After Becoming The Tyrant

Another ready-made fleet set off from the upstream of the station. This fleet was different from the raft fleet that was the vanguard just now. The cabin was made very wide and the hull was relatively flat.The punts were loaded with thick planks of worked wood.There are two types of people on the fleet, one is soldiers holding shields against the rain of arrows, and the other is experienced engineers.

The second fleet passed unimpeded through the wooden piles burned by the ancient holy fire, braving the arrow rain shot from the Blackstone Fortress, approaching the isolated island in the middle of the river.

All the boats are spread out on the river, and the hulls are closely arranged together, forming a horizontal belt connecting the bank of the Laixi River on the right and the small island in the center of the river.When the boats were side by side, the people on board quickly threw iron cables to the neighboring boats on the left and right.The iron chain tightly connected the entire fleet, the bow and stern ships were slightly larger than the others, and the heavy anchors were thrown into the water.

On the Blackstone Fortress, the iron arrows fell with a "swoosh". Although some soldiers held up their shields to resist, the dense rain of arrows still posed a huge threat to these soldiers who built the pontoon bridge.

"Plop" "Puff".

One after another, some soldiers were shot by arrows and fell headlong into the rushing river.The surface of the water was suddenly stained with patches of blood, and the river began to become turbid.

Laying the planks of the pontoon bridge is the most dangerous time, and it is also the time when the loss rate of manpower is the highest. The king sent another fleet to arrive near the Blackstone Fortress with longbowmen on board to prevent the enemy from coming down from the Blackstone Fortress and destroying the island in the middle of the river. The lead ship and anchorage.

The king watched the progress of the construction of the pontoon bridge in the Laixi River on the river bank.

Under the rain of enemy arrows, the number of sappers and shield soldiers on Legrand's ship gradually decreased.

Admiral Sheen raised his flag to the reserve fleet.

In order to attack these times today, almost all of Legrand's engineering teams were sent by General Sean to chop wood to build temporary military warships and other engineering equipment.Receiving the order of General Sheen, the reserve fleet quickly paddled their oars and rushed to the vicinity of the pontoon bridge that was gradually erected.

At this time, the previous fleet had almost all been damaged by the arrow rain from the fortress.

On the half-built pontoon bridge, some of the corpses of engineers were hung on the iron chains, and some lay on half-paved wooden boards. Blood flowed from the wooden boards into the Laixi River, and was quickly washed away by the icy water.But soon, new blood dripped down again, dyeing this section of the river into a lingering light red.

On the fortress, General Condor organized a group of soldiers, lowered a drawbridge, and the rebels armed with sharp axes rushed to the lead ship on the island.

The longbowmen who had been waiting for a long time drew their bowstrings without hesitation.

The rebels were like Legrand's soldiers who built the pontoon bridge, their lives were taken away by sharp arrows, and they kept falling down on the way to the first boat on the pontoon bridge.

On the broad Laixi River, floating bridges were erected little by little. This was a bridge stained red with blood.

"past!"

When the last plank was laid, the king ordered without hesitation.

Under the leadership of the king, the long-awaited large army quickly advanced from the pontoon bridge.

This is a time to test people's courage. Although the pontoon bridge on the rapid Laixi River is fixed by iron cables, when the cavalry passed by, the bridge deck continued to rise and fall with the trampling of the horse iron, and the river splashed from under the bridge and fell on the knights. on the armor.

On the top floor of the tower, General Vulture saw the king, surrounded by the scarlet king's banner, leading the rose iron cavalry and marching through the rain of arrows.They were fast and wore excellent armor. The rebel army did not have good archers like Legrand's longbowmen, and the arrows falling from high altitudes could not hit the horses of the cavalry like they did on the flat ground to stop them from moving forward.

The rose cavalry quickly landed on the isolated island in the middle of the river.

The Blackstone Fortress is located in the center of the isolated island. It is an octagonal fortress as a whole, with a tall tower on each corner.

There are double-layer defenses surrounded by wooden piles around the fortress. Once the enemy attacking the fortress approaches, they must first break through the defense of the wooden piles. However, there are also many archery holes at the bottom of the tower. Once the infantry attacking the fortress approaches, they will greet them. The dense attack flying from the archery hole at close range and the asphalt hot oil falling from the upper layer.

But the rose iron cavalry galloping like a breeze could not be stopped by the arrows at the bottom. The cavalry circled the fort tower and rushed, shooting rockets from their horses.

The light cavalry led by the king, the arrows on their backs are special rockets. The arrowheads are not refined iron, but special fuel wrapped in oiled paper.

The arrows flew out rapidly, and the fire blazed up on the arrows. The arrows with fire balls hit the wooden piles around the tower. More and more arrows hit, and the fire gradually rolled up. Finally, it jumped upwards in the blowing wind.In the archery hole behind the double-layer wooden pile, the archers of the rebel army were scorched by the heat wave, black smoke poured in from the archery hole, and the entire bottom of the Blackstone Fortress was instantly filled with choking smoke.

The rebel archers had to flee upwards from the ladders in the tower, and the bottom wooden stakes that were originally used for defense helped the enemy at this time.

There was no snow today, and the fire was getting stronger and stronger with the help of the wind, and it rolled into the high air, and the black smoke was sent to the upper floors of the tower.The sight of the archers was blocked, and the rain of arrows falling from the sky was affected and weakened.Taking advantage of this opportunity, General Sheen on the other side of the river led the remaining large infantry force to cross the Lacey River from the pontoon bridge with a tall battering ram.

Several oath knights of the king were sent to temporarily protect James at this time.

Even the most proud knight has to admit that even if he can't swing a sword to kill the enemy, he can't charge on horseback, but James himself definitely has the courage to stand shoulder to shoulder with any knight.

Almost every day, James risked being shot by the archers of the fortress, observed the Blackstone Fortress from various angles and in various ways, and successfully restored the structure of the fortress with his own architectural experience and observations, marked Find out the positions of all the archery holes on the fortress, and finally successfully calculate where the fortress is most vulnerable.

The engineers who arrived at the city first had cloth strips on their noses and mouths. They filled up the trenches in front of the Blackstone Fortress with boulders, soil, and branches.

After the trenches were filled, the engineers approached the bottom of the solid Blackstone Fortress. At this time, the fire was still burning. The engineers poured cold water on the flames at the attack point chosen by James, and began to dig tunnels from that point. [1].Compared with the solid Blackstone Fortress itself, the foundation on which the fortress stands is far less solid.

The soil layer was dug up quickly, and the engineers carefully took out the gunpowder from the box behind them.

On today's battlefield, gunpowder is just a monster with loud noises and bravado to the hard castle, even if the two chemist brothers of the King's Madman Academy improved gunpowder from powder to granular form-they were not enough to shake Hard fortress. [2]

But the king didn't intend to use them to directly blast the Blackstone Fortress, but planned to use the more powerful gunpowder to expand the damage to this corner of the fortress.

After the engineers placed the explosives, they retreated quickly.

In the "rumbling" explosion, soil and some gravel were lifted high, and several engineers who underestimated the power of the explosion and did not retreat far enough were involved in the aftermath. They were knocked out by the impact of the explosion and fell heavily on the ground. He fell to the ground with blood all over his face and head.

No one helped them, life was the least valuable thing on the battlefield of life and death, and the huge battering ram pushed from behind even directly crushed a collapsed engineer.

Braving the enemy's arrows and stepping on the blood of their comrades, the soldiers pushed the huge battering rams to approach the bottom of the tower whose foundation was emptied by the gunpowder.

James was the man who commanded the battering ram, and he improved the giant machinery in the army according to the king's orders.

In the siege, generally used are huge battering rams and trebuchets, in addition to siege towers.But this time the fortress they were going to attack was made of black stone, which was so hard that ordinary trebuchets were of little use.James modified the battering ram in the army, reducing its damage range but increasing its impact force.

The stakes of the main body of the battering ram are made of Angor's hard millennium ironwood trunk, and are placed in a triangular frame with a height of two people by iron cables. In this era, a giant machine like it has blasted through many solid city walls.

At this time, more than 60 tall and strong warriors pushed the battering ram to the position confirmed by James himself, pulled the rope together, shouted slogans, and fought back.The iron chain hanging the battering ram made a "creaking" sound, and the heavy battering ram was pulled back a little bit.

The vulture general at a high place discovered the battle situation in this corner of the fortress, and while he waved back the smoke in front of him, he directed the archers to quickly move closer to that tower.

Arrows of arrows rained down from the tower.

James laughed triumphantly at the battering ram.

In order to meet the king's request, he installed a bunker similar to a sloping canopy on the top of the battering ram. The roof slanted to cover the wheels and push rods of the battering ram, protecting the drawn soldiers as much as possible under the roof. .However, this device has a limited service life. Once it is attacked for too long, it may collapse and in turn injure its own soldiers.

But before that, the sappers had used the new gunpowder as a battering ram to blast the foundations at the bottom of this corner of the tower!

"God bless Legrand!"

The small officer in command roared loudly, and as soon as he waved the flag, more than 60 soldiers let go of their hands together.

The iron chain was stretched forward almost instantly, and the rattling sound of the iron chain irritated everyone's eardrums.The heavy battering ram hit the wall of the Blackstone Tower with a terrible sound of wind.

rumble--

The fine iron hammer hit the point that James carefully calculated, time and time again.The soldiers' foreheads were covered with sweat, and they hissed and shouted.

Cobweb-like cracks appeared on the tower wall.

When the battering ram hit for the last time, the sound was completely different from the previous few times.The wall of the tower finally couldn't bear it any longer, and it shattered suddenly. The iron chain slammed into the tower with the battering hammer, and the broken stones flew everywhere.

"I was right!"

Amidst the loud noise, James cheered. He grabbed his pen and began to scribble on the straw paper he carried with him.Just when he was obsessively trying to record his summary, the oath knights who were staring at him raised their shields and dragged him out from under the battering ram roof.

Accompanied by a loud bang, the roof of the battering ram, which could no longer withstand the attack, crashed down, and the soldiers it was pulling fled in all directions.

On the other side, the long-awaited king pointed with his long sword:

"attack!"

The author has something to say: [1] In the wars about castles in the Middle Ages, the attackers and defenders often dug tunnels. The attacker hoped to destroy the enemy's fortifications, while the defenders hoped to use the tunnels to prevent the opponent from digging.It is even very likely that the two sides will fight directly in the tunnel.Regarding the use of tunnels, the earlier one can be pushed back to the battle of William the Norman conquering Exeter in 1067.It was one of the main means of warfare at that time to create an offensive gap by digging tunnels and destroying the foundation of the building. In addition, there were battering rams and siege cones mentioned in the article.

[2] The improvement of gunpowder mentioned in Chapter 40, as well as the degree of gunpowder utilization and technological progress at that time are briefly explained in Chapter 41.