There is nothing in life that is faster than the sound of rumors.

- Plautus (the most important comedy writer of ancient Rome)

The last slightly witty remark of Gnaeus caused everyone in the tent to laugh; Tiberius also looked extremely satisfied. With Gnaeus's advice on the big picture, Nero also stood up and added in detail:

"Your Excellency, Commanders, Generals; This arrangement of General Gnaeus is very reasonable and effective. I personally very much agree with this arrangement of General Ganeus, and in addition to this arrangement in the overall situation, I would like to make some suitable additions to General Ganeus's arrangement in terms of specific implementation details.

First of all, our three-sided attack must maintain a coordinated rhythm; Be sure to make an appointment and attack Tulbo at the same time, so that it can have a very general effect and overwhelm the defenders in Tulbo. Secondly, our three-sided attack does not distinguish between primary and secondary, and each attack is a strong main attack; It is necessary to play the momentum that can't take the city and vow not to give up!

The third point is the way we attack; Time is of the essence, and in order to prevent Pyrus from leading a large army back to Tulbo for support, we must cancel the time to build siege equipment and launch an attack on Tulbo as soon as possible. Therefore, before the attack, we had to use catapults and ballistas to clear the defenders of the enemy's walls and destroy part of the walls of Tulbo.

Finally, we must prepare a considerable number of cavalry to prevent Pylos from leading his army to break through; After all, we were only attacking Turbo on three sides, and Pylos still had a chance to break through and escape when the battle was not going well. We can assemble eight hundred and forty cavalry of seven legions and organize a mobile brigade; As soon as Pylos breaks out, send cavalry in pursuit! ”

As soon as Nero's words fell, Helenius continued Nero's words and added: "Your Excellency, I also agree with General Nero's four-point proposal; In particular, arranging for cavalry to pursue an enemy who is likely to break through is very necessary. Otherwise, if Pylos leads a large number of enemy troops to break out; In the future, when we continue to attack eastward, Pylos will become our great enemy.

In order to avoid such a situation, we must pursue Pylos' possible breakthrough; Moreover, I do not think that eight hundred and forty cavalrymen can achieve much at all; I suggest that we can temporarily form a cavalry team using horses that drag catapults and ballistas, so that we can have a cavalry force of more than 2,000 people, and the results of the pursuit will be greater! ”

Nero and Helenius's proposal was also endorsed by Tiberius and the generals present, and a specific battle plan was determined in a discussion based on their proposal. The official date of the attack is eight o'clock in the morning after tomorrow, and it will arrive at eight o'clock in the morning the day after tomorrow; The three-way army outside Turbo had to carry out an hour-long attack on Turbo with ballistae and catapults.

An hour was enough time for all three armies to collapse a section of Turbo's wall, and even if it hadn't, it would have caused heavy casualties to the defenders on the wall; At 9 o'clock, all three armies stopped attacking and began to attack the city of Tulbo at the same time with massive infantry!

Why did the attack start in earnest the morning after tomorrow? This is because the time is too hurried for tomorrow's attack, the movement of the large army of Gnaeus and Nero will take time, and the formation of the temporary cavalry mobile force will also take a day to urgently run in; In addition, Tiberius decided to set aside a day for the various legions to build siege ladders, just in case.

What if an army of one way could not collapse the walls of Turbo with catapults and ballistas? Do you just stare dryly, or continue to attack with ballistas and catapults? In this case, wouldn't there be no point in attacking the three-way army at the same time? So, just in case, Tiberius had each legion build some siege ladders in case they could be used accidentally.

After the meeting, after the others had left the tent, Gnaeus reported to Tiberius that the 14,000 men wanted to go to war; Tiberius pondered for some time and agreed to allow them to fight. However, Tiberius also made a request to Gnaeus; That is to ask Gnaeus to help him find someone who is strong enough to be the leader of the Legion.

Because of the special status of the Leader Corps and the special experience of the soldiers under its command; If Tiberius had casually appointed a general of the Brutus family as the commander of the legions, it would certainly not work. And the best way to do this is to promote a man from among these soldiers who is enough to be the commander of the legion, and when Tiberius made this request, the first thing that came to Gnaeus's mind was Rex!

After the private communication with Tiberius, Gnaeus also officially left the military tent and returned to his left army; With Tiberius' permission, when the left army attacked the northern wall of Tulbo, it would be able to put in more than just two legions of 14,000 troops, and Gnaeus could double that number alive!

When Gnaeus and Nero returned to the barracks, the first thing they did was to send all their cavalry hundred-men to Tiberius' center; After that, the two men began to move due north and south of Tulbo with their large army, respectively. In the evening, the army of the two came to the north and south of Turbo, where they began to form a makeshift camp and prepare dinner.

The army of Tiberius on the front did not need to move, but it was not easy to form a temporary cavalry mobile force; The run-in of the seven cavalry hundred-man detachments went very smoothly, but the formation of temporary cavalry using the horses that dragged the ballista and the stone crossbow did not go very well. It's not that there are no suitable candidates for cavalry, but these people have not been trained in cavalry and do not understand the combat formation of cavalry at all.

The reason why the combat effectiveness of the cavalry is strong, in addition to the powerful impact of the cavalry, is the role of the cavalry combat formation; The temporary cavalry couldn't even line up in a simple queue formation, so how could they learn a formation such as a triangular charge in one day? In desperation, Tiberius had no choice but to give up his request for these temporary cavalrymen, and let them follow the professional cavalry and gallop wildly.

This day passed in the hustle and bustle of the three armies; Pylos on the walls of Turbo was also worried when he looked at the army of the Brutus family that was in full swing outside the city! The cavalry Pylos had sent his army to Pyrus ten days earlier, but there had been no news of him so far; And the three-way Roman army outside the city can't deal with it by itself just one way, let alone the three-way!

In order to cope with the possible attack of the Brutus family at any time, Pylos decided to go to the barracks again to convince the thirteenthousand Greek legionnaires who no longer obeyed his orders; Anyway, we're all part of the Greek nation, aren't we? What can't we say later, but the first priority is to defend against the onslaught of the Roman invading army!

Unfortunately, these are just Pylos's own opinions; For the 13,000 army, once Pyrus really led the army to attack the Semon city-state, your Pirus and the kingdom of Epirus would be no different from the Roman Brutus family in their eyes, and even the Brutus family was stronger than the kingdom of Pirus and Epirus, after all, they did not attack the Semon city-state!

As it turned out, Pylos's outpouring did not convince the thirteen,000 iron-hearted soldiers at all, but it was not entirely useless; At the very least, they also said that as long as Pyrus did not lead his army to attack the city-state of Semon, they could not do anything to the detriment of the kingdom of Epirus and Turbo, which was the biggest concession to Pylos.

Seeing that he really couldn't convince the thirteen thousand army, Pilos could only lament his brother's far-sighted approach on the one hand, and on the other hand, he transferred all the 7,000 troops who were originally responsible for guarding the 13,000 army out of the barracks. With the addition of these 7,000 men, Tulbo's garrison was only 9,000 men; Pylos could only send 3,000 soldiers to defend each wall.

As for the nine-headed war elephants, which could only be used at the last minute, Pylos placed them near the western wall, which was guarded by two kilogram litter archers; In addition, Pyrrhus can only sit and wait for Pyrrhus to come back. Unlike Pylos, who was helpless inside the city of Tulbo, the army of the Brutus family outside the city began a new round of action.

The day after the Three-Way Army surrounded Tulbo from three sides, the temporary barracks of the Three-Way Army began to fight in full swing to build siege ladders and prepare artillery shells. Needless to say, the construction of siege ladders is purely technical work, and it must be done by specialized craftsmen; At most, ordinary generals and soldiers helped them chop wood and prepare for it.

Preparing artillery shells for ballistas and stone ballistas is something that everyone can participate in, and both stone and ballista have special artillery shells and giant ballista arrows; Especially the ballista, the shells and giant bolts used in the ballista need to be specially built, otherwise it is impossible to shoot them at all. Indiscriminate use of other sized shells and giant bolts can even cause damage to the ballista.

The ballista shells were not large, but they were not light, and it was impossible for the army of the Brutus family to carry too many of them, which had long been used up in the previous sieges; In comparison, the ballista bolts are much easier to transport, only one carriage or ox cart is needed, you can carry two hundred giant crossbow arrows, and even a warrior can carry five giant crossbow arrows on the march!

Therefore, the ballista in the army of the Brutus family now has no shells, and can only attack with giant crossbow arrows; The giant crossbow bolts have basically zero damage to the stone city wall, but they can cause great damage to the defenders on the city wall, and it is also a sharp weapon to destroy the defenders' city gates. However, the task of destroying the enemy's walls still has to be entrusted to the huge catapult.

The catapult is designed and built by the lever principle to be used for long-range attacks, destroying enemy walls and buildings, the sharpest weapon, and the most important thing is that the requirements for stone catapults in terms of artillery are too low; As long as there are stones above fifteen kilograms and less than twenty-five kilograms, the stone catapults can easily throw them onto the city wall three hundred meters away, so the main task of the soldiers of each legion is to find stones! (To be continued.) )