Chapter 71 Quintus’ siege plan

The middle-aged man named Calpurnius Scarpra said eagerly: "I have served as an engineer in the Roman army for many years. I can help you make siege equipment. Quintus——"

He pointed to the old man beside him: "He has served as the chief centurion for many years and has rich experience in siege. He can teach you how to attack Pompeii——"

He pointed to the rough man who spoke first: "Aulus was once a famous warrior in the Roman army and won the warrior crown. He can summon more than 40 warriors who are older but experienced in killing enemies, and You fight together!"

"What you said made my heart move. It's just a pity..." Maximus sighed twice.

After entering the military tent, Quintus, who had been silently observing the other party, said: "Since you have made a decision, why don't you just ask the leader who originally hosted us to tell us in that camp? Chief Maximus, there is Just say whatever you want."

His thoughts were seen through, Maximus looked slightly embarrassed, laughed dryly, looked at Quintus, and said in a deep voice: "Although the other leaders are against it, I still want to try it. However, I only have 800 soldiers. It is definitely impossible to attack Pompeii from the front. If you have no other way, just pretend that I didn’t mention this and you can go back.”

"With 800 people, you just want to capture Pompeii?! That's like——" As soon as the man named Aulus finished speaking, Quintus yelled: "Aulus, shut up!"

He immediately stopped talking.

Quintus looked at Maximus: "Do you have paper and pen?"

"Yes." Maximus quickly brought it to him.

Quintus was not polite and walked directly to the wooden table, lying down and sketching.

Maximus looked closer and saw that the old man quickly used lines and dots to form an oval on the papyrus with his brushstrokes.

He looked up at Marcimus: "This is a map of Pompeii."

Maximus nodded in understanding.

"The walls of Pompeii are about two miles long. The length of the wall facing the land is 700 meters. The height of the wall facing the land is five to six meters. The height of the wall facing the sea is two to three meters. There are 6 gates in total -" Quintus Pointing at the map he had just drawn: "Herculaneum Gate, Vesuvius Gate, Capua Gate, Nora Gate, Sano Gate, and Sea Gate. Pompeii has a population of more than 6,000 people. The number of guards is 300. In case of emergency, at least 800 people can participate in the battle. The strength to defend the entire city wall is actually not enough, but that is for your entire team, but it is not enough for you to deal with only 800 soldiers. It’s more than enough.”

Maximus said calmly: "I would also like to remind you that only half of my 800 soldiers have armor and weapons, and the other soldiers only have farm tools and sticks."

"What are you—" Upon hearing this, Aulus wanted to speak again, but was quickly stopped by Spukala next to him.

Quintus remained calm and said slowly: "If hundreds of people want to capture Pompeii, a force attack will definitely not work. They can only rely on surprise attacks. It's just that it has been half a year since you came to Vesuvius. If Pompeii was in April or May, It was quite an oversight. At dusk, all the city gates were still open, allowing pedestrians and business travelers to enter and exit without restriction. However, as your threat to surrounding towns became more and more serious, all the land gates of Pompeii began to be closed, and soon Open less——"

"Are you talking about all the land gates?" Maximus keenly discovered some clues from the other party's words.

"Yes, the land gate, because the sea gate is open." Quintus said, picked up the pen, drew a thin, winding line immediately below the map of Pompeii, then pointed at it and said: "This is Coastline, this is the Sea Gate. The Pompeii people are afraid of you and have closed all the land gates. They can only rely on sea transportation to communicate with the outside world. The supplies the Pompeii people need can only be transported into the port through the Sea Gate and into the city. So the sea gate is always open.”

"You mean - if we want to raid, the only way is to take the sea route, use ships to transport troops into the port, and then break into the city through the sea gate?" Maximus asked thoughtfully.

Quintus pointed at the coastline on the simple map with his hand, shook his head and said: "The reason why the Pompeii people built the city here is because there is at least a five-meter height difference between the coast here and the city. Only Haimen has built a ramp. Leading to the port, since the land gates are closed, even if the Haimen is open, the interrogation will be stricter than before. It will be very difficult for you to sneak in, and it will not be easy to raid the Haimen. "

Quintus pointed to somewhere on the coastline: "The port area on this side of the bay is at least a hundred meters away from the Haimen. When your soldiers land at the port, the sentries on the city wall will easily spot them. Once the Haimen is closed, The Pompeii people are shooting arrows from a high position, and you have nowhere to escape.”

"It seems that with the number of people I have, it is impossible to capture Pompeii." Maximus sighed, waved his hand and said, "If that's the case, then I won't keep you any longer -"

"Chief Maximus, don't be anxious!" Seeing that the other party was about to see off the guests, Quintus said eagerly without having time to show off: "It is impossible to capture Haimen, but it is possible to attack the city from the port. Arrived!”

"Oh, why?" Maximus responded calmly, looking like he didn't care much.

"Come and see here." Quintus moved his finger slightly upward, and then nodded heavily.

Only then did Maximus notice that on the left side of the sea gate and directly above the port, the map of Pompeii originally drawn with thin lines was disconnected and not connected at one point: "This is it?"

"There is a distance of about two hundred meters without a city wall." Quintus said in a deep voice: "It is said that there was no city wall when the city was built. The reason may be that the height difference between the city here and the bay below is more than eight meters, and the slope is steep. , it is impossible for the enemy to climb up, and it does seem very safe. However, after hundreds of years of Pompeii, the bay below the city has turned into a lush port area. This section of the city without walls is already full of houses, and some people even openly say so. Ignoring the ban of the Pompeii Municipal Government, a three-story high-rise building was built here so that more houses could be rented to the poor in the port area——"

Quintus paused for a moment, and his indifferent face suddenly became a little distorted. He sneered: "The only person who dares to do this, but has the city government unable to do anything to him, is the first family of Pompeii, known as 'Pompei'." The House of Vitius the Protector—"

When Maximus heard this, his heart moved: Aren't the Vitius family the target of this old man's revenge?

Quintus didn't pay attention to Maximus's expression and continued: "The Vitius family built several three-story Roman-style buildings side by side in the port area below this unwalled city. The roof of the building is almost flush with the urban area. We only need to go up to the roof and take a four- to five-meter long wooden ladder or plank to easily enter the urban area from the port area.

The Pompeii people are as timid as other Campanians, and have never experienced war. They have the city wall to rely on, and they barely have the courage to fight you. But once you break into the city, even if there are only one or two hundred soldiers, if they No one dared to step forward to stop them unless there were more than two or three times the number of people gathered. "

Quintus snorted disdainfully and traced the map with his finger: "After your soldiers enter the city from here, they can directly follow this road and run less than 200 meters west to reach Herculan. Gate of Nîmes, kill the guards, open the city gate, and your other soldiers who are ambushing outside the city can rush in. With eight hundred people and us, we can completely conquer the city of Pompeii!"

At the end of his speech, Quintus became a little emotional, but Maximus just blinked: "Listening to what you said, it seems easy to enter the city from the nearby bay, but how to let the troop transport break into the port? ? Since the Pompeii people were on guard on land, they couldn’t be less vigilant at the port!”