedly slaughtered the Sicily city-state. Therefore, Dionyya could not make such harsh demands. This is not a Greek war tradition!"

"Is it possible that the ancient Greek tradition that allows the Syracuses to hire aliens and massacre unarmed Greek women, old men and children!" Henipolis grinned and shouted at him: "Since you said this is a war, then we, Dionya, are willing to continue fighting until we conquer the Silitun, and cut off the heads of these aliens whose hands are filled with the blood of the Dionyans! Otherwise, once the contract is signed, we can only watch these murderers leave swayingly. His Majesty Davers cannot accept it! The heroic legion soldiers cannot accept it! All the Dionyan people cannot accept it!"

"... Once the contract is signed, we can only watch them leave..." This sentence touched Damocles, who pretended to be helpless and said: "The conditions you put forward are too high. Can you change it slightly, such as just the heads of some of them or the life of the leader?"

"No, this is the most basic condition!" Henipolis answered in a tough tone.

Damocles had no choice but to say, "Well, I can't make the decision on this matter. I must go back and report to General Dionysius, and he will decide."

After saying that, he looked at Phoebidas next to him, and then with the permission of Henipolis, the guards put on a blindfold and sent out of the camp.

Phoebedas did not leave, and he asked to see Davers as a Spartan envoy.

This made it difficult for Henepolis to refuse, so he had to wait here and inform King Davers himself.

Phoebedas waited for a long time, not because Davers deliberately teased him, but because he was indeed not near the big tent, so he went to the engineering camp.

When occupying the camp in Syracuse, the Dionia army harvested a lot of supplies, including some siege equipment.

Needless to mention the crossbow, Dionia originally copied it from Syracuse, but later he made further improvements. Due to the application of parabola theory, Dionia's crossbow was more refined and accurate.

The belly bow is another siege weapon in Syracuse. Its principle is similar to the crossbow. Engineers can roughly copy it by just a glance at the structure. After all, the most difficult thing in the belly bow is the use of pulleys, which happens to be what the Dionia Engineering Battalion is best at.

Others like siege hammers, snail chariots, shield cars, etc. are all very easy to imitate, but Davers looked at them very carefully. He needed to understand the methods and ideas of the Syracudas from these various siege equipment. You should know that when Syracudas conquered the great city of Crotone, Davers was really shocked. Compared with Syracudas, which had countless sieges in Sicily, the powerful army of the field battles still had poor experience in siege, including Davers himself, so learning from the enemy is the fastest way to improve.

Of course, among these siege equipment, the most eye-catching and difficult to make is the siege tower. Dionia can also make siege towers, but compared with the siege towers made by Syracuse, it is simply a terrible witch. Although the siege tower in front of me only completed the construction of the base and the first floor, its scale is quite amazing: it is 20 meters long and six or seven meters wide, it is more like a wall than a tower.

Davers circled it several times and turned around and asked Orops, one of the best engineers in the engineering camp: "Can you copy it?"

The Legion Engineering Battalion in Dionia is relatively special. Its team officers do not need to understand engineering construction. They only need to be able to manage and lead troops and have some battlefield experience. Their responsibilities are to serve engineers, ensure their safety, and provide all kinds of materials they need. When the Legion issues construction orders, they are also responsible for coordinating with other troops and recruiting soldiers to serve as laborers. Therefore, most of the team officers in the engineering battalion are veterans with some disabilities after being injured on the battlefield.

The really valuable thing in the engineering camp is the engineers. If Davers' system was still relatively rough when he first established the engineering camp, it has now formed a fixed engineer assessment system, which not only requires engineers to be able to read and draw, have strong hands-on production skills, but also requires deep mathematical and theoretical knowledge. Only in this way can they pass the assessment and become Legion engineers. In addition to farming their own land, these engineers have also become popular goods for the alliance citizens to hire, building houses, workshops, making furniture, equipment, etc., and their salaries are not low. In other cities, there are large public works construction, and they will also be invited to participate. Although the salary is small, their names will be engraved on the completed stone tablets, which is a great honor for them.

In addition to engineers, there are also highly skilled craftsmen, carpenters and blacksmiths in the engineering camp. They are the engineers' assistants and assist engineers in making various war-related utensils. In addition, there are some slaves in the camp, mainly serving the engineers.

As the Legion's requirements for engineers became higher and more regularized, because of their high requirements for knowledge and hands-on ability, most of the engineers in each Legion came from the laboratory of the Dionys Academy. But Orops was different. He was originally a mercenary on the expedition to Persia. Because he knew some carpenters, he was transferred in after Davers established the engineering camp. However, he worked hard and eventually became a skilled carpenter and took the initiative to participate in the Dionys School's adults.

The class quickly took off his illiterate hat through hard study. Then because of Davers' agreement with Mentotic Els, the craftsmen of the Legion entered the laboratory of the Mathematical Academy and became the garrison of scholars. Oropus took the opportunity to study advanced mathematical knowledge, and eventually gained the appreciation of Marty Coris, became his disciple, and passed the assessment to become an engineer. Therefore, Oropus is a typical example of self-taught, highly respected by the craftsmen of the Dionians, and inspired them to learn from him.

"Your Majesty, it's OK to copy, but it will take some time." Orops said cautiously, squatted down and picked up a large wooden wheel with difficulty: "The biggest difficulty in making this siege tower is these wooden wheels and wheel axles. Such a large engineering tower and such heavy weight must be supported by these wooden wheels and wheel axles. They have very high requirements. How big is the diameter of the wheel axle? How thick and wide is the wooden wheel? How many sets of wheel axles and wooden wheels can ensure that the siege tower is pushed smoothly?... These all require repeated tests to be finalized.

And your Majesty, you see, so many wooden wheels can basically be consistent in size and width. It is difficult for a large number of carpenters with superb skills to do it. Otherwise, if there are slight differences in size of these wooden wheels, the siege tower may collapse due to imbalance while being pushed! With our current engineering battalion's ability, it is still difficult to do it."

Orops said this with a little regret, stood up, looked at the siege tower in front of him obsessively, spread his arms, gestured with his hands, and continued: "Your Majesty, look, the tower walls on both sides of the siege tower are not upright, but tilted inward. Although I can't see the whole picture, I can be sure that it must be a trapezoidal body, so that the stability of the base can be enhanced, but what is the angle of inclination of the tower wall to be the most appropriate? How high is the horizontal plate to build a horizontal plate to ensure that the tower wall is subjected to uniform and stable force?..."

Davers was not very concerned about the technical details that Oropus said. He understood what Oropus meant: "In short, you need repeated calculation experiments to create a siege tower that can operate normally."

"Yes, your majesty, we need time." Oropus answered truthfully. He looked at the others behind him and said, "For such a huge siege tower, we have fewer people, and it is the first time we have made it..."

Although the siege camps of each legion were no less than 500, and in fact, there were not few people, Davers heard the implicit meaning in Orops' words: there were not enough excellent engineers and craftsmen.

Thinking of the Syracuse people who built three large siege towers in a few days, Davers was jealous of the thousands of engineering teams in Silitung City. That was the wealth that Davers really longed for.

"I give you time to study and try to make this siege tower, but don't be too anxious. You must thoroughly study its technology and finally master it thoroughly!" Davers encouraged them.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

………………………………………

Phoebidas, sitting in the tent, was monitored by four guards. He could not walk around and looked around, but could only look at the tent. As a result, he discovered a secret: the arrangement of the tent in Davers was very similar to that of Dionysius's military tent. Except for the space not as large as that of Dionysius, they were also very simple. In addition to a few armor and weapons racks, a bed with straw mats and fur, the most attractive thing was undoubtedly the rolls of paper and cloth piled on the wooden tables in the top. This was obviously the same as Dionysius's tent. It can be seen that while the consul was marching and fighting, he was also handling many affairs in the alliance at any time...

These two tyrants from the Western Mediterranean! Phoebidas felt inexplicably moved in his heart.
Chapter completed!