Chapter 298
Bido Castle was finally abandoned. The lords inside took advantage of the dead of night to set up false torches and flags on the city walls and quietly evacuated from the underground tunnels.
After dawn, the duke's army began to prepare for a new day's attack, and Jais sat in command with his red eyes open.
He only slept for a few hours last night. Late at night, the troops on guard west of the castle came over and reported that there were looming fires farther to the west. The officers in charge of the patrol did not dare to be careless and quickly rushed to the scene in person. Ma ran to the camp to report.
Jia Ais endured the unknown anger of being woken up and asked carefully: "Are you sure it is the enemy's reinforcements?"
"I can't be sure, it's too far away, and it disappeared soon, but I think it's better to be careful."
"You did a good job, notify all battalions to be alert!"
Jia Ai Si had to be extremely vigilant. No normal person would rush on the road in the middle of the night. It would be terrible if he was unprepared and was attacked by the enemy.
Most of the soldiers who were civilians could not see clearly at night. After being awakened, they could only use their weapons to hack away without distinguishing between friend and foe. Moreover, the consecutive days of failed attacks had left the troops physically and mentally exhausted. Maybe one of them would Bombing the camp.
So all the officers and soldiers spent the night nervously.
After daybreak, in order to restore morale, Jaais ordered wine and meat. The soldiers had a hearty meal and started a new day's attack.
However, they discovered that the usually frightening thunder hammer stopped ringing.
The siege soldiers slowly approached the castle pushing heavy shield carts. This defensive measure was quite effective in defending against incoming artillery shells at a long distance, and it could also defend against deadly attacks at close range. of shotguns—provided they don’t get smashed in the middle. They were trembling and fearful, but they did not hear the roar of thunder hammers along the way. They were used to advancing next to the cannons every time. This feeling of pressure suddenly disappearing made them even more uneasy. The people in the castle could not help but He must have prepared more damaging moves.
The leading troops finally approached the gate, and no grenades were dropped to welcome them. Finally, they discovered a clue - the figures on the wall seemed to be made of straw.
“Did the people inside run away?”
With this idea in mind, some bold soldiers climbed up the wall.
Sure enough, apart from them, there was no one inside.
"The enemy has retreated! I can capture Biduo Fort!"
......
Hearing the news of his "victory", Jayais couldn't laugh or cry. It took more than a month to mobilize the troops and resulted in more than 3,000 casualties. Is this what we got in exchange?
Judging from the results, he did win, but no matter how you looked at it, it was a victory that was surrendered to the enemy.
There were no prisoners who knelt down to beg for mercy, and there were no defeated generals who were dejected. This kind of victory makes people unwilling to accept it.
I had troops stationed on all sides of the castle. How did they escape at night? There must be a secret hidden in this castle.
Jaais ordered the army to search every place in the castle closely, and finally found a tunnel leading underground in a warehouse.
He sent people into the tunnel to search, and they came back an hour later, which showed how long it was inside. The soldiers who came back said that they were blocked while walking. There must be an exit to the west of the castle, much to the chagrin of the Duke's son, and they must have used this tunnel to transport a lot of supplies during this time.
"Brett Sean, you bastard!"
The angry roar of the Duke's son seemed to be heard throughout the castle.
The tunnel is very long and has complete reinforcement measures. The amount of work shows that it cannot be dug in a hurry. It must have been excavated by the Shawn family in response to emergencies and repaired over the generations.
……
On the other end, Paul was also depressed after learning the news that Bidoburg was abandoned. He thought his allies could hold on longer.
“It’s in vain that I sent them so many weapons and supplies, as well as eight rapid-fire cannons in front and back. We didn’t even equip a few of them ourselves.”
But this It was useless for him to be anxious about the matter. He could only remind the two battalions stationed in Emden to pay close attention to the enemy's movements.
Another thing that made him more vigilant was a secret letter written by Schroeder to him. The letter mentioned that in the battle that took place on the border of the duchy, the enemy sneaked in through a roundabout. Although the Arda army immediately counterattacked and regained the position, and not a single artillery piece was missing, the enemy had come into close contact with the artillery pieces after all, and might have come into contact with residual gunpowder.
The enemy may be able to deduce one or two bits of information about gunpowder, but Paul is not worried that they can immediately reverse engineer the real black gunpowder. Even if they generally know that black gunpowder contains saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal, it is impossible. Try out the best mix now. You must know that in the previous life, as the country that invented gunpowder, due to the lack of rigorous chemical knowledge, China did not figure out the best ratio of various gunpowders even in the late Qing Dynasty. It could only rely on the experience of craftsmen to create products of varying quality. gunpowder. To make high-quality gunpowder, it requires a series of complex processes such as crushing, mixing, pressing, drying, and polishing. Since Paul created gunpowder, the ordnance factory has been unremittingly researching and experimenting on how to improve the quality of nitrate and sulfur. Technology such as purity and how to safely grind gunpowder has developed dozens of processes, and the proportion of raw materials has been slightly adjusted according to different uses.
Although there is no shortage of saltpeter mines in the northwest bay, the method of refining saltpeter still uses the primitive boiling method. As the saying goes, "Boiling saltpeter for a thousand days is not worth a shot of a general." How to expand the production of saltpeter has always been a headache for Paul. In order to To obtain saltpeter, he also sent people to scrape toilets from house to house. This was one of the reasons why he strictly prohibited open defecation. Toilets are a fighting force. Although the quantity is not large, mosquitoes are still meat no matter how small they are.
Paul does know the principle of using nitrifying bacteria and rice fields to build saltpeter fields on a large scale to produce saltpeter. However, principles are principles, and it will take time to figure out a feasible operation.
Arda's demand for saltpeter is so great that it cannot be hidden from people who are interested, so instead of trying every possible means to keep the gunpowder formula secret, it is better to spread some misleading information.
Paul asked Old Ford, the administrator of the Government Affairs Council, and Cecil of the Intelligence Department to discuss the fact that the weather has been getting hotter recently and he planned to build several ice-making plants.
Old Ford was shocked: "Sir, although life is not as tight as it was two years ago, there are not many rich people in Huxin Town to buy our ice. It is definitely a loss-making business. ”
"Well, whether I make money or not is secondary. I mainly want to use it as a cover..."
Paul told them his intention.
Director Ford nodded: "It sounds like it will work, but it will cost a lot of money. You can't let people tell you that it is an empty factory at a glance."
Meet the Government Affairs Council The steward agreed, and Paul ordered Cecil: "You have to release some false information, make the formula of gunpowder as confusing as possible, and use your brain to find out the source, such as refining it from sea water. "
"Leave it to me, Lord Count, spreading rumors couldn't be easier."
Cecil patted his chest and accepted the task.
(End of this chapter)