"Take it easy, don't think about firing more shots. I'd rather you slow down, aim, and be careful, and don't want any accidents to happen. Markchi, you're responsible for supervising them. I'll go take a look at the defense tower over there."
Claude watched as the red-hot solid iron pellet was stuffed into the muzzle, and then the gun crew took aim again and fired.
A cloud of green smoke came out of the muzzle, and the shell roared out and hit the middle floor of the rightmost siege tower eighty meters away. It could be seen clearly in the frame of the monocular telescope.
There was an obvious vibration in the middle layer surrounded by logs.
"Yes, let's fight like this. We don't need any violent bombardment, we just need to hit more accurately..." Claude waved his hand excitedly.
After two days of rest, the enemy once again organized troops to attack the castle. The first and fourth brigades were now deployed on the city wall for defense. The log platoons originally built on the city wall had been destroyed by the six gates on the enemy's three siege towers.
The artillery was broken into pieces of different sizes, but the sacks filled with soil piled up at the top of the city gave the soldiers better cover. The enemy's live ammunition bombardment could not destroy these sacks. Only shotgun shells could destroy the exposed bodies.
Soldiers pose some threat.
Under the precise aim and shooting of the soldiers, the enemy in this attack showed no fighting spirit. They once again left thirty or forty corpses and retreated. Only the six artillery pieces on the three siege towers continued to attack the city.
A futile shelling was carried out on his head. Several soldiers who were injured by shotguns were being hurriedly sent to the treatment center by medical soldiers. Diavid came to Claude's side and was about to speak.
With a sudden shock, the soil flew everywhere, making both men look disgraced. Needless to say, a cannonball must have hit the sack filled with soil.
"Bah! Bah!" After vomiting several times, Diavid looked at the three siege towers in the distance through the gaps left by the accumulation of sacks and said: "Sir, if there are no these three siege towers,
There is no way the enemy can get close to our city wall..."
Claude wiped the dirt off his head: "I know, we are testing it now, please be patient. What were our casualties just now?"
"Four of our first group were wounded, two were killed and seven were injured in the fourth group. They were all casualties caused by shotguns fired by the enemy..." Diaverde shook his head: "I told them to take cover earlier.
I would use the gaps in the sacks to shoot, but there are always some idiots who forget that they dislike the inconvenience of aiming in the gaps in the sacks and like to put their muskets on them to shoot. As a result, as soon as the enemy's artillery fires shotguns, it is too late to hide...
…”
"But it seems to me that the enemy's attack today was not as fierce as yesterday. This time they retreated in less than half an hour..."
"Yeah, I think so too." Diaverde laughed: "Yesterday the enemy tried their best and couldn't attack the city wall, but suffered heavy casualties. Today it seems a little perfunctory, and the charge is not fierce. Most of them
They all hid behind the wooden platoon cars. This is all your fault, sir. You arranged the artillery bombardment very cleverly, unlike that old fool Captain Hemkling who just ordered the artillery to bombard the enemy's wooden platoon cars. Those wooden platoon cars bombarded
There is no point in breaking it into pieces, the enemy can push new ones from behind at any time..."
After the enemy arranged three siege towers, they pushed a lot of wooden carts from behind, almost filling the entire open space. Then when they launched the attack, they used the cover of these wooden carts to get close to the city wall. At the beginning, the city wall
The second and third brigades were performing defensive tasks, and Captain Heimkling was in charge of the command. He ordered the seven artillery pieces placed on the city wall to bombard the wooden platoon cars in the open space. As a result, the position of the artillery on the city wall was exposed and was destroyed by the enemy.
The six artillery pieces on the three siege towers focused their fire and knocked out three of them. At the same time, the smoke emitted when the artillery fire was rapid filled the entire city wall, blocking the soldiers' vision and giving the enemy a chance to climb up using the city ladder.
At the top of the city, the soldiers had to engage in hand-to-hand combat to drive the enemy off, resulting in heavy casualties.
Fortunately, during those four days, although the enemy stormed the city wall and destroyed an artillery piece, under the desperate counterattack of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, they still could not stand and were driven off the city wall. Then because of the heavy casualties, they stopped for two days.
God, it was not until yesterday that the attack on the castle was launched again.
But what the enemy didn't expect was that his opponent had changed. Now guarding the city wall were the first and fourth battalions of the Ranger Battalion. Claude didn't let the three artillery pieces placed on the city wall bombard them at all.
In the past two days, the enemy had replaced the new wooden platoon vehicles in the open space, and even the four artillery pieces placed in the defense towers on the left and right were not allowed to bombard those wooden platoon vehicles. He ordered the four artillery pieces in the defense towers to use
The red-hot iron pellet shells were used to attack the middle floor of the enemy's siege tower on the far right, where there were the artillery windows of the enemy's two artillery pieces. Claude believed that as long as the number of shellings was high, it would always be possible to hit that siege tower.
The little artillery window...
The three artillery pieces on the city wall were all loaded with shotgun shells. Their targets were not the wooden carts in the open space and the enemies hiding behind them, but the enemy's ladder. As long as the enemy grabbed the ladder and ran towards the city wall, this would
Only one artillery fires and shoots shotgun shells to cover the direction where the enemy is preparing to approach the city wall. Three artillery pieces are never allowed to fire at the same time. The same goes for the soldiers defending the city wall. Only a dozen veterans with relatively accurate shooting have the right to fire at any time.
, other soldiers were hiding behind sacks of earth and waiting. Only when the enemy attacked in a large scale were they ordered to shoot...
This kind of defense makes the enemy somewhat unpredictable, just like the attack under the city wall is very fierce and fierce. The shelling of three siege towers, and the soldiers hiding behind the wooden platoon vehicles fired fiercely at the top of the city.
, the smoke soon filled the entire open space.
But there were very few responses from the city wall. If it weren't for the occasional gunshots and a small cloud of gunpowder smoke rising from the piled sacks, it would be easy to think that there was no one on the city wall. But if people gathered together and wanted to take the ladder to climb the city,
If you approach the city wall and place a ladder on the top of the city, there will always be a cannon blast, and the soldiers next to the ladder will suffer heavy casualties...
Yesterday, the enemy attacked fiercely for a whole day. When I returned and checked, I found that the seemingly weak defense of the defenders on the city wall had caused greater casualties to the attackers than the previous attack. The first attack resulted in daily casualties for four consecutive days.
None of them exceeded 200. As a result, at the end of the day yesterday, there were more than 400 casualties. And the most important thing is that even though there were so many casualties, there were still no attacks on the city wall. The reason was that the soldiers grabbed the city ladder and rushed towards the city wall.
On the way, there would always be one or two cannons on the city wall firing shotgun shells, covering the route forward, resulting in extremely heavy casualties.
Perhaps it was because of yesterday's lesson that no soldier was willing to approach the city ladder in today's attack. A few frontline officers took the lead and took the lead in picking up the city ladder and forced a dozen soldiers to prepare to attack the city. As a result, they just rushed to the city wall.
Before the ladders could be put up on the city wall below, a cannon shot from above, and everyone fell into a pool of blood. Then no one was willing to get any ladder to climb up the city wall...
The fighting in the afternoon was very peaceful, that is, soldiers from both sides were shooting up and down with muskets, and there were very few casualties. The defenders on the city wall were hiding behind sacks of earth, and the attackers below the city were hiding behind wooden carts, holding up muskets.
One shot after another was fired. The three artillery pieces on the city wall would not fire unless the enemy came close to the city wall. Only the four artillery pieces in the two defense towers on both sides were left to attack the enemy's rightmost side with red-hot shells every ten minutes.
The siege tower. The artillery in the enemy's siege tower also bombarded the artillery windows in the defense towers on both sides, leaving craters on the surface of the defense towers.
It seems that today has passed like this. Claude and Captain Coldwalker, the captain of the 4th Brigade, stood behind the city wall and watched the last group of attacking enemies hurriedly retreat into the village. They were about to speak when they suddenly heard
There was a very violent explosion on the battlefield. When I turned around, I saw that the enemy's rightmost siege tower was spraying sparks and fire from above and below. The top layer was falling down, while the middle layer began to burn.
stand up……
"Hit! Sir, we hit the artillery window!" The excited Markchi rushed out of the small door of the defense tower and almost fell down on the steps.
Obviously, a red-hot cannonball just hit the small artillery window of the siege tower and fell inside. Claude had always guessed that the internal space of the siege tower was not large, so he arranged two cannons.
Artillery, were the artillery shells and gunpowder launching packets piled up next to it? Now there is an answer to this question. Obviously, the red-hot shell hit the artillery window and fell inside, igniting the gunpowder accumulated inside and causing
There was an explosion. If Claude hadn't insisted on burning the shell red, it is estimated that the shot hitting the artillery window would have had no effect...
The destruction of a siege tower was like a shot in the arm to the crews of the four artillery pieces. Now they no longer complained about Claude asking them to fire red-hot shells. After all, firing this was very troublesome.
You also have to be prepared to prevent fires, and the firing time is also very slow. Not only do you have to wait for the iron pellets and cannonballs to burn red in the brazier, but even if you put the cannon barrel in, you have to place a small wooden board first, and you have to fire it immediately to avoid igniting the back of the board.
of gunpowder.
Even Major Skerry, who was hanging his arms, rushed up to the city wall excitedly and admired the blazing siege tower: "You did a good job. Each of you deserves a bottle of kale tonight!"
"
The bottle of kale for each person that Major Skerry mentioned refers to the artillery crew members. As for the soldiers of the 1st and 4th Battalions, it is impossible for them to have a bottle each, and there is not that much kale in the warehouse. But each person has one bottle.
A large glass of rye is still possible.
The artillerymen cheered, but they continued to burn red cannonballs, aim and fire, then cleaned the barrel, loaded the gunpowder packets, stuffed small wooden boards, and waited for the cannonballs to burn red in the brazier.
"Which siege tower are you going to attack now?" Major Skerry was very happy. What he was most worried about was that the enemy's three siege towers suppressed the defensive advantage of the city wall from its height, forcing the 1st Ranger Battalion to have to attack the city.
A large number of sacks filled with soil were piled up on the head to provide cover for the soldiers and shield the enemy's artillery fire. Unexpectedly, one of them was destroyed today. If there is one, there must be two. I believe that the remaining two siege towers are also gone.
How long has it been rampant?
"The one in the middle," Claude said.
At this moment, the enemy still didn't understand why the siege tower exploded, and none of the soldiers inside or the crews of the two artillery guns ran out. The enemy didn't know that the shells fired by Claude were red-hot, because
After the bombardment started, no one dared to stay under or next to the siege tower for fear of being accidentally injured, so even if the shells hit the siege tower and fell below, they would quickly become cold and no one would notice.
They all thought it was the soldiers in the siege tower who accidentally caught fire and ignited the gunpowder before it exploded...
But now the four artillery in the defense towers on both sides were aimed at the siege tower in the middle, and the enemy finally figured out what was going on. Although they were more than 80 meters apart, the shouts and curses coming from the siege tower were still vague.
It can be distinguished. It should be that an enemy tried to get the cannonball that fell on the ground next to the siege tower, but was burned. This also let the enemy understand why the siege tower next to it exploded...
It just so happens that this should be a small chance of hitting the target. After the three cannon shots here, the enemy's screams came from the siege tower in the middle in the distance, and then several enemy soldiers were seen.
They rushed out from the bottom of the siege tower. They were lucky because there was a cry for help from above, and then as if in slow motion, the sparks in the middle layer sparkled, and soon an explosion occurred, just like the one next to them just now.
Like a burning siege tower, it turned into a big fire...
The soldiers cheered again on the city wall. This time, the four artillery pieces in the defense tower did not need Claude's orders, and automatically turned their targets to the last remaining siege tower on the left. Although it was almost evening,
It was dark, but with the firelight from the two big fires, one could still clearly distinguish the two artillery windows on the middle floor of the last siege tower.
Major Skerry couldn't help but couldn't help himself. He laughed with his mouth wide open: "It's a reward. All the artillery crew members will be credited with a second-level meritorious service. This is a great achievement!"
Claude said: "Sir, I think you might as well reward each of them with a bottle of kale. You know, they spent a whole day shelling today before destroying the first siege tower. But when you come over and say, reward each of them."
With just a bottle of kale, in less than half an hour, they destroyed the second siege tower..."
Of course, Claude was just joking. It takes a lot of luck to shoot fist-sized shells into the two small artillery windows in the middle of the enemy's siege tower at such a distance. After all, artillery is not precisely aimed and fired.
The high-performance muskets are not yet able to hit wherever you point them. It was just a coincidence that the siege tower in the middle was destroyed just now.
Finally, the siege tower on the left has stopped shelling, and you can see that the enemies inside the tower are running out, and some are coming out with gunpowder barrels in their hands.
Claude immediately ordered the three artillery on the city wall to fire shotgun shells one after another, covering the bottom of the enemy's siege tower, leaving the enemy with nowhere to escape. Unfortunately, although the enemy left a few corpses, they were still nearby.
They escaped under the cover of wooden platoon vehicles and even pulled down two light infantry artillery pieces from the siege tower and took them away.
Markchi came out of the defense tower and asked Claude if he wanted to continue bombarding the last siege tower?
Claude ordered with a straight face to continue the bombardment, still using red-hot shells. The answer is simple. The enemy used logs and moist mud to smear the outside of the siege tower to prevent bombardment, but the inside of the siege tower must be a wooden structure. As long as it can ignite, then
From now on, you don’t have to worry about the enemy using siege towers again...