Chapter 315: Fortress offense and defense (II)
Eighty metres…seventy…sixty…the closer they get to the wooden wall, the more intense the attack, the fewer the slaves, and most of them have become stepping stones lying on the grass.
The fear of death made several slaves throw away their sacks and rush forward. Even with the sharp wooden stakes and other traps piercing their legs with blood and gore and screaming in agony, they still refused to stop moving forward, “Ow!…ow!…I…I am a Greek!…I am a Greek!!…”
The anguished cry surprised the soldiers on the wall, and they all looked at Cid with pleading eyes.
Seeing this, Cid had also become hesitant.
At this time, more than a dozen Bruttian warriors, ordered by their chieftain, rushed out of the formation, stepped on the sacks on the ground and threw spears at the slaves that got blocked by the abatis and could not move forward.
The screams of the Greek slaves before dying made Cid make a ruthless decision, and he roared angrily, “Continue firing!”
Countless arrows filled with sorrow and anger continued to fall…finally sweeping away almost all the slaves and Bruttians in range.
Although these slaves were almost naked and unprotected, two thousand were still either killed or wounded in the trap area within a short time, that they could not even reach the trench in front of the wall, causing the Bruttian chieftains to suck in a breath of cold air.
“Grand Chieftain, look…” Bodiam looked at Pian hesitantly.
“Send other tribal warriors to fill the trap! We have almost reached the wall!” Pian’s tone was cold and firm. Having come this far, he has to take a shot at the enemy’s strength no matter what and will never retreat easily.
Thousand of Bruttian warriors, in pairs, with shields in one hand and sacks in the other, began to march towards the wall in a very loose formation.
Cid very much hoped that the enemy’s advance would be slower so that the soldiers’ sore and numb arms could recover for even a little bit of time.
“Shoot again!” Cid waved his arm again.
The Bruttian warriors obviously had more fighting experience than the slaves, so when they saw the arrows covering the sky, they immediately stopped, crouched down, huddled together, and protected their whole body with the shield. The arrows rained down on them, and amidst the “Bang! Bang! Tak! Tak!” the warriors screaming became lesser than before. However, when they advanced to more than 30 metres away from the wall, the abatis set up here made them unable to advance forward. Then on the wall, not only the archers but also the peltasts joined in the battle. In a moment, javelins and arrows began pouring down, and the Bruttian warriors suffered a lot of casualties and began to flee in panic.
“Great chieftain!” Even Petaru was unable to bear it any longer.
“Attack again!” Pian ordered with a firm intention, “Elder Petaru, you lead 4,000 warriors to attack the northern wall! Elder Bodiam, attack the south! Elder Likumu, take the middle path! Don’t worry as we only need to follow our previous plan, clear the obstacles on the road, fill up the trench, and then attack the fortress…”
As the soldiers on the wall cheered at Brutti’s defeat, the enemy began attacking again not long after. This time, they were divided into small groups of dozens of men and were densely grouped together, with several wooden shields as big as a door.
And the road extending towards the gate was the only place without traps as it was the passage reserved for the third legion. At this moment, there were also Bruttian warriors pushing a wooden cart full of sacks filled with earth, forcing their way towards the gate.
The experienced Cid knows that when the enemy is well protected, blindly shooting arrows will only yield meagre results and only waste arrows and energy. Therefore, he stopped the soldiers from shooting in waves and waited for the enemy to leave the big wooden shield before firing again.
The wooden cart’ distance to the wall was only a hundred metres, but the Theonian light infantry focused their attack on the wooden cart in the middle of the road, causing the Bruttian warriors to just want to lay down on the road. However, the angry roar of Likumu urges the frightened Bruttian warriors to push the cart forward. Finally, they manage to reach the trench with difficulty, ready to dump the sacks piled up like a hill on the cart into the trench.
“Oil pot!” Cid yelled calmly. Then more than a dozen slingers lifted the olive oil pots they have collected from Besidice and threw them to the wooden carts causing the clay pots to shatter and oil splashing everywhere, quickly soaking the wooden carts.
“Flame arrow!” Cid shouted while firing a flaming arrow himself.
As soon as more than five flaming arrows hit the wooden cart, it ignited rapidly, causing even the several Bruttian warriors who were pushing the cart to catch on fire. They then dropped down and started rolling all over in a panic.
“Fool! Hurry up! Push it down! Push the cart down!” Likumu seeing the situation becoming urgent roared and threw down his shield. He risked being shot and pushed aside the hesitant warriors in front of him and rushed up. Ignoring the burning flames, he grabbed the handle with both hands and pushed it forward with all his might.
The Bruttian warriors had gotten encouraged from witnessing this had rushed up to his side one after another.
As the wooden cart was burning, the javelins and arrows rained on them.
Under the leadership of Likumu, the Bruttian warriors tried their best to push the carts. With a “boom”, they pushed down the whole wooden cart in the trench, and the sacks inside had half-filled the three-metre deep and three-metre wide trench. With the crisscrossing wooden stakes in the trench are now buried, the Bruttian warriors could now step on the sacks in the trench and cross it with only one big step.
As the warriors celebrate their success, Likumu fell into a pool of blood with two javelins piercing his body…
‘Likumu is dead!’ Hearing this, Pian could not help but feel sad. Although his relationship with Likumu is average, they had still shared a common cause…
After paying a great price, the Bruttian warriors approached the trench and began throwing sacks into it.
Pian gave the order at last, “All troops, attack!”
Ten thousand warriors were divided into two groups, one carrying long ladders and another carrying battering ram, and began approaching the wall.
Just as the Bruttian sounded the horn, the Theonian also blew their salpinx, and the soldiers of the first and second brigades began going up the wall.
Taking advantage of the time while the Theonian changing their position, the Bruttian warriors stepped on the bodies of their companions and took a huge stride on the trench. Then the soldiers of the third legion immediately threw a heavy shower of javelins, causing the Bruttian warriors that got hit to fall directly into the trench…
Reaching below the wall, the warriors looked up and cried out in dismay. As it turned out, the Theonians had placed countless pointed logs extending from the bottom of the crenels, making it impossible for the ladder to reach the crenel directly. Even if the warriors manage to climb the ladder, they are still a short distance away from the wall, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty of the siege.
As a Bruttian warrior got distracted, a stone hit him in the middle of his head.
“Well done!” Kreru slapped the meritorious Besidisian warrior and shouted, “Men, fight hard and don’t let a single Consentian go back alive!”
The battle raged on, with the Theonian soldiers and Besidisian warriors throwing javelins, stone, stabbing with their spears, pushing with a pole and slashing with their sword…they did all they could to stop the Bruttians.
And the Bruttians, besides sieging the wall with long ladders, had also used logs to batter the wall. Under the cover of the Bruttians’ javelins, dozen warriors holding massive logs had not only struck the gates, but they had also struck the wooden wall. Because Pian and his men thought that although the Theonians manage to build the wall in such a short time, it should not be very sturdy.
But in reality, it is. The wooden wall built by the Theonian soldiers was actually a double-layer wall with the middle of it being filled with the soil taken from digging the trench, and the upper part was paved with wooden boards to form a passage on the wall. However, due to the lack of time, the soil was not fully compacted, and the wooden wall not carefully reinforced.
After discovering their attempts, Drakos had to divert some of his forces to attack these unprotected warriors.
However, these two methods were not the only thing Pian prepared.
“Strategos, there’s a fire!” The soldiers loudly reminded Adrian. He looked down and saw a fire at the bottom of the wall, and several Bruttian warriors carried clay pots and were pouring oil on the wall, making the flames get bigger.
“Hurry and shoot that guy!” Adrian, while directing the soldiers to throw javelins, also yelled anxiously, “Pour down the sand! Pour it down quickly!…”
Due to the lack of time and lack of supplies, the wall has not been treated for fire protection. Fortunately, Drakos had already considered this when discussing with the senior centurions on how to defend the fortress and thought that they should place cloth bags filled with soils in the wall’s walkway.
Even after putting out the fire, Adrian’s expression was still serious. He reminded the officers and the soldiers to pay attention to any enemy with clay pots and make every effort to stop them from reaching the wall.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The siege was bloody and brutal. Pian anguished every time he saw ladders being pushed down and the warriors falling from the top of the wall, but as the leader of this whole army, he had to pay attention to the war’s progress. He moved forward, again and again, just to see more clearly, and finally reach the edge of the area filled with traps.
Maybe it was due to the corpse on the ground that made his horse feel uneasy that it neighed, burrowing its front hooves on the ground.
Pian did not expect that the Theonians had not only used only three days to establish a relatively complete defensive system, but also the soldiers’ experience and strength in defending the fortress was not weak.
Pian’s faith was gradually wearing off as he watches the Bruttian warriors struggles and groans under the wall…
Compared with the wall in the northern section, which is well defended, well-coordinated and well-ordered. The southern section, which the Besidisian warriors defended, was not unified in command, weak combat strength, and low morale. After an hour of defence, some Bruttian warriors had begun climbing the wall.