Chapter 794: The Siege of Rome (XII)

"The wall has crumbled!! The walls of Rome have finally crumbled!!!..." Amidst the cheers of the Theonian legionaries standing in front of the trench, a cloud of dust and dirt engulfed a small section of the southwest corner of Rome's walls as it crumbled, bringing about a deafening roar and the trembling of the ground, accompanied by the screams of the Roman soldiers.

Once the dust and dirt dispersed, a large breach appeared in the city wall before everyone. The breach resembled an inverted trapezoid, wider at the top and narrowed towards the bottom. It measured approximately four meters in width at the base and stretched over three meters in height. In addition, the collapsed stones and debris had naturally formed a slope on either side of the aperture.

"Rush forwards! Storm the city of Rome!" The soldiers of Theonia's Fourth Legion near the hole became so excited that they quickly stepped on the stones and dirt and poured towards the breach without caring whether they slipped.

The shocked defenders, who had finally regained their senses, rushed over the hole and started throwing javelins, stones and wood downward, trying to inflict significant damage on the enemy and prevent them from entering the city.

But this did not stop the excited soldiers of the Fourth Legion. However, when the foremost soldiers rushed through the breach, they involuntarily stopped in their tracks because a thick wall of spears appeared not far ahead, with countless Romans dressed in rags arranged in a dense phalanx with their spears glinted coldly towards them.

"Stop! Quickly stop! Immediately form a phalanx formation!..." Although the officers among the foremost soldiers kept shouting, the extremely excited soldiers, unfortunately, couldn't hear it as they rushed in wildly. Now that the formation has become disordered, the soldiers no longer obey the officer's command. Instead, they pushed and shoved their comrades in front to meet the wall of spears.

As a result, the front-most soldiers could only raise their long shields hastily to protect themselves as they collided with the enemy, with the continuous influx of Theonian soldiers soon filling the space between the spear wall.

Servius Mucius, a Roman plebeian, was the one commanding the tightly-packed spear formation of Roman plebeians on the western city wall. Despite his humble origins, his exceptional bravery in previous battles had earned him several promotions from Camillus, elevating him from a lowly soldier to the esteemed rank of a centurion in the Roman centuria. This time, he happened to be among the three thousand soldiers left behind.

Unlike Camillus, who could recognise talent regardless of origin and ability, the older Scipio's reason for choosing Mucius among the dozens of centurions to be in charge of the defensive line in the west of Rome was because the critical situation of military pressure and the conflict between the Roman nobles and plebeians left him helpless and could only hope to use Mucius' prestige among the civilians to effectively integrate the large number of plebeians and slaves living in the western part of Rome to block the attacking Theonians.

In fact, Mucius had far exceeded the expectations of the older Scipio. Not only had he dispelled the discontent of the plebeians and slaves and encouraged them to join the war, but he had also effectively organised them to defend against the enemy's attack with all their might, both above and below the city wall, which halted the combined onslaught of more than ten thousand elite soldiers from Theonia's Fourth and Fifth Legion from making any significant progress.

Although Mucius' makeshift spear formation didn't harm the Theonian soldiers significantly, they weren't frightened by the enemy's fierce attack and stubbornly held on.

On the contrary, the defenders at the top of the city wall were the ones dealing considerable casualties on the Theonian soldiers rushing into the breach. With the Theonian soldiers densely crowding the bottom of the city wall, the defenders would only need to throw javelins and stones down to deal significant damage, not to mention the burning oil that posed a significant threat by setting their comrades around them alight.

Fortunately for the Theonians, the Romans' extensive use of tar and olive oil to burn down numerous siege equipment had left them with little remaining. Otherwise, it would have become a massive disaster for the Theonian soldiers rushing into the breach.

Olivos, the legatus of the Fourth Legion, who became excited by the wall's collapse, had turned anxious as he stomped his feet after learning the battle situation, "Order the light infantry to immediately attack the enemy at the top of the wall to relieve the pressure for the soldiers inside!"

"Have our brothers at the breach retreat quickly and make room for the soldiers inside to form a phalanx formation against the enemy!"

"Gather the mountain reconnaissance unit and have them climb the city wall from the beach and attack the enemy!"

The heralds rode off one after another after receiving the order.

"And...immediately notify the legatus of the Fifth Legion, Giorgris, of our predicament!"

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

After being informed of the dire circumstances surrounding the Fourth Legion, Giorgris' face turned solemn. His gaze was fixed forward as he watched the soldiers working tirelessly like ants as they scaled the walls to capture the city. Below, the burning siege wagons and arrow-blocking carts emitted clouds of thick black smoke. In the midst of this chaotic scene, three partially intact battering rams stood in unison beneath the city wall, pounding incessantly against the wall that Giorgris could even hear the resounding vibrations echoing through the air from a distance.

When he saw the cracks on the walls increase and the dirt and stones that kept falling, almost burying the siege engines, Giorgris immediately said, "Notify the first brigade to withdraw from the trench and stand in front of the city wall that is about to collapse! After the city wall collapses, they must not rush inside. Instead, enter the breach in full formation and be cautious of the enemy's spear formation behind the wall!"

"At the same time, issue a stern warning to the remaining soldiers of the brigade, emphasising that they must not enter the breach without explicit orders, and firmly punish anyone who dares to disregard this order!"

"Understood, legatus!"

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

While the Fourth and Fifth Legions fought fiercely under the city wall, the army led by Tolmides also engaged the enemy in a fierce battle not far west of them.

Although Paulus led an army less than that of the other side, most of his soldiers were heavy infantry, which was twice as many as those Tolmides led, gradually allowing them to gain the upper hand.

And if it weren't for the First and Second Cavalry Legions of Theonia continuously attacking from the rear flanks of the Roman army and restraining the enemy's strength, then the Roman army would probably charge at the Theonians and forced the Theonian formation to retreat.

But as time passed, Paulus became increasingly anxious as he carried the burden of rescuing the city of Rome yet was stopped here for so long and unable to advance. If he continued to drag on like this, the enemy would already breakthrough Rome, and he would become a sinner even if he managed to repel the enemy in front of him.

Thus he ruthlessly ordered the Roman centuriae at the rear of the formation to ignore the enemy cavalry and immediately spread out to attack the enemy's flank, leaving only a portion of the centuria to guard the Theonian cavalry galloping around.

Under his urging, the Roman formation began spreading out from its original oval shape into a long horizontal line.

Seeing the situation, the two cavalry legates, Ledes and Kurcius, in the rear of the Roman formation, felt something wrong. However, at this point, the two cavalry legions had already depleted their supply of javelins, forcing them to divide into smaller groups and engage in tactical manoeuvring behind enemy lines. Their purpose was to create an illusion that they could still attack to deter the Romans from launching a full-force charge. But now that the Romans had become reckless, the cavalry legion could no longer achieve their goal.

"It seems our only choice is to charge..." Ledes sighed as he knew that a cavalry charging at a dense heavy infantry, even if the opponent were moving, would not deal much damage. Instead, it would just lead to significant losses to the cavalry.

On the other hand, the younger Kurcius excitedly said, "Then let the Romans see the might of our charge! Legatus Ledes, you lead your army to attack the enemy's left flank, and I will attack the right flank!"

After saying that, he immediately headed south.

"Wait!" Ledes called out to him. He then pointed at the Roman formation behind the stretched Roman army and muttered, "...even if we manage to stop the enemy from stretching their formation from both flanks, I am afraid these Roman soldiers would rush to intercept us."

"That's certain. However, they aren't enough to block our charge!" Kurcius said confidently.

"But-their departure will expose that place!" Following the direction Ledes pointed, Kurcius' two eyes brightened up: For that was the centre of the Roman army formation, where the light infantry, which posed a significant threat to the Theonian cavalry, was crowding under the protection of this Roman heavy infantry.

Ledes continued, "So we should instead gather the cavalry on both flanks to attract the enemy's attention while silently sending some cavalries to retreat out of sight. Then once our cavalry legion launched an attack on the enemy's flank and inevitably drew out this heavy infantry to intercept us, our hidden cavalry would take advantage of this opportunity to charge at the enemy's light infantry. Since they certainly couldn't resist us and become disorder, we will force them to flee towards the enemy's front to cause disruption and create a chance for our infantry in the centre to win."

"That's a great idea! Then let's follow your suggestion, legatus Ledes!" Kurcius responded eagerly, "Once we gather the cavalry to form a formation, we will spread out the cavalry to obscure the enemy's line of sight and then send out four platoons each(each platoon have fifty cavalries) to run to the rear and wait for the opportunity to act."

Ledes nodded. After saluting, Ledes said deeply, "Time is tight, so let's move. May Hades bless us so that we can succeed!"

Kurcius immediately returned the salute and said, "With Hades' blessing, we will definitely succeed!"