Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 558 Siege (X)

With the arrival of reinforcements, the newly formed infantry troops outside the Castle of the Kings have reached the size of seven battalions.

Among them, the Baishan County Infantry Regiment, Leiqun County Infantry Regiment, Tiefeng County Infantry Regiment each have two battalions, and the Bianjiang County Infantry Regiment has one battalion.

However, since the battalions were generally understaffed, the total strength was less than three thousand.

For a big city like Kingsburg, it is still too little.

Jason Cornelius had many misconceptions about the "Fourth Republic", but he was extremely accurate in one point:

In the Battle of Hegu Village, the "rebels" only won a narrow victory. Just one month was far from enough for them to recover to their peak state.

However, in addition to seven battalions of infantry, the rebels also had at least a thousand light and heavy cavalry.

Therefore, the Southern Front troops in the Castle of the Kings showed no signs of leaving the city for a field battle. They just squatted behind the trenches, waiting for the "rebels" to approach them.

So, for Richard Mason, how to deploy every bit of manpower at his disposal more efficiently is the key to success.

  [Siege Camp]

Before dawn, the cadets of the Second Army Academy were dragged out of their tents by the shrill sound of military bugles and gathered in the open space with sleepy eyes.

Richard Mason appeared in front of the line and spoke a few words of encouragement to the trainees.

In fact, John Jessica did not arrange this process, but Mason always felt a little guilty, so he made a special trip. After all, his name was written on the column of the general manager in the roster of the "Second College".

Then, the reserve officers were taken out of the camp with empty stomachs.

Houdel was in the queue, following along in a daze, not knowing where he was going and not daring to ask.

The moon had already set, and even if it hadn't, it would have been as small as a tooth mark and was of no use.

In the long team, there were only a few torches lit at the head and tail of the team. Most of the reserve officers could only hold the belts of the people in front of them and move forward in the dark.

They stumbled to a certain place, and the only torch was trampled out, leaving only the district captain holding a special lantern with very dim light.

The reserve officers were divided into smaller teams according to their classes and continued their march.

……

For reasons known to everyone, the first enrollment scale of the "Second Army Academy" far exceeded expectations, and the quality of students was mixed, making the original school plan completely unfeasible.

Therefore, a vice-president who is now missing decided not to assign subjects to freshmen for the time being, and to assign directions to students after they have completed basic courses.

In this process, some people who should have been screened out during the entrance examination but were not screened out because the passing standard was lowered too low can be screened out.

Therefore, the "class" of the Second Academy is not linked to any branch of the military, but is just a living and learning group. Each class has a full quota of thirty students and is managed by a district captain.

Coincidentally, the district captain of Houdel's class was the baby-faced lieutenant who always appeared next to Principal Jessica.

Among the lieutenant officers and staff of the Second Academy, every one of them had something missing, except the baby-faced man who had all his limbs intact.

At first, the students were curious about what was missing from the baby face.

It was not until later that a rumor came out that Baby Face was actually a prisoner.

Now it makes sense that the students have lost their curiosity about baby faces, and at the same time, they have lost their respect for them.

However, Houdel was unusually well-behaved in front of Baby Face, and tried his best to prevent others from causing trouble for Baby Face.

Because when the baby-faced boy walked into the classroom with a smile and announced to Houdel's class that he was their district captain, Houdel immediately recognized him:

This baby-faced prisoner was the one who had a very close relationship with Blood Wolf when he first met him, and who practiced sword skills with Blood Wolf outside the prisoner-of-war camp.

Even if he was burned to ashes, Hou Del would never forget the "flattering" smile on Baby Face's face when he handed the kettle to Blood Wolf before him.

……

There were thirty people in Houdel's class, divided into two rows, following the baby-faced boy.

For some reason, the further we walked, the more tense the atmosphere became.

The smile disappeared from the baby-faced man's face. He squinted his eyes, pursed his lips, and looked carefully at the ground below, as if he was looking for something.

As I walked, I saw a faint light ahead.

At first glance, Houdel thought it was a firefly, but he soon realized that the light was actually far away and moving sideways.

Just as Houdel was trying to identify the light source, a red light suddenly flashed in the direction of the light source.

Immediately afterwards, two sounds - a dull thunder and a strange sound of breaking through the air - reached Houdel's ears almost at the same time, and the latter sound gave Houdel goose bumps all over his body.

"Cannon!" Hou Del screamed, dragged a classmate beside him, and without caring about his dignity, he fell to the ground like a dog eating shit.

In fact, when Houdel heard the sound, the shell had already arrived, but the landing point was very far away from where Houdel was, so many students in Houdel's class did not realize that the shell had passed by them, but were frightened by Houdel's strange cry.

But soon, everyone fell to the ground like Houdel - because red lights appeared one after another in front of them, and rumbling thunder woke up the earth.

Now, even the dullest person would realize that it was a cannon.

All the students lay on the ground, not daring to move.

"Where are you taking us?" Hou Del asked the baby-faced man in a shrill voice, not caring about the silence rules during the night march.

"Where else could it be?" The baby-faced man looked innocent. He didn't lie on the ground, but half-squatted, with a very calm posture. "Of course it's the Castle of the Kings."

Houdel clearly felt the classmate next to him tremble. He didn't know what to say, so he could only curse angrily, "[Platonic dialect curse word]!"

"Cadet Houdel, you lose one point," the baby-faced man smiled the same friendly smile he had when he introduced himself to the class, and then said to the other reserve officers with a smile, "Don't worry, at this distance, only the unlucky ones will be hit by the shells. Stand up and keep walking, we haven't reached the destination yet."

After saying that, he stood up first, holding the lantern, and continued to walk forward.

The students looked at each other, hesitated for a moment, and finally climbed up one after another, bent their waists and knees, and followed carefully.

It was at this time that Houdel realized that Baby Face was not walking around randomly.

On the ground, whether it was the way here or the way ahead, there was a white line guiding it.

Holder twisted up the white powder that formed the lines.

Hmm? Lime?

Thinking of the route planned in advance and the first speech from the General Manager, Houdel's heart finally settled down - he thought that Kadar Lagre, the pretty boy, was going to take them to surrender to the enemy.

Sure enough, after walking a short distance forward, Baby Face finally found what he was looking for.

He stopped in front of a small pile of rocks.

It was a small triangular pile of stones, not very noticeable. If it had not been plastered with lime on the side facing the public, it was hard to say whether Kadar would have missed it.

"Okay, this is it," Kadar turned around and called the students, "Sit down and rest where you are."

"Rest here?" One student was surprised. "But the cannon..."

Kadar hid his contempt for the half-wits and continued to smile, "Didn't I tell you? You are safe at this distance."

"But……"

  Kadar sat directly beside the triangle pile, picked up a stone covered with white ash, and motioned to the students present:

"See this stone? It was placed by Major Richard Mason himself. If Major Mason can go to the dangerous place himself, what do you have to be afraid of?"

After that, Kadar blew out the lantern and said, "Rest where you are."

Without the only source of light, the surroundings fell into complete darkness, and only a few lights in the direction of the Kings' Castle could be seen in the distance.

It was impossible to leave, so whether willingly or not, all 30 students sat down. Houdel was the first to sit down, or more precisely, he lay down directly - it was pitch dark anyway, so no one could deduct points from him even if he was not well behaved.

Claude quietly approached the monkey and whispered in his ear, "Do you know why Baby Face brought us here?"

Houdel thought about it and suddenly chuckled, "I guess it's digging a toilet."

"No, you..." Claude was a little anxious.

"Don't believe it?" Houdel pretended to be profound. "Let's wait and see."

The defenders of the Castle of the Kings seemed to have discovered that the "rebels" were still too far away from the city wall, and firing at this time would be a waste of ammunition.

It could also be that the babyface blew out the lights and they completely lost their purpose.

In short, the defenders' artillery stopped firing, and even the fire on the city wall was extinguished, which gave Houdel an opportunity to secretly take a nap.

Just when Houdel was half asleep and half awake, someone came up to him and touched his shoulder.

"Who?" Houdel was startled and almost jumped up from the ground.

The man who came to see Houdel was also startled, but he quickly reacted and revealed his identity, "I want to say thank you to you."

Only then did Houdel realize that the person who woke him up was the guy he had pinned down during the first shelling.

Houdel was a little angry when he was woken up at the most critical moment of his sleep, but he still held back and didn't lose his temper. He wiped his saliva and nodded perfunctorily, "It's a small matter, that cannon may not have been fired at us."

The student who came to express his gratitude also realized that he had disturbed Houdel's good dream, so he was very tactful and thanked him again before leaving.

Houdel fell to the ground again, and when he opened his eyes again, it was already dawn.

Two horse-drawn carriages came up to the crowd. Baby-Faced Man called all the students and led them to unload shovels, pickaxes and stacks of half-person-high woven baskets from the carriages.

After unloading the goods, the carriage left. They couldn't stay here for too long, otherwise the bombardment would come soon.

"Have you rested enough?" Kadar picked up a shovel and casually drew a line on the ground. "Then let's start digging."

"Dig...what?" some students were puzzled.

"Dig a shelter," Kadar said with a smile, "First dig a trench, then build a wall. It doesn't have to be too big, just a 10-meter-round earth wall will do."

Seeing that many students still looked confused, Kadar reminded them seriously: "When to finish the work depends on you, but I suggest that you try to finish it before dawn. After all, if the enemy forces in the city rush out - although the possibility is not high, but if they really rush out, this earthen wall will be your only refuge."

"So, everyone," Kadar clapped his hands, "let's eat!"

……

The whole class can eat bread together, but cannot dig the soil together, so group work is a natural thing.

Hou Del naturally became one of the team leaders. After all, with his identity as a "Blood Wolf's personal soldier", everyone subconsciously looked up to him.

Houdel naturally chose Claude as his team member.

Just when he was about to select all the students from Tiefeng County Army, an unexpected person appeared in front of him.

"Can you take one with me?"

The student who had just been beaten to a pulp by Houdel but came to thank him plucked up his courage and asked embarrassedly.

Houdel looked at Claude in surprise.

Because the student who volunteered was Madia Raul.

Among the "young masters", Madia Raul is considered to be a relatively different one.

  He has a rich father - he is said to be a famous local tycoon in Vorgne County;

There is also a brother who bought an official position - it is said that he is still weaving baskets in the prisoner-of-war camp.

In terms of his background, Matyya Raul is an out-and-out "young master" and should be closer to the "boys in leather boots".

But among the cadets who were former "commissioned officers", little Majia didn't fit in.

Because he took the exam on his own initiative.

When some commissioned officers are eager to hand in a blank paper and just want to get out of the army but cannot get what they want, a similar person who takes the exam on his own initiative will certainly not be welcome.

Therefore, Madia Raul was always alone in the military academy. The cadets who were soldiers did not accept him, and the former commissioned officers did not treat him as one of their own.

It was also for this reason that Houdel was a little hesitant in the face of Madia Raul's request.

He tilted his head and looked at Claude inquiringly.

Claude was always warm-hearted. He shrugged and handed Xiao Ma a shovel cheerfully: "Come on, we are just short of people."

Madia Raul, who was extremely nervous, smiled instantly. He took the shovel with both hands and took other tools on the ground. As if he was afraid that Houdel and Claude would regret it, he kept asking, "Where are we going to dig?"

"Alas," Houdel unconsciously put on airs again, with his hands on his hips, and said in a fake manner, "You don't have to be like this."

Claude raised his leg and kicked Houdel in the buttocks, "Hold it back, hold it back, disgusting."

Then he turned and extended his hand to Little Majiya, "I haven't formally introduced myself yet. I'm Claude Lee, and this is Hou Del, who calls himself the Blood Wolf Guard. In fact, he's just running errands for you. You can just call him Monkey."

Little Majia's eyes were a little sore, because this was the first time he was welcomed since he entered the Second Army Academy.

He awkwardly tucked all his tools under his left arm and shook Claude's hand. "I'm Madia Raul."

"No need to introduce yourself, you're too famous," Monkey pushed Claude aside and shook hands with Little Madia, "Also, I have to tell you - the personal guards are errand runners!"

Little Majiya nodded in confusion.

"I have a good friend named Doug, but he's in another class," Houdel patted little Majiya's shoulder in a grand manner, as if he were a leader. "I'll introduce him to you when the time comes."

However, due to the difference in nutrition level, although Madia Raul was younger than Houdel, he was a full head taller than Houdel. So Houdel had to secretly tiptoe to pat Xiao Ma's shoulder more smoothly.

Little Majiya nodded like a chick pecking at rice, and was so happy that she almost fainted.

"Let's go," Houdel turned around and called on Xiao Ma to start work.

As far as the eye could see, other classes were also digging the soil busily.

  “So, here it begins,” thought Houdel.
-

At the same time, on the arrow tower of the new city wall, Jason Cornelius was observing what Houdel saw from another angle.

And because of his wider field of vision, what he can see is more comprehensive than what Houdel sees:

On the iron-grey plain, surrounding the new city of Kingsburg, a series of small fortifications were rising from the ground;

The distances between the small fortifications are roughly equal, and the distances from the city walls are also roughly the same, which shows that the locations of the fortifications were carefully calculated and not randomly selected;

Small fortifications were arranged from river bank to river bank, like a pearl necklace, tightly encircling the city area on the west bank.

"The cannons are ready." Fritz climbed up the arrow tower and reported.

Cornelius estimated the distance and shook his head. "Two kilometers, too far. Don't waste ammunition."

"Should we send people out of the city to catch them off guard?" Fritz suggested dutifully.

Cornelius shook his head again. "Leaving the city is the right strategy. Our troops are precious and cannot be wasted in a field battle."

"What do the 'rebels' want to do?" Fritz asked, unable to hide his confusion. "Do they want to keep us under siege for a long time? Are they planning to abandon the troops in the Bishop's Castle?"

Cornelius put down the telescope and said thoughtfully, "I guess they are 'putting on a show'."

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