Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

Tia also relaxed restrictions on the captured accomplices, allowing the soldiers to crucify them at will.

The Roman soldiers may have sympathy for the civilians here because it was too miserable, but they really had no good feelings for the accomplices who were the initiators and had fought with them for so long.

They fully utilized the human artistic cells and developed the traditional Roman art of crucifixion to a new height. They were keen on nailing people into various strange postures and then having fun with it.

If it was before this battle, Orville might have frowned and stopped it, but now Orville was almost numb. Real war would make people lose their humanity. Orville felt that he was in this state.

Many of his suggestions and decisions would have seemed absurd or even cruel to him in his previous life, but now it was a choice he had to make. If he didn't do it, more people would die.

He sighed and asked his adjutant Valerian: "How long have we been fighting here?"

"If we count from mid-March, it's now early June, almost two months."

"After the war, I will definitely give myself a long vacation, otherwise I feel mentally unstable..."

"We are all like this, sir. I can't wait to go home now. I miss the wine and bread in my hometown. If you want to go back to Rome, I am willing to entertain you. I'm not bragging, but Rome has many enjoyable lives that the Palphians don't have."

After all, they eat and live together, and Orville doesn't have any bad habits of the Palphians, so the two sides can talk very well. He can be said to have been promoted here in Orville, from a ten-man captain to the chief centurion of the brigade, not to mention that Orville has changed his last name now, and he is also a royal relative.

"Let's discuss it later. If I go to Rome, I will contact you as soon as possible."

Orville has no doubt that the other party's reception is very good. He has already found out the details of Valerian. He is indeed from a slave merchant family, and his family business is very successful.

The other party's last name was Capuanus, and there was a story about this place. It was Capuan where Spartacus revolted. Orville was embarrassed to ask, he was really curious whether Valerian's ancestors were the slave traders who trained Spartacus.

After chatting with Valerian for a few words, it was almost time for their subordinates to take turns to launch the attack. Valerian put on his helmet and began to direct the soldiers to work.

The two sides are now competing in endurance. The Roman army cut trees from more than ten kilometers away and dragged them over, and built earthen embankments against the projectile weapons of the defenders, while the Roman legionnaires operated scorpion crossbows or catapults to suppress the city walls with firepower, and a part of the people were assigned to manufacture and maintain these sophisticated siege weapons.

It seems that the work of the Roman army is more dangerous and tiring, but the siege will eventually require the legionnaires to fight with others at close range, so both sides are actually unsafe and are under great pressure.

The war has not been easy for the Romans. The Parfis know clearly that they fight for survival and freedom. To maintain morale, the Romans need discipline, money and honor, and the latter costs much more.

The Romans are a little bit overwhelmed by the stalemate. Tia has executed many deserters, made many speeches, and personally issued several salaries and bonuses. The high-intensity activities barely maintain the morale of the whole army.

But fortunately, everything is almost over now.

——

After the earth embankment and siege platform were built, Tia tried to chisel down the outer wall of the temple, but found that the stones there were too big and too neatly laid, and the battering ram could not knock it down.

Finally, Tia decided to change a method and launch a general attack from three directions to prevent the night from being long and dreamy. She didn't want to drag it on.

A few soldiers went to the third wall through the passage on the Antony wall, pretending to capture the city area first and then trap the defenders in the temple.

After the guards' attention was attracted, another small group of soldiers with a large number of torches began to feint and attack the Herod Palace located in the west of the holy city. The attack was chosen at night, and the darkness and panic would make them misjudge the number of the attacking troops.

After the city was completely in chaos, they would launch a general attack on the temple.

The attack plan was perfectly executed. The defenders in the city were already stretched to the limit and had no power to deal with such a large-scale impact. In the slightly chaotic organization, the flaw was discovered by Tiya.

First, the auxiliary army wrapped the red-hot arrows with cloth soaked in grease, and then shot the rockets into the temple, igniting the wooden buildings in the temple. Then a large number of legionnaires took ladders and began to climb the city wall. Tiya personally led the most elite soldiers to attack from the gate.

The gate had been damaged by the fire in the previous fire, and now it was just blocked by stones and wood, which could not stop the soldiers for too long.

Knowing that tonight might be the last battle, the defenders in the city resisted bravely, but under the full-scale attack of the Romans, they still began to retreat very slowly and reluctantly. During this period, they kept turning around and launching small-scale counterattacks, but in the end they were forced from the outer courtyard of the temple to the inner courtyard of the temple.

The Romans had no scruples and knocked open the gate of the inner courtyard of the temple, and then began to fight hand-to-hand with the remaining defenders inside. The battle was still fierce.

Orville also appeared on the battlefield with the army, but he was not here to command the battle.

Beside him were the tribune Nicanor and several tall and strong warriors. This was the "special forces" he carefully selected from the legion and asked Tia for.

"Please start the action, the sooner the better."

Nicanor still hesitated: "Are you sure? This temple has a history of hundreds of years and is the holy place of this nation."

He is the local tribune, who has lived here for a longer time and knows what the temple means to the people here. The king is worthless compared to the temple.

"I know better than you. It took 639 years and 45 days from the second year of Cyrus' reign when Haggai rebuilt the Second Temple. But I think human life is more important. If the sanctuary is burned down, the morale of the rebels will collapse, we can win the war, and fewer people will die in the city.

If they are really so pious to God, they should care for the world as God said. Do you see anything that can be called love in this city? So let the temple disappear with the sin. If it is burned down, it can be rebuilt. People are dead. "

Orville's words convinced Nicanor. He nodded heavily, then left Orville and began to climb the wall with several soldiers using grappling hooks.