When the Dionian army first established the ballista unit, a legion of ten ballistae was equipped with a sightman, and they were all from the Dionian Academy, because to accurately calculate the landing point and firing curve, it required deep mathematical knowledge and fast computing ability. More than a decade later, a ballista can now be equipped with a sight, which is a good illustration of the achievements of the Dionian Kingdom in civic education.

At this moment, the ballista man had adjusted the settings of the ballista under the prompting of the observer, opened the spring arm, quickly put in the small stone bullet, fixed it on the smoothbore wooden arm, pressed the launch button, the copper ring that fixed the stone bullet and the iron hook that held the spring arm bounced off at the same time, the spring arm quickly retracted, and the strong torque pushed the stone bullet out of the gun carriage, whistling towards a Roman ballista that was slowly advancing forward.

"Ballista! Dionia's ballista! The Roman soldier pushing the ballista saw the black dots flying in the air, shouted in panic, and wanted to push the ballista to avoid it, but the bulky ballista moved slowly, and the stone bullet came in a blink of an eye, smashing not far from the ballista, splashing the Roman soldier with dust.

The frightened Roman soldiers then saw eight or nine black dots flying out of the city, attacking the other ballistas, although they failed to hit in the end, which already surprised Titus, who was watching from the rear, he never expected that the Dioonians would leave a lot of ballistae in the small city of Ostia, and place them at the head of the city to attack their own ballistas, such a defense method he had never seen before.

While he was still hesitating to retreat the ballista, the second round of Dionia's ballista attack had already begun.

Ten stone shells struck again, and finally a Roman ballista was hit, although only the arm was broken, but the ballista was a relatively fine siege weapon, and once the balance was broken, it could not be used again unless it was repaired. After the Romans got the Carthaginian ballista, they didn't try to copy it, and they also made some progress, but they were making the core components, such as metal ratchets, chains, metal cylinders, etc., which could not be cast as fine as Carthage, and when they were still improving their technology, the Dioonians came, so the Carthaginian ballista was one bad and one less.

Titus could only anxiously order: "Withdraw the ballista!" ”

In the process of the hasty retreat of the Roman ballista troops, a ballista was once again destroyed by a stone bullet fired from the city.

Titus looked at the retreating ballista troops, then looked up at the sky that had begun to be stained red by the setting sun, then at the dense array of enemies at the head of the city, and soon looked down at the dense deer barrage in front of the trench...... It took him a moment before he withdrew his gaze and turned to look at the soldier behind him.

These Roman citizens from the colonies had already put on their armor and taken up their weapons, and although the long march had made them look a little tired, the eyes they gazed at Ostia with a fighting spirit, because the desire to retake their mother state filled them with strength, and their fighting spirit also infected Titus, so that he suppressed the scruples in his heart: although from the contact and his own observations, the Dionians had a relatively tight defense of the city of Ostia, he had no time to regain the strength of the soldiers. Preparing for the siege was more comprehensive, but she had to retake the city of Ostia before Dionian reinforcements arrived, so she had to rely on the vigorous fighters and sheer numbers of her soldiers.

"Inform the troops, prepare to attack!" Titus said in a deep voice.

The heralds rode through the formation, and the squadron commanders shouted to their men to get ready, and the soldiers stood up and carried the ladders and javelins from the packwagons that accompanied them......

After a commotion and uproar, "Woo! ......" trumpets sounded, the Roman army let out an earth-shattering roar, and then the soldiers, led by the squadron leader, began to march to the east and south of the city of Ostia (with the sea to the west, the Tiber River to the north, and lakes and marshes to the southeast).

Theliss looked at the enemy troops surging like a tide under the city, and subconsciously tightened his fists.

The 300 Ionian archers at the head of the city saw that the enemy was about to enter within 100 meters and began to bend their bows and arrows.

The ballistas and bellied bows at the head of the city had already begun to fire stone projectiles and iron arrows at the enemy below the city, although the swarm of enemies made their attacks hit very high, and the death was terrifying, but a round of attacks was only a dozen dead and wounded, for the siege wave formed by thousands of Roman soldiers, it was just a small splash, which could not stop the progress of the Romans at all.

But it didn't take long for the Roman soldiers who rushed to the front to let out screams one after another: "Ah! Give me a hand! My feet! My foot is cut! ”

"Watch out for traps! There are spikes buried in the ground!! ”

……

Amid the screams and cries of the Roman soldiers, the advance of the entire siege force was hampered.

And just when some Roman soldiers went to support their comrades with bloody legs, and some carefully probed the ground situation and cautiously moved forward, the arrows at the head of the city rained down, and although most of the Roman heavy infantry rushed to the front, because the trap under their feet forced them to use their shields to defend the top, and some casualties were added.

To make matters worse, they were held back in the trap area, giving the ballistas and bellied bows at the head of the city enough time to exert their lethality.

Titus was very anxious when he learned of the battle ahead, and he realized that he had underestimated the Dionians' defense of the small city.

He took a deep breath and calmed himself down: "Go and give the order to the attacking troops, don't rush forward, first give me all my strength to pull out those traps!" ”

The herald galloped away, and soon another scout horse galloped in: "General Titus, the people of the Adi organization have arrived!" ”

Titus was overjoyed, and was about to reply, when another scout arrived: "Report to General Titus, the people of Antium have arrived!" ”

At the same time that Titus was marching westward, Camillus sent messengers to inform the Roman colonies and Latin allies west of Latin that they would send men to assist the army in attacking the city of Ostia, and the towns had now responded to Camillus's request.

Groups of troops from the western towns gathered in the rear of the Roman army, carrying supplies......

Titus' face was beaming, and he hurriedly thanked his leader, and sent his right-hand men to organize hundreds of people to light fires around them, and began to build camps and tents in preparation for a protracted battle.

From the tower of the eastern gate of Ostia, Thelis watched as the archers and ballistaemen continued to attack the Roman soldiers who had approached the trench, while the rest of the soldiers began to throw javelins down the city.

There were two gates in the east and south of the whole city of Ostia, before Thelis had the south gate blocked, leaving only one east gate, only for the scouts and messengers to pass, so that the road out of the city were buried on both sides of the trap, the road became very narrow, the Roman soldiers here had to line up in a long and narrow line, so that the soldiers of the city were concentrated attack, and the front of the trench was full of wounded soldiers.

Thelis was not thrilled by the results, he saw the campfires burning in the rear of the enemy army and the Romans coming, and realized that the siege would become even more difficult, and his first order was to have the city's reserves completely block the east gate with wood and stones.

………………………………………

In Rome, the contrast between the Roman commoners who rushed to the square to apply for Ionian citizenship and the Roman aristocrats who cried over the evacuation of their loved ones in the surrounding city, the people of the city were agitated between the extremes of ice and fire......

Davos returned to the Senate and hoped for a moment of peace, but the Roman administrator Arcistes hurried to find him.

"Your Majesty, since you went to worship those temples in Rome, the number of Romans who came to the square to register has increased dramatically, and now the number of registered people has exceeded a thousand!" Assistes excitedly reported the good news to Davers, as it meant a further change in the attitude of the Roman populace towards Dionia.

Davers smiled and replied, "I saw it when I passed by the square, and that's a good thing, isn't it!" ”

"Your Majesty, but there is one thing I have to ask you for." Asistes continued: "There are some Roman people who ask that their relatives are in the Roman army outside the city, and they want their relatives to become Ionian citizens as well, instead of fighting us, hoping to get them out of the city to persuade us, and ask us if we are okay? ”

"Oh? ......" Davers was interested at this time, he stroked his chin, thought for a while, turned his head and asked, "Klotto, what do you think?" ”

Klotocatax, who was standing aside, immediately replied earnestly: "Father, judging from the situation in the square in the past two days, we should believe what they say, allow them to go out of the city, and persuade their relatives to return to the kingdom, so as to shake the fighting spirit of the enemy, weaken their strength, and at the same time strengthen our strength!" Even if some of them are deceiving us and just trying to escape from the city, they are all old people, women and children, and in general the benefits outweigh the disadvantages......"

Acisstes looked at Klotocatax, who had been a guest at Davers's mansion many times during his time in Turiy, and from time to time could meet the king's own eldest son, who was very impressed by his humility and warmth, but this time he found that he had become much calmer.

Davers nodded and said approvingly: "Klotto is right, I allow them to go out of the city, but not all of them, only the old people in the family can go out, and the women and children must stay in the city...... Also, I will take this opportunity to send the gift I promised to Camillus. ”

At this, a mysterious smile appeared on his face.

。 Museum of Literature