"Blow the trumpet of attack and raise the sky full of star flags!" Sekrian gave the order again.

Although Sekrian was enterprising, he was not reckless, and he knew very well that the Dionian fleet had been established for a short time, and the cooperation between the warships was certainly not as good as that of the opponent, so in order to win, it was necessary to take advantage of the successive victories of the Dionian navy in the great battles, and when the sailors were in high morale and good condition, they bravely rushed forward, one-on-one to catch and kill, and defeated the enemy with high morale. If he temporarily avoids it as the captain of the ship said, not only will it dampen the morale of the sailors, but also the Syracuse fleet is coming, I am afraid that there will also be Syracuse troops on land attacking Meyaro, and the Dionian fleet will retreat in front of the enemy, ignoring friendly forces, I am afraid that what awaits him after the war will no longer be the smiling face of His Majesty Davers, but the ruthlessness of the "Dionian Military Law"!

Thinking of this, he glanced at the captain viciously, and said very simply: "You are not suitable for the position of captain anymore, go and serve as the stern lookout." ”

Then, ignoring the captain's arguments, he walked to the side of the ship, beckoned to the clipper that was closely following the ship, and then shouted: "Tell every sailor that this is the last battle of this war for our Dionian navy, and their last chance to earn merit and win League honors and awards, don't miss this last good chance!" ”

When the boatswain of each ship relayed Sekrian's words in the bilge, the sailors were all agitated and shouted: "For the sake of victory, kill the people of Syracuse!! ……”

During the more than two hours of sailing, the sailors rowed at a low frequency as if they had just warmed up, and under the repeated urging of the boatswain, they had only finished their rations, and the wooden oars in their hands seemed to be as light as nothing under the scorching enthusiasm of the battle. Under the command of the pipers, the sailors began to gradually increase the frequency of the slurry......

At this time, someone sang the hymn of Hades, and soon all the sailors sang in unison, and the sacred and solemn lyrics were sung by them so passionately that they pierced through the bilge and echoed on the blue sea......

When the Dionian fleet discovered the traces of the enemy ships, the fleet of Syracuse naturally saw the other side, and Paronisus had already arranged the offensive formation of the "double column", so he immediately gave the order to "attack".

It stands to reason that Syracuse's ships are attacking first, and whether it is an increase in the speed of the pulp or an increase in the speed of the ships, they should be superior to the other when both sides are approaching. But in fact, at the moment of contact, the speed of the Dionian warship was slightly stronger than that of Syracuse, which also shows the difference in the enthusiasm of the sailors of the two sides......

…………………………………

The vast sea and the non-stop sound of the tide muffled the collision between the warships, making the battle at sea tend to be silent.

On land, Masias had reached the south bank of the Alcantara River with a coalition of about 12,000 men in Syracuse, and instead of immediately attacking the town of Meyaro, as Antonios had expected, he ordered his army to halt its advance and begin to line up, while driving hundreds of pack carts to the front.

The soldiers on the Meyaro watchtower saw so many pack carts, and finally knew why the Syracuse army made such a loud "rumble" when they advanced, and then in the midst of the noisy neighing of pack beasts, the sentry saw the Syracuse soldiers laboriously moving the ballistas from the trailers, and their eyes widened.

"You said that the Syracuse army placed nearly a hundred ballistae on the south bank of the Alcantara River?!" When Antonios heard the news, he tried to keep his expression calm, but his slightly trembling tone could not hide the shock in his heart.

"Yes, Legionnaire. Not only did they arrange nearly 100 cannons, but also a small number of belly bows! The sentry replied.

Before Antonios could speak, several captains had already looked at each other and said, "How can there be so many ballistas?!" ”

"I'm afraid Syracuse has brought all the ballistae from their city. I've heard Your Majesty say that Syracuse was the first to invent the ballista......"

"It seems that the people of Syracuse are determined to wipe us out in Mayaro!"

"That's just to let them know how good our First Legion is!"

……

"Where are the ballistae in Syracuse? Can our ballistas hit? "The second captain, Zantiparis, asked a crucial question.

“…… It is about 500 meters away from the wooden wall to the south. The sentry thought for a moment and replied.

"In other words, if Syracuse's ballista uses five kilograms of stone shells, it will be able to hit the wooden wall south of Meyaro." Giogris immediately said worriedly: "And if our ballistae want to attack them, we need to move the ballista forward, close to the south wooden wall, which is not conducive to the ballista fire, and it is easy to attack, we only have six ballistas!" ”

Originally, the Dionian legions were equipped with ten ballistae as standard, but during the Battle of Crotone, the ballistas and other equipment were left in the camp on the north bank of the Netto River, and then the army quickly marched to surround Siritin, so the First Legion did not have time to get back the ballistae to which their legion belonged, and finally Davers considered that the First Legion was on an expedition to Sicily, and there would definitely be a siege, so he urgently collected six complete ballistae from the large camp in Syracuse, and handed them over to the First Legion after urgent repair by engineers. The ballista of Syracuse has a large body, is relatively bulky, and has no ranging and calibration devices such as rulers, so the accuracy is relatively poor, but it can fire stone projectiles up to about 30 kg.

"It seems that the generals of the Syracuse army are cautious and have a detailed understanding of how we are fighting." Antonios was also a little worried, and he said: "Let the soldiers hide first, survive the initial ballista bombardment, and wait for the enemy to start attacking the town......

Before Antonios could finish his sentence, he heard "Boom! Rumble! Rumble! ......" The deafening sound continued to sound, which made the senior officers in the big tent a little discolored.

At this moment, the soldiers on the wooden wall south of Meiaro saw such a terrifying sight: hundreds of stone bullets and short spears with a strong wind and huge kinetic energy, covering the sky and the sun, attacked them like a meteorite rain falling from the sky, even they were trembling at the moment.

"Retreat! Remove the wooden wall and retreat to the back to hide! ......" the officers shouted anxiously.

Fortunately, when they saw so many ballistae in front of the Syracuse, the officers of the First Legion had already begun to withdraw the soldiers sent to the wooden wall, but it was only because of the narrow wooden ladder and the rapid deployment of the ballistas by the enemy that a few soldiers remained on the wooden wall.

At this time, the soldiers simply jumped down from the wooden wall walkway, only three meters high will not cause them major damage, these experienced soldiers after landing regardless of the foot pain, immediately picked up the long shield thrown down before, protected the top of their heads, and rolled backwards, not to mention how ugly and embarrassed the posture was, but the self-rescue action they made in such a critical situation was correct.

Because at the very moment when they jumped off the wooden wall, they heard a loud bang, and the whole wooden wall was shaking. Some stones hit the wooden wall, and the fist-thick wooden pillars broke in response; Some of the stone projectiles went over the wooden walls and smashed into the dirt, splashing dust. And in the diffuse dust and mist, what was even more terrifying was the wood chips that flew out because of the shattering and flying of the wooden wall, these hundreds, thousands, irregular small wood chips scattered in all directions with the strong force of the stone projectile transfer, easily piercing the legs, feet, arms and arms of the few soldiers who did not have time to retreat to the rear, and some even penetrated the thick cuirass......

After a round of bombardment, the entire wooden wall on the south side was already in tatters. Some of them were waist-high, leaking out of an astonishingly large hole; In some cases, the entire wall collapsed inward, revealing a gap for the enemy to break through; Several watchtowers behind the curtain wall are also crumbling......

Taking advantage of the enemy's reloading of the stone projectiles, the soldiers rushed forward and helped their comrades who had fallen to the ground and groaned to the rear.

At this moment, Leotizides heard a cry not far away, and as a Spartan, what he hated most was to cry in wartime, because it meant weakness and would affect morale.

"What's going on over there?!" He roared angrily, and immediately a soldier hurriedly ran over, and said in a choked voice: "Company Commander, Palmanius Detachment Leader...... He ......"

Leotizides' heart sank, and he hurried over.

When the soldiers saw him coming, they hurried out of the way.

A short spear fired from the bow, piercing Parmannius' left chest, pinned him to the wall of the hut, and he was already dying.

"It's all my fault! It's all my fault! If I hadn't run slowly and fallen, the detachment leader would not have ...... because he ran over to pull me, and a soldier beat his chest and scolded himself with tears streaming down his face.

Leotizides glanced at the soldier, who was pierced by a wooden thorn in his thigh, and the wound oozed blood, staining the entire calf: "Help him to the back and find the medical battalion to treat him." ”

Several soldiers stepped forward to hold the wounded soldier, but he did not want to leave, and still cried bitterly.

"Hurry up and heal my leg, come back to kill the enemy, and avenge Captain Parmanius!" Leotizides' low roar made the soldier stop crying, and he immediately wiped away his tears and said to the corpse of Parmannius with a resolute expression: "Captain, wait for me at Valhalla!" ”

The wounded soldier was helped down.

Leotizides looked at Palmanius with a complicated expression: as his former detachment commander, Palmanius gave him a lot of care and care when he first joined the regiment, although later he was quickly promoted to company commander because of his outstanding performance, and Palmanius became his subordinate instead. But Parmanius never put on old qualifications, and always carried out his orders seriously and strictly, and this is a respectable and excellent officer of the Ionian army!