Iron Powder and Spellcaster

According to the local people we found, the city walls of Tacheng are already old. We don't know the specific construction time, but they were built at least fifty years ago - this was the earliest seat of the Duke of Chiliu Island. The Federation seized power It was gradually abandoned until it was renovated two years ago, but no major changes were made overall.”

The atmosphere in the military meeting tent in the temporary camp was very depressing. Most of the senior officers were smoking cigarettes and listening to the report of the head of the intelligence department without saying a word.

The officer who was speaking turned over a page in the small book in his hand, licked his lips and continued: The main body of the city wall is not lime mortar, but volcanic ash concrete, which is the material of the dome of St. Mark's Cathedral. It is obtained by mixing volcanic ash with lime and sea water. Artificial stone. The outer wall is made of volcanic rock mined from a nearby quarry. To put it simply, the main body of the city wall is a whole large stone, and the outside is covered with a layer of stone.

One of the school officials cursed in a low voice, and the others also looked a little ugly. The officers who can hold meetings here have at least fourteen years of military service. The stronger the city wall, the greater the price the attacker will have to pay.

Seeing that everyone was in a bad mood, the person in charge of the Intelligence Department quickly continued to explain the disadvantages of the city wall: However, the biggest problem with Tacheng's city defense system is that it is too old. It is a city defense system that has been eliminated. It still relies on high-level defense, and then in Under the high wall is an earth slope to deal with the ladder.

Because the stone city wall is expensive to build, the main body of the Tacheng city wall is thin and only two meters wide, making it difficult to deploy artillery. Tanilao also realized this problem during the renovation two years ago, but it did not make any major changes. It only added a protruding half-moon fort on the east and west walls for setting up side-firing artillery.

The head of the Intelligence Department took a breath and turned another page in the small book in his hand: Because of the difficulty of digging, there is no trench in Tacheng. After the joint forces fled into Tacheng, they thought about trying to dig one temporarily, but they couldn't. They gave up when they reached 1.5 meters. But they used the excavated earth and rocks to build another parapet under the city wall, and used a temporary rammed earth triangular fortress to cover the city gate...

It's a bit structured. William Kidd is just a pirate, I'm afraid he doesn't have this ability. Who is really defending the city? Antonio interrupted the head of the Third Army's Intelligence Department.

Sweat suddenly appeared on the forehead of the director of the Intelligence Department. He did not dare to refute, so he could only say: ...We don't know about this for the time being.

There is no need to talk about the issue of city defense. Everyone can understand it. Tell me some other more important information. Antonio continued to ask: Is there a water source in the city? How many civilians are there? How about food storage?

The officers were a little shaken when they heard Antonio's questions. Obviously, since Major General Serbetti started asking these questions, it meant that he was already considering a long-term siege rather than a forceful attack.

The director of the Intelligence Department quickly flipped through the small book again: The civilians in Tacheng are mainly sulfur miners and their families, less than 300 households. The Federation has not arranged a granary in Tacheng, so it should only be the food stored in the homes of sulfur miners. and the food they collected from nearby villages in the past few days. There are no wells in the city, and it mainly relies on streams flowing from the mountains. There are two or three reservoirs. According to locals, climbing up the mountain behind Tacheng, There is a crater lake up there. But the water there is bitter because it is too close to the sulfur mines.

Antonio held his forehead and ordered: Send a few people into the mountains to find out how many streams there are and if they can find a way to cut them off.

The director of the Intelligence Department quickly said yes.

The air in the military council hall became dull again.

Layton couldn't hold himself back, slapped his thigh and cursed: [Military expletive]! [Military expletive]! These Tani guys have stolen all our stuff! [Military expletive]!

Although Layton's words sounded a bit nonsensical, they actually expressed what all the officers were thinking.

The republics have been strategically on the defensive since they separated from the empire. Although the empire was defeated, it still maintained a strength far stronger than that of the Senas Alliance.

Although there was no war between the Empire and the Republics after the War of Autonomy, the bilateral relations became increasingly close after Henry III succeeded to the throne.

However, strategic pressure is strategic pressure. On the other side of the Shade Mountains is the most powerful empire on the continent. No matter how friendly it is, it is still a huge threat.

Therefore, the strategic thinking of the armies of all republics is mainly defensive and counterattack. This is also the successful experience of sovereign war. Use fortified towns one after another to consume the invaders' strength and morale, and then let the field troops look for opportunities to fight decisively.

In the strategic thinking of the alliance, there is no fortress that cannot be fallen. As long as it causes enough casualties and buys enough time before it falls, the fortress has completed its strategic purpose.

The Tani guys in Tacheng obviously have this purpose. This is an isolated city destined to fall - two legions of 10,000 troops are besieging a small city defended by less than 3,000 people, and the defenders have not yet provided support.

Under normal circumstances, facing such a doomed battle, the defenders would have surrendered long ago. At most, some exchange conditions may be proposed during negotiations, such as allowing the defenders to leave with weapons. However, the Union defenders refused to surrender and did not even have the slightest intention of negotiating.

The tanilao behind the city wall understood the weakness of the military systems of the republics: the political system determined that Veneta could not mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops at any cost like the feudal kings.

When not at war, Veneta only has a total of 6,000 standing troops. In order to save money, they have to disperse and garrison in various cities, because supplies can be provided by the garrison city.

Therefore, Antonio and Leighton could not waste Veneta's elite under the walls of Tower City, but they also could not leave a Union army behind them waiting for an opportunity.

This is why Leighton scolded Tani for stealing his own stuff. This is an era in which tactically, offense overwhelms defense, and strategically, defense overwhelms offense. Everyone will feel angry if their magic weapon of victory is used against them by others.

However, there is nothing that can be done about it, because humans are slow to learn all kinds of things, but they learn the fastest when it comes to fighting.

The barbarians on the border of the empire may not be able to learn poetry and poetry, but they can immediately absorb and digest iron tools, trebuchets, gunpowder, and cannons when they see them.

This is also the reason why barbarians can conquer civilization time and time again, because in this era, the military technology of barbarian tribes is not lagging behind that of civilized countries, and their mobilization capabilities are even better.

I digress a bit and return to the attack and defense of Tacheng.

The officers thought about it over and over, but there was no good solution.

In fact, everyone knows the best way, which is not to attack but to surround. There were less than 3,000 garrison troops in Tacheng, and they were too frightened to go out for a decisive battle.

Therefore, as long as one legion of the Grand Veneta Legion and the San Marco Legion is left here to besiege, they can wait for the defenders to surrender without food.

If the defenders don't come out, then everyone will sit down and fight. Anyway, the Veneta people have the entire Chisulfur Island as a supply base, and they can accompany the Tanilao to fight until the end of the world.

It would be better if the defenders dared to go out of the city to fight in the field. If a fully-equipped army of more than 5,000 men defeats your 3,000 miscellaneous troops, they will have to beat out Tanilao's brains.

Another legion can be freed from the siege to continue attacking the other main islands of the Tanilia Archipelago.

Everyone knows this plan well, and it is good, but the question is...who will stay? Who leaves?

Who would want to stay and besiege the city? Who knows how much food the tanilaos in the city have? Richard IV besieged the city for two years but failed to capture Guitu City. If you are not lucky enough, I am afraid that when the war ends, the legions staying here will still be quarreling with the Tani guys in the city.

The soldiers might be happy, but none of the officers here were happy.

Without war, officers would have to rely on seniority if they wanted to be promoted. The military system of the Senas Alliance means that officers not only have to wait for seniority, but also wait for vacancies.

Unless the officers who can sit in the military debate are from a well-off family or their father-in-law's family is well-off, they have survived all the way from begging second lieutenant, poor lieutenant, squeezing captain, and finally major.

After finally getting a chance to fight, which officer would be willing to waste his time here? Who doesn’t want to go one step further?

Outside this small and hard tower city, the problems with the Veneta army's command system became apparent.

From a rational point of view, of course, the reserve army should be besieged here, while the elite standing army left Chiliu Island to continue to attack the city.

However, the problem is that Serbetti is a major general, and Layton is also a major general. Moreover, even if the former's military rank is superior to that of the latter, he cannot command the latter.

The military structure of the Republic of Veneta determines the independence of each legion, because each legion is directly under the Military Council, and the legion commander is only responsible to the Council of Thirteen. Even if a second lieutenant was placed as the commander of the Legion of San Marco, he would not be able to ignore Antonio's orders.

This structure prevented the army from clumping together, ensured that the government commanded the army, rather than the army kidnapping the government, and allowed the Veneta government to avoid taking the wrong path of the United Provincial Republic.

Moreover, if it is a local battle, there is no problem if the legions are independently commanded by the Council of Thirteen. However, the problem now is: There is a sea between the two legions and Hailan City. If you want to communicate with the Council of Thirteen, you have to send a ship to first cross the ocean back to Hailan, and then cross the ocean back to Red Sulfur Island.

Even if things go smoothly, it will take three weeks to go back and forth. If luck is almost always met with headwinds, it is not impossible to get news from Aquamarine City a month later. If luck gets worse and all the communication ships sent out sink, then the two legions may be waiting here for a reply. Hailan still knows nothing about the situation on Red Sulfur Island.

Besides, if everything goes well, it will take three weeks to get news from the Council of Thirteen, so it would be better to simply attack by force. If the siege goes well, maybe the tower city can be captured in a week.

The senior officers in the military tent were fully aware of the current situation, but whether to leave or to attack, and who to leave and who to stay, these issues were beyond their control.

Decision-making can only be made by the two legion commanders, and no one else is qualified to participate - of course, there is still one person who is theoretically qualified, and that is another member of the thirteen-member council sent by Aquamarine City.

The general who came to Red Sulfur Island on a supply fleet originally came at the request of Major General Antonio and Vice Admiral Nareshaw as the third member of the Revenge Fleet's Provisional Military Committee.

However, as luck would have it, another Vice Admiral of the Navy came... No matter how high the rank of a Navy man is, he has no say in the military affairs of the Army.

Antonio's previous proposal to establish a joint command was to avoid this kind of internal friction between the army and the navy, but who would have thought that the cooperation between the Third Army and the navy would be smooth, but it was the army that had problems first.

So in the end, the two corps commanders had to reach a consensus, and the school officers were waiting for the final decision of the two major generals.

Major General Leighton was obviously not willing to stay and be trapped. After sitting on the bench for many years, he finally took charge of the army again. He was definitely going to fight a big war. How could he waste time on the small Red Sulfur Island.

Even if Antonio agreed to stay and besiege the city, the officers of the Grand Veneta Army would not be convinced.

Winters contacted the Grand Veneta Army through Kalman's smuggling channel. In other words, the credit for conquering Red Sulfur Port should have belonged to the Third Army.

However, in order to ensure victory, Antonio decided that the Third Army would continue to pretend to attack the north coast to attract the main enemy force, and handed over the task of attacking Red Sulfur Port to the Legion of San Marco who had just arrived.

In other words, this credit was given to the Legion of San Marco by Antonio. The officers of Grand Veneta were full of resentment, and it was only Antonio's prestige that kept them in check. These words, Suffering for the sake of the country and enduring humiliation are really unconvincing to the officers who dream of meritorious service and promotion.

Besides, they've endured it once, why can't the Legion of San Marco endure it again? The officer corps of Grand Veneta firmly believed in private that the reservists should be left behind for reasons and reasons. They would rather climb the city wall than be responsible for the siege of the tower city.

How about drawing lots? Or one family keeps half... Just when a certain school official was thinking wildly, Antonio immediately announced the adjournment of the meeting.

At noon that day, Antonio, Layton, Nareshaw, and Vice Admiral Compton, who had just arrived from Hailan, the four top commanders of the army and navy held a closed-door meeting.

The clerk was not allowed into the camp, so no one knew what kind of conversation the four had.

That afternoon, Andre excitedly broke into Winters' tent and shook Winters awake from his nap.

Winters, who was always angry when getting up, spent a lot of effort to resist the urge to curse: What are you doing?

Come on! Andrei shouted excitedly: The director asked us to follow the engineer officers to build roads! Finally, we don't have to do paperwork anymore! Copy! Copy! Copy! I can't finish writing these days. I know the letters...

Ah!? Building roads?

It is more expensive to tear down and rebuild than to start from scratch. After the artillery takes over, the old city defense structure needs large-scale reconstruction. However, in order to save money, most of the urban defense reconstruction projects in the 15th and 16th centuries were based on the original foundation. For example, the city defense renovations in Rhodes and Famagusta were based on repeated changes to the original medieval city walls. In 1472, the northern Italian city of Imola simply wrapped the original medieval square tower with a huge round tower, forming a funny matryoshka structure. After all, in the era of the gold and silver standard, public spending budgets were always tight.

In addition, pozzolan concrete is also a real technology.

Thank you to the book friends who have voted for recommendation before. Thank you to Crawford Lawrence, writersblock, Zhou Shitong Zhou, Book Friends 20181013204343295, Yuan Hongjian, Ami, Justice and Purity is Koala. Thank you all.