rise of empire total war

Chapter 153 The First Battle

"fire!"

boom!
The deafening roar sounded again on the city wall of Port Bell. The entire city wall seemed to be trembling due to the recoil of the artillery fire, but Richard was not worried that the city wall would collapse, because he had people reinforce the city wall before the siege .

call out--

The solid iron ball flew through the air at high speed after being shot from the barrel, with a whistling sound of tearing the air, and then slammed into the crowd, smashing into pieces any coalition soldiers blocking the flight path of the iron ball.

Although the soldiers of the coalition army were disturbed by the new weapons equipped by Richard's army, the two kings still forced them to attack. After the artillery fired, the archers and crossbowmen on the city wall also started shooting. The rain of arrows caused the coalition soldiers to fall down like wheat in autumn, and the corpses soon covered the flat ground leading to the city wall of Bell Harbor.

However, many of them are innocent refugees who have been coerced.

Under the firepower of the defenders, the cries of the refugees who were driven out of the city were loud. Unarmed, they could not resist the soldiers behind them. They were forced to advance against the rain of arrows, and then fell under the attack of the forces they defected to.

Seeing all this, Richard couldn't bear it, but he quickly put away his kindness. He knew that if he didn't act decisively, once he failed in the siege battle, the game of life would almost be over.

Under the siege of the coalition forces, Richard's stronghold on the mainland will gradually fall, especially the cities in the east of the Ravana Kingdom, which have become enclaves. After losing contact with Richard, they can only fight alone, and finally fall. Under the powerful offensive of the coalition forces——Richard didn't think that Governor Maximilian would be able to block the attack of Bundak and Jutian just by relying on some spear militiamen.

So, to avoid that, Richard had to win the siege.

"Archers! Volley!"

On the city wall, the roars of the officers almost resounded through the sky. As soon as their words fell, the defenders' archers subconsciously let go of their thumbs hooked on the bowstrings. The bowstrings that had lost their restraints immediately sent deadly arrows into the sky, slashing across the sky. After crossing an arc, it fell into the crowd precisely, piercing the throat of a running and shouting coalition soldier.

Facing the dense arrow rain from the defenders, the soldiers of the coalition army finally rushed to the bottom of the city wall after paying huge casualties, and erected a ladder on the surface of the city wall. Tactics to siege the city-the so-called ant-attachment is to climb the ladder densely like ants, so as to climb the city wall.

"Hand artillery array!"

Seeing that the coalition soldiers began to climb the city wall, Richard shouted loudly. As soon as he finished his words, groups of soldiers with simple firearms ran to him quickly, holding the hand cannons in their hands, waiting for the enemy to appear. shooting.

"ignition!"

噈——

The fire rope inserted in the tail of the hand cannon began to ignite, and the fire line slowly approached the barrel of the hand cannon. In front of them, the crossbowmen who were originally standing behind the wall and shooting outwards scattered one after another, leaving only a few top guns. A ladder above the city wall.

"Prepare!"

The leading officer shouted loudly, and slowly raised the saber in his hand. The soldiers under his command all stood firm, their eyes fixed on the front, and the noise of the battlefield could not affect them at all.

finally!Under the gaze of the crowd, figures of several coalition soldiers appeared from the ladder in front of the hand artillerymen. They climbed up the city wall without resistance. A soldier with a strange long pipe, and at the end of that strange long pipe, a burnt matchlock is exuding a faint white smoke!
"shooting!"

The officer shouted loudly, and slammed the sword in his hand forward into the void. As soon as he finished speaking, a series of popping bean-like sounds echoed across the entire city wall. open.

And the enemy who climbed up the city wall in front of them had already been pierced with several small bloody holes, and slowly fell down with an expression of disbelief. Under the close-range salvo, no matter how low the accuracy of early firearms The heinous, will hit the enemy!
"Load the ammunition, the crossbowmen keep shooting!"

……

When the sun was setting, the coalition soldiers dropped corpses all over the ground amidst the low sound of horns, and receded sadly like a tide.

The one-day battle exhausted the soldiers on both sides, and the arrows consumed could not be counted. The gunpowder consumed by the firearms troops sent to the battlefield for the first time was also huge.Fortunately, the firearms produced by the system will automatically restore the consumed gunpowder and projectiles in the early hours of the day, without burdening Richard's logistics.

Otherwise, just the gunpowder and projectiles that need to be replenished will be enough to give Richard a headache. After all, he does not have enough ability to provide a large amount of gunpowder and projectiles now.

The casualties on the first day were quickly reported to Richard. With the solid city walls and the systematic army with an average combat quality higher than that of the coalition soldiers, the defenders on the defensive side were still relatively small. In contrast, the top The casualties of the coalition forces who attacked with intensive arrows and shelling by the defenders far exceeded those of the defenders.

In this day's battle, Richard lost more than 200 soldiers, not counting the wounded soldiers, and the casualties of the coalition forces are conservatively estimated to be more than six or seven hundred, which is almost an exchange ratio of one to three—that is, the average To kill one soldier of Richard's army, the coalition army will have to pay the price of three soldiers.

In addition, what made Richard even more dumbfounded was that among the casualties, there were some unlucky ones because of the blasting of firearms. The quality of early firearms was really not flattering. The shooting passed through the bearing range of the hand cannon barrel, so the chamber exploded. The soldiers who were bombed were injured at least, or died on the spot.

But fortunately, the siege artillery that he valued more did not have this situation, otherwise Richard would really feel distressed to death.

Looking at the casualty report submitted by Lieutenant Condela, Richard suddenly remembered something, and asked casually, "How about the casualties of those refugees who were coerced by the enemy?"

"Uh..." Condela obviously didn't expect Richard to ask this suddenly, he was taken aback for a moment, but quickly reacted, and said: "According to the preliminary statistics of the soldiers, there are at least five refugees who died in the siege battle." 600 people."

"Huh?" Richard was taken aback, and then said: "It means that our crossbowmen and artillery shot and killed at least five or six hundred refugees and an unknown number of enemies?"

"I'm afraid this is the case." Condela said: "It is impossible for refugees to join the battle on the city wall."

"..." Richard was silent. He didn't expect that five or six hundred innocent refugees would lose their lives because of one of his orders.

"Your Majesty, actually I have always had a plan." Looking at the silent Richard, Condra suddenly said.

"what?"

"Now that the enemy's main force is besieged outside the city of Bell Port, the defense of Lavana City should be weak. Perhaps we can send the navy to raid Lavana City along the Fabrici River and destroy the enemy's supplies."

(End of this chapter)