I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 458 The Battle of Karsava (Part 2)

   The port expansion and repair of Dunkirk was the first large-scale employment of wizards by Louis XIV.

At that time, the Grand Condé returned to Paris as a guilt. If it wasn't for the assassination of Louis XIV, he came out to negotiate with the British under the persuasion of his friends, and kept the victory that Louis had achieved before, and the king would not have dealt with him after that. So lenient—but during that time, as the eldest son of the Grand Condé, Henry wisely chose not to return to his father right away, and to remain with his mother elsewhere.

When he returned to Paris, the reconstruction of Dunkirk was coming to an end, so how Dunkirk was rebuilt, he had only heard from Vauban and others - they said that a wizard could turn an entire port All the seawater is lifted up and pushed to the outside, exposing dry sand and rugged rock walls. Construction in the sea is like construction on the ground, which is unimaginably simple. It was really hard for Henry to imagine that kind of scene. It should be a scene that can only be heard in the legend of Neptune (Poseidon), but he still remembered this matter firmly.

As he tried to find a way to hold on to Karsava, he almost immediately thought that if the saint could dump the next torrential rain right away, the soil around Karsava was loose, the vegetation was sparse and low, and the roads were not as solid as those in France. Flat - there is still a lot of damage, this place is often ravaged by war, and destroying the road is the easiest way to defend.

  Unfortunately, the accompanying priests and wizards said that the next few days will be sunny and rainless.

  Henry didn't know where his inspiration came from. There was no heavy rain, so what about the river?

Above the Karsava is not only a tributary, but also a large lake. Of course, it is impossible to dig a ditches in such a short period of time, but the wizard can lift the seawater of a port and lift a lake, Even if it's only part of the lake, it shouldn't be a problem. No, Lake Lubanas is higher than Karsava, and as long as you dig the embankment, the lake will rush down.

The latter method is the suggestion of the wizards. When facing the same kind, the wizards in the inner world are only more vigilant than facing the aliens. These French and Italian wizards actually know the Slavic spirits very well. They are not enough. The lake then poured down not impossible, but not very efficient, but they quickly caught enough Lusaka and Voganoi.

Lusaka is a land mermaid. Unlike the sea mermaid, they live in the reeds by the river or in the swamp. According to legend, they are the incarnation of children or women who drowned without baptism. The wizards say this is pure nonsense of priests. Eight ways, because the earliest records of Lusaka can be found in the temples of ancient Greece, and the savior of the priests was not born at that time.

Henry didn't know if that was the case, but Lusaka looked like a mermaid in the sea with a beautiful face and an attractive figure - only the upper body, the lower body was more like a snake than a fish, they were just good at hiding, and they didn't have much to do with humans. Only in places where the power of the church is insufficient can there be so much threat. The wizards arrest them and ask them to point out the underground waterways or the ditches that have been hidden by vegetation for a long time.

As for the Voganois, they are the exact opposite of Lusaka in terms of appearance, like a man with a long green beard, a full-fledged fish tail, skin covered with rough black scales, and a hand looking at it. It's more like otters and frogs, with eyes that sparkle like coals of fire, and they're more dangerous than Lusaka—they're so powerful that they can easily destroy river banks, mills, and drag people into the water.

So in the wizard's plan, Voganoy had to take on more work - the wizards gathered part of the lake into the air, impacting the soil and vegetation around the lake, Voganoy followed the direction pointed out by Lusaka to dig the ditch, Direct the water in the direction of Karsava.

At the beginning, this plan seemed difficult to succeed. When the lake water was in the air, the volume looked amazing, but once it fell to the ground, it was immediately absorbed by the soil and plants. Under the moonlight, the stems and leaves of the plants were all In the glistening, the mud bubbling up one after another of gray foam, but after the wizards repeated the second and third times, a stream of filthy water finally flowed slowly to the Karsava's under people's expectations. direction.

  Scenarios like this also take place on the tributaries of the Gapwa River.

No one noticed when the water suddenly became fast, it seemed to be only a momentary thing, the first thing people noticed was that their cries suddenly changed from a low gurgle to a terrible rumbling, from The grey-black turned to silver-white, the man-made torrents broke through the last obstacle and rushed down, they pushed away, swept away and slapped everything in their path, the wizards who were watching the situation fled in a hurry, Lusaka He and Voganoi disappeared and disappeared in the current, screaming in horror.

   This little flood came towards Karsava, encircled two-thirds of its circumference along its low walls, and went lower again.

   The lower-lying places are, of course, battlefields.

It's just that when they reached the battlefield, the power of the floods has become very small, even very gentle. They are like a group of greedy celebrities, silently hollowing out the foundation of the earth, but leaving no obvious traces on the surface. - The darkened soil is hidden under the green branches and leaves, and the air is more humid, but it also feels like a drizzle at night. When the Russian soldiers walked out of the tent, they only felt indescribably comfortable, not at all. I didn't notice how the land under my feet had changed fatally.

  Henry no longer needed to pretend to be seriously ill. He came to the city wall wearing a breastplate, holding a telescope and looking at the Russian camp.

  The Romanov Boris was not a wise man, but by this time he also guessed that he had been fooled by the Poles, and he declared war angrily without much remorse. At this time, the war has no conditions and no concept, and it is too particular about time. The long marching process, the complicated messenger exchanges, and the attack and defense like the dots are the most common. Not only did the Russians fail to catch up in fashion In the footsteps of the people of Upper Europa, the same is true in warfare.

The advantage that the   Slavic wizards had won for him was wiped out.

  The Polish army was like this before, but now that Grand Condé became the king of Poland, he naturally brought everything France had into Poland, not just equipment. After he was stationed in Karlsava, the first thing for Prince Henry of Poland was not to repair or build his official residence and palace, but to inspect the city walls, fortifications and fortresses, and build forts, so now, his twenty artillery pieces have been used Moved up the city wall and moved in the direction of the Russians. Seeing this scene, the Russians laughed instead. They don't think these artillery pieces can move in a short period of time. place.

They thought so and did so, and Alexander of Miroslavsky galloped forward calmly, directing his soldiers to move the latest artillery to what he thought was the weakest part of the Karsava walls, along with the mules and horses of ammunition. box, ready to take the city and the crown prince of Poland in one fell swoop.

Although those places have been burnt with fire, and horses and human boots have stepped on, how does their weight compare to the solid artillery made of bronze and black iron? In a flash, the carriage carrying the artillery fell without warning. Go, in the first few seconds, people were still thinking about whether the axle of the carriage was broken, but they soon discovered that the whole carriage was sinking in unison, and a young soldier subconsciously reached out and pulled, But how can a human's strength be compared with a heavy weapon that respects several tons, his arm was dislocated immediately, and he involuntarily let out a scream.

Luckily for him, another wagon loaded with artillery tipped over to one side, crushing two people to death - one was immediately silent, the other was half-shattered and seemed hopeless, and his companion helped him break it. pain.

  Most of the artillery has encountered such a problem, and it is like a human walking into a swamp, the infiltration is gradual, and the soil behind it is still solid, and when the carriage reaches a place where it cannot carry it, they can hardly retreat.

It was only at this time that someone went to investigate the ground. What puzzled them was that there was no heavy rain last night, but the ground seemed to be soft like a storm. The morning sun dried the surface, making them careless and falling into the Poles' trap. But if they were given some time, it was not impossible for them to drag the carriage out again, but at this time the Poles' artillery had already roared.

Of course, the artillery that can be brought all the way to Karlsava by Henry will not be the kind of heavy artillery that exceeds twelve pounds. There are only twelve eight-pounder artillery and eight six-pounder artillery. The advantage is that their weight will not exceed one. Tons, were quickly transferred to the city walls, and their ammunition ranged from solid rounds to grenades filled with gunpowder, as well as the shotgun popularized by Louis XIV.

Henry had the loader load double the shotgun shells first, which would have taken a huge toll on the life of the barrel, but he needed a **** first win to overpower the Russians—as we all know, shotguns are generally To deal with humans and horses, their range is very short, and they only have maximum lethality within 400 yards, but when the bottom of the canister-shaped shell bursts due to the change of internal and external pressure, the bullet inside sweeps like an open fan. When around, the damage caused to the flesh and blood can be imagined.

  Especially after the bachelors and craftsmen of Louis XIV, after continuous experiments, the bullets in the shotgun shells were changed from gravel and soft lead bullets to hard and non-deformable iron bullets.

What Henry wanted to attack was the horse pulling the carriage and the soldiers beside the carriage. After a brief shelling, the carriage stuck in the mud was dyed red, and neither man nor horse could stand upright—there was even a brief moment on the battlefield. of silence. After a while, a group of ragged people were driven up. They might be Tatar soldiers or the surrounding serfs, but it made no difference. As long as the Russians wanted to pull the guns back, Henry's gunners would fire.

   "It's a pity these light guns." Buhua said.

Shotguns have excellent lethality to people and horses, as well as artillery—a new bronze cannon can fire more than 5,000 solid bullets, but can only withstand the firing of more than 200 shotguns. The artillery was also almost obsolete.

"I think I'm still worth twenty guns," Henry said jokingly. With the support of his uncle, he didn't need to worry too much about his armaments—he was confident that he could repay the debt. He was the future king of Poland. . He raised the binoculars again and looked at it - in fact, it is not so necessary. Although the number of Russian artillery is large, the quality is of concern. He can still see the ancient small stone cannons from the wreckage of the carriage, heavy and large. Mortars, leather cannons used by the Swedes in the Thirty Years' War…

As the name implies, the leather cannon is a thin copper tube or iron sheet on the inside, wrapped with leather strips dipped in rosin, and then an iron hoop is added, and the outermost layer is wrapped with layers of leather. But range and lethality... needless to say.

Because most of these are either old or perfunctory guns, the Russians had to push them very close to the city walls to give the Poles a chance to shoot their shotguns, and now it seems unlikely that they will use these guns After dragging it back, does it depend on the number of people to win? Maybe it can. After all, the defending side only has twenty artillery pieces, and they will either use up their shells or wait for their artillery pieces to become invalid.

  The Russians retreated further afield and began to build fortifications and siege equipment.

How angry the Russian Tsar Alexei I was, not to mention the anger of the Polish Crown Prince Henry did buy enough time for himself. Before the reinforcements from Sweden and Poland arrived, the young soldier made another bold decision-when When the messenger of Luza from the old city came to him, he asked him to take away Buhua and some of the Tatars, as well as a hundred musketeers and three hundred guards, together with hundreds of mercenaries from Luza At the same time, they raided the left flank of the Russians in the middle of the night, adopting the chariot fortress tactics used by the Hussites in the fifteenth century.

The horse-drawn camp tactics used by the Hussites have many similarities to modern foottan tactics - soldiers marching in columns, the outside of the carriage is equipped with metal armor, and the carriage is loaded with small artillery - to the right At the location, the carriages were linked with iron chains, the artillery was erected, and the cannons were fired through the gap between the carriage and the carriage house, and the soldiers launched an attack after the artillery fire.

The Hussites still used stone cannons, and now Henry was able to bring in four-pounders and six-pounders from the defenders, but the final victory was not entirely due to these guns, but to the abundance and wealth of the Polish army. Nutritious military food.

Enough offal, fish and meat to allow each of Prince Henry's soldiers to have good eyesight at night, the Russian soldiers couldn't, the Russian serf system lasted until the nineteenth century, the common soldier was better than the serf though , but not to the point where they can enjoy the meat and fish as they like, they can't see things freely at night, the Poles and the French, and the Tatars who don't wait.

The artillery roared, then the light cavalry charge, followed by the infantry, but the Russian soldiers huddled in tents instead of fortifications long ago collapsed after a burst of cannonballs, and they encountered little organized resistance until Golovin's cavalry finally appeared on the edge of darkness and light.

   did not take the horses and knights that were familiar to him and immediately retreated, they were not Russians, they had time.

  What surprised Henry was that Buhua actually caught the Russian commander in this battle, that is, Boris of Romanov.

   Sorry for being late.

   (end of this chapter)