Even those who benefit from traitors hate traitors.

- Tacitus (the greatest historian of ancient Rome)

After Pyrrhus decided to march to Athens, he did not immediately march to Athens with his own army, but needed to make good arrangements before he could lead his army out of Semon; Otherwise, if he leads the army to leave Semon on the front foot, all the defenders of Semon on the back foot will mutinier and defect to the Brutus family, and the Brutus family may catch up with his army.

After all, the deserving Harold had already surrendered to the Brutus family with 1,800 ironclad cavalry; As long as the Brutus family easily took the Semon, they would be able to immediately send a pursuing force to pursue them. Although Pyrrhus was not afraid of the small pursuit force of the Brutus family, he was definitely not willing to face such a pursuing force either.

An important premise of Pyrrhus' march to the city-state of Athens was to conceal the Macedonian army's army by moving quickly through the Macedonian kingdom; Otherwise, once he attracted the attention of the Macedonian kingdom, Pyrus did not think that the Macedonian kingdom would just watch himself lead a large army all the way through the provinces of the Macedonian kingdom.

The emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, and even the current Macedonian kingdom is not an existence that Pyrus can provoke; Even the Brutus family, whose comprehensive strength is far superior to that of the Kingdom of Epirus, has never thought of destroying the Kingdom of Macedonia in a war, let alone the Kingdom of Epirus, which has no foundation at all?

Pyrrhus's greatest fear was that his army would be pursued by the Brutus army after entering the territory of the Macedonian kingdom; In the event of a war, it is impossible for the two sides to fight beyond the Macedonian kingdom. The Kingdom of Macedonia, then, would certainly send an army to attack its own army; Think about it, too, who found out that the armies of other countries appeared in their own territory and did not immediately attack?

Therefore, Pyrrhus had to do everything in his power to avoid such a thing; Even some of the necessary sacrifices are inevitable. In fact, after figuring out the way out, Pyrrhus already had a perfect withdrawal plan in his heart; It's just that this withdrawal plan requires a certain price, and this price is something that Pyrrhus does not want to pay.

If Pyrus wants to lead his main heavy army to Athens successfully, he must hold back the Brutus army in Semon for a long time; And the defenders of Semon were all forcibly recruited recruits, so how could they be willing to resist the army of the Brutus family for Pyrus and his army?

Pyrus had no doubt that as soon as his army left Semon, the recruits who had been forcibly recruited would immediately scatter with their families; When the army of the Brutus family arrived in Semon, there was no need to pay a single casualty or a single soldier, and there was no need to delay a little time, so they could successfully take Semon, and then pursue their own army.

This meant that Pyrrhus could not just leave with his entire army; Only by leaving the necessary army to guard and control the families of the forcibly recruited recruits will they fight with the Brutus army attacking Semon to buy enough time for Pyrus's own main army to retreat.

As a hero, of course, Pyrrhus will not be ruthless; It's just that Pyrrhus now has less than 30,000 hoplites in his hands, which is already his last support. If this power is lost again, then Pyrrhus will no longer have the capital to turn over; Therefore, Pyrrhus always has to be thoughtful about the loss of his own capital.

Still, time is of the essence; If you don't hurry up and arrange the arrangement, the army of the Brutus family will be getting closer and closer to Semon! Determined to gather his 4,500 hoplites in a private barracks, Pirus gave them an impassioned speech.

Naturally, Pyrrhus's speech was nothing more than how to lead them to defeat the army of the Brutus family, how to lead them back to the kingdom of Epirus, and so on; At the end of his speech, Pyrus pleaded with the 4,500 soldiers to garrison the city of Semon to the death, to control the families of the recruits, and to urge the recruits to defend Semon and fight to the death against the army of the Brutus family.

For the sake of victory in the war, Pirustan promised that he would leave Semon with 25,000 other troops; When the army of the House of Brutus attacked Semon, he needed the defenders of the city to hold on for five days. Five days later, when the army of the Brutus family outside the city was sleepy; Pyrrhus personally led an army of 25,000 to deal a fatal blow to the army of the Brutus family from the rear!

With the preceding impassioned speech as a foreshadowing, the four thousand five hundred soldiers who were loyal to Pyrrhus naturally accepted this almost lifeless task without hesitation; Pyrrhus left tears of emotion for these brave and fearless soldiers under his command on the spot, but what these tears were, only Pyrus himself knows!

After leaving the 4,500 hoplites to stay in Semon, Pyrus took advantage of the darkness of the night to lead the other 25,000 hoplites under his command to set out; After all the soldiers had left Semon, Pyrus rode his horse and glanced back at the patrol on the city wall, and then left without looking back.

At this time, the army of the Brutus family was still two days away from Semon; In fact, the speed of the army of the Brutus family was far less than that of the army of Pyrrhus. This is largely due to the large number of apparatus units in the army of the Brutus family; Even if these ballistae and stone catapults were dragged by horses, their marching speed was still very slow, slowing down the marching speed of the entire army.

Of course, such a slow march was not without its downside, at least it would allow the other infantry not to be too tired; Although the army of the Brutus family has been on the march, the overall morale of the generals is still very good, and the combat effectiveness is also maintained very well, which can be regarded as the biggest advantage of the slow march.

Gnaeus and Nero had also proposed not to carry so many siege engines, but Tiberius had flatly rejected them; This is not to say that Tiberius was still as obstinate as before, but that Tiberius was not willing to take risks. Moreover, those siege machines can not only be used to siege cities, but also can play a huge role in field battles!

The great power of the catapult needs not be discussed further, just in terms of the ballista; A ballista cannon with a practical giant ballista bolt that can definitely pierce more than three enemies in a field battle at once! Even if not every giant bolt can achieve such results, the blows of the ballista are absolutely sharp and intimidating.

In addition, the city of Semon is a stronger city than Turbo, although the design concept of Semon is not a military town like Turbo, but its strong and tall walls are enough to make Turbo unable to compare with it. You must know that Pyrus still has a full 30,000 hoplites under his command, and if there are not enough siege weapons, how many soldiers' lives will be needed to take Semon?

Tiberius, who has eaten a trench and grown wise, will no longer be as negligent as he was in the last battle of Tulbo, and Gnaeus and Nero can only choose to accept it helplessly in the face of the overly cautious Tiberius; At the very least, such a cautious family leader is still very good compared to the previous stubborn family leader!

After two days of normal marching, Tiberius appeared outside the city of Semon with an army of more than 60,000 men of the Brutus family; The city of Semon was so big, it was a city not inferior to Tarentum, the native capital of the Brutus family, and a city far larger than Turbo and Apollonia.

In the face of such a huge city of Semon, the three-sided siege plan that Tiberius had previously used in Turbo could no longer be used; However, it is not so bad to concentrate on a siege of one wall, at least the Brutus family, who have an absolute advantage in troops, still have an advantage in this regard.

This time, Tiberius did not launch a single formal attack on Semon, but first used the equipment of the five legions to carry out a tentative attack on the city of Semon; In order to prevent the presence of Cretan archers on the city walls, Tiberius did not use ballista troops, but instead used all stone catapult troops.

When the sixty stone crossbows belonging to the five legions were lined up outside the city of Semeng, the visual effect was still very shocking; The hoplites under Pyrus on the city walls turned pale with fright from the sight in front of them, not to mention the recruits who had never experienced war, and their legs trembled involuntarily.

With Tiberius' command, the sixty catapults immediately began the first round of catapult attacks; Sixty huge stones smashed into another wall, what kind of movement would there be? It is definitely not an exaggeration to describe it as shaking the earth! The key is not the movement of this round of catapults, but the huge effect it produces.

The defenders on the city walls, with the exception of less than two thousand experienced hoplites, were newly recruited light infantry; These men had no experience in warfare, and had no training, except peasants and townspeople who had been forced to climb the walls with a javelin. In such a catapult attack, they simply do not know how to dodge to protect themselves; So, the casualties can be imagined!

The tragic casualties on the city walls also greatly shocked Tiberius, who launched the attack, knowing that the 30,000 hoplites under the command of Pyrus were all elite divisions, how could they suffer so heavy casualties under such a tentative attack? There must be something wrong with this! So, after ten rounds of catapult attacks in a row, Tiberius ordered the first brigade of the five legions to launch a wall-taking attack!

The first brigade of five legions was no more than an army of less than four thousand men; When the soldiers of these five brigades began to climb the city wall with the ladder on their shoulders, they did not receive the counterattack they deserved! The sporadic counterattacks were nothing compared to the attacking army, and in this way the army of the Brutus family took the walls of the city of Semon, and Tiberius and his generals were stunned! (To be continued.) )