"Tsk......" William smacked his lips, originally he had wanted to use the battery to support the Polotsk gunboat. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info But after calculating the distance and estimating the accuracy of the artillery of this era, he gave up on this plan.

The Vistula River is too narrow and the two sides are too close. Now with artillery bombardment, the probability of hitting the Polotsk gunboat is basically the same as the probability of hitting the shore artillery group. William didn't want to gamble on luck. And that's pointless.

"That's pretty much it. "William did not convey the order to "retreat" to the river fleet for the second time. Because judging by the mentality of these Polotsks, this order to retreat is likely to be misinterpreted by them as humiliation, and then crashed headlong on the beach of the Vistula River.

Although this group of idiots made William feel very uncomfortable, in the next battle, William still had to rely on the power of these bastards. Without this river fleet, the next battle would not be easy. So......

"Let them make trouble. William thought to himself, and then he noticed something terrible - some Slavian soldiers wearing heavy asbestos gloves under the command of the Dark Elf gunners loaded the chamber of the cannons with lead bullets that had been roasted red red on a charcoal stove - arson?!

"Have the dark elves learned how to use this weapon as well?" William thought to himself, "It's better than a professional incendiary bomb, but it's enough to deal with these boats." ”

William thought to himself. Then his thoughts followed the roar of this round of artillery, and he put it on the river fleet.

Dozen, or more, more light guns were aimed at the gunboat at the front of the river fleet - seven hits, three of which hit the sail, set the soft canvas on fire in an instant. Two more arson shells pierced the gunboat's side. Although William could not hear it. But he could imagine that a fire had probably already broken out in the cabin - and two other arson bombs had hit the deck. One of them ignited a broken plank and a length of cable. The other smashed directly into the body of one of the unlucky ghosts, smashing half of the unlucky ghost's body into meat sauce and emitting the smell of burnt meat.

"Fight the fire, quick, put out the fire! Stand back!!Signal, we've been shot!" the captain of the gunboat shouted in frustration. The gunboats immediately stopped shelling. The sailors either manipulated the sails and paddled the oars with the intention of escaping. Or holding a bucket of water, desperately pouring water on all the burning places.

But it's too late.

"Keep attacking. "Inside the artillery group on the shore, the Dark Elf artillerymen were busy—and soon, more infantry guns loaded with arsonite shells were aimed at the wounded ship.

After the second round of shelling, on the wounded gunboat, the fire was already irreparably large. The surviving sailors jumped into the water to escape - but by this moment, the fire and heat had boiled the water around the ship - the surviving sailors were scalded immediately after launching - some of the experienced or ruthless people completely ignored their own pain, desperately moved forward, and finally escaped with their lives, while many more who were not so strong and not so ruthless exclaimed at the first moment of launch, and then struggled, and then couldn't help but let the boiling water pour into their mouths, and even their throats, and even their trachea.

They didn't struggle for long......

After this, the Dark Elves' artillerymen began to concoct other Polotsk gunboats in the same way.

After two more gunboats were hit by a large number of arson shells, burning, adding spice to the Vistula's human broth, George finally couldn't hold it anymore and gave the order to retreat.

The river flotilla in Polotsk came with a bang and returned with a defeat. In total, three armed gunboats were lost, and another seven or eight gunboats received varying degrees of damage. And the results of the river flotilla ...... It's hard to count. Perhaps, as they claimed to be, they blasted out dozens of each other's cannons, causing heavy losses to the centaurs. Or as William thought, they were just talking big, when in fact they only destroyed a dozen light cannons and killed dozens of Dark Elves and Slavites.

However, in both the former and the latter, their gains were far less than their losses.

Neither upstream nor downstream of the Vistula could provide them with the docks, tools, and personnel they needed to repair their warships. Even in Circassburg.

William's planned river fleet and meddling in trade on the Vistula route were ultimately defeated by the combined efforts of Polotsk merchants. No one was willing to sell him enough ships, and no one was willing to recruit enough sailors and captains for him. Shipbuilders and workers.

They joined forces to exclude Wilhelm from the trade of the Vistula, the Polotsk Sea and the North Sea - but in other words, they didn't want everyone, especially the nobility, to join in. William wasn't alone.

They even signed a series of highly exclusive trade contracts with the other free cities of the empire, small commercial city-states. These contracts, covenants, and cooperation eventually led to the formation of the North Sea-Polotsk Sea Business Alliance.

The Hanseatic League completed its monopoly on trade in the Great Trade Circle. and became a powerful commercial force in the empire that was by no means inferior to the Lombards in the south. Although this alliance has faced many challenges in recent times, it still stands. And this is the first and biggest challenge that William needs to face if he wants to expand his territory externally.

"So, something suddenly occurred to me. At this time, William looked at Charlumie. Then he said, "You say that Mazovia is not the only one across the river from the Tartarians, isn't it?"

"What do you think?" asked Charimi.

Of course, William could not tell Charlumi what he had in mind - a series of things about the Maginot Line, the Netherlands, and the Blitzkrieg - yes, the Maginot Line of the French was very strong, and rightfully so, very effective.

However, for any line of defense to work, there must be a premise, and that is that there is an enemy to attack him. Unfortunately, Maginow, arguably the strongest line of defense in the rapid-fire rifle era, did not have this good luck.

The Germans bypassed the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Entering the heart of France from the side - and of course, there was a bit of a problem with the Dutch and French diplomacy - the Dutch protested against the French extension of the Maginot Line to the coast. This gives the Netherlands a feeling of being "locked out". And before World War II, the Netherlands still had a certain amount of power in Europe. France also had to take into account the attitude of the Netherlands.

So if the Maginot Line had been extended to the coast, World War II would definitely look better. If anyone writes about modern wars, they can use this if as a script.

Of course, this did not matter, but what mattered was that William had one thing in mind - that is, his two fortresses, and the river fleet, had indeed defended all of Mazovia. In the north, Polotsk is in danger of becoming the Netherlands and Belgium in the Second Great Border War.

"But it seems that Sarida Khan does not have the brains of General Heinz Wilhelm Guderian. Well...... Because the concept is different. So I didn't think of that? But I can't be careless. Because the river flotilla has appeared on the Vistula, there should be a war between Polotsk and the Tartarya Khanate...... Or is it that the human world and the Tartarya Khanate have always been at war? Well, after all, the two sides have never signed any written peace treaty. ”

In this way, after William said: "Say hello to the Polotsk side and ask them to pay attention to the river." Although not too likely. However, if a small number of Tartar centaurs were smuggled in from the lower reaches of the Slavites, it would be a nuisance. ”

At the same time as William said this, the river flotilla had already retreated. Only the corpses that littered the river were left, and the fragments of the warships had been left.

After the attack of the river flotilla was repulsed, the Slavians of the Tartarian army cheered for a while - in the eyes of these simple, primitive people who had not seen much of the world, the defeat of the river fleet was a very good thing to celebrate.

Soon, however, they began to work amidst the whips and scolding. Because in the eyes of the centaurs and the dark elves, it is a matter of course to win by attacking such an amateur fleet with coastal artillery swarms. It's strange to lose.

In this way, the Slavi laborers began to work - with the defeat of the river flotilla and the sinking of three gunboats. Their workload has increased considerably. In addition to the construction of the pontoon bridge that has been done before, it is also necessary to pay attention to these floating objects and floating corpses that go down the river, so as to prevent these things from clogging the pontoon bridge or even breaking the bridge deck.

"At this rate, the other side will have two or three days to erect a few pontoon bridges on the river...... This build speed. Even if the pontoon bridge is burned with an arson raft, I am afraid it will not have much effect...... Hmm......" William thought to himself. Look at the Slavians at work in full swing across from them.

"That is, in two or three days, the other side will launch an attack on the fortress. William continued, muttering to himself.

After he finished speaking, there was no sound around. Even Xia Lumi was so confused by his judgment that she didn't know what to say.

The air at the head of the city became very, very dull for a while.

"We're going to win, aren't we, William?" said Charlumie after that.

So, William gave him an affirmative answer: "Well, yes, we will win." You don't have to doubt that, Charlumie. ”