"Well, you're the commander, you have the final say." Epitenis shrugged at Pherisius again, turned to Agacia and complained, "I said, Your Excellency, can you get some wheat flour for the brothers, it's really okay without oats, at least you can make porridge and drink." The brothers ate dried beef for two days in a row, and now it's a little difficult to even poop. ”

"As the commander of the Fourth Legion, you don't know that half of the soldiers of the Fourth Legion are from here, and how can the people here treat their relatives badly. But Aspraustum is a small city, the population is not large, and it is not rich in wheat, and the surplus food of the people has been eaten up by you in the past few days, where is the food! Agacia said helplessly.

"Bear with me, the cavalry of Syracuse has cut off our food transportation route, and I have asked the reconnaissance team to bring the news of 'our food supply difficulties' to Your Majesty, I believe that it will not be long before Your Majesty will lead a large army to arrive, and the food problem will be solved." Pherisius also comforted him.

"Wait! Wait! Or wait! ......" Epitenis had become more and more agitated since the death of Dracos, and he did not want to stay in the mansion, and said loudly, "I'll go to the city to see how things are going." ”

With that, he strode out.

Agacia looked at Pherisius, who was sitting in a daze, and he deeply felt that Dracos's death had a great impact on both of them, and he himself was not the same. When he invited Timason, Creander and other former comrades-in-arms to Dionia, these people attacked Crimea without permission, triggering the Second Crotone War, although in the end Crotone was defeated and Dionia's power expanded, and Davers never blamed him, but he himself blamed himself. Since then, Agacia has devoted a lot of energy to political affairs in order to forget the guilt in his heart. After a few years of honing, he became the second person in this group of former mercenary elders to be appointed as the chief executive (the first being Shiros) because of his good administrative skills.

With the accumulation of political experience, being in Asprarustum, and dealing with Crotone for a long time, he knows very well how unwilling the Crotone people are to lose the hegemony of South Italy, especially after the strength has recovered in the past few years, they have played against Dionya in the South Italy Alliance, so he has another speculation in his heart about King Davers's order to 'not attack rashly': His Majesty seems to have the intention of letting Syracuse weaken Crotone. But in this way, does Dioonia have the ability to defeat Syracuse on its own?!

………………………………

The siege of Crotone has been raging.

The Syracuse of the archers at the top of the towering towers and the bows in the towers to sweep away the defenders at the head of the city as they slowly approached the walls.

In the course of these two or three days, the Crotone also negotiated some ways to defend the siege towers, such as concentrating attacks with ballistas at long ranges and attacking with rockets; When the siege tower is near, it throws oil cans and burns them; At the same time, they also made a long square of wood covered with iron sheets, which was used to push the siege tower and prevent it from getting close to the city walls......

Even with these efforts, several siege towers approached the walls, lowered the wooden bridges, and the Syracuse soldiers poured up to the top of the city through the siege towers to engage the defenders in fierce battles.

Lucias urgently sent reinforcements, and after a terrible battle, drove the enemy down from the city one by one.

And just as the Crotone placed their main forces on the siege towers, the Syracuse soldiers climbed the top of the city several times through ladders and engaged in fierce battles with the defenders.

The combined forces of Crotone, Trina and Siriting have been stubbornly defending.

By the afternoon, the siege city of Syracuse had smashed the northern gates of Crotone, but the Crotonens had already sealed the holes with stones and wood.

However, the combined use of several other siege vehicles and the Zhoushi chariot eventually led to the collapse of a section of the city wall, and the defenders of the city suffered heavy casualties.

The Syracuse soldiers took the opportunity to quickly climb the collapsed slope and try to storm into the city.

Luckily, the Lycias Organ's reserve arrived just in time, and the contingent of freedmen, old men, and teenagers barely withstood the ferocious onslaught of the experienced Syracuse soldiers, relying on their sheer numbers and fighting to defend their homeland.

It was dusk, the sky was getting dark, and the leaders of the coalition forces, such as Lucias and Cipros, were all beaming, thinking that they had finally made it to the end of the day's fighting.

However, Dionysius had no intention of returning to the camp at all, and he had his slaves push wooden chariots filled with wood, asphalt, resin, and oiled linen wool, and pushed them to the moat, and set them on fire, which at once lit up a heap of fire, illuminating the entire wall.

Dionysius immediately ordered: blow the trumpets of the attack, beat the drums of war, and continue the siege!

The defenders, who had been struggling to support themselves, thought that the battle should be over, saw the Syracuse retreat in waves, and attack in waves, endlessly, and the morale of the defenders was depressed.

And the tireless siege efforts of the Syracuse people have finally paid off. Under the urging of the soldiers, after sacrificing countless lives, because of the weakening of the garrison, the upper city ramp built by the captives finally put sandbags on the city wall.

The long-awaited Syracuse soldiers rushed to the city and engaged the defenders who had come to intercept them. And Dionysius, who was in a hurry, even threw the guards around him into the battle at the head of the city.

The defenders could no longer hold it and began to retreat, allowing the Syracuse to gain a foothold at the head of the city and quickly expand in other directions.

"Quick! Go find Lycias! Tell him to send reinforcements quickly, otherwise Beicheng won't be able to hold it! Ascamas shouted angrily at the herald.

At the moment, however, the city was under attack on the north, west, and south sides of the city, and the port to the east was to guard against the landing of a large number of enemy ships cruising on the offshore sea, and the only reserve was struggling to resist the enemy attacking through the gap in the wall, and there were no extra reinforcements.

Just when the generals of Crotone were overstretched because of their troops, they watched the enemy rushing to the city wreaking havoc, "Boom! …… Rumble! ......" There were several loud bangs, and a section of the wall was again broken by siege engines. In the dust, accompanied by the roar of the people of Syracuse, the Crotonens, who were fighting for their homeland, finally showed fear on their faces, and began to cry out in panic under the cover of night: "Flee! The enemy has come in! The city is broken! ……”

The reserves, which were already low in morale, retreated, and it was not long before the defenders of the city began to retreat......

The Syracuse people broke through the barrier of the city wall and rushed into the city, and the entire northern city defense was completely breached.

Lycias, Sisprotis and other high-ranking officials were distressed to see that the panicked soldiers, ignoring their dissuasion, ran past them like a tidal wave, and fled into the depths of the city; The people on both sides of the street also helped the old and the young to flee together; Crying, screaming, screaming resounded throughout the city......

Seeing that the enemy was clearing the defenders of the city walls and advancing towards the center of the city, although Lucias was anxious, he was completely confused, and did not know what to do.

At this time, a long line of torches appeared from the depths of the city: "Go to the temple of Apollo!! Go to the Temple of Apollo!! ……”

The sound of the shout alerted the panicked Crotone populace, who, lit by torches, staggered to the Temple of Apollo, the site of the Acropolis near the center of the city.

Lycias and his party also rushed over.

"Who made you do this?!" Lycias asked the soldier with the torch urgently.

"It's General Milon!" The soldier replied.

At this time, Milon was not a general at all, and the task of defending the port was still requested by Ascamas, but this did not prevent the soldiers from respecting him.

And Lucias didn't care about these at this time, on the contrary, he was grateful to Milon in his heart, if it wasn't for his timely measures to guide the people to the Acropolis, the consequences would be unimaginable.

He looked back at the blazing city wall, and saw that some of the soldiers who were still desperately blocking the enemy's attack, and the screams came one after another, and his heart was suddenly like a knife.

He reminded the soldiers beside him with concern: "The enemy will be killed soon, and you must also rush back to the Acropolis as soon as possible!" With that, he and the others blended into the chaotic flow of people, who had to rush to the Acropolis in order to calm the panicked populace and maintain order on the Acropolis, while also organizing the people to defend the last bastion of Crotone, the Acropolis.

………………………………

"My lord, we won! We have breached the city of Crotone!! Damocles was thrilled.

Dionysius could not hide his joy, and after receiving the blessings of his attendants, he immediately prayed to Apollo to express his gratitude.

In the midst of the cheers, Phoebidas, who was lost in thought, looked a little different. Today's siege battle gave him a great shock, not only the cleverly made and powerful siege equipment, but the entire huge siege team was quite orderly, but what shocked him was the ruthlessness of Dionysius.

It is incredible that Dionysius should kill the soldiers and troops who failed the siege attack and fled the battlefield! In traditional Greek warfare, deserters were never dealt with, and even Sparta did not have such a tradition, after all, the atmosphere of the whole Spartan society that worships the honor of battle will make deserters have nowhere to go. But Dionysius not only did it, but more than once, thus forcing the soldiers of Syracuse to attack desperately, regardless of life and death, and even performed the miracle of breaking through the city of Crotone, a powerful Greek state, in one day.

This made Phoebidas look down on Dionysius, who was previously considered unskilled in field warfare, but such a victory was probably based on the fact that Dionysius did not care about the number of soldiers killed.