"Acropolis must be taken down too."
After waking up, Li Ning gave some vague instructions to the people this week.
Acropolis is an acropolis with the same name as the Acropolis of Athens. In fact, these six words mean "Acropolis" in Greek.
The siege of Halicarnassus is located on the high ground in the north of the city and is almost integrated with the city wall, so it must be taken down.
However, after hearing Li Ning's instructions, those guys did not take immediate action. Instead, they responded with a continuous chuckle.
"It's been taken down, Governor."
Nowadays, no one has doubts about Li Ning's ability. If there is any question, it would be to let him be responsible for logistics. It is really a bit of an incompetence. He should appear on the front line and become the commander-in-chief of the entire Macedonian Army.
But Li Ning will not agree to this.
Of course, the external rhetoric is that he does not need to appear on the front line, and the great Macedonian Legion will win one after another. But the actual situation is that he needs a calm observation point to observe this Eastern Expedition, which is different from the original history. What else can be exploited?
However, at this time, this seemingly calm observation and accurate use of historical data encountered a huge challenge.
"The Kingdom of Heaven is defeated."
This was the latest battle report from Macedonia, but the Song Dynasty did not send the details to him for some unknown reason.
This defeat occurred in the Phrygian region southeast of the Hellespont.
The leading general Shi Yuanchun was beaten to a pulp by several local indigenous armed forces because he underestimated the enemy and rushed in.
The specific situation is the most difficult to recover and is unknown, but in terms of equipment level, it would be difficult for the Song Dynasty to suffer a major defeat, so they must have been attacked by a sneak attack.
But the damn imperial court had not issued a battle report for a long time, leaving Li Ning at a loss.
Therefore, he had to write a letter to Pang Ji, hoping to get more detailed information.
The content of this letter is very long, but it also contains a few harsh words, and even reveals the intention to ask the emperor directly.
However, on the back of the envelope, Li Ning publicly suggested that Pang Ji open the letter and read it with everyone.
Of course, there is no need to show them the envelope.
Because the implication of these words is to use them to beat those shameless bastards.
No matter what their thoughts were, they could not use any unnecessary tricks on his one-third of an acre of land.
If his dream of the Eastern Mediterranean is ruined, Li Ning can do anything that makes people feel reassured and crazy.
It's a pity that even if he is crazy now, he still seems to be unproven. Therefore, what he needs to do is to understand the current situation as much as possible.
But the reply to that letter will definitely take time, so he needs to get more information from other channels.
However, for a traveler like him, the Song Dynasty, where he could still see historical materials, was considered a strange place. And now that he has arrived in West Asia more than two thousand years ago, his situation is naturally unfamiliar to the place he was born in. It’s beyond description.
Therefore, there is only one channel left for him to get the news.
"I don't know if my friends in Greece can find out more about the situation?"
But he still found Alexander, hoping that he could provide some help in this regard.
When Alexander heard the news, he was immediately surprised. In his eyes, this group of people from the Kingdom of Heaven were very capable of fighting, and Li Ning was the best representative among them.
Therefore, it is difficult to imagine that such an army would be defeated.
In this way, even if Li Ning does not make this request, Alexander will send someone to find out the specific situation. He will study carefully what kind of background the other group of distinguished guests from heaven are like?
However, dressing up like this also takes time. Although the news of the defeat has come, it is necessary to collect specific information from all aspects. , I’m afraid it will take another two or three days.
But during these two or three days, they actually couldn't stay idle.
One of the main reasons is that both Li Ning and Alexander had to attack the next important target, which was Sarmakis, one of the three acropolis of Halicarnassus.
It is different from Acropolis which is completely integrated. This acropolis is relatively independent. Therefore, it is not easy to attack.
According to Alexander's original historical records, he did not have enough patience to attack here, and chose to lead his team away, leaving only two to three hundred soldiers to continue the attack.
His decision seemed extremely correct at the time, because it fully guaranteed the affairs of the Macedonian Legion, and once again suffered a heavy blow to the ruler's confidence through successive victories.
At least, he gave the local people the feeling that this chaotic Asian peninsula is likely to usher in a new owner.
Changing dynasties is actually not a strange thing for the people here, especially farmers and herdsmen. Compared with their Eastern counterparts at the same time, they have already seen many similar things, whether it is the Hittite Empire or the The Assyrian Empire once left some traces here.
Therefore, the people here are not as unshakable as imagined.
At least for Alexander, his various actions have achieved the desired results. At this time, sweeping the whole of Asia with greater majesty is what he should do most. If he cannot quickly conquer the acropolis in front of him, then what happened in history will happen again.
For Alexander, it just returned to his original destiny, but for Li Ning, it meant another possibility.
That's why he's going to be the perfect guy to stay here and siege.
In the historical process that originally had no intervention from the Song Dynasty, it was Parmenio's nephew Asander who finally won here. But he only has 200 people under his command.
Now that the fighting power of the Song Dynasty people has been demonstrated, the number of people left here may be even less, but the Song Dynasty people are not Greeks after all. In this Hellenized peninsula of Asia Minor, the Greeks are no different from their own homes. They could find places to resupply, but the Song Dynasty people were far from able to do so.
So Li Ning is not prepared to leave any team here, and he cannot do that.
Therefore, his only hope is to conquer this place quickly. Fortunately, this city will not appear much in the future, so even if the historical process here is changed, it will not bring much butterfly effect.
After thinking about this, Li Ning boldly suggested to Alexander: "We can attack this city."
"My friend, your army has gunpowder. That kind of extremely powerful weapon should have a wider stage, instead of bullying a group of defeated soldiers in front of this small city."
"No, my King, I want to create a story here. Halicarnassus is the strongest city defense in Caria and even Asia Minor. To a certain extent, it means the enemy's will to resist. I We must promote everything here quickly, forcefully and rhythmically, so that our efforts today can become an ode to the beauty of tomorrow. This is also extremely important for deterring the enemy.”
At this point, Alexander already understood the meaning of Li Ning. He was also a master of psychological warfare, although he used ancient traditional sacrifices, as well as various miscellaneous myths, legends and rumors. Although the recruitment is similar to Li Ning's behavior, Li Ning is prepared to actually embed its own industry into it, rather than parasitizing existing folklore.
This angle of design did not appear in Alexander's mind. And its difficulty is obviously much greater.
However, if it can be done, the results may be much better.
Therefore, Alexander was easily persuaded by Li Ning, and the task of attacking Sarmakis fell into the hands of the Song Dynasty army.
But what's worse is that when Li Ning returned to the military camp, he immediately received a piece of depressing news. The bad climate along the Eastern Mediterranean coast made this winter rainy and warm, so the gunpowder they stored had been affected by moisture not long ago. The impact of the incident is now eagerly awaiting the sun's rescue.
This made Li Ning feel very depressed.
Therefore, the first order issued was to re-prepare the strategy for conquering the acropolis.
Of course, the task of making suggestions like this fell on Mr. Boya immediately, but there are many ways to attack the city. But most of them come from records of city defense wars in the Central Plains, and none of them have anything to do with this Greek city far away in Asia Minor.
Therefore, Mr. Boya and all the generals did not think they were confident enough to win the city.
But war never gives people enough time to prepare, so sometimes people's only choice is to catch up.
It is generally believed that people with this temperament are qualified to become excellent soldiers.
What's even more fortunate is that Li Ning has such a candidate in his account at this time.
Yang Sui knew the order a little late because he was busy worrying about the logistics of his army. Due to the unsuitable climate and soil, many of the foods here were not accepted by the soldiers. This was actually not a rare problem in the Song Dynasty, and the south When soldiers arrived in the north, they starved to death because they didn't like eating pasta, not to mention that they are now fighting in Asia Minor.
The Song Dynasty was a country with prosperous culture, but it was not a country with prosperous science and education.
Therefore, their feudal superstitious activities are very rampant, and messy thoughts often appear in the minds of these people. If three or five of them are known to future generations, such as pork being poisonous, I am afraid many people will find it incredible.
But this is not something that can be changed in a day or two, so Li Ning can only let it go. Since pork is not popular, mutton is always OK. Although agriculture in Asia Minor is still relatively adequate, the grazing industry is in Persia. After the arrival of the rulers, there was small progress.
Of course, people who like to be literal-minded will always emphasize that this kind of progress is most likely due to the development of the times rather than technological exchanges, but in any case, Yang Sui was finally able to find the mutton that the Song people wanted to eat locally.
However, this was not the main reason why he got the news too late, because along the way, he had already noticed Asia Minor, which is full of cattle and sheep. It can be called a paradise for meat eaters, and Turkish barbecue is indeed a hot spot in the market. Of course, there may not be an inevitable connection between the two, but in any case, Yang Sui and his brothers have been eating at a very high level in recent days.
It's just that eating too much meat will inevitably affect walking. Not only is it a problem of weight, but the increase in blood lipid levels can easily cause bold and agile people to lose their strengths.
And this group of soldiers and ruffians in the Song Dynasty had a very bad foundation in this regard.
Although Yang Sui still abides by his duties, he can't help but develop some bad habits. In addition, time was really tight, so when he was on the road, he was distracted and accidentally fell into the tunnel dug by the Greek soldiers.
As early as the fifth century BC, tunnel sieges had become an important method in the Persian Wars, and they even discovered a way to detect tunnel excavations.
During the Alexander period, the use of tunnel digging to destroy the tunnel excavations of the attacking side even became an important option for the defending side.
Battles in tunnels often occurred on the battlefield, but this time during the attack on Halicarnassus, the Song Dynasty army did not have the opportunity to see such a scene.
The reason why Western civil engineering technology is relatively advanced is mainly because they generated a large number of application needs for this type of technology during wars.
Although there is no shortage of such needs in the Eastern War. But the city is so strong that it doesn't always need craftsmen to repair it.
Sometimes short-term leadership and advantages will solidify the pace of development. This is in the comparison of the development process of the East and the West. It can often be seen so vividly that it makes people sigh from time to time.
But Yang Sui would not sigh because of this.
Because he has not seen the panoramic history, he will not have the feeling of sighing at the sea.
So this guy just climbed out of the tunnel honestly. Fortunately, the place where it fell was the entrance of the tunnel. The difference in height was not very big. It just rolled a long way, causing a lot of scratches on their bodies. Mark of.
But when he was rescued by the surrounding Greek soldiers, he was pleasantly surprised to think of the possibility of siege. Although this small and narrow tunnel was not enough to complete his plan, the Song Dynasty, a country that was 1,300 years ahead, He is still a little ahead in civil engineering, so he usually works hard in this area, otherwise he would not have any ideas at this time.
Interestingly, the news of his fall soon spread to the military camp, and his commander Cao Jie quickly appeared in front of him.
After thanking the group of Greek soldiers who helped Yang Sui, Tao Boss immediately kicked Yang Sui back angrily.
The nominal reason was of course that he delayed everyone's dinner time, but in reality it was because he didn't want to embarrass himself in front of outsiders.
However, this little thing was far from enough to affect Yang Sui's impression in his mind, so when Yang Sui raised his hand and shouted that he had thought of something, Boss Cao immediately stopped cursing.
"Have you seen the cattle and sheep I drove here? If these cattle and sheep enter the city along the tunnel, and then light a fire and rush, they will definitely buy a lot of time for our brothers in the tunnel."
"What chaos, what rushing into the city, what buying time?"
Boss Cao's thoughts were not at the same frequency as his. After thinking for a long time, he recalled that if tunnels were used to siege the city, it would indeed be easy to encounter enemy forces chasing and intercepting them near the exit, but if a group of cattle and sheep were set on fire, they would go crazy. It is naturally meaningless to rush over and pursue them like this.
That being said, this is indeed a perfect idea.
After all, almost a few decades later, a guy named Tian Dan used a similar method to achieve a great victory and successfully restored the rule of Qi.
Moreover, they are now facing an engineering problem. Since there are so many cattle and sheep in Asia Minor, why not purchase a batch and use them on the battlefield?
Just do it as soon as you think of it. Boss Cao immediately reported his idea to Li Ning. Li Ning didn't know which god he was under the protection of. He immediately realized the feasibility of this method, so the preparations were quickly completed in an orderly manner. , after all, those cattle and sheep can successfully become engineering tools as long as they can avoid the butcher's knife tonight.
The only thing that needs attention is that the Royal Guard City on the island has also become an important target of their attack.
At this time, the only commander Li Ning could send was Zhang Sui's command.
This command is not full of people, less than 500 people. But they have been stationed on the border of Xixia for many years and have a certain combat effectiveness. At least they seem to be stronger than Li Ning's other deployments.
So Li Ning handed over this arduous task to a group of sons of inland farmers.
Later, some people even joked that they were the earliest marines under Li Ning, but until the end of their lives, many of these people still could not swim.
But when Zhan Gu rang on the second day, no one cared about their fate anymore.
Because he needed to cover the secret excavation of the tunnel, Li Ning did two exaggerated things, that is, he held a grand expedition ceremony for the troops attacking the island and at the same time continued to bombard the walls of Sarmakis with gunpowder.
This creates the illusion that Li Ning needs to use this attack to delay the danger posed by the defensive troops in Salmagis.
Those who attack the island can move forward calmly on this basis, but it should be noted that the military strategist from Athens in the city may not be able to be successfully deceived by him. The final answer will still need to be revealed. Only then can the dust settle.
But Li Ning is full of confidence in this for some reason.
