When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 793 War is the best teacher
“According to Count Sampoli, the city wall of Xialu City is probably nearly a hundred years old.

The person who supervised the construction of the city wall was the first Archbishop of the Thousand Valleys, Ustchu, who used lime, rice paste and large pieces of granite.

Since then, successive bishops and nobles have repaired and expanded the city walls many times to prevent siege by Kush nobles and rebels.

The last time the city walls were repaired was twenty-three years ago, before the witch Meliati seized this city loyal to the royal family."

On a dirt slope about four or five hundred meters away from Xia Lu City, Lavl and the king's envoy faced the snow and cold wind, pointing at Xia Lu City in the distance.

This stout man with a sable hat and a thick, short moustache looked like a northern norn.

But in fact, he is a legitimate noble of Heshang Island, but he has been working on the border of the Kingdom of Norn for the royal family all year round.

"Isn't this too far?" The King's envoy squinted his eyes and looked at Xia Lucheng in the snow, dissatisfied, "Can't we take a closer look?"

Raffl shook his head decisively. "This is the closest. The clockwork cannon is not accurate enough at a distance of 500 to 600 yards, but they have divination spells. Who knows?"

Trembling, he took the pipe from his bosom, held it between his carrot-like fingers, took a puff, and then motioned for Laffer to continue.

In front of the envoy whose nose was red from the cold, Laffer, as the great knight, was only wearing a short windproof jacket, but it seemed as if it was still autumn.

“In the past two years, Meliati has made some improvements to the city’s defenses and dredged the moat.

Outside the moat, she also built breastworks and watchtowers with rammed earth and fences.

Behind the breast wall and the tower, the old and new walls are connected to form a triangular wall.

The king's envoy nodded as he listened, and looking at the protruding triangular city wall in the distance, he knew that it was the "Triangle Fort" mentioned in the intelligence.

In the letters of the Duke of Wing Nest, the torturous aspects of this special outer fortress were described in great detail.

It is solid on the inside and is equipped with clockwork cannons. Its pointed corners make it difficult to place a siege tower, and attacking from the side will result in being attacked from both sides.

If we attack the city wall between the two salients, that is, the "concave" part, we will be attacked from three sides.

These Kush people in the Thousand River Valley are very good at crossbows, especially the mountain people who all know how to shoot arrows.

The Duke of Wingnest suffered greatly in the War of Gravel Plains.

"Don't we have clockwork cannons? Use them to bombard the city." As the king's confidant, the envoy naturally knew the current situation.

This is the situation. No matter whether it is magic or alchemy, just use it first.

As for other things, these Leia people may not want to learn or be unable to learn.

But when it comes to things related to war, they learn very quickly.

The clockwork cannon fell into their hands, and under the guidance of the surrendered gunners, they mastered this new weapon in two or three weeks.

Although not as accurate as the people from Qianhe Valley, it's pretty good.

“夏绿城外城墙4法寻（7到8米），内城墙6法寻（11到12米），安置在更高地方的发条炮，比我们搜集来的发条炮射程更远。

Moreover, many triangular forts have thick walls repaired with mortar, so our three-pound and six-pound clockwork cannons will probably take a long time to fire.”

"What about a water fight? Or a Red Knight swimming across the water?"

“There is no wall built on the quarter of Xialu City that is close to the water, but there are coastal defense guns, so warships cannot pass through.

As for the level of the Red Knights, you also know that their intelligence is low. They succeeded once before, and the enemy was prepared, so it will be difficult for them to succeed again."

The envoy took a puff of his pipe and exhaled the thick, choking smoke of the traditional school: "Prince Condé left such a strong city undefended and went out to meet the enemy... How wise."

"That's not the case." Lavle made a smooth talk for the deceased Prince Condé. "He was pressed for time and had to fight quickly. Besides, the city defenses at that time were not as tight as they are today."

The envoy puffed out smoke for a while, then asked in a hoarse voice, "I have heard enough about the city defense. Let's talk about the garrison."

Raffl waved his hand, and immediately a priest handed over a scroll.

"It is currently estimated that there are 8000 defenders in the city, 3000 militiamen, and 40 to 50 clockwork cannons. The original population of the city was 6 to 8, but more than 5 fled by boat, and tens of thousands of mountain people from the military settlements who escaped moved in. It is estimated that there are about people at this time.

Since we failed to control the Nauan River, there were still two clockwork cannons on the river bank blocking our warships, which prevented the subsequent food and weapons from being transported into Xialu City. "

“Are they at risk of running out of food in the short term?”

"No."

"How long will it take to capture this city?"

"At the current pace, it might take a year."

"There are a full 48,000 people outside your city!"

Lavul frowned. "Back then, the Flesh and Blood Royal Court had an army of 100,000 soldiers besieging the Holy See City for three years, but there were only 9,000 defenders in the city. Did they take it?"

And one more thing, he didn't even say a word.

The people inside Xia Lucheng are united, but the army outside the city is a mixed bag, including a large number of vassal troops.

In addition to the 20,000 men directly under the king brought by Lavle, there are also -

The vassal army of Xianshidian had 4,000 men, led by Count Heinzmann.

The Dawn Island vassal army consists of 9,000 men, led by Count Dreta.

There were 8,000 Norn allies called from Bear Castle and 7,000 led by nobles returning from the Thousand Valley.

The vassal armies of Xianshidian and Liming Island are good at fighting a favorable battle, but they will never fight to the death to attack the city.

The twelve thousand troops of the Osra family will arrive soon, but I don’t know how many troops His Highness Jinigis can bring.

After taking a few puffs of his cigarette, the envoy kicked the rock, causing a crack in the sandstone. "Damn, this won't work, and that won't work either. Can this Grand Duchess really survive until Judgment Day?"

Laful pinched his brows and said, "We misjudged the defense of Xialu City. Even if we have to risk being cut off by Meliati, we should have gone straight to Xialu City."

"The royal pharmacist, did her plan work? Was there any reaction in the city?"

Laful said nothing, but just rubbed the ruby ​​on the hilt.

In the wind and snow, the soldiers who had just spent the New Year's Day in the barracks walked onto the snow-covered land under the whips of the knights.

Wielding shovels and pickaxes, they dug tunnels in a winding manner towards Xialu City, using geotechnical excavation to approach the city wall.

This was the attack method that Laful had chosen after much thought, and it was the hole attack method in the military book "Siege" compiled by the former King Aropod of Leia.

The only difference is that the purpose of the hole attack method is to collapse the city wall, while Lavle's excavation work is to prevent the soldiers from becoming sitting ducks.

Laffer came up with this idea in November, but it took more than half a month to mobilize shovels, pickaxes and soldiers to dig.

It was already January 1449, and they had just dug four trenches, each one fathom (1 meters) deep, with rattan baskets filled with soil on both sides to prevent bullets.

At first they used straight trenches, but were reduced to a bloody mess by the six-pound artillery.

After learning from his mistakes, Raffl brainstormed and came up with the idea of ​​a Z-shaped trench, and then dug parallel trenches about sixty yards away from the rammed earth breastwork.

It was now January 1, and after ten days of parallel excavation they were within fifty yards and engaging the soldiers behind the stockade and breastwork.

In comparison, Lavle still wanted to take over the city in a fair manner.

If the pharmacist's method worked, I'm afraid Xia Lucheng would be uninhabitable for two or three years.

"There is also excavation work going on in the direction of Adam Castle. If we break through Adam Castle, we will cut off the retreat route in the city. We can bypass it and attack Lower River County in the rear."

"If not, then we can donate those cattle and sheep that died of disease..." The special envoy put special emphasis on the word "died of disease."

(End of this chapter)