Ferdinand was fortunate to live in a time when the bastion had not yet made its mark.

The bastion did not appear at this time, and it was not until the beginning of the 16th century that the Italians invented the earliest bastion, of course, the initial bastion defense was not very good, and there were many blind spots in the design.

A war in 1552 brought the fortress to fame. In May of that year, King Henry II of France captured the city of Metz in the Lorraine region. Five months later, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V began a siege of Metz with an army of 45,000 in an attempt to recapture it. But in the intervening 5 months, 5,800 defenders, under the command of the Duke of Guise and the engineer Saint-Rémy, had rebuilt a new line of defense behind the old walls. On November 27, the attackers fired more than 7,000 shells in one day, destroying more than 70 meters of the city wall, but the fortress defense behind it was still intact. The HRE army carried out several assaults with heavy casualties, all of which failed. The weather also grew colder and began to snow, and the siege finally ended in early January 1553. After the withdrawal of the HRE army, the French who left the city were surprised to find a bleak scene - graveyards and wounded soldiers everywhere, weapons and other equipment were abandoned, as if it was not a siege but a great defeat.

Due to the extensive use of the fort by the Dutch, the Spaniards struggled in the Netherlands.

In a letter to Philip II in 1574, the commander of the Spanish army, Rexens, said:

"If every time we conquer a town, it takes as much time as the ones we have conquered, there is absolutely nothing in the world

Enough time and money to pacify the 20 towns that rebelled in the Netherlands by force. "We've won a battle, we've conquered many towns, and each victory in itself is enough to bring peace, and even build an entire kingdom elsewhere. But here you get nothing...... I believe God has pointed out to me the "Promised Land" many times, just as He did to Moses, but someone else will become Joshua who entered the land. ”

……

Now, no one else knows what a fortress is, but Ferdinand not only knows what a fortress is, how to build it, but also what it does and how to conquer it. Moreover, since Ferdinand had already made up his mind to occupy Naples (1505) and unify Navarre and Andorra (1513) and then cease to fight with France (1516), then the Italian war would cease after that, and even if it continued, it would not be relevant to Spain, so it would be difficult for the fortress to have a chance to develop on a large scale, and it would not be difficult for Spain to suffer if it developed. What is certain is that Ferdinand's annexation of Portugal according to the schedule, accounting for LinkedIn Glenn, Scotland, Ireland, will not run into the hindrance of the fortress. By the time of the Thirty Years' War, Spain would let the European pig nations know what it means to be an imperialist superpower in the age of industrialization......

However, others do not know the magic of this thing, but Ferdinand himself can apply it on a large scale. As mentioned earlier, Sardinia's multi-layered defense system is based on a fortress system combined with powerful fortress artillery. Combined with the musketeers who lined up to shoot, Sardinia and Spain were a little ahead of other countries and regions in terms of defense, almost an era.

In Sardinia, Ferdinand drew all the information and blueprints with reference to the designs of the master Vauban for the construction and breaching of the bastion – mainly the classic Vauban-1 system, and then, relying on the cheating of information asymmetry, he "educated" military generals such as Gonzalo and Cisneros (the cardinal had already mentioned his brilliant deeds, both fighting and preaching), and told them about "the latest directions of modern warfare".

"The fortress is a very sharp fortress designed by me (Ferdinand: "Forgive me for my shamelessness......) a very sharp fortress, even if a fortress with dozens of people is stationed, it can often play the role of a few thousand, contain a large number of enemy forces, so that the war changes from dynamic to static, from field to siege, greatly weakening and even crushing the offensive of the attacking side, in front of us, even if the enemy has a huge advantage, a quick victory is almost impossible ......"

"The Solid Fortress is a high platform made entirely of earth, and the Hollow Fortress begins to slope from behind the fortification—the main fortress shown in this structural diagram is the Hollow Fortress. The fort was equipped with a breastwork, behind which cannons were placed. Combined with our new 18-pounder gun, the firepower is quite high. There will even be more powerful guns in the future. ”

"When it comes to artillery, it's closely related to the fortress. Artillery relies on the bastion to develop its firepower safely, quickly, efficiently and fully. As such, the bastion is the main structure in the entire fortress system and the main firepower output point. For the sake of illustration, there are both types of bastions in the structural diagram I have given, not that they must actually be arranged in this way. ”

Just by saying this, Gonzalo and Cisneros already had nervous, contemplative expressions. Sisneseros was mainly nervous (I can't blame him, I've been frightened by Ferdinand I don't know how many times) and nervous for the enemy - if they encounter His Majesty's fortress, how will they come back alive? Gonzalo was mainly pondering, but also pondering for the enemy - in the face of such a deadly defense system, how to carry out an attack that slightly reduced the casualties, and even how to retreat without resisting his own counterattack - after all, now the Spanish Army is at a time when the cattle are not good, and it is very difficult to attack the Spanish Army, if it is beaten again with heavy casualties, the outcome can be imagined. Several other generals also showed slightly enlightened expressions, and it seemed that they had begun to break away from the evil old society and move towards the glorious path of the new era.

"Now I'm going to give you an analysis of the internal structure and function of the bastion." Seeing that everyone was more up-to-the-road, Ferdinand was also more satisfied, and the Spanish army, to be precise, was about to enter a new era for the Aragonese army. For the sake of secrecy, except for Gonzalo and Cisneros, two people who have absolutely no problem with Castile, the rest are absolutely trustworthy cronies of Ferdinand of Aragon, and they are somewhat capable.

Alas! The generals and ministers of Aragon, with the exception of Luis de Sandonel, could only be asked for a passing grade, and now the talents were all from Castile. Even in the Italian War, Isabella sent the Castilian army into the war, and the original Ferdinand basically did not contribute except for picking fruit (the Kingdom of Naples).

That's not right! According to the theory of the lighthouse state, in the past few hundred years, the people of Castile have struggled to survive under the shadow of dictatorship, and Aragon is a country with natural human rights, and it is closely connected with the Italian region, so it is supposed that Aragon is prosperous, why is it that Castile is the main body from beginning to end? Aragon is not without a university, is it? Even more than Castile.

Ferdinand was not without the cheekiness to communicate with Isabella about this kind of question. The latter put it bluntly: "My general impression is that it is very difficult for the Aragon court to find people of integrity. "This is by no means as simple as the upper beam is not correct and the lower beam is crooked. Because the entire court of Aragon was almost like this, most of the courtiers were infected with syphilis, and the royal family was wiped out except for Ferdinand (who was also there according to history), which was almost unimaginable to the Castilians.

It seems to be a problem of social climate! Is it that the good of the Italian Renaissance has not been learned, and the bad ones have been infected? It seems that this problem still has to start with education.

"The greatest mistake of the last twenty years in Aragon has been in education, and now we must educate our next generation, the next generation, always with the lofty ideals of imperialism......"

……

The topic is far away, and now Ferdinand is still concentrating on popularizing the knowledge of the fortress to the generals and marshals.

"Look at this, the part between the bastions is called the middle embankment, which is the former city wall. In the well-designed bastion system on this drawing, the embankment was made short to ensure that the rifle range could completely cover the area. Our latest Mushkert arquebus (still classified, at least kept secret from the Castilian army and generals) has been further improved to improve its range and accuracy, and there is still room for improvement in the future (in fact, the bastion works best with the flintlock pistol, the arquebus is a bit of a drag, but now the Mushkert arquebus is still in the stage of continuous improvement)......"

"Well, in response to your question, the purpose of building a concave fort in front of the embankment is to prevent siege guns from hitting the embankment, and to also deploy some musketeers to strengthen the defense of the trenches. The purpose of the Triangle Fort is the same. It was only three or four feet lower than the main fort to allow the artillery on the main fort to fire beyond it, and the artillery above the triangular fort also formed part of the crossfire. ”

"An important role of the fortress is to protect the soldiers and preserve the living force. Therefore, the concealment, mobilization, and assembly of soldiers are also links that should be paid attention to. In order to prevent the enemy's longitudinal fire, there are many horizontal walls set up in the concealed road, and sometimes the concealed road is directly built into a zigzag, so there is no need for horizontal walls. ”

"The fortress is conducive to attacking enemy forces from many sides and directions...... I'll take a sip first......" Ferdinand abruptly avoided the topic, satisfying his physiological needs, and continued to explain persistently.

"Then look at it again, the outermost layer is not simple. The outermost ram is where the crossfire is most concentrated, and its angle of inclination helps the defender to exert firepower. The entire fortress will be built with masonry as much as possible, and if it has to be used for some reason, the outside will also be covered with thick soil! Be careful! Be careful! Important things are reminded three times! - Because the soil layer can absorb energy, the masonry is not only easy to damage, but also prone to ricochet, which can lead to serious casualties! Serious casualties! Serious casualties! ”

……

"Is it possible to consider digging tunnels and blasting?" Gonzalo pondered for a long time, and under the ratio of forces of 2 to 1, or even 3 to 1, and 4 to 1, if the attacker faced these tight defensive measures, it seemed that there would be only this crooked way left. Although he was able to come up with a lot of countermeasures on his own.

"Hmm...... The ideal is beautiful, but don't overthink it! In addition to the facilities mentioned above, in order to prevent the enemy from digging holes and blasting - according to my deduction, you should agree that the enemy usually digs tunnels after the attack has reached the inclined embankment, otherwise the distance is too long to guarantee the oxygen level - I mean this will cause people to suffocate ......"

"Of course, as a defender, we will also dig the corresponding tunnels underground......"

Ferdinand casually spoke of-for-tat measures against these "groundhogs".

"We can make a listening tunnel. Through a dedicated listening tunnel, we can effectively determine the enemy's position. After that, we can send our soldiers into the corresponding tunnels to destroy the enemy digging team......" Ferdinand said how to effectively take the enemy's life, and he was in a good mental state.

"If any of you find it too much trouble, I recommend the more direct method of pouring brimstone directly into it!"

The generals all felt that they had shed more cold sweat today than they had all done in the previous days.

Ferdinand was unimpressed by this - "This is just the tip of the iceberg of a brutal battle in the dark!" ”

"Next year (1495) the whole of Sardinia will be fortified with fortresses around the island, on which the whole system of defense will be supported. And, of course, our new guns. ”

"That's why I say that if the North African pirates and the Ottoman navy had the idea of Sardinia, they would have regretted it!"

In fact, it was not only the North African pirates and the Ottomans who might regret it, but also the French. Ferdinand had no intention of using a bastion in Italy. However, relying on the natural barrier at the southern foot of the Pyrenees, it was a grand plan in his mind to further build the Pyrenees fortified area.

……

"Sisneros," Ferdinand asked, knocking on the table again, "is the training in line to be shot?" 10,000 people in Sardinia, no burden, right? I mean – in all aspects. ”

"No, Your Majesty, the situation is fine."

……