Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 103 Crows are singing

  When the road connecting Tacheng and Red Sulphur Port finally penetrated, Antonio finally sent messengers to the defenders. Based on "last mercy and honor", the defenders were asked to surrender their weapons and Kaesong surrendered.

   Serbiati and Layton jointly pledge that no Tanirians will be executed or tried after surrendering.

   But when the messenger shouted at the city wall with a shield, only a dozen buckshots responded to him.

   William Kidd's attitude has been revealed.

  A heavy cannon capable of firing thirty-two-pound iron bullets was placed on the cart and dragged little by little to the front of the city wall.

Even far away from the city walls the defenders could hear the noise of their march: the steers and draught horses roaring at being beaten; the Veneta drivers shouting and waving their whips; the creaking axles Makes a monotonous, persistent screeching sound.

  If the angel of death can sing, then the song of the angel of death must be all that the Tacheng defenders are hearing now.

After the    heavy artillery arrived at the front line, the Veneta sappers spent another day unloading the artillery from the car with lifting machinery. Deploy to the pre-set gun position and adjust the angle.

   All light and heavy artillery pieces held by the Veneta Army were divided into eight battery groups, each of which consisted of one of the heaviest artillery pieces combined with other light artillery pieces.

  The Veneta soldiers affectionately called these battery packs "wolves", because each battery pack was like an alpha wolf with a pack of cubs.

   Taking the city gate as the dividing point, four artillery groups were arranged on the east and west walls, aiming at the weak position of the city wall.

  While the Venetas deployed their heavy artillery, the defenders on the wall tried their best to destroy the enemy artillery with their light artillery.

   However, these attempts were of little success. The Venetas used wooden fences and dirt to protect their cannons so that the defenders could not find a suitable shooting angle.

   And the artillery of the Tanirians was at an absolute disadvantage in number, and had been suppressed by the light artillery under the city walls.

  The Tanirians could only desperately fortify the city wall while watching artillery after artillery being placed in front of the city wall.

  In the early morning of the next day, when the sun shone on the Tacheng city wall, the large-scale artillery bombardment kicked off.

  Before the heavy artillery launched a volley of volleys at the defenders on the city wall with muskets and light cannons loaded with shotguns.

   Especially the arquebusiers and artillery on the Triangle Fort, they are the closest and don't need to aim at all.

   For the past two days, the Veneta people have been working like crazy, constantly raising the triangular fort with bags of dirt. Now, the top of the triangular fort is level with the city wall.

  The artillery that the Tanirians had deployed at Triangle Fort is now being used by the Veneta against the defenders themselves.

   The Tanirians who looked out from behind the battlements were killed on the spot. The iron and lead bullets hit the stone, and the debris flew and smoke was everywhere. The defenders on the city wall were lying behind the parapet, not daring to raise their heads at all.

   And more defenders were hiding under the city wall. William Kidd was not a sloppy bag. In the face of this level of shelling, forcing the soldiers to stay on the city wall was just to die.

   So he let most of the soldiers hide in the cave behind the wall, leaving only a few sentries to watch on the city wall.

   When the defenders on the wall were suppressed, the eight heavy artillery began to roar.

  The sound of the cannon was like the horn of terror blown at the end of the world. The iron cannonball flew out of the muzzle and slammed into the city wall. The huge impact made the entire city wall tremble.

   The previous two-pounder gun just left a few white spots on the city wall, while the heavy gun directly destroyed the volcanic rock wrapped on the outer surface of the city wall.

   Even if the rock is not crushed, the huge stress generated by the impact has exceeded the bearing limit of the mortar that binds the volcanic rock.

At the point where the shells landed, the outer walls of the city wall fell off, exposing the inner wall made of volcanic rock concrete.

The    and sturdy inner wall was also hit with a huge cone-shaped gap by the iron cannonball.

  The Veneta soldiers outside the city cheered louder than the roar of artillery.

   For the defenders in the cave behind the city wall, all this is like hell.

  The loud noise, the choking dust, and the vibration transmitted to the cave when the city wall was hit by shells made the most battle-hardened veterans shudder.

  No one can understand the damage of artillery to the city wall better than the Tanirians in the Tibetan Soldier Cave. A recruit said in horror: "The city wall is shaking!"

   That's right, the huge impact of the shells made the entire city wall tremble, and the defenders felt the same way.

  When the artillery was still firing stone shells, the old city walls were already showing signs of fatigue. The stone cannon was like a sledgehammer, smashing the walls one after another, and at the same time smashing the will of the defenders.

   And now, the cannon pouring anger on Tacheng is more powerful than the stone shooting cannon. Advances in material forming processes have allowed gunsmiths to forge lighter, thinner, stronger guns with longer barrels.

The weight ratio of shells to gunpowder in the stone shooters was twenty to forty to one, while the eight thirty-two-pound guns outside the city could charge sixteen pounds of gunpowder per shot, and the shells weighed more than the powder. An astonishing two to one.

   Even though iron cannonballs are lighter than stone cannonballs, their penetrating power is even greater.

  The city wall trusted by the Tacheng defenders is falling apart in front of the artillery of the new era.

In the   Tibetan Soldiers Cave, the Taniriya soldiers who were praying "Let me survive today" heard the alarm bell sounded by the sentinel.

   Along with the shelling, was the burying of trenches.

  Antonio and Leighton selected two attack points on the east and west sides of the city wall, both of which were weak spots in the city wall according to the intelligence.

  The two legions were each responsible for an offensive direction, not only to destroy the city walls, but also to fill the trenches here.

   In the loud shouts of Captain Hoffman, the defenders hurried up the city wall, and the sentry at the front of the city shouted hoarsely: "Triangle Fort! They are coming from the Triangle Fort!"

   From the triangular fort occupied by the Veneta people poured out a large number of soldiers pushing carts. They rushed into the trenches and filled the trenches with dirt and firewood from their carts.

   "Shoot them! Shoot them!" The Union officer Hoffman on the city wall yelled to wake up his stunned men.

  The recovered defenders immediately fired at the Veneta people under the city with crossbows and muskets. The distance between the two sides is too close, and there are too many Venetas, and one Veneta will fall down with a single shot.

   There were a few loud sounds of cracking stones, and the light artillery outside the city fired again to suppress the defenders at the front of the city. The gravel is flying all over the sky, the power is comparable to the bow and arrow,

   Captain Hoffman, who was still giving orders just now, screamed and waved his arms indiscriminately, his face was covered with dust, and blood was flowing from his closed eyes.

The    blasted rubble flew into Hoffman's eyes, and the strong man fell into madness in the pain and darkness. Hoffman's soldiers tried to hold him down, but Hoffman roared and pulled out his saber and slashed randomly, forcing everyone around him to avoid him.

   Hoffman could no longer hear what the people around him were saying. He shouted and slashed at the imaginary enemy, standing and retreating. His men watched helplessly as the captain fell from the ruined parapet and fell to the bottom of the city, dying on the spot.

   And outside the city, the Veneta musket team has also arrived. The Veneta arquebusiers, using the walls of the ditch as a cover, fired violently at the defenders on the wall.

  The temporarily excavated moat outside the city wall is very shallow, less than two meters deep, and about as high as one person.

The battlements of the parapet at the top of the city wall have been knocked to pieces by the shelling a few days ago, and they cannot provide any decent protection for the Tanirian soldiers on the city wall. shot dead.

   But the Tanirians on the wall knew that once the moat was filled, the next was the wall, and everyone would have to die by then.

  The ferocity of the defenders was also inspired, and the Tanirians howled to strengthen themselves, stretched out their bodies and used bows and muskets to kill the Veneta who were huddled under the city.

   Their position was condescending, and they looked down, and the Veneta musketeers in the moat were almost uncovered.

   The two sides had a tragic exchange of life at a distance that was almost "musket to the forehead".

  The crossbowman Stave on the city wall suddenly thought that he could burn the Veneta with "blue fire".

  Staff ran down the wall. Soon, he ran and waved again holding a clay pot with a blue fire.

He shouted: "Blue fire! Blue fire!" He rushed to the parapet, and just as he was about to throw the blue fire at the enemy in the moat, a lead bullet was shot from under the city and directly hit Stave's chest, killing him. He fell backwards and fell on the city wall.

   The burning sulphur from the pot in his hand sprinkled all over himself, and the screams and the smell of burnt flesh even spread to the Veneta people below the city.

   However, Stave’s actions reminded others that the trench was seven or eight meters away from the root of the city wall, and the oil and asphalt could not be thrown that far, but it was enough to put it in a can.

   Just when the defenders at the front of the city sent people to look for the clay pots, William Kidd led the reinforcements to the eastern city wall, and the reinforcements also carried two short-barreled cannons.

"Here! Don't [expletive] facing you! Hit from the side!" Seeing that the gunner was stupid enough to lift the gun directly over, the angry gunner Berta kicked the gunner who was lifting the gun, and cursed angrily: "Trash! Get out!"

  The two short-barreled cannons were brought by Berta to a place with a small arc on the city wall, which was diagonally facing the Veneta people under the city.

  The gunners hurriedly assembled the gun mounts and loaded the ammunition. Berta took aim and ignited it himself.

   There were two roars, and the shotgun shot from the short-barreled cannon set off a **** storm under the city.

   "Good! Good! Good!" The artillery commander yelled three times in a row, urging his subordinates sharply: "Continue to reload! Continue to fight!"

  While the Tanirians' artillery slaughtered the Venetas under the city, the Veneta artillery outside the city was also cleaning the Tanirians on the walls.

  The Veneta artillery group two hundred meters away saw the smoke and flames produced by the artillery fire on the city wall, and immediately adjusted its direction and fired at the two short-barreled artillery.

   A four-pounder shell hit one of the short-barreled cannons, knocking the cast-iron cannon off the mount and breaking half of the gunner's arm.

  Berta immediately changed position with another short-barreled gun.

   One side was on the wall, the other was under the wall, and the Tanirians and Veneta were almost fighting each other with guns to their foreheads.

   Everyone dies here, the difference is only a matter of time.

  The Tanirians understood that the Triangle Fort was the key before today, but only then did they really realize that they had underestimated the importance of the Triangle Fort after all.

Losing the triangular fort is equivalent to losing control of the moat. If the triangular fort is still in the hands of the Tanirians, the Veneta army would never dare to rush into the moat as it is now, because the side shots deployed on the triangular fort The artillery would smash them into pieces.

   And when the Veneta connected the triangular fort with the siege wall with a corridor, they did not need to go through the killing area in front of the city wall, and could directly enter the trench from the triangular fort.

   Not to mention the long-range firepower on the Triangle Fort to suppress the defenders on the city wall.

   However, the biggest problem with losing the Triangle Fort is not just these…

   While the offensive and defensive sides were killing each other around the trench, behind the city gate, the most elite Montagnian guards under William Kidd were gathering.

  These heavy-armoured warriors are some of the best and most trusted troops in the Taniria Federation. In the Empire, the Montagnier Guard was the Emperor's Praetorian Guard. They were not under William Kidd, but the Supreme Council temporarily handed over two of the companies to William Kidd's command.

  William Kidd always regarded these two hundred Montagne guards as personal guards and supervisors, and the Montagne guards were the key to William Kidd's ability to control the army.

   However, the situation was urgent, and he could only dispatch the elite from the bottom of the box.

   Without warning, the double-storey gate of Tacheng suddenly opened.

The   Monta warrior uttered a terrifying battle cry and slaughtered from the city gate. The soldiers went straight into the moat in two ways, slashing and killing the Veneta people in the moat like a legendary berserker.

  Captain Zenus charged at the forefront with his battle axe high, and slashed into the Veneta's Heavenly Spirit Cover with a head-on axe. The blade of the axe was completely sunk into the skull, and after Zenus pulled it twice and failed to pull it out, he simply abandoned the axe and took out his armed sword to fight.

   It is impossible to stand on the wall and try to stop the siege from filling the trench at any time.

The only way    is to send people to kill them, attack from both sides of the city wall and below the city, and kill all the people in the moat.

   So at any time, the city gate is the most powerful weapon for the defenders to counterattack.

   But now, the triangular fort in front of the city gate is in the hands of the Veneta people.

   After seeing a large group of armored soldiers rushing out from the city gate, the muskets and artillery on the triangular fort immediately turned their direction and slammed these heavily armored enemies.

  The two musketeers threw an iron-shell bomb weighing more than 40 kilograms towards the city gate. The smashed Monta Guard immediately spewed blood from his eyes and nose, and was killed on the spot.

   The other Monta Guards around saw the hissing leads and fled into the distance in panic. However, it was too late. There was a loud bang, the iron bomb exploded, and a wave of air almost pushed the Veneta people on the Triangle Fort.

   In the narrow space between the city gate and the triangular fort, stumps fluttered and blood splashed. Monta Guard, who was not hit by the shrapnel, also fell to the ground, spitting out blood.

  The front of the city gate has turned into hell, but this is not over yet. The Veneta people on the Triangle Fort dropped three iron shell bombs one after another.

   The Monta soldier who vomited blood looked at the iron-shell bomb in front of him, and wanted to crawl away but kept calling. He watched in despair as the bomb leads burned,

   "Lord forgive me!" he shouted at the last moment of his life, before being blown to pieces.

   No one heard his "death confession" because the battle cry of "Great Veneta" overwhelmed all voices on the battlefield.

A large number of sword and shield players shouted and rushed out from the triangle fort and the corridor. The Veneta sword and shield soldiers were divided into three groups. Two groups of people jumped into the corridor and the Monta Guard started to fight against each other. The other group did not care about anything else. Go around the Triangle Fort and go straight to the city gate.

   The two major generals prepared a full six hundred sword and shield fighters, just to prevent the defenders from going out of the city to counterattack.

   "Close the city gate! Quickly close the city gate!" William Kidd at the top of the city shouted hurriedly when he saw this scene.

  The defenders at the city gate immediately cut off the cable, and the heavy gate fell suddenly, trapping the several Veneta sword and shield players who rushed forward.

   In front of the city gate, a vat of asphalt poured down. There are still Monta Guards who are not dead in front of the city gate, but the defenders can no longer manage so much.

   Several torches were dropped from the top of the city gate, and the Veneta people screamed and ran away, the asphalt was on fire, and the defenders burned Veneta and their own people alive.

   On the other side of the gate, more than a dozen defenders descended from the city wall through the passageway to the doorway. The Veneta sword and shield player who was trapped in it knew that he would die, and shouted and fought with the Tanirians.

  The battle in the trenches became equally fierce. The Tanirian Council had always spared money for the "Prince Guard", and the Montagnier Guard was equipped with three-quarter plate armor. The Veneta sword and shield players are also all equipped with half body armor.

But the space is too small, and it is almost a fight between people. Many sword and shield players and Monta guards simply throw away their swords and axes, and pull out their short knives to stab at the gaps in the armor and under the ribs, where they cannot be defended. prick.

   The soldiers in the back pushed the soldiers in front to squeeze together, and there was nowhere to dodge. The only way to avoid the sharp knife stabbed by the enemy was to kill the enemy first.

  Don Juan was behind the crowd, anxiously watching the clumsy fight ahead. He looked at the walls of the trench on both sides and shouted: "Go up! Go up! Go up and stab them! Carry me up!"

The soldiers around    lifted the centurion and carried him outside the trench.

   Juan strode forward, rushed to the edge of the Montagnier Guards, and stabbed the Montagne Guards from outside the moat down toward the necks of the Montagnards.

  The Monta guards in the moat found that their companions had been stabbed to death, and climbed out of the trench one after another. Lieutenant Juan's centurion also rushed over at this moment, and the two sides began to fight each other outside the trench.

  The blood flowed into rivers inside and outside the moat, like a flesh and blood mill.

   Winters, who was in the 200-meter battle at the Flesh Mill, watched what was happening in front of him, his mouth was dry and his heart was pounding.

   And next to Winters was Lieutenant Colonel Sebastian Vauban. Vauban turned a blind eye to the tragic battle under the city walls and muttered to himself in doubt: "Why is it so strange..."

  Vauban and Winters were the most advanced gun positions, and beside them was one of the eight "Alpha Wolf" heavy guns.

   And the reason why Winters is here is very simple, Antonio made him come.

   "Sebastian Vauban is a good player in siege tactics. It's always good for you to learn more from him."

   That's what Antonio said, and Winters came with twenty soldiers to guard the cannon.

   "Uh..." Winters asked in confusion, "Lieutenant Colonel, what are you talking about?"

The roar of the    cannons interrupted him, and another round of fire was fired.

After the    artillery bombardment, the artillery battery of the heavy artillery quickly blocked the artillery with wooden fences, so that the defenders on the city wall could not threaten these sharp weapons.

   while the other gunners were reloading in full swing.

  The gunner first used a long-handled boring machine to scrape out the residual gunpowder that had not been burnt out of the gun chamber, and then inserted a mop dipped in water from the gun muzzle into the gun barrel to clean the gun chamber.

  The gun body of the cannon after firing is hot, and the water remaining in the gun chamber will evaporate quickly and will not affect the next shot.

  If the craftsmanship is not up to standard, washing the gun chamber with water will cause the internal cracks to increase, which will cause the chamber to explode. Bad guns can only be cooled with oil, but that would be very troublesome.

  After the temperature of the cannon had cooled, the gunners began to reload the gunpowder, plug it tightly, put in the wooden stock, and finally the cannonball.

   After putting the shell in, the gunner used a rag to close the gap between the shell and the barrel.

  Vauban stopped the firing and adjusted the firing angle of the artillery by himself.

   After a thunderous sound, the shells landed lower than before.

   After continuing to carefully observe the whereabouts of the shells, Vauban suddenly realized, and excitedly said to Winters: "I know what's going on..."

   "Uh... what are you talking about?"

   "I understand what the Tanirians did." Vauban patted his thigh: "They piled up dirt behind the city walls!"

   "Mounds? You mean..." Winters said uncertainly, "You mean piles of dirt behind the city walls to absorb the impact of the shells? But it's not..."

"That's right! The after-effect of the cannon bombarding the city wall is not as powerful as these heavy artillery pieces should be." Staring closely at the direction of the city wall, Vauban analyzed: "I made several test shots, and the conclusion is better than each time. Clearly. The Tanirians in the city must have increased the thickness of the walls by mounding."

"But if you pile up dirt behind the city wall..." Recalling the content of the siege tactics course, Winters pondered: "Once the city wall collapses, won't it also collapse? If it pours outside the city wall and becomes a gentle slope, instead Will it make it easier for us to get to the city?"

"That's right, that's right." Vauban rubbed his nose, patted the cannon beside him, and said, "I don't know if William Kidd didn't understand this? Any other ideas? But anyway, it does look like he's going to hold on to the end..."

  …

  …

   After several hours of fierce fighting, both sides had no energy to continue fighting.

The    city wall still stands, but the cracks and cracks that have been destroyed in large chunks herald its doomed future.

   Nearly all of the Montagnian guards who went out of the city to counterattack were killed. Except for those who did not have time to attack, only a few people fled to the edge of the city wall and were pulled up by the defenders with ropes.

  Three trenches were almost filled, at least no longer a hindrance to the attack.

   But the Veneta also paid a heavy price.

   Nearly 400 casualties were lost in just one day of fighting, more than the combined casualties of Veneta's army on Red Iwo.

   And most of the wounded will also die in hospital beds in the next few days.

  The tragic battle made the siege battles before today feel as relaxed as a vacation.

   And the order given by Major General Antonio Serbia was only one sentence: "Tomorrow, continue."

Considering the 1453 siege of the castle, the death toll of the Ottomans' first full-scale attack on the city wall was about 200 (the narrator who sympathized with Donglu claimed that the Ottomans lost 18,000 in one day, which is too much water...), and then consider Going to Tacheng to send elites out of the city to fight back, four hundred casualties should be more reasonable... right?

   Thanks to the book friends who have voted for the recommendation before, thanks to the book friends writersblock, Sky Lens, Black Computer Accessories, Tianshui Beautiful Woman, Justice and Purity are Koala’s recommendation votes, and thanks to the book friend Sky Lens for the reward, thank you all.

   (end of this chapter)