After receiving the news that the group of territorial citizens who were opening the way were lured into an ambush and nearly annihilated, the territorial nobles of the Principality of Karnas and the Principality of Eskilen cautiously stopped their march and set up camp, attracting those few
A local citizen who escaped quickly figured out the situation.
The mountain road leading to the three-way intersection of Squirrel Village from the Principality of Eskilin is different from the mountain road leading to the Principality of Karnas. The mountain road in the Principality of Karnas can be said to be a winding mountain road, with a cliff on one side.
There is a valley on one side, and the mountain road winds halfway up the mountain. The mountain road on the Eskiline Principality side is sandwiched between two mountains, with slopes and cliffs on both sides.
In addition to the mountain road leading to the three-way intersection and passing under Squirrel Village, there are four places on the mountain road here where you can go up the hillside and go around to the back of Squirrel Village. If you use ABCD to distinguish it, the one in front of Murray Ed
That is to lead people to launch a cold attack at point A, and then lure the citizens to pursue them until they are ambushed at point D. Claude's defensive position was set up at point D, because the hillside at point D is the closest place to Squirrel Village.
Now the allied forces of the territorial nobles of the two principalities are camped in the woods on the hillside opposite point A. They have sent several squadrons to conduct reconnaissance. They also know the defensive position set up by the enemy guarding Squirrel Village at point D. For this reason, there are many
There was a dispute among the territorial nobles.
Some territorial nobles believe that since the enemy has deployed more than a hundred garrison troops on the defensive position, it is obviously an empty nest, and there must be an emptiness over there in Squirrel Village. As long as some troops are sent to tie down the enemy on the defensive position
, the other part rushes along the mountain road. As long as the Squirrel Village is captured, the enemies here will have their back roads taken away, and they will become the sandwich in the pie. They will not be able to escape even if they want to.
Another part of the territorial nobles believe that judging from the cunning and insidiousness of the enemy, it is impossible for them to leave such a loophole for us. There should be many traps set on the mountain road to Squirrel Village to delay our progress.
Since the enemy will set up defensive positions on the hillside, it means that that is the focus of his defense, and it cannot be avoided by conspiracy. We can completely rely on our superior strength to capture the enemy's defensive positions on the hillside, and then capture Squirrel
Village, just rely on strength to promote it...
This is actually a radical and prudent view. Traveling along the mountain road to avoid the enemy's defensive positions is fast, and the second is to avoid the real and attack the weak. It can avoid excessive casualties of the troops under your command. Instead, attack the enemy's defensive positions.
Although there are only more than a hundred enemies, they can still cause relatively large casualties to our own side. In addition, it will delay time and consume the few food and ammunition supplies carried by the troops, which is not a good choice for the territorial nobles.
In the end, the territorial nobles decided to try the idea of quickly heading to Squirrel Village along the mountain road. This time they dispatched two battalions of troops. One battalion went straight to Squirrel Village along the mountain road, and the other battalion was responsible for holding back the defensive positions on the hillside.
Guard the enemy and make a feint attack posture so that the enemy cannot send troops to support Squirrel Village.
Of course, the enemy who was walking on the mountain road did not forget to drive the two pack horses ahead. But unfortunately, when they walked to the mountain road not far from point D, several enemy soldiers ran down from the hillside defensive position and were stunned.
Random shots killed the two packhorses exploring the road ahead...
This distance is a bit embarrassing for the battalion marching on the mountain road and the battalion responsible for involving the enemy in the defensive position. Because the soldiers who killed the packhorse only need to turn around and run a few dozen meters to return to the defensive position.
But if you send people to pursue you, you will easily step into the enemy's shooting range. If you fail to pursue it, you will lose your life.
But without the pack horses, how can we find out whether there are traps on the mountain road ahead? We can't let the soldiers explore the road. The territorial nobles who received the report quickly came up with an idea. They gathered all the pack horses in the camp, and two
The horses were grouped together, a knife was inserted into their butts, and they were driven to speed on the mountain road.
Sure enough, the galloping packhorse was not so easy to be hit by muskets. Even if it was hit by a shot, the horse's vitality could still keep running forward for a while. Soon, there was a "bang", and a large figure appeared on the mountain road.
The two pack horses fell into the trap, and the screams of the pack horses sounded in the trap, but the whine stopped after a while...
Claude used three large cans of gunpowder to blow up the mountain road and set up this trap. It took a small team of soldiers a day to dig it. Unexpectedly, only two pack horses were trapped and the enemy discovered it.
Claude could only shake his head and smile bitterly. But it didn't matter that he didn't trap a few enemies. The real purpose of spending so much effort to set up this trap was to prevent the enemy from advancing. He just didn't know how many soldiers the territorial nobles were willing to spend.
life to fill this trap.
The trap is located between two mountains. On the other side is a cliff tens of meters high. It is impossible for the enemy to climb up. On one side is a small stone hill twenty to thirty meters high. The enemy wants to climb this small stone.
Qiu must come and capture his defensive position, otherwise they will not be able to get around it.
Of course, the enemy has another option, which is to fill up this big trap on the mountain road. However, Claude has placed an artillery piece on the small stone hill, which is the one sent to Claude by Major Leedfunk.
The trophies captured by the three counties are light live-fire artillery produced by the Eskiline Principality. This artillery cannot fire shot shells, and its effective range is only three hundred meters away. It can be said that it is not on the same level as the light infantry artillery equipped by the Kingdom of Overas.
, is an obsolete item. But in the Eskiline Principality, this kind of artillery is used as fire support for infantry in field battles.
If it weren't for the small area on the top of the small stone hill that could only accommodate one artillery piece, Claude would have originally wanted to place two light infantry artillery pieces on it. However, considering that the defensive position required the artillery's cannon shot to repel it.
To attack the enemy, Claude could only move the junk artillery out of the warehouse, and at the same time asked Muriel to lead a small group of soldiers to guard the small stone hill. Their mission was to prevent the enemy from filling this big trap.
.
The territorial nobles really wanted to fill in the big trap on the mountain road, so they drove the territorial people to cut down trees and dig soil to prepare to fill the big hole in the mountain road. But what they didn't expect was that the enemies on the defensive position turned out to be
The defenders were ambushed on the small stone hill on one side of the trap. They were still in a position where they could hit you but you couldn't counterattack. The people carrying logs and earth bags were knocked down one by one on the mountain road like targets.
There is no way to get close to the big trap.
When the territorial nobles asked people to build several wooden carts to resist the muskets, the artillery on the small stone hill also opened fire. The mountain road was narrow and could only accommodate one wooden cart, which gave the artillery sufficient time.
Come take aim and fire. Moreover, the mountain road is bumpy and winding upwards. The enemies on the small stone hills are condescending. They can shoot the cart pusher who cannot conceal his body behind the wooden cart. If there are too few people, he will not be able to push up. If there are too many people, he will be shot by fire.
Even at a distance of 70 to 80 meters from the big trap, the artillery on the small stone hill was enough to destroy the wooden platoon truck.
One afternoon, the efforts made by the territorial nobles were in vain. The territorial nobles of the Eskiline Principality were so angry that they pulled out the four light live ammunition artillery they brought and prepared to fight with the artillery on the small stone hill.
There was a battle. But although the cannon on the small stone hill was of the same type as the four cannons of the territorial nobles, it was placed at a high place and had a much longer range, giving it a greater advantage.
The territorial nobles could only ask the artillerymen to move the artillery forward, thinking that four guns against one would always win. Unexpectedly, the forward movement of the artillery fell into Claude's plan. He ordered the two light guns on the hillside defensive position to
The infantry artillery fired in a diagonal direction, directly destroying three artillery pieces and inflicting heavy casualties on the enemies who were watching the scene.
As a result, in one afternoon, the coalition of territorial nobles suffered more than 200 casualties while filling pits and preparing for artillery bombardment. In addition, the territorial brigade that was lured into the defensive position in the morning had lost nearly 500 soldiers.
Their morale was extremely low, and they didn't have the high spirits to prepare for a big robbery in the three southern counties before setting off.
After dinner, the territorial nobles gathered in the big tent to discuss countermeasures. Now their only choice is to capture the enemy's defensive position on the hillside. This is the only way left. But everyone knows clearly
, to capture the enemy's defensive positions head-on requires a heavy price of casualties. Although the enemy is not large in number, the quality of its soldiers and weapons and equipment far exceed those of the coalition forces.
In front of those lowly territorial citizens, the territorial nobles can claim to be their family's armed forces, and their private guards are elites, but in front of these regular army defenders of the Kingdom of Ovilas, they all know how important their private soldiers are.
Take the muskets as an example. Their private soldiers are basically equipped with old-fashioned weapons that have been eliminated from the armies of the two principalities. After all, they have to deal with the rebellious territorial residents, not the invading foreign invaders.
Besides, if your family's private soldiers are equipped with the best weapons, it will arouse the suspicion of the Grand Duke of the principality. Another is that equipping the best muskets will cost a lot of money. With the living standards of the nobles in the two principalities, if the private soldiers are equipped with
If they spend too much money, it will easily affect their own quality of life and prevent them from enjoying a better life. Therefore, some nobles cannot collect more wealth and equip themselves with good weapons because their territory is too poor.
Some nobles were reluctant to invest in armaments.
But no matter what, the family armed forces of the territorial nobles of the two principalities are still there, and the losses are only a small part. During this period, most of the casualties were the territorial citizens who were drafted. For the territorial nobles, their strength is still there, so
There is no need to give up the plan of plundering the three southern counties. However, when discussing how to attack the enemy's defensive positions, most of the territorial nobles did not intend to send out their own private soldiers, but instead focused on the nobles of the Principality of Karnas.
On the bodies of the conscripts they brought.
The territorial nobles of the Principality of Karnas are also suffering. Although they have dispatched a regiment of more than 4,000 troops, their family's armed forces total less than 1,000 people, and more than 3,000 are enlisted leaders.
However, they were stuck at the bend of the mountain road there for four days, and suffered seven to eight hundred casualties. They moved to the mountain road on the Eskiline Principality side, and a heavy reward was issued two days ago to allow these leaders to enlist.
The people went to chase and kill the enemies who had sneak attacks and ambushes. They killed a dozen enemies, but lost nearly a hundred people on their side.
At the end of the day today, there were more than 500 casualties again. After adding up the troops, the losses of the enlisted people have reached about 1,300 people, more than one-third. The remaining enlisted leaders can still fight.
There are only nearly 2,000 citizens, and their morale is very low. They all believe that the territorial nobles are using them as cannon fodder. If these conscripted citizens are forced to attack the enemy's defensive positions, too many casualties may trigger a mutiny.
…
Some nobles proposed a night attack, but other nobles pointed to the defensive positions on the hillside in the distance. They could see that more than ten large bonfires were lit from the hillside to the side of the mountain road, enough to burn for a night. Whether on the mountain road or
If you move on the hillside, you will be seen by the enemy on the defensive position. Launching a night attack is no different from that during the day. If you send people to extinguish those fires, firstly, the fires are also within the range of the enemy's muskets on the defensive position; secondly, they will
Alert the enemy.
After a long period of military discussions and bargaining, the territorial nobles of the two principalities finally reached an agreement. They planned to let the soldiers and enlisted citizens have a good rest at night, and then attack the enemy's defensive positions on the hillside tomorrow morning. As for the attack
To select the candidates, all the territorial nobles would draw private soldiers from their respective family armies in proportion, temporarily organize them into two brigades, and equip them with a thousand enlisted citizens, so as to seize the enemy's position in one fell swoop with the advantage of military strength.
A peaceful night passed. In the morning, when Claude used a monocular to see a large enemy force leaving the camp and heading toward the hillside with great force, he knew that a bloody battle was inevitable. From a distance of five hundred meters, he
Directly let the two light infantry artillery fire and fire live ammunition. However, the private soldiers and subjects of these territorial nobles did not line up in a regular army marching column. Instead, after being bombarded by the artillery, they waved their melee weapons crazily.
Rush towards the defensive position on the hillside.
"Within two hundred meters, the muskets can fire freely, and the artillery should be replaced with shotguns. Do not fire until the distance is closer than fifty meters!" Claude gave the order coldly.
In one morning, the coalition of territorial nobles launched three charges against Claude's position, but were defeated each time. In the second time, dozens of crazy soldiers rushed to the position, but soon they were defeated.
They were wiped out by the defenders' bayonets. The attackers killed more than half of their horses, and corpses were strewn on the hillside. The blood made the soil on the hillside thicken, and a large piece of it was stained with a pungent smell when you stepped on it.