In the early morning of May 23, 137 AH, Mel led the king's convoy from the city of Byron and arrived at the city of Liangyue in the evening of the same day. The next day, Mel led the king's escort and the musket regiment stationed in Liangyue City to continue southward and arrived at the southern border of the Kingdom of Byron on the 27th of the same month.www.biquge.info

The 20,000 troops and 10,000 men of the Kingdom of Byron had been assembled, and after a short rest, Mel moved westward with the 30,000 troops and 10,000 men sent by the Kingdom of Egus.

On June 2 of the same year, the coalition forces, led by Maier, began to advance southward. The scout cavalry of the Xiaohu Army discovered the movement of the coalition forces and immediately reported the situation to the commander-in-chief. The commander of the Xiaohu Army immediately sent scouts to track the movements of the coalition forces, and sent spies to inquire about the deployment of the coalition forces. After learning that the enemy army did not exceed 60,000 soldiers, the commander of the Xiaohu Army breathed a sigh of relief.

He abandoned three strongholds, transferred 20,000 infantry back to his side, and the remaining 10,000 infantry to another stronghold, and all the cavalry returned to the camp to recuperate. After the allied forces arrived in the area controlled by the Xiaohu Army, the commander of the Xiaohu Army sent about 5,000 cavalry to break them into pieces and attack the supply lines of the allied army.

The coalition forces had long been prepared for this, and the cavalry of the Xiaohu army did not take advantage, but they did not pay any losses. The commander of the Xiaohu army saw that the enemy commander was acting cautiously, so he withdrew his cavalry and held the stronghold.

Mel had just over 50,000 soldiers at his disposal, while the two strongholds of the Xiaohu Army were defending more than 30,000 troops. The Xiaohu army had the advantage of terrain and fortifications, and took the initiative to attack when the number of troops was less than twice that of the defenders, and even if it won, it would pay great losses.

This expedition to Salin could not be the coach, but this did not affect him to lead the army to the expedition. Mel put all twenty regiments of the Byronic army under his command, and he himself was in charge of the 30,000 troops of the kingdom of Egus, the King's Guard, and the Musket Regiment.

The change of the Xiaohu Army was expected by the coalition forces. According to the original plan, Meier and Salin surrounded two strongholds of the Xiaohu Army, but only attacked one of them. During the day, Mel would send some musketeers to attack the sentries outside the enemy stronghold under the protection of cavalry and spearmen.

Most of these musketeers were new recruits with no actual combat experience, and because of excessive tension, poor reload speed and accuracy of fire. But among them are some specially selected snipers, these are veterans, experienced in the battlefield, and accurate marksmanship, and can make the most of the accuracy of the Dugu musket.

The first few attacks on Maier only allowed the recruits to fire, and the projectiles either crackled and hit the fortified bunkers of the Xiaohu Army, or they didn't know where they flew, and not a single Xiaohu Army hit. The sentries of the Xiaohu Army took the opportunity to laugh at the coalition forces, and many Xiaohu troops ran to the wall to watch the excitement.

Seeing that it was almost time, Maier had the snipers shoot at the men who looked like officers. Not everyone in the coalition sniper can shoot like a bird, but even if only 50 percent of them hit their target, they cost the lives of a dozen people who looked like officers of the Xiaohu Army.

Seeing that the musketeers of the coalition army had killed people, the Xiaohu army immediately hid behind the bunker and did not dare to take the lead. At this moment, Mair gave the order to attack loudly, and the spearmen behind the musketeers also took on a posture of attack, shouting and marching slowly. The Xiaohu army heard the sound outside and hurriedly called the crossbowmen and asked them to shoot at the coalition forces.

Who knew that the coalition forces were just putting on a show, and they had no intention of attacking at all. The Xiaohu army was busy for a long time, shooting hundreds of arrows, but not even a single hair of the coalition army was injured. In the end, the coalition army collected all the arrows shot by the Xiaohu army and withdrew to the camp unhurriedly.

At night, Salin led people to carry torches and attacked at night. The night raids used arrows "sponsored" by the Xiaohu Army, and their night raids were the same as during the day, with thunder and rain, and they retreated after the arrows obtained from the Xiaohu Army were used up. As for the middle people who can't shoot, they don't care at all.

Coalition attacks during the day were irregular, sometimes once a day, sometimes twice a day, sometimes three times a day, and the same was true for night attacks. The Xiaohu army in the stronghold tensed their nerves during the day and at night, and they did not rest well for several days in a row. On the fifth day, the Xiaohu army thought that the coalition army was just to disturb their rest and did not want to attack at all, so they ignored no matter how the coalition army provoked.

For the next thirty days, the coalition forces continued to play the same old routine. Shoot muskets every day, shout a few times, and don't attack at all. At first, there were some more vigilant people who looked at the situation through the observation hole, and then there were no more people who could check the situation. In the daylight of the 36th day, Meier sent people with gunpowder canisters and bombs to the walls of the two strongholds, and directly blew up the walls of the Xiaohu Army and the Xiaohu Army hiding behind the walls.

The powder canister bomb used by Mel is a siege weapon used specifically for explosives, which is not new in the New World, but is very rare today. The manufacturing process is very simple, nothing more than the use of gunpowder in a sealed or semi-sealed environment will explode when burned, the gunpowder is packed in a semi-sealed pottery or wooden jar, usually wrapped in a layer of moisture-proof oiled paper, and left a small hole specially used to ignite the gunpowder.

The Powder Jar Bomb was very powerful, but because of this, the generals of the New World did not dare to use it. Powder canister bombs do not have a stable way of ignition, and are usually ignited with strips of cloth soaked in hot oil. This method of ignition is very unreliable, sometimes it does not ignite the gunpowder, and sometimes it explodes the moment the strip of cloth ignites, so it is a very dangerous task for soldiers to be a demoman.

Even if the generals can find a demoman willing to sacrifice themselves, it will not be easy to blast the enemy defenses. Your enemies are not blind, you only send a few people to rush over with a jar, and people will know what they are here for with their toes, and they will definitely shoot them directly into hedgehogs. If you send people to cooperate with their attack, what will happen to the lives of those people?

What the? You say escort the Demoman to the target area and let the troops retreat?

In order to ensure the power of the explosion, the explosives of the gunpowder canister are relatively large and very conspicuous. When the powder canister bomb was not yet famous, the defenders didn't care about the big guy at all, and this tactic was still feasible at that time. But if it were to change now, if the enemy found it, they would be desperate to destroy it and all humanoids in its vicinity. If the defending team uses long-range incendiary objects such as rocket arrows, burning oil canisters, etc., on the attacking troops, the attacking troops will have to fend for themselves.

Even now, the psychological blow of the explosion to the soldiers is still very large. If the explosion causes casualties to your troops, the morale of your troops will be severely damaged. The attacker uses explosives to blow up the enemy, but the explosives cause heavy casualties to their own side, which not only demoralizes the troops, but also affects the image of the commander in the minds of the soldiers. Unless they are 100% sure, or when they have to, the generals of the New World will not use this tactic. Therefore, in today's offensive and defensive battles, it is difficult to see the figure of gunpowder canister explosives.

Maier and Salin did not dare to use this tactic because they were bold. In fact, the Powder Jar Bomb Project was only a record, and the original plan was for the spearmen and crossbowmen of the Egus Army to sneak up on the wall with a ladder and launch a surprise attack. Originally, the siege troops had been dispatched, but these people were almost under the wall, and there was still no movement on the side of the Xiaohu army. As soon as Mel had an idea, he signaled the attacking force to withdraw, and directly activated the "Powder Tank Bomb" plan.

To keep the Demoman safe, Maier replaced the ignition with twine-soaked twine. The length of the hemp rope is about one meter, enough for the Demoman to run to safety after ignition. But this design has a disadvantage, that is, it takes too long to ignite, and once the enemy finds the powder canister bomb, they will have plenty of time to disable it.

However, the Xiaohu Army did not notice the movements of the coalition forces at all. The shouts and shouts of the rear troops made them mistakenly think that the coalition forces were still playing the same old routine, and there was not even a single person who looked out. After dozens of loud "booms", the walls of the stronghold and the defenders behind the walls were blown to pieces.

Before the smoke and dust from the explosion cleared, the coalition forces launched an attack on the Xiaohu army. The Xiaohu Army, which had lost its wall, was affected by the explosion and had no will to fight. The coalition forces captured more than 40,000 people without a single wound, including less than 20,000 infantry, about 10,000 auxiliaries, 5,000 cavalry, and about 10,000 civilians.

More than 600 people in the Xiaohu army died on the spot due to the explosion, nearly 2,000 were wounded, and nearly 400 of the wounded died of their injuries, and the rest of the wounded were properly treated. Mel distributed the food from the stronghold to the men and auxiliaries and sent them home. The soldiers were disarmed, and Meir promised them that they would be freed when the battle was over.

"Your Majesty, although we won this battle, we were lucky to win."

After the battle, Salin spoke to Mel.

"Your decision to change our plans on the last minute is too risky, and if the enemy discovers our purpose when we change plans, we will be in vain."

In fact, there is no need to say that Mer also knows that his actions are very risky. The order to withdraw the attacking troops and send the Demomen up took only a few seconds, but it took nearly half an hour for the troops to move. During the whole process, everyone was afraid of making too much noise to alarm the enemy army and become a live target for the enemy army.

As the saying goes, concern is chaos, and the soldiers who shouted in the back worried about the safety of their allies, and shouted harder than usual. If the Xiaohu Army hadn't completely let down their guard and hadn't discovered this detail, there would have been a team of men and horses between the attacking troops or the Demomen.

If the plan fails, Meier's image in the army will surely plummet, and his change of plans will become a laughing stock for future generations. However, Mel's action was successful, and the battle would be sought after as a model for surprise attacks. Later, people will speculate about the reason for Maier's change of tactics, and even fight because of it. However, what they didn't know was that Maier just gave the order in a hot head, and he regretted it as soon as he gave the order, but he had already changed the order once, and if he changed the order again at this time, it would cause confusion among the soldiers, which would be more dangerous, so he had to send the Demoman head-on.

Mel accepted Salin's offer, but did not apologize. Now the whole army is worshipping him for this "wise" operation, and admitting his mistakes at such a time will not only undermine his morale, but also affect his image in the army, and even lose the trust of the soldiers.

On July 27, the coalition forces regrouped and prepared to attack the stronghold of the commander of the Xiaohu Army.

The coalition forces did not know which stronghold contained the commander of the Xiaohu Army, and the two strongholds were no longer in contact after they were surrounded, and the coalition forces could not even judge which stronghold had more defenders. Mel and Salin chose the stronghold to attack first by drawing lots, and happened to choose the stronghold that did not have an enemy commander.

After breaching this stronghold, the Coalition forces learned from their captives that they had three strongholds in addition to this stronghold. The Xiaohu army that withdrew to this stronghold did not know about the movement in other strongholds, so in their opinion, there were still three strongholds on their own. After careful reconnaissance, the coalition forces found that there was indeed only one stronghold of the Xiaohu Army, and Meier and Salin were not sure that the commander of the Xiaohu Army was in the stronghold, but they could only attack this stronghold according to the predetermined plan.

During the day on the 27th, Maier sent some prisoners outside the stronghold to persuade them to surrender. As a result, before the prisoners could finish speaking, they were ordered to be shot by the commander of the Xiaohu Army. The captives were very cold to the commander of the Xiaohu Army, and at the same time they did not dare to persuade Maier to surrender.

Unlike the cautious but not careful general of the Xiaohu Army, the commander of the Xiaohu Army is a thoughtful person. As a confidant of Xiaohu Connection, he learned seven or eight points from the ruthlessness of the lord. Over the course of more than a month, Maier and Salin tried all sorts of ways to make the defenders lose their will to resist, but they failed.

On September 10, 137 AH, just as Mel and Salin were preparing to storm their stronghold, they received a letter from the city of Byrons.