Davers had no doubt about Siphorus' ability, so he just pointed out, then looked away, looked forward, and said in a heavy tone: "Everyone, before we marched to the Carthaginian army, we have an important thing to do with all the soldiers who were about to fight against the enemy--go to Paragonia to pay tribute to and pay tribute to all the soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the Seventh Legion and the two reserve brigades who strongly defended Paragonia and eventually died bravely!"

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After the military meeting, Davers stayed alone in Cyporus and Leotizides and extended his sincere thanks to the two, thanking them for taking on the heavy responsibility of defense when the main forces of Dionia were unable to reinforce Sicily. Not only did they finally successfully resist the invasion of the Carthage army and ensure the integrity of the Sicily territory, they also gave considerable damage to the Carthaginians, which greatly exceeded Davers' expectations.

Facing Davers' unswerving praise, Siprous was very modest: "We in Sicily can finally hold on until your Majesty, you will lead the army. Lord Prosous has made the greatest contribution. If he had not attacked decisively, defeated the Carthaginians in Minoa, captured Selinus, and disrupted the entire west-"

Leotitzides interrupted: "If I had not had the full support and guarantee of Lord Sipoulos, I would not dare to lead the army to attack rashly, especially when the Carthage army invaded the Catanian plains later. It was entirely up to Lord Sipoulos' understanding and appeasement of the people in the city that I could hold on to Katana until today..."

Davers looked at them with a smile and said, "Everyone said Prosous is difficult to get close to and difficult to deal with. I think you cooperate well!"

Cyporus looked at Leottizides and defended him: "Your Majesty, you may have a misunderstanding of this. Lord Prosouus is not social, just because he has devoted all his energy to military research."

"Of course I know this." Davers smiled, then led the topic to the next battle: "What do you think about attacking Syracuse?"

After staying in Katanai for so many years, Leotizides of course in his spare time thinking about how to attack this neighbor who had many disputes with Katanai. He even put on makeup and went south several times to secretly survey the city defense of Syracuse. After receiving the appointment of Davers, he had already initially conceived an offensive plan in his mind. Therefore, he immediately said: "Your Majesty, based on previous information, Syracuse can organize at least 20,000 troops, and if it is defending the city, the number of soldiers will only be more. However, Syracuse citizens lack sufficient military training, and for more than ten years they have basically not experienced major wars and lack sufficient combat experience. They definitely dare not go out of the city to fight with us, but only defend the city. Although the walls of Syracuse are tall and strong, I am confident to capture it-"

Speaking of this, Leotizides turned back to the adjutant Taglu who was waiting outside the door, "Go and bring the city defense map of Syracuse in my room!"

Leotizides suddenly shouted loudly in front of Davers. This behavior was extremely rude, but Davers didn't care. He even stopped Henipolis's reprimand and listened carefully to the narrative of the young commander who had been indulging in thinking.

"Because your Majesty, you will lead your army to the west to fight the Carthaginians, there is no threat from the Carthaginians in the east for the time being. In addition, it is the slack season. We can gather more people from Naxos, Sikuli, Katanai, Leotini, Taunis, Sikels, and even Agrigento and Jera to participate in the siege of Syracuse nearby..."

While Leotizides was talking about his thoughts, Taglu had already brought the wooden map. He immediately put it on the table, pointed at it, and said, "Please look at your Majesty! Syracuse is a big city with a large area and its walls are not small in length. However, most of it is built on the coast and hills. There are two main sections that are truly suitable for the army to siege the city. One is the wall on the east, mainly the Hexa Gate not far from Taunis and the wall sections near it. This length is about one mile; the other is the wall on the west, from Puscarmen to the main port of Syracuse, which is about four miles...

The siege plan I envisioned was...the main force composed of the seventh and eighth legions was camped here-" Leotizides pointed his finger to the flat area between the west of Syracuse and the Alapus River on the map.

"There are Lucimele swamps nearby! It is easy for the soldiers to get infected with the disease!" Siphorus, who also approached the map, changed his face and reminded loudly: "You must know that Carthage's army attacked the city of Syracuse twice, and was tortured by the plague, which eventually led to a crushing defeat."

"Of course I know the danger of the Lucimele swamp." Leotitzides explained confidently: "It's almost November, the weather is starting to cool down and the mosquitoes have decreased. Moreover, in recent years, civilians in Syracuse have been constantly developing the swamp, and the area is much smaller than 10 years ago. What's more, our legion soldiers have special training on how to deal with this harsh terrain in their daily military training. I don't think it will cause any problems with the army's stationing!..."

When Davers heard this, he remembered the Samone war report he received when he was in Rome before: Alexis led his army into the mountains and was also stationed near the swamp, and there was no major problem.

So, he agreed, "As long as you are well prepared, I think the army is stationed here should not be a problem, so you can continue to talk."

"Another army composed of some of the reserve soldiers of our Sicily territory, allies and friendly soldiers are stationed near Taunis. According to the alliance, such a mixed force must be commanded by generals of Dionia, and the current senior generals are basically appointed. In order to ensure that the attack on the east side of Syracuse can be carried out well, I think..." Leotizides hesitated for a rare moment: "Can Brelu be allowed to hold this position temporarily?"

Davers and Cypoulos were surprised when he said this.

Davers looked at him meaningfully and thought to himself: It is said that Prosous is indifferent, but he didn't expect that he was quite humane. He wanted to use this opportunity to make Brelu meritorious and reduce the accusations of the people against him so that he could reduce the punishment after the war was over.

Leothides was slightly unnatural when he was watched by Davers. The reason why he made this suggestion was, on the one hand, for the needs of the next battle, and more importantly, to make up for the guilt in his heart, because in this military meeting he suddenly realized that under the pressure of the Carthage army, no matter who is in Brelu's position, he would face the same dilemma. Brelu led the Seventh Legion to help, just to take the tank for him.

Davers coughed dryly: "I can understand your mood to help Brem. But if he leads the army, it will confuse everyone, and the previous punishment will be meaningless, so I cannot agree. The commander of the East Army can be Zantiparis, who led a mixed army several times in Campania to conquer the town of Samonet. You should have considerable experience in this. During the attack on Syracuse, you temporarily perform the position of commander of the Seventh Legion for him."

"Yes." Leotizides responded with a constant expression and continued: "I heard that when His Majesty led his army to land in Katanai, there was an engineering team of hundreds of people composed of engineers and highly skilled craftsmen. I hope that Your Majesty, you can help us to make various siege equipment, reduce the difficulty of the soldiers siege, and put more pressure on the Syracuse people."

"Of course there is no problem." Davers nodded and agreed, and then asked: "The focus of your attack is on these two wall sections, but I'm afraid that you won't ignore other wall sections against Syracuse City?"

He is worthy of being a famous general who wins every battle, and feels quite keen! Leotizides changed his mind and said: "Except for the city walls on the coast, other wall sections are built on the high ground, and it is relatively difficult to attack, but I will also send soldiers to launch an attack, disperse the forces of the Syracuse people, and confuse them at the same time..."

On the map, the two sections of the city walls in the east and west of Syracuse extend in a winding diagonally north along the edge of the Epipole Highlands and finally come together, looking like a top hat, and Leotizides's hand pointed at the place where the two ends of the city walls converge, and he said in a deep voice: "It is said that it was the siege of Athens on Syracuse that the Syracuse people realized that the enemy must not allow the enemy to occupy the commanding heights of the city, the Epipole Highlands. Therefore, after Dionysius became a tyrant, he mobilized the people of Syracuse to encircle the entire Epipole Highlands with the city walls and become part of the city area. The highest place in this area is here - the west side of the peak of Eriarus.

Dionysius called this place the "key" to Epipole and the entire city of Syracuse, so he built a fortress here at the beginning. However, the Epipole area is sparsely populated and uninhabited here because it is 5 or 6 miles away from the main city of Syracuse, and the transportation is very inconvenient. Although Dionysius believes that its location is very important, no enemy has ever attacked here in recent years, and the Syracuse people seem to not pay attention to it.

I have carefully investigated here several times. The city wall on the west side of Mount Yuriarus has been disrepair for many years. The number of sentries on the city has never exceeded 10. Most of these sentries stay in the fortress and rarely patrol the entire wall section regularly. It seems that they are very confident in the defense of the city wall in this area. But in fact, the height on the west side of Mount Yuriarus is no more than 200 meters, and it is not difficult to climb-"
Chapter completed!