Vol 9 Chapter 179: The Surrender of Athens (2)

With a condescending siege platform closer to the city, the attack range of all ballistas has been greatly increased, covering almost half of the area of ​​the city of Athens, and the ballistas not only fire stone bullets, but also throw burning oil cans into the city. Caused fire everywhere in Athens, a chaos.
Immediately afterwards, the Dionian army launched nine super siege towers. They were slowly moving towards the west of Athens under the guard of arrow shields, wooden box cars and other siege equipment, as well as the light and heavy infantry behind. The city wall advances.
The garrison soldiers at the head of the city were very panicked when they saw these behemoths higher than the city wall pushing towards them. After hearing the news, Ifekrates and Kabriyas who rushed there were also stunned.
At this moment, the super siege tower, which was 50 meters away from the city wall, stopped advancing. The light infantry on the top level began to shoot arrows at the defenders at the head of the city, and the next level of the siege tower was opened. The baffle showed the hideous face of the belly bow, and the huge iron arrow screamed towards the city head, like a skewers of meat, which could knock down several soldiers at a time, and it was deadly terrifying.
If it weren't for the guards to rescue him in time, Iphikratus was almost killed by an iron arrow. With lingering fears, he looked at the towering siege platform not far away and the huge siege equipment in front of him, and a strong helplessness suddenly rose in his heart...
For several days, Patroclus attacked the city of Athens in this way. Although he had not launched a full-scale siege, he had already caused considerable damage to the defenders at the head of the city, and even more damage in the city. Panic and confusion. He not only showed the Athenians the terrible siege ability of the Dionian army, but at the same time cryptically told the high level of Athens: The Dionian Holy Kingdom is strong and has enough ability to protect the huge consumption of 100,000 troops, and it can be carried out. Continued siege.
For Athens, these days are a complete disaster. One-fifth of the city was attacked by Dionian ballistas, and a small half was burned to ruins. Even the Civic Hall on the Pniks Hill was also destroyed. When it comes to destruction (Prix Hill is very close to the southern city wall, near the avenue leading to Piraeus Port, completely within the range of the ballista on the nearest siege platform outside the city, and it is Patlock The target that Rose highlighted did not cause too much damage because Croto Katakst asked his men to be merciful.) Nearly a thousand families lost their homes and cried day and night, requesting assistance from the City Hall, and other The people of Athens caused a great shock.
The Athens government sent a large number of personnel to deal with the aftermath of these attacked urban areas, and at the same time strengthened the defense of the city wall to prevent the Dionian army from launching an attack on the city due to the turmoil in the city. However, the vast city of Athens, coupled with the long walls and the port of Piraeus, required a large number of citizen soldiers, so that the patrols to maintain order in the city were greatly reduced. However, the destruction of the urban area by the ballista has made food supply and water even more tense. The conflict between urban residents and the refugees outside the city has been intensified, causing many conflicts.
When the patrol was exhausted, more than 2,000 mining slaves took advantage of the turmoil in the city and weakened supervision, secretly contacted, suddenly launched a riot, killed the foreman and guards who supervised them, rushed out of the slave camp like a prison, and collected weapons. Destroy the manor of the mine owner. Then, on the way to the city gate, the Athenian people in the houses along the way were killed and the slaves were liberated. When they reached the west city gate, the number of slaves increased to more than 6,000.
After receiving the news, Ifekratus urgently mobilized the army to block the group of slaves who were trying to escape in time at the gate of the West City, and the two sides started a fierce battle.
Although Efekratus has few soldiers, the soldiers are fully armed and strong. Although there were many people in the slave team, the equipment was simple, and many of them were even bare-handed. Due to the abuse of the mine owners, most of the mine slaves were sick and weak. In addition, the streets were narrow and they could not give full play to their advantages. Some could not withstand the attack of the Athenian soldiers.
At this time, Cabrias led another army to arrive from the rear. Under the front and back attack, the slave team quickly collapsed and fled in all directions.
Since the Dionian coalition forces outside the city still used the siege equipment to attack the defenders at a long distance, the light infantry on the siege tower discovered the strangeness in the city and rushed to notify the commander in the rear camp.
Patroclus quickly made a decision: launch a formal attack on the Western Wall.
But when the Dionian soldiers assembled and blew the offensive bugle, the riots in the West Gate had subsided. Patroclus, who received the news, hesitated for a moment, and finally cancelled the offensive order. Missed a great opportunity to capture the city of Athens.
But this slave riot had a great impact on the city of Athens. Although the slaves in the riot only killed less than 300 Athenians in two blocks, they caused panic among many Athenians, especially those citizens with more slaves. They either asked the city hall to send a patrol to take care of them. Slaves, either simply gave the male servants to the city-state for free. Even a small number of Athenian citizens suffered assassins from the slaves in the family because of excessive fear. Naturally, they were also desperately resisted by the slaves. So scenes of family tragedies were staged in Athens from time to time. , The contradiction between slave and slave owner was intensified by the extreme drama...
Enemy forces are besieged outside, and there are many internal conflicts. The city of Athens is like sitting on a volcanic crater about to erupt, and it may be wiped out at any time. Finally, in the 500-member assembly that was urgently convened by the city hall, most of the members rushed to propose: accept Dionia's request and negotiate a truce with him.
The next citizens' assembly had to be temporarily transferred to the Dionysus Theater due to the threat of Pnikos Mountain by the Dionian Ballista.
The citizens of Athens who once expressed indignantly that "I would rather die with the city than surrender to Dionia" have experienced water and food shortages, their compatriots turned enemies, slave riots, fires, and faced Dionia every day. The threats of bows and arrows and stone bullets, the great mental pressure... After all the hardships, most of them heard the proposal of the 500-member council announced by Callistratus, as if they were amnesty.
Only a few citizens headed by Isocrates expressed firm opposition. Isocrates even gave an impassioned speech on the forum. He shouted in his hoarse voice: "...Descendants of Theseus, your ancestors Once the best and bravest citizen in the world, when hundreds of thousands of Persian troops invaded Greece, and other cities and states all retreated for fear of it, your ancestors bravely stepped forward and defeated multiple creations in Salamis. He won the powerful Persian navy, and finally won the victory of the Hippo War. Through this great victory, other city-states saw the greatness of Athens, and regarded Athens as their savior. Since then, Athens has created great glory! You still Remember the words Pericles said, "Athens is a school for all Greeks!" Yes, it was the golden age that all of us here yearn for!
And today history repeats itself, and another powerful invader invades Greece, and they even killed the city of Athens! Citizens, it's time! It's time to be like our ancestors. When other Greek city-states are afraid of surrendering, we should bravely stand up and fight unyieldingly with the Dionian army for your freedom and dignity!
Athena prefers heroes. She will only bless us who fight unyieldingly. In the end, we will repel the Dionian army. At that time, we will be the savior of the whole Greece. Without Spartan’s elbow, we will create something better than before. A more brilliant future in the golden age! ...
And if you choose to surrender and surrender to these barbarians who are not fluent in Greek, you will have to abandon the democracy that once made us proud, and let a king give orders; the wise and humorous dramas you like will Replaced by their seemingly large-scale, but comical square dances; those competitive sports that you admire full of power and skill will be replaced by terrible competitions of brutal collision; more importantly, we cannot be the same as before. Worshiping the beautiful and intelligent Athena and other Greek gods, they had to kneel down and worship the heresy they believed in. In the end, the splendid culture and history of Athens will also be forcibly erased, and it is their conquest to show off to posterity history!
Citizens, by then the great Athens will be dead! It's dead! ..."
At the end, Isocrates burst into tears, unable to cry.
There was deathly silence in the theater, and gradually there was a choking sound, until finally there was a cry.
However, the ideal is beautiful, and the reality is cruel. When the vote was taken, the resolution was still passed by an absolute majority.
Athens surrendered! ! ! When the messenger from Athens walked into the camp of the Dionian army with a look of disappointment and frustration, the happy news of UU Reading www.ukanshu.com quickly spread to the Allied Dionian army, cheering everywhere.
Patroclus repeatedly asked Crotocatex to preside over the surrender ceremony in Athens, but Crotocatex could not postpone it and had to accept it. The two army commanders humbly and cooperated with each other throughout the war in Greece, and it was a good story for a while.
And when the messenger of Athens painfully signed the armistice agreement, a fishing boat took advantage of the Dionians celebrating and the blockade outside the port became loose, quietly lined out the port, and flexibly turned west into Sara. Miga Bay.
At this moment, a tall and burly man emerged from the humble boat shed.
"Hey, what are you doing out? Hurry and hide in. If you are hit by the patrol boat of Dionia, you will be in trouble!" the owner yelled eagerly.
"Don't worry, you Athens have already surrendered. The Dionians are probably celebrating. Who cares about your little fishing boat." The man said nonchalantly.
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