open sea

Chapter 1408 Regret
The more tightly defended a fortified city is, the more vulnerable it will be once breached from the inside.

Ying Ming's little trick of suspecting soldiers was half effective. Baron Charles didn't care about the east, and he focused all his attention on dealing with the possible siege in the north of the city.

More than [-] troops were deployed on the city walls in all directions and on the bridge of the Thames River. There were also more than [-] elite troops stationed in the camps inside the city.

All kinds of defense equipment were placed on the city, and more than 500 simple seesaw-like trebuchets were rushed to the base of the city, and tens of thousands of clay pots filled with charcoal and sawdust were prepared for the defense of the city.

These simple trebuchets placed at the base of the city wall can be operated by only one person. Light the clay pot on the seesaw, hold the earth bag on the other side and smash it down heavily, and the pot can be thrown in an arc across the city wall. It hit the siege soldiers on the opposite side.

This is the method that Baron Charles learned when he quelled Catholic rebellions in the north.

He knew that the Ming army's elite troops were difficult to fight, but they were few in number. As long as they could successfully kill those blue hats and red hats, the other troops would be defeated by themselves.

The baron even planned to take advantage of the fact that the troops would launch a deadly battle charge after the death of the preacher of the Ming army, and specially organized a mixed sniper team of [-] people with muskets and longbows, named the Blue Hat Killer, intending to snipe Ming Army preacher.

Everything is ready, and the only thing left is for the Ming army to attack the city.

The northern cannons fired at the walls at night at a great distance, to the Baron's delight for a few minutes.

But when he found that the Ming army might have only used a few heavy artillery shots, he extinguished his joy and guessed that the strategic intention of the Ming army's night shelling was to disturb their sleep, so he sent half of the defenders to rest .

Anyway, it is uncertain whether the Ming army is trying to lure the enemy. They will definitely not be able to defeat the Ming army in a field battle outside the city.

Go to sleep.

This is indeed not Baron Charles Tudor. Although the city of London is a vertical city wall, it has a Roman stone structure, which has been repeatedly reinforced by many kings of England.

The Ming army's light Francophones and tiger squatting guns could not cause damage to the city wall at all, but the heavy general Zhenshuo could cause damage to the city wall, but if you want to bombard the city wall alone?
This is not an earthen wall. A heavy Zhenshuo general like this needs at least a hundred people in a row to blast them hard for two or three days.

As far as Baron Charles knew, the Ming army did not have so many heavy artillery pieces, so it was natural to sit back and relax.

He had just assembled the defenders on the north wall in a mess, and thought of these key points, and put everyone back to sleep. He knew that not long after the troops left the city, someone rushed to report that the Ming army entered the city from the west gate. up.

Following behind the soldiers who reported the message, there were a huge crowd of beggars and refugees, as well as the flames rising from the sky on the Thames River in the southwest of the city, which was the direction of Westminster Abbey.

To be exact, the library tower of Westminster Abbey.

The fire that illuminated the night sky caused the cold air behind Baron Charles to rise from the buttocks to the top of the sky!
Westminster Abbey is not only a 900-year-old church, it is also a symbol of England, where kings are crowned, married and buried.

Now that the Ming army has invaded the city, the library tower of Westminster Abbey is still on fire for some reason. The coronation relics and limited records of England for 900 years are stored there. How can Baron Charles, who has the duty of guarding the city, not panic.

At the moment, it is necessary to call on the elite troops to attack Westminster Abbey first.

But his army couldn't move.

The streets of the city of London were originally empty. It was not an industrial or handicraft town. Only the workshops belonging to the royal family were in the city. Due to the queen's decree, most of the workshops and dwellings that occupied a large area and densely populated were outside the city.

But because of the war, and in order to strengthen the wall and clear the country, the people living outside the city were moved in by Baron Charles, and the limited taverns and hotels in the city could not accommodate so many people.

Tens of thousands of displaced people work for the defenders during the day, and treat the streets as the most comfortable hotels at night.

At this moment, the west city was in chaos, and the people could not sleep peacefully on the ground. They all followed the fleeing soldiers to the north city where the main force of the defenders was located, blocking the streets in an instant.

Those in the front rushed to escape from the city, while those in the back squeezed left and right. Those who draw swords and stab people.

For a while, the sound of wailing, screaming, and crying filled the Tao.

The people were anxious, and Charles was even more anxious. He asked the Ming army to rush into Westminster Abbey and destroy the tombs of the previous kings. Waving to rush out a way against the crowds on the street.

The guarding soldiers beside him could only follow suit. They formed formations and stretched their longbows with long spears. They shouted for the common people to give way and lowered their heads to press down on the street.

Unexpectedly, this caused even greater disasters.

There are officers and soldiers in formation in the front, crowds of people behind, and the people in front are even more disturbed. The frightened crowd can climb over the wall one by one, but they can't dodge over the wall, and some turn their heads and step on people to retreat.

People scrambled to trample, and there were countless dead, but Baron Charles' troops couldn't move forward much.

Seeing the fire in that direction intensified, the Baron, who was unable to advance an inch on horseback, was filled with sorrow and distress, and he knew——Westminster Abbey was hopeless.

Westminster Abbey is indeed hopeless, but the fire was not set by the Ming army.

As the closest defensive building to the city wall, the monks in Westminster Abbey don't have many guards, and they don't have standing weapons. After the defenders of the three towers in the West City turned their backs, they had no other way to stop them except to raise their hands and curse. .

There were some people who wanted to fight the Ming army to protect the temple, but before they had seen the serious Ming army, they were shot to death with longbows by the newly surrendered London Battalion soldiers.

Things have come to this point, for the surrendering soldiers, they have nowhere to go, they can only follow Daming to the dark, and even kill people more than ten times more fiercely than the Ming army with strict military discipline.

The very small number of defensive troops were quickly frightened. The maid who was using the bishop to communicate with the gods saw the Ming army rushing into the tower, and fled to the highest point in fright. burn.

No one in England knows what the military discipline of the Ming army is like. All they know about Ming comes from the newspapers published by the royal family. In their eyes, the Ming army is a group of barbarians wearing animal skins, eating people and being evil.

No woman wants to fall into their hands.

The archbishop who had just put on his trousers and smoothed his monk's robe was nailed to death with a crossbow through the door before he could draw his sword. Seeing that the fire was burning more and more, the maid who set the fire finally saw the Ming army.

To be honest, the moment she saw Ming Jun, she suddenly regretted setting the fire.

Ming Jun is very clean, cleaner than everyone she has seen.

(End of this chapter)