open sea

Chapter 1296 Gains and Losses
Sometimes the brave may not win when they meet on a narrow road.

Sending a heavily armored aristocrat in collectible plate armor into a tunnel was never a good decision in the first place.

Perhaps Earl Charles' simple values ​​made him think that a few knights with strong protection can block all damage for the fusiliers and crossbowmen behind them in the tunnel, but in the terrain of the tunnel, it is difficult to avoid the enemy's attack .

They met simpler enemies.

The sailors from the Daming Caravan did not wear heavy armor, and the few merchant soldiers in the front didn't even carry weapons. They simply held the simple shields cut from the two door panels and directly pointed at the enemy's face.

One side of the door was pasted up, and the narrow field of vision of the heavy plate armor helmet could not see anything else at all. A few three-eyed guns were mounted on shields, and the tunnel became a carnival of lead shot guns.

The disadvantage is that the sailors don't know whether they have killed the enemy, or if there are any living enemies ahead, so they can only shoot straight.

The gunners at the back had no chance to squeeze to the front to release the guns. After the first few shots of the three-eyed guns were fired, there was no room for him to reload the ammunition. Hold the three-eyed gun over the head and shoot forward. If the shot is empty, hand it over to the people behind to reload, and then take their three-eyed gun to continue shooting.

Until there was only gunpowder smoke left in the tunnel, people were coughing, but they couldn't hear the coughing from the front, so they finally withdrew their shields aside, took a short rest to reload their ammunition, and continued to move forward stepping on the corpses on the ground until they were in the tunnel. Encounter the next batch of enemies.

The reinforcements that Sir Miller was thinking of were all wiped out in the tunnel by such means.

They followed the fork in the tunnel and walked to the river to see the sun again. They found that they seemed to have gone the wrong way and went back the same way until they approached the enemy camp. They saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Sailors, look at me and I look at you , no one dared to go any further.

They knew how the regular army in Puli was going to deal with the enemy crawling out of the tunnel, and they subconsciously felt that the enemy would do the same to them, let them go out like gophers, they dare not; let them just stay here No one will be reconciled to the way back.

In the end, hundreds of people could only squat in the tunnel, listening to the movement from above, and quietly waiting for the counterattack from the Ming army with the three-eyed blunderbuss, the tunnel artifact.

On the ground, Earl Charles was waiting for his army to make great achievements, but he saw Sir Ness, who was extremely embarrassed, leading a few remnants without weapons, all the way back from the east of the city, bringing back news that the tunnel attack failed.

Followed by another tunnel, two soldiers also ran back. They looked better, but they looked extremely frightened. They fell down in the tunnel and were covered in mud. They shot at us with muskets, Sir Harry was killed, and we were the only ones who got back."

Bad news came one after another, and Earl Charles' expression became more and more bad.

The Protestant monks accompanying the army in the besieged camp were leading their troops to pray, and when they finished speaking, everyone's morale would be boosted. There must be no accidents at this time.

The Earl's face hidden under the pig's helmet was cloudy and uncertain. The results of the raid and the situation of the war were much worse than he imagined... Not only were the three teams that entered the city through the tunnels wiped out, there had been no one in the east for three days. Any reinforcements come.

The western precedent is the first, and Earl Charles only needs to use his brain a little to come to an obvious result. The enemy in the city sent troops to cut off the road to the east. Regardless of whether the reinforcements were annihilated or blocked, Charles certainly hoped for the latter , but there are more important issues than reinforcements before him.

Earl Charles ordered his own cavalry to bring the rout soldiers who came out of the two tunnels to the military tent, winked at the trusted attendant, paused to find that the attendant did not respond, and then realized that he was wearing a helmet and others could not see it. own wink.

He had no choice but to raise his hand and move the attendant, pointing to the tent beside him.

The pig face helmet is a kind of helmet that was popular in the early Hundred Years War. It is already outdated by now. To defend against early muskets, its faceplate is very thick, which puts too much weight on the wearer's head and shoulders. Now it is difficult to See it on the battlefield.

But because of its better protection, this kind of antique is very popular in the arena.

At this time, the helmet worn by Earl Charles is a jousting tool, and his armor and equipment are all in the city. Because the most beloved armor has unique accessories, I saw it on the city wall of Plymouth a few days ago, and it was worn by someone unknown. On the body of the Ming military officer.

"My lord, the general attack is imminent, I thought we should..."

The attendant lowered his head before he finished speaking. He obviously knew that his master knew what to do now.

"The news of the failure of the attack cannot be known to everyone. Now we can only attack. Even if it fails, there is still a long time for England to recover the lost ground."

It's just that there are not many choices left for him.

There are only two ways in front of Earl Charles. Either fight hard and finish the battle. Regardless of success or failure, if you win, you can help the navy capture Plymouth; Stay for a while, and when the kingdom continues to fight this battle, Plymouth will eventually return to his hands.

Either tell everyone in the siege camp that the tunnel attack has failed, and the city has done enough defense, and the nobles will scramble to propose defensive tunnels, and then further propose to withdraw the army to the north. This can preserve the strength of all the nobles, but his reputation will inevitably be affected. If they were not determined to attack, Londoners would find in him why the battle was lost, as if he had a chance of winning by fighting hard.

In the end, even the fief may be taken away.

He knew what a great commander should do in the course of a war, but he couldn't.

Now several nobles in the siege camp have given him the nickname "City Breaker", which is used to mock him for not even touching the city wall after besieging the city for nearly two months.

If the army withdraws to the north at this time, this nickname will probably follow him for the rest of his life.

In the choice between possibly ruining his allies and possibly ruining his own reputation, he tends to the former.

But in reality, inner struggles are sometimes useless.

When the general offensive was about to begin, a lively knight led the free people to pray to the gods, then turned around and got into the tunnel, intending to assist the army to attack from the ground.

Before the troops on the ground had finished encouraging each other, there was already a dull sound like popping beans in the tunnel, and the soldiers who had just got in crawled out, shouting to announce the news to the world: "Enemy, There are enemies, there are enemies in the tunnel!"

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)