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The final battle of the Germanic total war 041 Vannius' siege method

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    This time, Vanius arrogantly combined the Helvetic and Allobrogese cavalry into a cavalry brigade, appointing Luther as the commander-in-chief, and the two Allobrogese chiefs as deputy commanders.  , let them go out to detect the enemy's situation.

    According to Vannius's idea, after defeating this Albissi diversionary force, the enemy would not send more troops to die, so he did not need to keep a large number of cavalry troops on hand.  .  .

    Moreover, since the Albisci did not hesitate to use thousands of people as bargaining chips to slow down the advance of their army and buy time for the Massilian defense, then it is very likely that there will be a big fat man waiting not far in front of them.  Take them to eat.

    At the beginning, the Gallic cavalry found nothing - not only was there no material transport team that Vannius was expecting, there were not even enemy troops nearby, and the nearby villages had been evacuated early.

    Then, when they could reach Massilia in one day, the Gallic cavalry caught a big fish - escorted by more than 500 Massilia cavalry, a supply transport of 200 carts  The team was intercepted by the Gallic cavalry.

    After receiving the news, Vanius immediately ordered the army to speed up, and then frightened away the Massilians who had originally planned to hold on for help, and got this batch of supplies as they wished.

    At last count, the spoils obtained by Vannius included one hundred cartloads of wheat, ten cartloads each of javelins, arrows, shields, leather armor, Gallic swords, and lances. In addition, there were also ale, olives, etc.  There are a lot of sundries like oil, salt, cheese and even rosin.

    Wheat will naturally be used for consumption by the army.  Vanius also took away the javelin and arrow without ceremony.  Leather armor and shield.  Vannius and the Gauls were divided in half, Vannius kept all the spears, and gave all the swords to the Gauls.

    As for the sundries, since Vannius had already shown great generosity in distributing the main spoils of war, the Gauls were not willing to share them with Vannius anymore, so they all belonged to Vannius.

    After that, the Gallic army, feeling that they had made a fortune, followed Vannius's Guards Corps and drove outside the city of Massilia.

    As a historical city and one of the most important trading ports in the Western Mediterranean, Massilia is already a very large city although it has not yet reached its future status.  And it is a very well-defended city.

    According to the records in the "Civil War" that Vannius had read, when facing Caesar's army attacking the city, the Massilians used a large number of projectiles, including "huge ballistae" -  The weapon fired a "twelve-foot-long wooden pole with a spike on one end" that was powerful enough to penetrate four layers of wicker fence and drive into the ground with one blow.

    Although it turned out that I was in the wrong team.  The city of Massilia was captured by Caesar's army and lost its imperial status. Therefore, it is very likely that even the defensive weapons were greatly weakened. However, considering that it has been many years, Vannius believes that the city of Massilia  It is likely that it was still equipped with a large number of large projectile devices.

    Out of this consideration, Vanius cautiously stayed his troops far away from the city wall of Massilia and began to cut down trees to build a fortress.

    Because of the obvious difference in strength and because the camp was indeed far away from the Massilia city wall, Vannius's construction work was not disturbed.

    It took a whole day for Vanius to build three forts not far apart.  Each one can accommodate an army of 40,000 people and has complete trenches, earthen ramparts, protective walls and arrow towers.

    Two of these three fortresses are relatively close to the city of Massilia, one is close to the harbor, and the other is close to the city wall of Massilia.  The last fortress is far away from the city wall, and is located between the two fortresses, forming a relatively flat triangle with the two fortresses.

    After building the forts, Vanius continued to let the Gallic cavalry roam around while he began to dry mud bricks in the open space between the three forts - because of the scorching sun in this area, this work was more difficult than  The Germanic areas came much more easily and quickly.

    Another two days passed.  The coalition forces of the three tribes from the north arrived under the leadership of the Allobrogese guide.

    After negotiation, a total of 40,000 troops from these three tribes were stationed in the camp near the north, that is, the gate of Massilia.

    Afterwards, the field regiments from Qadi, Badawi, Dunkerderi, Usi Peters and Makmani also arrived, bringing Uncle Goodbye and his engineering troops with them.

    Welcome the engineering troops into your camp.  Vanius stationed the remaining four provincial field legions in the south, in the camp near the harbor.

    besides.  Vanius also got good news-Uncle Goodbye not only came by himself,And they also brought some Egyptians and Greeks - these people mastered and improved the formula of Roman cement and developed the so-called "Odin cement".

    This improved formula of cement is cheaper than the traditional Roman cement, and is stronger after setting. After countless experiments, Uncle Goodby finally confirmed that the cement balls made from this cement are better than those collected and polished from the mountains.  The stone balls that came out are easy to use.

    This time, Uncle Goodbye not only brought technicians, but also brought a large amount of raw materials - so that Vanius could make ammunition for the riprap tower directly on the front line.

    After enthusiastically receiving and commending the technicians and awarding them with gold jewelry, Vanius placed all these people in his camp and ordered these things to be kept strictly confidential - to attack Massilia, he temporarily  I don't want to use the riprap tower yet.

    Afterwards, under the cover of the Gallic cavalry troops, Vannius sent infantry forward to test the range of the enemy's ballistae.

    After confirming the range of the ballista, Vanius finally felt at ease - not to mention anything else, just the fact that the enemy's ballista had a range closer than his own trebuchet ensured that Vanius was enough to defeat him here.  Be invincible in every battle.

    Outside the maximum range of the enemy's ballistae, Vannius ordered the slaves brought by the northern Gallic tribes - these people were basically the southern tribes who stubbornly supported Rome - to follow the walls of Massilia.  In a parallel direction, a trench half a man deep was dug, and the excavated soil was piled outside the trench on the side close to the Massilia wall.

    While the Gauls were digging trenches, Vannius also asked the Germans to process a large number of planks and beams, weave many shields with wicker, and then build several large shield vehicles with wooden beams, shields, mud bricks, etc.  car.

    And all this is to build a siege brick tower.

    The construction method of the brick tower is recorded in detail in the Civil War Chronicles - usually a floor is built with sun-dried mud bricks under the protection of a shield car, with a cover and beams added on top, and then only shooting holes are left.  , hang defensive shields on three sides facing the enemy, use levers to lift this layer, build a second layer below, and so on until it is six stories high - at this point, the siege brick tower has become a  The solid firepower point can withstand the attacks of crossbow arrows and stone bullets fired by the crossbows, and allows the defenders to use the crossbows to shoot at enemies on the city wall, providing fire cover for the surrounding warriors within a certain range.

    Before the arrival of Uncle Goodbye, although the soldiers in the Guards had experience in building adobe houses, they had no experience in cooperating to build large buildings-especially under the attack of enemy crossbows.

    But now, Uncle Goodbye and his engineering team arrived, and Vanius simply told Uncle Goodbye the methods and steps for building the brick tower without any courtesy, and asked the uncle to build the brick tower in the direction close to the city gate.  The Massilians built a brick tower where their crossbows could reach.

    After several experiments in the open space of the camp, Uncle Goodby led his people to start this difficult task.

    There are two shield cars responsible for protecting the brick tower.  There are four shield vehicles responsible for providing cover for the soldiers and preventing enemy attacks.

    In addition, there were eight spare shield vehicles and two thousand Gallic cavalry on standby outside the firing range.

    With such a lineup, Vanius believes that it is enough to deal with the possible counterattack of the Massilians.

    Therefore, he was ordered to wait until the siege brick tower was built before calling him. Vanius calmly presided over the heat-resistant training of the field legion soldiers and further preparation of engineering materials.

    Three more days later, the siege brick tower was completed.

    After that, Vanius once again sent out Gaulish slaves.

    These slaves need to start from the parallel tunnel they dug before and dig straight towards the enemy's wall to dig a trench that is one person deep and can accommodate two people walking side by side.

    "Providing protection for their excavation work was the shield that Vanius had the German warriors build during these three days.

    This kind of guard board first consists of two parallel logs and the cross beam between the logs to form a base plate.

    On the bottom plate, between the two parallel logs, there is a vertical support.  At the top of the support is the third log.  The three logs are connected with wooden boards to form a wooden triangle.

    At the two bottom ends of this triangle, the Germans installed additional wooden beams and laid mud bricks on the two slopes. In this way, under the protection of mud bricks, torches cannot ignite the shields and crossbow arrows cannot penetrate.  The triangular structure prevents stones thrown from the city wall from breaking the protective board.

    Finally, in order to make the structure stronger,?Nius had many wickers stuffed into the middle of the triangle to make it a solid structure with a certain elasticity.

    The Gallic slaves first laid such a guard board on the ground, hollowed out the soil under the guard board, tamped the two walls, and inserted wooden pillars for support.  After the soil under the guard was hollowed out, the slaves pushed the guard forward and placed new guards above their heads.

    Afterwards, under the protection of the new guard board, the slaves can dig out the space under the front guard board again.

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