Iron Powder and Spellcaster

On the first day after the small-scale battle in the city trench, the attackers and defenders sent people to each other to collect the corpses, but neither took action.

The next day, the defenders sent people out to dig trenches.

But this time it was not late at night, but started with great fanfare and clanging during the day.

Apparently the defenders were keenly aware of the weaknesses of the Venetas, which included no artillery, too few cannon fodder, and a lack of cavalry.

Therefore, there is no need to work at night to hide their ears and steal the bell. Instead, the Veneta people can use the night to get closer.

Just work during the day. The defenders on the city wall can clearly see the movements of the Veneta people from their high position.

The defenders seemed to be spreading their thighs and saying to the Venetians: "Come on, come on, come on, don't come on."

On the city walls, the Half-Moon Fort and the Triangular Fort, the Union soldiers were standing ready. The cannons and muskets had been loaded, the crossbows had been cocked, and bundles of arrows were stacked beside the crossbowmen.

Obviously, if the Veneta people were willing to risk lead bullets and arrows to fight for the trench, the tower city defenders would be very happy to make an exchange.

On the Veneta wall, Layton was so angry that he almost smashed the parapet with a slap. He yelled: "[Indistinct expletive]! I was underestimated by the Tani! Send a brigade over! This time it's XX Kill them until they dare not go out again!"

"If we send troops to kill and injure the people in the trenches, I'm afraid it will be what William Kidd wants." Antonio said with a smile: "Roster [Leighton's name], what do you think is in the trenches now?" people?"

"Don't beat around the bush! It's getting annoying to play charades with me every day. If you have something to say, just say it!" Layton didn't answer at all and gave Antonio a hard look.

Antonio didn't care, and he was obviously used to the violent temper of his old classmates. He asked and answered himself: "William Kidd will never send his own soldiers out. The trenches are probably filled with miners who originally lived in Tacheng. . The more miners we kill, the less they have a mouth to eat and drink. If you want to exchange the extra mouths for the lives of our soldiers, William Kidd is really a good deal."

"What should we do?" Layton glared again.

Antonio tapped his fingers rhythmically on the wall of the city wall: "This is a conspiracy. They are dispatched during the day to kill our commandos more efficiently. You can visually check how far we are from the city wall now."

"About half a kilometer."

"This distance is already within the effective range of the artillery, not to mention that the Union's artillery positions are condescending. Why don't the artillery on Half-Moon Fort and Triangle Fort fire on us? Why do they watch us build siege walls?"

Layton's nostrils suddenly expanded and he yelled angrily: "Still doing charades? You're done, aren't you?"

"Think, friend, think. The younger generations are watching, don't be so impatient."

"Get lost."

Seeing that Leighton was about to have an attack, Antonio patted his arm and explained: "There must not be enough gunpowder in the tower city. So the enemy is waiting for the opportunity to maximize the damage to our army, otherwise they would have bombarded us with cannons We have few soldiers and cannot waste it. William Kidd has very little gunpowder and cannot waste it. Making such an action is nothing more than luring us closer to the city wall..."

"Stop talking nonsense and tell the conclusion." Layton said impatiently.

"What William Kidd wants us to do, we don't do it. We don't have cannons now, and the enemy has little gunpowder, so it's not bad." Antonio patted the dust on his hands: "There is no need to send troops to kill the people in the trenches. The miners were forced out of the city to work after the battle last night. No matter who they are, they will not work hard. And these miners who are resentful of the federation may be of great use to us."

Leighton's eyes were as wide as a bull's eye: "Then we just watch Tanilao strengthen the city's defenses?"

"Since William Kidd can send people to dig trenches, we can also do civil work." Antonio said in a relaxed tone: "We will do whatever the enemy does. We will never follow their plan anyway. Look. Who is afraid of whom?"

In the afternoon of that day, when the defenders who had been on guard on the tower city wall all morning began to tire, the Veneta people's ramparts a few hundred meters away began to approach the city wall.

The Union soldiers standing guard on the Triangular Fort noticed something strange about the enemy on the opposite side and hurriedly called their superiors. After several level-by-level reports, William Kidd, the supreme commander of the Tower City garrison, came to the triangular fort in front of the city gate—the location closest to the Veneta human fortress wall.

After observing carefully for a while, Captain Kidd finally figured out what Veneta was doing. He slapped his hand hard on the wall of the triangular castle and yelled: "[The most vulgar swear words used by pirates]!"

Directly opposite the city gate and the triangular fort, the Veneta people made an opening in the earthen wall and were building a corridor that was inclined at a 45-degree angle from the line connecting the city gate to the triangular fort and the opening.

This is why the first sentry who discovered it reported that "the enemy's earth wall is approaching us."

Here in Tacheng, the Tanirians are digging trenches in full swing.

However, outside the city, the Veneta people were also building the wall in full swing.

The most superior defensive condition of Tacheng is not the city wall, but the foundation. The entire city sits on a large piece of volcanic rock, and the soil produced by the weathering of the rock is blown to lower areas by strong sea winds.

Therefore, the soil around the city is extremely thin, even too thin to be cultivated. Under the soil is hard volcanic rock. The siege party could neither dig trenches to get close to the city wall, nor use tunnel blasting to destroy the city wall.

The siege troops must pass through the hard open space in front of the city wall. In the process, they will be completely exposed to the long-range firepower of the defenders, and will be killed by bouncing cannonballs and flying lead and arrows.

However, when people are driven into a hurry, they can think of any solution.

Engineer Lieutenant Colonel Sebastian Vauban, who was transferred to the Road Construction Countermeasures Headquarters, was called back to the siege front line before his chair was warm. Forced into a corner by two major generals, Lieutenant Colonel Vauban racked his brains and came up with an idea. An alternative: Since you can't dig trenches, build walls and trenches in the ground.

To put it simply, it is to build a corridor on both sides of the wall. Although this is far more labor-intensive than digging trenches, it is the only way at present.

After hearing Vauban's plan, Leighton immediately decided: Let's do it!

In the eyes of Roster Leighton, "It is better to think about progress than to stop." It is better to do something than to watch the enemy dig trenches.

However, the operability of this brain-decided plan was extremely poor, and a large number of engineering problems arose after it was implemented.

First of all, this is building a tunnel right under the enemy's nose. The enemy may tolerate the Veneta Army's perimeter of half a kilometer outside the city, but they will never tolerate the Veneta Army's continued construction of corridors close to the city.

Digging trenches provides a natural barrier that can block direct fire, but building walls is not possible, and the construction efficiency of rammed earth walls is too slow.

While being bombarded by the enemy with cannons, and at the same time using piers to pound the earth, no one has such tenacious nerves.

Thanks to Vauban's quick wit, he got inspiration from the engineering technology of building dams and temporarily invented an innovative way of building walls.

Lieutenant Colonel Vauban used local materials to weave a roughly cylindrical cage from the dense vines and flexible branches in the woods on the island. He first filled the cage with large pieces of gravel, then filled the gaps with small pieces of gravel, and finally used The soil is compacted.

By laying the cages flat on the ground and building them up layer by layer, you can quickly build a temporary wall.

The length of the cage is the thickness of the wall. A one-meter-long cage creates a wall that is strong enough to withstand musket and light artillery fire.

Although the walls of this crude structure will definitely collapse over time, no one expects them to stand on the ground forever. It is enough to last until the end of the siege.

In order to allow soldiers to construct more safely, Lieutenant Colonel Vauban invented a "moving wall".

That is to say, the farm cart is filled with soil, pushed to the front of the construction site, and the axle is jammed to form a temporary shielding wall.

This kind of mobile wall is not only used to block enemy artillery shells, but also blocks the enemy's field of vision. Engineers quickly build corridors behind the wall with cages of earth and rocks.

After the corridor at the current location is repaired, the cart will continue to push forward and continue working at the next location.

When William Kidd saw what the Veneta guys were doing, he immediately ordered the bombardment of the Veneta fortifications that were extending towards Tower City.

The Veneta people's fortifications are only about five hundred meters away from the city wall. Even three-pound and four-pound light artillery can achieve approximate accuracy at this distance.

The four-pounder gun on the triangular fort opened fire first, and the four-pound iron ball flew over the heads of the Veneta people in a parabola and landed far behind the fortress wall, hitting nothing but the air and the earth.

Seeing this, the gunner immediately adjusted the wooden wedge at the end of the barrel. After reloading, the four-pounder roared for the second time.

This time the shell directly hit the four-wheel cart filled with soil. The iron shell broke the car board and sunk deeply into the soil.

The body of the cart shuddered, and the wheel axle and spokes made a groan-like straining sound under the huge impact. The spoke of one of the wheels could not bear it and broke.

The four-wheeled cart fell to one corner, and the other end was raised high, and the soil spilled out... But that was it, the Veneta people towed the cart away and pushed another one up.

The gunner adjusted the angle again, and this time the shells flew under the body of the four-wheeled cart. In theory, it should be able to kill several Veneta guys behind the cart.

However, the enemy seemed to be a stone that does not bleed, and did not waver at all and continued to build the corridor.

William Kidd punched the wall of the Triangle Fort bitterly.

After the first calibrated shot, two consecutive effective hits were made. There was no doubt about the gunner's skill and luck. However, the Veneta man seemed...not in pain.

William Kidd ordered the eight-pounder to be used instead, but the previous two hits seemed to have run out of luck. The eight-pounder shot either too low or too high.

An eight-pound shell hit the cart directly, but it did not cause any trouble to the Veneta people.

Seeing that the Venetian corridor had been repaired for some distance, William Kidd ordered the eight-pounder cannon to bombard the walls on both sides of the repaired corridor.

However, the effect of shooting at the walls of the corridor was even less ideal, because Lieutenant Colonel Vauban deliberately made the corridor turn left and right, approaching the city wall like a snake.

Although this increased the amount of work, it also made it impossible for the artillery on the city wall to shoot directly into the corridor.

The eight-pounder cannon deployed on the triangular fort could only hit the corridor wall at a large angle, and all bounced off the wall.

Upon seeing this, William Kidd went to Half Moon Fort on the east side of the city wall. Half Moon Fort's artillery was further away from the corridor, but the angle of incidence between the ballistic trajectory and the wall was larger.

Sure enough, shooting from Half-Moon Fort towards the corridor, the hit rate is even worse. While William Kidd was heartbroken about the gunpowder, he prayed that the next shot would hit the corridor wall directly.

Finally, an eight-pound iron ball slid in the air in a graceful arc and hit the side wall of the corridor hard.

The huge momentum of the cannonball directly tore off a large piece of the side wall, and the defenders on the city wall who had been suppressing for a long time suddenly let out a loud cheer.

However, they stopped laughing immediately, because the Veneta guys brought out more baskets filled with earth and rocks, and quickly repaired the damaged walls.

In desperation, William Kidd stopped the bombardment. He could not waste gunpowder on the earth wall hundreds of meters away.

On the Venetian side, Major General Leighton laughed generously and patted Vauban on the shoulder: "Gold will shine sooner or later. With your professional ability, a reserve army engineer lieutenant colonel has obviously wronged you. Work hard, Once you capture Tacheng, I will make you a colonel!"

"The further the corridor is built and the closer it is to the city wall, the more difficult it will be." Lieutenant Colonel Vauban smiled bitterly and shook his head. "I am a tinker. If there is a problem, I will find a way to fix it. I just hope If I can’t continue my cultivation in the future, just don’t send me to the Military Justice Department.”

"Every meter your tunnel advances will reduce many casualties in subsequent battles." Antonio said gently: "We know the difficulty of this plan, so we just do our best. After the war, General Layton and I Let’s jointly ask for credit for you.”

Engineer Second Lieutenant Otto Skorzeny hurried over, saluted the three senior officers, and reported anxiously: "Sir, our wall seems to be too high. I observed that the bottom cage It can no longer bear the earth and rocks above it and is about to be crushed!”

Vauban, Antonio and Leighton immediately rushed to the dangerous wall location discovered by Lieutenant Otto. After carefully observing the test, Lieutenant Colonel Vauban confirmed: "It is indeed not possible. There are too many heavy objects on it. The cage on the bottom I can’t stand it anymore.”

Antonio asked: "How about demolishing a few layers and making the soldiers bend down to move?"

"The height of the wall is calculated by me. If the wall becomes shorter, the corridor will not be well covered at the corner." Lieutenant Colonel Vauban explained helplessly.

"Then what do you think we should do?" Layton asked impatiently.

Vauban thought silently for a while and said slowly: "I saw no signs of breakage on the third layer below, which means that removing the two layers of cages can ensure the stability of the wall structure. Remove the two layers of cages from the top of the wall Behind the basket, a shallow trench with a depth of two layers of baskets is dug between the walls, which is equivalent to increasing the height of the wall in disguise. At the same time, the excavated earth and stone can also be used to build the wall, saving the time of carrying earth and stone from the rear, killing two birds with one stone. "

Leighton was overjoyed when he heard Vauban's solution. His face quickly turned from gloomy to sunny, and he happily punched Lieutenant Colonel Vauban on the shoulder: "You are quite quick-witted."

Wauban, a thin engineer lieutenant colonel, was punched by the tall and thick Leighton and gasped. He said bitterly: "Don't rush to praise me yet. If you dig trenches, water will accumulate if it rains." Digging trenches on rocks is not only time-consuming, but it is also difficult for accumulated water to seep through like soil... There is no other way, so I think we should just pray that it doesn’t rain first.”

Antonio and Leighton were speechless.

…

While the officers on the front line of Tacheng were busy with civil engineering work, outside a village in the interior of Chiliu Island, Andre was roaring angrily: "These XX thugs! Tricky people! Tricky people! I will be killed today." Them! I will kill anyone who doesn’t build the road! Let’s see who dares not to go!”

Thank you to the book friends who have voted for recommendations before, thank you for your votes for The Screams of Witches, Justice and Purity is Koala, and There is a Beauty in Tianshui. Thank you all.

I tried to draw a simple schematic diagram of the siege of Tacheng and posted it in this chapter.