Chapter 421: Trenches and Earthen Walls

"Onward!" a squadron leader of the White Lion Legion roared with his sword drawn, directing his men to rush forward with shield carts and sandbags full of dirt on their shoulders. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The White Lion Legion under the command of His Royal Highness has been attacking the defensive front of Forward Province for six days and five nights, but it is a pity that the White Lion Legion has injured nearly 10,000 people, and it still has not broken a hole in this defensive front. This is not to say that the Second Highness is not in good command, but the three existing principalities in the central part realized that this defensive front was related to their life and death, and even though the casualties they paid in these three days and four nights of defensive battle had exceeded that of the attacking White Lion Legion by two or three times, they still held on......

The rumbling war drums kept echoing on the battlefield for several miles, and the soldiers of the White Lion Legion pushed the huge shield cart to the edge of the trench in front of them with great difficulty, blocking the crossbow arrows fired from the defensive line, and the soldiers carrying sandbags threw the sandbags into the trench under the cover of the shield cart and turned around and ran back. Soon a section of the trench in front of it was filled in, and several white lion soldiers dragging planks rushed to the shield cart and put the planks on the ground, and the trench was breached.

In the process, only four soldiers were hit by cold arrows, one dead and three wounded, they were all dragged down for treatment, the dead soldier had already died, he was unfortunately hit by a crossbow arrow head-on, shot from the left eye, the arrow went deep into the brain, the only thing that can be congratulated is that he died without pain, almost died on the spot.

A trench was filled, and not a single soldier had a happy smile on his face, only endless exhaustion and numbness. Because in front of this filled trench, there are still countless trenches to break through, and looking into the distance, there are all dense trenches, which are the defensive positions arranged in the province of Forevotechnetium, and it is also the reason why His Royal Highness commanded the White Lion Legion to attack for six days and five nights, and only advanced three or four miles.

"I suspect that trenches were being dug behind this defensive position while we were attacking. Duke Kenmasse, who was watching the battle, said to Lorlist.

This is an outcome that no one expected. After capturing the Duchy of Sabaji, Lorist rested the forces of the four alliances of the Northlands and the two legions of the Fisabrun family in the province of Zixes, waiting for the arrival of the Second Highness. Unexpectedly, in the past month or so, the Duchy of Forrendo had arranged this defensive line in front of it like this, digging countless trenches and connecting them into an endless net, so that after launching an attack, His Royal Highness realized that it would be so difficult to break through a hole in this defensive front.

It is easy to break the line and difficult to break the net, this is a clear thing. Lorist had heard a saying in his previous life that war was the best way to learn. This defensive position in front of us is a good proof of this. In the history of the Gelinthian War, there has never been such a defensive position and method of defense. Basically all defensive battles are fought using castle fortresses. When the troops are weak, even if they set up a defensive position, it is only a matter of digging one or two trenches, building an earthen wall, and rationally using long-range shooting weapons to kill and injure the attacking enemy.

However, when the Norton family's catapults and chariot steel crossbows were born, not only did the castle fortress become a target, but the usual defensive positions could not withstand the catapult attack at all. This is illustrated by the fact that the Flying Tiger Legion swept through the Kingdom of Antinac and helped His Royal Highness regain the throne.

In the offensive and defensive battle of the southern province three years ago, Lorist used a combination of trenches and arrow towers to perfectly restrain the light cavalry tactics of the Fisabrun family, and used catapults to crush the attack of 70,000 elite infantry of the four central principalities in the field battle, and achieved a great victory, suppressing the Fisabrun family back to the Eastern Wilderness Province.

But he didn't expect that the offensive and defensive battle would bring such a big change to the four principalities in the central region, the Second Highness originally thought that with the strong combat effectiveness of the White Lion Legion and the fifty catapults knocked out from Lorlist's hands, he could easily tear a hole in the defensive line composed of several trenches and earthen walls in front, but what he didn't expect was that behind these ditches and earthen walls were still endless ditches and low earthen walls, and everyone was about to collapse after discovering this result, what kind of battle was this fighting......

On the first day of the attack, the front was only a thousand garrisons, and they collapsed when fifty boulders the size of a human head bombarded the position, firing only a few dozen crossbow arrows before running away without a trace. The White Lions filled fourteen trenches in one day and broke twenty-one earthen walls, and the front was flat. Of course, the results were zero, because the enemy fled.

The next day, the attack continued, but after advancing 200 meters, it was discovered that there was another trench and earthen wall in front of it. This time the garrison was much braver, they resisted for a long time under the bombardment of catapults, and with the cover of trenches and earthen walls, they inflicted dozens of casualties on the White Lion Legion with crossbow arrows, and they also paid more than 200 casualties themselves.

It took the White Lion Legion two days to fill in a few passages in this trench area, and continued to attack, and after two or three hundred meters of flat land, dozens of ditches and earthen walls were in front of it. Everyone is angry, what does this mean, the garrison is only a few thousand people, and the resistance is not very fierce, that is, the attacker keeps filling the ditch, and the defender keeps digging the ditch, what kind of battle is this?

His Royal Highness finally couldn't hold his breath anymore, and gave an order that he regretted, asking the soldiers of the White Lion Legion to stop pushing the shield cart to fill the ditch, and just bring the wooden planks up to build a bridge over the trench to pass. So the White Lion Legion sent out a sword and shield regiment to attack forward, and in the face of this trench area guarded by a thousand men, they quickly swept away the enemy and continued to move forward.

It's just that this trench area is particularly vast, and when the back of this Sword and Shield Corps soldier disappeared in front of everyone's eyes, the sound of shouting and fighting suddenly came from afar. His Royal Highness was as anxious as ants in an iron pot, because there were trenches everywhere, and the cavalry could not come forward to support at all. His Royal Highness had no choice but to send someone to investigate, but what he didn't expect was that the few people sent were soon killed by the cold arrows shot from the trench. Although there were many people who could support, no one could come back to report the news, except for the louder killing noise from afar.

Everyone present was shrewd, and now the situation is clearly a trick. But the problem is that in addition to the remaining three corps of the White Lion Legion, there are two heavy corps of the Kenmath family and two light infantry corps under the command of Count Shaheen, with nearly 90,000 troops. Although the total strength of the attack on the four central principalities was as high as 300,000, most of them were cavalry. Faced with this battlefield full of trenches and earthen walls, Lorist and the others looked at each other, and they couldn't let the cavalry dismount as infantry to go for reinforcements.

The problem was that the sword and shield corps of the White Lion Legion in front of him attacked too fast and fiercely, and ran directly into a distance that could not be seen by the naked eye. His Royal Highness didn't expect such a situation to happen, and he couldn't grasp the situation of the battlefield, so it can be said that he has already lost half of it. Now he had to make up his mind whether to give full support or not to throw all the infantry in his hands into the battlefield.

This determination is very difficult to make, the Grand Duke of Forrendo has been attacking here for several days, and he already knows that His Royal Highness is going to break through here, and this defensive line is a total of nearly 200,000 troops of five legions in garrison, all according to the situation of the previous few days, the Grand Duke of Forrendo can completely mobilize his troops and wait in front of him. The attacking sword and shield corps is likely to crash into the trap and be surrounded, and then you can use this surrounded sword and shield corps to lure the Second Highness into reinforcements, so as to fight more and annihilate the 100,000 infantry under the command of the Second Highness, and then the cavalry left behind can only look at this defensive line in a daze.

His Royal Highness and Lorist discussed with them for a long time, and finally decided to send all the heavy armor corps to reinforce them, and the most important thing was to find out the situation in front and what was going on. As a result, when they were about to send out troops, the sword and shield corps withdrew, and their situation was a little miserable, less than 3,000 of the 10,000 people went up and came back, and their corps commander and four captains all died on the battlefield, and among the more than 2,000 soldiers who came back, the highest position was two squadron leaders, one was seriously injured and one was slightly injured, and almost all of the soldiers were injured.

The attack was too smooth, after crushing the resistance of the thousand-man garrison, in the next attack, most of the garrisons encountered by this sword and shield corps were thousand-person garrisons, and they could not resist the assault of this sword and shield corps, and the garrison of a team was wiped out, and the attacking sword and shield corps was full of spirit, bravely forward, and unconsciously rushed forward for more than two miles, and then found that in front of them were three well-equipped elite infantry regiments of the three principalities waiting for their arrival.

This time, the Sword and Shield Corps found that they were already at the end of their crossbows, and they were almost hit hard by the three elite infantry corps of the three central principalities, and suffered heavy losses, but fortunately, at this time, the trenches and earthen walls everywhere became a barrier for their resistance, and they retreated while resisting under the command of the corps commander.

But what they didn't expect was that the trenches and earthen walls everywhere were not just for defense, and another infantry regiment of the Duchy of Volendor quickly moved to their rear along these trenches under the cover of the earthen walls, blocking their retreat. The Sword and Shield Corps, which insisted on resisting, collapsed as soon as they saw that the rear road was surrounded. The corps commander and several captains fought hard to finally fight their way and let the soldiers flee back, but they were trapped by the swarming enemy. Soon after, the cheers of the enemy were heard, and then several heads were raised high by the enemy, and the remaining soldiers gave up their intention to rescue and retreated......

This defeat was like a big slap on the face of the Second Highness, and the Second Highness, who originally thought that it would be easy to overcome this defensive line, came to his senses and asked everyone for a plan, but there was nothing good for anyone to do. Whether it is the battle-hardened Grand Duke of Fisabrun or the nimble Lorist, there will be no idea, and no one can say how to attack.

In fact, Lorist's shock is even greater, no one is a fool, this defensive line of the four central principalities is almost a trench war. According to a secret report sent by the family intelligence investigator hiding in the city of Pedro in the Duchy of Forendo in the city of Pedro in the province of Forendo, the Grand Duke of Forendor mobilized almost all the people of the duchy to dig countless trenches and build countless earthen walls in the distance of nearly 100 miles from the defense line of the province of Forward to the city of Pedro in the province of Perorina. Even three intelligence investigators were sent to dig trenches for more than 20 days, so late that the informants were delivered......

Hell, isn't it, Lorist scolded hatefully, it is obvious that the defensive positions composed of these trenches and earthen walls are to deal with the Norton family's armed chariot steel crossbow and catapult, these two long-range attack weapons have been abolished, there is no defense to protrude from the ground, so that the long-range weapon has no target to fire, and if the catapult wants to smash, just smash those earthen walls and trenches. The garrison has turned into ground rats scurrying around in the trenches, and if the attackers are impatient to fill in the trenches and bulldoze the earthen walls, it is easy to rush in lightly, and the result waiting for you will be the same as the sword and shield regiment of the White Lion Legion.

His Royal Highness was also well aware of this, and in the next three days, he could only fill in the trenches one by one step and open a passage for attack. But what I didn't expect was that the trench that was filled during the day was re-dug by the enemy's garrison at night, and the next day the soldiers of the White Lion Legion saw that they were going to be re-filled, and their morale dropped greatly. At this time, the enemy's garrison was also active, firing crossbow arrows from time to time in the trenches, bringing many casualties to the White Lion Legion.

The Andinac kingdom, which was now on the offensive, was caught in a dilemma, burying it during the day and digging it up at night, sending troops to garrison it, and being harassed and attacked endlessly at night, as a result of which it suffered more damage in one night than during the day. Sending troops to hunt but falling into traps, it is easy to lose direction or be lured into an ambush in the trenches, and suffer heavy casualties. In this way, the attack lasted for five days and four nights, and only advanced less than two miles, and everyone was desperate.

"What kind of battle is this, I'd rather have a decisive battle with all the armed forces of the three central principalities, even if the enemy has ten times more troops than us. But what is it to deal with trenches and earthen walls every day, even the soldiers are scolding, and their morale is declining very quickly. The Second Highness complained to Lorlist.

Lorist gave the Second Highness the final blow, and he took out the spy report from Pedro City and handed it to the Second Highness. The Second Highness took it suspiciously, and when he saw that the distance of a hundred miles long as mentioned in the secret report was full of trenches and earthen walls, the whole person was stupid. After being stunned for a long time, His Royal Highness jumped up, looking excited: "Is Grand Duke of Forundo crazy? He has dug trenches all over the entire principality, does he still want to farm and harvest grain......

However, the Second Highness immediately understood, if he didn't do this, the Grand Duke of Forrendo would not be able to stop the cavalry assault on his side at all, and dug half of the Duchy's ground, covered with trenches and earthen walls, at least dragged the offensive force on his side, and he still had half of the Duchy's land to farm, and if the grain harvest was not enough, he could go to the Duchy of Handla to buy and borrow on credit. If the front line can't be stopped, the Duchy of Forrendo will not need to think about food without him. Maybe he won't even be able to save his life if he falls into the hands of the Second Highness, and everyone knows that the Second Highness hates them the most now.

"Blow the trumpet, gather the troops and return to the camp. The Second Highness hung his head and ordered to the guards beside him, now there is no need to do any useless work. He shuddered at the thought that there were hundreds of miles of trenches and earthen walls waiting for him to fill and bulldoze them, and it seemed that he had to think of another way to attack the three principalities.

Post-war statistics show that in order to resist the advance of the Andinac Kingdom, the Grand Duke of Forrendo mobilized nearly a million people throughout the Principality, and spent more than three months digging 431 trenches, two to three meters deep, in a distance of 83 miles from the province of Forward to the capital of the province of Perorina, and the ditches were connected. More than 1,000 earthen walls with a height of no more than one meter to one meter and a half were built with the excavated soil, and a moat that was easy to attack and difficult to defend was built on the flat ground. It is known as a miracle in the history of warfare, and is included in the wonders of war in the history of the war of the continent of Gelintia.

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