Volume 6: The Meeting of Two Heroes, Chapter 120: The Siege of Crotone (Part 3)

Thinking this, he took a deep breath to calm himself. After a quick mental calculation, he said in a low voice, "Elevation unchanged. Traverse the body one degree to the left. Reduce range by one notch. Use the same shot weight."

The artilleryman immediately followed the order.

"Fire!"

The stone shot howled out, followed by one after another shooting out of the city...

But more stone shots flew in from outside. Crashes, booms, and bangs mingled with shouts and screams. One stone landed near Cullorodus's ballista, sending stone chips flying with a terrifying roar. Yet Cullorodus remained unmoved. After this period of training, he was no longer the scholar fresh out of the academy—the army corps soldiers' nickname for him—but a qualified soldier.

The Syracusan siege tower was far beyond anything Daonia had used before when breaching Clampetia. It was fully twenty meters long, ten meters wide, and twelve meters high, shaped like a trapezoid with seven stories. The topmost level was a ring-shaped wooden mantlet with five archers inside, who could rain arrows down on the defenders from above. At the bottom hung a battering ram that could directly smash against the wall. The second-to-last story was almost level with the city wall, allowing a drawbridge to lower and soldiers inside to charge onto the battlements. The third-to-last story was slightly lower than the wall, housing another terrible weapon invented by the Syracusans—the belly bow. Thus, this was a super siege tower, requiring over a hundred men behind and on both sides to push it forward.

Daonia's stone shots kept landing around it, splashing up mud blossoms one after another. The mud mixed with rainwater struck men, stinging painfully. Those hit by the stones died gruesomely, frightening nearby soldiers into dodging. Despite the dense ranks of advancing assault troops below the walls, only the area around the siege tower was left wide open.

The commanding officer of this siege tower naturally sensed some danger. He urged the laborers behind to push it faster. As long as it reached the wall, nothing could threaten it.

At that moment, the outer planks of the third-to-last story opened, revealing two belly bows. Their construction resembled ballistae, but the launching mechanism consisted of a huge bow mounted horizontally on a frame. Operators strained to turn pulleys, drawing and locking the thick bowstring, then placing an equally huge iron arrow.

Thirty meters was an easy range for belly bows to aim. The right-side bowman even aimed the iron arrow at the general on the wall whose helmet crest bore colorful plumes.

"Whoosh!!..." With the massive bowstring's snap, the iron arrow flashed with a shriek and reached the wall top in an instant.

When the siege tower "opened its windows," Ascamas's years of battlefield experience made him uneasy. Subconsciously, he crouched behind the battlements. He heard two shrill screams. Behind him, a soldier—who had been holding up his round shield to block arrows from the earth rampart and the siege tower—was pierced through the chest by the iron arrow. The immense kinetic energy also drove the arrow through the soldier behind him, finally nailing him to the wall behind. Another iron arrow punched through three men in a single shot. Surrounding soldiers, including Ascamas himself, showed terror in their faces.

The Syracusan giant siege tower, which had played a key role in capturing the Carthaginian stronghold of Motya in Sicily, now revealed its terrifying visage. It advanced slowly toward the wall, like a beast baring its claws and fangs, closer and closer. The defenders panicked, at a loss.

At this critical moment, a black dot flew like a meteor across the top of the wall, slamming into the archery turret at the tower's top with tremendous kinetic energy. With a loud "BANG!", the hard, thick planks were easily breached, forming a hole. Splintered wood chips shot like steel needles into the faces and bodies of Syracusan archers inside the turret, drawing shrill screams. But that wasn't the end. The stone shot that entered the turret rolled down the ladder opening, crashing onto the foot of a soldier on the third-to-last story who was cocking a belly bow. He screamed, causing panic among the other soldiers and delaying the belly bow's firing.

"We hit it! Hit it! Our ballista hit it!!..." The defenders cheered as if they had won the whole victory, using such expressions to drive away their fear.

Astamas sighed inwardly: Compared to the giant siege tower, the ballista's stone shot was like a drop in the bucket, insufficient to inflict serious damage.

Just as Ascamas sighed, he saw stone shots flying in one after another, smashing into the siege tower.

Just as soldiers lamented the misses, and some even began to pray to Apollo, their prayers seemed to work.

A stone shot came from the side, hitting the middle flank of the siege tower, drawing cries of alarm from the enemy.

Then another stone shot flew unerringly into the story where the belly bow was being prepared to fire after opening the shutters. The belly bow broke cleanly. Various parts and wood chips flew wildly in the confined space, replaced by soldiers' screams and splattered blood.

Then another stone shot smashed through the lower part of the siege tower.

Though the defenders' cheers continued, the siege tower, now riddled with several large holes, still crept slowly toward the wall. But as it moved, the tower began to sway. Loose planks kept crashing down, sending the laborers struggling to push it scattering in panic. The siege tower began to collapse from top to bottom...

On the earth rampart outside the city, Dionysius stared ashen-faced at the scene. He knew that even though he had pressured Phasipesas to concentrate nearly ten thousand men and had engineers speed up construction of siege towers, managing to build three in a few days, the rushed schedule meant the towers weren't very sturdy. The violent impact of stone shots had surely damaged the towers' internal structure...

"Lord, look! That siege tower has already crossed the moat!" Damocles called out excitedly, trying to divert Dionysius's attention.

"Our battering ram has reached the wall. I think Croton's walls will tremble under its pounding!" another subordinate chimed in eagerly.

Indeed, Croton's walls were covered with swarming Syracusan soldiers, drawing most of the defenders' attacks. This allowed the large siege equipment—the siege tower, the battering ram, and the "wall-breaching cart" (the wooden-wheeled vehicle that had previously compacted the moat segment and now, upon reaching the wall's base, allowed its crew to use tools like pickaxes to dig out and loosen the hardest stone outer layer, causing the wall to collapse)—to reach the wall relatively smoothly. One siege tower knocked down couldn't affect the battle situation. But once all these siege devices went into action, Croton's walls would be in big trouble.

But Dionysius looked up at the sky with worry. The clouds were thickening, and the rain was getting heavier, nearly blinding him. If the rain kept falling like this, then...

As if answering his concern, "Kraaack!!!... BOOM!!!..." A dazzling flash of lightning crossed the sky, followed by rumbling thunder that drowned out all the noise of the battlefield. Soldiers from both sides were startled, looking up at the sky.

The wind picked up...

The rain intensified, quickly becoming a downpour...

Lightning, thunder, gale, and torrential rain became the main characters of this world.

Soldiers no longer fought; they cowered under the walls or inside fortifications. Because a lightning bolt that spanned heaven and earth struck the ground, splitting a giant siege tower in half!

Those who saw this horrific sight were stunned.

This was the god-king Zeus's anger! Both sides' soldiers trembled in terror and began to pray to Zeus.

"Lord, it's too dangerous here. Let's go down!" attendants urged Dionysius.

Dionysius looked ahead with extreme reluctance, but the rain was too dense. Everything in sight was a white blur...

He had no choice but to order an immediate retreat.

In such extreme weather, the bugle calls couldn't be heard. Fortunately, the Syracusan soldiers didn't need orders; they were already retreating on their own. The Crotoniates dared not pursue in such terrible weather. A grand siege battle had barely begun when it was aborted by nature's intervention...

As Dionysius descended the earth rampart—built by thousands of men over two days—it slowly collapsed under the fierce rainfall. He cursed helplessly, "Lucky for those Crotoniates!"

"It seems Zeus is protecting them this time," an attendant said casually.

Dionysius glared at him fiercely. "Shut your mouth! This has nothing to do with Zeus. It's just a coincidence."

On the wall, Ascamas was earnestly praying to Zeus.

Rainy winter days in Croton were rare. This heavy downpour was indeed unusual for recent years. So the Crotoniates believed it was divine protection. Though buffeted by wind and rain, their morale was boosted.

...

The war between Syracuse and the South Italy Alliance, concerning the hegemony of the western Mediterranean Greek city-states, was always under the watch of many powers.

Needless to say, Carthage harbored deep hatred for Syracuse, which had been locked in struggle with them for a century. Unfortunately, the reality of their predicament had made the Carthaginian Senate reject Daonia's alliance request. Of course, they hoped Syracuse's army would suffer setbacks and even heavy losses in the war in Magna Graecia. But the news coming in was always that the Syracusans were winning. Even Croton and Daonia were in jeopardy under Dionysius's fierce assault, making Carthaginians fear Syracuse's might even more.

Mago, responsible for defense on Sicily, repeatedly wrote to the Senate requesting permission to launch small raids against Syracuse's allies, to divert Syracuse's attention, slow Dionysius's northern assault, and prevent him from integrating an even stronger Syracuse after conquering Magna Graecia.

But the Senate, led by Hanno, rejected his proposal. To prevent him from acting recklessly, the Senate even sent ephors to Lilybaeum to supervise the mobilization of the Sicilian army.

The Carthaginian Senate anxiously followed the progress of the war in Magna Graecia, while on the Peloponnese, the siege of Corinth continued.

However, the ailing Agesilaus returned to Sparta, handing over command of the Spartan allied forces at Corinth to Praxitas, uncle of Sparta's new king Agesipolis. The army Agesilaus had brought back from Asia Minor remained at Corinth.