Like most bustling cities, Erudition City is also close to the lakeshore and has abundant water resources.
This city is located at the most downstream of the Sava River, where the gentle river water converges into a wide Lake Sava.
Outside the north city wall of Erudition City is the lake, and it has the largest inland port in the Bacchus Empire.
The port is connected to the interior of Erudition City through several water gates. These water gates are actually artificial rivers. Smaller ships can pass through the north city wall from the water gate and directly enter the interior of Erudition City.
But now is the dry season in winter, and the water level is relatively shallow. You can even directly see the silt at the bottom of the water gate channel. Only small flat-bottomed barges can pass the water level of less than two meters.
Moreover, the water gate has now been completely blocked by dilapidated sunken ships - this was not blocked by Governor Justus, but by the rebels.
Justus originally just closed all the gates and closed the man-made river in the city. At that time, it was just to block Red Death.
But now, a large number of corpses have accumulated in the river, and it is impossible to tell whether these corpses are infected with disease.
Today's Erudition City is already on the verge of collapse.
Previously, Justus only sent troops to guard the port and did not destroy the water gate. After all, there must be a way out when things cannot be done.
Although it is the dry season, boats can still be sailed on the lake outside the port, at least directly to the vicinity of Valen Deer Castle.
But after he sent troops to fight a battle with the rebels, the situation changed...
Since Erudition City has a city wall with a height of more than eight meters, it was difficult for the rebels to attack without siege equipment, so they took another route.
That is, waterways.
Although the winter near Erudition City is not too cold, the water is still bitingly cold, and ice cubes washed down from the upper reaches can occasionally be seen on the lake. Justus really did not expect that these gladiators can actually swim and fight in winter.
Nowadays, the new leader of the rebel army has a more ferocious fighting style. He led hundreds of gladiators and sneaked into the city through waterways in the middle of winter.
When those gladiators, all shirtless and not wearing any armor, appeared in the city, a huge panic broke out in Erudition City.
The nobles and residents were sealed in the city for three months, and they were already restless. Now that they saw the enemy entering the city, their anxiety turned into mania.
Justus wanted to lead troops to resist the attack of the gladiators, but was unable to suppress the emotions of the residents. As a result, the doctor's city evolved into an uncontrollable riot.
Some people are crying like ghosts, some are killing people and setting fires, and some are robbing and committing crimes...
This bustling city gradually became riddled with holes.
Justus knows that if nothing unexpected happens, there must be Snake Worship Cult among them who are fanning the flames.
But now I can't find the time to investigate...
However, sometimes riots in the city are not necessarily a bad thing...
Justus After thinking about it for a long time, he removed the guards at Watergate.
Therefore, when riots broke out in the city, many nobles ran to the water gate in the north, intending to escape Erudition City.
As a result, they happened to run into the attacking rebel army...
After a melee with no one on both sides directing it, countless bodies were left in the Shuimen River.
Most of the nobles who tried to escape Erudition City died in the river.
The gladiators retreated with the rebels, but before they left, they seized most of the ships in the port outside and scuttled the remaining ships to seal the port.
Erudition City There is no way out.
Justus had to close the waterway and forcibly sent troops to suppress the riots in the city.
But as a result, the north wall also needed to be guarded, and the chaos in the city also needed to be controlled. More than half of the troops defending the city were mobilized.
When the number of soldiers on the city wall was greatly reduced, the rebel army outside the city launched a full-scale attack.
Perhaps it was also because of the change of leader that the intensity of the rebel army's attack on the city exceeded everyone's expectations.
This huge army did not have any siege equipment. The tens of thousands of troops lacked food and clothing, and their weapons were not very neat.
Justus Originally thought that the rebel army without siege equipment would be unlikely to capture Erudition City.
As the cultural center of the Bacchus Empire, Erudition City's defense measures are quite complete.
Not only does it have tall and wide city walls, but it also has all kinds of defense reserves.
A large number of crossbow bolts and throwing spears were placed on the city wall, and a lot of hammers and round stones were also prepared.
There are several huge thorny rolling logs tied to the iron chains at the top of the city, and there are pots burning tung oil inside the city.
There is even no shortage of feces.
However, there are not many soldiers now, and there are rebellions everywhere in the city, so they cannot get support from the people.
But Justus still feels that it can hold on.
After all, these mobs roared and rushed towards the city wall, seemingly completely disorganized.
However, slaves have the wisdom of slaves.
When this troop without any baggage rushed to the city wall, they quickly built many long ladders with bamboo poles and thick wooden poles like magic, and then connected these long ladders side by side!
Of course this is not a ladder, but each slave carries a piece of bamboo wood, which is joined together with mortise and tenon to form a wall-climbing ladder like a fishing net!
Probably only these slaves can come up with such a method of siege...
This improvised method of piecing together a wall-climbing ladder would of course result in heavy losses. The crossbow bolts on the city easily shot and killed hundreds of unarmored slaves in the short period of time they pieced together the wall-climbing ladder.
If Brutus was leading this rebel army, he would definitely not do this - after all, Brutus was once an officer of the Immortal Legion, and he would not waste the lives of soldiers like this.
But now, this rebel army all looks like outlaws.
At this moment, a group of gladiators under the city raised their shields to protect their heads, and put up the strange-looking ladders on the city wall.
The soldiers guarding the city wall had never seen this novel tactic. They were originally firing crossbow bolts to cause damage, and did not immediately drop rolling stones or wood.
As a result, after the bamboo-wood structure mesh ladder was put up on the city wall, the soldiers used push rods to push it, but found that it could not be pushed at all!
Because, after the gladiators put the completed ladder up on the top of the city, some of them hammered the root of the ladder on the inside of the ladder to make it firmly penetrate into the ground and fix it.
The other group of people tightened the ladder inward, making it close to the city wall, and began to connect with several other wall-climbing ladders.
Gradually, like ants, the slaves connected sections of wood into an unshakable network, just like building a scaffolding for a city wall.
Moreover, they climbed up from the inside of the ladder.
This was apparently invented by slaves who had long been employed in high-risk jobs such as mining or construction...
Seeing that they could not move the huge wall-climbing ladder, Justus's soldiers began to throw in wood and rolling stones, but the wood and stones rolling down the ladder could no longer hit the slaves on the inside of the ladder.
The ladder was originally made of tenons and tenons. When stones and wood hit the ladder, it seems to have reinforced the ladder.
Not long after, the ladders were finally connected to form a network, forming a whole that was more than ten meters wide!
The bottom is rooted in the soil, and the top is placed on the top of the city. As the slaves continue to replenish it, it has now formed a grid shape. It looks like a rectangular chessboard placed on the city wall.
This is indeed a spliced scaffolding common in mines of this era.
Then, a large group of shirtless and shirtless men all shouted "Hoo Ha", then charged forward and started climbing against the arrows on the city.
They were a team of gladiators, and they were obviously very brave gladiators.
Justus shouted in shock at the top of the city, "Let the logs roll!"
Then he commanded the guards to fire arrows one after another.
Although gladiators without armor are indeed easy to shoot, there is still an endless stream of slaves climbing up the ladder.
The rolling log was quite effective. The giant log with thorns rolled down the ladder, sweeping down a dozen slaves who were about to climb to the top of the city.
But there were several brave gladiators in the middle of the ladder, covering their heads with shields, and working together to form a sloping wall.
The rolling log passed over the shield, then bounced up and flew away, falling far away.
The impact force caused most of these gladiators to suffer minor injuries, but they protected their comrades beneath them and began to climb hard again.
It is not easy to make and throw the rolling logs, and it is impossible to throw them continuously. Some soldiers on the city wall were probably a little scared, and they could not move another rolling log for a while.
The gladiators climbed very fast and climbed to the top of the city in a few breaths!
Seeing that the enemy was so brave and fearless of death, Justus picked up a torch and shouted, "Stop with a spear! Bring the hot oil!"
The governor, who was famous for his wisdom, finally had no choice but to use force to solve the problem.
A group of spearmen on the city wall stepped forward. Imperial First Legion's division of labor was quite detailed, with almost all types of soldiers present.
The spearmen were still calm, and they gathered around the ladder in groups to stab down. Although they were in close combat with the highly skilled gladiators, they had a great advantage from being at a high altitude, and the advantage of the length of their spears allowed them to quickly control the situation.
However, after standing on the top of the city, without the protection of the battlements, the spears from below attacked like locusts.
The slave rebels didn't have any crossbows, but they had throwing spears. Although most of them were crudely made homemade throwing spears, they could still be used.
Moreover, Baxian is better at using throwing guns.
Just like Fieltzwe people likes to use throwing axes, Lionheart Kingdom is used to using lances, Raven Territory people are good at archery...
Every country has some unique sports events.
Spear throwing is a traditional event of Bax. Spear throwing battles can often be seen in the gladiatorial arenas within Bax.
Imperial First Legion's spearmen are fully armored, but throwing spears is no better than bows and arrows. Heavy spearmen can often directly break through armor.
The defenders on the city began to suffer damage, and several spearmen were knocked down by javelins and fell onto their backs into the city.
Fortunately, the hot oil was finally ready. A bucket of oil was poured down, and a strong smell of burning was heard. Most of the gladiators on the ladder had their skin and flesh torn, and they fell down with screams of ghosts and wolves.
Justus threw down the firewood torch again, lit the firewood with hot oil, and then he breathed a sigh of relief.
But this ladder is obviously made of moist new wood, which is not easy to burn. Even if there are occasional flames attached to it, it cannot stop the slaves from continuing to climb up.
However, the offensive has indeed slowed down.
If you only climb this side of the ladder, the rebels probably won't be able to attack it.
However, there were so many rebel soldiers under the city that they probably felt that this method was effective, so they started to assemble a large number of them with their shields on their backs!
It seems that each of the tens of thousands of enemies has a piece of wood specially used for assembling ladders...
Just between the two rounds of attack and defense on this side of the ladder, two more identical scaffoldings were spliced and erected!
Justus finally looked a little panicked, and kept deploying manpower to stop the attack, and all reserve teams were also used.
Before long, dozens of imperial soldiers were killed or wounded.
Although the losses of the rebel army were ten times that of the imperial soldiers, the number of defenders on the city was small after all. If this continues, when all the experienced veterans are lost, the new recruits may not be able to do the frontal blocking work.
If this continues, as the proportion of casualties increases, perhaps Imperial First Legion will collapse soon.
Justus has only a few hundred veterans in total...
This city might really be attacked by slaves!
No one thought that these slaves could conjure scaffolding as good as a ladder with their bare hands.
Justus was on the inside of the city wall, watching the defenders on the wall running exhausted, but for a moment he didn't know how to arrange it.
He had made all the arrangements he could, and sent all the reserve teams there. There was no one available around him.
If he is a tough guy like Kairos or Agasong, then he should lead the team to stand in front of those scaffoldings and take the lead in blocking the enemy's offensive.
But he is not. He is a consul who relies on his brains. Even when he was young, his martial arts was not outstanding. Now that he is over fifty, of course he wisely did not go to the front line.
The rebels were trading human lives for space, and they were fighting fiercely, relying solely on their numbers. In this case, Justus's personal presence in battle would not be of much use, and it would easily lead to loopholes in the soldiers' efforts to protect him.
After sending out all the reserve teams, he actually couldn't do anything else. Hiding behind and not causing trouble was his greatest contribution.
He could only watch the chaotic battlefield and watch the situation worsen little by little...
Imperial First Legion has fewer and fewer veterans, and the battle damage ratio has gradually shrunk from ten to one to five to one, and the casualties of soldiers are increasing rapidly.
Because gradually there were already gladiators standing on the top of the city.
These brave warriors trained in the arena are extremely powerful in a small space like the city wall. When they stand on the city wall, it often takes five or more soldiers to kill them.
As more gladiators stood on the city wall, Justus sat down weakly on the steps of the city wall. He was now a little desperate.
The city is still noisy, the shameless thugs are setting fires everywhere, there is smoke and dust everywhere, and it is a mess.
The prison and the warehouse in the east of the city are full of people infected with Red Death. Since most of the guards have been transferred to respond to the enemy, the place may be almost uncontrollable.
Most of the nobles died in Erudition City, or died on the way to escape from Erudition City...
Justus is not sure now. Even if he holds Erudition City, what will he face?
In front of him, several fierce gladiators had climbed onto the city wall and easily killed the soldiers blocking Justus.
The gladiators were approaching him, but Justus did not flee.
He just looked at the gladiators coldly and did not move.
He knew that he could neither fight nor escape, so he maintained the dignity that an imperial governor should have.
But perhaps, some people are destined not to die.
Just when Justus was about to close his eyes, a clear and urgent trumpet sound came from outside the city.
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..."
That's not the sound of the Bacchus Empire. The bugle of the Bacchus Empire is a metal horn, which usually makes a long and low sound.
This short trumpet sound is the charge horn of the Lion Territory cavalry unit!