Now that it has come to this, she is not afraid of Hera, let alone Zeus!
Athens!
Hilde must be taken!
First tune, first section, the trumpet call to attack Athens
The sky of Athens seemed to be covered by a dark cloud.
The depressing atmosphere makes it hard to breathe.
It was an indescribable pressure.
Hilde looked up at the gray sky, with an indescribable feeling in her heart. For all Athenians, at this moment, I am afraid that they are in a very complicated mood. They have personally experienced the fear of being overwhelmed by the army and about to perish, and also experienced the sense of security of being protected by the gods. But they themselves do not know that Athens, the pearl of the Aegean Sea, the most famous city-state in human history, is now just a chess piece, a wife being played on the chessboard.
And the people playing chess were not Athenians at all.
But the gods, and Hilde.
Nicias also noticed Hilde's high-spirited look.
But, he had no other choice.
That is an enemy that even gods dare not confront head-on.
Now, he can only hope that the messenger can help him buy more time.
The messenger from Athens left Athens with only two or three guards and headed towards the Byzantine army. When the Byzantine army saw someone leaving the city, they did not attack. Sitalses, who was in charge of leading the front-line troops, raised his hand, and all the troops stopped in unison, looking vigilantly at the few people rushing towards them.
"I am the messenger from Athens--!!!"
The man in the blue robe rushed over and shouted:
"I represent Athens!!! I'm here to negotiate with your army!"
"Humph, false surrender."
Hilde snorted.
She gently pulled up the reins and said to Xerxes beside her: "The Athenians are still planning to surrender. Now the city of Athens has been protected by Hera, which means they have long been prepared for a desperate resistance. Sending an envoy at this time must be to continue to delay time."
"Hmph, then just kill him directly."
Xerxes was about to take action.
He planned to use fire to burn the messenger to ashes.
But he was stopped by Hilde.
"It's okay, it won't take a few minutes."
"Row."
Hilde nodded, and then took a few steps forward. At this time, the messenger also stopped under the murderous gazes of the soldiers. He looked at Hilde in astonishment, then immediately calmed down, jumped off his horse, and saluted respectfully to Hilde.
"Your Majesty the Queen!"
"Stop talking nonsense. What's the matter with sending an envoy here at this time?"
"Your Majesty, your army is approaching, but Athens really does not want to be involved in the war. We hope to find an opportunity to discuss peace with the respected Queen. After all, Her Majesty the Queen does not want her soldiers to be wasted in a meaningless war. This is a handwritten letter from our Archon, Lord Nicias."
As he spoke, the messenger took out a scroll from his arms.
But Hilde sneered.
"Unless you surrender now, there is no room for negotiation."
"Surrender is a matter of great importance. I'm afraid we need to think about this matter carefully."
"Then there's nothing more to say."
The voice just fell.
A flash of silver light flashed across the messenger's neck.
The messenger, who was about to say something, suddenly stopped and froze in place. Hilde rode forward a few steps, stretched out his hand, and pulled up the man's head. Just now, the spear directly chopped off the opponent's head, but the speed was too fast and the spear was too sharp, so the man's head remained on his body until Hilde lifted it up with his own hands, and the head and skull were separated.
Blood spurted out from the neck.
It sprayed directly on Hilde's white horse.
"This this……"
"Humph, can your tricks still fool me?"
Hilde waved his hand, and the guards fell to the ground, breathless.
Hilde hung the messenger's head on the back of her horse. With the head hanging on her head, Hilde turned back to the army, raised her bloody spear, and shouted to the city of Athens: "The despicable Athenians are still trying to use the means of false surrender to delay their demise!!! Everyone! Now, it's time for us to take up arms and teach these despicable guys a lesson!!!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
"The whole army obeys the order!"
Hilde's eyes were fixed on Nicias in the distance.
"The whole army, attack!"
Woo——! ! !
When the horn sounded, the Byzantine army began its siege.
The heavy trebuchets had been installed a few hundred meters away from the city wall. After the trebuchets were installed, pottery jars loaded with Greek fire were placed on top of them. In addition, large scorpion crossbows, bed crossbows, and catapults were also pushed very close to the city wall. These siege weapons were something the Greeks had never seen before. This masterpiece of ingenious engineering opened the eyes of the Athenian soldiers.
The Byzantine soldiers stopped where they were.
Waiting for the moment when the city wall is broken down.
The trebuchet's counterweight has been installed and all the ammunition has been loaded.
Seeing this, Dione, who was in charge of the siege weapons, shouted in her clear voice like a silver bell:
"put!"
"put!!!"
The soldier cut the rope with his dagger.
Then, the catapults with slender arms threw the Greek fire into the air. There were sixteen catapults in the main attack direction, which could launch sixteen pots filled with Greek fire at a time. These ignited pots flew up and down in the air and flew towards the Athenian city wall.
"Be careful to avoid!"
The generals also shouted at the top of their lungs:
"The enemy has started to attack!"
"Get away!"
Although Athens was protected by a shield.
When these Greek fire pottery jars hit the shield, it was like hitting a sponge, and their speed suddenly slowed down a lot. But because of this, these pottery jars that should have been thrown directly into the city instead disintegrated directly in the air due to this slowdown. The black viscous liquid fell directly from the sky like rain, pouring onto the walls of Athens.
Once the burning Greek fire stuck to the human body, it was almost impossible to extinguish. Most of the soldiers defending the city wall were light infantry without armor, and the linen on their bodies could not resist the attack of the Greek fire at all. In such a burning state, the soldiers who were touched let out miserable wails, rolled down from the city wall, and fell to the ground.
"Fire! It's fire!"
“Help——!!!”
The soldiers rolled on the city wall, trying to put out the flames on their bodies.
However, these flames are difficult to extinguish.
This attack also made Hield see something different.
"This barrier seems to be able to defend against things thrown in from outside. If we use a catapult to throw stones directly in, they will probably lose speed after passing through the barrier, and will not be as lethal." Hilde frowned and analyzed, "If it is a crossbow, the crossbow arrows shot out will also lose sufficient impact because of this barrier..."
"But Greek fire can't be stopped."
Xerxes seemed to be smiling happily.
"Hahahaha, because of this, the Greek fire turned directly into rain of fire."
"yes……"
However, Hilde was a little unhappy.
Greek fire is indeed very powerful, but it cannot destroy the walls of Athens. It can only hit the soldiers on the walls. If the walls are difficult to destroy, it will be very difficult to enter Athens. But this barrier is undoubtedly almost impossible to break. Unless Hera is found and then eliminated.
and so……
Athens was protected by this barrier.
In fact, it will not be attacked by any external projectile weapons.
Seconds, really seconds.
"How much Greek fire do we have left?"
"Enough for the Athenians to drink a pot."
Xerxes pointed to the trebuchet position behind.
"All of the Byzantine Empire's two-year Greek fire production is stored here."
"Well, then burn the walls of Athens until there is no one left alive."
Since Hera's protective shield prevented the walls of Athens from being destroyed by the trebuchets, wouldn't it be enough to use Greek fire to force back the troops defending the walls? So Hilde continued to order that the Greek fire used by the trebuchets should not stop.
And here on the front lines of the Athenian army.
The light infantry defending the city wall have been scrambling to come down from the wall.
They held up their small round shields to protect their bodies to avoid being burned by the rain of fire.
The buildings near the city walls became the most important places to avoid the rain of fire. However, this was not what Nicias wanted to see. After all, the rain of fire was still the rain of fire, but if there were no soldiers defending the city walls, then the city walls would lose their significance.
"Mr. Archon!"
At this time, the general hurried over.
"Retreat quickly!"
"I can't retreat..."
Nicias looked at the flame-covered city wall and said helplessly:
"Now, let's arrange for the soldiers to take shelter. This flame is very strange."
"I'm afraid this is something that the gods don't allow."
"should be……"
Nicias nodded helplessly.
"However, the soldiers cannot be sacrificed in vain on this thing. We should let the soldiers hide first. If the enemy wants to attack, they must stop this attack. At that time, it will not be too late to climb up the wall and attack again."
"Yes! I understand!"
The general nodded and immediately arranged for shelter.
After all, in this situation, there is no other way.
First tune, second section, very cautious decision
Soldiers rushed down from the city wall, hid in the houses next to them, or used shields to cover their heads. The black fire rain that fell from the sky was like a judgment on the Athenians. Although it did not affect too many places, it caused a certain degree of fire around the city wall. But Nicias knew very well that it was this kind of fire that would prevent the Byzantines from continuing to attack.
However, such fires, as well as the extremely cruel Greek fire, dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the Athenian army. Perhaps people were too obsessed with the blessing of the gods, thinking that the protection of Lady Hera would make Athens invulnerable to weapons, but in fact this protection could only allow Athens to escape the attacks of the terrible siege weapons of the Byzantines.
For something as weird as Greek fire.
This layer of protection is still useless.
Whether it was the poor soldier who was stuck by the black rain of fire, or the guy who fell from the city wall and killed himself, these tragedies and their deaths caused a huge psychological shock to the surviving soldiers.
The gods had just appeared today and assured everyone that they would protect Athens, but in the first round of attacks, they witnessed such a terrible and tragic situation. It was as if everything the gods said was a lie, just to fool the Athenians.
Faced with such a situation.
Nicias was helpless.
He waved his hand and slapped away the Greek fire that was flying towards him.
Nicias was very worried. How long would this situation last? The attack just now had obviously allowed the Byzantine army to see what kind of effect and nature the protective shield set up by Hera had. Therefore, it was highly likely that a wise commander would not use weapons such as catapults or crossbows when facing such a protective shield.
But how many such black weapons did the Byzantine Kingdom store? If they continued to use these weapons to burn the surrounding areas of the city walls, or even let the flames burn into the city of Athens, then even if Athens won the final victory in the battle, it would cause indelible damage to Athens. Nicaea saw the miserable condition of those soldiers with her own eyes. Once this kind of fire touched the body, it seemed impossible to extinguish it even if they rolled on the ground.
