The Rise of the European Emperor

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In the middle of the night, Marin sent his men to cross the mountains and ridges overnight, bypassing the camp of the Siena reinforcements, and came to the mountain road leading to Grosseto in the southwest direction. Get in touch to form a match.

The next morning, after traveling in the middle of the night, Marin's envoy finally met the Fourth Army Corps on the march...

"What? Is there an enemy reinforcement army confronting the Grand Duke? Need me to lead troops to encircle? Okay, the whole army pay attention, speed up!"

At noon, the Fourth Army finally arrived a few kilometers away from the south gate of Siena, blocking the retreat of the Siena reinforcements...

After resisting tenaciously for half a day, at night, seeing that the retreat was blocked and the enemy army was very strong, the Siena reinforcement commander Calamossi, who felt hopeless, had to order a surrender.

...

Marin attaches great importance to the surrender of Karamossi, because he wants to use Karamossi to deceive Siena's gate...

But the defenders of Siena were too shrewd. When Karamossi led a "remnant soldier" to the south gate in the middle of the night and asked to enter the city, the defenders in the city refused to open the door. The reason for the refusal is simple - the city gate is blocked...

Then, the defenders expressed their willingness to put baskets to take them into the city...

However, this "remnant army", except for Karamossi and the others leading the way, is all the army of the North Sea State. If he was pulled up by a hanging basket, and he didn't recognize him at first sight, wouldn't he be hacked to death with random knives? Therefore, Karamossi had no choice but to take people back angrily...

...

Marin was very disappointed, and he was not enthusiastic about Karamossi anymore. As for Karamossi, knowing that he had already boarded Marin's thief ship and it was difficult to disembark, he simply tried his best to help Marin consider it. Because, he thought-this time the Holy See dispatched such a large army, the Republic of Siena must be finished, it is only a matter of time. If he made great contributions before the demise of Siena, when Siena is over, he can continue to help the Holy See and keep his wealth... So, he offered his strategy to Marin...

"What, you said you want to swindle the gate of Radicofani?" Marin was a little surprised.

"Yes, Grand Duke, the garrison of Siena City is under the personal command of Governor Pandolf Petrucci. Mr. Governor has always been cautious and suspicious, so it is not surprising that we failed to cheat the city. But Radico Fani's guard, General Salimoe, is different. This general is not so suspicious. If you use the grand duke's clever trick of pretending to be a broken soldier and calling the gate in the middle of the night, the opponent will be fooled in all likelihood.

Moreover, I was originally one of his most important generals, and if I personally lead someone to cheat the city, the possibility of the other party being fooled is extremely high! ’ said Karamossi.

"Did you cheat on Radicofani..." Marin touched his chin, but fell into deep thought...

Others don't know, but Marin must know it in his heart. Don't look at the 20,000 army of Maximilian I outside the Radicofani Pass, but they are actually just acting, not fighting. Even if you put them in the pass, it's useless. Because, His Majesty the Emperor is not stupid, and will not really try his best to help.

Moreover, given the steep terrain of Siena City, even an additional 20,000 troops would be of no use. In other words, even if you defeat the Siena army guarding the gate and let the emperor's army in, it doesn't seem to be of much help...

"No..." Marin suddenly thought of a question-although the emperor's army would not really help fight the war, if the Siena army guarding the pass was eliminated, it would definitely be of great importance to the defenders of Siena city blow!

You know, the defenders in the city of Siena probably also have expectations for the more than 10,000 defenders at the Radicofani Pass. If they learned that Radicofani's defenders had been wiped out, they would definitely feel despair, and their morale would plummet...

In the end, Marin still made up his mind to lead troops to swindle the Siena border crossing Radicofani, cutting off the hope of the Siena people...

Therefore, Marin handed over the task of continuing to besiege the city of Siena to the Fourth Army, and he rushed to the Radicofani Pass with the army, Karamossi and other surrendered generals.

...

After Marin left, Saqqara took over the duties of the Mountain Infantry Corps and began to continue the siege of Siena. Because the Fourth Army came along the main road, it took all the artillery with it. So, Saqqara simply ordered the artillery to be set up, and began to shell each other with the enemy troops above the three city gates.

Moreover, the purpose of the Saqqara bombardment was not to destroy the city gates. After all, what he brought was a 6-pound gun, and it was impossible to break the cast iron gate of Siena. He ordered the artillery to directly bombard the Sienese defenders above the city gate, especially the artillery positions. The purpose of doing this is actually to consume the gunpowder of the defenders in the city. Because, Saqqara got a message from the captured Siena reinforcements - the defenders in the city didn't have much gunpowder. This is mainly due to the lack of preparations for the war by the Siena people, who did not have time to store enough gunpowder. Therefore, Sakala simply bombarded each other to consume the opponent's gunpowder.

Moreover, in order to protect the artillery, Saqqara ordered the artillery to carry 6-pound cannons, and change places with one cannon, making it too late for the defenders on the city to aim. Of course, in order to consume the gunpowder of the artillery at the top of the city, the artillerymen of the Fourth Army specially waited for the opponent to shoot before withdrawing from the original position. The so-called calibration shooting means that the first shot of the artillery is generally inaccurate and needs to be adjusted again. In the era of smoothbore guns, it often took several adjustments to hit (except for flat shots). Although the artillery on the top of the city has the advantage of being condescending and having a long range, the only problem is that it cannot shoot directly at it. Because, if the muzzle is lowered, the iron ball shells in the barrel of the smoothbore gun will easily roll out. Therefore, the artillery on the city head needs to be projected. As for the artillery under the city, it is not so troublesome to shoot upwards. Of course, the curved trajectory of the shell should also be taken into account, but it is much better than the cannon at the top of the city. The characteristic of the artillery at the top of the city is that the closer it is, the harder it is to aim, unless it hits the crowd, as long as the muzzle is directed in the right direction, it can always kill a group of unlucky people...

If they fired at the artillery below the city at close range, the artillery at the top of the city would be blinded. Smoothbore guns can't shoot down at a large angle. If you shoot at a small angle from a far distance, the shells will not easily roll out. The artillery of the Fourth Army is supported by the First Army, and they are all veteran artillery. They are very familiar with the characteristics of city defense artillery. So, they went directly to a distance of 100 meters below the city. They could not only avoid the opponent's bows and arrows (they also wore breastplate armor), but also easily hit the artillery at the top of the city. . The artillery in this era is fixed and cannot be moved casually. Only the artillery of the North Sea State, because Marin invented the movable gun mount, Ke Ya pushed it around, making it impossible for the artillerymen at the top of the city to aim, let alone wait for them to shoot slowly...

...

After three days of marching, Marin finally brought Karamossi and other Siena soldiers who surrendered to the city of Radicofani. According to Karamossi's introduction, because it is inside the pass, there are very few defensive forces at the northwest gate of Radicofani. Moreover, it didn't block the city gate, so it was easier to call open.

In the middle of the night, Calamossi led several surrendered Sienese officers and more than a hundred real Sienese soldiers, and brought more than 2,000 Beihai fighters disguised as routs to the gate of Radicofani. Down.

"Open the door quickly, I'm Karamossi!" When he came to the city gate, Karamossi took the lead and raised his head and shouted loudly.

The officer guarding the city gate took a look—oh, it really was General Karamossi. However, as the city gate officer, he is not qualified to let people into the city in the middle of the night. After all, although the military discipline of the Italian army is not good, there are still basic rules. So he hastened to report to General Salimoe.

Salimoe was annoyed at being woken up in the middle of the night. But Calamossi led his troops back to aid Siena, and fled back in a rout, which frightened him a lot. So he came to the top of the city gate and asked:

"Piero (Calamossi's full name is Piero de Calamossi), didn't you go back to help Siena, why did you come back? The enemy is very strong?"

"Yes, my lord, we encountered the enemy army attacking the city of Siena. They are German mercenaries, not ordinary Italian mercenaries. They are estimated to be the 7,000 North Sea mercenaries guarding Rome! We have been defeated, we have no other choice." I escaped and came back! Fortunately, the mountain road is narrow, and the other party can't use it, otherwise we wouldn't be able to come back alive!" Karamossi said loudly according to the "script" developed by Marin.

General Salimoe thought about it, and it seemed that the city of Rome did have 7,000 mercenaries provided by Marin Hoffman of the North Sea State to the Pope at the beginning, and their combat effectiveness was indeed stronger than that of Italian mercenaries. However, he still had some doubts about Karamossi's army returning in the middle of the night. So he asked:

"Why did you come back in the middle of the night? Can't you wait until daytime?" Of course, Salimoy was not suspicious. Because, in the history of Europe, there is no precedent for this kind of middle-of-the-night fraud, so he will naturally not be vigilant.

Calamossi already had countermeasures, he replied:

"My lord, the enemy is chasing after me! If I hadn't led people to run back in the dark, they would have been chasing me all the time. Tomorrow morning, they find that we have abandoned the camp and ran away, and they will definitely catch up!"

Karamossi answered without question, and the more than one hundred people standing in the front row were all familiar faces. Sari Moai thought for a while, and felt that there was no problem, so he ordered to open the city gate and let him in... So, Marin's army finally succeeded in opening the city gate of Radicofani pass...