Iron Powder and Spellcaster

While Winters and Andre were racking their brains to build credibility on Red Sulfur Island, several more small-scale battles broke out around the corridor between the two opposing armies in Tacheng.

William Kidd only had light artillery, which was not enough to destroy the tunnel at long range. After discovering the ineffectiveness, the defenders quickly stopped the bombardment.

That night, nearly a hundred Union cavalry quietly assembled outside the city under the cover of darkness.

When the Union cavalry led the horses out of the city gate, the Veneta sentries a few hundred meters away were unaware because they could not see the movement of the city gate.

The Tanirians built a temporary triangular fort in front of the city gate. This triangular fort blocked the Veneta army's view and prevented the siege party from observing the opening and closing of the city gate.

It wasn't until the thunderous sound of horse hooves reached their ears that the Veneta sentinels discovered that the Tanilao was coming.

The Veneta sentry had just sounded the alarm, and the Union cavalry had already rushed to the front of the corridor. The riders did not enter the corridor and attack the Veneta military camp. Instead, they stayed at the edge of the corridor and threw hooks towards the wall.

They are not here to rob the camp, but to tear down the wall.

The hook ropes used by the riders are modified from those used in sea jumping gang battles. One end is an iron hook equipped with an eagle's claw, and the other end is tied to the chest strap of the war horse. The war horse can easily lift the horse full of earth and rocks as soon as it exerts force. The basket was dragged from the wall.

However, while the riders were working hard and scraping the wall, William Kidd, who was watching the battle on the triangular fort, noticed that something seemed wrong... There seemed to be some bushes on the east and west sides that were moving indistinctly.

"Fire the cannon quickly! Let them come back! Quick!" William Kidd suddenly woke up and shouted in panic: "Let them come back!"

The gunner beside him immediately pulled out the red-hot iron drill from the charcoal stove and inserted it into the fire door.

In the silent night, the roar of the cannon could be heard clearly even from a great distance.

When the sound of artillery arrived at Venetta's camp, Layton was already laughing so hard that he couldn't even breathe. He laughed loudly and ordered: "What are you hiding? They have already been discovered! Signal! Let the troops on both wings The team is coming over immediately!"

A caster officer received the order and raised his hand to shoot a signal bomb into the air dozens of meters high. Green signal flares exploded in mid-air, which was much more efficient than firing cannons to convey orders.

On the east side of the battlefield, Lieutenant Colonel Field, who was maneuvering covertly, saw the signal flare, jumped onto his horse, and shouted with the help of amplification: "No need to hide! Second Battalion, follow me!"

After that, he buckled on his helmet and charged at the Union cavalry. As he charged, he shouted the name of the patron saint of Veneta: "St. Mark!"

The soldiers of the second brigade of the Legion of San Marco were stunned for a moment, then shouted "San Marco" war cry and followed Field towards the enemy.

The same goes for the other group on the left.

Two large groups of infantry were surrounding the Union cavalry from the left and right wings like arms around each other.

A large number of halberdiers also poured out of the front corridor. A dozen Union cavalrymen were dragged off their horses and killed by the Veneta halberdiers before their knots were untied. In their panic, they even forgot to use the handles of their knives. The hook rope is cut off.

"William Kidd is so stupid. Not only is he stupid, he also thinks that others are as stupid as him..." Layton still hasn't recovered his breath. He wiped away the tears from laughter and said to Antonio. : "...Are we fighting this kind of thing?"

To Antonio and Layton, two veteran professional soldiers, William Kidd's ideas were as shallow as clear water.

If shelling fails, then attack at night. This logic is too straightforward. Antonio and Layton will of course be prepared.

Originally, Layton thought that the Tani guys would not cause trouble tonight, because "William Kidd is not stupid enough to bombard us. He wants to sneak attack us that night, right?"

Unexpectedly, the Union cavalry actually came.

"I can't figure it out either." Antonio shook his head in confusion and helplessness: "It's as if he has a different opponent."

"I would say that William Kidd is actually at this level. He is just a pirate. What do you think of him? A person who has never systematically studied military knowledge can hold these thousands of people together and not fall apart. He is already a great person. He performed beyond his level." Leighton was quite dismissive of Antonio's doubts, and he didn't know whether he was belittling Kidd or praising Kidd.

Antonio thought for a while and actually felt that what Layton said made sense.

After thousands of years of development, warfare has transformed from a battle between primitive tribes into a sophisticated technical industry.

Even a fool can learn how to allocate troops and arrange formations after receiving systematic officer training. And an untrained smart person, no matter how smart he is, cannot organize an army based on intuition.

This is the purpose of training. Training is not to make smart people smarter, but to make stupid people look less stupid.

From Antonio and Layton to Field and Moritz to Winters, Bud and Andre, they have all undergone complete military command training. They have not become smarter, but they know how not to Make mistakes.

The commander of the Tacheng garrison made a big mistake tonight: he underestimated his opponent.

The infantry brigades on the left and right flanks, together with the halberdiers on the front, are quickly closing in and surrounding them.

The knights of the Union heard the signal to retreat and began to flee towards the city wall in a swarm. After Field saw this, he immediately changed direction and penetrated the gap between the Union cavalry and the city wall.

There were several more roars of artillery, and William Kidd's artillery deployed on the city wall in advance began to fire at Field's brigade, trying to cover his own cavalry.

But Field's brigade ignored the flying artillery shells and resolutely inserted into the escape route of the Union cavalry.

The Union cavalry who were only focused on escaping had lost their command. Everyone just wanted to run back to the city as soon as possible. Under this situation, the officer could not give the order to everyone's ears.

Seeing a large number of spearmen blocking the way ahead, some of the cavalry turned their horses' heads in panic and fled towards the east and west sides.

This was exactly the result Field wanted. His brigade was completely out of touch. He rushed to the front, and the soldiers at the rear were still three hundred meters away. He did not want to surround and annihilate this group of cavalry here, but to drive these frightened horsemen to flee in the east-west direction.

This kind of infantry that has lost its formation actually poses no threat to the cavalry. If the command system of this joint cavalry team is not disabled, they can bypass the obstruction of Field's brigade by just turning a corner, and they may even be able to directly defeat Field's brigade.

But now it's useless to say anything. This group of riders who just want to return to the city have lost their minds, leaving only the instinct of survival, and the survival instinct is driving them to flee to a place with fewer people.

Most of the riders turned their horses and ran toward the east or west. The farther they ran, the further away from the city gate they were. The Venetians had the city under siege, and they would eventually find themselves with nowhere to go. The Legion of Grand Veneta and other infantry groups of the Legion of San Marco were waiting for them.

I don't know if they were too smart or too stupid, but there were still some riders who couldn't hide and rushed straight towards the gate of Tacheng.

The two groups of men and horses collided head-on. Field lay on his horse and stretched the cavalry sword forward with all his strength.

The moment the two horses crossed each other, he stabbed the oncoming rider, almost knocking him off his horse, and at the same time, he nimbly dodged another swinging scimitar.

However, after the collision, except for the enemies that Field killed, most of the remaining riders who were running in the direction still broke through the obstruction of Field's brigade.

Because the formation of Field's soldiers had disintegrated while running, and after losing coordination, few two-legged men could block the four-legged horses.

The pursuit continued until they were within the firing range of Fort Triangle's muskets before Field ordered a retreat. Looking at the enemy's back, Field couldn't help but think in annoyance: "It would be better if I could lead a cavalry brigade..."

Fighting continued in other positions, with Union cavalry fleeing to the east and west encountering more Veneta soldiers. Except for five or six people who fled to the edge of the trench and returned to Tacheng along the trench, the other driven away Union cavalry either surrendered or were killed on the spot.

The result of a night of melee was that the Veneta soldiers ate a meal of horse meat the next day and captured several prisoners by the way.

After interrogating the prisoners, Antonio and Layton determined that the supreme commander of the city's garrison was former Captain William Kidd - now General William Kidd (Layton chuckled contemptuously at this title).

There are currently about four thousand Tanirian soldiers in the city. This number surprised both Antonio and Layton. They originally thought that there were less than 3,000 defenders in the city, but according to the prisoners' accounts, a group of Federation mercenaries had already entered the city three weeks ago before the Venetians arrived.

Layton was dubious about this information, but several prisoners told similar stories after being interrogated individually.

"That means either they're telling the truth, or they don't know what's really going on," Antonio concluded during the school-level officer intelligence meeting.

As for how much food was left in the city, the prisoners had no idea. All we know is that William Kidd confiscated all the food reserves in the city and put them in the original earl's tower. They were guarded by his most trusted soldiers and no other people were allowed to approach.

A strict food rationing system is being implemented in Tacheng, and the morale of the soldiers is generally low.

"Without the war horses, we can eat more food in the city for a few more days." At the intelligence meeting, Leighton rubbed the stubble on his chin and said jokingly: "Idiot, I got some unexpected gains, but it's a pity that horse meat is too unpalatable. ”

In the days that followed, Vauban began to preside over the construction of more corridors. The earth and stone corridors extended from the siege ramparts toward the city wall like tentacles.

The one with the fastest progress has even been built to about two hundred meters away from the city wall. The beards of the defenders on the city wall can be clearly seen in the corridor.

The defenders were not idle either. Although the first massive night raid suffered a disastrous failure, the Tanirians did not seem to be discouraged. Instead, they began to frequently send out smaller commandos to destroy the tunnels.

And as the corridors got closer to the city wall—even closer to the city wall than to the Venetian ramparts—the difficulty of defending these corridors also increased.

The Tanirians who defended the tower city tried various methods. First, they sent a small group of soldiers to carry gunpowder to blast the corridor. However, Antonio was very happy to exchange the earth wall for the gunpowder of the defenders. After all, if the wall was broken, it could be repaired. The army used a little less gunpowder.

The defenders only carried out blasting operations a few times, and then began to deploy simple trebuchets on the Half-Moon Fort, and then used the trebuchets to throw smoldering sulfur into the corridor.

Sulfur mining is the pillar industry of Tacheng. It is not difficult to imagine that William Kidd now has a large amount of sulfur ore in his hands.

Not to mention, the Veneta man was really shocked when he first used this move.

The Veneta soldiers who were busy working only saw things with blue fire roaring towards them. After the blue fire hits the ground, the flames splash, and it can burn through the skin and flesh directly if it touches the body. The resulting smoke was so choking that people couldn't breathe.

Like a demon crawling from hell to earth, the smell of sulfur was everywhere, and the Veneta people were frightened and fled.

Lieutenant Colonel Vauban was on the scene to put out the fire again. After taking samples on the spot, Vauban quickly figured out what these "blue fires" were—actually sulfur.

The defenders in the city first crushed the sulfur ore, lit it, put it into earthen jars, and finally threw it into the corridor with a weighted trebuchet.

The gases produced by burning sulfur are particularly choking and denser than air. Therefore, when a "blue fire" hits the corridor, the smoke generated will settle in the corridor and cannot be dispersed for a long time, making it difficult to breathe.

A blue fire smashed in, and a section of the corridor became inhospitable to people.

Even though Antonio and Layton have been in the military for many years, they have never seen such a weird poisonous mist weapon.

Seeing that this move was effective, the tower city defenders immediately threw blue fire at the corridor harder, interfering with Veneta's progress.

However, the blue fire soon became less effective. If William Kidd thought that he could hinder the Veneta Army in this way, then he underestimated the Veneta people who had defeated the Emperor's Guards.

Engineer Lieutenant Colonel Vauban quickly found a solution. He found the idea from the "Effects and Countermeasures of Poisonous Smoke Technique" in the "Army Tactical Manual", and compared the militias of the Republic to deal with the "madman" in the sovereignty war. Richard's court mage tactics were moved to Tower City.

Lieutenant Colonel Vauban’s response was very simple and effective:

The first is to improve the design of the corridor, leaving vents every one meter on the ground floor to ensure ventilation of the corridor so that smoke can naturally disperse;

Secondly, during the Sovereignty War, the militiamen discovered that the poisonous smoke of the court mage was very soluble in water, so Lieutenant Colonel Vauban also learned and applied it, pouring water into the corridor and maintaining a depth of about five centimeters in the shallow trench inside the corridor. water, and at the same time sprinkle quicklime into the water. In this way, the poisonous smoke that settles to the lowest point will be quickly absorbed by the water, and the toxicity of the poisonous smoke will also be neutralized by quicklime;

Finally, Vauban distributed a large number of wet bedding to the sappers. Once the corridor is hit by blue fire, cover the blue fire with wet bedding as soon as possible to prevent the generation of poisonous smoke to the greatest extent. At the same time, if someone is unfortunately ignited by the blue fire, they can also wrap them in wet bedding to extinguish the fire as soon as possible.

Vauban, who shined during the siege, became more and more pleasing to Leighton. This subordinate earned him so much face that Leighton even spoke louder in front of Antonio.

In the eyes of other officers, it was a certainty that Lieutenant Colonel Vauban would become Colonel Vauban after taking Tower City.

However, at the military intelligence meeting, Vauban worriedly reported to the two major generals: "But even with various countermeasures, the "Blue Fire" still caused a lot of trouble to the Veneta people and slowed down the progress of the fortifications."

Vauban even said with some fear: "Fortunately, the geological conditions of Tower City cannot dig tunnels. This kind of weapon that can quickly turn the air into poisonous gas is used in tunnel battles... I don't know how many people will die..."

But no matter what, the corridor is still getting closer to the city wall every day.

Soon, the defenders also realized that the blue fire was failing, and the Veneta people gradually mastered how to deal with the blue fire. After the blue fire flew into the corridor, Veneta no longer ran away, but used some method to quickly extinguish the blue fire.

At this time, the corridor has generally been repaired through the center line.

In other words, the distance for the Tacheng defenders to attack the corridor began to be shorter than the distance for the Veneta people to support the corridor.

So the battle turned back into hand-to-hand combat, and William Kidd frequently dispatched small groups of elite troops to attack the Veneta engineers and migrant workers who were building tunnels. Antonio also set up ambushes many times to counterattack the Union soldiers who left the city.

After several confrontations, Antonio confirmed that the morale of the defenders was still high, otherwise the soldiers would have mutinied long ago when William Kidd frequently sent people out of the city.

The offensive and defensive sides have been using their tactics to fight against each other in the open space in front of the tower city wall, but no real siege has ever broken out.

The Venetians never attempted to attack the walls, but the Tanilians were also firmly imprisoned in the tower.

William Kidd probably thought that his efforts were causing a lot of trouble for the Venetians. Some Veneta officers also think so, such as Second Lieutenant Sarah of the Fifth Battalion of the Third Army.

But not long after, Second Lieutenant Sarah understood why the Legion Commander said, "Time is not on their side."

The Veneta people's cannons have arrived at the front line of Tacheng.

The word memory of the input method has been cleared for some reason, and all the nouns have to be typed again, as if a dog that has been raised for a long time no longer recognizes people in the blink of an eye...

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