Chapter 713
The huge number of Romans forced the Volsci warriors and Dionysian reinforcements to not dare to leave the city easily. They could only send a small number of light infantry to harass the Roman army. Obviously, this had little effect on the Roman army.
Camillus used half of his troops to defend the city, while the other half, together with the slaves and civilians who transported the supplies, worked on the construction of the camp. The two sides rotated regularly. In the end, it only took three days for the initial construction of the Roman camp between Satia and Polevernham.
Quintus and Licinius couldn't wait to attack Satya City.
The well-respected Camillus objected at first. He reminded the two archons that the Wolsey had been building traps and trenches outside Satia. The defense of the city might be stronger than before. Moreover, there were tens of thousands of Wolsey reinforcements in Polevernham, which was not far from Satia, and thousands of strong Diónia soldiers. They could come out of the city at any time to help, which would make it more difficult for the Roman army to attack the city.
Therefore, he suggested that they surround Satia but not attack it. They could pin down Polevernham, then send more than 20,000 soldiers to bypass the two cities and advance southwest. They would destroy the Wolsey's fields along the way until they reached the Wolsey town of Selshe. If the Wolsey reinforcements and Diónia reinforcements came to their rescue, they would take the opportunity to fight them in the wilderness. If the enemy did not come to their rescue, they would attack Selshe and finally take it, which would change the stalemate.
Quintus rejected the idea. In his opinion, the enemy was right in front of him, and with the strength of his army, he could easily take down Satya and fight the enemy troops from Polefenham at the same time. There was no need for him to march another twenty to thirty miles and risk being attacked by the enemy to attack Selshe City, which the Volsi people called "dangerous terrain". That would be too dangerous and troublesome.
Licinius, of course, also supported taking Satia first.
As the most junior of the military officials, Frius remained silent, but deep down, he supported Quintus's suggestion. This was the military tradition of Rome, where heavy infantry was the main military force of the city. Most of the citizens of Rome were used to charging head-on and didn't have much of a concept of a roundabout attack, even though Frius had worked with Camillus for so long.
Camillus did not insist on his opinion. Instead, he volunteered to stay behind and build a new camp.
And so, Rome's attack on Setia began.
Soon, they had a taste of the power of the defensive facilities built with the help and guidance of the soldiers of the First Legion of Diónia.
First, the wide trap belt in front of the trench made the Roman soldiers suffer. Many soldiers were stabbed in the feet by the "meat hooks" and "lilies".
Just when they had to patiently clear the traps, the defenders sent out hundreds of light infantry familiar with the layout of the traps outside the city. They scattered on the safe passage of the trap belt and attacked the Roman soldiers who were busy clearing the obstacles on the ground with javelins and arrows. This not only caused some casualties among the Roman soldiers, but also delayed the progress of the siege.
Therefore, even though the ballista cannons 300 meters away from the city had been firing stones non-stop for a few days, and a few of them had been damaged due to overuse, the ancient city walls had only recently been repaired. How could they withstand the continuous bombardment? Parts of the walls started to crumble.
This was a great opportunity to attack the city, but the Roman soldiers were blocked by the traps outside the city and couldn't reach the bottom of the city. They could only watch the Wolsey people repair the gap with stones and mud paddles. But this also gave Quintus, Licinius, and Frius more confidence in conquering Satia.
They sent out thousands of light infantry to attack the Wolsey light infantry at the risk of being stabbed by the traps under their feet. In the end, the Wolsey light infantry, who had suffered a lot of casualties, did not dare to leave the city.
A few days later, the Roman soldiers had basically cleared the traps in front of the trench with a certain number of casualties.
Quintus and Licinius left nearly 15,000 men in the camp, led by Camillus and Frius, to guard against Polevernham's rescue, while they led nearly 30,000 soldiers to attack Satia.
Satia's wide and deep trench and the densely packed stables under the city walls became the biggest obstacle for the Roman attack, but they were also the Wolsey people's greatest help in killing the Roman soldiers. They desperately rained javelins, arrows, stones, and boiling oil down.
The Roman soldiers suffered a lot of casualties.
After a hard battle for half a day, the Roman soldiers finally used their siege vehicles to break through the gap in the wall that had been repaired. The soldiers poured into the city through the gap, and they were shocked to find that in front of them was a slightly shorter wall made of mud. The top of the wall was filled with Wolsey soldiers.
The Roman soldiers realized that they had been tricked, but their comrades who did not know what was going on kept pouring in. Soon, the narrow and long tunnel was filled with people.
Wolsey took the high ground and launched long-range attacks from all directions. Every stone and javelin could kill the Romans. The large number of oil cans ignited the flames, and the Roman soldiers felt like they had fallen into hell.
After paying the price of more than 2,000 casualties, the Roman army still failed to attack the city.
Quintus and Licinius returned to the camp with a gloomy face. Camillus did not say anything. He just gathered the doctors and soldiers in the camp to treat the wounded.
On the other hand, the Walsi people in the city were greatly encouraged by this victory, and they were even more determined to defend the city.
After two days of rest, Quintus and Licinius did not listen to Camillus and insisted on attacking the city again. Due to Frius' support, Camillus could only agree.
This time, Camillus alone led nearly 10,000 soldiers to guard the camp, including some wounded soldiers.
The three military officials, Quintus, Licinius, and Frius, led more than 30,000 Roman soldiers. They mainly attacked the city from the east, west, and south.
The battle was very fierce.
In the afternoon, the Roman soldiers attacked the top of the city wall one after another. The Wolsey soldiers had to retreat to the second wall that they had just built. Due to the lack of manpower, they even had to arm the elderly and women and send them to the top of the wall to defend against the fierce attack of the Roman soldiers.
At this critical moment, the reinforcements from Polevernham arrived. They tried to bypass the Roman camp and rescue Sartia.
Camillus was already prepared for this. After receiving the report from the cavalry, he left more than 2,000 soldiers to guard the camp and personally led 7,000 soldiers to stop them.
The reinforcements from Polevernham were 8,000 soldiers from the First Legion of Diónia. Even though the strength of the reinforcements was similar to the previous time, the attack of this mixed army was not as fierce as the previous time.
When Camillus noticed this, he felt uneasy.
Sure enough, it did not take long for the cavalry's report to confirm his worries. Thousands of Wolsey soldiers were rapidly approaching Sartia from the north.
There were no Wolsey forces in the north! When Camillus heard the news, he was extremely uneasy and confused.
In fact, when Polevernham received the news that the Roman army had once again launched a large-scale attack on Sartia, Printos concluded that this time, Sartia would not be able to withstand the attack of the prepared Roman army. So he made his suggestion, and the Wolsey reinforcements heeded his bold suggestion.
They sent out 5,000 Wolsey soldiers to march southwest. When they reached the swamp area near the coast, they turned north. Using their familiarity with the terrain, they stuck close to the edge of the swamp area and avoided the detection of the Roman cavalry. After making a big detour, they appeared in the north of Sartia.
At this time, the siege was at its climax.
The newly built mud wall withstood the fierce fighting between the two sides and collapsed in many places. Women, old, and young Sartians, as long as they could pick up a spear, were sent to seal the gap. Quintus also sent all his troops forward, hoping to break through Sartia in one fell swoop.
When both sides were fighting with all their might, Wolsey reinforcements appeared. They were 5,000 of their strongest soldiers. In order to save Sartia, Polevernham had done his best.
When Quintus, Lysinius, and Frius received the shocking news, it was as if they had suffered a heavy blow. They could not help but curse, "Damn the cavalry! Why didn't they find out until the Wolsey reinforcements were in front of them? … "
Of course, Quintus also cursed a few times. "Why didn't Camillus stop the reinforcements? … "
Of course, this accusation was ridiculous. The other two thought that Quintus said it unintentionally out of anxiety. After all, they had received news that Camillus was leading the army to resist the Polevernham reinforcements from the south.
The Wolsey reinforcements from the north were fast approaching, and the Roman army was fully engaged in the siege. It was difficult to divert troops to stop them. As for the more than two thousand soldiers in the camp, they did not dare to remove them. Otherwise, if the Volsi ambushed the camp and lost the mountains of rations and armaments in the camp, it would be difficult to maintain this massive army of more than forty thousand soldiers.
"Why don't we let the soldiers use the outer walls of Sartia to stop the Wolsey reinforcements, while we focus on taking the inner city?" Frius suggested.
Lysinius looked at Quintus and voiced his opinion worriedly, "The resistance of the Woersi in the city is very tenacious. We've already done our best. Even if we take down the entire city, the exhausted soldiers won't have the strength to fight against four or five thousand enemies who have just joined the battle!"
"Let's retreat," Quintus said. Quintus said straightforwardly, "Sartia's defensive facilities are basically destroyed. It will not be able to stop us in a short time, and there are not many Wolsey soldiers left in the city. These thousands of Wolsey reinforcements came just in time. They will become our captives tomorrow! Frius, your suggestion is very good. Let the soldiers near the outer walls stop the enemy reinforcements and buy time for the rest of the army to retreat. "
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