This is not the first time that the Tang Dynasty's fortress has been used in actual combat, since the Tang Empire took the lead in adopting the fortress defense system a few years ago, the fleet of the Tang Western Company has become the first imperial armed force to eat crabs.

In the early days, they built two fortresses in Banten and Luzon, and the fortress in Luzon was attacked by more than 3,000 pirates, and finally resisted the attack of the pirates, and at the same time, the pirates left hundreds of corpses.

In the next two days, the imperial military also began to apply the fortress defense system on a small scale, at the beginning of the construction of small-scale fortresses on the northern border, these fortresses are generally not large, and in order to save costs, but also to prevent the enemy's shells from hitting the masonry city wall and other secondary casualties, so these newly constructed fortresses, in fact, most of the structures are soil layers, even if the part of the masonry structure is used, the appearance needs to be covered with a thick layer of soil.

It sounds like a large number of soil layer structures are not very good, but the actual effect is good, at least the advantage of low cost is enough, not to mention that the soil layer can absorb the kinetic energy of the shell well and avoid secondary killing.

The fortresses on the northern border are mainly small-scale fortresses, usually only a few hundred soldiers stationed there, and there are not many artillery pieces deployed.

The real large-scale fortress, at present, only Jiayuguan is still under construction, Jiayuguan as the westernmost bridgehead of the Tang Dynasty, no matter how important it is!

As for the rest of the northern border, it's not that it's not important, but the enemies faced by the Tang Empire in the north are the Tatars, who are nomads, playing cavalry, who will be stupid to attack your fortress, more often, people choose a gap at random, and then the cavalry roars past and goes directly into the hinterland of the Central Plains.

Therefore, in response to this situation, the Tang Empire's defense strategy on the northern border is actually to adopt the initiative to attack plus defense in depth!

Take the initiative to attack, needless to say, when you perceive danger, launch an attack first, although the number of cavalry in the Tang Empire is not much, but it is much better than a few years ago, squeeze it, tens of thousands of cavalry can still be squeezed out, and it is fully capable of implementing assault tactics that take the lead in attacking.

The defense in depth is that if you can't take the initiative to attack, then you will carry out strict monitoring on the defense line of the Great Wall, and patrol and deploy with small castles and small-scale troops, the purpose of which is not to block the enemy, but to get information at the first moment when the enemy breaks through the defense line of the Great Wall.

Then the main base stationed in the rear, such as Xuanhua and other places, can be mobilized, or stick to the fortified city, or directly send troops to intercept, or cut off their food routes, back roads, etc., the main fight is actually mobile defense.

Stupidly hoarding all the troops on the front line of the Great Wall, that is an absolutely self-defeating act, even those mud-legged generals in the former Ming Dynasty knew that they couldn't do this.

And a large number of officers in the Tang Army, who were born in professional classes and have received many years of military education in the martial arts hall and the imperial academy, naturally will not do the same.

In this context, the main strategy of the Datang Army on the northern border, the establishment of a strict patrol monitoring system, heavy troops stationed in a number of important cities, when the enemy invades, the first time is to kill, instead of stupidly deploying heavy troops in each city, and then waiting for the enemy to attack, so not to mention that the Datang Army simply does not have so many field forces, besides, the enemy will not come at all!

Because no matter how stupid Altan Khan is, people will not take the initiative to attack a city like Xuanhua with cavalry!

As a result, the application of the Tang Army's fortresses on the northern border is mainly inclined to small-scale fortresses, rather than building super-large castles that can garrison tens of thousands of people.

In China, the places where such large fortresses are really being built are not at the border, but in the hinterland of the south of the Yangtze River, more precisely, in Wusong!

In order to defend against the enemy from attacking from the sea and attacking the Yangtze River to threaten Gyeonggi, it is also to protect the economic prosperity of Songjiang Province and even the entire Jiangnan region.

Therefore, the Datang Army and Navy are working together to expand and upgrade the Wusong Naval Base, preparing to build it as the first naval base of the Navy in the mainland, and at the same time, it is also to build a super fortress in the coastal areas of the homeland, blocking all enemies from attacking from the sea!

Wusong Fortress, aside from the construction of naval bases, port facilities, etc., is a simple defensive fortress, that is, to prepare for the deployment of more than 100 large-caliber artillery, the permanent strength will reach more than 10,000 people, a large amount of food and spare weapons are stored, not to mention ammunition.

According to the plan, the defensive ability of this fortress is that when facing an attack by 50,000 enemies, it can hold on for more than five years, and five years is not actually to say that it has been broken by the enemy, but the food stored in the fortress can only last about 20,000 people for five years.

And these 50,000 people are not a messy enemy army, but a comparison with the Tang Army itself.

In fact, in addition to Wusong Fortress, there are actually several small fortresses around Jinling City, but most of the military do not announce it to the public, such as Jiujiang, which is the west gate of the military guarding Gyeonggi, where forts and barracks fortresses were built.

Xuzhou in the north is also an important defense area, and Hangzhou in the south is also an important area.

And the above-mentioned areas are all under the Zhili Defense Zone, and they are garrisoned by all departments of the First Army!

In the Tang Dynasty, the first army, which had the most outstanding military achievements and the most powerful strength, was not deployed in the north, northwest, or northeast, but in the Zhili region.

The First Army, together with the reserve divisions of Zhili Sidao and other places, the main force of about 300,000 troops and reserve troops constituted the main force on the periphery of Gongwei Gyeonggi.

Because the troops of the First Army are only deployed on the periphery, and the defense of Jinling City and the surrounding areas belongs to the Guards!

The number of guards was already nearly 30,000, stationed in Jinling City, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Dangtu, Liyang, Chuzhou and other places.

Although the guards did not build any super-large castles in these places, they also upgraded the barracks according to the style of the fortress to strengthen the defensive ability.

The Tang Empire's fortress defense system, the role of the northern border, is not large, in the hinterland of the Central Plains, it is mainly used as a preventive measure, as long as there is no civil strife, there is no large-scale invasion of foreign enemies, in fact, it is not used.

What has really frequently withstood the test of war is actually the three fortresses built by the Tang Western Company: Banten City, Luzon City, and Gehe City.

These three fortresses, although it is said that Banten City and Luzon City have been handed over to the imperial government, but they were all built by the Tang Western Company in the early years, but the scale of the castles built back then was not as large as it is now, and later the official expanded several times.

These three fortresses should be the more representative cities built by the Tang Empire in overseas territories, because the overseas territories are very important from the mainland, whether it is the population or the soldiers are relatively small, so the colonies are required to have excellent defensive capabilities, ordinary cities cannot afford such a heavy task, and only the fortresses can bear this heavy responsibility.

And today, Banten City is also under the biggest threat of war since its construction!

A coalition of more than 20,000 natives and pirates has launched an assault on this small colonial city!

In order to preserve the vitality and avoid fearless sacrifices, the authorities of Banten City have already directly abandoned the wharf of the port and some outbuildings outside the fortress, and directly retreated to the real core of Banten City, a fortress with an area of only 30,000 square meters!

This fortress is an irregular castle, divided into two cities, the inner and outer cities, which are built on a hillside to reduce the amount of work, the outer city is lower, rectangular, mainly residential and commercial areas and ordinary barracks, next to it is the inner city, the inner city is actually built on the top of the mountain, the other side is the cliff, the inner city area is relatively small, only about 7,000 square meters, mainly the residential area of official institutions and important officials.

This 30,000-square-meter Banten City can accommodate 4,000 people!

Now, the attacking side of these natives is the east wall of the outer city, and as for the north side, it is the side of the inner city, and the cliff of dozens of meters is the best defensive measure, and those natives will not be afraid of the cliff attack.

To the east of the outer city, a large number of artillery pieces were firing at this time, with five-pound and nine-pound artillery guns constantly firing at the indigenous soldiers rushing up outside the city, and at the same time, some light shotguns were also firing at the indigenous people who rushed to a range of tens of meters.

On the edge of the fortress, that is, on the breastwork, hundreds of meters of soldiers and militiamen are shooting at a steady rhythm under the command of the officer!

Next to these soldiers, even many old and weak women and children spontaneously picked up their guns, and then pulled the trigger on the natives under the city!

And more old and weak women and children are constantly carrying shells in the rear, and then under the command of artillerymen, they reload the artillery!

Of the more than 30 people who operated the artillery, only about 50 or so were real artillerymen, and the rest, especially those who assisted in carrying and loading the artillery, were actually civilians.

On the one hand, the requirements for officers and technical arms have been greatly increased, but at the same time, the requirements for musketeers and various auxiliary types of troops have been greatly reduced.

An ordinary young man with a standard physical fitness, after a full three months of training, can basically carry a gun to the battlefield.

If it is a simple defensive operation at present, where you have a castle to use and the enemy does not have a huge artillery force to suppress, and your side does not have much threat of casualties, then this kind of defensive battle is actually just a simple repetitive labor, even a woman or a child can pick up a musket to fight after a simple guidance.

Of course, the combat efficiency is certainly inferior to that of the soldiers of the regular army!

But does it matter?

Unimportant!

There are few soldiers in the city, and it is very difficult to rely on soldiers alone to defend against the attack of more than 20,000 people!

Therefore, whether it is civil and military officials or ordinary people, even the elderly, weak, women and children in the city, as long as they can move, they are basically participating in this defensive battle!

Even if these people work and fight less efficiently, they can still bring a great positive effect!

In order to survive, the soldiers and civilians of Banten City are participating in the defense of the city!