Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 575 Siege (Twenty-Seven)

  [Fort of Kings]

[Outside the Knight's Castle]

"What it is?"

In the trench, Winters pointed to the fortress on the riverside and asked.

"Which one?" Mason came over immediately.

"Those holes," Winters gestured to the senior.

Looking in the direction Winters pointed, Mason realized that the other party was asking about the shallow pit on the embankment.

"I don't know what those pits are called," Mason explained quickly with a wry smile, "There were no pits around the enemy's fortress originally, but since Major Loson's cavalry rushed directly to the top of the slope, they immediately dug those pits on the embankment with a smaller slope, so I call them 'horse traps'. Alas, the enemy is learning war in war, but I am using the experience of the previous battle to command the next battle."

"Everyone is using the experience of the last battle to prepare for the next battle," Winters said calmly, looking at the castle in the distance, "Isn't this learning war in war?"

After hearing what the senior said, he re-examined the dikes around the fortress and confirmed that the steeper ones were still of conventional style. Only on the relatively flat slopes were additional shallow pits dug.

He also made some new discoveries: there were three rows of shallow pits, neither too many nor too few, shaped like a honeycomb, with a total width of about two meters.

Two meters, a very delicate distance.

If it were on flat ground, Winters was confident that he could easily cross over on Changfeng.

Even a warhorse that is not as strong as Changfeng can jump over the ditch if it is properly trained and not afraid of it.

In other words, a two-meter-wide open ditch is a terrain worth taking risks for cavalry.

However, if the slope of the embankment is taken into account, the risk becomes very uncontrollable.

Winters put himself in the position of the enemy commander. If he were in charge of the defense, he would dig one or two rows of shallow pits, increase the width to three meters, and simply cut off the enemy cavalry's idea of ​​charging directly up the slope.

But the other side only dug two meters - considering that there was no extra pit outside the fortress, Winters was very sure that the commander who arranged these "horse traps" was deliberately using a risky but worthwhile trench to lure his enemy to attack.

Winters hated this extremely calculating style.

"Opposite," Winters still felt a little unbelievable even though he had learned the identity of the enemy commander from the letter, "Is it really Jason Cornelius?"

Mason replied without much confidence: "That's what the 'insider' who escaped from the city said.

"Head of the headquarters-Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the South; Master Raymond Montecuccoli, Director General of Artillery; and Major Fritz, Director General of Quartermaster General.

"It is said that the people of the Kingsburg secretly call them the 'Three Mud Wagons'. Although there is also a Lieutenant Colonel William Lodewijk, in reality, all matters, big or small, are decided by the first three."

"That sounds like Chief Cornelius' style," Winters, who was counting the bullet holes, commented casually.

Mason vaguely heard a hint of personal vendetta and asked, "You...know the Minister?"

"What about you?" Winters did not comment, but asked, "Do you know this minister?"

"How could I possibly know the Minister?" Mason shook his head subconsciously, but he felt that his answer was not accurate enough, so he quickly changed his words and said, "Of course I know the Minister, but the Minister probably doesn't know me."

Winters said without turning his head: "I agree with you on this point. So do you think I 'know' Minister Cornelius?"

Mason understood what Winters meant, but this made him even more confused. "Then why do you feel like you have some opinions about the Minister?"

"Because he whipped me," Winters turned around, half-smiled, "and didn't apologize to me."

Mason was speechless. Corporal punishment was common in the military academy. It was a bit petty to remember a whipping. But it seemed inappropriate to persuade people to let go of "hatred" at this time, not to mention persuading the Venetians.

Mason changed the subject and asked about something more important. He asked uneasily, "Knightburg...what do you think?"

  What do you think?

Winters did not answer immediately.

Compared to the last time he "entered and exited" the Castle of the Kings, the city defenses of the Castle of the Kings had undergone earth-shaking changes.

If the original Kings Castle was a leaky house, now not only the gaps in the wall have been blocked, but also a new barbed fence has been built, a drainage ditch has been dug, and at least two thousand dogs have been borrowed from the neighbor. As for the Knights Castle alone, the location of the Knights Castle was originally the weakest link in the defense of the new city.

John Jessica once taught Winters: "The seams of the map are where the magic happens."

Winters’ own insight is: “There is a lot of knowledge at the intersection of terrain.”

At the northernmost end of the new city, the area between the river and the earth, the soil is soft and it is difficult to lay a solid foundation, so the wall of the new city turns here and bends eastward along the direction of the river, leaving a large area of ​​river bank.

Moreover, perhaps because the budget had been almost used up, the part of the city wall facing the river was not built with stones, but with earth rammed between two wooden walls, which was hastily finished.

Therefore, if there were no fortifications built by the federalists, Winters would choose this side of the city wall as a breakthrough point.

Even with the existence of the Knight's Castle, this place is not impossible to attack.

However, the cost will be very high.

That’s right, cost.

Once they start considering "cost", the attackers will naturally turn their attention to other areas of the new city, looking for locations with lower "cost" of breakthrough.

For example, the King's Castle, the "Castle" Castle, Margit Island, the old town...

This is a very rational idea, but that is not the point.

The point is that Winters instinctively felt uncomfortable with the feeling of being led by the enemy.

He couldn't tell exactly what was wrong with him, but he just felt awkward.

It was as if I had walked into a small room covered with spider webs. Sticky spider webs hung on my hands, face, and arms. The light was dim and I couldn't see the spider webs with my eyes, but the unpleasant touch proved that they existed.

Winters felt that way.

But he couldn't tell Senior Mason.

He looked at Mason - the senior's face was pale and gray, showing fatigue. It was obvious that he had not gotten enough rest, and the severe dark circles under his eyes were proof of that.

But those bloodshot eyes showed a kind of morbid excitement, even neurosis - this was due to being under too much pressure.

Even if Mason didn't say anything, Winters could feel that the senior had begun to doubt himself because the battle in Castle of Kings had not made the expected progress.

Self-doubt leads to self-negativity, which starts a vicious cycle.

Winters understood his senior very well because he had also fallen into this kind of self-doubt, or rather, he was doubting himself all the time, doubting whether his judgment was the best solution and whether he had let others down.

Language is powerless in the face of such emotions.

When faced with self-torture, everyone can only rely on themselves.

Therefore, Winters had no way to counsel the senior, because it was pointless and would only make the situation worse.

He also had no way of directly expressing his discomfort of being "webbed" because it was only a vague feeling and would likely cause Senior Mason even more pain.

"I agree with you," Winters decided to stick to the facts and talk about the objective situation instead of subjective feelings.

Although the Knight's Castle is not big, it has complete defenses and is not easy to attack. Let's go to other places, first to the King's Castle, and then to Margit Island. "

Mason nodded, turned and led the way.

"By the way," Winters followed behind, "the 'insider' who ran out of the city, although King's Castle was not taken down, I still want to meet him before meeting Brigadier General Geza."

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　　(End of this chapter)