18. Brutus' breakout (3)
Despite Cventus' opposition, Brutus decided to break out with the main force of the legion, and by this time, a week and a half had passed since Apis had renovated the water fortifications, and the river flowing into Brutus' camp had been diverted under the overnight work of Apis and the veterans of the Tenth Legion, and in the upper reaches of the river, Apis' troops had built strong and complex fortifications to prevent Brutus from personally leading a large group of men and horses to attack and kill. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
Solid brick and timber walls replaced the simple fences, and a "moat" was dug around the perimeter of the earthen walls, and in order to prevent Brutus from attacking the city, Appis ordered his soldiers to dig a canal around the perimeter of the camp. Prevent the opponent from destroying the fortifications by digging tunnels. In addition, the undulating fortifications were built in a dogtooth pattern to intersect each other, allowing soldiers on earthen walls to cover each other and form crossfire on enemy forces below the fortifications. Later, behind these walls, Apis ordered the towers to be reinforced, and larger artillery crossbows were placed inside the towers.
After all these preparations, Brutus' army also appeared on the dawn horizon, and was so numerous that it even rolled up the distant earth in dust.
"Go tell Anthony, go tell him that the main force of Brutus is out, quick! Go quickly, otherwise we won't hold out until the sun rises the next day! ”
After seeing the dust rising in the distance, Apis decisively confessed to Klein's mission.
And now, everyone is waiting for their commander to give the entire combat mission and plan. The defenders in the camp are probably only more than 1,500 people, and no one knows how many main legions Brutus has, if you look at the previous intelligence, the mercenaries under Brutus have at least three complete legions, that is, close to 20,000 people, which is simply ten times their own strength, and even the most experienced veterans dare not guarantee that there will be no accidents in the next battle.
"I'm going to take that walled city, and then let Kventus know that our decision was right and wise, and that he would just just shrink down on that high ground and put us on the brink of running out of food and water. Come, my friend, today we will once again join hands and crush our enemies, the enemies of the Republic! ”
Brutus turned his head and spoke confidently to Cassius. He is like a crazy literary youth, his mind is full of idealistic, romantic, naïve ideas. The soldiers did not have the right to speak, they were only employed by the two Roman nobles.
Due to the emphasis on raids, Brutus did not have time for his soldiers to build siege weapons in front of the enemy's fortifications, so he directly asked his soldiers to attack Appis's camp directly with improvised ladders and battering rams.
When the horn sounded, Brutus' soldiers had to brave the cannon fire from the enemy towers. Apis ordered all the tower's operators to set the stone projectiles and spears on fire before they could be fired, and then a magnificent and stunning scene appeared in the air, dozens of spark-carrying cannons and spears flew through the sky and flew straight into the center of Brutus' phalanx.
Carrying a strong spark, it shattered the shields and armor of the Brutus Legion's infantry, and the spears did not even stop after hitting one infantryman, and the spearhead pierced the body of another soldier behind him, and then the two legionnaires were skewered together like meat skewers, and the tar on the spears stained the soldier's body, and the sparks set them on fire and burned them alive in front of the battle. The fast-flying artillery stone was even more savage and terrifying after smashing the soldier's head, and because of the dense array of formations, the artillery galloped all the way, smashing the heads of four or five infantrymen, and the blood spilled into the air, forming a faint blood mist. The soldiers who were shot in the head were all killed on the spot, and the mutilated bodies turned out.
But compared to the huge legions, the guns that Apis placed on the tower could not shoot much even with all their might. Because the Roman artillery crossbow was very complicated to operate, it was not a common weapon, but more often it was actually used in siege cities.
"Attack, pull them off the walls!"
Brutus roared impatiently, and he rode on his tall, sturdy brown steed, and swung his sword in order. The posture is not as majestic as that of a general, like a clown jumping on horseback and shouting loudly to his own people to advance, yes, although the camp in front is not high, but there are different hearts in the army of Brutus, once the tide of battle is clearly reversed, many people will not stay here and wait for death, they will defect, because the rule before the Romans go to war is that the surrendering side can not suffer from slaughter and enslavement. So, many of them were probably just Eastern militiamen who saw the wind and steered the rudder, but they wore the armor of the Roman legions, and wore the great shields and short blades of the Roman legions.
Brutus's first wave of legionnaires was quickly repulsed, and as they rushed to the moat, they were hit by a rain of javelins, and dense light spears flew down the walls, even though the centurion temporarily ordered the party to form a "tortoiseshell formation", but the condescending throwing fire of Appis's veterans still made many Brutus soldiers unable to resist. Brutus did not thicken the shields of his soldiers, and the javelins thrown by the veterans of the Tenth Legion could even penetrate wooden shields at the original thickness of the Roman legions. Many of them were still shot in the body by javelins after raising their shields and retreated in a hurry. The troops behind saw their teammates in front retreating with blood all over their bodies, and they no longer had the will to fight, so they all cowered and hesitated.
"Fight! Keep fighting! ”
Brutus shouted, and Cassius himself went into battle, leading the few elite soldiers in the legion to start another round of attack.
Once again, they formed siege formations, shields stacked on top of each other to fend off shots from above. Cassius personally led the team and erected the ladder above the moat, and then, under the cover of the shield wall, filled the moat with sandbags, because this was not a naturally formed river, it was an artificially dug waterway, and its depth could not be too deep, so Cassius knew that with a little effort, he could fill it in. But during this time, they had to endure the long-range throwing of weapons from the infantry of the Apis Legion above the city walls.
And at the same time that Cassius filled in the moat, Apis was not idle, all the military slaves in the camp were freed, used to carry the tools of the city guard, the thick tree trunk was hoisted above the city wall, Apis had people design this kind of city defense tool a few days ago, the rough trunk surface was nailed with dense iron nails, and it was hoisted and placed outside the earthen wall, once the enemy tried to climb the earthen wall through the ladder, these rolling logs full of iron nails were thrown down, and the terrifying weight carried the hideous appearance of iron thorns, and the flesh and blood of those who were hit were blurredThere is no hope of survival. Of course, in order to recover these big guys, Apis also specially asked people to pull ropes at both ends of the rolling log, and after the rolling log was smashed out of a certain distance, as long as the slaves behind the earthen wall used the fixed pulley device, these terrifying big guys could be recycled......