Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

But he struggled with his life on the battlefield and quickly adjusted his mentality, because he knew that the difficulties faced by the Roman army now did not allow him to be overly depressed.

Several generals such as Quintus, Frius, Lisinius, Oulus, Titus, and Servius have all gathered in the big tent.

"Master Dictator!" When Camillus stumbled into the account, everyone quickly saluted.

"How's the situation in Ostia?" Camillus asked Servius without asking him.

Today, Servius, who is responsible for preparing for the enemy’s attack from the city, answered quickly: "The Dionysians sent a lot of soldiers on the head of the city. They may have seen our troops outside the city. They did not dare to go out and destroy us Earth barriers, but they are hurrying to repair the gaps in the city walls!"

"So we must seize the time, reorganize the troops, and launch the offensive again!" Camillus heard this, slightly anxious. He looked at Lisinius: "How is the construction of Tulei?"

"It can be closed before dark!" Lisinius said affirmatively: "This is thanks to the large number of people sent by Adi, Antius and Satnikum to help us build!"

"Okay! Okay!" Camillus praised, and the dignified expression on his face stretched a lot: "Li Xinius, you did a good job. I thank you on behalf of all the soldiers! As long as we build The earth barrier can completely enclose the city of Ostia. Not only do we not have to worry about the enemy attacking out of the city, but we can also send a large number of light infantry, and even like the Dionysians, we can move the ballista and attack the city remotely. And the enemies in the city provide the greatest help for our heavy infantry attacks and reduce their casualties... The Etruscan Allied forces of Keslera, Walch, and Tarzuna no longer shouted Come on?"

Camillus' last sentence was asking Titus, before he sent him to appease the Etruscans.

"Master Dictator, these Etruscans are just talking, let them go, do they dare to go alone?" Titus sneered disdainfully: "There is a fleet of Dionysian at sea Only the upper reaches of the Tiber River can pass through and reach the north bank, but with their army of less than 10,000 people, and their guts, without our company, they dare to march alone for seventy or eighty miles, bypassing Diao The Roman city defended by Niah's heavy soldiers?! However, if they said they would like to attack Ostia like this in the next battle, they refused to take part in the battle again!"

"Refused to fight?! Do these Etruscans think they joined our team just to share the loot?!" Quintus said angrily: "Master Dictator, the next time we attack the city, They must be ranked at the forefront of the offensive team. I would like to see if these Etruscans we conquered dare to fight hard!"

"Quintus, don't be too excited. Doing this will only completely stalemate our relationship with the Etruscans, and it will also affect the views of the Latin Confederate army on us." Olus reminded aside Road.

"If we don't do this, will our soldiers be at the forefront?! The most deadly in recent days are our Roman citizens! So far, nearly 5,000 civilian soldiers have fled the camp and have surrendered to the enemy! The rest Thousands of civilian soldiers, can we trust! Now we can really fight no more than 15,000 civilian soldiers. Many noble Roman citizens are born with a bitter hatred of the Dionysians and died heroically in the city! We will not allow the Etruscans and Latin Confederate troops to stand up. Even if Ostia is recaptured, I am afraid that the civilian soldiers in the city of Rome are almost dead!" Quintus' sad words made the people in the tent look sad. , For a while fell into silence.

"We have recaptured Ostia. Are the Dionyans really willing... to have peace talks with us?" Titus first broke the silence, he hesitantly said: "Know that the Dionysians are in Rome. What we do...is to make our nobles into slaves!"

His words expressed the doubts and uneasiness in the hearts of the generals, and everyone focused their attention on Camulus.

Camillus did not immediately answer, because the defection of the Roman civilian soldiers and the tenacious defense in the city of Ostia have shaken his confidence from the past few days, making him unable to make an affirmative answer.

Instead, his son Lucius said aloud: "Only by hurting the Dionysians and threatening the safety of the Dionysians with our bravery and determination can we force them to negotiate with us! After all, Dior The Niahs are not only fighting against us in Rome, but also our allies, the Carthages. The Dionysian army has suffered too much loss here, so what can they use to fight the Carthages?!"

"Don't trust Carthage too much! If they really used their full strength and attacked Dionysia, how could the Dionysians send so many troops to attack us!" When referring to Carthage, Quintus It's full of resentment.

"In addition to recapture of Ostia, we have no better way..." Olus sighed, and the other generals looked dumbfounded.

"Everyone, don't think about it again in the future, let's do what we see first." At this time, Camillus said: "From the situation of yesterday, our siege has made a lot of Progress, the soldiers have burst into the city, have fought with the Dionysians, and have given the enemy a lot of pressure and damage. Next, we only need to..."

Camillus detailed some new ideas for the next attack and some improvements to the siege tactics, but this is the result of his careful observation and hard thinking over the past few days.

His tone was peaceful, but it contained a power that calmed everyone down and listened carefully.

Seeing that everyone listened carefully, Camillus glanced at Quintus and emphasized: "In order to ensure the success of the next siege, we must unite our allied forces!..."

Including Quintus, everyone finally agreed with Camillus' opinions, and discussed and improved the siege plan together.

After leaving the crowd, Camillus felt a little relaxed and suddenly felt weak all over.In the past few days, I was worried about fighting, eating less, sleeping less, and feeling anxious. Even the young man could not withstand his body, not to mention an elderly man in his 60s who had to lie down and rest.

I slept through the twilight until I was awakened.

"All the sentinels in the city of Ostia suddenly disappeared?!" Camulus, who had just woken up, slapped his still confused head, thinking about the meaning behind the move of the Dionysians.

At this time, the tabernacle was opened again, and Lucius broke in: "Father, the fire in the city of Ostia!"

"What?!" Camillus was taken aback. With the help of the slave, he hurried out of the account.

The camp was full of soldiers who had walked out of the tent. They looked at the city of Ostia in the distance with amazement, and the whole camp was filled with noise and discussion.

Camillus saw this scene, stayed for a moment, and suddenly shouted: "No, the Ostia are going to escape! Quick! Quickly send troops! Rush into the city, put out the fire, and catch the Dionysians!" fast!……"

In the night, the Roman soldiers were organized and rushed towards the burning city of Ostia.

But they went too late.

After receiving the "retreat" order issued by Daphes, Thelis ordered his officers to contact the cargo ships of the various chambers of commerce in the port and the Dionysian fleet cruising near the sea, and gradually began to retreat in an orderly manner.

Since most of the evacuation operations were carried out in the small port directly facing the sea to the west, the Roman army monitoring the mouth of the Tiber River did not find anything unusual.

Finally, when the Dionysian soldiers at the head of the city began to evacuate, Thelis made people ignite the asphalted city and port.

When Camillus learned that "the army failed to extinguish the fire, the city of Ostia and the port were burned, but did not see a Dionysian", he felt uncomfortable and couldn't say a word.

He knew at this point: The Dionysians would rather burn the city than let them occupy it, and had already shown their determination not to compromise!

"Father, what's the matter with you?!" In Lucius's exclamation, Camillus clutched his chest and slowly collapsed to the ground.

…………………………………

McKillius is a small captain. Although he is a Roman civilian, his home is not in Rome, but in Weiai, where he owns his own land and family.

In the past few days, the news about the "Dionians particularly favoring Roman civilians" spread in the camp. Civilian soldiers living in the city of Rome began to flee the camp. McKillius and many of them originally migrated to the Tiber River to Although the Roman civilians in the northern colonial city moved a little, they did not leave.After all, in a colonial city that was built less than a decade ago, the conflict between nobles and civilians is not serious, and their lives are not bad.Under such circumstances, it is very difficult for those who are farmers to make such a choice by abandoning their motherland that has lived for decades.

However, they were loyal to Rome and they did not receive the award they deserved. Instead, they were hated by Roman noble soldiers in the camp.

These nobles and diners learned from the spread of the news, "their family in Rome was imprisoned, the land was divided up among the civilians, the dwellings were also occupied by the civilians, and the wealth of the family was also robbed by the civilians (this is the rumor) In addition to the continuous defection of civilians these days...Of course they have no good looks at the civilian soldiers who remain in the camp, and doubt, ridicule, and insults are still light.During the siege of the city, it is no longer one or two times to blatantly use the power in your hands and arrange civilian soldiers in the most dangerous offensive position, but it is not allowed to retreat and provide assistance.