One early morning at the end of August, Nanguan Army Fort.
Scattered flames were still burning on the Nanguan Army Fort, and the originally gray sky was illuminated by the firelight with a dazzling scarlet color.
Yesterday afternoon, the Lombards of the second "Northern Expedition" had just built their camp and organized their first storm.
Wardbury probably collected all the kerosene in Lombardy into his own hands, so there were dozens of carriages in his camp loaded with clay pots of kerosene.
In the first attack, Nanguan Army Fort was set on fire with kerosene, and everything that could burn on the castle was ignited.
However, the defenders stationed at Nanguan Fort were not friendly. When the Lombards threw pots of kerosene for free, the defenders who had evacuated the city wall used the trebuchet behind Nanguan to throw kerosene frantically outside the castle.
By nightfall, both the offensive and defensive sides had turned the area within a hundred steps of Nanguan into a hell of red flames.
No one can even think about taking half a step forward...
...
Shankou Military Fort - Panshi Castle's north wall tower, the sleepy sentinels leaned on short spears and stared at the blurry road to the north.
Behind the watchtower wall, a man wearing a brocade robe and a jeweled cowhide belt was accompanied by another young man wearing half plate armor and carrying a fine iron sword at his waist.
"Lord Viscount, it's almost dawn, please go back to the barracks and rest for a while."
The person speaking was the middle-aged man in brocade robes, with a skinny figure and an eye like a mouse. He was the personal advisor and personal assistant to the Viscount Paul Charlemagne, the leader of the Lombard army.
The object of the thin man's dissuasion was Paul Charlemagne, Viscount Paul Charlemagne, the leader of the Lombard army, who was standing in armor and holding a sword. He had just emerged from the shadow of the last war against Burgundy. Under the instruction of the Duke of Lombardy, he represented the court in Wadbury's northern expedition.
Since Wadbury personally directed the frontline attack, and the rear baggage line of the Lombard army in the first northern expedition was often harassed, Paul was appointed to garrison Rock Castle to ensure stability in the rear of the army.
Paul didn't want to go to Nanguanxia to regain painful memories, so he was happy about it.
But Paul looked serious at this time. He ignored his assistant's words and whispered to himself: "No, the atmosphere in the past two days has been too abnormal. The Burgundian army in the north is good at sneak attacks, and our route to the north has been smooth in the past few days. Without any hindrance, those guys who attacked the baggage train suddenly disappeared, which is extremely abnormal. "
"Will they take advantage of the army to move north and attack Rock Castle?" Paul seemed to be talking to himself or asking the advisors around him.
"To attack the castle, we must carry a large number of siege equipment. Can they take those guys through the mountains, forests and valleys? Will our army from the north let them come? Besides, even if the enemy does sneak attack here, it will not be possible to capture it in a day or two. And we have the Earl's rash Northern Expedition force in front of us, and behind us there are 300 cavalry left in the camp outside the mountain. Any counterattack can tear the enemy to pieces."
"The Rock Castle has built a fortified city on dangerous ground, and no one can even think about taking a step forward, so you can rest assured and go to sleep for a while. We have to be energetic. When Earl Ward's army burns down the stone tomb piled by the Burgundians, we have to lead the army north."
Paul Charlemagne also agreed with this view. He once again looked at the calm north. Although he was still a little worried, he turned down and went down the tower.
At this time, at the other end of the direction in which he was looking, an army that had bypassed Rock Castle had appeared in the woods beside the outer road of the mountain pass...
...
One mile south of Rock Castle, at a small sentry post beside the road, Oliver pulled out the dagger inserted in the chest of the enemy sentry soldier, suddenly raised his foot and crushed the sentry's neck, turning the almost lifeless enemy sentry completely into a dead body.
A soldier from the task force came to the door of the sentry post with a bloody dagger and reported to Oliver in a low voice, "Deputy steward, one group of hidden sentries and three open sentries have been killed. Lombardy is so cunning, and he has to have spies behind his back. "
Oliver wiped the blood on the corpse. He put the dagger into the scabbard on his right leg and said, "Send a message to Lord Ron, and then take your people outside the southern mountain pass to support the men guarding the sentry, and ask them to move the sentry farther away."
After a while, a figure emerged from the short tree on the side of the road, headed by Stanley, the deputy commander of the advance company of the South Wales Expedition...
The rapid alarm bells and horns broke through the sweet dream Paul, the garrison commander of Rock Castle, had just entered. With a sudden heart palpitation, he suddenly jumped up from the not-so-soft velvet bed.
With no time to put on his clothes and armor, he waved aside the servants and hurried out of the barracks.
The skinny consultant was walking towards Paul's barracks, carrying his belt.
“What happened?” Paul asked.
"An army of unknown origin appeared outside Rock Castle and headed straight for the fort gate."
"Hurry, send people to reinforce the north wall!"
"Sir Viscount, it's not the north, it's the south!"
When Paul, the garrison commander of Rock Castle, climbed to the top of the south wall, an army of nearly a hundred people had already passed through the morning mist and appeared less than a hundred steps south of Rock Castle.
"Let them stop their advance immediately and report their identity." The army comes from the south and cannot distinguish between friend and foe.
But an army suddenly appeared in the early morning mist, and Paul did not dare to be careless at all, "Archers, prepare!"
However, when a few defenders on the south wall shouted loudly to stop the advance, the team seemed not to be all deaf and did not react at all. It still walked quickly towards the south gate of Rock Castle. Several guys in the team seemed to be carrying some heavy objects.
In the blink of an eye, a hundred silent guys outside the castle had walked along the road and were less than fifty steps away from the south gate of Rock Castle.
“Shoot the arrows! Shoot the arrows!!” Paul decisively ordered to shoot the approaching danger.
There was a crisp sound from the bowstring, and dozens of arrows flew towards the outside of the city wall.
The team outside the city immediately separated into twenty or thirty guys holding small bucklers. They held up their shields to block the front. The team with one person shot continued to move forward without any pause.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!!" Paul shouted loudly, "Let everyone prepare for battle, and prepare to hit the stone with arrows! Let people go to the warehouse to bring up the clay pots of kerosene..."
Paul quickly commanded the garrison sergeants.
At this time, the silently advancing team had reached twenty steps outside the city gate.
It was only then that Paul saw clearly the appearance of the people coming. They were all light-armored infantrymen, most of whom were wearing leather armor or half-mail mail. They also had swords, axes, hammers and other short weapons in their hands. Only a few of them held crossbows.
Without flags, the heraldic patterns on clothes and armor cannot be seen, and one cannot distinguish between friend and foe.
Paul was a little confused and used swords, axes and hammers to attack the strongholds? Where did this lunatic come from?
But before Paul could think about it, the guys in the team below the city lifted a cylindrical hammer-like weight and rushed towards the south gate of Rock Castle under the cover of shields.
Jack's heartbeat has never been so violent. Although it is not hot in the early morning, the sweat on his forehead is dripping down. The city-breaking cannon he carried in his right hand weighed hundreds of pounds, but he didn't feel much of it because the sound of arrows hitting the shields held by the soldiers beside him was so harsh.
Although Jack is an officer, this is his first time on the battlefield in person. The horror of facing the rain of arrows has completely boiled their blood, and an uncontrollable excitement in his body made him quicken his pace.
Faced with the constant rain of arrows from the enemy, fifteen soldiers holding shields covered four people from the weapons research room carrying a bronze cannon and arrived at the south gate of Rock Castle.
This is indeed an artillery piece, a variant of it.
After Ater failed to develop muskets, he turned most of his energy to developing throwing firearms that were also extremely destructive. However, the weapons research room and weapons workshop were also developing cannons, which were slightly less difficult than muskets.
The first thing to be developed was the bronze cannon, because copper is more plastic than iron and is less likely to explode. However, the Province of Wales has limited financial and material resources, and it is impossible to manufacture artillery in large quantities. If the quantity of this kind of thing is too small, it will be difficult to function, so it is not installed as a killing weapon.
But this artillery was specially cast for the Welsh Army's southern expedition. It was about two feet long, with a short and thick barrel, a smooth bore, front-loading ammunition, and a spherical solid lead bullet. Its range is very short, but its projectiles are very powerful, and it is designed to destroy strong fortifications.
After the city-breaking cannon was safely transported to the fort gate, Jack immediately directed his men to take off the small shovels from their waists and start digging holes for the security artillery.
Above the fort gate, a confused Paul ordered the soldiers to keep shooting arrows and throwing stones at the city gate, while under the cover of shields, he occasionally stretched out the crenels curiously to take a look at the strange enemies at the city gate below.
"Hurry, send another group of soldiers to the doorway, be careful of the enemy breaking in." Paul couldn't see clearly what the guys under the cover of the shield were doing, but his intuition told him that the strange thing was related to breaking down the city gate.
“You guys, hurry up and get some fire oil cans from the warehouse and burn those bastards to death!”
…
In the doorway, Jack and the others, sweating profusely, quickly dug a sloping pit.
Putting the gun body into the inclined pit, Jack climbed on the ground and repeatedly adjusted the position of the gun muzzle to ensure that the gun muzzle was facing the door bolt of the military fort door.
After burying the cannon and aiming it at the muzzle, Jack took out several long wires from his arms, pulled out one, and inserted it through the small hole in the bottom of the cannon. The propellant and projectiles had already been transferred into the barrel.
With everything ready, Jack pushed the soil aside into the inclined pit, lightly used the soil to tighten the gun body, then took the tinder handed over by his men and connected the fuse.
"Withdraw! Withdraw! Withdraw!!" Jack shouted as he retreated out of the door...
At the crenel above the fort gate, Paul, who was very nervous at first, was suddenly confused. A dozen enemy soldiers had been struggling in the gate hole for a long time with a battering ram, and now they suddenly retreated without doing anything.
He really couldn't figure out what the enemy wanted to do.
“What does it smell like?” Paul smelled a pungent smell.
The skinny man next to him also put his nose together and inhaled sharply, "There seems to be a strange smell."
Out of curiosity, the skinny man supported the wall sign with both hands, stretched his head out of the crenellation, and glanced into the doorway.
At that moment, a violent explosion resounded through the mountain pass, and the south gate of Rock Castle filled the sky with dirt and dust.
Everyone was in shock, whether it was the Lombards in the Rock Castle or the ordinary soldiers of the advance company waiting outside the south of the city...
One hundred and fifty steps south of the Rock Castle, the commander of the advance company, Ron, stood on the boulder beside the road and looked at the fort gate.
As the smoke gradually dissipated, a large hole in the southern city of Panshi Castle emerged from the city-breaking cannon.
It may not be as thick as the North Gate, but no matter what, I would never have thought that a fifteen-pound ball would actually break it into pieces.
"What are you doing standing still! All attack!" Ron pulled out the broadsword at his waist and led the charge towards the broken south gate of Rock Castle.