The soldiers distributed shields to the returned free people and slaves, and formed a small team of ten people, led by a civilian, and re-strived to the camp of Dionia. If anyone refused to fight or flee, the soldiers would catch them and execute them on the spot to deter those who were greedy and afraid of the dead.

In front of these temporary teams were nearly 20,000 Syracuse soldiers and moving siege equipment. They arranged extremely loose formations, carried ten-meter-long cloud ladders, pushed heavy siege equipment, and walked on the mud that had just been leveled by free people and slaves. Since many of them lost their armor and shields in the previous battles, everyone's equipment is now relatively simple. Almost like the free people behind, the arrows that were not worried at all have now become the most troublesome long weapon for them. Fortunately, most of the arrow rains were blocked by towers, shield cars, and siege cars at the front of the queue.

It seems that the amazing stone bullets roared and fell from time to time, and mud and sand splashed everywhere. The soldiers of Syracuse were not as panicked as the free people. After all, they saw too many crossbows attacking them, but everyone was praying, "Apollo is blessed, don't be the unlucky person who was directly hit by the stone bullet."

With a loud "bang!", a shield cart was hit by a stone bullet and disintegrated immediately. The broken wood chips also injured several slaves who were pushing the cart. The soldiers behind were so scared that they subconsciously moved farther away from the siege equipment. The ones who were most worried about the attack of the crossbows were these big guys!

The Dionian light infantry heard a "rumble" sound in front of the wooden wall, and the sound became louder and louder, as if the spring thunder of lightning was about to be released. They were all nervous, and the speed of bent bows and arrows was faster. Every time they heard a scream, they felt relieved.

Soon, there were more objects and figures in the white fog in front of them. When more than ten towers that were taller than the wooden walls of the camp emerged from thick fog and appeared in front of the trenches, the soldiers of the Dionian were nervous because of these behemoths.

"Defense!" The heavy infantry quickly put the long shield on their heads and formed a shield formation.

I heard the continuous crisp sound of "Cangdang...", which was the sound of the javelin thrown from the tower and the metal center of the long shield colliding. A very small number of javelins pierced through the long shield, causing harm to the legionaries. Obviously, the people of Syracuse knew that the archers did not pose much threat to the heavy infantry of the Dionia, so the top of the tower was full of javelins.

The light infantry hiding behind the heavy infantry of the Dionia immediately used arrows and javelins toward the tower eight or nine meters away from the wooden wall.

The Syracuse people at the top of the tower rely on the protection of wooden fences. Even if there are those who fall down by arrows, new light infantry will soon enter from the entrance behind the tower and climb to the top through the wooden ladder to replace it.

Relying on the suppression of long-range firepower of the tower, the Syracuse soldiers rushed to the trench with arrows and javelins and laid a ladder more than ten meters long on the wooden wall.

Due to the rigorous construction of the camps by the soldiers of the Dionia Legion, the trench they dug was four meters wide and three meters deep, and pointed wooden piles were covered with sharp wooden piles. The other side was directly built. After ramming the soil, a wooden wall was built on the soil. Therefore, the soil and wooden walls were nearly five meters high. The Syracuse soldiers could not stand under the wooden wall at all, so they could only stand directly opposite the trench and attack the city through the extended cloud ladder.

The inclination of the ladder with increased length after the wooden wall was reduced, not only makes the bodies of the siege soldiers more likely to be exposed to the opponent's attack, but also the ladder is more likely to sway. If you accidentally fall into the trench and pierce the body by pointed wooden stakes. However, the soldiers of Syracuse were not afraid and set up wooden ladders and climbed towards the wall one after another.

While the towers and ladders attracted the attention of the Deonian defenders, hundreds of free people carried sacks full of soil and ran quickly towards the trench in front of the camp gate. Some people kept getting arrows down, but more people successfully threw the sacks into the trench.

The 4th and 7th Legion of Dionia were stationed in the Central Army camp of Dionia, a total of 11,000 people, all of whom rushed to the wooden wall to defend. Since the walkway inside the wooden wall was not wide, the archers retreated under the wooden wall or on the mail tower, continued to snipe the towers outside the camp, and concentrated on long-range attacks on the Syracuse soldiers who arrived later.

On the wooden wall, heavy infantry and javeliners mixed troops threw javelins at enemies in front of the trench or on the ladder, using shield spears to knock down the trenches to the enemy trying to climb up the wall, and also protecting javelins on the towers.

When the thick fog gradually dissipated and the sun rose into the sky, the offensive and defensive battle of the Dionia Central Army entered a white-hot...

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At the same time, on the island of Ortigia in Sicily, the gate leading to the main urban area of ​​Syracuse opened, and the carriage and his entourage were riding in Shiparenus.

Ortigia was originally the earliest colonial settlement of the Syracuse people. It was not until after Diron became the tyrant that he moved the people of the surrounding city-states to Syracuse, reclaiming the inland areas connected to Ortigia, and vigorously developing maritime trade. Since then, Syracuse gradually became the most powerful among the Greek city-states in Sicily. When Dionysius was the tyrant, he not only further moved more Greek population to Syracuse, but also almost overthrew his rule due to two riots, and almost endangered his life. In order to ensure his life safety, he forcibly moved out of the original residents of Ortigia, making the peninsula his family, supporters, loyal to the residence and fortress of his mercenaries. The people of Syracuse privately jokingly said, "Otigia is the acropolis of Dionysius."

As loyal subordinates of Dionysius, Phylistos and Hiparinus also lived on Otigia Island, but the city hall of the entire city-state is outside the island, next to the square south of the Apollo Temple. So if there are no special circumstances every day, Phylistos would rush to the city hall to handle government affairs early, and return to the palace on Otigia Island in the afternoon to report to Dionysius.

As the intelligence manager, although he had his place in the city hall, he usually worked in his mansion on Ortigia because it was more secret. However, during the period when Dionysius left Syracuse, in order to understand the situation in the city more conveniently and quickly, and to monitor the officials in the city hall nearby, he went to the city hall to work every day.

When Hiparinus and his entourage left Ortigia, they had to pass through an isthmus of 500 meters long and 300 meters wide before they could enter the wide inner city of Syracuse. In the middle of this isthmus, there was a very small fortress built, with hundreds of mercenaries stationed, which supported the walls that blocked Ortigia. Dionysius had tried his best to do it for his own safety, but the existence of this fortress also made this not-so-wide passage narrower.

The carriage that Shiparenus was riding suddenly stopped at the exit of the isthmus. There was a noise outside and heard it. He hurriedly poked his head out and looked out: he saw dozens of men fighting at the entrance of the gorge, and many people were watching the fun, and even cheering, blocking the front.

"Go and see what happened?" Hiparinus said hurriedly.

Soon the subordinates rushed back to report: "Sir, I heard that it was because they were gathering citizens in the square today to form reinforcements from Greater Greece. Some citizens here responded to the mobilization of the city-state and were about to go to the square, but some people thought that their actions would only make the war last... and it would not end, so they would block them from going, and the two sides would..."

Hiparinus looked at the dusty front in annoyance and cursed: "What is the damn Phylistos doing?! Why don't you send a patrol to drive these people away!"

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Phylistos usually goes to the city hall early in the morning, and today it is even earlier, because gathering citizens in the market and forming an army is a major event for the city-state, especially Syracuse is in a special period, and it is necessary to maintain good order in the city to ensure that the matter can be completed smoothly. Therefore, he had to check the preparations in detail before the citizens gathered in the square to avoid errors.

What made Phylistos happy was that on the way to the city hall, he saw many citizens moving towards the square one after another. It seemed that the mobilization work of Gerolis in the past two days was still effective, and Lord Dionysius's request should be completed smoothly!

Just when he came to the town hall with gratitude to Herolis, he got bad news: "What did you say?! Herolis was beaten on the way to the town hall?!"

"Yes, sir. I heard that several citizens were afraid of going to war and resented Lord Herolis to persuade the citizens to participate in this Square War mobilization, so they attacked him."

"Where are others? How about the injury now?!" Felistoski asked hurriedly.

"I heard that he was hit hard in the head, fainted on the ground, and was carried back to the house by his family. The patrol team had rushed to arrest the murderers."

When Phylistos heard this, he couldn't sit still. In his opinion, he was responsible for the injury of Gloris. If it weren't for the difficult task he assigned to Gloris and let Gloris do his best to complete it, Gloris would not have been resented by these citizens who were dissatisfied with Dionysius. Moreover, the task of forming an expedition in the square today is very important and there are certain risks. If Gloris could assist, things would be much easier.

Therefore, both public and private, he must visit.

So, while it was still early, he quickly arranged some simple matters to his men to complete, and then he hurried to the mansion of Girolis with 20 guards.

Thank you to Billy, Reuss, and the handsome Xi Dapang for your reward! Your support is my greatest motivation for writing!! Today I accompanied my child to participate in the Latin dance competition. I was busy all day and exhausted. After I came back, I had no intention of writing at all.
Chapter completed!