Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 197: Capturing the City

“You should know that we are sieging a city! Sieging!!” Timasion shouted angrily, “If the hoplites can't go up the walls or open the gates, then saving their lives is useless! Quickly! Quickly!!”

Timasion sent heralds across the moat to the light infantries. Then he turned his gaze and swept the ground under the city wall. There were countless corpses littered in all directions, and there were also mercenaries and Krimisians struggling and groaning….

Timasion had already seen such sights so many times. Before going to Magna Graecia, they were under the command of Thimbron, as they launched a siege on Larissa(Larissa Phrikonis) in Asia Minor for several months. Therefore, he had a deep understanding of the difficulty of a siege. It's just that…he has no other choice but to keep on sieging, because time is the key to their success.

“Leader, be careful!” The shouts of his subordinates made him subconsciously hide his head under his round shield, when he suddenly heard a “clang” sound, and the back of his hand shook. An arrow hit the surface of his shield and bounced back.

As soon as he breathed a sigh of relief, he then heard people shouting “Aaaah! Aaaaahhhh!”, followed by a loud “bang” sound.

There is no need for him to see it, because he already knew that the siege ladder was pushed down by the enemy, and the agitation in his heart began to grow.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

“Strategos, the archers unit of the enemy is now coming!” The panic cry of the soldiers had alarmed Eurypus.

The light infantries who were initially in front of the moat had quickly rushed under the city wall. Compared with the poorly trained soldiers of Krimisa, the archery skill of these enemies are accurate and fierce. Soon, most of the casualties of the citizens were caused by them.

“Don't worry about the enemy on the ladder. Concentrate on attacking the archers of the enemy!” Eurypus run around to give orders to the archers.

“The enemy has come up again!” The soldiers stopped Eurypus by shouting in panic. Not far away, a mercenary had managed to reach the top of the city wall. Facing a thrusting spear, he covered his upper body with a shield and jumped forward. Not only did the spear fail to stab him, he had also managed to crash onto the enemy. He did not immediately get up, and instead, with his right hand, quickly slashed with his kopis randomly, slashing the unprotected thighs of several enemy soldiers. He then got up, but did not take advantage of the chaos to attack, and he instead retreated to the ladder, with his back against the parapet, he then squatted down and covered his body with his round shield.

The spears of the soldiers did little harm on him. On the contrary, they did not dare to approach him because they were afraid that his sword would stretch out from under his shield and slash their feet. During this delay, another mercenary managed to get on the top of the city wall.

“Push forward! Block them!” Eurypus led the reserve soldiers, and the dense spears forced the enemy to the corner.

“Get rid of their shields!” As soon as Eurypus shouted his order, the soldier next to him let out a shrill scream, as a javelin pierced his chest.

The light infantries under the city tried their best to support their comrades, bows, arrows and javelins were concentrated on this section of the city wall, and the hoplites had also increased their pace on climbing the city wall.

Eurypus hurriedly mobilized all the remaining troops to block them. After a fierce battle between the two sides, the mercenaries were driven down, but this part of the alure was filled with injured and dead Krimisian soldiers.

Facing such a group of enemies who are obviously experienced in combat and are fierce and bloodthirsty, every time they manage to make an opening, they will cause a lot of damage to the defending soldiers. Eurypus felt hard pressed, and his extra manpower began to dwindle, “Go and tell strategos Androlis that the enemy has put all their strength into the northern wall! Have him send troops for reinforcements because we can't hold it anymore!”

Androlis also has no soldiers to spare. However, since the enemy has been storming the north and west, their troops that are responsible for the eastern part have been idle at this time of crisis.

Androlis immediately made a decision, he then sent someone to inform Pleitinas, the strategos in charge of the eastern wall, to immediately lead the troops that are stationed there to reinforce Eurypus.

“Timasion! Leader Timasion!….” The herald, while avoiding the arrows, had run to TImasion in a hurry, “The enemy on the eastern wall has left!”

“I saw it!” Timasion was a bit excited, “Go and tell Toras to act at once!”

“Yes!”

Looking at the herald that was leaving, Timasion immediately raised his arms and shouted, “Brothers, work harder! Attack together with me! The enemy could no longer last!” After that, he wore his round shield and took a few strides to the front of the ladder and grabbed it with his right hand. The mercenaries guarding the ladder supported him to climb up, Timasion then climbed the ladder, while the mercenary that was in front of him had already reached the top of the city wall. Timasion then soon reach the top of the ladder, he then quickly drew out his kopis and stepped onto the alure, he protected his front chest, ignoring the spears and swords, he leaped forward, and crash on the enemy by force, and the kopis in his hand had also slashed forward at the same time.

“Protect each other's back! Protect each other's back!” Shouted Timasion while slashing the enemy.

The mercenaries who had huddled in the corner of the wall, immediately drew closer to each other.

Encouraged by their leader, Timasion. The mercenaries launched another fierce attack and tore many openings into the defense of the enemy on the northern wall. If the soldiers led by Pleitinas did not arrive, then the troops of Eurypus would not have been able to keep on defending.

Both sides fought fiercely in the walkway, as the Krimisian's morale soar due to the influx of reinforcements, they were ready to drive the mercenaries out of the city wall again.

At this time, a huge disturbance came from the eastern wall.

“The enemy is coming! The enemy is coming!….” The soldiers screamed in panic.

Eurypus hurriedly turned his head to look at the east, he then saw that many peltast, armed with leather shields and rhomphaia, rushed along the walkway of the eastern wall.

Eurypus had no time to think about how these people got there, he quickly asked Pleitinas to lead the reinforcements back in order to intercept the enemy, but the two sides are currently intertwined fighting each other and it is now difficult to extract their troops.

However, the attack of the Thracian peltasts of the mercenaries were very quick. They broke into the crowd and in a narrow space, the rhomphaia exerts a terrifying killing power. If they are caught by the sharp blade, then their muscles and bones will be cut off. If the hook of the blade hits your neck, then it will be sliced off…the soldiers of Krimisa fell down in a flash, and had made them frightened that they retreated, while the peltasts chase them like maggots on bones, and the nearby mercenaries also took advantage of this chaos to climb the city wall….

The defense on the eastern end part of the northern wall of Krimisa has been torn open, and the experienced mercenaries drove the Krimisian soldiers to retreat westward….

In the crowded walkway, the panic stricken Krimisian, in order to escape, had pushed each other, and had caused some people to fall from the city wall….

Eurypus and Pleitinas had also become flustered seeing this tragedy. They were afraid of the misfortune and had retreated from the walkway in a hurry. As a result, the mercenaries easily managed to occupy the walkway near the city gate, and blocked the countless Krimisian who were left….

The mercenaries then killed them mercilessly, forcing more Krimisian to jump off the wall….

Androlis, who was originally organizing and coordinating the defense under the city wall, saw this tragic sight and listened to the continuous screams of the citizens. However, at this critical moment, he had to resist his grief and arrange for the demobilized soldiers and the people to retreat to the acropolis in the southern part of the city for the final defense…

The mercenaries then occupied the northern wall, they then opened the gate, and the soldiers outside the city rushed in….

“Leader, we won! We have captured Krimisa!” The subordinate, who was supporting Timasion, shouted with joy.

Timasion was stabbed in the thigh and had a stab wound in his right arm. If the enemy didn't fall down on his own, then he would have died under the spear. At this moment, he was also very excited, “We can now also say that we have a city!” Timasion said with content. The mercenaries were able to capture the wall because of the success of his plan. In Theonia Union, his former comrades had told him in detail how they captured Amendolara. They also let him know about the special siege equipment, Grappling Hook, and got its sketch. Timasion then sent some people to the blacksmith shops in Heraclea and made dozens of them. When they attacked Krimisa, he deliberately attacked both the western and northern wall of the city. Once he manages to force the Krimisian who are defending the eastern wall to come support either the western and northern wall(to the south is a river), Toras will then lead dozens of trained peltast soldiers to climb the eastern wall with grappling hooks. Even if they are found out, they will not attract the attention of the enemy because they are not carrying ladders. In this way, the peltast soldiers manage to climb up the wall with the grappling hook and give a fatal blow to Krimisa.

After Timasion entered the city, he joined up with Cleanor, who had captured the western gate, and commanded the mercenaries to continue pursuing the defeated soldiers.

At first, everything went well, but gradually, the mercenaries went out of control. They then began to break into the houses, looting and even capturing women….

Timasion was furious, not because he was against looting, but because the battle was not over. He later learned that the forces of Krimisa were hiding in the acropolis, so they must take them down in one go and completely occupy Krimisa in order to celebrate their victory.

But the excited mercenaries did things by instinct and refused to obey his orders. Timasion finally felt what Davos felt at the beginning. Knowing that it was useless, Timasion still shouted and vented his grievances.

“Leader, they are all in the acropolis anyway, so they won't be able to run away. We will only need to block the acropolis and wait until our brothers finish what they are doing. Afterwards, we can gather them again and attack the acropolis.” Toras consoled him.

“I am not worried about Krimisa, I am worried about Crotone!” Timasion said anxiously.

“Even if Krimisa were to ask Crotone for reinforcements while we were attacking the city, it would still take some time for the herald to arrived at Crotone, for the council of Crotone to discuss it, for them to make a decision to mobilized their army and come here….with so many processes, the fastest time it would take them to come here would be in the evening. I don't believe that the Crotonians have the courage of Davos to attack the city at night! We have already captured the whole city of Krimisa and the heralds that we have sent should have already arrived at the senate of Theonia. By the time Crotone attacks tomorrow, Davos and the others, should have already made a decision.” Cleanor seriously analyzed it for Timasion.