The Last Frontier of Fire and Sword

On March 20th, Cheer Chen led a force of more than 3,500 men to Konotup.

This force includes the aforementioned Bratslav force and the five hundred chief guards provided by Vygowski. They also carried six artillery pieces.

As soon as he arrived in Konotop, Chechen met with Hevadki, the highest military and chief executive officer of Konotop, the Cossack company commander.

Hewadki is not young, he is an old Cossack. There is a lock of gray hair on top of his head, his eyes are sunken, and his skin is like paper that has been rubbed countless times. His eyes were chaotic, making people feel drowsy at first glance.

Seeing this look like company Captain Hevadki, Cheerchen couldn't help but shook his head secretly. Fortunately, Vygowski did not have the luxury of sending himself over by guarding Konotop through such an elderly man, otherwise Konotop might fall in one day.

For Chechen's arrival, Hwadji showed his due respect. Subsequently, the two commanders and their officers inspected the Konotop city and the fortifications.

Konotop is mainly composed of two parts. The first is a residential area, where there are about 500 civilians living here, most of them are family members of the army and nearby farmers, and a small part are craftsmen, all kinds of craftsmen, they rely on serving the military area to survive; the second is The military zone, the main body is a star-shaped fortress-the Cossacks simply named it Konotop Fort.

Cheerchen and his companions, who had rich combat experience, immediately and accurately realized the strategic significance of this small fortress.

Konotop Fort is the key to the entire defense. Once the army of Tsarist Russia attacked here, Konotop Fort would be the only fortification that could stop the enemy. Only by making every effort to guard Konotop for as long as possible can the enemy be held back and Vygowski can assemble strong enough reinforcements.

"Victory or defeat depends on this." Cheerchen said as he patted the parapet of Fort Konotup.

Hewadji was not surprised that Cheerchen could see this. He said: "This Konotop Fort was built by the Poles in those years when French engineers were invited. After I was stationed here, I did not make any changes to the Lengbao. I only deepened and widened the trenches, and then stored more. Materials. Because I'm a big boss, I only know how to ride horses and hack and slash, and I'm not good at building fortifications."

"No, Captain Hevadki, what you have done is good enough." Cheerchen praised.

Cheerchen hopes that through such praise and affirmation, the old brothersack can rekindle his fighting spirit. Because in the coming brutal war, every force is precious.

Then, he patrolled the entire bastion under the leadership of Captain Hevadki. Soon, Cheechen discovered a weakness of Konotup Castle-the northern side of the bastion was very fragile.

The construction level of this section of the city wall is not high, and there is no suitable breast wall.

"If I were Prince Alexei, I would definitely put the main attack direction here. Because I can easily break through here." Yelishei said to Chechen and Hevadki.

"Not bad." Cheer Chen nodded.

Upon hearing what Yelishei and Chechen said, Dimosev and Jamid Popovich asked how to remedy it.

Chechen's suggestion is to build a flank fort as soon as possible-in the terminology of city defense engineers, this is called a "triangular fort". It is a triangular outer fortress used to protect that section of the city wall.

"Damn it!"

At this time, Hwadji repented, "I think the bastions built by foreigners, especially the French, should always be perfect."

"Captain Hevadki, obviously the French engineer who built Konotop Fort cut corners in the end," Chechen said.

Perhaps the French engineer who did not know his name could not be blamed. Because of the terrible finances of the Republic of Poland, it is likely that Konotop Castle was under-funded at this time, so this section has been rushed.

Such a situation is actually widespread in the fortresses on the borders of the Republic. It's just that Poland is based on cavalry, and wars are mostly determined by field battles, so such problems are rarely exposed.

After the inspection, Cheerchen said to all the officers, including Khwadji: "In short, we must go all out to prepare for combat from now on. Remember, if you sweat more today, you will lose a drop of blood tomorrow."

On the second day Chechen and the others moved in, Konotop's combat readiness began eagerly.

Chechen knew that Prince Alexei would not give him too much time to prepare, and he had not much time left.

All the reinforcements led by Cheer Chen devoted themselves to frantic hard work. They desperately repaired the triangular fort to strengthen the defense of Konotop.

For the residents of the residential area, Cheerchen did the evacuation work-although the area of ​​Konotop Fort is not small, it is more than enough to accommodate five hundred people. But for a protracted battle of defending the city ~www.wuxiaspot.com~ sufficient materials are the first place, too many people will increase the consumption of materials, and the civilians are not as strong as the soldiers. They are very easy to panic and yell in a war, which affects morale and causes the strong fortress to collapse from the inside.

There were originally 300 people under Company Commander Hevadji, but Chechen selected a hundred people from more than 500 civilians to join the team defending the city.

In this way, he has a force of nearly four thousand men in his hands.

For the 100 newly recruited people, Cheerchen handed them to Fedot for basic firearm shooting training.

Fedot stipulates that every recruit must fire three shots at the target every day. The best score will be rewarded, and the worst score will be deducted for the day's food.

The gunpowder workshop in the castle is rushing to make gunpowder, and the masons are mining the stones used to build the walls; the carpenters are cutting logs as raw materials to fill the gaps in the fortifications during the war; the blacksmiths are swinging sledgehammers to create swords and lead bullets.

The resources in the bastion—fresh water, gunpowder, food, and medicine—are all taken care of by Father Spaso Kukotsky; Cheechen designed the beacon signal and the plan to warn the enemy to approach and fire the cannon, and Jamie Company Commander De Popovich led a team of Cossack Lancers to patrol and guard the surrounding area; Cossacks who were familiar with the local area were sent out, and they were responsible for poisoning country wells and other water sources, and evacuating civilians to forests. Collect the grains in the peasant's barn and gather the livestock-in short, build a strong wall and clear the fields, and use a barren and barren land to welcome the Russians.

In order to boost morale, Cheorchen also ordered the German two-handed swordsman to wear a majestic full armor to hold a brief military parade.

But immediately, Cheechen discovered that all his actions had little effect, and he was also shackled and secretly resisted.