"We'll just wait and see." Davers smiled lightly, completely ignoring the threat of Lycias: "But I also remind you that the next time you come again, the conditions I propose will not be such good as they are now!" Also, I want to remind you that we are not the only enemies in Crotone...... If the war drags on, who knows what will happen? ”

Lucias was shocked when he heard this.

………………………

By noon, the first group of grain carriers had arrived at the barracks.

Davos breathed a sigh of relief, and brought with him a letter from Kunograta that stated that Lockry's emissary had arrived in Turriy and had proposed to the Senate that "Lockry and Dionya form an alliance against Crotone", but the Senate did not reply for the time being, citing the absence of the consul. The messenger fell ill with a high fever due to fatigue from the journey, and was being treated in the hospital, and could not go south directly to find Davers for a short time.

At the end of the letter, Cuno Gorata put forward his opinion: "Whether or not the Archon has the confidence to settle Crotone independently, please consider that the city-state of Lockry is second only to Crotone, and it has the strong support of Syracuse, and the elimination or serious weakening of Crotone, which leads to the annexation of Crotone's allies by Lockry, will create an even stronger enemy for Dionia......"

Davos read it several times, and then picked up another letter, a secret letter from Aristiras, which had been handed over to Davers through a special channel, and which mainly mentioned some of the events that had taken place in the city of Turiyi in the past few days, and of course the arrival of the messenger of Locklee. In addition, it is mentioned that events around Diomonia, such as: after the consul of Tarantum, Theomilus, led an army to capture Manduria, and then had Acheta lead an army to attack the city of Bryndessi, and the fierce battle with the Mesapi continued; Potteya was rallying the surrounding tribes and seemed to be preparing to attack Grumentum ......

The last piece of news caught Davers's great attention: Dionysius, the plenipotentiary general of Syracuse, marched to Carthage with 80,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry, and 400 ships...... Including the war between Dioonia and Crotone, at the beginning of the year, the entire Greek world in the western Mediterranean was at war.

80,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry, 400 ships?!!! Davers' eyes widened, carefully confirming the numbers on the letter. Although he had known that Syracuse was the leading Greek power in the Western Mediterranean, the strength it was showing at the moment still made Davers's heart tremble, after all, Syracuse was located on the island of Sicily, but it was not far from Turico, and it was two or three days away by boat. And when Cieron, the brother of Dilon, the dictator who created the glory of Syracuse decades ago, succeeded him as tyrant, there was a precedent for interfering in the internal affairs of other city-states in Greater Greece, and Davers could not help but be wary.

He picked up Kunogorata's letter again, read it again, and pondered for a long time......

…………………

When Lucias returned to Crimesa, he naturally spoke to Milon about his meeting with Davers, the consul of Dionia. Milon was outraged and guilty that the Dioonians had dared to offer such harsh terms to Crotone.

All morning, Milon spent the morning observing the situation in the Dionian camp from the city walls, thinking of ways to break the enemy. On both the south and north banks, the Dionian soldiers continued to build camps and push the lines of defense forward, with trenches, deer, traps, and ...... and so on, laying at intervals, making it feel as if it was not them who were going to attack the Crimesa, but the Crotonens who were going to attack them.

Milon sometimes lamented that the commander of the Dionian army had used what means had made such brave and ruthless citizen soldiers willing to continue to do such hard and dirty work, if the Crotone soldiers had already left their hands and made trouble.

By noon, Crotone's fleet commander Ascamas rushed to the port of Crimesa, and Milon finally became excited, because Askamas, one of the ten generals of Crotone, was also a good friend of Milon and a representative of the radical faction, and Milon believed that he would agree to his plan and help him.

……………………

After sending Ascamas away and getting his affirmative answer, Milon can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

He was just about to lie down and rest for a while, when the guards came in and reported that there was something unusual about the enemy outside the north gate.

The Dionian soldiers, who had been working a few hundred meters from the north gate, had advanced to within a hundred meters, and they had begun to level the ground and tamp the ground out of the range of the Crotone light infantry on the city walls. At the same time, they were flanked by heavily armed light and heavy infantry to prevent the defenders from raiding out of the city.

In this era, there were no catapults, and with moats and walls at such a distance, it was impossible to do any harm to the Crimean city, so the soldiers of Crotone watched curiously from the city walls and were not much nervous.

The dragon was also watching all this, and he was already a little tired and wanted to understand: what did the Dionians want to do?

The Dionian soldiers began to carry four or five meters long tree trunks, placed them on the edge of the flat ground, drove them into the soil one by one, and connected and fixed them with ropes, and soon made a wooden frame about 30 meters long and 5 meters wide.

"Don't the Ionians want to build houses here, and they're not afraid that we'll burn them!" One of the Crotone soldiers said jokingly, immediately causing a burst of laughter.

But the Dionian soldiers were carrying heavy sacks one by one, and put them one by one into the edge of the wooden frame, and the bags were neatly stacked......

"Hahaha...... I think the Dioans didn't just want to build houses, they wanted to make bread (because that's sacks for grain flour)! Another Crotone soldier's witty remark caused another burst of laughter.

With several thousand Ionian soldiers involved in the work, in the blink of an eye a wall was built out of sacks, and the height of the wall quickly reached the level of the Crimean wall, and it continued to increase......

Seeing this, Milon's face changed greatly, and the adjutant beside him shouted: "Not good, the enemy is going to build a high wall to attack us!" ”

Seeing the scene in front of them, the Crotone soldiers, who were still watching the excitement before, had already understood, and they began to panic: there were many powerful slingers in the Dionian light infantry, and the original range was relatively long, and now the Dioonians quickly built a platform nearly two meters higher than the four-meter-high Crimesa wall, which meant that their light infantry climbed this high wall, and could use their arrows and stones to attack the soldiers on the Crimesa wall.

Once the enemy is attacking, their slingers and archers can stand on high platforms and attack the soldiers defending the walls, leaving the defenders at the head of the city busy dodging the attack and not trying to defend the walls...... Miron's cold sweat broke out at the moment: this platform must be destroyed!

But he also knew that the enemy would be on guard, so he decided to time the surprise attack in the evening.

Soon he saw the Dioans begin to dig a trench around the high platform, and fill the gap in the middle of the high platform with the excavated earth......

Milon was a little crazy: the Dioonians were rats, always thinking about making holes to save their lives!

By dusk, the Dionians had set up another small camp around the high wall.

Milon finally gave up on the decision to sneak attack, he didn't want to waste his soldier's life on this hopeless operation, and he already had a hint of distraction in his heart.

………………………

In the early morning of the second day, the trumpets of the North Battalion of Dionya sounded, and the soldiers of the companies of the Second Army carried the ladders and formed small phalanxes, which formed a fish-scale formation a hundred meters away from the city wall.

Davers stepped on the slope made of dirt, stood on the high platform for the first time, and subconsciously stomped twice with his foot, feeling relatively stable.

When he first saw the city of Crimesa, he had the idea of building a high platform. The walls of more than three meters high are indeed too low. However, it was not easy to build a fort higher than the city wall with earth, because it was easy to collapse, but fortunately the engineers came up with a good solution, using tree trunks and ropes as frames, sacks of soil as supports, and then filling with earth...... It's fast and robust.

Davos was condescending, and the situation on the walls of the northern Crimea was unobstructed. Seeing that the city on the opposite side was full of soldiers, Daves said to Epitenis beside him, "Can our archers shoot at the enemy?" ”

"Your Excellency, this is no problem at all!" Epitenis said confidently.

Davers nodded: "Then attack." ”

"Shoot the arrows!" Epitenis gave the order, and the archers on the high platform began to shoot the first round of arrows. The slingers, who were in the rear, next to the archers, also began to wave their slings.

The siege has finally begun! Standing at the head of the North Gate City, Milon was full of fighting spirit at the moment, and in the face of the arrows and flying stones flying in the air, he shouted: "Defense!" ”

On this section of the city wall facing the high platform, he specially arranged for the heavy infantry to defend the city, and they raised their round shields one after another to protect the top of their heads......

………………………

Aguilas is the head of a newly built village on the south bank of the Krati River in the Sybari Plain, the lowest level of the current Ionian administrative system, according to the newly promulgated law, which is elected by the citizens of the village for a term of one year.

However, becoming a village chief is not an easy task, and candidates must meet several necessary conditions: first, they must be official Ionian citizens; secondly, it is necessary to pay taxes on time, and there is no record of major violations of law and discipline; In addition, those who have served in the military and have made meritorious contributions to the Dionian League are preferred.