Chapter 1052 Spider Array (seeking a monthly ticket)
《》 Chapter 1052 Spider Array (please vote for me)
After a day's march, the 100,000-strong vanguard of the peacekeeping force led by Lorraine arrived in Desai City.
From a distance, Lorraine could clearly see the shape of Desai City.
Desai is not a small city. Judging from its size, it is estimated that the city has a population of 50,000. It is one of the top cities in the Almohad.
There are also large tracts of farmland and villages and towns outside the city. This has always been a densely populated and wealthy area.
As Rufus said, the city of Desai is surrounded by mountains and rivers. The city is divided into two parts, one half is on the plain and is generally built along the hillside. The terrain is difficult and easy to defend but difficult to attack.
The layout of the city shows the wisdom of the people who originally built it. Even if the first half of Desai fell, the defenders could retreat to the cliff walls in the second half and continue fighting.
If it were Almohad's new army, it would have taken about 50,000 to 60,000 people to capture the city, and it would have taken a month to storm it.
But Lorraine didn't care too much. Even the high mountain barrier couldn't stop the artillery bombardment. At most, he would have to fire a few more cannons.
Anyway, Sir Alex has nothing else but money~!
Lorraine immediately ordered the peacekeeping force to be divided into three parts and surrounded the city of Desai from three sides.
It was already evening. After setting up camp, we set up defenses and let the entire army rest and recharge their batteries in preparation for attacking the city.
When Lorraine walked out of the tent early the next morning, she was stunned by the scene in front of her.
The tall city of Desai is just a few miles away, and from here you can vaguely see the Southern Army flag flying on the city wall.
But from the peacekeepers' camp to the city of Desai, the land was bare, without a single tree or even a low shrub, as clean as a bald man's head.
Lorraine looked around, and sure enough, all the trees within a dozen miles outside Desai City had been cut down.
Lorraine was startled for a moment, then smiled and muttered: "Quite professional."
When a city is besieged, cutting down all the trees near the city in advance will be of great benefit to the besieged party. Not only can materials be collected, but more importantly, it can prevent the enemy from using materials locally and only make siege equipment, which can be used to defend the city.
Just get a few days.
Lorraine thought to himself: It seems that this wise general under Hadu still has some methods to deal with.
At this time, a voice from the side suddenly answered and said: "Yes, sir. Ilerda has always been thorough in doing things, so she is very popular with Hardu."
A voice suddenly came out from the side, and Lorraine was almost startled. No one had ever been waiting to talk to him at the tent door before.
Lorraine turned around and saw that it was Rufus who had been newly admitted yesterday. He was neatly dressed and standing on the side of the guard. It seemed that he had been here for a while.
Lorraine smiled slightly and thought to himself: This guy has a good attitude, and he also understands the rules of officialdom. He knows that for a guy like him who has no backing and no background, there is no other way to get promoted. The only way is to get involved.
If you have nothing to do, just hang around the leader and look for opportunities to flatter him.
In this way, you will leave an impression in the leader's mind, and your chances of promotion in the future will be much greater than others.
Rufus bowed to Lorraine and said, "Good morning, sir. It is said that Ilerda cut down all the trees thirty miles around Desai to build his big project."
Lorraine glanced around a few more times, then nodded in agreement and said, "There's another thing to say. Have you been waiting for a while, Lao Ma? Have you had breakfast? Didn't you come to eat something together?"
Rufus shook his head quickly and said: "I had already eaten when I got up, so you don't need to worry about me."
At the same time, he thought to himself: Are you kidding? This man must have had breakfast with his personal maid. He didn't dare to disturb someone else's breakfast time without opening his eyes.
His current importance is not enough to be able to eat at the same table with Lorraine. If he rushes to Lorraine's side, whether he can gain trust or not, he will first arouse the hatred of the generals and counselors around Lorraine.
These subordinates of Lorraine are either fellows of the Ruman Empire, younger brothers of Grand Duke Julius, close associates of Fantino Hilmeria, or classmates of Lorraine Maple Leaf Danlin.
When it comes to close relationships, a hundred Tarufus put together can't compare to one of them.
If they don't like Rufus, they have many ways to deal with this new Almohad noble.
Rufus still has this kind of self-awareness. He has already made up his mind. Here, he must first maintain an attitude. He is Lorraine's little brother.
Then you must first keep your tail between your legs, keep your job, be low-key, low-key, and then low-key.
Only appear when needed to show your importance.
Therefore, before dawn, he got up and stood guard at Lorraine's door, just in case the uncle could inquire at any time.
When the sun rose, the whole army was well fed and uniformly dressed.
Following the order, the army walked out of the camp, gathered outside the camp, formed a neat square formation, and drove to the city of Desai.
At the outermost edge are the rangers performing reconnaissance and cleaning missions.
They mounted their horses and whipped their whips, galloping around to explore. Once they found the enemy's scouts, they immediately pounced on them ferociously, killing the enemies or driving them away so that they could not detect the situation on their side.
Behind them were armored infantry in neat formations. Under the command of their officers, they marched forward with neat steps.
The sound of heavy footsteps was uniform and rumbled, like an earthquake, making the ground tremble.
Behind them was the artillery team that attracted the attention of the whole army.
Although their combat power is the most powerful, their military appearance is the worst among Laohe's troops.
The artillerymen roared and drove the carriages. From time to time, they would go down and push a few more. They were all covered in sweat.
In order to cool down, many of the brats took off their shirts, revealing their muscular upper bodies and thick chest hair.
The sound of whips, horses neighing, donkeys braying, people shouting, or the squeaking of cart axles, all mixed together to create a strange noise.
Moreover, every time we walked by, the animals would leave excrement and urine all over the ground, which was extremely unpleasant.
Rufus stood on the side of the road and watched the artillery unit passing by.
It was also the first time for him to see this legendary weapon. Looking at the slender tile-blue barrel, he couldn't figure out how the god-like Hadou, who was widely known among the people, was defeated by this weapon.
But after a while, he would be able to see the power of the legendary weapon, and Rufus felt impatient.
After the artillery comes the legion infantry as the main force.
The 60,000 to 70,000 men were divided into three parts and slowly approached the city of Desai. When the entire army was about ten miles away from the city, a ranger officer suddenly penetrated the military formation and came galloping towards them.
He went straight under the Lorraine banner, saluted, and shouted: "Report~!"
Lorraine waved her hand for him to come over.
Lorraine found that the scout cavalry captain's expression was very strange, as if he had seen something incomprehensible, and he couldn't help but asked in confusion: "What's wrong? What's going on?"
The scout scratched his head and said, "Come back to the commander, we found something abnormal under Desai City."
"Lorraine frowned, abnormal things? As a commander, what I hate the most is abnormal things, because those kinds of things are often unpredictable things.
He said in a deep voice: "What?"
"Trenches," the scout said, "criss-crossing trenches."
Lorraine's heart skipped a beat, and she thought to herself that it was not good. Then she waved her riding crop and said silently: "Take me to see it."
The cavalry captain agreed, then turned his horse's head and galloped towards the direction he came from.
Lorraine led a group of officers and followed closely behind.
They came directly to a place eight miles away from the city, and saw several scout cavalry parked in front of them, as if they were on guard for something.
The officer immediately pointed his finger and said, "Sir, that's where it is."
Lorraine stopped his horse and looked up.
Not far from them, a large ditch more than ten feet wide suddenly appeared on the ground. It was unclear how deep it was, and it extended infinitely to both sides.
This width is not large, but neither humans nor horses can jump across it.
And just on this horizontal trench, there is another longitudinal trench of the same width every few dozen feet. After extending for twenty or thirty feet, there is another horizontal trench, and then there are vertical trenches connected, and then there are
…
Lorraine saw that the originally flat plain had been dug in a mess, and the ditches were as dense as a spider web, with Desai City as the center and radiating outward for nearly ten miles.
The generals behind Lorraine first looked at the spider web ditch in front of them in surprise, and then looked at each other. Someone whispered: "What's going on?"
Behind them, Rufus seemed to have expected it. He kept a straight face and showed no expression.
Everyone focused their attention on Lorraine. Although they didn't show it on their faces, they were very unhappy in their hearts.
The generals of the peacekeeping force played war games with Lorraine for half a year, and also conducted in-depth research on modern warfare with artillery as the main body. It was natural to see at a glance the defense system developed to deal with artillery.
And more importantly, this method is very effective.
If the personnel are hiding in the trench, the artillery shells hitting the ground will not be able to kill or injure the enemy at all. Even if they land accurately in the trench, the power will be greatly reduced due to the limitations of the two walls of the trench. It will not be able to take advantage of it and kill the enemy in a large area.
Everyone asked themselves, under this situation, apart from relying on force superiority, they could not think of a way to break this trench warfare for a while.
They could only focus on Lorraine and see what effective solution the deputy commander-in-chief could come up with.
Lorraine looked at the trench and city in front of him and was speechless for a moment.
This guy Hadou is not bad. In such a short period of time, he actually found a way to deal with artillery.
This made Sir Luo's original plan of bombarding the city come to nothing. For a moment, Sir Luo was quite angry and wanted to curse people. He couldn't let that old guy Hadu die, just harming people here.
Does Sir Alex fight in a simpler way?
But seeing all the generals' eyes falling on him, he could only take a deep breath and suppress his anger.
As a dignified commander, he was angry at this moment and could only tell the soldiers one thing - there was nothing he could do against them~!
This is very demoralizing.
Thinking of this, Lorraine suddenly laughed out loud and said with a happy expression: "This battle is finally a little interesting."
Then he looked back at his subordinates and said with a smile: "Hadu is indeed the most famous general in the world."
The generals nodded cautiously. When there is no other way, the best thing to do is not to express opinions casually.
Rufus secretly praised in his heart that the deputy commander-in-chief was indeed a general. His magnanimity in praising the enemy in front of his subordinates was already beyond the reach of others.
There are several generals who are not afraid of lowering their own morale and dare to publicly praise the enemy's wisdom. This only shows that Lorraine is very confident.
Lorraine nodded at the ditch in front of him and said with a smile: "It seems that we have indeed underestimated the heroes of the world."
Lorraine knew that World War I and World War II had fully proven that passive defense of artillery and trenches was the best choice, but he didn't expect that this solution had already been thought up by Hardu.
Lorraine jumped off the horse, stepped forward and walked forward.
The generals behind him hurriedly dismounted and followed, and at the same time drew their swords anxiously. Who knew whether there were enemy soldiers or archers hiding in the trench opposite.
Vera took out two pistols and followed Lorraine step by step.
Lorraine squatted on the edge of the trench and looked down. The trench was two or three meters deep. It would be difficult for a person to jump in and climb up without a ladder. No trace of enemy activity could be seen in the nearby trenches.
He listened carefully and couldn't hear any sound of human activity at all. The entire trench area was silent, like an unpredictable death place. It also seemed like a huge trap full of dangers.
When a soldier jumps into a trench, he can only see the sky above his head. Without reference points, it is easy to get lost in this maze-like network of trenches.
The trenches were so narrow that it was impossible to deploy troops and take advantage of the numerical advantage of Laohe's troops. Once they encountered the enemy, they could only launch a war of attrition.
Under this situation, if there are some invulnerable dark knights moving in the trench, it will simply be a man-eating spider web.
Although the peacekeeping force has an absolute advantage in terms of strength, if they want to capture the city of Desai, they will have to work hard and suffer some losses.
When everyone looked at the corner at the end of the trench, they always had an uneasy feeling, as if there was a terrifying monster hiding behind the corner.
Lorraine grabbed a handful of loess and slowly crushed it in his hands. Suddenly he smiled and said, "What would happen if there were hundreds of dark knights hidden in this?"
Everyone was silent. Of course they knew how powerful the Dark Knight was. It could be said that in a close combat, even the most elite Orc heavy infantry would not be their opponent. The Dark Knight's defense was too abnormal.
Only Rufus exclaimed: "Dark Knight~!"
The person next to him turned his head and glanced at him disdainfully.
Rufus said with a dull expression: "The rumors are true..."
After saying that, there was another moment of silence, and I don’t know what this guy was thinking about.
Lorraine stood up and looked at the city wall of Desai City in the distance. He didn't know whether it was the enemy's defender or the shooting range of the artillery, or he didn't have time to expand the trench.
Although he was still a little far away from the city wall from where he stood, he was already within the range of artillery fire.
Thinking of this, he patted the dirt on his hands and said with a relaxed expression: "Let's go back. We finally made a trip and we can't go back empty-handed. No matter what, let's smash the city wall of Desai first."
xxxxxx
When the officers and soldiers of the artillery unit received the order to attack, they were still wondering: Why did they stop at this distance? This is not even the optimal range of the artillery.
But orders are orders. They immediately pushed the artillery not far from the trench, then built an artillery position and began to bombard the poor city wall of Desai City.
Hundreds of artillery were deployed quickly, and a quarter of an hour later, the thunderous sound of cannons spread across the land.
The cannons belched flames and delivered deadly shells close to the city walls of Desai.
The city walls of Desai were quickly submerged in smoke.
After almost a full hour of shelling, the city walls of Desai were blown to pieces. Large sections of the city wall collapsed and fell to the ground, exposing gaps. Through the gaps, large buildings in Desai City could be seen.
Then the artillery stopped attacking and quietly waited for orders.
In the headquarters at the rear, the generals were quarreling and arguing about how to deal with the trenches.
Lorraine sat next to him, holding his head and watching them quarreling, secretly thinking about how he would arrange this trench if he were Desai's guard.
Lorraine suddenly remembered the profound film education she received as a child. Judging from the film, of course, there must be traps first, and then there are strong defensive buildings such as bunkers.
Secret passages are also indispensable. Clear passages must be combined with secret passages. As long as the enemy enters the trench, they will be attacked from all sides, and attacks will come from all kinds of unexpected places.
In addition, various mechanisms can be used, as well as fire, flooding... Anyway, all the methods are to give birth to a son without a child, which is vicious and cruel.
I don't know if there will be a novel like "Hadu's poisonous trick is used to set up a ditch, Sir Alex's wisdom defeats Desai" or something like that, or if I can come back and write one myself, maybe make some iron horse chain, hook, sickle and spear.
Thinking deeply, Lorraine smiled slightly...
The generals beside them stopped arguing, looked at their boss and asked cautiously: "Your Excellency, have you got a clever plan to defeat the enemy?"
"Ah?" Lorraine was startled, then shook his head with a smile and said, "No."
Looking at their disappointed expressions, Lorraine said: "It's useless for us to just talk here. We always have to send people to test the truth."
Lorraine also knew in his heart that this kind of trench was a threshold that he could not cross, unless there was another forbidden spell mage who was better than Lester, and he could use a move to cause the mountains to collapse and the earth to collapse, directly destroying Desai City and this trench.
However, such arrogant people disappeared more than a thousand years ago.
If you really want to fight, the most effective weapons are either shotguns or flamethrowers, both of which are trench killers.
I only have a shotgun in my hand, and I can make a flamethrower, but it is disposable and can only be sprayed once.
Mage is fine too, but throwing your precious mage into dangerous hand-to-hand combat will only make you lose your mind.
At most they are doing reconnaissance instructions in the sky.
Sending ordinary soldiers with swords and guns in is just to deliver food to people. In their home field, they can be tortured as much as they want.
But it doesn't mean that no one is available. Orc heavy infantry is the most suitable candidate. But those are all elite soldiers. Let them compete one-on-one with ordinary Southern soldiers, and the Lord will be heartbroken.