Chapter 2: Counteroffensive I
"In war, opportunity waits for no one." βPericles, Athens
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Soon, the sails and deck of the ship were broken, and it slowly fell sideways, because the place where the anchor was was still in shallow water, so it was only half sunk and sunk in the mud and sand.
"It's a natural barrier." Calabis looked at the half-sunken white sailing ship with satisfaction and said.
In the acropolis, no one particularly noticed that there was a handsome little man next to the legionary envoys, the centurions were in a narrow space, supervising the soldiers to train and assemble, the cavalry hung ropes from the roof beams in the temple, and practiced going up and down on horseback (these horses should have been lucky, if it had not been for the food provided by the Achaians, they would have been killed the next day), and the Roman army did not lose a moment, because Calabis ordered all troops to enjoy the food of the Acajas, which must be eaten in three days, The following is that if you don't succeed, you will become a benevolent. In addition, these days, Minander thought that the Romans in the Acropolis should be half starved to death, so he set about building siege equipment, and launched a general attack three days later and reaped all the results, so the Pontic soldiers no longer risked bombarding the Acropolis with wild donkey stone throwers, and the whole sky was very calm except for the birds flying by.
After nightfall, Calabis said goodnight to the queen and Nyco, who were in the next room, and then returned to his narrow room, lay down on the couch, and handed the sword to Adiana, the "weaponsmith", "Be sure to polish it with oil and sponge." Then she fell asleep, and Adiana, who wore a amphora, did not dare to go out. Face those rude GIs. Just nestled obediently in the corner of the room. While listening to Calabis's snoring, he rubbed his saber thinly.
Two days later, Calabis threw Adiana a few coins and a plate of roast horse meat, and the princess smelled the horse meat and was a little offended, but she swallowed it anyway, and after eating it, Calabis took the princess out of the small temple. The steep spring breeze rushed on her back, and the princess couldn't help but tighten her amphora and silently followed behind the legion's envoy.
The squares, tents, and corridors were full of Roman legion soldiers, holding shields and weapons in their hands, and they were in good spirits, and they were also satisfied with food, and they could completely engage and kill the enemy. Calabis stepped on the stairway and grabbed the battlements of one of the inner walls, and looked down, where the Acayans were struggling to dig into the corners of the walls under the wooden shacks. The wall was also crumbling, but the Romans were surprisingly unreactive. The whole city fell silent.
Outside the slope under the wooden shed pipes, all stood densely packed with bronze shields, and Minander stood on the side of the queue with a relaxed face, watching the Acaja digging at the foot of the wall, and next to him was Stratonis, who sat under the parasol cover, to see the heroic posture of the Bronze Shield Army Governor bravely storming the Acropolis. On the back coastline, there were several rowing boats, and once the Acropolis was captured, Minander would take the power of the battle and take the selected bronze shield army on board and go to the palace of Ponticabion, and he and Stratonis also negotiated in terms of funds, and as soon as he landed in the dock square of the city, he took out half of the gold and silver that Mithridates had delivered to her, and bribed and rewarded his subordinates, so that they had enough strength and confidence to force Mithridates to die: just give the body to Pompey and win the favor of the Roman army, Then at least to get a reward from the Bosphorus Kingdom, it is not a big problem.
Under the main gate of the Acropolis, there are all kinds of sites for building haode siege equipment, supervised by Stratonis's younger brother Pasius, full of stone throwers, ballistas, and ladders, ready to completely suppress the towers of the Acropolis after the battle starts, and create favorable conditions for the bronze shield army to go up in one go.
No problem, after so many days, the Romans in the Acropolis have long been half starved to death, and I am afraid that they will not even have the strength to raise their swords, thinking of this, Pasius's handsome face is flooded with a happy smile.
At this moment he saw on the terrace at the head of the city, with several centurions of Roman legionary envoys, standing there, each bearded and angry, "Poor man, afflicted by hunger." Pasius commented with a smile.
Helenputina and Adiana behind Calabis did not know what the purpose of the envoy was in coming to this platform.
The answer was soon revealed, and Calabis suddenly pulled Adiana out of the crowd, wrapped his arms around her thin neck, ripped the amphora off her head, and in a sound of surprise, the princess's signature long chestnut hair danced in the wind.
"Isn't this your royal daughter? She had been captured by our army on a ship, and if you still have the slightest respect for her, spare this hungry acropolis, and we can guarantee her life! Calabis yelled, his eyes red, and he drew his sword and rested it on the princess's shoulder.
The brass shields on both sides, and all the servants of Pondu saw this scene on the terrace, and even Adiana was frightened, her little face was reddened, but she still struggled to say, "Damn, treacherous amphora! β
Below the city, in the city, thousands of soldiers heard the words clearly in the wind, and they all looked at this scene in amazement, not knowing what to do.
"What's going on, we're stuck here, it looks like we're missing out on the wonderful drama that happened on Ponticabhiang's side?" Stratonis under the umbrella said to Minander with a tone of schadenfreude.
Minander laughed too, and said, "This saves even more things." After speaking, he raised his hands in front of the bronze shield army and the acropolis, "Don't be fooled, this is a trick of the Romans zuihou, as we all know, they only do this, and often perform at the Saturnalia Festival, that is a fake princess." β
"It's really Adiana." It was Pasius who cried out like a lost soul.
"Fake?" Calabis laughed cruelly, and then slammed Adiana's legion undershirt below her neck, and the gold pendant swaying on her crisp chest indicated the identity of the princess - Hebrida next to her was obscene and extremely expressive, worthy of being a veteran who had been mixed for many years, and the effect came out at once, but it made Adiana even more embarrassed, and tears hit Calabis's wrist little by little, "This is the price you have to pay for letting me enter the Acropolis?" β
"That's right, otherwise you think you're worth something!"
But Adiana couldn't figure out why Calabis was so public to threaten and humiliate her, even though she saw that the Roman soldiers in the city were well fed. But Adiana's mind was bright, and she knew that this was Calabis's strategy to deceive the enemy: to use this false image of a dog jumping over the wall to confuse the Pontus Bronze Shield Army and achieve the purpose of immediate surprise attack.
"You should have thought of it, too, for you are much more treacherous than my woman, Potty, Your Excellencyβbut one more thing, you see that there are no Acaya on the slope below the city, and that they have given them food, and now I will give them an even greater gift." (To be continued......)