Upon hearing this, Archimedes laughed and said something.

It turns out that this counterweight trebuchet is a powerful siege weapon. It is only effective when one's own military force is superior and the enemy is forced to defend fortifications.

On the main battlefield in the north, the Persians had the upper hand and were the attackers. They chose not to defend, so this weapon was of little use.

But it’s different here in the Eastern Conference.

In order to ensure the smooth flow of supply lines, Xerxes built a large number of passes and corridors to prevent guerrilla raids by Ajax and his men.

If we can introduce a powerful weapon that can break through the city’s defenses, we can restore the original harassment situation that was spreading from all sides!

After listening to Archimedes' explanation, many people disagreed.

This weapon might be of some use, but it might not be as powerful as Archimedes thought.

Otherwise, Achilles and the others would have used it long ago.

Only Xia Zhe firmly believed in the power of this weapon.

Catapult!

When I was playing ancient strategy games, this thing was definitely a super weapon for siege!

Although Xia Zhe didn't know what the connection was between this thing and the principle of leverage.

But since Archimedes was so sure, then he must be sure!

These two days, Xia Zhe has been thinking about where to land.

Most generals suggested a cautious landing in Alexandria, as it was the capital of the Eastern Alliance and had the best conditions.

But there were also different opinions, such as Themistocles.

Themistocles believed that it would be more effective to land in Miletus in the south.

His reasoning was that Miletus was far from the Persian army's supply lines and the Persians paid little attention to it. Reorganizing the troops there would make it less likely for the Persians to discover them.

Wait until the entire army is assembled, and then suddenly attack, which will surely surprise the Persians.

However, now with Archimedes and his catapult, Xia Zhe suddenly had a new idea.

In fact, the narrowest part of the Persian supply line is not at the border between the Eastern Alliance and Persia, but in the Bosphorus Strait!

However, with the recent fall of the fortified city of Byzantium, the Persian army there now had the strongest city defenses.

Even much of the Greek fire that Hector had spent a lot of effort to arrange had fallen into the hands of the Persians.

Therefore, when discussing the route of advance in the early stages, no one ever suggested landing at the gates of Byzantium.

What everyone thinks.

Going there to face the fortified city and Greek fire is clearly courting death!

However, if there were a catapult with a much longer range than Greek fire, everything would of course be completely different.

Without hesitation, Xia Zhe immediately proposed that the army head straight for the Bosphorus Strait and attack the city of Byzantium.

Completely cut off the Persian army's supply lines from here!

This was an extremely ambitious plan, and everyone was stunned when they heard it.

Whether it was Antigonus, Eulibiades or Themistocles, they all understood it very well.

If the coalition forces really captured the city of Byzantium and its surrounding areas, they could indeed achieve a super effect that was completely incomparable to the harassment in other places.

Because the city of Troy in the Dardanelles was still in the hands of the Greek coalition forces.

Today, the city of Byzantium and its surrounding areas are the only way for the Persian army to transport supplies!

There is no way around it!

When other places were breached, the Persian transport corps was only forced to change its route and lost a few days.

If this place is breached, the Persian army must counterattack to retake it in order to open up the material supply node for the front-line army again.

The Greek coalition led by them had 5,000 warships and 5 million land forces, which was by no means a small number.

If Byzantium could be taken with relatively little loss, the Persian army would definitely not be able to retake it within ten days or half a month!

By then, it will definitely be of great benefit to the frontal combat on the Great Northern Front!

However, the Byzantine city defense was notoriously strong.

Any general with a little military knowledge would have doubts about whether he could gain a foothold there.

"I heard that the Byzantine city walls are a hundred meters high, and there are a lot of Greek fire on the coastal side. I remember that in the Battle of Thassos, our Athenian navy suffered heavy losses under the attack of Greek fire. Can we really succeed in attacking the Byzantine city by force?" Themistocles questioned.

What Themistocles said is exactly what everyone thinks.

Attacking a fortified city with strong defenses, even if Meng landed successfully, the losses would be huge!

What is more serious is that there are no Greek troops around the city of Byzantium.

Once a defeat or an accident occurs, it will be impossible to find reinforcements.

Everyone felt that the danger was too great.

"That kind of Greek fire is a simplified version and is easy to deal with. Moreover, the counterweight catapult has the advantage of range. It is not afraid of Greek fire." Archimedes interrupted.

Archimedes was a scientist and his speech was not very contagious.

Hearing this, the generals just smiled politely and didn't take it to heart.

Many people present had personally experienced the power of Greek fire.

They had already formed a preconceived notion, and they would never have thought that the Greek fire on the Byzantine city walls and the one on the Stobi ironclad ship were not even the same species!

As for the "counterweight trebuchet" that was only in Archimedes' mind and didn't even have a model, who knows how powerful it could be?

Everyone felt that Archimedes was deliberately belittling previous inventions in order to promote his new invention.

Only Xia Zhe is quite confident about this.

He ignored the opposition and turned the fleet towards the Bosphorus Strait. At the same time, he ordered the ships to gather the materials needed for emergency repairs and send them to Archimedes to begin assembling the catapult.

Since King Stobi was the supreme leader of the army, everyone had no choice but to do as he said since he was so serious.

However, privately, many people were skeptical and deeply worried about the king's trust in Archimedes.

A few days later, the fleet entered a narrow waterway with land visible on both sides. As everyone knows, this is the Dardanelles.

Seeing a large number of warships belonging to the Greek coalition appear in the strait, the city of Troy, which was built on the strait, suddenly became commotion.

After being besieged by the Persians for so long, the Trojans were almost in despair. The fall of Byzantium, which they had used as a defensive flank, had also occurred a month earlier, further undermining the confidence of the Trojan defenders.

The hundreds of thousands of Troy defenders, along with Hector and Paris who commanded them in this bloody battle, were ready to die. They only hoped to kill one enemy to cover their losses, and kill two enemies to make a profit.

However, no one expected that so many ships of the Greek coalition fleet would appear in the waterway for the first time.

Especially the group of silver ironclad ships and the special flag belonging to King Stobi on the flagship made Hector overjoyed!

Who said King Stobi has no time to care for us? This is clearly King Stobi coming to help!

Troy is saved!