rise of empire total war

Chapter 474

thump -- thump -- thump --

After the melodious class bell rang, the noisy classroom quickly became quiet. Under the gaze of students in uniform, a middle-aged man in military uniform stepped into the classroom and stood on the podium in a few steps In the morning, with a serious expression, he scanned every student in this huge classroom, and all the students he scanned would sit upright and dare not make unnecessary movements.

"Students, it is a great honor to stand on this podium again and give you a valuable lesson."

As soon as the middle-aged teacher finished speaking, a student at the bottom bravely raised his hand. After being signaled, he stood up and said, "Mr. Aleman, the frontline battle is still going on, and new battle reports are sent to the rear every day." , The Second Army breached the Oliwa Kingdom's border defenses a few days ago, what do you think will be the next move of the Second Army commander, General Mathias?"

"Heh~" Teacher Aleman chuckled, and said, "Xinia's question is very good, so let's talk about tactics in this class."

"After the second army breaks through Oliwa's border defense line, if we follow our army's consistent combat style, it will definitely avoid the defense zone of Oliwa's army and go straight to its king's capital Olivania. But..." he said At this point, he paused for a while, and then changed the topic, saying: "Our enemy must know our army's tactical style well, so they will deploy heavy troops around the capital, waiting for the second army to fall into the trap."

"Won't the Second Army fall into the enemy's trap?" A student asked in surprise.

"On the contrary." Instructor Aleman shook his head and said, "As far as I know General Mathias Horn, he will not be so reckless. By the way, you know the difference between our enemy and us. Is there a difference?" he asked.

"What?" the students asked in confusion.

"The military system of our kingdom is a legion system, which is also a mercenary system. There will be a large number of soldiers serving in peacetime. Once a war breaks out, they can go directly to the front line. But our enemies are different. Take the Oliwa Kingdom as an example. Their The standing army is only the private soldiers of the royal family and various nobles. Once a war starts, soldiers must be mobilized among the civilians. This kind of conscripts is time-sensitive. Once the autumn harvest or spring plowing season comes, these conscripts will disperse on their own. "

After he finished speaking, he asked some students to show a look of sudden realization. One of them raised his hand and stood up after being signaled, and replied: "It is now September, and it is the time for the Oliwa people to harvest. Their soldiers They must have dispersed on their own and went home to harvest their crops. So this gave our army the opportunity to attack when the enemy's strength was at its weakest."

"That's right." The instructor nodded appreciatively, and said, "So I guess General Mathias Horn will not be so eager to launch an attack, but wait for most of the soldiers in Oliva's army to disperse before attacking." Launch an attack so that you can gain the greatest victory with the least loss."

And the fact is just as Teacher Aleman guessed, Matthias Horn considered that it was the autumn harvest time, so he slowed down his advance after entering the territory of Oliwa, and at the same time sent a large number of scout cavalry to scout Oliwa's army Case.The news came back quickly, and in just a few days, he got information about Oliva's army.

Sure enough, during the harvest season, a large number of conscripts left the army according to the tradition and returned to their hometowns together. The mature crops waiting to be harvested at home were the source of their taxes and the living food for the whole year. Even if they were in a state of war, they could not let them give up. crops, and the nobles didn't have enough reason to stop them, so they could only watch more and more soldiers leave.

After Oliva's army was almost dispersed, Mathias' second army continued to advance, which forced the remaining troops of Oliva's army to concentrate in the capital, while outside, every town could only Relying on the town's own town militia for protection, fortunately, the Winster coalition forces have no thoughts on the towns along the way. Their attention is all on Olivia. As long as the king's capital is broken, the Oliwa Kingdom will basically be abolished.

While the nobles of Oliva were waiting in panic, on September 1125, 9 in the continental calendar, the Winster coalition troops approached the city and surrounded Olivania. In addition to the standing army of soldiers, the only ones still sticking to their posts are greedy barbarian mercenaries who only care about money.

Although Olivania is the capital of the kingdom, its scale is not too large. A permanent population of [-] is the limit. Because there have been no wars all year round, and the city walls have not been repaired, many sections of the city walls have collapsed slightly. , The surface of the city wall is covered with ivy, showing a strong sense of historical obsolescence.

Because the city was built hundreds of years ago and lacks underground drainage pipes, the citizens' filth was poured in a small ditch in front of their homes at will, and finally flowed into the moat outside the city wall (the black water flowing in the moat) Unidentified objects, full of bad smell), but the ditch is often blocked, so the streets are often flooded with water, a lot of sewage flows on the streets, walking in it is like being in a smelly The ditch is general and the stench is unbearable.

It is such a city that makes the second army unable to attack the city at once. The whole city is surrounded by moats and the only way to get in and out is the high-hanging suspension bridge, unless the suspension bridge is lowered or filled. The moat, otherwise the besieging army would not be able to cross the not-so-wide sewage river.

Of course, if you build a lot of wooden planks and lay them on both sides of the moat, you can also try to rush along the planks, but this will definitely be exposed to the shooting range of the defenders. Laying the planks will be threatened by the defenders' firepower, and crossing the river will also be blocked. Threats are bound to result in massive losses.

Looking at the Olivanian city wall that was almost a green wall, Mathias fell into deep thought, but from the corner of his eye he caught sight of the slaves on the artillery position who were dragging the cannon into the emplacement, and suddenly had an idea , the not-so-high city wall is obviously unable to block the bombardment of the artillery. Since the suspension bridge cannot be lowered and attacked along the city gate, why not just blow down the city wall, and then build a new wooden bridge on the moat, directly along the city gate? What about the breach in the city wall?
This is not whimsical, maybe it was an omission in the original design. There is an open space one or two meters away from the back of the moat to the city wall, where weeds are overgrown, just giving space for a new wooden bridge.

As for the candidates to go and lay the wooden bridge, aren't the large number of slaves accompanying the army the best cannon fodder candidates?

(End of this chapter)