"My lord, it seems that he is here for something else." Tagru whispered.

"Then let him in." Leotizides rubbed his eyes, but his expression did not relax at all.

So as soon as Assemis stepped through the door, he warned him in advance: "I hope you have not come to talk to me about the cavalry attack, I have already told you, and it is not yet time." ”

"Your Excellency, Commander." Asitmis was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly explained: "I have thought of a way to reduce the threat of Carthaginian cavalry. ”

Leotizides finally turned his head, looked at him, and asked, "What way?" ”

Asitmis said seriously: "Your Excellency, the Carthaginian cavalry is numerous, but most of them are Numibian cavalry. As far as I know, these Numibians rode small horses, but they were strong at running, and they were also more hungry, and they could carry the Numibians in battle on forage alone, but they had to be fed constantly......"

Leotizides' heart moved, leaned forward slightly, and asked, "What do you mean?" ”

Seeing that the ill-tempered commander was interested, Assemis immediately perked up and spoke more fluently: "The Carthaginians scattered thousands of cavalry across our Catanian plain, I am afraid, not only to destroy our villages and cover our ears, but also to solve the problem of food for these horses. Now that it is autumn, the grass on the ground has begun to wither, and since the Carthaginians have burned our village, we can also take advantage of the darkness to burn the weeds on the plain with confidence, so that the Carthaginian cavalry will not dare to move so often on the plain. ”

"Burn the grass of the whole plain......," Leotizides said after a long pause, hesitating, "Assitmis, you are a native of Katanai, and you should be familiar with the situation here, even if this plain is burned to the ground, as long as there is one or two rains, grass will soon grow on this land." ”

"But it rarely rains in September and October in Catanay." Assemis had clearly thought about the question, and he replied quickly.

Leotizides also quickly made a decision: "Tagru, you go and bring Sipros at once, I need to consult with him." ”

"Yes, sir." Taglo immediately ran out, because Sipros had just left, and he should be able to intercept him on the way, and as he ran, he thought to himself: Sipros is the governor of Sicily, and people are open-minded, and they take the initiative to talk about problems every time, and I feel that the commander seems to be accustomed to this, and shouts at Sipros, which is not a good thing, and I have to find an opportunity to remind him when I go back!

In the kitchen, Leotizides looked at the map and muttered, "I don't know if this method really works, but we have to try it to know that even if the situation is very unfavorable for us now, we should not lose confidence and try to find opportunities......"

"Commander, you're right!"

…………………………………………

As Leotizides analyzed, Margo did target the attack on Palagonia.

The northern part of Palagonia was equally well defended, but the terrain was open compared to the south, which favored the deployment of the army.

Margo learned some of the lessons of previous failed attacks to the south, and when he set up camp, he ordered the engineers to start assembling the ballistas, and after giving the order to attack, dozens of ballistae began to bombard the watchtowers in the trap area.

At the same time, he ordered tens of thousands of Nummibian infantry formed by Carthage to dig up the earth, because Palagonia was located at the foot of the mountain, the soil was hard, and the soldiers had to dig up the earth at a distance, and then transport it over, filling in all the traps and trenches north of Palagonia, paving a wide and safe passage. During the period of clearing the perimeter, in order to prevent the enemy from sneaking out of the city, he also let his elite troops line up in front and be ready to attack at any time.

Moreover, he transferred 10,000 soldiers stationed at Jera, bringing the number of soldiers in the Carthaginian camp to 60,000, so that he could defend against attacks from the new camps of Leotinius and Dionya at the same time as he attacked Palagonia.

Although the defenders did not stop attacking, the casualties of the Carthaginian soldiers were not large, the morale was maintained, and the pace of the siege of the perimeter of Palagonia, albeit slowly, continued to advance steadily.

Three days later, the Carthaginian army advanced to within 100 meters of the city, forcing the Ionian defenders to retreat to the city and not attack again.

Margo was finally able to get up close and look at the small city that had caused him a lot of trouble, and after walking around it for most of the circle, he couldn't help but be surprised: "This is the village of the people of Syracuse?!" ”

The adjutant next to him explained: "My lord, I remember that the people of Syracuse only said that Palagonia used to be a village, and that since a few months ago, when the Dionian army entered Palagonia and relocated the villagers, no one was allowed to approach it, and they did not know what the situation was like in Palagonia now. ”

Margo glanced at him and said, "You're pretty good at exculpating the people of Syracuse." ”

The adjutant was too frightened to speak anymore.

Marco stared at Palagonia in front of her: in the midst of the dense deer barricades stood a white city, its area was not large, but its shape was different from that of any city Marco had ever seen, it was surrounded by a wall about four meters high, and there were several prominent round pylons in this wall, and it was surprising that within this wall there was a circular building two or three meters higher than the wall, as if a large circle was set in a small concentric circle.

Although Margo had never attacked such a strange city, with his years of experience in warfare, he also had a hunch that this small city of Palagonian was something unusual, and he subconsciously drove his horse forward, wanting to observe more closely.

Suddenly, I heard the guards on the left and right shouting: "My lord, be careful! ”

I saw a few black dots suddenly appear in the air in front of me, whistling.

Marco hurriedly clamped the horse's belly, but the horse under the crotch did not move, and the guards beside him hurriedly stabbed the spear into its hip, and the horse neighed and ran out, almost throwing Margo to the ground.

At this time, several stone bullets had already fallen, and several terrible screams were immediately heard, and there was a blur of flesh and blood around where Margo was standing just now.

Brother Ma finally controlled the war horse, turned around and returned late, saw this scene, frowned and said? : "Retreat." ”

In the process of retreating, he did not forget to ask the adjutant: "Where did the enemy's stone bullets come from?" ”

The adjutant shook his head to indicate that he didn't see clearly, and Margo glared at him again: even though the young adjutant was a member of the Margonid family, he couldn't help but want to replace him.

"My lord, it seems to be ...... It seems to shoot out of the city. One of the guards said.

Marco was stunned for a moment and asked, "Are you sure it's from the city and not from the city?" ”

"My lord, I also saw it, and it did come from the city." Another soldier answered.

Margo grabbed the reins of her horse, turned to look at the bloodstained stone bullets on the ground, and looked up at the walls of Palagonian in front of her, where there was no movement at all, but Margo's expression became serious.

At this moment, on the tower of the Palagonian city wall facing Margo, a Dionian officer wearing a helmet with purple hats was bent over, looking out through the gap between the battlements.

"It was a good fight, and the landing point of the stone bullet was quite accurate, but it was a pity that the big guy ran away!" He turned around with some regret and said.

"Captain, do you need us to continue firing?" The ballista's sight asked.

Ten years ago, the Dionian Ballista was exclusively trained by students from the Dionian Academy, who were responsible for providing firing parameters and correcting ballistics. Ten years later, the sight of the Dionian ballista could be held as long as a citizen who had graduated from the school of the Dionian city and was good at mathematics, as a result of the popularization of education and the improvement of the ballista.

The captain shook his head and said: "He has been alert, it is impossible to surprise again, don't waste stone bullets, when the enemy attacks the city, you will be busy." ”

"Captain, don't worry. The other day, Carthage's ballistae were rampant and destroyed many of our watchtowers, and now it's our turn! ”

As soon as the sightman's words fell, the belly archer next to him immediately said: "That's right, as long as the Carthaginian ballista dares to enter our range, we can destroy it!" ”

Their words aroused a positive response from the surrounding soldiers.

The captain was pleased that the soldiers were able to maintain such a fighting spirit in the face of the siege of the Carthaginian army. Of course, he knew in his heart that the source of the soldiers' self-confidence came mainly from this city.

When Leotizides decided to use Palagonia as a forward base against the Carthaginian army, he did not just fortify the village, dig trenches, and set traps, but completely uprooted the village and built a fortress.

In recent years, under the inspiration of King Davers, the engineers of the Ministry of War have designed a new defensive fortress and applied it to the training projects of various military camps in peacetime - building cities and attacking and defending exercises.

Not only did he gather the soldiers of the Eighth Legion, but he also asked Sipros to mobilize the people of Catanay, and tens of thousands of people took turns to work with ready-made stone bricks and wood from Palagonia, "Davers cement" fired from Etna ash, plus a large amount of stone from Naxos (there were quarries in Naxos near Tauromeñan), and a large amount of wood from Hena and Agilion......