Lord Harland.

Chapter 262 Bulsen Siege I
In the northern part of Stanik, there are more than 100 barons and seven viscounts. They form a coalition of nobles with a total of [-] troops. Because they face the invasion of orcs all the year round, their combat effectiveness is also very impressive.Unlike the Kingdom of Grant, there are no earls or marquises in Stanik, only the royal family and the southern dukes. Several big nobles have monopolized the channels of advancement and suppressed all families that could threaten their status.

Although the small and medium nobles combined are very powerful, they are very scattered.

The main army on the northern front, commanded by Duke Jonathan, also had difficulty getting supplies. After entering the Grand Duchy of Stanik, they also fell into a predicament of food shortages. In order to avoid forcing the noble coalition forces to the side of the Linus family, the northern front troops did not dare to loot at all.

Judging from this problem, the situation of the Northern Route Army is even more difficult.

The provinces directly under the Stanik royal family have carried out the order of strengthening the walls and clearing the fields very well. Although Duke Jonathan has conquered some castles, the food he has grabbed can only last for a month.

Among the three-way army, the situation on the south line is the best, and supplies can be supplied through the Duke of York.The Duke of York is relatively wealthy and has a large stockpile of grain and fodder. There are also enough manpower, livestock, and carriages in the territory to transport the grain and fodder to the front line.

The main opponent of the Central Route Army commanded by Li Cha is the coalition of nobles in central Stanik.

There are sixteen barons and three viscounts among the border nobles in central Starnic.

More than 100 years ago, the Jonathan family entered the Kingdom of Grant for refuge. In order to prevent the Kingdom of Grant from interfering, the Linus family assigned the branch members to the central border area to serve as the first line of defense.

These border nobles have the blood of the Linus family in their veins, and when facing foreign enemies, they resist more resolutely.

What's more, Li Cha brought the coalition forces of the three provinces to invade, and because of the lack of food, he had to snatch it from them. This contradiction was almost impossible to resolve.

After Li Cha led his troops into the Grand Duchy of Stanik, he directly led his troops to surround Bursen Castle, which was three kilometers away from the border.

Bolsen Castle is built on a mountain, with a river nearby, on the official road.The location of this castle is dangerous. If it cannot be removed, the grain road is in danger of being cut off at any time.

Through early investigation, Li Cha found that the castle had already concentrated a lot of troops, and the defenders were close to [-].

After besieging Bolsen Castle, Richard did not rush to attack the city, but ordered the scouting cavalry to attack the nearby villages, capture the serfs, search for food and fodder, command the soldiers to cut down trees with the camp craftsmen, and make counterweight trebuchets and other siege equipment .

Despite the lack of food, Li Cha still waited for three days in Bursen Castle.

Within three days, Morgan led a reconnaissance team, broke through more than a dozen villages, grabbed a batch of food, and captured more than [-] serfs.

The six nearby baronies were all plundered by Morgan.

Seeing Morgan returning with a full load, Li Cha stood in front of the camp gate and asked, "How is it? How much food did you find today?"

"Today we divided our troops to take down four villages, and we only found more than 300 tons of grain. Including the day before yesterday, the grain looted yesterday was only [-] tons in total, enough to feed us for a month at most."

After hearing this, Li Cha nodded, thinking secretly.

Now that nearly [-] serfs have been captured, Li Cha can't ignore them.

Although the serfs ate less and consumed only one-third of the food that soldiers consumed every day, the total number of 2 people consumed ten tons of food a day.

To send these 2 people back to Harland's territory, it will take one month to forty days on the road.

Counting the consumption of livestock along the way, [-] tons of grain would need to be left behind, and only nearly [-] tons of military rations could be left for the soldiers.

One thousand tons of food can only last for 20 days.

In the army, not only the soldiers are big-bellied men, who consume three catties of food every day, but the horses and pack animals that accompany the army also consume a lot of food every day. The food consumption of the soldiers is slightly more than that of the soldiers.

On average, an army of 1 people consumes a little more than 6000 tons of food every day, and the [-] people of the three-province coalition have a monthly supply of [-] tons of food.

Richard and Morgan returned to the big tent together. He spread out the map, thought for a moment and asked: "We captured a large number of serfs, robbed food, and burned houses. Have the enemy's reinforcements appeared?"

Morgan pointed to the map and said: "The reinforcements didn't show up. We also discovered a situation. The enemy was carrying out the order to fortify the walls and clear the fields. Maple Leaf Village actually filled the wells, burned the grain, and moved the serfs to the rear. When we arrived , is already in ruins."

The situation reported by Morgan confirmed what Richard had in mind.

Li Cha stationed troops under Bolsen Castle, and originally wanted to surround them for reinforcements.As a result, the enemy commander saw through his strategy, and instead discovered the weakness of the three-province coalition's lack of food. Not only did they not send reinforcements, but they began to fortify the wall and clear the country.

The strong wall cleared the field and hit the weakness of the coalition forces of the three provinces, making Li Cha a little passive all of a sudden.

The situation has developed to the present, and Richard can only open the situation by conquering Bolsen Castle at the expense of casualties.

If you want to conquer the castle, you must use the alchemy bomb.

However, in front of the Allied Forces of the Three Provinces, a large number of alchemy bombs were used, and it was difficult to hide the formula of the alchemy bombs in the territory of Harland.

Compared with the Explosive Arrow, the Alchemy Bomb in Harland's Territory is average.

However, the biggest advantage of the alchemical bombs made in Harland's territory is that they are cheap and can be used by soldiers in large quantities.

Facing the invasion of orcs several times, the alchemy bomb is almost the most powerful weapon in the hands of the soldiers in Harland's territory.

For so many years, most of Harland's territorial troops have fought independently. When fighting with the nobles of Heihe County, they rarely threw alchemy bombs, at most dozens of them.

Dozens of alchemy bombs can be explained to the Grant royal family.

After all, the Heart of Elements sells alchemy bombs publicly, and almost all the nobles in the Grant Kingdom have more or less stockpiled some.

Moreover, the nobles of Heihe County and Romon County are very close to Harland's territory, so they dare not easily inform Nolan.

In recent years, the nobles of the two counties have benefited from the rise of the Harland territory, blocking the orc army, and the external situation has become safer.

As a qualified nobleman, the first requirement is not to provoke strong enemies, and the second requirement is not to have too much curiosity.Exploring the secrets of Harland's territory is undoubtedly asking for trouble for the nobles of Heihe County and Luomen County.

However, some of the nobles in the three northern provinces are very far away from Harland's territory and will not face the threat of Harland's territory.Some people still have the blood of the royal family. If they find any doubts, they will probably report to the royal family and the Duke of Jonathan.

Li Cha carefully analyzed the situation and slowly deduced it in his mind.After weighing the pros and cons, it was finally decided to use the alchemy bomb.

Although the strength of the Harland family has developed rapidly, it is far inferior to the Grant royal family and the Jonathan family in a short period of time.The position of the territory is facing the invasion of orcs, and the Grant royal family and the Jonathan family need to play an important role in order to deal with the threat of orcs.

If this intervention wins, the Jonathan family will definitely focus on Stanik.Without the support of the two legions of the Jonathan family, the situation in the north will become even worse.

Using alchemy bombs to strengthen the strength of the Jonathan family and the Grant royal family can maintain the balance in the northern region and give the Harland family room for development.

Moreover, the value of the alchemy bomb is almost inestimable, and it can increase the combat effectiveness of the army by five or six levels at a relatively small cost.The Harland family can use alchemy bombs to exchange various precious resources with the nobles.

Even after exchanging the alchemy bombs, the Harland family's equipment advantage will become smaller in future battles with the Grant family and the Jonathan family.But under the current situation, it is more cost-effective to do this kind of exchange for Harland's territory.

After making up his mind, Richard mobilized [-] soldiers and appointed a deputy squadron leader from the Harland territory as the commander to escort the captive population back to the Earl of Harland with [-] tons of food.

Then he ordered the craftsmen to build a counterweight trebuchet and erect it in front of the camp.

It has been ten years since the heavy trebuchet was invented in the Harland Territory, and it has been seven years since it spread to the orc army.

Since four years ago, the orcs have used heavy trebuchets in the Grand Duchy of Stanik, conquered seven baronies in one fell swoop, and pushed the border southward by more than 30 kilometers.

The principle of the counterweight trebuchet is very simple, as long as it appears behind the battlefield, it is not difficult to imitate it.In the battle of the orc invasion last year, the army of the Grand Duchy of Stanik successfully imitated the counterweight trebuchet, which unexpectedly dealt heavy damage to the orc army.

So after discovering that the counterweight trebuchet was erected in the camp of the Allied Forces of the Three Provinces, the defenders of Bursen Castle suddenly changed their expressions.

Countries on the Dawn Plane have almost no military exchanges.

The counterweight trebuchet used by the Stanik frontier nobles as a secret weapon appeared in the opponent's army stronghold, which caused a great shock to the enemy.

After assembling the counterweight trebuchet, Li Cha started the pre-war mobilization.

"The Jonathan family is the master of Stanik. We entered Stanik this time not for aggression, but to help the Jonathan family drive out the traitors and restore their former glory.

We dispatched an army of [-] in this battle, and we are fully sure that we have a [-]% chance of winning.

After conquering Bolsen Castle, we will, as victors, obtain everything in this castle, including food, women, and money.

Let us cheer, victory will be ours! "

After simple mobilization, Li Cha found that the mobilization effect was very average.

The soldiers had numb expressions on their faces, and their morale looked rather low.

Morale is a very volatile emotion.

The morale of an army may be relatively high in the morning, and it can fight bloody battles with powerful enemies.

At night, it may become very low due to the large number of casualties. A few cries caused the battalion to roar, and they mutinied and collapsed without encountering the enemy.

An excellent army can rely on organizational skills and can maintain the morale of an army to the average level for a long time.

The organizational ability of the army is actually the key to combat effectiveness.

To keep the organizational capabilities of an army alive, it needs fair rewards and punishments, logistical support, qualified grassroots officers, experienced veteran backbones, and military discipline that conforms to everyone's simple values ​​to maintain order.

Generally speaking, when guarding their hometown and relatives, the morale of soldiers is often very high, and there is no need to mobilize much.

However, if you want to raise the morale of the army and dare to fight during the expedition, you can only rely on looting.

Even the army in the territory of Harland had very good logistical support, but after entering the Grand Duchy of Stanik, their morale was relatively low.

If you want them to fight bravely, you can only promise that after the city is broken, they will rob, kill, rape, and release the evil side of human nature.

Although Li Cha also knew that once this opening was made, it would be difficult to enforce military discipline so strictly in the future.

But if the requirements of the soldiers are not met, the officers and soldiers will not fight bravely at all.No matter how well he said it, Li Cha knew in his heart that there was no difference between the intervening army and the invading army.

And an army that invades other countries can only rely on killing and looting to maintain its morale.

There are a large number of magicians in the army of Harland Territory. They are proficient in advanced mathematics. Before the catapult is built, they have calculated the trajectory in advance and erected the catapult about 270 meters away.

Following Li Cha's order, the counterweight trebuchets threw alchemy bombs and kerosene bombs one after another.

Oil bombs are war materials provided by the Jonathan family. When he was in Wrightburg, Richard applied for some from Duke Jonathan.

Oil was discovered in the Duchy of Jonathan, which can make petrol bombs.

The kerosene bomb contains petroleum, asphalt, rosin, and resin, which are sealed in an earthen jar according to different proportions.

When launching, the earthen jar was ignited in advance, and as the earthen jar shattered at the top of the city, the flames of the kerosene bombs also splattered everywhere.

This kind of flame can burn for a long time, and it is difficult to extinguish it unless it is covered with earth.

Alchemy bombs and kerosene bombs exploded on the top of Bursen City. In a blink of an eye, a raging fire was ignited on the top of the city, and puffs of gunpowder smoke rose.

Rows of soldiers walked out of the camp and slowly approached Burson Castle.

Bolsen Castle is built on the mountainside, with the northwest leaning against the mountain, and the only way to attack the city is from the east and south.

The east is considered to be the front, and the terrain is slightly better, and a formation of hundreds of people can be deployed in the front. The terrain in the south is dangerous, and the city wall is built on a cliff more than [-] meters high, and simple wooden ladders cannot be climbed up.Only a small amount of troops is needed, which is enough to hold the line of defense.

Because the defenders had a geographical advantage, the three-provincial coalition forces could not use their superiority. Even if the defenders at the top of the city were unprepared and were killed by kerosene bombs and alchemy bombs, the siege of the city was still not smooth.

The first echelon of the Gascoigne Province held their shields and pushed the ladder cart just close to the city wall.A large number of rolling stones and trees were thrown from the top of the city. In an instant, the first echelon of the Gascoigne province killed or injured hundreds of people. They couldn't hold on and retreated. The damage they caused to the enemy was almost minimal.

With such an exchange ratio, even if it was all sold out, it would not be able to eat Bolson Castle.

Li Cha is already the commander of the army, and the army in the territory of Harland is also the backbone of the three-provincial coalition forces. Of course, they don't need to be cannon fodder to rush to the front line of the siege battle.

It was the Gascoigne Provincial Allied Forces that attacked the city on the first day. This army was the weakest of the three-provincial allied forces.

(End of this chapter)