The red sun rises in the east.

Ebolden seaport.

"Ahh

Lusen, who was right behind Loren, suddenly sneezed, frowning and rubbing his nose vigorously.

"It's getting cooler, watch out for a cold, Lusen. The black-haired wizard turned his head and chuckled at the gray-eyed boy who was wearing only a thin suit of armor, "If you are seriously ill now, then I will have to send you back quickly." ”

"You're still worried about yourself, Lord Loren. ”

Lu Sien, who was "cared for", snorted very unappreciatively, and wiped his nose with his thumb: "I used to be a ranger in the Broken Mountain Fortress and the Glacier Wasteland, and this kind of weather is no different to me than at home." ”

“...... Eighty percent was nagged by that guy again, last time it was ......" The gray-eyed young man who turned his head pouted and whispered.

The black-haired wizard shook his head and turned his gaze to the sea level - on a cloudless sunny day, a faint mist drifting on the calm waters, like a sapphire wrapped in tulle, pure and elegant.

But on this pristine sea, an irresistible storm is brewing.

Winter is coming.

Ebolden is a seaport city in the north, with the Jewel River flowing from the Sackland region into the Misty Sea – the advantage of its extremely well-developed shipping routes and the fact that the city is surrounded by water on both sides, with both a draft ocean port and an embankment for river vessels.

The downside is that while the Misty Sea does not freeze in winter, the Gem River does, and the coastal seas that are diluted by the Gem River's waters can freeze as well.

Once frozen, all of Ebden's ports would be frozen for at least three months until the following spring, and that's not all, because the river does not melt during the spring flood season, but breaks the ice – the only thing that will happen to any ship anchored in an Ebolden port at this time is to be reduced to a pile of broken wood by the back and forth of the ice that hits back and forth.

In the past winter, Ebolden was a headache for Ebolden, but now Loren is desperate for the sea to freeze - as long as the sea freezes, the Azorean elf fleet will not be able to dock at Ebolden for three months.

Three months' time... Loren would not have to do anything to defend the city, and the Imperial army would assemble at Eberden and confront the Azorean elves along the river.

Unfortunately, this year's midsummer was so long that winter came too late, and there should be little chance of waiting for the port of Ebotden to freeze.

But it's still worth looking forward to.

"It would be nice if it could start freezing after a week. The black-haired wizard muttered quietly.

"What?" Lusen, who didn't react, was stunned.

"The movement of the enemy. Loren changed the subject: "The scouts and lighthouses along the coast, have they still found nothing?"

"Nothing was found, not to mention the fleet, not even a single fishing boat... Although there will be no fishing boats this season. ”

"In addition to the lighthouse in the harbor, we also sent a few more small boats that were the last remaining Eberden to patrol the coast, but we found nothing. Speaking of this, the gray-eyed boy couldn't help but complain:

"But it's precisely because of this that you can watch the sea here and be stunned, calmly arrange the defensive deployment, and design the next defensive plan. ”

Curling the corners of his mouth, Lusen casually glanced at the walls of Ebolden behind him.

Beneath the walls, Imperial legionnaires were working with the Ebolden city defenses to build improvised fortifications around the fortress towers with horses and planks, and then digging trenches behind the fortifications.

They divided each team of 100 into three squads, divided up and worked together, according to the standard of stacking a layer of wood every half a foot, and stacking it with loess and gravel, to build the simplest earthen wall two meters high and half a meter thick; each wall could stand in about two rows of people, wide enough to station half a hundred people.

Not only that, the earthen walls are not placed side by side, but three as a group, one behind and two in front, and the two earthen walls on both sides of the front row have a slight inward arc; And so on.

Different from the normal offensive and defensive warfare in which battle formations clash, it is very difficult for both the offensive and defensive sides of the harbor landing battle to fight in a uniform front, and once the battle begins, it will inevitably turn into a melee battle, and this small and numerous small "one-sided fortress" defensive chain will tear the battlefield apart.

This made it difficult for the enemy to quickly move through the battlefield and gather forces to attack the forts and walls near the harbor, and the defenders on the walls could take advantage of this opportunity to aim trebuchets and crossbows at the "earthen wall lines" to inflict heavy casualties.

Behind each earthen wall was a trench two men deep, slightly narrower than the earthen wall, in which barbs were inserted and asphalt poured into it - this way, as the width was smaller than the earthen wall, the defenders could retreat calmly, but the attackers were not necessarily.

The asphalt-filled trenches, once in flames, can temporarily halt the enemy's offensive momentum, not only allowing the projected troops on the towers to play to their full potential, but also giving the retreating defenders enough time to regroup rather than be defeated in one fell swoop.

As for Ebden ... Although she is a commercial port, it does not mean that she really does not have any means or preparations to defend against foreign enemies... In fact, as early as the birth of Ebolden, she began to have a plan of defense against the port and coast.

"Although there are quite a few coastal forts in Eboden, there are only three that really matter. Looking at the city wall behind him, the black-haired wizard raised three fingers as if talking to himself:

"First of all, of course, the ring fortress that guards the harbor, and it is also the most important thing for us to defend the coast, because there is a large open field and sandy beach in front of her, which cannot be defended, but it is condescending, so all the temporary fortifications are prepared for her. ”

"The second is the tower that clings to the city wall, once the enemy invades, the lighthouse in the depths of the harbor will definitely be lost, this tower is the only commanding height of the entire battlefield, and it will definitely become a target for the enemy. ”

"As for the last ......" The black-haired wizard frowned slightly, his gaze moving from the sea level in front of him to the river of gems to the west:

"It's the lonely castle on the other side of the Jewel River. ”

The gray-eyed boy looked at Loren's line of sight and couldn't help frowning.

The walls of Ebolden don't look so strange when they're inside the city, but when they're outside the walls, they look very abrupt.

The whole of Ebolden can be said to have been built along the river, but only in one place was the protrusion at the mouth of the Gem River, and a fortress was built on the other side of the river, and it forcibly connected her with the walls to the north and the west, like an extra triangle.

In order to connect the fortress to the city wall, Ebolden also took great pains to build two huge steel gates under the city wall, and the wall at the junction was made very thin, saying that the city wall was more like two bridges, one in front of the other, blocking the mouth of the Gem River.

Why do you want to make such a thing... Rusan scratched his head in annoyance.

It can't be said that the Ebodens knew hundreds of years ago that sooner or later they would be attacked by the Azorean elves, right?

"When the castle was built, it was certainly not built to guard against the Azorean elves. Squinting his eyes, the corners of the black-haired wizard's mouth showed a mocking sneer:

"On the contrary, she is there to watch out for the Empire. ”

Imperial?

"That's right, the Imperial Capital more accurately - or any merchant ship from the upper reaches of the Gem River. Seeing the puzzled eyes of the gray-eyed boy, Loren nodded:

"Two walls, or gates, seal off the best port of anchorage along the river, and the only deep-water port on the Gem River... It was in this way that Ebolden firmly controlled the control of the ocean-going trade and the dominance of the inland trade. ”

"But now, we can use her against the Azorean elves in turn. ”

Lusen's eyes froze, and he immediately understood the key.

That's right, if you put the fortress to good use, you can keep the enemy's fleet out of the Gem River - so that the rear can send a steady stream of supplies and reinforcements without thinking about security.

And the city of Eboden does not have to worry about being attacked on both sides, it only needs to deploy all the troops on the coastal line.

At the same time, because the lower reaches of the Baobao River are an outlet to the sea, the current is relatively turbulent, and it is impossible for the enemy's ships to anchor or swim upstream, so they can only target the ancient castle and the city walls on both sides of the river when attacking the relatively thin gates.

However, this meant that the enemy would be exposed to the range of projectile weapons on the city walls, and because large ships could not be moored, small boats could only be used to carry small groups of troops to land and attack at a time.

"It's not just that. The black-haired wizard shook his head suddenly, glanced meaningfully at the circular fortress of the harbor behind him, and gestured back and forth between the two castles with his right index finger:

"Pay attention to the position of the two of them, do you notice anything that is not quite right?"

Location?

Lusen raised an eyebrow, and after looking back and forth for a long time, he didn't find the problem that the black-haired wizard said.

And the black-haired wizard just looked at him with a wicked smile.

"Haven't found it yet?"

"No, nothing. The gray-eyed boy who frowned scratched his head a little embarrassedly: "What the hell are you talking about... Location, what's wrong with the location?"

"Look again, try to see again. You're about to find out!" Loren, with a wicked smile on his face, "encouraged", "Come on, I believe in you!"

Luthen's face darkened, and his brow furrowed even more.

Looking at his unbelievable gaze, Loren had no choice but to sigh and point left and right: "Didn't you notice that the locations of these two castles are almost parallel, and they are both close to the coast, some distance from the walls of the inner city?"

The gray-eyed boy shrugged, then tilted his head to look at him, indicating that then what?

Loren had no choice but to sigh again and look at the sun above his head and the flags on the two castles: "Well, there is still one minute. ”

"A minute, a minute what?"

The black-haired wizard ignored him, instead looking up at the sun and silently counting down in his mind.

A minute later, before he could understand it, Lusen heard a loud bang.

"Boom ————!!!!"

The intense notes are played, and the waves are rolled up from the flat bottom!

The moment the sound exploded, not only Lu Sien, but even the soldiers on and under the city wall also grew their mouths in surprise.

Loren opened his arms and faced the sea, and the corners of his grinning mouth hooked a very proud arc.

The gray-eyed boy with wide eyes took half a minute to figure out what was going on from the "boom" sound.

A chain... Or a "curtain" made of steel, gradually rising from under the sea level, so abruptly across in front of him.

Across the entire coastline right in front!

And the ends of the chains, right on two fortresses!

The exploding waves churned and fell on the shore like a shower, and the black-haired wizard and Lusen standing on the shore were soaked from head to toe.

But Loren still smiled.

"Chaining the sea – shameless, but also a useful tactic. Loren took a deep breath and his eyes burned: "As long as the two fortresses have not fallen, as long as this chain is still across the sea... The fleet of the Azores will never be able to get close to the shores of Ebolden!"

"Of course, they can wait until the sea freezes... Such long chains must have been extremely easy to shatter in the cold weather, but once frozen, their fleet would be even less likely to come close. ”

"We don't have to stay for a month, we just need to hold on until the cold winter comes!"

This time, Lusen was completely stunned.

"There is one thing, Lusen, you are right - and that is that I was not unprepared to promise Connad to be the commander of Ebolden. Loren turned his head and looked at the gray-eyed boy and said slowly:

"In the same way, Ebolden after the shipwreck of the ocean-going fleet did not really fail to take the slightest precautions - this is Ebberten, a city of wealth and wisdom, with the best technology and ingenuity in the empire, and a group of the best craftsmen. ”

"Here, money solves the problem... It's not a problem. ”

Lusen was stunned for a minute before he came to his senses.

"This, so to speak... You and Emperor Conrad, and the dukes said that you could only hold Ebolden for a month, and you deliberately ......"

"I said this on purpose, and of course, to a certain extent, it is also true - after all, we don't know how the enemy will attack the city. Loren nodded, looking at him as a matter of course:

"How can you make a conclusion about things you don't know?"

"......" Lusen.

Looking at the sea level where the morning mist gradually dissipated and the morning sun sprinkled with golden light, Loren, who was in a happy mood, curled the corners of his mouth: "All in all, this battle will definitely be very difficult, but it is by no means really without the slightest chance of winning." ”

But the gray-eyed boy didn't want to hear anything from him now.

Taking the letterhead from the herald who hurriedly ran from the side, Lusen, who pouted, said in a very cold tone: "The Consul Corona, as well as the legion commander and a group of generals sent by the Empire have arrived at the tower, and I want to discuss the next deployment with you as soon as possible. ”

"Then let's hurry over. Loren smiled disappreciatively:

"It's time to give them a little confidence to see victory. ”

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