Eagle Byzantium

After the dinner, Gawain carefully analyzed Prusa's defense system to everyone, and asked Geddie to make a larger and more detailed terrain sand table in advance, on which the existing enemy and friendly barriers were clearly visible.

"Tatisius relied on nine half-moon-shaped raised earthen platforms along the east and south walls of Prusa, and used earthwork to protect the city wall to two-thirds of its height to offset the damage caused by our artillery fire. He also made the side of the earthen platform facing the enemy into a slope, erected wooden fences on the periphery, and dug wide and deep trenches, forming a petal shape that was concave with the original city wall.

If nothing unexpected happens, Taitsius will also climb up the steps along the north bank of the river channel on the west side, and then use earthwork to build several small fortresses in a line from Prusa to the coast, so that he can safely receive reinforcements from Constantinople and Gallipoli and prevent our army from attacking and cutting off the river channel.

On the half-moon earthen platform outside the city, Taitsius deployed large and small artillery from the Imperial Capital Armory Workshop to shoot and destroy our catapults and artillery forts; and he also set up light catapults behind the city wall to destroy our Approaching siege equipment.

This is the advantage of the defense system of Titishius. Now let's talk about its disadvantage, which is also the key to our defeat.

Titishius's half-moon earth platform is not covered with stone slabs. Due to the limitation of manpower and technical level, there is no hidden war room and shooting hole. Soldiers can only stay behind the fence on the earth platform to operate artillery, or stay in the hiding cave of the city wall (all left by me), and there is a short bridge in the middle.

In addition, Titishius is just a general from the army after all. His nine half-moon earth platform fortresses are just temporary modifications to the old Prusa city wall, which cannot eliminate the blind spot of artillery shooting, so my strategy is to concentrate firepower, defeat one corner, and seize the whole city! "

Next, Gawain explained the specific operation plan and handed it over to the great engineer Geddie, a military fortification master with messy hair, bloodshot eyes and bad temper even though he was wearing a robe.

The next day, at Gawain's camp half a mile outside the corner of the east and south walls of Prusa, where the red tent with the red hand command flag and the black cloak of the patron saint was hung, many soldiers and civilians gathered and began to use various tools to dig the soil and pile it up layer by layer.

The startled Taitishius came to the corner tower of the city wall and looked over there under the cover of many new army gunners, "Is Gawain going to build a big earthen rampart here?"

Regardless of the real situation, the only thing Taitishius knew was that at this moment, he could not let any of Gawain's actions succeed, which would be considered a success.

Originally, there was no earthen platform at this corner, but now Taitishius drove the soldiers and residents in the city to "combine" the two nearest half-moon earthen platforms on each side of the city wall into one, forming an independent and huge protruding "tumor-shaped rampart".

After two weeks, the knob-shaped rampart in the southeast corner of Prusa was basically completed, and Gawain's huge turtle-shaped earth rampart on the diagonal side was also nearing completion.

Because it was mainly earthwork, and the plain soil in Prusa was also very suitable, this epoch-making earth rampart was much faster and cheaper to build than a stone castle in terms of both speed and cost.

Taitius also had a wider "bridge" specially built and coated with butter. The longest and heaviest bronze cannon from Constantinople was tied with ropes and pulled by a large number of people. It was carefully dragged from the city wall and placed in the center of the knob-shaped rampart, and then fired at Gawain's "turtle fort".

From time to time, a large cloud of high-splashing mud rainstorms rose from the black Gawain turtle fort, accompanied by terrifying loud noises and smoke, and many soldiers and civilians fled around. But once the interval between the reloading of the cannon of Titishius, they all gathered together quickly, and once again attached themselves to it like dense leeches and ants and continued to work.

And Caesar, who came to supervise the battle, never left the scarlet tent. Many soldiers and civilians could see her. She also pawned her gorgeous clothes and jewelry to serve as pensions and burial expenses for the dead and wounded, fully supporting her husband.

In the end, the "Big Turtle Fort" announced its birth in this world four days late. It stood majestically in Titishius's vision, with layers of sharp stakes and wooden fences, and "perfume bottle rapid-fire cannons" were deployed behind it, which could strike in all directions.

"Has it become a fortress for the enemy to advance?" Titishius stood on the top of the Prusa city in the twilight. The surrounding mountains and fields were covered with blue, ink and gray light. The long cannons under his feet were still firing fiercely every once in a while on the "tumor fort", as if answering his own questions.

A little frightened, Titius hurriedly wrote a letter to John in the imperial capital, asking him to contact Theodore and David as soon as possible to force Gawain to withdraw part of the troops besieging the city.

The day after the letter was sent, the city soldiers on guard discovered that hundreds of soldiers and miners came out of the big turtle fort last night and dug three trenches about 300 feet away from their starting point. The trenches were relatively short because they had only been dug overnight. From a distance, it looked like the head of a big turtle had revealed three "small teeth".

But even so, Titius still felt a chill on his feet!

At the same time, Gawain's 7,000 to 8,000 border troops began to push special covered wagons covered with shields and iron bars, and slowly moved towards other sections of the city wall. The cannons, crossbows and arrows flew down from the half-moon platforms of Prusa City, and the catapults behind the wall swung their arms and flipped. However, the border troops endured the attacks and casualties, and insisted on moving the "carriage barrier" forward, even if they only advanced 50 feet or 30 feet a day.

Soon, Taitsius felt the difficulty of being stretched to the limit:

The difficulty came from the catapults behind the wall. Even if each catapult was light, it would take at least 50 people to pull the cable, so when it fired together with the artillery fire from the earth platform outside, Taitsius felt seriously short of manpower!

"Gawain is going to use his advantage to crush me to death."

After all, the new army defending the city had only 7,000 people, while Gawain's siege team had more than 30,000 people.

A correct version at 16-9 Book Bar!

Although the high mountains in the north of Prusa and the river in the west of the city blocked Gawain's full siege and made this place free from Gawain's threat, it also allowed him to concentrate more attacking forces in the east and south.

A sword is always a double-edged sword.

"Gather all the residents in the city, whether adults, children, or the elderly, to pull the trebuchet to throw stones." Now Taitius can only adopt the strategy of all the people as soldiers.

There are still 10,000 residents of Prusa left in the city, and they are all organized at this time to grind stones, pull trebuchets, etc.

This measure is indeed effective. In the next few days, the speed of Gawain's border army's chariots and fortifications has been curbed a lot.

However, the food problem in the city has become serious again. After all, everyone works to fill their stomachs.