Four cranes were raised at the same time, and four huge objects were thrown into the sky with a roar, and then fell heavily under the gaze of everyone on the parapet...

With a loud "bang", a huge "white mist" suddenly rose between the third to eighth wooden stake fences in front of the earthen platform. If the bombardment points of the four catapults were not very close, the vision of the people on the parapet would certainly be affected more.

"General." Huo Yi and others standing next to Wu Lai turned their eyes to him.

"Be patient. The enemy is not attacking. The catapult throws chalk ash bags of the same weight as normal. When they hit the ground, the bags burst open and the chalk ash splatters everywhere. Although there is wind on the slope, it is not strong and cannot blow away the chalk ash." Wu Lai would naturally not miss this teaching opportunity. "This way, they can know exactly where the stone bullet will land with the posture and position of the catapult. This landing point of the stone bullet can be called the 'impact point'."

All the regiment leaders nodded. Huo Yi hesitated for a moment and asked, "General, they made this bullet and bullet impact point. Are they planning to attack us with catapults?"

Wu Lai shook his head. "It's hard to say. You just saw that the capsules they threw out were not very big, so they could cover such a large area. Even if they replaced them with small stone bullets, they could only hit half of the civil engineering platform at most. It is basically impossible to get on the retaining wall. So, I guess they are marking an area. If we rush forward, as long as we step into that area, they will fire stone bullets. At least from the current point of view, the meaning of stopping is stronger. Of course, if they are debugging, then there will be movement soon."

Everyone nodded again.

After a while, the white mist dissipated, and a large area of ​​gray and white appeared in front of the third wooden stake fence in front of the platform. They also saw that although the booms of the four catapults had been lowered again, no adjustments had been made. They remembered Wu Lai's words even more deeply.

Hulett's army moved. The first thousand or so soldiers to set out were composed of the "ladder soldiers" of the three armies. This type of soldier was a characteristic of Hulett's Corps and was equivalent to the engineers in Woolley's previous memory.

"General, it seems they want to build a path to speed up the attack." Pu Tong approached Wu Lai, "How about I take the second and third battalions to harass them?"

"No." Wu Lai waved his hand and raised his voice. "Everyone must remember that the combat mission is to defend firmly. The Sixth Regiment Commander took the initiative to harass the enemy, which is commendable. But we must be more careful when marching and fighting. The 'white line area' drawn by the enemy is not only a marking, but it may also be misleading us, making us think that their range is only this far."

Pu Tong was stunned and couldn't help scratching his head. He thought that if this was true, he might have been hit by a heavy rain of stones and bullets as soon as he led the second and third battalions onto the platform. Even if the entire army was not wiped out, most of them would have been killed or injured.

"The general is right. We should be more careful." Odo nodded. "Our combat mission is defense. Now we should watch the enemy's movements more and learn from them."

Wu Lai smiled and nodded.

The troopers of Hulett's First Legion marched at a fairly fast speed. After just a short while, they had all passed one-third of the slope, but the slope suddenly became steeper at this time.

Rows of ladders were constantly being put down and erected. Many soldiers quickly took out ropes and tied the ladders into horizontal rows. Some soldiers raised wooden hammers and hammered in short wooden stakes one after another to make the ladders more stable. Soon, a "ladder road" with a width of six to eight ladders quickly and stubbornly extended up the slope.

"Where did they get so many ladders?" Red couldn't help but frown and complain.

"How can a legion that is good at fighting siege battles be without these?" Huo Yi asked in return.

At the same time, under the banner of the Shitan Camp Legion, Nero was also frowning.

Liehuo, who was sitting next to him, smiled and said, "General Nero, as I said last night, the opponent's commander is a powerful figure, it's normal that he can see through it." Liehuo was referring to Nero's "trebuchet trap" - Wu Lai's guess was correct, although the range of Nero's four trebuchets could not reach the retaining wall, it was not a big problem to cover nearly half of the area of ​​the earthen platform.

"Hahaha, I didn't expect that the trick that has always worked wouldn't work today." Nero said self-deprecatingly. In order to confuse the defenders on the gap, he ordered the catapult's launching counterweight to be reduced by 10%. With this 10% less counterweight, the range was naturally slightly reduced. In previous battles, Nero had used this many times to make the enemy suffer. Unexpectedly, he miscalculated today.

"Not necessarily. Maybe the opponent just wants to defend and doesn't want to block?" Hugo Simon said with a curled lip.

However, although he said this, he only wanted to argue with Liehuo. He didn't really mean it in his heart. Although he had never had a formal fight with the defenders, the defensive awareness shown by the defenders in that night raid was extraordinary. This was why he didn't attack rashly like Liehuo - he couldn't defeat his opponent completely.

"What? Does defense mean just waiting for the enemy to get closer?" Liehuo stood up angrily and glared at Hugo Simon.

"Eh? Old Liehuo, don't glare at me." Hugo Simon's eyes slanted, his face looked a little unhappy, "When it comes to marching and fighting, I have as much experience as anyone else."

"You two, you two..." Nero was just about to smooth things over when one of his generals came running over.

"Report to General Nero!" The report of the deputy general immediately attracted the attention of Liehuo and Hugo Simon. "The enemy suddenly hung two large flags from the parapet. It's a bit strange."

Nero frowned and raised his eyes, but it was still a little far away and his eyesight couldn't see clearly. He could only vaguely see two red pieces the size of fingernails.

"Is there anything on the big flag?" Liehuo asked the general.

"I don't know." The deputy general shook his head. He had just received news passed down by the soldiers. Thinking that there might be something strange, he hurried over to report. He didn't have time to ask so many questions.

"Why are you in such a hurry? Ask clearly first!" Nero frowned and scolded.

"Yes." The general lowered his head and turned around...

There were indeed two red flags hung on the parapet, and they were of astonishing size. In order to make them, more than half of the logistics soldiers of the Salt Marsh Army worked almost all night to sew the two flags, each made of thirty-six red tents, and painted a huge symbol representing the god Amon on them.

It was naturally difficult to find a suitable flagpole for such a large flag, as it was impossible to cut down two towering trees to match it in a short period of time. Fortunately, Wu Lai only planned to hang them down from the wall from the beginning.

At the distance from Nero and others, they could only see two red pieces the size of a fingernail. But if the distance was closer, such as standing in the middle of the slope and looking up, these two flags would definitely shock people who saw them, not because of their huge size, but because of the eye-catching symbol of the god Amon on it.

This was an age of God-fear, in which God's symbols and statues represented the supreme God.

At least, these two flags of Woolley were effective against the Hurrians and Kimos, because they, like the Assyrians, had believed in the god Amun for generations, with the only exception being the Tianjue people on the mainland.

After the two flags were lowered, the soldiers of Hulett's First Legion began to slow down. They were hesitant and uneasy because they felt that the symbol of Amon on the two flags was like the eyes of Amon, staring at them, and there seemed to be a hint of warning in it.

But Woolley wants them to be closer.

Woolley's wish was soon realized - after knowing that the representative symbol of the god Amon was painted on the flag, the furious Nero gave the order to charge, and the left, center and right armies moved at the same time.

"Despicable! Shameless! Does he think that hanging down two flags can stop my attack?! Dream on! He is dreaming! Even if he hangs such flags all over this cliff, I will not let my soldiers retreat a single step!" Nero, who was always known for his steadiness and calmness, was completely furious.

Seeing him like this, Liehuo quietly turned around and shook his head, and his eyes happened to meet Hugo Simon's. Then, they both understood the meaning of each other's eyes - Nero was afraid.

Yes, Nero was afraid, and this fear had reached a level that he could no longer suppress - he had a deep faith in the god Amon, and wasn't it blasphemy for him to organize attacks and charges under the banner of Amon?

God Amon, please understand my helplessness. This is a war. I will sincerely sacrifice the heads of the enemy to you... Nero prayed in his heart.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

…

A smile appeared on Woolley's face when he saw through the telescope a piece of "rotten wood" circling towards the "dock platform" of Hulett's First Corps camp.

"Beat the drum!" Wu Lai raised his arm.

"Dong Dong!" There is a pause, followed by four consecutive "Dong Dong Dong Dong!" sounds, and then the previous rhythm is repeated.

Under the "rotten wood", Puya listened attentively to the drum sounds coming from afar for a while, then a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. He turned his body slightly and kicked his legs repeatedly, and the "rotten wood" drilled straight under the dock platform.

This scene did not attract the attention of the sentinels on the "dock platform" of Hulett's First Legion, because many pieces of wood or floating corpses would float down from upstream every day. In comparison, the appearance of floating corpses would attract more attention.

"Hurry up." Pu Ya said in a low voice after making sure that the five of them had arrived under the "dock platform".

She was responded with four gentle knocks.

The drum stopped after beating five times in a row, which was both a notification to Puya to start the action and a reminder to Shelley that you could show up.

Then Shelley showed up.

Her outfit today was very simple and elegant, and it was also very suitable for her status. Today, she was dressed in a formal outfit that she would only wear during a grand ceremony in the temple.

Under the linen cloak, a white silk robe with narrow sleeves and tight fit wrapped her seductive body. On the chest of this gorgeous high priest robe with gold lace, there was an embroidered sacrificial symbol that could only be used by the temple clergy.

Around her waist was a thin belt woven with a mixture of linen and wool, called the holy cord, which symbolized the purity and chastity of the clergy. This braided thin rope had a knee-length tassel at each end, which was now hanging on both sides of Shelley's thighs, swaying gently with her graceful steps.

Shelley also wore a long snow-white scarf around his neck, which symbolized the sacred power and majesty of the clergy and was only worn on solemn occasions such as Sundays, evening prayers, solemn consecration ceremonies, Eucharist processions, and Eucharistic processions.

However, the main reason Shelley wore it was because Woolley had "strawberries" planted on both sides of his neck.

Behind Shelley were two beautiful maids and Caesar, who was wearing a full set of heavy armor and left a clear footprint on the ground with every step he took.

Wu Lai quickly walked down the temporary wooden steps that were built to facilitate Shelley to go up and down smoothly, and greeted him with a smile.

The regiment commanders on the parapet also jumped down quickly and followed Wu Lai together with the battalion commanders guarding behind the parapet.

"Welcome to High Priest Shelley." Wu Lai bowed seriously, then stretched out his arm and gently held the little hand that Shelley handed over.

As soon as she put her hand on Wu Lai's arm, Shelley came closer to Wu Lai with a smile, glanced at everyone, and said in a voice that only Wu Lai could hear: "My dear Wu Lai, don't make me laugh later."

"No, just remember what I said. No matter what happens, you must remain calm and indifferent. I will stay with you." Only Shelley could hear Wu Lai's voice.

"That's great." Shelley's voice rose slightly.