"The walls are falling!! The walls of Rome have finally collapsed!! ......"In the cheers of the Ionian legionnaires in front of the trench, a small section of the city wall in the southwestern corner of Rome in front of it was accompanied by a roar, accompanied by the tremor of the ground, raising a cloud of dust and mist, accompanied by the screams of Roman soldiers.

After a while, when the dust and mist dissipated, a large gap in the city wall appeared in front of everyone's eyes: it presented an inverted trapezoid, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, the width of the lower mouth was about four meters, and it was more than three meters from the ground.

"Rush over! Storm the city of Rome! "The soldiers of the Fourth Legion of Dionysia, near the breach, were so excited that they stepped on the bricks and rammed earth of the ground, and rushed towards the breach, despite falling.

The defenders of the city, who had just been shocked by the collapse, also came to their senses at this moment, and ran to the top of the gap, smashing javelins, stones, and wood downward, hoping to inflict massive damage on the enemy and prevent them from entering the city.

But this could not stop the fighting spirit of the soldiers of the Fourth Legion, and when the soldiers in the front rushed through the gap one after another, they involuntarily stopped, because not far in front of them was a thick wall of spears, and countless Romans in rudimentary clothes lined up in dense arrays, spears flashing towards them one by one.

"Stop! Stop it! Form a phalanx! ......" The officers in the front line of the soldiers shouted loudly, but in this battlefield where the sound of killing was earth-shattering, the extremely excited soldiers were shouting and frantically pouring in, and the organizational order was already chaotic, they could not follow the order, but pushed their comrades in front of them to meet the spear wall.

The soldiers in the front had to hastily raise their long shields, protect themselves, and rammed into the enemy.

Soon the open space between the spear wall and the gap was filled with a constant influx of Ionian soldiers, and a dense spear formation of Roman landless paplemen was led by the defending general of the western wall, Sevius. Commanded by Murcia himself, the general was born in the poor of Rome, but because of his bravery in previous battles, he was promoted several times by Camillus, from a lowly auxiliary soldier to the prestigious Roman squadron leader, this time among the 3,000 remaining soldiers.

The reason why Scipio the Great chose Murcia to be in charge of the defense line west of the city of Rome among dozens of squadron leaders was not because Scipio the Great, like Camillus, had the vision and mind to use people regardless of their origin and ability, but because in the critical situation of the pressure of the army and the conflict between the Roman nobles and the commoners, he took a helpless move in the hope that Murcia could use his prestige among the commoners to be able to unite the forces of a large number of poor people and slaves living in the western part of the city of Rome. Block the Dionians' attack.

In fact, so far, Murcia has exceeded Scipio the Great's expectations, not only temporarily dissipating the grievances of the commoners and slaves, arousing their determination to go into battle, but also effectively organizing them to defend themselves against enemy attacks both above and below the city, which led to the simultaneous attack of more than 10,000 elite soldiers of the 4th and 5th legions of Dionys, without making significant progress.

Although the spear formation formed by Musia did not inflict great damage on the Dionian soldiers, it was not frightened by the enemy's fierce attack, but stubbornly blocked the enemy's breakthrough.

The biggest damage to the Ionian soldiers who rushed into the gap was the defenders at the head of the city, the Ionian soldiers under the city were so dense that the defenders could cause damage to every javelin and every stone, not to mention the fire oil, the unfortunate Dionian soldiers were poured into the fire men, which would pose a great threat to the surrounding comrades.

Fortunately, the battle has been so far, asphalt and olive oil have been used in large quantities to burn many siege equipment, and there is very little left, otherwise it would have been a disaster for the Dionian soldiers who rushed into the gap.

Olivers, the commander of the Fourth Army, who was still excited about the collapse of the city wall by siege engines, was so anxious that he stomped his feet after learning about the battle situation in the gap: "Order the light infantry to immediately approach the city and fiercely attack the enemy in the city to relieve the pressure on the soldiers inside!" ”

"Let the brothers at the gap quickly retreat to make room for the soldiers inside so that they can form a phalanx and face the enemy!"

"Assemble a mountain reconnaissance team for me, let them try, can they climb to the city from the gap and attack the enemy!"

The heralds accepted the order and rode off one by one.

"And ...... Go and inform the Commander of the Fifth Legion, Giogris, and tell him about the predicament we are in! ”

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After receiving the news of the unfavorable situation of the Fourth Legion, Giogris looked solemnly, and he looked intently ahead: under the city wall a hundred meters away, among the soldiers who were trying to annex the siege were burned siege vehicles and arrow blocking vehicles, which were emitting thick black smoke, and among them, there were three relatively intact siege vehicles side by side under the city wall, which were constantly hitting the city wall, and the "boom" vibration sound could be heard even by Giogris who was in the rear.

He could even see the crevices in the walls, and the dust and rocks that had not stopped falling, almost burying the siege engines.

"Immediately go and inform the First Brigade to withdraw to the trench for me to take up the front line of the city wall that is about to collapse! After the city wall collapses, don't be in a hurry, enter the gap in a complete formation, and be careful that there is an enemy spear phalanx behind the gap! ”

"At the same time, warn the soldiers of the other brigade that it is forbidden to enter the gap without an order, and those who violate the order will be severely punished!"

"Yes, Captain!"

…………………………………………

While the Fourth and Fifth Legions were engaged in fierce battles under the city, the army under Tolmid was engaged in fierce fighting not far to the west.

Although Paulus's Roman army was smaller in total than his opponent's, most of his soldiers were heavy infantry, twice as many as Tolmid's heavy infantry, and gradually began to gain the upper hand in frontal battles.

If it weren't for the constant attacks of the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Corps of Dionysa from the flanks of the Roman army, which pinned down part of the Roman army, then the Roman army would probably have made a frontal assault with all its might, forcing the Dionian array to retreat in great stride.

But as time went on, Paulus became more and more agitated: he was tasked with rescuing the city of Rome, but he was stopped there, and he could not advance an inch for a long time, and if he dragged on like this, even if he finally repelled the enemy in front of him, he was afraid that Rome would have broken the city, and he would become a Roman sinner.

Therefore, he finally relented and ordered the Roman squadron in the rear of the array: leave only a part of the squadron to guard the Dionian cavalry roaming around, and the majority of the squadron should no longer pay attention to the threat of the enemy cavalry, and immediately spread out to both flanks, and then turn to attack the enemy's flank.

Under his supervision, the Roman military formation began to extend its arms from the original oval shape and changed to a "one" formation.

The two cavalry corps commanders of Ledes and Cuzius, who were behind the side of the Roman formation, felt bad when they saw this situation. By this time, the two cavalry legions had already run out of javelins, and they had the cavalry gallop back and forth behind the enemy in small squads, putting on an offensive stance, just to force the Romans not to dare to attack with all their might, but now that the Romans were ruthless, the cavalry legions could not let them achieve their goal.

"It seems that the only way to attack ......" Ryders sighed, he knew that the cavalry attack on the dense heavy infantry, even if the opponent was in motion, would not be very effective, especially damage the horses, resulting in a large attrition of the cavalry.

But the younger Cucius was in high spirits: "Then let the Romans see how powerful our Dionian cavalry charges!" Captain Rydes, you lead the army to attack the enemy's left side, and I will attack the right side! ”

So saying, he turned his horse and was about to gallop south.

"Wait!" Ryders stopped him, pointed to the Roman army behind the Roman formation, which was facing them in a horizontal column, and said in a deep voice, "...... Even if we were to stop the enemy from spreading out from both flanks, these Roman soldiers would probably rush to the flanks to intercept us. ”

"That's for sure, but they aren't outnumbered enough to stop our charge!" Kuzius said confidently.

"Then—their departure will expose the place!" Following the direction of Ledes's finger, Cuzius's eyes lit up: for it was the rear of the middle of the Roman army, and the light infantry, which posed a great threat to the Dionian cavalry, was gathered there, under the protection of these Roman heavy infantry.

Rydes's voice continued to ring in his ears: "We gather cavalry on both sides to attract the attention of the enemy, but quietly send part of the cavalry to retreat and retreat out of sight of the enemy, and then you and my cavalry corps will attack the enemy's flanks, and these heavy infantry will inevitably rush to the sides to intercept, and the cavalry we hide will take the opportunity to charge the enemy's light infantry, which will inevitably be unable to resist and will be disorganized, thus driving them to disrupt the enemy's forward in the center, Create a chance to win for our infantry in the center. ”

"Great idea! Captain Rydes, listen to you, and do it! Kuzius replied cheerfully: "When we gathered the cavalry of the legion to form a formation, we opened the gap between the cavalry to block the enemy's view, and then each sent four companies (the company of the cavalry corps was 50 cavalry) to rush to the rear and wait for the opportunity to act. ”

Ryders nodded, saluted solemnly, and said in a deep voice: "Time is tight, then let's act, may Hades bless us so that we can succeed!" ”

Kuzius immediately replied with a forceful military salute: "With the blessing of Hades, we will definitely succeed!" ”