Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 100 See Tricks and Tricks

  While Winters and Andre were racking their brains to build credibility on Red Iwo, the two armies facing each other in Tacheng fought several more skirmishes around the corridor.

  William Kidd only had light artillery in his hands, not enough to destroy the tunnel at long distances. After finding that the effect was not good, the defenders quickly stopped shelling.

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

   When the cavalry of the Federation led the warhorses 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 obstructed the view of the Veneta army and prevented the siege party from observing the opening and closing of the city gate.

   It wasn't until the thunderous sound of horses' hooves reached his ears that the Veneta Sentinel found out that the Tanirians were attacking.

   The Veneta Sentinel 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 to kill the Veneta barracks, but stayed on the edge of the corridor and threw hooks and ropes towards the wall.

   They did not come to rob the camp, but to tear down the wall.

The hook ropes used by the riders are modified from the hook ropes used in the sea jumping gang war. One end is an iron hook like eagle claws, and the other end is tied to the chest strap of the warhorse. The warhorse can easily remove the dirt and rocks when it exerts its strength. The basket was dragged from the wall.

   However, when the riders were working hard and struggling to scrape the wall, William Kidd, who was watching the battle on the Triangle Fort, found that something seemed wrong... There seemed to be some bushes on the east and west sides.

   "Shoot the cannon! Let them come back! Quick!" William Kidd was suddenly startled and shouted in a panic: "Let them come back!"

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

   In the silent night, the roar of the cannon was clearly audible even from a distance.

When the sound of the cannons arrived at Veneta's camp, Leighton was already laughing so hard that he couldn't breathe, he laughed and ordered: "Hiding a fart? It has already been discovered! Signal! The team will come over immediately!"

   A spellcaster officer got the order, raised his hand and catapulted a signal into the air dozens of meters high. The green flares exploded in mid-air, which was much more efficient than firing a cannon.

   On the east side of the battlefield, Lieutenant Colonel Field, who was hiding and maneuvering, saw the flare, jumped on his horse, and shouted with amplifying technique, "Don't hide it! Second brigade, come with me!"

   After saying that, he put on his helmet and headed towards the federation's cavalry, shouting the name of Veneta's patron saint, "San Marco!"

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

   Another brigade on the left flank did the same.

   Two battalions of infantry were encircling the cavalry of the Federation from the left and right flanks like arms around each other.

A large number of halberdists also emerged from the front corridor. More than a dozen Union cavalrymen were dragged from their horses and killed by Veneta's halberdists before they were untied. They even forgot that they could use a knife to kill them. The hook is cut.

"William Kidd is too stupid. Not only is he stupid, but he also thinks others are as stupid as him..." Layton still hasn't recovered his breath, he said to Antonio while wiping away the tears from his laughter: "...Are we just fighting this kind of stuff?"

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

The logic of    night attack if the shelling fails is too straightforward. Of course Antonio and Layton will be prepared.

   Originally, Layton thought that the Tanies would not be in trouble tonight, because "William Kidd is not so stupid that he can't bombard us. He wanted to attack us that night, right?"

   I didn’t expect that the cavalry from the Federation really came.

   "I can't figure it out too." Antonio shook his head with some doubts and some helplessness: "It's like a different opponent."

"If you want me to 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 learned the knowledge of the military can hold these thousands of people together and not fall apart. Superb." Layton dismissed Antonio's doubts and wondered whether he was belittling Kidd or praising Kidd.

  Antonio thought for a while, and actually felt that what Layton said was quite reasonable.

   After thousands of years of development, warfare has changed from a primitive tribal rivalry to a sophisticated technology industry.

   A fool can also learn how to distribute troops and arrange formations after systematic officer training. And a smart, untrained man, no matter how smart, cannot organize an army by instinct.

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

From Antonio, Layton, to Field, Moritz, to Winters, Bud and Andre, they've all gone through full military command training, they haven't gotten smarter, but they know how not to make mistakes.

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

   The infantry battalions on the left and right flanks cooperate with the halberdists in the front, and are rapidly closing in and encircling them.

The riders of the    Federation heard the signal to retreat, and swarmed to flee in the direction of the city wall. Seeing this, Field immediately changed his direction and plunged straight into the gap between the Union cavalry and the city wall.

   There were several roars of artillery again, and the artillery that William Kidd had arranged on the city wall in advance began to shoot at Field's brigade, trying to cover his cavalry.

   But Field's battalion ignored the flying cannonballs and resolutely inserted into the escape route of the Union cavalry.

   The Union cavalry, who were only concerned with escaping, had lost their command, and everyone just wanted to run back to the city as soon as possible. Under such circumstances, the officer could not reach everyone’s ears.

   Seeing a large number of spearmen blocking the front, some of the cavalry turned their horses in a panic and fled to the east and west.

   This is exactly what Field wanted. His brigade was completely disjointed. He rushed at the front, and the last soldier was still 300 meters away. He was not here to encircle and destroy the cavalry, but to drive these fearful riders to flee east and west.

   This kind of infantry that has lost its formation is actually no threat to the cavalry. If the command system of this team of Union cavalry is not incapacitated, they can bypass the obstruction of Field Brigade as long as they turn a corner, and maybe even directly overwhelm Field Brigade.

   But it's useless to say anything now, this group of riders who just wanted to go back to the city lost their minds and only had the instinct of survival, which was driving them to flee to places with few people.

   Most of the riders turned their horses to run east or west, and the farther they ran away from the city gate, the farther they ran. The Venetas are so drained of the siege of the city that they will eventually find themselves going nowhere, with other infantry brigades from the Legion of Grand Veneta and the Legion of San Marco waiting for them.

   I don't know if it's too smart or too stupid, there are still some riders left, rushing straight towards the city gate of Tacheng.

  The two teams of men and horses collided head-on, Field crouched on the horse's back, and stretched the straight sword of the cavalry in his hand with all his strength.

   At the moment when the two horses crossed, he stabbed the oncoming rider, almost picking him off the horse, and at the same time nimbly avoiding another swinging machete.

   But after the collision, in addition to the enemies that Field killed, most of the remaining riders who ran toward them broke through the barriers of Field's brigade.

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

   chased until he entered the range of the muskets of the Triangle Fort before Field ordered to retreat. Looking at the enemy's back, Field couldn't help but think angrily: "If only you could bring me a cavalry brigade..."

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

   The result of the overnight melee was that the Veneta soldiers ate horse meat the next day and took a few prisoners by the way.

After    interrogation of the captives, Antonio and Layton determined that the top commander of the garrison in the city was the former Captain William Kidd—now General William Kidd (which Layton sneered contemptuously).

   There are about 4,000 Tanirian soldiers in the city, and 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 captives, a group of mercenaries from the Federation entered Tacheng in advance three weeks ago before the Veneta came.

  Layton was skeptical about this information, but several prisoners spoke the same words after being interrogated individually.

"That means either they're telling the truth or they don't know what's really going on," Antonio summed it up at the Colonel-level officers' intelligence meeting.

   As for how much food was left in the city, the captives had no idea. All I know is that William Kidd confiscated all the grain reserves in the city into the tower of the former earl, and was guarded by his most trusted soldiers, and no idlers were allowed to approach.

  The strict food rationing system is being implemented in the tower city, and the morale of the soldiers is generally low.

"Without the war horse, the food in the city can be eaten for a few more days." At the intelligence meeting, Layton rubbed the stubble on his chin and said jokingly: "The idiot has some unexpected gains, but it's a pity that horse meat is too unpalatable. already."

   In the following days, Vauban began to preside over the construction of more corridors, and the earth and stone corridors extended like tentacles from the siege barrier towards the city wall.

  The fastest one has even been repaired to about 200 meters away from the city wall, and the beards of the defenders on the city wall can be clearly seen in the corridor.

   And the defenders were not idle. Although the first massive raid at night suffered a tragic failure, the Tanirians did not seem to be discouraged, but began to frequently dispatch smaller commandos to destroy the passage.

   And as the corridors got closer to the city wall—even closer to the city wall than to the Veneta walls, the difficulty of defending these corridors increased.

The Tanirians defending the tower city tried all kinds of methods. First, they sent a small group of soldiers to blast the tunnel with gunpowder. However, Antonio was very happy to exchange the earth wall for the gunpowder of the defenders. After all, the wall could be repaired if it was damaged. The gunpowder of the army is a little less.

   The demolition work of the defenders was only done a few times, and then they began to set up simple trebuchets on Half Moon Fort, and then used the trebuchets to throw smoldering sulfur at 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 first use of this trick really surprised Veneta.

  The Veneta soldiers who were busy with their work only saw the blue flames roaring towards them. After the blue fire landed, the flame splashed, and it could directly burn through the flesh when it touched the body. The resulting smoke was so choking that it was impossible to breathe.

  Like a demon crawling from **** to the world, the smell of sulfur is everywhere, and the Veneta people are frightened and flee.

   It was Lieutenant Colonel Vauban who made an emergency firefighting. After taking samples on the spot, Vauban quickly understood what these "blue fires" were—in fact, they were sulfur.

  The defenders in the city first smashed the sulfur ore, set it on fire, put it into the earthen pot, and finally threw it into the corridor with a counterweight trebuchet.

  The gas produced by burning sulfur is particularly choking and denser than air. Therefore, when a "blue fire" hits the tunnel, the smoke generated will settle in the tunnel, and it will not dissipate for a long time, making it impossible for people to breathe.

   A blue fire smashed in, and a section of the corridor could not treat anyone.

  Rao is Antonio and Layton who have been in the army for many years and have never seen such a strange poisonous fog weapon.

  The tower city defenders saw that this move was effective, and immediately threw blue fire towards the corridor with more effort, interfering with the progress of Veneta.

   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 who had defeated the Emperor's Guard.

Engineer Lieutenant Colonel Vauban soon found a solution. He found his way of thinking from the "Effects and Countermeasures of Poisonous Smoke Technique" in the "Army Tactics Manual". The tactics of the court mages under Richard's moved to Tacheng.

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

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

Secondly, during the Sovereign War, the militias discovered that the poisonous smoke of the court mage was very soluble in water, so Lieutenant Colonel Vauban also learned to use it now, pouring water into the tunnel, and maintaining a volume of about five centimeters in the shallow trench inside the tunnel. water, while pouring 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 the quicklime;

   Finally, Vauban distributed a lot of wet bedding for the sappers. Once the corridor is hit by the blue fire, cover the blue fire with a wet quilt as soon as possible, which can prevent the generation of poisonous smoke to the greatest extent. At the same time, if someone is unfortunately ignited by a blue fire, they can also use a wet quilt to put out the fire as soon as possible.

   The glowing Vauban in the siege battle made Leighton more and more pleasing to the eye. This subordinate earned him too much face, and Leighton spoke three times louder in front of Antonio.

   In the eyes of other officers, after taking Tacheng, Lieutenant Colonel Vauban becomes Colonel Vauban is a sure thing.

   However, at the military intelligence conference, Vauban reported to the two major generals worriedly: "But even with all kinds of coping strategies, 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 Tacheng cannot dig tunnels. This weapon that can quickly turn air into poisonous gas is used in tunnel warfare... I don't know how many people will die..."

   But in any case, 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 gradually mastered the way to deal with the blue fire. After the blue fire flew into the corridor, the Veneta no longer ran away, but quickly extinguished the blue fire in some way.

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

   In other words, the distance from the Tacheng defenders to attacking the corridor started to be shorter than the distance for the Veneta to support the corridor.

  So the battle turned back to hand-to-hand combat, and William Kidd frequently dispatched a small group of elites to attack the Veneta sappers and migrant workers who were building the tunnel. And Antonio also set up ambush 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 William Kidd frequently sent people out of the city and the soldiers would have mutinied.

  The offensive and defensive sides have been seeing tricks and demolition, fighting wits and courage in this open space in front of the Tacheng city wall, but there has been no real siege battle.

  The Veneta never tried to attack the city walls, but the Tanilians were also locked up in the tower.

  William Kidd may have thought his efforts were causing a lot of trouble for the Venetas. Some Veneta officers thought so too, such as Second Lieutenant Sarah of the Fifth Brigade of the Third Army.

   But after a while, Lieutenant Sarah understood why His Excellency the Legion Commander said, "Time is not on their side."

  The artillery of the Veneta people has arrived at the front line of Tacheng.

   I don't know why the word memory of the input method is cleared, and all kinds of nouns have to be typed again, as if the dog that has been raised for a long time will not recognize people in a blink of an eye...

   Thanks to the book friends who have voted for the recommendation before. Thank you to the book friends who are koalas, black computer accessories, Yuan Hongjian, don’t know what they are called, and Tianshui has beautiful women for their recommendation votes. Thank you everyone.

   (end of this chapter)