Chapter 978
Because Kucias was injured, he did not personally lead the soldiers into the fortress. He waited outside to hear the cheers of victory, but what he saw were countless terrified soldiers desperately fleeing back. He desperately shouted to dissuade them but to no avail. Instead, under the influence of these defeated soldiers, the other soldiers still outside the fortress also fled together, and the loud bugle of Diónia made the defeated soldiers flee even faster.
Kucias had no choice but to flee as well. He was extremely anxious and suddenly remembered that Falcus was leading many people to build defensive facilities not far ahead. Perhaps they could stop these defeated soldiers and reorganize the army.
Unexpectedly, when he arrived there, he did not see anyone at all, only a half-dug trench and the unfinished earth rampart behind the trench, which hindered the retreat of the soldiers.
… …
After the Syracuse Council learned of the "rebellion led by Hictas", not only did they send a messenger to inform Teagenis, but they also sent someone to inform Falcus in the Eppole Highlands, because there were many old citizens among the people led by Falcus and they needed to be immediately recruited to form an army to quell Hictas' rebellion.
Falcus was also shocked when he heard the news. He did not have the mood to build defensive facilities here. When he led the team back to the city, he also stopped the messenger from informing Kucias and the others, because in his opinion, the attack on the Euryalus Fortress was at its climax. If the attacking troops received bad news at this time, it would disrupt the morale of the army and make all previous efforts in vain.
When Falcus rushed to the main city, he learned that Hictas did not attack the council, but retreated to the port.
Falcus was anxious. He knew that the port was very close to the Diónia barracks. Once Hictas occupied the port and received the Dionysian Army by sea, Syracuse would be finished!
Time was tight, and he did not have time to wait for these old citizens to go home and put on their weapons and equipment before gathering and setting off. Instead, he first led the 1,000 soldiers who came from West City and the 500 old citizens who had just been gathered to quickly march to the port in the southwest direction.
When they arrived at the inner wall and saw the corpses on the ground, the soldiers felt the urgency of the situation, but they also felt angry.
When they entered the port, they quickly found the traitor Hictas leading the army in front of the military port.
Septacus saw Falcus and was about to talk to him in front of the formation to buy some time.
Who knew that Falcus had already seen through his intentions and directly ordered an attack.
1,500 soldiers (mostly heavy infantry) roared and charged at the enemy, while the port soldiers also threw dense javelins at the enemy. Since it was a matter of life and death for both sides, the battle was very fierce from the beginning.
But after fighting for a while, the port's army, which was mostly made up of light infantry, was gradually losing ground. If not for some civilians in the port area rushing over with wooden sticks and oars to attack the flanks of Syracuse's army, temporarily relieving some of the pressure on Syracuse's army, perhaps Syracuse's army would have been routed.
But the situation was still not optimistic. The people in the port continued to fall in the battle, and the entire army had been forced to retreat to the coast.
At this critical moment, 50 warships returned to the military port one after another. As soon as the warships docked, the full deck of Diónia soldiers quickly jumped off the ship. They did not have time to regroup, and under the leadership of the team officers, they attacked the flank of the Syracuse army in small groups.
As the commander, Falcus took the lead and fought at the forefront, so he did not know that the situation had changed. It was only when he found that the soldiers around him began to retreat that he was shocked: the Dionysian Army had landed!
He threw away his helmet and breastplate and retreated with the defeated soldiers.
The Diónia soldiers were in hot pursuit, while the soldiers in the port hurried to take care of their injured comrades and the people.
When the Diónia soldiers were about to reach the inner wall, they found that Syracuse's reinforcements had arrived. Although forcing the defeated soldiers to disrupt the enemy's formation was a good choice, the problem was that there were not many soldiers involved in the pursuit. They were afraid that it would be difficult to completely disrupt the enemy's formation. Instead, they might be defeated by the enemy because of the chaos in their own organization. Therefore, the team officers of the Diónia pursuing army chose to retreat temporarily and returned to the military port to meet up with the main army that was still disembarking.
Falcus, who had escaped from danger, did not let the more than 2,000 soldiers formed by the old citizens meet up with the defeated soldiers to retake the military port and prevent the Diónia army from continuing to disembark.
After the battle just now, he felt that the entire port had probably betrayed Syracuse. If they continued to fight in the port, it was likely that the army that they had painstakingly gathered would once again fall into a tight encirclement.
After hesitating for a while, Falcus did not dare to take the risk. He could only let the army defend the inner wall, and at the same time, he sent someone to inform the council.
Not long after, 3,000 Diónia soldiers joined forces with Septacus's troops to approach the inner wall.
The inner wall only served to isolate the port area and interrogate foreigners. Therefore, it was not built as tall and strong as the outer wall. It was only three meters high, and the walkways on the wall were relatively narrow. There were also no stockpiles of stones, wood, asphalt, and other defensive weapons. As a result, when the Diónia coalition army approached the city, Falcus was surprised to find that the Syracuse soldiers who were defending from the high ground were at a disadvantage.
This was because the heavy javelins thrown by the Diónia heavy infantry and the light javelins thrown by the port soldiers covered the sky, causing a lot of casualties to the Syracuse soldiers on the city wall at close range. At this time, there were not many light infantry in the army led by Falcus. The army could only take a beating, but could not make an effective counterattack. This made Falcus's heart sink.
Not long after, the people in the port area sent over some wooden ladders used to repair houses and logs used to build ships for the coalition soldiers to attack the city.
Falcus saw this scene from above the city wall, and only felt depressed and uncomfortable. The soldiers used their shields to defend against the long-range attacks under the city wall while cursing the port people's betrayal.
The Diónia coalition soldiers quickly put these wooden ladders on the three-meter-high stone wall, and while the enemy on the city wall was suppressed by the javelins, they nimbly climbed up the city wall. At the same time, the coalition soldiers also used logs to break open the city gate and rushed through the hole in the inner wall. The frontal battle gradually unfolded on and below the city wall.
Meanwhile, at the top of the city wall, Falcus saw another huge black army (the second wave of landing troops, the Eighth Dionian Legion) appear at the port area. They were majestically pressing towards the inner wall, and his heart instantly sank to the bottom of the valley.
Just then, another soldier pointed to the rear and shouted in panic, "The city is on fire!"
Falcus hurriedly turned around and saw thick smoke billowing in the northwest direction, and he could not help but be shocked. Such a large fire could not have happened by chance, could it be that the Diónia army had already killed their way into the city?!
Even he had such thoughts, the soldiers panicked even more, and their morale plummeted. Fortunately, these old citizens who had experienced many wars were still rational, and they knew very well that if they chose to retreat at this time, Syracuse might be finished!
Therefore, under Falcus' constant encouragement, they could barely hold the line of defense.
But when it rains, it pours. The western city wall was very close to the port area, and the Syracuse soldiers stood on the more than 10-meter-high wall. Not only did they clearly see what was happening in the port area, but they also saw thousands of Diónia soldiers landing one after another at the military port and storming the crumbling inner wall. They also saw the perpetrators of the city fire were also the Dionysian Army in black helmets and armor, and they were quickly marching towards the core area of the city.
When these Syracuse defenders saw this scene, they were extremely frightened, and extremely worried about the safety of their families. How could they still have the morale to continue fighting? They began to flee into the city. In order to escape punishment, they shouted as they ran, "The city is on fire!! The Diónia army has entered the city! The Diónia army has entered the city!! … "
Their retreat left the southern part of the western city wall defenseless. The Diónia soldiers quickly occupied the top of the city wall, and along the walkway, they attacked northward.
The defense of the entire western city quickly collapsed.
… …
It was the army led by Diocassis who ignited the city fire. They chased after the defeated Syracuse soldiers, not giving the enemy a chance to rest and regroup. They chased them from the Euryalus Fortress all the way to the edge of the main city. Although they ran for a few miles, because the terrain was from the top, the soldiers were relatively relaxed.
In the process of the pursuit, Diocassis had been thinking: after the army he led entered the city, how could they better help the whole siege force to capture the city faster?
Because he knew that in order to let his assault force gain a foothold in the Euryalus Fortress, Commander Prososus once again ordered the whole army to launch an attack on the city of Syracuse. This was using the lives of his comrades to create an opportunity for himself. Therefore, he must destroy the enemy's fighting spirit as soon as possible, and reduce the casualties of the soldiers.
In the end, the best method he could think of was fire.
Therefore, he sent a company to break into the houses, collected olive oil and tar, poured it on a series of houses at the edge of the main city, and then set them on fire. Then, he led his troops to continue the pursuit of the defeated soldiers.
Kucias, Stesicos, and the others fled in the direction of the council. He was still hoping that the council would send an army to stop the pursuing army. Who knew that the council had no more soldiers to send, and when the council members received the news of "the enemy's attack", they were terrified. They did not dare to stay in the council hall any longer, and they all fled to the west, hoping that the troops of Tiagenis and Falcus could protect them.
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