With so many forces involved in the war, it seems very lively, but it takes time for everyone to gather forces.
At the beginning, only the Jutland nobles in Denmark declared their independence and raised an army to cope with Wang Ji's conquest. They were not subordinate to each other and fought on their own. The highest title was only a marquis, because the Duke there was Wang Ji himself.
With the help of the Hanseatic League, these local nobles elected leaders and joined forces to attack the capital of one of the major provinces divided by King Ji of Schleswig.
Immediately afterwards, the German mercenaries invited by the Hanseatic League successfully joined forces with these noble rebels and fought towards Flensburg in a mighty manner.
Flensburg was defenseless and was captured in only half a day.
At this moment, Wang Ji finally sent out troops. He did not go to rescue Jutland, nor did he bother to regain the lost territory. He went straight to Lübeck, the headquarters of the Hanseatic League!
Lübeck, only 60 kilometers away from Hamburg, is a seaport city located in an estuary delta.
This city is nominally affiliated with the Holy Roman Empire, but it has long been independent and autonomous, and no nobles are in power. It is a city council composed of a group of merchants. In the entire northern Europe, Lübeck is the most prosperous, the most magnificent, the richest, and the most populous.
A super city with a population of over 100,000!
In terms of geographical location, the city of Lübeck is too close. It is right on the edge of Wang Ji’s province of Schleswig. Historically, after the unification of Germany, Schleswig was recaptured through war and Lübeck was also incorporated into the region.
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The distance from Copenhagen to Lübeck by boat was less than 250 kilometers, and Wang Ji transported his troops there in the blink of an eye.
"Your Majesty, there are forts on both sides of the strait. Infantry should be sent ashore first!" suggested a down-and-out knight from Germany. He failed to take the civil service examination in Copenhagen, but because he was proficient in riding skills and familiar with the situation in Germany, he was appointed by Wang Ji to the King's Guards Cavalry Regiment.
The commander of a company is responsible for commanding one hundred of the most elite cavalry.
Wang Ji took out a simple city defense map, which was also drawn by a poor knight. He pointed at the map and said: "The first regiment landed from the right bank, and the second regiment landed from the left bank. The cavalry will not move for the time being, and the navy is preparing to suppress the fort."
As the headquarters of the Hanseatic League and a large city with a population of 100,000, which had to deal with pirates a few hundred years ago, Lübeck has solid walls.
There are only four gates in this city, and each gate is a castle!
Between the city and the ocean is the mouth of the Travo River, with solid forts built on both sides.
Wang Ji directly landed at the seaside in advance, sent his infantry to take a detour to the fort, took out his pocket watch to check the time, and agreed to attack on time at ten o'clock the next morning.
The next morning, naval ships sailed into the river mouth and took the lead in firing at the forts on both sides of the river. The enemy forts also fired back immediately.
It can only be said that the Hanseatic League has indeed declined. Not only are the franchisees fighting among themselves, but they also only care about immediate interests. Even the river defense fort in the headquarters city has not been repaired for 20 or 30 years, and the artillery is from a hundred years ago.
Old antique.
"Boom boom boom boom!"
The two sides exchanged bombardments for several minutes, and the fort was gradually suppressed. The enemy's artillery had not practiced for an unknown period of time.
"collapse!"
After a lot of fighting, the first artillery piece that was scrapped by the fort actually blew up its barrel by itself, and three artillerymen were killed directly.
After a few minutes of shooting, Wang Ji ordered the infantry hidden on the boats to land at the mouth of the river to attack. Behind the forts on both sides of the river, the infantry who landed yesterday had also begun to attack.
At this moment, more than a dozen merchant ships moored at the Lübeck dock suddenly arrived and cooperated with the forts to fire at Wang Ji's warship.
Wang Ji's navy was surrounded by enemies on three sides. One warship suffered heavy damage and he immediately ordered to withdraw from the river mouth area.
At the same time, the forts on both sides of the strait were attacked by infantry. After about half an hour of fighting, they were all captured. The landing infantry only suffered casualties of more than ten people.
Suddenly, another naval battle broke out outside the river mouth.
However, it was a nearby port of the Hanseatic League. They received the news yesterday and quickly assembled a fleet to come to support. However, the river mouth area was too narrow, and some of Wang Ji's ships did not sail in, so they happened to run into the enemy on the outer sea.
The main battleships of both sides are comparable in terms of tonnage.
But Wang Ji's main force was four warships from Tianzhu, all made of ironwood, and all equipped with the most advanced rifled artillery. However, the main force of the Hanseatic League were all large and slow merchant ships, with hulls
Made of oak, its hardness is less than half that of iron pear wood.
Even so, the four capital ships did not fight head-on. Instead, they used their range and flexibility to fly kites and fire cannons from a long distance.
This naval battle lasted for two hours. Four merchant ships of the Hanseatic League were sunk, and the other two had their masts broken and could not move. The rest all chose to run away. Again, merchants were very profitable, and these ships came from different countries.
The merchants all planned to let the friendly forces fight for their lives while they themselves hid behind to avoid losses.
During this period, because it was unbearable to be kited, the merchant ship with an iron head took the lead in charging. When he rushed, he found that the friendly troops were not moving. He was so frightened that he quickly turned the rudder and ran back. Can he win this battle?
Within the river mouth, after the infantry occupied the fort, Wang Ji led the fleet back and attacked the Hanseatic League merchant ships in the river mouth together by land and sea.
The enemy ships were unable to resist and immediately retreated to the dock. They were all blocked by Wang Ji and instantly became a living target.
The infantry immediately rushed towards the city of Lübeck, divided into four teams, and blocked the four city gates, preventing anyone from entering or exiting.
More than a dozen merchant ships that retreated to the dock were all captured by Wang Ji, which was another small profit.
A municipal meeting was held urgently in the city, and the shortcomings of the merchants were once again reflected. Some council members suggested peace talks, while others advocated perseverance. The war and peace factions argued endlessly, and even after half a day, they could not come up with a result.
Then they can only defend the city. They have sent messengers to request the Jutland noble rebels and German mercenaries to return for rescue.
Wang Ji also had a headache. Although he surrounded the city, he could not capture it at all.
Although the city defense system of Lübeck is far inferior to that of Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and other cities, it is already comparable to the medium-sized Daming City. Moreover, the city gates are particularly difficult to deal with. A city gate is a castle, and among them
The two city gates can only be crossed from the bridge. No wonder it has been able to stand as a seaport city for hundreds of years in Northern Europe, where pirates are everywhere, without being breached.
Wang Ji simply stayed here, sent cavalry to investigate the news, and kept an eye out for possible reinforcements.
As for logistics, there is no need to worry at all. If there is no food, it will be shipped directly from the capital by ship.
The city was besieged for half a month without any reinforcements.
Instead, the Dutch merchants took action. They turned into pirates and sailed into the Baltic Sea, looking for merchant ships of the Hanseatic League to attack.
Another ten days have passed.
The citizens of Lübeck began to cause trouble, and the civilians had basically run out of food. However, the price of food in the city soared due to the war. The Hanseatic League merchants, who were surrounded by the city, were still taking advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune.
That night, hundreds of citizens gathered to grab food and set a fire.
The merchant group's armed forces immediately sent troops to suppress it. The next day, they publicly executed more than 30 people and began to recruit citizens to defend the city. Are you out of food? Then join the militia to ensure that you don't starve to death.
In this way, more than 5,000 militiamen were recruited at one go and began to defend the city with simple weapons.
Wang Ji still didn't attack, he was waiting to besiege the city and call for reinforcements.
Three more days later, reinforcements from the Hanseatic League finally arrived. They were Jutland noble rebels and German mercenaries.
The two sides started fighting in the west of the city.
Wang Ji sent five hundred soldiers to guard the bridge in the northwest of the city to prevent the army inside the city from joining forces with the outside. If the city wanted to send troops, they had to go from other directions and cross a river to reach the battlefield.
Jutland is the highlight of Denmark. The reason why the previous king was so poor and was easily overthrown by Wang Ji was because the Jutland nobles were disobedient. They did not rescue the Danish king before, but this time they came out in full force to rebel.
, including the Dung Cha farmers, actually led to an army of 6,000 people.
As for the German mercenaries invited by the Hanseatic League, there were more than 2,000 of them, all equipped with matchlock guns.
Wang Ji asked Christian to command the cavalry, while he took command of the central army. As for Zhou Fei, he was in Copenhagen at this time, dealing with national affairs and logistics issues.
Three thousand Indian pariah soldiers were all holding crossbows at this moment, and their muskets were exchanged for Swedish soldiers.
When Wang Ji set out from Luzon, he purchased a batch of muskets to equip his private soldiers and some pirates. The remaining muskets were not enough to equip the Swedish soldiers, so they had to borrow weapons from the Indian soldiers.
At this moment, 5,000 Swedish crossbowmen were carefully selected, each holding a flintlock rifled musket. Among them, only more than a hundred had ever played with a matchlock, and the rest had not received musket training. Well, they had fired it before setting off.
A few shots, in order to save ammunition, I spent most of the time doing command training.
As for the Norwegian and Danish infantry, half carried spears and axes, and the other half pushed simple chariots.
The chariot was made temporarily. The wheels were removed from the carriage and a few wooden boards were nailed together to make the chariot.
In Europe at this time, musketeers must cooperate with pikemen because they do not have chariot troops. When facing melee troops, pikemen must defend in formation and be responsible for protecting their own arquebusiers. Spain likes to play this set best, and
They have the most arquebusiers.
In addition, arquebus cavalry has appeared in Europe, and once bullied the Swiss heavy infantry.
At that time, a group of Swiss heavy infantrymen lost their minds and chased Spanish arquebus cavalry. As a result, they were kited until they collapsed.
However, during this battle, Wang Ji sent troops to the northwest bank of the river to block the enemy's bridge connecting the city.
The enemy quickly stopped and seemed to be discussing something.
The coalition of more than twenty nobles was composed of mainly German mercenaries, and they had to argue for a long time about how to fight.
Wang Ji is not in a hurry and will wait until the other party comes up with a charter.
Probably because they saw that Wang Ji's army was well-formed and equipped with a large number of muskets, the reinforcements made a fuss and actually chose not to engage in the battle. They circled to the southwest side of the city, where there was a bridge that allowed them to cross the river into the city. It seemed that the reinforcements were planning to retreat to the city.
Hold on.
Wang Ji allowed them to pass because they had to cross a small river to go around the southwest wall.
The river was not deep, only waist-high, and both men and horses could cross it.
Moreover, if the defenders in the city are smart, they can also go out of the city and come to the other side of the river to respond.
The enemy's reinforcements retreated steadily, and Wang Ji slowly followed, leaving only 500 men to guard the bridge here.
When they reached the river, the reinforcements were so angry that they wanted to curse. As long as they crossed the river and walked a little further, they could enter the city through the bridge. However, the defenders in the city could not retreat and had no intention of joining the friendly forces.
Wang Ji began to divide his troops and sent half of his troops to the west to block the enemy's reinforcements at the intersection of the two rivers!
If we don't fight, we have to fight. If the reinforcements forcefully cross the river, Wang Ji will definitely hit the chrysanthemum after half-crossing.
Simple chariots were rolled out and placed in front of the formation as a barrier.
The chariots of the Ming Dynasty were connected with iron chains. Wang Ji could only make do and tied them with ropes, which was considered a beggar's version of a trip horse rope.
Wang Ji put down his telescope and said with a smile: "The enemy's defeat has been determined."
Guards Captain Eguchi Kotaro said: "The enemy is afraid of death, and the main force is on the west side. If they break through our west side troops, they will be able to escape from the battlefield. Even before the war begins, they are already looking for a way out, which shows that the enemy generals have no fighting spirit."
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Wang Ji nodded in approval: "Yes, you have a good vision."
Wang Ji has divided his troops into the northwest and northeast, and the main force is in the northeast. The enemy reinforcements actually used a pile of dung to fork peasants, plus a small number of spear troops, to target Wang Ji's main force; they then concentrated German mercenaries and noble privates.
The soldiers attacked the troops that Wang Ji was responsible for outflanking. They obviously wanted to break through the encirclement and escape!
"This formation is attacking. Send an order to General Chen to defend!"
Wang Ji's main formation immediately stepped out and pressed forward, while the outflanking troops formed defensive formations.
The enemy is also attacking, with more than 3,000 main forces charging, and the cavalry also engaging in counter-outflanking. The leading general here is Chen Yu, an old subordinate who followed Wang Ji on his voyage around the world. He used chariots and ropes to protect the military formation. It is estimated that
After the enemy entered the firing range, he immediately shouted: "First row, fire!"
Swedish crossbowmen turned musketeers only know basic musket operations, but they are better than others because of their strong discipline.
At the moment when the flag was waved, the Swedish musketeers fired together, and then immediately squatted down to load ammunition. The second row fired again, and then the third row...
After three rounds of gun fire, a phalanx of noble private soldiers collapsed and began to flee.
The German mercenaries were dumbfounded, and their heads were filled with questions. Why could the enemy's muskets shoot so far?
On the other side, Wang Ji only fired a single volley, and the Dung Cha peasants and spearmen suddenly collapsed.
These farmers were farming at home, but suddenly the lords wanted to rebel and forced them to fight west. After fighting for a while, they returned to the east and rushed to the east for reinforcements. They didn't get much benefit. At most, they won and grabbed two pairs.
Rotten boots. Faced with the fierce musketeers, why did the farmers fight so hard? They turned around and ran away, not forgetting to take away their own dung forks.
"Cavalry charge!"
Wang Ji roared, and Christine immediately led the cavalry out.
More than 300 cavalrymen pursued and killed the 4,000-man defeated army. The defeated army disrupted the main force of our own side. The main force, which had been stunned by the volley of guns, immediately began to flee. Even the German mercenaries fled.
The rebel nobles were the fastest runners. They spotted the gap between Wang Ji's two troops and wanted to rush over immediately with the speed of their cavalry.
He did rush through most of it. After all, the battlefield was too big and it was a temporary outflank, so it was impossible to completely block it.
The infantry were not so lucky. They jumped into the river one after another and waded through the waist-deep water to escape. They were chased by Wang Ji and his troops and they were killed indiscriminately.
More than 2,000 German mercenaries fled to the river but stopped moving, and actually chose to surrender collectively.
The Finnish rebel nobles and the first group of mercenaries invited by the Hanseatic League were completely wiped out. Wang Ji continued to besiege the Hanseatic League headquarters in Lübeck.