"Don't worry!" Davers laughed: "The reinforcements of these Latin city-states south of the camp are either fighting the army led by Tolmid in the west, or they are now advancing towards the Sixth Legion, and they will not have any more soldiers to attack our camp, and the Light Armor Brigade of the Second Legion can defend the camp alone." ”

Despite Davers's lighthearted words, the staff officers were still a little uneasy, and then one of the staff officers rushed out to give the order, just as the adjutant of the Second Army arrived.

"Mattonis' request for additional soldiers......" Davers was slightly shocked after hearing this, and asked the adjutant of the Second Army in detail about the situation on the battlefield, and sighed in a low voice: "This guy is also in a hurry!" ”

To tell the truth, according to the information that Davers had received before, the young and middle-aged citizens in the city of Rome were all sent to attack Helniki, and there were only 3,000 soldiers left, which was the reason why Davers dared to directly lead the army to attack the city of Rome. In his opinion, even if the Romans sent out to defend the city, even the old men and women, it would be impossible to compete with the more than 50,000 Ionian legionnaires with advanced siege equipment, strong and experienced in battle, but he did not expect that the battle lasted so long, and the various legions did not make significant progress.

Could it be that the Romans were so resilient?! He clenched his fists secretly.

"Your Majesty...... Your Majesty......" Seeing that Davers was a little stunned, Henipolis hurriedly shouted softly.

Davers immediately came back to his senses, his face quickly regained his composure, and said to the adjutant: "There is no more heavy infantry in the camp, you should immediately go to support with 300 light armor soldiers." ”

"Yes!" The adjutant respectfully finished his military salute and turned to leave the account.

Davers glanced at the slightly worried staff officers, and said confidently: "I also have more than two hundred palace guards, they are no worse than the heavy infantry of the legion, plus the remaining light armor soldiers, there are a thousand people, so you don't have to worry about the safety of the camp." ”

As he spoke, he pointed forward again, with a confident expression: "What's more, even if the camp is destroyed by the enemy, it is not a big deal, because the place where we are going to camp tonight is the city of Rome!" In fact, he still had something left unspoken in his heart: if the siege failed today, he would lead his army to withdraw to Ostia at once, and the camp would of course be of little use.

My army will be able to take the city of Rome today! …… Davers cheered himself up from the bottom of his heart.

At this time, another battle report came: it was reported that north of the Roman vertebral bridge, five miles away, about 4,000 enemy troops were rapidly marching towards the barracks of the Third Army.

"What?!" Someone among the staff members exclaimed.

Davers's eyes narrowed, and his right hand suddenly grasped the back of the chair.

……………………………………

At this moment, on the embankment on the west side of the south bank of the Roman vertebral bridge, the battle between Rome and the Ionian soldiers was less like a fight, more like a wrestling.

The Ionian legionnaires held the long shield with both hands, against the opponent's shield, buried their heads behind the long shield, dodged the poke of the enemy's bayonet spears in the rear, and pushed forward with the strength of their whole body, earning a bigger foothold for their comrades who climbed up later, for which they roared in a low voice, their faces were swollen and red, their necks were bruised, and their expressions were so hideous and painful, because they were all trying their best to fight against the thick Roman military formation with a thin array, and often one person had to fight against the overlapping forces of five or six enemies, and the reason why they could barely support it, It was because the comrades behind them were squatting and constantly stabbing out short swords between their legs, stabbing the enemy's legs and feet, weakening the enemy's combat effectiveness, and making them unable to push them into the river with all their strength because of their scruples.

Even though the Dionian soldiers fought so hard and inflicted a lot of casualties on the enemy, the lines of engagement between the two sides were still close to the embankment, twisting and disjointed.

Constantly Dionian soldiers were pushed off the embankment and fell into the river, and the Roman soldiers who rushed to the shore had to struggle to stop themselves or fall into the river.

At this very moment, the Dionian soldiers lying on the crow drawbridge covered their heads with long shields and attacked the enemy's legs with short swords, often to no avail, forcing them to retreat again and regain their footing.

As a result, there were pros and cons for both soldiers, the Dioonian soldiers were unable to establish a strong foothold on the embankment, and the Romans were unable to destroy the drawbridge and cut off the enemy's attack.

Since the Roman garrison did not expect the Dioans to build pontoon bridges with warships, they did not prepare oil at all, and after a fierce battle between the two sides, the oil could not reach the embankment through the thick array.

Of course, there were Roman archers who fired rockets into the river by projectiles, but there were also sailors on the Dionian warships who cleaned these rockets in time.

More sailors patrolled the deck, and when they saw a soldier overboard, they immediately jumped into the river and rescued him. 20 pontoons are 20 life rafts, even if some soldiers who fall into the water are unlucky and miss them, downstream of these pontoons, there are more than a dozen clippers cruising on the river, so although the Dionian soldiers fell into the water a lot, most of them were in good health, and even after being rescued, they took a short rest on the warship, and soon they were able to fight again.

The Roman soldiers seemed to have the upper hand, but the number of soldiers who could fight was slowly decreasing due to leg injuries and withdrawing from the battle.

………………………………………

And in the direction of the Roman vertebral bridge, the battle situation was completely different.

At the beginning of the battle, the Roman soldiers blocked the enemy at the bridgehead in time, but they could not rely on the strength of the crowd to push the opponent down the river like their comrades on the embankment, and could only bear the enemy's impact from the front.

The 1st Brigade of the 3rd Legion of Dionyas packed the entire Roman vertebral bridge, and the soldiers at the front of the attack were stabbed with long shields and short swords, the soldiers behind pushed with their bodies and poked with their bayonets, and the soldiers behind threw javelins while pushing forward with all their might......

At the beginning of the battle, the two sides were still at a stalemate, and after half an hour, the Roman soldiers, who were mainly composed of old and weak, supported by a strong belief in defending their homeland, gradually could not resist the onslaught of these Ionian legionnaires who far surpassed them in terms of physical strength, skill, and fighting spirit, and began to retreat little by little.

More and more Dionian soldiers rushed across the bridgehead, expanding the attack area of the first brigade, and increasing the difficulty of the Roman soldiers' defense, if it were not for the timely arrival of more than 3,000 reinforcements, the Roman soldiers defending at the bridgehead would have been routed.

But with so many reinforcements, Cassius's brow still didn't stretch.

Because Roman citizens, old and young, had received regular Roman military training from an early age, and even if they were not strong or inexperienced, they could still rely on the whole to resist the attacks of the Diorian soldiers, but these freemen and slaves, even though they wore Roman armor and carried long shields and bayonet guns, were completely ignorant of Roman tactics, especially some slaves, who did not even know how to use shield guns.

For this reason, the hardest part was the officers who were temporarily in charge of commanding them, they had to shout loudly, reminding their recruits how to do it on the battlefield with a murderous sound, and soon all of them became hoarse, but the formation of the new reinforcements still did not improve much, and it was still loose and messy.

Cassius was worried, and began to blame in his heart: when the city of Rome was rebuilt, why didn't the Senate call on the people to build a wall on this embankment?! Otherwise, with the protection of the city walls, these recruits can play a greater role even if they have no combat experience.

At this moment, he vaguely heard the familiar sound of military trumpets coming from the other side, and his spirit suddenly perked up: Is it our reinforcements coming?!

……………………………………

A few minutes earlier, Lizarus, the commander of the Third Army, who was standing at the bridgehead on the opposite bank and was nervously watching the battle situation, had received news of the arrival of Roman reinforcements.

Since the scouts had been reporting that "Roman reinforcements had gathered north of his camp", he was prepared for this, and he did not appear to be alarmed.

"There are only more than 4,000 enemies, and I think that our troops left behind in the camp can completely repel them in the field!" Lizaru said confidently.

The commander of the Third Fleet, Midorides, who was on the side, said with concern: "The soldiers defending the camp have gone out to meet the battle, in case another enemy comes-"

"Midorades, you have to trust the capabilities of the Third Legion's Scout Cavalry and Mountain Scout Squad, except for this Roman reinforcement that is coming, they have not found any other enemy within ten miles, and our soldiers have plenty of time to return to the camp after defeating them!" In order to dispel his concerns, Lizalu specially explained seriously: "I let the remaining troops take the initiative to attack, not because I am belligerent, but because the camp we built is too big, and if it is just a simple defense, the soldiers will suffer a lot!" ”

Midorides understood what he meant: Yesterday, the Third Army and the Third Fleet built two camps on the north bank of the Tiber River, one at the bridgehead and the other on the river on the west side of the bridgehead, in order to accommodate the more than 40 huge three-layer oared warships, and at the same time to make enough space between the warships to facilitate the warships to be towed, enter the water and prevent fires, so the camps by the river were long and wide, which led to an increase in the defense area of the soldiers, and in order to fully defend, the troops were slightly insufficient......

Midorades was worried because the soldiers could escape, regroup, and fight again if they were defeated, but if the enemy was allowed to rush into the camp by the river, his ships would be tethered to the river, and they would be easily burned, and the Third Fleet would be completely destroyed.

But after all, he had been on the battlefield for a long time and knew that there was no room for hesitation at this critical moment, so he said decisively: "I agree with you, and I will temporarily transfer the command of the fleet's infantry to you!" ”