Chapter 550: Sandbags

Schward was a little irritable, as the pioneer of the artillery battalion was blocked in this ghost place for three days, which he never expected. Since entering the province of Feltemba www.biquge.info he has led an artillery battalion under the cover of the Guards Corps as the pioneer of the army, attacking the city and conquering the fortress invincible, and he has never encountered a castle fortress that can withstand the artillery bombardment along the way. Often after a burst of artillery bombardment, the enemy fled with a howl of wolves, and the soldiers of the Guards Regiment rushed forward to pursue the enemy, successfully occupying the enemy's defensive positions.

The Business Alliance had long been prepared for the attack of the Norton family's forces, but they did not know which direction the Norton family would attack. The command of the Commercial Alliance's armed forces originally judged that the Norton family forces were likely to attack those provinces in the south, because those provinces were annexed by the Commercial Alliance in the war with the Central and Southern Kingdoms coalition a few years ago, and they had not carried out large-scale canonization of territorial nobles, and were still within the scope of direct jurisdiction.

Moreover, during the three-year bloody battle in the Falcan Hill Plain, the Commercial Alliance forcibly recruited a large number of recruits and food from these southern provinces, so that these southern provinces were frequently chaotic and unrestful under the unscrupulous raiding of the Commercial Alliance, and the garrison was weak, and it was impossible to resist the armed forces of the Norton family.

The command of the Merchant Alliance's armed forces thought that it might be possible to lure the enemy deeper into the southern provinces when the Norton forces attacked the southern provinces, and then try to cut off their logistical baggage transportation routes, forcing them to withdraw their troops back. This can not only make it a small setback, but also buy time for the business alliance to regain strength, maybe set up an ambush on the way to its withdrawal and launch a surprise attack to win a few small battles, and it can also enhance the confidence of the reconstituted business alliance forces......

However, what the command of the commercial alliance did not expect was that instead of attacking the southern provinces of the garrison, the Norton family forces would attack the province of Feltonba, which was the territory of the Mayflower Chamber of Commerce. This surprised the commanding leaders of the Commercial Alliance's armed forces, and they all speculated about what the offensive intentions of the Norton Family Armed were and the most reliable guess was that the goal of the Norton Family Armed Forces this time was not to destroy the major chambers of commerce of the Commercial Alliance.

As the president of the Two-Headed Dragon Chamber of Commerce, the commander of the Armies of the Business Alliance, Archduke Cumberlet, was relieved after getting the news that the Norton family forces had launched an attack on Feltonba Province, although the Mayflower Chamber of Commerce had obtained Feltonba Province as the territory of the Chamber of Commerce for less than five years, several gold and silver mines were located in the hilly areas of Feltonba Province, and the Mayflower Chamber of Commerce had already built a lot of strong castles and fortresses in the hilly areas and was ready for defense.

Archduke Cumberlet believed that even if the Norton family was armed with artillery, it would not be easy to take Feltonba, and he was happy to see the Mayflower Chamber and the Norton family fighting each other. After all, Archduke Nicholas of the Mayflower Chamber of Commerce was very interested in the chair under his ass during this time, and gathered a group of leaders of the second- and third-rate chambers of commerce to adopt an aggressive strategy against himself, accusing himself of being responsible for the fiasco of the decisive battle with Bruvia City from the point where the business alliance had fallen to the point it had now.

If it weren't for the strong support of the Forde Chamber of Commerce, the Levaud Chamber of Commerce, and the Vesia Chamber of Commerce, maybe Archduke Cumberlet would have been ousted by Archduke Nicholas. It's a pity that these three chambers of commerce have lost their own chamber territory and their strength has been greatly reduced, and their purpose in supporting Cumberlet is also to regain the chamber territory and take revenge on the Kingdom of Andinac and the Norton family. But after all, they were all badly injured, and they couldn't provide real and powerful help to Archduke Cumberlet. On the contrary, the Mayflower Chamber of Commerce and the Petersen Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Chikde Chamber of Commerce, which are still in the territory, have changed.

The Mayflower Chamber of Commerce wanted to take this opportunity to overtake the Two-Headed Dragon Chamber of Commerce and oust Archduke Cumberlet. Although the Peterson Chamber of Commerce is neutral and impartial, the two do not help each other. But it seems that they are tired of the war and hope to negotiate peace, sign an armistice, restore peace, and do business well, and this view has also been privately supported by many chambers of commerce, such as the Miledas Chamber of Commerce, which runs a hotel, is the most staunch anti-war activist. There is no way, during the war, their family chamber of commerce has been losing money for several years in a row, and they have no profit at all, so they can only scrape on those bitter lords in the territory of the chamber of commerce, and they can't make ends meet......

As for the Chicked Chamber of Commerce, it is a complete traitor in the eyes of the Grand Duke of Cumberlet, but it is a pity that the business alliance has not recovered due to the defeat of Bluvia City, and it is currently unable to free up the hands to clean up this Chicked Chamber of Commerce. Sometimes Archduke Cumberlet is thinking about whether to reach a temporary peace with the Norton family first, and then concentrate on cleaning up the betrayer of the Chicke Chamber of Commerce, relieving the worries of the business alliance, and letting those wavering chambers of commerce see the fate of the betrayer, thinking that the future will be a lesson for those who come after.

It's just that before the Grand Duke of Cumberlet could think about it, the Norton family forces launched another attack on the Business Alliance, and this time they attacked the territory of the Mayflower Chamber of Commerce, Feltonba. Although Archduke Cumberlet felt a little gloating, he still remembered that he was now the supreme consul of the Business Alliance, the commander of the business alliance's armed forces, and responded at the first opportunity. In addition to mobilizing troops for the staff, Archduke Cumberlet told Archduke Nicholas how to deal with the artillery, and ordered the Mayflower Chamber to be sure to drag the Norton forces in the hilly terrain for a month and a half so that the reinforcements could reach the front.

......

The cannon roared, and a thunderous echo was heard among the mountains.

Schward held a telescope and stared closely at the enemy's wall, but unfortunately, except for a burst of dust and smoke, he did not see the wall collapsing. He waved his hand in frustration and gave the order to stop the shelling, and then asked several staff officers beside him, "How much time does Lord Ovikis have to arrive?"

"Lord Schward, the Thunderbolt Battalion is the last one on the itinerary behind the Armed Legion of the Free Alliance, and it will take them at least four or five days to get here. As for Lord Ovikis, we sent a messenger to him yesterday, and we expect to ......be here tomorrow," replied a staff officer, though it wasn't good news.

"Alas, I knew that His Highness had been imprisoning those diehards of the Invincible Armada, or I would have killed them all, and I shouldn't have let them be ransomed......" Schward muttered, and walked down the hill with a few staff officers in a depressed manner.

"Sir, are we no longer shelling?" asked a staff officer.

"Let's save some gunpowder. Schward shook his head helplessly: "You have also seen the effect of the shelling, nearly fifty artillery pieces launched an artillery bombardment together, this Lindsetton mountain city is still standing in front of us, even if there is some damage, it can be repaired in one night, coupled with the dangerous terrain, we are in a position of attacking from the back, and we cannot attack closely." The only way now is to wait for Lord Ovikis to come and see if he can throw the explosive bag into the city with a catapult, blow up the trebuchet and the crossbow of the garrison, and then attack with the infantry. Only then will we be able to capture this mountain city with the fewest casualties......"

"My lord, this is very difficult to do. Another staff officer, who was thinner and thinner, said: "I have calculated the angle and distance, and it is necessary to advance about 150 meters to throw the projectile into the mountain castle catapult. But the trebuchets and crossbows of the defenders in this hill city of Lindsay cover an area of about 300 meters, and we have already paid the price of dozens of casualties to understand this. Moreover, the hill town of Lindsetton is located on a high ground, and the catapults simply cannot throw it this far, except that our artillery can attack from a distance of four hundred meters......"

Schward touched his chin in distress and said, "We have no choice but to wait for the arrival of Lord Ovicis." As you have all seen, the enemy has piled sandbags on the perimeter of this wall of Mount Lindsayton, and our artillery bombarded it with only puffs of dust, and it could not reach the walls at all. This must have been the method offered by the ransomed sailors of the Armada, who had approached our family fleet in flour bags in the hold of the Romané naval battle, and now used it to defend against our artillery.

Our artillery can only bombard up here, and there are at most fifty artillery pieces in this place, and you have seen the effect of the attack in the past two days, the projectiles are all hit on those sandbags, and there is no way to hit the city, except for wasting gunpowder, it is useless, and the soldiers cannot get close to the mountain city, and what they can do now is to find a way to throw the explosive bag into it, and blow the city upside down in order to occupy this mountain city. Why don't you think about any better ideas?"

Several staff officers shut up together, not because they couldn't think of another siege plan, but because the terrain of the hill city of Lindsetton was too dangerous. If they could come up with a dozen siege plans on the plains, but this is a hilly area, with countless valleys and cliffs, and people can make people cry out about the detours. What is interspersed left and right behind the detour or something, there is no need to think about it here, it is basically a delusion of patting the head, and there is no other way than to push it forward horizontally.

Let's talk about the hill town of Lindsetton on the other side, which is actually located on a large stone hill, and now everyone is facing not the castle gate in front, but a side wall. But this side wall blocked the attack of the artillery battalion. The reason is simple, this side wall faces the avenue that leads to the main entrance, which is also the main arterial road leading to the interior of the province of Feltonba. The garrison of the Mayflower Merchants placed a large number of trebuchets and crossbows on and behind the wall, effectively blocking the main road and blocking the advance of the Norton forces.

If you want to figure it out, it's two loaves of bread, one large and one small, with the town of Mount Lindsay on the big bread and a winding avenue on the small bread. The large and small loaves of bread were next to each other, and to reach the hill town of Lindsetton, one had to make a big bend on the avenue from the loaf to the side wall of the hill town to reach the gate of the hill town, and then through the hill town to the rest of Feltemba. And between the small bread and the big bread except for the gate is connected to the other places are the valley deep ravine, just like between the avenue and the side wall of the mountain city is a fifty or sixty meters wide ravine, the mountain city is nearly twenty meters higher than the avenue, condescending, unobstructed.

In other words, if the Norton family forces want to attack the gate of Lindsay Mountain City, they must first pass through the avenue on the small bread, and face the attack of the long-range attack weapons placed on the side wall of the mountain city, and they have no ability to fight back, so they can only be in a beaten position. Moreover, the defenders piled sandbags on the outside of the side walls, effectively resisting the artillery bombardment, which was the first time that the Norton family forces had encountered an artillery attack since they entered Feltonba Province, and the town of Lindsay Town successfully stopped the pace of the Norton family's armed attack.

"This is a guerrilla who is not ready to be a turtle!" said Lorist with a wry smile when the report of Schward's unfavorable attack reached Lorist's hands. It may be impossible for the Business Alliance to have the same weapon of artillery as the Norton family, but after being beaten a lot, they have also learned their lesson and figured out how to deal with artillery attacks. Before the invention of the development bullet and the mastery of curve shooting, the bronze cannon currently equipped by the Norton family armed forces could only be used as a direct siege weapon, and occasionally could be used against the enemy who charged in groups.

Since the invasion of Feltonba, the first resistance taken by the Mayflower Chamber is their high-end combat assault tactics, which are used against artillery battalions, as if they think that as long as they take out those artillery guns, the Norton family forces will lose their offensive ability. However, the Norton family was already on guard, Reddy and the Archswordsman of Hughes each sat in an artillery battalion, and the Mayflower Chamber of Commerce lost two archswordsmen and three golden knights and no longer attacked the artillery battalion station, but carried out guerrilla attacks on the march of the artillery battalion, and left with one blow, so as to reduce casualties.

Ridiculously happened, a great swordsman of the Commercial Alliance led four golden swordsmen to raid an artillery battalion squadron that was resting at noon, killing some of the soldiers and driving away the remaining Norton soldiers, more than a dozen bronze cannons were cut off and turned into waste. At this moment, a golden swordsman opened a large, well-sealed wooden barrel, which contained gray silk packages of the same size, and the packages contained black particles.

"What are these?" said the golden swordsman, and took a torch and stuck it in......

There was a loud "boom", and the bones of the great swordsman and the four golden swordsmen were gone.

The high-end combat power of the business alliance is not a cabbage, and it can grow another wave after cutting a wave. The decisive battle in Bruvia City has already cost most of the high-end combat power of the Business Alliance. Now that the Mayflower Chamber of Commerce has lost three Great Swordsmen again, and eight Golden Swordsmen have broken their bones. The Norton family only lost more than forty artillery pieces and three or four hundred family soldiers, and in terms of quantity, the Mayflower Chamber of Commerce seemed to have earned, but in terms of quality, the Mayflower Chamber of Commerce really lost a lot. Since then, the Mayflower Chamber of Commerce has never played any high-end combat raid tactics again.

For more than 20 days, the Norton family armed destroyed and occupied the castle fortresses deployed by the Mayflower Chamber in the hilly area one by one under the sound of artillery bombardment, until the Mayflower Chamber of Commerce received a letter from the Archduke of Cumberlet, and learned that the sandbags could withstand the artillery attack, which stopped the Norton family forces under the hill city of Lindsayton.

......