After a short time, the guard of honor entered the square.

At the head was a large group of riders, surrounded by two generals in red robes and exaggerated feather crowns. The crowd erupted in cheers, and the riders signaled to the crowd. They came to the square and stood at the bottom of the viewing platform.

"Who is this?" Zhu Wenkui asked.

"My cousin Guo Zhaowen, and Yang Fugui, the leader of the 'Basil's Hammer'." Guo Kang said: "The unit that received the highest merit this time was the 'Basil's Hammer', so the triumph was also based on this unit. As the commanders of the regiment and the war regiment directly under them, they served as the forerunners in the honor guard according to their habits. ”

"It's an interesting name." Zhu Wenkui was curious: "Is there any allusion to this?" ”

"It's a siege group." Guo Kang said: "In most cases, the war group is the armed force of the military government, and it will not be dispatched as a whole when participating in the war. Our habit is called 'people take turns to fight, and the earth turns to rest'. Even if large-scale conscription is required, only individual brigades are usually drawn from local warbands. ”

"However, the war became more and more complicated, but the scale of local warbands was limited. Some branches of the armed forces that require relatively high professional skills are unable to support a large-scale army. The first to encounter this situation was firearms. ”

"From production to use, this thing requires a special process. Moreover, there is a big difference in efficiency between the use of a large number of people and the scattered use of everyone. Therefore, we began to set up special war groups, which were equipped with specialized weapons and conducted special training. ”

"To the northwest of us, near Hungary and Alemanni, there are a large number of fortified fortresses. After discovering that the crusaders could not destroy us, the lords over there tried desperately to prevent us from attacking their hinterland. In order to deal with this situation, we have also prepared a special army to fight-for-tat. ”

"This kind of siege battle group was specially formed by the Dadu Khan's court at its own expense. The engineers and soldiers in the regiment were also selected from the entire khanate. So they are very strong in combat, especially like this time, there are multiple castles that need to be uprooted, and it is not surprising that they have the first credit. ”

Guo Kang was also very proud of this and explained it with great interest. As he spoke, a large group of infantry had already reached the entrance of the street. The officers at the head waved flags and told the soldiers to get in line. The crowd slowed down slightly, and walked into the square in a neat formation.

More and more onlookers watched, and many people followed the procession and crowded into the square from the side of the street. The aristocratic district was facing the side of several buildings in the Niangniang Temple, and some people simply climbed up directly.

The windows on the second floor of the small building opened, and a balding Greek poked his head out, cursing and trying to drive the audience away. However, everyone ignored him completely, and even took out the rope and began to climb like a wall creeper.

The following people also sang:

"Look at that like Frajos,

He chattered like a fly!

Look at that sheep-like Flahos,

He compares and strokes, which makes people disappointed! ”

Seeing that everyone was targeting him, the homeowner hurriedly retracted his head and hid. The crowd erupted in laughter.

"What are you doing over there?" Zhu Wenkui asked curiously.

"That's Master Frajos, Michael Frajos." Guo Kang seemed to recognize the man, and said with a smile: "He is a well-known stingy old guy in the whole city, you will definitely know him in the future." ”

The little farce soon passed, and the heavily armored infantry entered the square amid the expectant gaze of everyone.

The small phalanx at the head was all dressed in thick armor, with a chest plate on the outside, and a big red cloak like the regiment commander on the back. Many of the armor pieces showed signs of damage, and the soldiers proudly displayed the scratches, holes, and smoky black spots.

The crowd gathered around a large flag, which was a simple white cloth with a few strokes on it, and a bucket was drawn on it. The flag was mutilated, and a corner was burned. In the upper part of the center, there are also two holes broken.

"Is this their flag?" Zhu Wenkui asked: "How is that pattern the same as a bucket, and what does it mean?" ”

"That's a bucket indeed." Guo Kang nodded: "This is the first brigade of the 'Basil's Hammer', which is responsible for supervising and managing gunpowder in peacetime. When fighting, they especially liked to dig tunnels and blast the walls directly with piles of powder kegs. That's why everyone else calls them 'keg kids'. ”

"These people are not simple. Nearly half of the soldiers in the regiment are long-term non-commissioned officers. Others rotate like regular warbands. But unlike other warbands, they don't have a military office, which means they don't have a conscription ground. They recruited soldiers from the entire khanate. ”

"This rotation is also to cultivate talents from other units, so that other warbands can also use their experience and technology when needed."

"No wonder the armor is so thick. These are all warriors who ascended first and fell into battle. Zhu Wenkui sighed.

"According to our rules, a castle garrisoned by fifty people is counted as a hundred heads, and if there are armorers in it, it will be counted separately. A large fortress defended by 500 people, and if it is captured, it will be counted as 2,000 heads. This time, they blew up more than 20 large and small fortresses along the way, and most of the battle exploits were taken by this person. Guo Kang smiled and shook his head: "Everyone else is a little unconvinced." I've heard that the legions are also trying to organize their own demolition teams. ”

"And this kind of thing......" Jeanne Jr. was also a little surprised: "I thought that the siege of firearms meant artillery shelling." ”

"The shelling was too slow." Guo Kang shook his head: "The current artillery, the effect is still not good. Moreover, we are attacking the city, and the goal is not the castle itself, but the need to quickly break the blockade of the enemy's fortresses, attack their rear, force the enemy's main forces out and fight us in a decisive battle in the field. ”

"Under this line of thinking, the most important thing is to concentrate a large amount of gunpowder and use it together to quickly destroy the fortress. Small cannons are ineffective, ordinary siege guns are sluggish, and giant siege cannons are almost immobile and can only be cast on the spot. ”

"In comparison, an artillery attack takes a long time to hit with shells. But directly chiseling the foot of the wall and stuffing explosives is much faster. ”

"The ceiling of this approach is also higher." He explained the technical problems: "Even the heavy rammed earth walls of the Central Plains style, the earth mountains where ordinary artillery is helpless, can be destroyed by gunpowder blasting, not to mention the much thinner small castle here." All we need to do is carry lighter ordinary artillery, suppress the soldiers and defenses at the head of the enemy's walls, and then we will dig. ”

"And what if the defenders keep destroying the tunnels?" Jeanne Jr. asked.

"The tunnels used for blasting are not as demanding as the tunnels that allow people to enter the city or dig down the city walls. In places where there is cover, it is possible to excavate directly close to the city wall. Guo Kang said: "Although Western Europeans can also judge the location of the tunnel and intercept it through various techniques, we are not ready to dig through, as long as we dig a hole under the city wall." ”

"If you are still worried that they will accurately judge and then use tunnels to destroy the attack, then you can dig more. This time to storm the fortress, the 'Barrel Boy' and the auxiliary army dug 17 trenches and tunnels at the same time. It is useless for the enemy to use 'ground listening', because there is the sound of digging in all directions, and it will definitely not be able to stop so much. ”

"As a result, before the digging was finished, the mercenaries inside surrendered directly." Guo Kang said with a smile: "Our current difficulty is only the production of gunpowder, and other aspects are actually not a problem. ”

Jeanne was curious, but by this moment the first group had already taken a stand in the square, and another group of soldiers entered.

They were dressed in the same way as the people in front of them, except that they were noticeably more burly. They also wore simple flags painted in black on a white background, with a laurel wreath painted on them.

"This is the second brigade 'Olympia'." Guo Kang took the initiative to introduce: "The pattern on that flag means the winner of the Olympic Games. Because this brigade was first recruited from the winners of the Games. ”

"Huh? Choosing a person for the sports day? Zhu Wenkui still didn't seem to understand: "I heard about the ancient Olympics from the Greek master, but can you still choose people like this?" ”

"They have special requirements." Guo Kang explained: "This team was specially designed to try out the Earthquake Thunder at the beginning. We've found it to be especially useful during sieges and street fighting. ”

"However, if this weapon wants to be powerful, it must be made very large and heavy, and it is difficult for ordinary people to throw too far without training."

At that time, someone remembered that in classical times, there were soldiers in the Roman army who specialized in throwing large stones, and suggested that we should follow suit. And everyone immediately remembered the shot put and discus throwing events in the ancient Olympic Games. So, this method has also been promoted. ”

"In the beginning, the games were only held in the military, but then they were gradually opened up and people from the private sector could participate. According to the rules, as long as you achieve good enough results in the competition, you can join this team. ”

"Therefore, their brigade is actually more exaggerated than the first brigade, except for the non-commissioned officers of other combat regiments who are transferred to train and study, the other soldiers are basically recruits. They basically stopped working in other jobs, but made sports and war their main business. Of course, the premise of this higher treatment is that their selection conditions are much more harsh. It can be said that the team is full of warriors who are ten warriors. ”

"Just looking at this physique, it's amazing." Zhu Wenkui exclaimed.

"yes. Another advantage of their brigade was that it attracted many Greeks to join the army. Guo Kang said: "Many people think they are strong enough, so they compete to aim for it." ”

"Anyway, the Greeks are very fond of this kind of games, and now there are quite a few Greeks who are from above average families and specialize in sports and philosophy. So don't look rude, their average literacy is actually quite high. ”

Of course, this also caused a lot of trouble for the normal soldiers in the team. Some strange Greeks always like to harass them...... I suspect that the 'Olympia' brigade is considered a holy assembly. Guo Kang scratched his head: "This kind of side effect, I feel that there is no way to do it......"

(End of chapter)