"We came too late." General Albert put down the gold-patterned monocular in his hand and shook his head: "If we could have come a month earlier, the enemy must not have built the city wall. We might
We can also take advantage of the incomplete defense of the city wall to capture the camp of the Nasseri Kingdom Volunteer Field Corps in one fell swoop. Now that they have built the city wall and are condescending, it will be a bit troublesome for us to remove this stronghold..."
Claude didn't say anything. He knew that General Albert's words about some troubles were to give him face. In fact, it was not some troubles, but a lot of troubles. He did not expect the captured senior officers of the Principality of Karrnus.
According to the confession, the volunteer field army of the Kingdom of Nasseri rebuilt a logistics base on the ruins of Wickham Castle. Only now it was discovered that they did not rebuild the original site, but expanded it, and even built the outermost city wall.
Originally the capital city of Cromwell's overseas territory, Wickham Castle was known for its dangerous terrain and tight defenses. When the Hicks Kingdom launched its first colonial war, Wickham Castle only had one local garrison.
, it held out for half a year under the siege of a standing army of the Kingdom of Hicks. In the end, it took the colonial garrison of the Kingdom of Hicks a month and a half to transport two heavy siege artillery pieces and blow down the city wall.
Captured the castle.
The second capture of Wickham Castle was a victory for General Michelich. During the First Colonial War, the two standing armies on the front line of the Kingdom of Hicks were annihilated. General Michelich led the Ranger Division.
The situation was under pressure. The two walls of Wickham Castle that had been blown down by artillery had not yet been repaired. A local garrison of the Hicks Colonial Army who was dissatisfied with the defense had no choice but to raise the white flag and surrender, causing Wickham Castle to be invaded by the Rangers.
The division was recovered.
Later, after receiving information from the Hicks Kingdom that it had sent five more standing legions to the mainland colony of Nubisia, General Michelich decided to implement the strategy of clearing out the country in the two overseas territories of Cromwell and Beringana, and relocated
All the kingdom residents of Wickham Castle were eliminated, leaving only an empty castle and the Nikancha people living around the castle.
After the Second Colonial War began, the standing army of the Kingdom of Hicks easily occupied Wickham Castle, massacred and drove away the Nikancha people who occupied the residences of the castle residents, and set up Wickham Castle as a general logistics base.
. However, General Michelich ordered the 131st Ranger Regiment led by Claude to sneak attack and capture Wickham Castle through a pre-excavated secret passage, burning all the logistics supplies, and because of the explosion of the ammunition warehouse, the entire Wickham Castle was destroyed.
The Castle of Mu was bombed into ruins, forcing the Hicks Kingdom's standing army on the front line to surrender because they ran out of ammunition and food, and won the Second Colonial War.
The Kingdom of Hicks, which suffered only two defeats, still refused to end the war and announced that it would form ten standing legions. In the name of mercenaries, the Kingdom of Ovilas' sworn enemies, the Kingdom of Nasseri and the Principality of Karnas,
He hired those so-called retired soldiers, formed two volunteer corps, and transported them to the mainland of Nubisia to stabilize the situation in the colony.
In the first half of this year, the Kingdom of Hicks transported two more standing corps to Vibato Colonial County, but encountered a food crisis. While urgently transporting grain and other military supplies, it also reclaimed ten acres of land in Vibato Colonial County.
Tens of thousands of acres of fertile farmland to survive the famine. According to the confessions of the captured senior officers, the first batch of planted potatoes had been recovered in Vibato Colonial County, and the food crisis had been alleviated, so they decided to attack Cromwell and
The two territories of Beringana launched military operations.
The Volunteer Field Corps of the Kingdom of Nasseri took a fancy to the favorable terrain of the Wickham Castle ruins and decided to rebuild a logistics base there. If the Volunteer Light Cavalry Corps of the Principality of Karrnath had not taken a fancy to the extra money from hunting bison, they would have originally
You should also stay in the Demesne of Crowell. With the garrison of these two legions, the Demesne of Crowell will soon become a colonial county of the Kingdom of Hicks.
This is also the main reason why Claude is determined to eradicate the volunteer field army of the Kingdom of Nasseri. As the supreme commander of the theater, he will never allow the enemy to drive such a nail within his combat range. Especially the kingdom's mortal enemy Nasseri.
The Kingdom's Volunteer Field Corps was known for its good defense during the five-year war in the eastern region. If it was allowed to occupy the ruins of Wickham Castle, the Cromwell Territory would soon become a place under the jurisdiction of the enemy.
Unfortunately, as General Albert said, they arrived too late. The enemy had already built the outer city wall, but the camp was placed inside the city wall. When the strength of the troops was almost the same, it was not wise to launch an attack rashly.
What a good idea. The Thunder Division is likely to encounter a bloody blow in front of the enemy's city wall. It will still be unable to capture Wickham Castle despite heavy casualties. There is even a high possibility that the enemy will seize the opportunity to counterattack.
.
Claude originally wanted to see if the enemy was building on the original site, in which case the secret passage might still be used. Unexpectedly, the enemy had expanded the entire Wickham Castle this time, and the trench where the secret passage exit was had been
It was filled up and included within the city wall, which made Claude feel very disappointed.
General Albert's suggestion was to besiege, or besiege the city for reinforcements. Use the mobility of the Thunder Legion to force the enemy to be trapped in Wickham Castle, waiting for the moment when their food and supplies are exhausted.
It’s just that we don’t know how long it will take for this method to take effect. No one knows how much food, grass and logistical supplies the Nasseri Kingdom’s volunteer field army carries. If it only lasts for two or three months, then everyone will have to bear with it.
You can still get by. But if the enemy has stockpiled supplies for a year, then everyone should go back early to wash up and sleep. Anyway, they can't attack. If the soldiers stay in the field for a year without using their fighting spirit, they will collapse and die.
.....
But Claude rejected General Albert's suggestion. What he needed was time to eliminate this volunteer field regiment as soon as possible. Instead of entangled with the enemy here, the longer the delay, the more detrimental the impact on the theater. Others
Not to mention, just a single logistics supply is at a disadvantage compared to the enemy. Even if the Thunder Division has mobility, the consumption of war horses is greater than that of people. This is not just about grazing in the wilderness and eating some grass. It also requires
Feed plenty of nutrient-rich concentrates.
So Claude decided to attack by force. With the grenade in hand, he did not believe that the volunteer field army of the Nasseri Kingdom could hold the city wall. General Albert didn't understand that Claude had the trump card and persuaded him.
For a while, Claude just smiled and shook his head, refusing to listen to his persuasion. Instead, he ordered him to disperse his troops to prevent the enemies in Wickham Castle from gathering and fleeing. At the same time, let him see why he would
We are sure to break through the city wall built by the enemy.
However, Claude's wishful thinking did not work. To his surprise, the volunteer field regiment did not cower behind the city wall. After realizing that the soldiers of the Thunder Division were in the pits a hundred meters away from the city wall,
, after using musket sniping to pose a great threat to the defenders and artillery crews on the city wall, they dispatched infantry out of the city wall to launch a counterattack, forcing the first batch of Thunder Division soldiers to attack the enemy to snipe.
They suffered heavy casualties and had to retreat from the front line.
Claude had a gloomy look on his face. It was obvious that the enemy found that the Thunder Division's attacking force was not much larger than theirs, so they had the confidence to go out of the city and launch a counterattack. Claude wanted to throw grenades on and inside the city wall, and he had to get close to the city wall.
Within seventy meters. But the current situation is that the Thunder Division cannot get close to a hundred meters of the city wall, and cannot even snipe the defenders on the city wall...
Claude had to order to imitate the volunteer light cavalry regiment of the Principality of Karnas that he had annihilated, and dig trenches from 800 meters away to the enemy's city wall to avoid the artillery fire on the enemy's city wall and reduce the casualties of the troops. There was no way.
The enemy has a lot of armaments and ammunition. As long as three or more people are seen gathering together within 800 meters, the artillery on the city wall will fire solid projectiles to attack. Under such circumstances, the soldiers of the Thunder Division have no chance at all.
The only way to dig in front is to start digging from a distance of 800 meters, out of the range of the city wall artillery.
It took eight days to dig the three trenches to within 200 meters of the city wall. During this period, the Volunteer Field Corps entrenched in Wickham Castle also sent a night attack force to attack the guards in the trenches, killing nearly a hundred Thunder soldiers.
The number of casualties, including the casualties of soldiers who were bombarded by artillery fire on the city wall while digging trenches, was nearly 400.
However, it is precisely because of this that it aroused the anger of the majority of the soldiers of the Thunder Division. Everyone knew that the division still had the deadly weapon of throwing grenades, so the morale was not low. On the contrary, the desire to fight became stronger, and they all demanded to fight day and night.
Keep digging forward. I wish I could dig under the city wall overnight, and then use grenades to retaliate against the enemy.
At this time, Claude had also learned about the difficulty of the volunteer field army of the Kingdom of Nasseri. He changed his battle plan and was determined to fight another difficult battle under Wickham Castle instead of relying on throwing weapons.
The enemy was defeated with a single bullet. He still remembered a famous saying he saw on the military website in his previous life: weapons are not the decisive factor in war, but people are what really determine the outcome of a war.
It can be seen from the fact that the volunteer field corps of the Kingdom of Nasseri sends people out of the city wall to launch counterattacks from time to time. The enemy's morale is also very high and they firmly believe that they can defend Wickham Castle. If the enemy is not trapped in the castle
, weakening their morale, then even if the enemy is caught off guard with a grenade, the enemy can still continue to fight to the death with the Thunder Division in the castle. Perhaps then the Thunder Division, which thinks that the enemy has been defeated by the grenade, will be beaten
Big loss, after all, the grenade is not a real killer, it is just a variant of the grenade, and its lethality is not that great...
Starting from a distance of 150 meters from the city wall, Claude ordered the soldiers to dig horizontal trenches to prevent the enemy from sneak attacks and counterattacks out of the city. Then he dug horizontal trenches again at a distance of 120 meters, and continued to advance step by step.
On the other hand, General Albert watched the battle in confusion and did not understand why Claude did this. The two divisions brought two months of supplies of food, grass, ammunition and supplies before setting off. At this rate of attack, it is very likely that Wickham
The logistical and armament supplies were all used up even before the castle was conquered.
Claude just smiled and said to General Albert, be patient and everything will come to an end in a few days. In the following days, the soldiers of the Thunder Division finally dug a horizontal trench within a hundred meters of the city wall.
You can directly use muskets to suppress the artillery fire on the city wall, and even prevent the enemy from leaving the city to set up bonfires to prevent night attacks.
At night, in order to guard against night attacks by the Thunder Division, the Volunteer Field Corps had to send a large number of soldiers to guard the city wall, and from time to time they threw torches down from the city wall to use the weak light of the torches to see if there was night.
Attacking the enemy near the trenches of the city wall...
However, the night attack commanded by Claude was not prepared to let the soldiers of the Thunder Division get close to the city wall. They only needed to get within 70 meters of the city wall and directly use the throwing device to throw the grenades on and inside the city wall. Continuously.
Absolute explosions exploded on the city wall, and from time to time soldiers' limbs were blown off the city wall in the light of fire.
A total of ten rounds of thousands of grenades had blown up the top of the city wall where the Thunder Division had attacked, resulting in heavy casualties. Although the Volunteer Field Corps had transferred several batches of reinforcements, they had not been able to survive because of the first two batches of troops who had climbed onto the city wall.
Many men and horses were killed and injured, so they did not dare to send any more people up. Even though the bombs stopped for ten minutes, they still stopped under the city wall and only sent a few soldiers to watch on the city wall.
This ten-minute pause was just Claude ordering the grenade team to move forward fifteen meters and throw five rounds of grenades into the city. As a result, nearly a hundred grenades were thrown in in the first round, and the volunteer field regiment staying under the city wall was
The reinforcements suffered a big loss immediately. The grenade landed in the middle of the crowd and exploded into a large area. The uninjured soldiers turned around and ran away, not even taking their wounded comrades with them.
At this time, the subsequent siege troops had already crossed the ditch in front of the city wall and leaned the ladders on the city wall to climb up. Although there were more than a dozen soldiers from the volunteer field corps on the city wall who were sent to observe the vigilance, this manpower was not enough.
It was not enough to resist so many attackers, so he either turned around and ran away or died under the attacker's bayonet.
Soon the city wall for the frontal assault was occupied by the soldiers of the Thunder Division. Then, while the soldiers on the city wall continued to attack along the city wall, they went down to the city and opened the door for the frontal assault, allowing the follow-up troops to come in. Under the cover of throwing bombs
Below, the four city walls fell one after another, and most of the volunteer field regiments were trapped on the ruins in the middle of the city wall.
After capturing the four city walls, Claude ordered not to continue the attack and wait for dawn to avoid accidental damage. Only after dawn did the Thunder Division discover that the volunteer field regiment of the Nasseri Kingdom was still preparing to resist. They were guarding the city wall overnight.
A defensive position was set up on the ruins in the middle, and artillery was concentrated to bombard the west wall, intending to open a gap from there and find a way out.
What's regrettable is that the quality of the outer city wall they built was very good. Dozens of artillery bombarded it for most of the day, but the inside of the wall was only riddled with holes and could not fall down. When Claude saw that the enemy still refused to surrender, he ordered
The soldiers turned around the city defense artillery deployed on the city wall and bombarded the ruins in the middle of the city wall, destroying the enemy's defensive positions and attracting enemy firepower. At the same time, they ordered McJack's 131st Guerrilla Battalion to use grenades in conjunction with Eberron.
The troops under General Special launched an attack to seize the enemy's defensive positions.
The fierce battle inside Wickham Castle lasted for three days and two nights. In the end, the remaining 43,000 officers and soldiers of the Volunteer Field Corps of King Nasseri Kingdom laid down their weapons and surrendered to the Thunder Division.
The Wickham Attack lasted for a total of twenty-two days. More than half of the Nasseri Kingdom's Volunteer Field Corps suffered casualties, more than 17,000 officers and soldiers were killed, and the entire army was annihilated. However, Claude's Thunder Division and Albert
The casualties of General Lunt's Third Rock Division were also not small. The casualties of the Thunder Division were mainly concentrated in the counterattack while digging trenches and the final night attack on the city, with nearly 4,000 casualties.
The casualties of the Panshi Third Division were during the last three days of the city's offensive battle. Because they were not familiar with urban street fighting, General Albert's troops suffered 6,000 casualties when attacking the enemy's defensive positions built on the ruins.
Too many, almost a regiment's worth of troops were lost.