Iron Power And Sorcerer

Iron Power And Sorcerer Chapter 96

2021-08-01

Chapter 96 City Defense in the Old Times
“According to the local people we found, The city wall has been around for years. I don't know when it was built, but it was at least fifty years ago. This was the first residence of the Duke of Red Iwo Island. After the Federation seized power, it was gradually abandoned until it was renovated two years ago. One time, but no major changes were made on the whole."

The atmosphere in the military briefing in the temporary camp was very depressing. Most of the high-level officers were smoking cigarettes and listening to the Chief-In-Charge of the Intelligence Service without saying a word. report.

The officer who was speaking turned a page in the small notebook in his hand, licked his lips and continued: "The main body of the city wall is not lime mortar, but volcanic ash concrete, which is the material of the cathedral dome of San Marco, An artificial stone obtained by mixing volcanic ash with lime and seawater. The outer wall is made of Fire Mountain Cliff mined from a nearby quarry. In short, the main body of the city wall is a large stone, and the outside is covered with a layer of stone. ”

One of the school officials scolded in a low voice, and the expressions of the others were also a little ugly. The officers who can hold meetings here have at least fourteen years of military experience, and the stronger the city wall, the greater the price the attackers need to pay.

The Chief-In-Charge of the Intelligence Department saw that everyone was in a bad mood, and quickly continued to explain the disadvantages of the city wall: "However, the biggest problem with the city wall in Tacheng is that it is too old and has been eliminated. The city defense system of Tacheng still relies on high defense, and then under the high wall is the soil slope to deal with the ladder.

Because the stone city wall is expensive, the main body of the Tacheng city wall is thin and only two meters wide. It's hard to arrange artillery. Two years ago, Tanee also realized a problem, but he didn't make a big change. He just added a protruding half-moon fort on the east and west city walls to set up side-firing artillery. ."

The Chief-In-Charge of the Intelligence Department took a breath, and turned another page in the small notebook in his hand: "Because of the difficulty of excavation, there is no moat in Tacheng. After the Union troops fled into Tacheng I thought about trying to dig one out temporarily, but gave up after digging less than 1.5 meters. But they used the excavated soil and stone to build another parapet under the city wall, and used a temporary rammed earth triangular fort to cover the city gate. "..."

"It's a bit tricky. William Kidd is just a trifling pirate, I'm afraid he doesn't have this ability. Who is the person who is really guarding the city?" Antonio interrupted the Chief of the Third Legion Intelligence Service -In-Charge words.

The director of the intelligence department suddenly saw sweat on his forehead, he didn't dare to refute, he could only say: "...this, we don't know for the time being."

"The city defense's Needless to say the question, everyone can understand it. Tell me some other more important information." Antonio continued to ask: "Is there a source of water in the city? How many civilians are there? How about the food?"

The audience The officer was a little shaken when he heard Antonio's questioning. Obviously, since Major General Serbia Ti began to ask these questions, it showed that he was already thinking about a long-term siege instead of a storm.

The director of the intelligence department quickly flipped through the small book again: "The civilians in Tacheng are mainly sulphur miners and their families, less than 300 households. The Federation did not set up granaries in Tacheng, so it should be There are only the grain stored in the homes of the sulphur miners and the grain they have collected from the nearby villages in the past few days. There are no wells in the city, and the city mainly relies on the streams flowing down from the mountains. There are two or three cisterns. The mountain behind climbs up, and there is a volcanic crater lake on it. But the water there is bitter because it is too close to the sulfur mine."

Antonio instructed with his forehead: "Send a few people into the mountain. Find out how many streams there are, and can you find a way to cut them off."

The director of the intelligence department quickly said yes.

The air in the military council hall was dull again.

Layton couldn't hold back, slapped his thigh and scolded: "[military swear words]! [military swear words]! These tani guys stole everything from us! [military men] Dirty words]!"

Although Layton's words sounded a little nonsensical, they were exactly what the officers had in mind.

The Republics have been strategically on the defensive since they broke away from the Empire, and the Empire, despite its defeat, still retains a far greater strength than the Senas Alliance.

Although the War of Sovereignty between the Empire and the Republics was over, no sword was ever used, and the relationship between the two sides grew stronger after Henry III's accession.

However, strategic pressure is strategic pressure. On the other side of the shady mountain range is the most powerful empire on this continent, no matter how friendly it is, it is still a huge threat.

Therefore, the strategic thinking of the armies of the republics is based on defensive counterattacks, which is also a successful experience in sovereign warfare. Deplete the strength and morale of the invaders with fortified towns and cities, and then let the field troops find opportunities to fight.

In the strategic thinking of the alliance, there is no fortress that cannot fall. As long as it causes enough damage and buys enough time before it falls, the fortress has completed its strategic purpose.

The tani people in Tacheng are obviously holding this purpose. This is a lonely city doomed to fall - two Legions of 10,000 troops besiege a small city with less than 3,000 defenders, and the defenders have no support.

Under normal circumstances, the defenders would have surrendered long ago in the face of this doomed battle. At most, some quid pro quo, such as allowing the defenders to leave with arms, is negotiated. However, the defenders of the Federation simply refused to surrender, and they didn't even have the slightest intention to negotiate.

The Tanirians behind the city wall are aware of the weaknesses of the military systems of the Republics: the political system determines that Veneta is impossible to mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops at any cost like a feudal monarch.

When there is no war, Veneta has only a total of 6,000 standing troops. In order to save money, it has to be stationed in various cities, because supplies can be provided by the stationed cities.

So Antonio and Layton impossible to waste Veneta's elites under the city wall of Tacheng, but they also impossible to leave a federation army in their own rear waiting for the opportunity.

That's why Layton scolds Tani for stealing his stuff. This is an era in which "tactical attack overwhelms defense, and strategic defense overwhelms attack". If your own magic weapon of victory is used by others to deal with you, no one will be angry.

However, this is also impossible, because human beings are slow to learn other things, but the fastest learning is in the matter of war.

The Barbarian Race on the frontier of the Empire may not be able to learn poetry and songs, but when they see iron tools, trebuchets, gunpowders, and cannons, they can immediately absorb and digest them.

This is also the reason why "barbarians" can conquer "civilization" again and again, because in this era, the military technology of "barbarian tribes" is not backward than that of "civilized countries", and it is even better in mobilization ability. better than ever.

Somewhat off topic, back to the Tacheng offensive and defensive battle.

All the officers thought about it, but there was no good way.

In fact, everyone knows the best way, that is, don't attack, and surround yourself. The Tacheng defenders are less than 3,000 people, and they have been terrified, and they will never dare to take the initiative to go out to the city to fight.

So only one Legion is left to besiege here in the Legion of Da Vineta and the Legion of San Marco. You can wait for the defenders to surrender on their own when they run out of food.

If the defenders don't come out, then everyone will sit and fight. Anyway, the Veneta people have the entire Red Sulphur Island as a supply area, and they can accompany the Tanigans to the end of the world.

It would be better if the defenders dared to go out into the city to fight. The full legion of more than 5,000 people beats your 3,000 miscellaneous army.

Another Legion can be freed from the siege and continue to attack the other main islands of the Tanilla Islands.

This plan is well known, good or bad, but the question is... who stays? Who is leaving?
Who would want to stay and besiege the city? Who knows how much food the Tanirians in the city have on their hands? Richard IV failed to attack Jade City after two years of siege. If you have bad luck, I am afraid that when the war ends, the Legion who stays here will still be staring at small eyes with the big eyes of the Tanee in the city.

The soldiers may be happy, but not one of the officers here.

Without war, officers would have to rely on seniority if they wanted to be promoted. The military system of the Senas Alliance caused the officers not only to have seniority, but also to wait for vacancies.

Unless the officers who can sit on the military account are from a wealthy family or their father-in-law's family is wealthy, they are all "begging a second lieutenant, a poor lieutenant, a captain squeezing money, and finally a major" all the way through.

Which officer would be willing to waste his time here after finally getting the chance to fight? Who doesn't want to go further?
Outside this small, hard tower city, the problems of the Veneta army command system are highlighted.

From a rational point of view, of course, the reserve Legion should be besieged here, and the elite standing Legion left the Red Sulphur Island and continued to siege the city.

The problem, however, is that Serbia is a major general, and Layton is also a major general. Moreover, even if the former rank can overwhelm the latter, he cannot command the latter.

The military system of the Republic of Veneta determines the independence of the Legions, because each Legion is directly under the Military Council, and the Corps Head is only responsible to the Council of Thirteen. Even if a second lieutenant was placed at the Legion Corps Head in San Marco, he would not have given up on Antonio's orders.

This structure avoids the army's internal cohesion, and ensures that the government commands the army, rather than the army kidnapping the government, so that the Veneta government avoids going astray in the interprovincial republic.

Besides, if it is a local battle, there is no problem that the Legions are independently commanded by the Council of Thirteen. However, the problem now is: there is a sea between the two Legions and Hailan City. If they want to communicate with the Council of Thirteen, they have to send a ship to cross the ocean to return to Hailan, and then cross the ocean to return to Red Sulphur Island.

Even if the wind is smooth, it will take three weeks to talk back and forth. If bad luck always encounters a headwind, it is not impossible to get the news of Hailan City after a month. If bad luck is too bad, and the communication ships sent out sink, I am afraid that the two Legions are stupidly waiting for a reply here, and Hailan still knows nothing about the situation of Red Sulphur Island.

Besides, if everything goes well, it will take three weeks to get the news of the Council of Thirteen, so it might be better to just storm the city.

The high-level officers in the military account have a clear understanding of the current situation, but they are not able to intervene in the question of whether to go and attack, and who will go and who will stay.

The decision-making can only be made by two Corps Heads, and no one else is eligible to participate - of course, in theory, there is one other person who is eligible, that is, another thirteen-member council sent by Seablue City member.

The general who came to Red Iwo Island by the supply fleet was originally at the request of Rear Admiral Antonio and Vice Admiral Nareshaw as the third member of the Provisional Military Council of the Vengeance Fleet. member.

However, by coincidence, another Vice Admiral came... No matter how high the rank of the Navy is, they have no say in the military affairs of the Army.

Antonio proposed the establishment of a joint command to avoid this kind of internal friction between the army and the navy, but who would have thought that the cooperation between the third Legion and the navy would be smooth, but problems within the army first appeared .

So in the end, the two Corps Heads had to reach a consensus, and the officers were waiting for the final decision of the two major generals.

Major General Layton obviously would not be willing to stay and guard. After sitting on the bench for many years, he finally took command of the army again.

And even if Antonio agreed to stay and besiege the tower city, the officers of the Legion of the Great Veneta would not be convinced.

Winters was connected to the Great Veneta Legion through Kalman's smuggling channel. In other words, the credit for conquering the Red Sulfur Port should have belonged to the third Legion.

However, in order to ensure victory, Antonio decided that the third Legion would continue to feint the Northern Sea shore to attract the enemy's main force, and handed over the task of attacking the Red Sulphur port to the San Marco Legion who had just arrived.

In other words, the credit goes to San Marco Legion from Antonio. The officers of the Great Veneta were full of resentment, which was suppressed by Antonio's prestige. The words "forbearance for the country and compromise" are really unconvincing to the officers who dreamed of meritorious promotion.

Besides, they have already endured it once, why can't San Marco Legion endure it once? The officer corps of Da Vineta firmly believes in private that: Reasonable in every circumstance should be left by the "reserve", who would rather climb the city wall than be responsible for the siege of the tower city.

"Or draw lots? Or half of the family stay..." Just when a school official was thinking about it, Antonio directly announced the meeting.

At noon that day, Antonio, Layton, and Nareshaw, as well as Vice Admiral Compton who had just arrived from Hailan, the four supreme commanders of the army and navy had a closed door Meeting.

The clerk was not allowed into the tent, so no one knows what kind of conversation the four had.

In the afternoon of that day, Andre broke into Winters' tent excitedly, shaking Winters who was taking a nap vigorously.

Winters, who was always very angry when he woke up, took a lot of effort to resist the urge to swear: "Why?"

"Come on!" Andrei excitedly said He shouted: "The director asked us to follow the engineer officer to be responsible for the road construction! Finally, we don't have to do paperwork anymore! Copy! Copy! Copy! I almost didn't know the letters in the past few days..."

"Ah!? Road?"

It is more expensive to tear down and rebuild than to start a new one. After the artillery reaches a higher-level, the old city defense structure needs to undergo a large-scale renovation. However, in order to save money, most of the urban defense renovation projects in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were repaired on the original basis. For example, the city defense renovations of Rhode Island and Famagusta all changed and changed the original medieval city wall. In 1472, the northern Italian city of Imola simply wrapped the original medieval square tower with a huge round tower, forming a funny nesting doll structure. After all, in the age of the gold and silver standard, public spending budgets were always tight.

Pozzolanic concrete is also a real technology.

Thanks to the book friends who have voted for the recommendation before, thanks to Clafford Lawrence, writersblock, the same week with the world, book friends 20181013204343295, Yuan Hongjian, Ami, justice and purity are the recommendation votes of koala, thank you all.

(end of this chapter)