Chapter 220
"We'll just have to wait and see." Dyvers said with a relaxed smile. He did not take Lysias' threat seriously at all. "But I have to remind you that the next time you come, the conditions I propose won't be as good as the ones I'm proposing now! Also, I want to remind you that Crotone's enemies are not just Diónia alone … If the war continues, who knows what will happen? "
Lucias was shocked when he heard this.
… …
At noon, the first batch of food caravans arrived at the barracks.
The Devers breathed a sigh of relief and brought a letter written by Cunogorata. The letter mentioned that the emissary of Rockley had arrived in Turií and proposed to the Senate that "Rockley and Diónia form an alliance against Crotone". The Senate did not reply for the time being, citing the absence of the Consul. The emissary was tired from the journey and fell ill with a high fever. He was being treated in the hospital and could not go south to find the Devers in a short time.
Cunogorata put forward his opinion at the end of the letter, "Regardless of whether the Consul has the confidence to deal with Crotone independently or not, please take into account that the strength of Rockley's city-state is second only to Crotone. It has the strong support of Syracuse. Destroying or severely weakening Crotone will allow Rockley to take the opportunity to annex Crotone's allies. This will create a stronger enemy for Diónia …"
The Devers read it several times and then picked up another letter. This was a confidential letter from Aristiras and was delivered to the Devers through a special channel. The letter mainly mentioned some of the things that happened in Turií over the past few days, including the arrival of Rockley's emissary. In addition, it also mentioned what happened around Diónia. For example: after Consul Diomiras of Tarantum led his army to take down Manduria, he let Archita lead his army to attack Brindesi and continued to fight fiercely with the Mesapi; Potentia was gathering the surrounding tribes and seemed to be preparing to attack the Grumentum south …
The last piece of news attracted the Devers's great attention: General Dionysius of Syracuse led 80000 infantry, 4000 cavalry, and 400 warships to fight Carthage … Including the war between Diónia and Crotone, the entire Greek world of the Western Mediterranean was at war at the beginning of the year.
80,000 infantry, 4000 cavalry, 400 warships?!!! The Devers's eyes widened as he carefully confirmed the numbers on the letter. Although he knew that Syracuse was the most powerful Greek state in the Western Mediterranean, the powerful strength it showed at the moment still made the Devers's heart jump. After all, Syracuse was located on Sicily, but it was not far from Turií. It could be reached in two or three days by boat. When Thieron, the brother of the dictator Dillon, who created the glory of Syracuse, succeeded as the tyrant, there was a precedent of interfering in the internal affairs of other Greek city-states. The Devers could not help but be vigilant.
He picked up Cunogorata's letter again, read it carefully again, and then pondered for a long time …
… …
After Lysias returned to Crimissa, he naturally talked to Myron about his talks with the Consul Devers of Diónia. Myron was angry that the people of Diónia dared to put forward such harsh conditions for peace talks to Crotone. At the same time, he felt extremely guilty.
For the whole morning, Myron observed the situation of the Diónia barracks on the city wall, thinking about ways to defeat the enemy. Whether it was on the south coast or the north coast, the soldiers of Diónia continued to build camps and continued to move the defensive line forward. Trenches, antlers, traps … and so on were laid at intervals, giving people the feeling that it was not them who wanted to attack Crimissa, but the people of Crotone who wanted to attack them.
Myron sometimes lamented: What means did the commander of the Dionysian Army use to make such brave, ruthless, and opinionated militia willingly continue to do such hard and dirty work? If it were the soldiers of Crotone, they would have quit long ago and caused trouble.
At noon, the commander of Crotone's fleet, Ascamas, arrived at the port of Crimissa. Myron finally got excited because Ascamas, one of the ten generals of Crotone, was also a good friend of Myron and the representative of the radicals. Myron believed that he would agree to his plan and help him.
… …
After sending off Ascamas and receiving his affirmative reply, Myron could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Just as he was about to lie down and rest for a while, a guard came in to report that the enemy outside the north gate was moving.
Before this, the soldiers of Diónia had been working a few hundred meters away from the north gate, but now they had advanced to within a hundred meters. They were just outside the shooting range of the Crotone light infantry on the city wall. They began to flatten the ground, tamp down the soil, and tidy up a large piece of flat land. At the same time, there were heavily armed light infantry on both sides of them to prevent the defenders from sneaking out of the city.
There were no catapults in this era. At such a distance, with the moat and the city wall as a barrier, it was impossible for them to cause any harm to the city of Crimea. Therefore, the soldiers of Crotone watched curiously from the city wall without much nervousness.
Myron was also watching all this. He was already a little tired, and he also wanted to know what the Diónia people were trying to do.
The soldiers of Diónia began to carry tree trunks that were four or five meters long and placed them on the edge of the flat land. They drove the tree trunks into the soil at intervals, then connected and fixed them with ropes. Soon, a wooden frame about 30 meters long and 5 meters wide was made.
"Are the Diónia people trying to build houses here? Aren't they afraid that we'll burn them down?" A soldier of Crotone joked, immediately causing a burst of laughter.
The soldiers of Diónia carried heavy sacks on their backs and placed them one by one on the edge of the wooden frame. The sacks were stacked neatly …
"Hahaha … I think the people of Diónia not only want to build houses, they also want to make bread (because those are sacks used to carry grain flour)!" Another soldier of Crotone made a witty remark, causing another burst of laughter.
As there were thousands of soldiers of Diónia involved in the work, they built a wall with sacks in the blink of an eye. The height of the wall quickly reached the same height as the city wall of Crimea, and it was still growing …
Seeing this, Myron's expression changed drastically. His adjutant next to him shouted, "Oh no, the enemy is building a high wall to attack us!"
Seeing the scene in front of them, the soldiers of Crotone who were watching the scene before them understood what was going on. They began to panic. There were many powerful catapults in the light infantry of Diónia, and their shooting range was already relatively long. Now, the people of Diónia had used a clever method to quickly build a platform that was nearly two meters higher than the four-meter-high city wall of Crimissa. This meant that their light infantry could scale the high wall and use the height to attack the soldiers on the wall of Crimissa with arrows and stones.
Once the enemy attacked the city, their catapults and archers could stand on the high platform and attack the defending soldiers on the wall. This would cause the defenders on the wall to be busy dodging the attacks and have no time to defend the wall … At this moment, Myron was sweating profusely. This platform must be destroyed!
But he also knew that the enemy would defend it to the death, so he decided to launch the raid in the evening.
Soon, he saw the people of Diónia began to dig trenches around the high platform and used the excavated soil to fill the gaps in the middle of the platform …
Myron was a little mad. The people of Diónia were simply rats, always thinking about digging holes to save their lives!
At dusk, the people of Diónia built a small camp around the high wall.
Myron finally gave up on the decision to launch a sneak attack. He did not want to waste the lives of his soldiers on this hopeless operation. In his heart, he already had a trace of intention to leave.
… …
Early the next morning, the bugle of the North Camp of Diónia sounded. The soldiers of the Second Legion carried ladders and formed small phalanxes, forming a fish scale formation a hundred meters away from the city wall.
Devers stepped on the slope made of soil and stood on the high platform for the first time. He subconsciously stomped his feet twice and felt that it was relatively stable.
When he first saw the city of Crimissa, he had the idea of building a high platform. The three-meter-high city wall was indeed too short. But it was not easy to build a wall with soil that was higher than the city wall because it was prone to collapse. Fortunately, the engineers came up with a good idea. They used tree trunks and ropes as a framework, used sacks of soil as support, and then filled it with soil … It was fast and sturdy.
Devers looked down from above and could see the situation on the northern wall of Crimea. Seeing that the opposite wall was full of soldiers, Deves said to Epitenis, who was next to him, "Can our archers hit the enemy?"
"Commander, there's no problem at all!" Epitenis said confidently.
Devers nodded. "Then let's attack."
"Fire!" Epitenis ordered, and the archers on the high platform began to shoot the first round of arrows. The catapults at the rear, next to the archers, also began to swing the catapults in their hands.
The siege had finally begun! Myron, who was standing on the north wall, was full of fighting spirit. Facing the arrows and flying stones flying towards him, he shouted, "Defend!"
On this section of the city wall facing the high platform, he deliberately arranged for heavy infantry to defend the city wall. They all raised their round shields to protect their heads …
… …
There was a newly built village on the southern bank of the Krati River in the Sebari Plain. Agilas was the village chief. This was the lowest official in the current administrative system of Diónia. According to the newly promulgated law, the village chief was elected by the citizens of the village for a term of one year.
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