Chapter 551: Battle of Megalos (II)
“That’s why we should take advantage of our army’s expertise in close combat and let the enemy into the town. Besides, the narrow streets and ruins would turn the enemy’s superior number useless. That was our pre-determined plan, so we should stick to it!” Giorgris emphasised.
“But we might not fool the enemy! If we just wait, the Syracusans could keep firing the stone projectiles over our heads and not enter the town!” Shouted Tagetinos
“The truth is, the Syracusans method is beneficial to us. Didn’t the intelligence officer who arrived at the port last night say they would start an uprising in Syracuse, Catania, and other city-states? So before we even fight the Syracusans, they would be forced to retreat.” Xanticles said with some anticipation.
“Do you believe what those guys, who have no guts and can only sneak around, say?!” Tagetinos blurted.
The other officers’ expressions changed when they heard that. After all, they learned that those intelligence officers were the subordinates that king Davos trained.
Antonios glanced at the embarrassed Seraphinus and softly scolded Tagetinos, “Fool! Without Seraphinus’ help, we wouldn’t have captured Megalos so easily! Nor could we get the Sicilians’ help so quickly!”
Although Antonios was doubtful about the letter delivered by the intelligence officer, the reality of the situation left him with no other options. In the end, there are no other places for the first army to retreat in this strange land filled with hostile forces besides staying in Megalos! So if Antrapolis’ plan succeeds, everyone will naturally be happy.
Suddenly, the soldiers watching the port reported hurriedly, “Legatus, our fleet…our fleet is coming!”
‘Damn Seclian, you finally arrived!’ Antonios cheered up. Then he said, “Order the troops to lead the exiles’ families to orderly retreat to the port!”
“Roger, lord legatus.” The senior centurions and the exile leaders responded at the same time.
Seclian did not come as he is still recovering from his wounds in Rhegium. Although Seclian was usually arrogant and did not like being commanded by the legion, he will never remain indifferent during critical moments. In addition, Antonios has sent a ship to rush and risk their life to Rhegium to ask him for the Theonian fleet to come to Megalos as soon as possible tomorrow to deal with the Syracusans’ full-scale attack!
Seclian dared not ignore it, and he even specially warned Fulalios, who took over the fleet’s command, that he should set out the following day and get to Megalos as soon as possible.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Macias received the report from the scouts about the Theonian fleet’s arrival and the influx of soldiers and people rushing to the port.
After swearing at Paronisus’ incompetence, Macias asked, “Where are our reinforcements?!”
“They had already passed Sikuri, so they should reach the south bank of the Alcantara river soon.”
“Send someone to urge them faster!” Macias then gave the order to attack, “Sound the attack, don’t let the Theonians run away!”
Macias had prepared for so long and used so many ballistae not just to expel the invading Theonian army but to completely and utterly destroy them to boost the Syracusans’ morale and gain fame for himself.
As they were pressed for time, Macias must not allow the Theonians to escape from the port and land in other parts of Sicily. But he could also not rush the troops to the north of Megalos as it was filled with traps and obstacles, nor could he detour to the east to attack the port as that would take too much time. Thus the Syracusan joint army could only storm from the west side of the town that they cleaned up and crossed the wooden wall that was almost gone due to the ballistae’s bombardment.
The mighty Syracusan army was then divided into small streams as they passed through the intertwining streets and furiously surged towards the Theonians. But soon, they ran into trouble.
“Ouch! My foot! Something pierced my foot!”
“Stop! Stop pushing forward! There’s a massive pit ahead! The captain and the others had already fallen into the pit!!!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Syracusans hadn’t expected the Theonians to also place traps and obstacles inside the town.
The truth is, even if the Catanian intelligence officer hadn’t arrived with the emergency message, Antonios had no intention of leading his troops to escape by the sea. Hence he had the Theonians lead the exiled population to set the traps overnight. For him, Davos’ order before the first legion’s departure did not include ‘retreat once the battle becomes unfavourable’, so if he retreated before the battle, he might no longer have a future in Theonia even if Davos forgave him due to their past relationship.
As for the soldiers of the first legion, their thoughts were simple: How could they allow themselves, who were called the bravest legionaries by the Theonians, to become timid deserters?!
Antonios had faked the retreat to lure the enemy into attacking. After all, once the enemy entered the town and began fighting the legionaries, their ballistae would naturally not dare to fire their stone projectiles again. In addition, Antonios arranged for the exiles’ families to board the ship to allow the troops to fight with all their strength without distractions.
When the 300 cavalries of Syracuse’s allies rushed near the port, 3,000 exile warriors in phalanx formation who were guarding the port faced them. Behind them were thousands of elderly, women and children, who the sailors guided in an orderly fashion as they rushed to the port and board the ships.
Naturally, the cavalries could not attack the heavily defended Greek phalanx, so they could only watch them from afar and wait for the infantry to arrive.
The Syracusan soldiers, on the other hand, were scared by the numerous traps, so they could only move forward carefully and began spreading on both sides.
But suddenly, the light infantry led by the senior centurion of the seventh brigade, Cid, appeared. However, they did not rain arrows and javelins on the clustered enemies as they would have usually done. Instead, they hid in the ruined buildings between the streets, lay on their backs on the rubble, or stood directly across the massive area filled with traps and attacked the enemy with precise shooting.
The Syracusans busily searched for the traps when arrows suddenly flew out of the windows, hitting the soldier’s exposed thigh. Then a javelin fell from the roof above, piercing a soldier’s shoulder, which they could not protect with their round shield…with the close distance and unpredictability of the Theonian light infantry’s sneak attack, their kill count was extremely high.
Due to the Syracusans considering that they would fight the Theonians head-on, they naturally could not have their light infantry rush to the front. Thus the heavy infantry at the forefront was now caught by the Theonians’ traps and long-range sneak attacks, scaring them that they slowed down their pace even more…
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
In the city of Medma, the Medmaean defenders could not relax their vigilance even though the Theonians did not attack these days. It was because the day before yesterday, they could only watch as the despicable Theonians forced the captured Medmaeans and Locrians to fill the trench in front of the city wall with soil.
Once it got dark, the Medmaeans took advantage of the night to go down the city wall by sliding through a rope to dig the filled trench again. However, the Theonians were on guard, as the light infantry hiding not far away attacked them, making Medma lose many soldiers.
After suffering such setbacks, the Medmaeans no longer dared to leave the city. While knowing they were in danger and had to defend the city with all their strength, they could only hope that the Syracusans who had lost the battle would be able to reverse the situation and find a way to save Medma.
Today, the Medmaean soldiers stood at the city wall and surveyed the front warily. And just like a few days ago, the Theonians began forming up in front of the city a hundred metres away. However, the difference this time was that they had two more siege engines in front of their line, which the Medmaen soldiers could feel its huge size even at a distance of 100 metres.
“Hurry up! Come and look, what is that?!” A panicking soldier shouted to his companion.
“That…that should be a siege tower. I heard from the Locrian that Syracuse conquered many city-states by using that thing.”
“That seemed to be taller than our walls?! We…how should we deal with that thing?!!”
As the defenders became nervous, a salpinx sounded the attack that rang throughout the Theonian formation: The Siege of Medma begins.
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“Legatus, watch out!” An adjutant pressed down Matonis, who had gotten too close to the wall. Then they heard a strong whizzing sound as a stone projectile passed through their heads.
Matonis rubbed his neck as his heart jolted. He then cursed, “Those damn ballista teams! Are they trying to kill-”
But before he could finish what he wanted to say, a loud boom sounded as the stone projectile hit the tower eight-nine metres away from him.
The Syracusans had hastily made the tower, compromising the tower’s sturdiness. Thus the 15-kilogram stone projectile that hit the top of the tower caused it to shake and tilt backwards, wooden fragments to fly and the boards to fall. Along with the screams of the archers at the top, the six-metre-high tower fell straight to the ground…
“Nice! The ballista team did a great job! Keep on attacking!…” Matonis shouted excitedly.
While his adjutant rolled his eyes, ‘You were just swearing at the ballista team, yet your tone changed in the blink of an eye!’
Although the soldiers were excited at the towers getting struck, it had only happened once. After all, firing a stone projectile now that the towers were too close to the wall was too risky. Thus the Theonian defenders relied more on the light infantry to fire flaming arrows, throw oil jars, or directly attack the archers at the top of the towers…and through these methods, they managed to burn down two more towers.