When he arrived at the town hall, Thelis, who had been notified by his men, immediately came out and welcomed Midorades in.

After greeting each other a few words, Midorades handed Davers' warrant to Thelis.

When Ostia was first obtained, Davers simply announced "the granting of freedom to slaves, as well as the granting of liberty to the Latins, to the slaves, to the slaves, and to the allotment of land...... and so on", and now he demanded that Thelis, in the same manner be enforced in Ostia the decree proclaimed yesterday in the Roman Forum against the Roman plebeians and slaves, and that the Roman nobles in the city of Ostia be escorted to Midorades on the ships of war.

After reading it, Thelisus said lightly: "According to His Majesty's will, it is easier to manage Ostia. ”

So saying, he summoned his men and told him to go at once and escort the Roman captives and nobles among the populace to the port as required, and hand them over to the Third Fleet.

Then he said to Midorades: "Last evening I heard from the merchants returning from Rome about the decree that His Majesty had announced in the square, and that I had already selected these Roman prisoners, and that there were only 178 Roman men of noble origin here in Ostia, and that they were to be eligible for escort...... I'm afraid there are less than a hundred, so you don't need to wait long, they will be sent on board soon. ”

"Lord Theliss is so meticulous in what he does! No wonder Your Majesty has entrusted such an important town to you! Midorades complimented, he hated to lead some of his ships south at once, to Trina, to recruit new fleet infantry, so he was glad to have less time to delay in Ostia.

"There is still a little time before my men are finished, can General Midorades tell me the details of how Your Majesty and you led your army to break through the city of Rome?" Theliss said with a smile.

"More than willingly!" Midorades replied dryly, he had heard the anecdote of the veteran from Sicily, and among the many senators who became Dioonia by virtue of political merit or some special reason, this burly middle-aged man was the only one who had long deigned to train in the Turriyi military camp, and through his own training performance, he was promoted from the recruit of the Legion Reserve to the position of captain of the Reserve, and for this alone, he won the respect of many military people, including Midorades himself.

Telis said happily, "It's almost time for dinner, why don't we have some wine, and I'll ask the chef to cook a few more dishes, and we'll talk while we drink." ”

As soon as Midorades thought about it, he immediately led the team south, and he was already out of the battlefield, so he didn't refuse.

While the two were talking, the guard officer at the gate broke in and said urgently: "Lord Thelis, the scouts outside the city have urgently reported that they have found a Roman army marching rapidly towards Ostia, with a large number of more than 20,000 men!" ”

Midorides was taken aback.

Thelis, too, was surprised, but he quickly laughed and said, "The Romans have come just in time!" Aren't you worried that you won't have a chance to go to the battlefield, and now that the battle merits have been delivered, it depends on whether you have the ability to get it! Are you scared, Ciras? ”

The officer immediately replied in a loud voice, "My lord, my brothers and I are eager for the Romans to attack Ostia now, so that they may taste our strength!" ”

"You immediately go and inform the three captains, let the soldiers start eating now, and then lead the brigade to their respective defensive positions according to the previous training."

"Yes, my lord!" Ciras immediately turned away.

Immediately afterward, Thelis summoned his subordinate, Luke Delius.

This is also a Latino Dionian citizen from Enona, who was left by Devester to serve as an interpreter for the non-linguistic Telis, but Telis boldly offered him the position of his own clerk, giving advice on his own governance of the town, and also giving him the position of adjutant of the new brigade, responsible for organizing and training the 1,230 Ostian slaves and Latins who applied to join the Dionian citizenry, and before that he was only an ordinary citizen of Enona and an ordinary soldier of the reserve, Suddenly getting this important task is naturally very hard.

Now, Telis ordered him to assist the captain of the brigade by gathering the soldiers of the newly created brigade after dinner as a reserve for the city's defense, ready for battle.

When this had been arranged, Thelis said apologetically to Midorades, "The damned Romans have interrupted your wonderful story, and it seems that you and I will not be able to finish this jar of wine until I have repelled them and you have returned from the Cilicourt." ”

"Then it will be my turn to hear from you how to repel the Romans." Midorades smiled, and then took the initiative to suggest with a serious expression: "When I was in Rome City, the Roman army outside the city was busy building camps, and there was no appearance of attacking the city immediately, but I didn't expect them to quietly send troops to raid Ostia. Be vigilant, Lord Thelis, for it is clear that the enemy is coming prepared, for Ostia is too important for our army in Rome! ”

Hearing this, Thelis nodded solemnly and asked, "General Midorades, has the Roman army surrounded the city of Rome?" Will I be able to send a messenger into the city of Rome? ”

Midorades shook his head: "When I left, the Roman army was already camped outside the city, and the enemy had not yet been seen only in the east, but it would be difficult to get around!" ”

"It seems that it is ......safe to take the waterway," said Teneus, mused, "General Midorades, may I ask you to send a clipper to Rome at once to inform Your Majesty of the hostile situation here?" ”

"It's my duty!" Midorades replied very dryly, and he also reminded: "It will take at least half a day to get from here to Rome through the Tiber, and it will take even longer to advance in the dark, because there is a certain danger in both pulling fiber and sailing, so Your Majesty will not receive the information of the attack on Ostia until tomorrow, and when reinforcements are sent, it will not arrive until at least tomorrow at noon, so you must be prepared." ”

Midorades paused, and seeing that Thelise was in thought, he suggested: "I hope you can free up space in the harbor, I will let some of the warships anchor in the harbor, and let the sailors go ashore to assist you in the battle, so as to make up for the lack of defenders, but you must provide them with weapons and equipment." ”

Telis was both surprised and grateful, and expressed his gratitude repeatedly, and said: "General, you don't have to worry about weapons and equipment, before we defeated the Romans here, in addition to some of the booty collected from the battlefield sold to merchants, and some of it was piled up in warehouses, enough to equip six or seven thousand people. ”

"Then I'll be relieved." Midorades said that the sailors of his fleet were not fleet infantry, and they usually trained more at sea and were not good at land combat, but they were young after all, and it was not a problem to defend the city.

The reason why Midorades offered to help so much was, on the one hand, as a high-ranking general present, he left without any help when Ostia faced the war, and once Ostia fell, he would inevitably be impeached by the Inspector of the Ministry of War and criticized by his colleagues; Another reason was that he had already discovered the importance of Ostia to the Third Fleet, and if a military port could be established here, the Third Fleet's control of the south coast of Italy could extend all the way to the Etruscan region, so he hoped to get the approval of King Davers in the future, and also get the active cooperation of the administrator of Ostia, so it was important to win the favor of Thelis.

………………………………………

Just as the city of Ostia was preparing for defense, the Roman army led by Titus set out from Prinister at dawn, passed through the city of Rome, then south past Lake Alba, and then turned northwest, marching for nearly 90 miles, and finally arrived at its final destination, Ostia, at dusk.

Titus immediately ordered the soldiers to eat rations, then put on armor, take up arms, and prepare for the siege.

While the soldiers were resting, he ordered the ballista unit to push the remaining nearly 20 ballistae to the front of the battle and bombard the thin walls of Ostia, which was less than four meters high.

The Dionian reservists, who had been extremely excited to finally participate in the battle, began to feel not only nervous, but even a little frightened, as they watched the Roman army that snaked like a long dragon from a distance and could not see the end of the city, and then divided into hundreds of troops and gradually surrounded Ostia.

Thelis, who was also the commander of the Ostian army, also stood at the head of the city, staring at the black and oppressive enemy under the city, and also felt a little nervous, this was his first time in actual combat, but in the past few days he repeatedly urged the soldiers to strictly follow what they had learned in the barracks training to make defensive arrangements, which he believed could completely block the enemy's attack.

"Lord Thenis, look, enemy ballista!"

Without being reminded by his subordinates, Thelis could see more than a dozen ballistas pushed in front of the battle by the Romans, and he did not panic at all.

In the more than ten years after the War in South Italy, the Dioonian Ministry of Military Affairs had already developed the use of ballistas and bellied bows that were originally used for siege to defend the city, so they asked engineers to reduce the shape of the ballista, reduce its weight, improve the way of firing (the ballistas in the city were fired downward, so the stone projectiles were easy to slip), and even under the guidance of Davers, they designed a new type of fortress that could give full play to the power of the ballista's belly bow, and also studied a set of defensive tactics combined with the ballista belly bow.

After the capture of Ostia, considering its importance, Davos left ten defensive ballistae and five bellied bows, all of which Telis placed at the head of the city.

There was a ballista on the walkway not far from Thelis, and because the time was too short to renovate the walls, a large wooden plank was padded underneath the ballista so that its body could be higher than the battlements, and several boxes of stone bullets were placed next to it, and two soldiers were in charge, one was the ballista gunner who fired the fire, and the other was the sightman who was responsible for reporting the parameters.

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