Chapter 320: Fortress, Field Battle

Chen Xian's fortress is roughly square, and at each corner of the square, there is a quadrangular fortress that looks like the tip of a spear, and the defensive fort of the fortress is built on the back waist of the prismatic fortress, and the muzzle of the cannon is facing his own city wall from the side......

Think about it, if you attack the city, it must be all kinds of siege equipment and climbing troops covering the enemy's wall, but the defending side can fire along the wall on the side, this fight must be a large area, and what is even more terrible is that the opponent has not only one cannon, but four cannons, cross-fire from both sides, seven or eight heavy shells in a minute from your siege troops flying flesh and blood, you even the iron army can't stand it!

Do you want to hit the fort at the four corners first? First, the fortress is very small, the two edges facing out are only more than 20 meters long, and you can't put a few people at all, and second, the edges of any fortress outward can be taken care of by the defensive artillery fire of the two adjacent fortresses! You will be baptized by flank fire when you attack the fortress!

Besides, if you only fight the bastion, then the musketeers on the walls can take care of you calmly......

You say you bombarded with cannons? The defensive turret of the fortress is hidden in the back of the prismatic fort, and it can't be hit from the front!

With the technical means of this era, this kind of fortress is almost insoluble!

There are only four turrets in the whole fortress, that is, the four prismatic forts on the four corners, which are built of cement stones, and the turret has two floors, the lower floor is level with the ground, and there are two defensive cannons, which are facing the city walls on both sides, and the muzzle is a horizontal narrow slit less than a foot wide, and no one can climb into it.

In order to prevent the turret from being broken by cannons, on the outside of the turret, there was no firing hole left on the first floor, and in that direction, there was not only an almost solid cement stone wall, but also a thick straw bag filled with sand on the outside, and the whole wall was built into a 45-degree slope to prevent artillery.

The upper floor is an open-air platform, surrounded by a cement anti-artillery wall slightly higher than the gun port, and the outside of the cement wall is made of straw bags filled with sand to form a thick anti-artillery layer.

Because the anti-artillery wall is higher than the cannon, it is almost impossible for the cannonball to be as large as the cannon from the outside, and the cannon behind the anti-artillery wall is some distance from the anti-artillery strength, and the muzzle has an elevation angle, so there is no need to worry about the cannonball hitting your own anti-artillery wall.

On this level were placed four large cannons, two of which were facing the two walls and the other two were facing the outside of the city.

There are four prismatic turrets in the entire fort, and a total of sixteen bulky cast-iron cannons that can fire seven-pound cannonballs, and eight super-heavy cast-iron cannons that can fire ten-pound cannonballs, which are permanently fixed to the cement base and rails in the turret.

In the whole fortress, only these four prismatic turrets are built of cement and stone, and the four walls of the fortress itself are actually made of straw bags filled with earth, and the cost is very low.

In order to prevent artillery, these four walls are not high, only one zhang four or five, but the thickness is two zhang, and there is a thick breastwall on the top of the city wall to protect the musketeers on the wall.

In order to match the side fire of the Quadrangular Bastion, all four walls protrude at a small angle, so that the cannonballs that protect the main wall on the side can be grazed against the wall, which is a nightmare for anyone who wants to take a siege with flesh and blood.

The main wall itself is not difficult to climb, but under the protection of the cannon fire from the side of the four pinnacles, the main wall is a trap, and each shell of the four cannons on the fort on both sides can be crossed by the wall, and the ordinary siege method, as long as it is close to the wall, it will be torn apart by the cannonballs flying from the side.

Since he knew the power of the cannon, Wanyan Pingtao has been pondering the cannon every day over the years, and last year he even worked with his craftsmen to make a copper cannon with similar performance to the cannon in Chen Xian's hand.

After so many years, Wanyan Pingtao is almost half an expert in artillery, so after he saw this strange-looking fortress, he quickly understood the defense mechanism of this thing.

So when he shuddered at the thought of attacking such a castle with the flesh and blood of his own army, and then being crossed by the cannons in the prismatic turret from the side, the flesh and blood flew everywhere.

After looking at the fortress, Wan Yan Pingtao knew that it was almost impossible to lay down such a castle, even if he had a lot of copper cannons in his hands that could be pulled out for field battles.

The fortress was almost impossible to conquer, and Wanyan Pingtao could only suggest that Yeluliuge fight with the other party in the field.

Brother Wan Yan asked Yan Pingtao rhetorically, what if the other party cowered in the fortress and didn't come out?

Wanyan Pingtao felt that the other party really had no choice.

However, with Yan Pingtao's understanding of Chen Xian and his generals, the probability of such a situation happening is not high.

Chen Jun has never been afraid of field battles, on the contrary, they like field battles very much, and they don't know what kind of habit Chen Xian, who is so good at field warfare, has to build castles everywhere!

After Yan Pingtao and Yeluliuge converged, the two took a short rest and led the army straight to Zhang Bai's lair.

The two set up camp about a dozen miles away from the fortress group.

Sure enough, as Wanyan Pingtao expected, early the next morning, Zhang Bai's army drove out of the Lingbao District, spread out a formation on the prairie east of the Lingbao District, and pushed towards the camp of Wanyan Pingtao and Yeluliuge.

Yeluliuge and Wanyan Pingtao, who couldn't help it, also drove the army out of the camp, lined up in a large formation on the grassland, and headed towards Zhang Bai.

At this time, Zhang Bai commanded the 9th Infantry Brigade of Liaodong, the 10th Infantry Brigade of Goryeo, the 3rd Horse Infantry Brigade of Liaodong (3 regiments, dissatisfied with the formation), the 3rd Liaodong Chasseur Brigade (3 regiments, dissatisfied with the formation), the 3rd and 4th Assault Cavalry Brigades of Liaodong, and three artillery battalions belonging to the three infantry brigades, with a total of nearly 70,000 troops, a total of 90 five-pound guns and 30 seven-pound guns.

In recent years, Chen Xian did not expand his army much in Shandong, but only expanded the two infantry brigades of the northern defense line to one infantry division.

He sent all the excellent soldiers to Liaodong, and formed a new infantry brigade, a horse infantry brigade, a chassar brigade, and two assault cavalry brigades in Liaodong.

Because on the battlefield in Liaodong, the enemy was mainly cavalry, and horses were easy to obtain here, so when Chen Xian expanded his army, the main direction he considered was cavalry.

As a result, Liaodong had only one infantry brigade plus one horse infantry brigade, but three cavalry brigades.

Of course, among the three cavalry brigades, one chasper brigade is not fully staffed, two are relatively small in their own right, and one cavalry brigade itself has only more than 6,000 men, and the two together are only equivalent to an infantry brigade that is not fully staffed.

In order to make up for the shortage of infantry in Liaodong, Chen Xian transferred an infantry brigade from Goryeo to Liaodong and handed it over to Zhang Bai.

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