Iron Powder and Spellcaster

As a training ground for siege tactics, Maple Leaf Castle was ravaged by Tiefeng County troops for nearly a month.

The originally carefully leveled land around the fortress was now dug into tatters and covered with twisted trenches of varying widths.

If viewed from the sky, the overall radial trenches do not look like tentacles extending from the siege camp to the fortress. Instead, they look like roots spreading from the fortress body to the siege camp.

Although the main structure of Maple Leaf Fort's "rammed earth and stone" is extremely solid, in addition to the captured 32-pound heavy cannon, the Tiefeng County Army made the six-pound long cannon, the most skilled and the most abundant cannonball, feel like scratching an itch.

However, this did not prevent the artillery of Tiefeng County Army from disintegrating the defense of Maple Leaf Fort.

Summarizing the experience and lessons learned from past siege battles, artillery commander Richard Mason assigned different tasks to light and heavy artillery from the first day of the siege:

Set up heavy artillery that is difficult to move and slow to load in a solid fortification, and focus its bombardment on specific weak walls;

The light and flexible six-pounder cannons are not deployed in a fixed position, but are pushed wherever they are needed, and fire at close range, specifically hitting the cross walls, battlements and shooting platforms above the main structure of the fortress.

Senior Mason, who worked hard, also mixed the veterans and recruits of the artillery team and reorganized them into artillery crews that were several times the number of artillery pieces, with the old leading the new and taking turns to man the artillery.

After nearly a month of long shelling, most of the buildings on Maple Leaf Castle's city walls were destroyed, leaving only the bare walls. Every time the wind blew, choking dust would be raised.

The triangular forts in the northwest and southwest were also blasted with many gaps by 32-pound cannons.

Without the defensive bunker in the upper part of the fortress, the defenders did not dare to climb the wall during the day and shoot at enemies outside the city - that would be tantamount to being used as a target.

Even if the Tiefeng County Army soldiers carried small baskets to the foot of the fort wall and boldly picked up the fired shells, the defenders could only watch the enemy leave.

And the defenders couldn't even repair it - every time the defenders took advantage of the darkness to restore part of the bunkers at the top of the city, they would be subject to more intense artillery fire the next day, until the defenders had to laboriously move the barrels and bunkers onto the top of the city. Only after smashing all the earthen baskets was he willing to give up.

If you do nothing, you won't get shells.

After several rounds of back and forth, the defenders inside Maple Leaf Castle and the attackers outside Maple Leaf Castle reached a unilateral tacit agreement: I will not build the wall, and you will not attack me. We will live in peace with each other and live one day at a time.

Just as the defenders in Maple Leaf Castle were gradually being defeated, on the other side, the novice artillerymen of the Tiefeng County Army had had enough of it and were even a little tired of fighting.

It is no exaggeration to say that in the past, the artillerymen of some standing corps could not fire as many guns as they fired in this month.

After such actual combat training, the Tiefeng County Army Artillery Detachment was ready to receive more artillery pieces - just waiting for the cannons to be successfully cast at the Rewardan Smelting Plant.

When both the offensive and defensive sides entered a period of fatigue, Colonel Gesar, Colonel Skull and Lieutenant Colonel Matthias also sent some officers and soldiers to the siege site of Maple Leaf Fort. It was called "assisting the operation", but it was actually a "visit". study".

Anyone can see that the current Maple Leaf Castle is a crumbling dilapidated house.

Just waiting for someone to come up and kick me.

The two people who decided when to go up and give it a kick were watching it from the artillery bunker close to Maple Leaf Fort.

"I'm thinking about something."

Senior Mason cupped one hand into a tube shape and placed it in front of his eyes, aiming at Maple Leaf Castle not far away. This is an artillery trick that allows one to see distant views more clearly.

"Um?"

Winters peeled off the grass roots in his hands and responded absently.

"Are you..." Senior Mason seemed to ask casually: "You never thought about using my allocation plan from the beginning."

Winters continued to deal with it: "Yeah."

Before Winters realized what he had answered, Senior Mason had already rushed forward, grabbed Winters' throat with both hands, and swung his teeth from side to side: "Then why do you still want me to do it? You know how much time I spent. , How many nights did you stay up, how much hair did you lose? Huh?!"

"Uh-huh." Winters closed his eyes and said, "I'm dead."

Senior Mason let go of Winters, swept away the dust on his clothes, and kicked Winters: "Be more serious about pretending to be dead."

"Don't be angry, senior." Winters handed the peeled white grass roots to the senior and said flatteringly: "Please eat sweet grass."

Mason took the root and put it in his mouth.

"Bah, it's bitter."

"It seems it's not the season yet."

In this place, far away from their subordinates and outsiders, Winters and Mason no longer had to maintain the image that people expected, and naturally recovered some of the lively nature that originally belonged to people of this age.

The defenders in the triangular fort heard the noise outside, secretly crawled out of the hiding cave, exposed their heads and looked outside.

Winters picked up a stone and hit it next to the defender, scaring the latter back again.

"Two battalions are feinting and one battalion is the main attack." Winters turned over and sat with his back against the wall of the artillery bunker. He gave a more conservative estimate: "We will launch the assault at dawn and we should be able to get it before dawn." Get off it.”

"It's too exaggerated." Seeing that Winters was about to get down to business, Senior Mason also put away his anger and shook his head seriously: "Half a battalion is enough, but the gap is only that big. If there are too many troops, it will not be deployed."

After saying this, the artillery bunker fell into a brief silence.

After a while, Winters whispered to himself: "However, we have survived the big battle. At this time, it is not worth dying in this place."

Mason sighed after hearing this.

No matter how much preparation is made and how much firepower is invested, Maple Leaf Fort is still the base camp that the New Reclamation Corps invested twenty years of hard work in building, and it is still the strongest fortress in the New Reclamation Land.

Even if it is already crumbling, it is impossible to kick it down without bleeding.

"My soldiers," Winters said to his senior, "I feel sorry for anyone who dies here."

Hearing this, Mason sighed again.

After a moment of silence, Mason looked distressedly at the behemoth in front of him, which was still standing despite being covered in bruises and bruises: "Why doesn't he surrender?"

…

At the same time, in Maple Leaf Castle, poor Major [Alder Felt] also fell into deep self-doubt: "Am I too powerful?"

Staring at the flickering candlelight on the square table, Major Felt shouted wordlessly: "Why haven't they come to persuade me to surrender?!"

If there was anyone who made faster progress than the Iron Peak gunners during the siege that lasted more than a month, it must have been Major Alder Felt.

All the education, training and cultivation that the major received throughout his life, all the knowledge, techniques and methods he learned, and even the mind, body and virtues given to him by his parents seemed to be preparations for this siege.

When the rebels opened a breach in the triangular fort, he built a fence overnight to block it;

When the rebels smashed the bunkers on the city wall, he organized people to rush to make earthen baskets to repair them;

When the bunker at the top of the city was repaired and then destroyed, he dug caves to hide troops on the reverse slope and stubbornly maintained his troops at the top of the city;

The morale of his men was low, so he ate and lived with the soldiers, weaved baskets, dug soil, and worked with a shovel;

His subordinates did not dare to enter the city, so he dressed up and patrolled the defense lines every day.

In this almost late siege, Alder Felt maintained the bottom line morale of his men and prevented them from completely collapsing. He also maintained the most basic discipline of his subordinates, preventing them from tying him up and opening the door to surrender.

Such a glorious achievement was achieved in such a difficult situation. Even Major Felt couldn't help but want to cry for himself every time he thought about it.

So much so that Major Felt sometimes couldn't help but ask himself: "Am I really too powerful? That's why the rebels dare not launch a general attack? Or... or are they deliberately... giving way to me?"

Every time the next thought came up, Major Felt would give himself a slap in the face and order himself to give up such random thoughts.

He forced himself to believe that the reason why the rebels were hesitant to launch a close-range assault was not because they deliberately did not do so, but because of their own efforts that forced them not to launch an assault easily.

It wasn't that Alder Felt was too stupid to see the situation clearly, but because without the warning of those slaps, the major would have collapsed earlier than his subordinates.

So he chooses to believe in the "reality" he wants to believe.

To be fair, although the design of Maple Leaf Castle is somewhat outdated, this does not prevent it from causing great difficulties to the enemy. Even in the eyes of federal provincial officers, it is a fortress that cannot be easily shaken.

Maple Leaf Castle has no shortage of ordnance, ammunition, and food. If there are 500 qualified soldiers under his command, and the enemy does not pay three times the casualties, there is no way he can touch the inner wall of Maple Leaf Castle. If the enemy fails to attack, Maple Leaf Castle can be defended until the end of time.

It's a pity that Felt only has about 500 old, weak, sick and disabled people in his hands.

Don't even think about inflicting triple casualties on the enemy, let alone "defending until the end of time."

Everyone knows with their butts that Maple Leaf Castle cannot be defended. It is either surrender or death. Without a good reason, everyone will choose to surrender.

Therefore, Alder Felt's number one problem is how to maintain the morale of this group of defeated soldiers so that they will not collapse - the most important thing is not to "collapse prematurely."

Whenever there is an opportunity, Major Felt will instill in his subordinates the idea that "it is better to surrender early than to surrender later, and it is better to surrender proactively than to wait for someone to persuade you to surrender."

In a sense, Major Felt was not lying.

According to the practice of the Platuan people, the victor had absolute control over the defeated and could execute, sell and enslave the captives at will.

However, executions and sales now only occur during the war against the Huds.

It has to be said that the establishment of the republic profoundly changed this land.

In the past, "Platuans" was just a loose concept. The wars of the Platuan people were attacks and killings between lords and lords, and massacres between rulers and rebels. Killing captives meant killing enemies, so The Platoans never showed mercy.

However, when the monarchy came to an end and the concept of "a country for everyone" was widely spread and accepted, killing prisoners changed from killing enemies to killing compatriots, and was no longer tolerated by public morality.

But while the Republic had changed the Platons, not much had changed so far.

Although today's Palatuan people believe that killing compatriots is against morality, they have no psychological burden at all about extracting ransoms and forced labor from "defeated compatriots."

Major Felt keenly grasped this pain point and stated the pros and cons to his subordinates whenever he had the opportunity.

First, he talked about how miserable the fate of being a prisoner would be - most of it was imagined by Major Felt;

Then let’s talk about how strong Maple Leaf Castle’s defenses are – this is not a lie;

Finally, he promoted his ultimate theory - Maple Leaf Castle is a bargaining chip for everyone in Maple Leaf Castle, and everyone can use Maple Leaf Castle to get better treatment from the rebels;

So we must keep it! The longer you stay, the better the treatment!

We must defend until the rebels are powerless, until the rebels can no longer hold back, and until the rebels take the initiative to persuade them to surrender. This is the best outcome for everyone.

Major Felt even made up a loud slogan and led the defenders to shout three times every day before meals:

"Open the door and surrender, and act like a cow or a horse; wait for others to persuade you to surrender, then take the money and go home."

Through the indoctrination of this theory, Major Felt also popularized its advanced reasoning among his subordinates - since Maple Leaf Castle is everyone's bargaining capital, then whoever opens the door and surrenders on his own is betraying the collective and betraying his friends for glory. Damn, Shameful and unforgivable sin!

From this, Major Felt realized the self-supervision of the garrison. Everyone was a supervisor, and five hundred pairs of eyes were always watching to prevent any scumbag from trying to put everyone's capital into his own pocket.

However, a month passed.

The rebels outside Maple Leaf Castle came and went, and the flags were changed several times, but the person trying to persuade them to surrender never showed up.

"Could it be?" Major Felt couldn't help but fall into deep doubt: "Am I really too powerful?"

…

[siege camp]

Winters held a general meeting in the siege camp, mainly to meet people and discuss how to deal with Maple Leaf Fort.

A map table occupies the main space in the tent, and participants consciously occupy positions at different distances around the map table according to their positions.

It was rare for the official officers of the Tiefeng County Army and the officers appointed by Winters to gather together, while the friendly officers who came to visit and study politely occupied a corner of the big tent.

Even Andre, who runs to the suburban racecourse whenever he has time, rarely appears at the venue.

After listening to the explanation, Andre couldn't help but laugh: "Is that federal provincial guy in Maple Leaf Castle still dreaming about being able to 'surrender with dignity'?"

Major Seb bared his teeth: "Then...he is a bit shameless."

It was a plenary meeting in name, but in reality only people at the level of tribunes and school officers dared to speak. Many people were called over in a daze, without even knowing the specific situation.

So Mason gently explained the reason for the decision to the officers who were watching: "There are tens of thousands of kilograms of gunpowder stored in Maple Leaf Fort. If we first offer to allow them to surrender, Major Felt will definitely put the 'gunpowder' on the table." Negotiating table. This was another reason why, in addition to rehearsing siege tactics, Tribune Montagne and I decided to wait until they offered to surrender."

"That's going to be difficult. This Lian Provincial guy is quite stubborn." Andre frowned: "Otherwise, let him go. I don't think he will be able to make any waves."

"The old marshal said that officers, like war horses, gunpowder and armor, are precious war resources that cannot be wasted." Winters pondered, held his chin and laughed: "Honestly, Ald Fey Major Walter is really quite capable...so, I don’t want to let him go even more.”

The officers in the big tent also laughed.

In the corner, an honorary officer from Baishan County who was watching had the courage to raise his hand and ask: "Your Excellency, why can't we attack directly? Maple Leaf Fort has been almost demolished, hasn't it?"

"Because soldiers are also valuable war resources, even more valuable resources." Winters looked around at his subordinates and replied seriously: "Therefore, they cannot be wasted... Each of you, remember this for me."

The tent was silent for a moment, and the honorary officer who asked the question shivered unconsciously.

The officers' meeting was convened this time mainly because Winters wanted to see his subordinates and stabilize the military morale that might be fluctuating due to the upcoming general meeting of all freemen.

Discussing the disposal of Maple Leaf Castle is secondary, because in the end it is Winters himself who makes the decision.

Seeing that the atmosphere was getting a little stiff, Mason ended the discussion about the siege of Maple Leaf Fort and guided the officers to the dinner venue.

After everyone else was gone, Mason returned to the tent.

"Alas." Mason cleared up the map on the table and complained, "Why are you so angry with a guy who buys an official position?"

"Losing your temper?" Winters was stunned: "Did I lose my temper?"

"Why not?" Mason replied helplessly: "The 'wolf cubs' were almost scared to death."

"What wolf cub?!" Winters jumped up as if being pricked by needles: "Who did it?"

"Everyone calls it that." Mason waved his hand: "Okay, okay, if you don't want to hear it, I won't use it anymore."

After a while, the two of them put away the maps in the tent.

"If it doesn't work, just let him get out." Winters stood for a moment and laughed: "Although they are all precious, our soldiers are much more precious than Major Felt."

"Okay." Mason nodded: "I will send someone to talk to Major Felt tomorrow."

"Don't be so anxious, it's been so long anyway, not more than a day." Winters stroked the stubble on his chin and asked: "I seemed to have asked someone to find out if there were any veterans who knew the internal situation of Maple Leaf Castle. It seems... …Is this happening?”

"Yes." Mason folded the map table again and placed it in the corner of the tent. He glanced at Winters and scolded: "Did you forget it yourself?"

Mason walked to the filing cabinet on the other side of the big tent, rummaged briefly, then returned with a paper bag and handed it to Winters: "Here."

Winters opened it for no apparent reason and pulled out the dossier in the paper bag. It turned out to be multiple inquiry records, all of which were about Fort Maple Leaf. There were both officers' inquiry records and soldiers' inquiry records.

"Senior." Winters said sincerely, "How can I live without you."

A cold snort without any trust came from deep in Mason's nose.

Winters pulled out his chair and sat at the door of the tent to watch.

"But it's nothing special." Mason stood aside, recalled the contents of the file, and gave Winters a brief summary: "The internal management of Maple Leaf Castle is very strict, and the supervision of the underground storage is a top priority. Even if Even officers are not allowed to move around at will, and soldiers know even less."

When Winters heard this, he simply stuffed the dossier back into the paper bag: "Doesn't anyone in Maplestone City know about the situation in Maple Leaf Castle?"

"If anything, there is really one person who may even be the person who knows the internal structure of Maple Leaf Castle the best." Mason rubbed his forehead and called up the memory he needed: "That is the chief 'mason' responsible for the daily maintenance of Maple Leaf Castle, Mar. Blue Figgni—Old Figgni.”

Winters' eyes instantly lit up.

Mason deliberately caught Winters's appetite for a while, and then added: "But Major Felt was very careful. After escaping back to Maple Leaf Castle, he immediately kidnapped the old Figni family into Maple Leaf Castle. Even Old Figni’s workshop was set on fire—perhaps because he was worried that we would find the blueprints.”

Winters, who was full of expectations, was instantly disappointed: "Then what's the use of talking so much...

"I'm happy." Mason smiled.

"Forget it." Winters stood up and stretched heavily: "Let's go to dinner too."

He said with regret: "It seems that Major Felt got lucky this time."

"It's his turn to get lucky." Mason shrugged.

After that, the two looked at each other and laughed, walking towards the laughter and the smell of meat together.

Major Felt's misfortune should have ended here.

However, the day after Winters said "Major Felt was lucky this time", things took a turn for the better.

[A typographical error at the end of the previous chapter, it should be the flag of [Red Rose] hanging feebly on Maple Leaf Castle, not [Blue Rose]]

[The original text has been corrected, but many book friends may have already read the previous chapter, so I will add an explanation here]

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