[King Castle]

[West Bank of Ten Arrows River]

"good!"

Lieutenant Captain Montekukoli, with two glasses on his nose, stood at the top of the city, and painted with a silver needle inserted into a wooden stick on a palm-sized booklet; he stretched out his arms from time to time, raised his fingers, and squinted his eyes to estimate the distance between the landmarks of the city.

The old arrow tower where he is located is the commanding height on the west bank of the Shijian River. Looking down from the arrow tower, the scene on both sides of the city wall is fully visible.

From the city wall to the east, from near to far, there are the new city, Shijian River, and the old city.

The former Palatou Army Headquarters—the office of the current Palatou Army Military Commissioner—is located in the north of New City.

The beautiful two-story stone building is very conspicuous among the low houses on the west bank.

Enter the city from the gate under Montekukoli, follow the main road to cross the new city area, go up the pontoon bridge or take a ferry to cross the Shijian River, and then walk northward to the Zhuwang Castle Pier.

On the pier, ants-like villains and fingernail-sized carriages come and go.

Some barges were still waiting to unload the goods, but the figure of the sailing warship "Marco Good Luck" could no longer be seen next to the trestle.

Enter the old water gate from the dock, climb up the steps, and arrive at the old castle located on the platform of the east coast.

The old castle is the "Kings Castle" in a narrow sense, the capital of the old Duke of Paratu. It can be said that the history of the Kings Castle is mainly the history of the old castle and the small earth buns under its feet.

The famous Cathedral of Our Lady of Paratus is located in the Trinity Square below the old castle, looking at each other one high and one low.

On the top of the bell tower that is taller than Montecucoli in the Cathedral of Our Lady, the golden holy emblem shines.

However, Lieutenant Colonel Raymond Montecukoli, a converted believer, obviously would not have any special feelings for the sanctuary of the Public Church. If you insist on saying that there is, it would only be contempt and contempt.

Lieutenant Colonel Montekukoli focused all his attention on the west and south sides of the city wall.

To the west of the new city is endless farmland and plains.

Apart from small woods and scattered villages, there is no longer any support available for siege.

On the south, on the Shijian River, due to the silt of mud and sand in this gentle river channel for thousands of years, a river island about two kilometers long and four hundred meters wide naturally formed - Majit Island.

There are no houses on the island, only a monastery and the summer palace of the old Duke of Paratu.

An orderly soldier held a yellowed old map and stood beside the lieutenant colonel.

But the lieutenant colonel occasionally glanced at the ready-made map. Most of the time, he used to observe and outlined the manual.

Compared to the information provided by others, the lieutenant colonel trusts the situation he has seen with his own eyes.

As the silver needle pen in the hand of the artillery lieutenant colonel stroked the manual, a thin layer of powdered slurry was painted on the special paper, leaving even and clear lines - the city defense fortifications of Zhuwang Castle were vividly displayed on the paper.

"It's very good," Lieutenant Colonel Montecukoli praised, "the walls of the old era were preserved very well, and they have never stopped maintaining and renovating them. So there is no need to do any big moves. Just a little repair can make her a strong city again with broken iron hooves."

"No, no," before the others could speak, Lieutenant Colonel Montekukoli shook his head on his own and added rigorously, "To be precise, she is also a daunting city now."

Montekukoli put on the album heavily, pointed to the surrounding scenery, and sighed to his colleagues beside him: "Look at this location - it's amazing!"

"Which location is wrong for any famous city with a long history?" Jansen Conelis, who led his subordinates to the tower to see the city, looked at the southwest skyline and said calmly:

"And don't forget that this is a country of galloping horses, a place that has experienced wars and has long been facing military threats from the barbarians of the grassland, and has hardly enjoyed a few days of peace.

"The Palatus will naturally choose to establish settlements in the safest places. And there is no ancient city that can stand on this land for a hundred years and cannot fall. "

Conelis photographed the battlements in front of him: "Even the city on the west coast was built after Paratu joined the alliance.

"In the past, as long as the Hud raiders came, the Palatus would burn everything on the west bank and retreat to the old town on the east bank and hold on to the river.

"This is also the reason why the kings castles have never fallen."

Montecukoli said regretfully: "It's a pity that we can't burn anymore now."

When Conelis heard this, he smiled, but did not agree.

Major Flitz, who was accompanying him, suddenly felt a little cooler in the wind blowing from the city wall.

...

Among the United Provincial Officers present, there was no Lieutenant Colonel William Lodwijk and his men.

Just after yesterday's public meeting, Brigadier General Corinnelis had another private conversation with Lieutenant Colonel Lodweck.

The two sides broke out in fierce quarrels, more accurately, a unilateral attack, especially after Jansen Connellis explicitly ordered Lieutenant Colonel Lodweck to shrink his defense.

In fact, at this moment, the main force of William Lodwig's troops was not stationed in the Kings Fort, but was scattered in the outer strongholds such as White Birch Fort and Perrinburg, which guarded the provincial roads between Maple Stone City.

After hearing his theoretical superiors give him the order to withdraw the castle from the Kings with his own ears, William Lodwich's anger reached its peak.

"I need to remind you, General," Lieutenant Colonel Lodweck didn't care about his seniority. He gritted his teeth, his eyes filled with hatred that he didn't know how to explain to the idiot, and even his speech became a little incoherent:

"You might think that by putting all your troops together, you can defend better.

“But in fact, this will only allow us to be eliminated faster, at once.

"In our current situation, it is the stupidest act to abandon the strong strongholds on the periphery and retract all the troops back to the royal forts.

"If the enemy really reaches the city of Zhuwang Castle, let alone four brigades, eight brigades will not be at ease.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content behind! "So the best situation you can expect is that the rebels in Xinkendi will chew all the way and waste time on besieging the outer strongholds, so that you can survive for a few more days and add more troops from the local area!

"This is still the case where the enemy will not be so angry, ignore the strongholds on the periphery, and rush towards us directly.

"If I withdraw my troops, I tell you that in the towns west of the Kings Castle, there will be no more guns or swords to prevent the Palatus from surrendering to the rebels.

"Maybe I'll bring the troops back tonight. If you get up tomorrow morning, the weather will change outside!

"And don't you want to rely on empty guises to scare the rebels in Xinkendi?

"I withdraw the troops, can your empty shelf still hold on?

"The rebels will immediately see your reality!"

Lieutenant Colonel William Lodweck was almost crying at the end of his speech: "Do you really think I want to throw my subordinates into isolated strongholds and watch them be wiped out one by one?

"Isn't it just to give you what Southern Front Army to buy time?!

"I am asking you to let me perform a suicide mission. Don't you understand yet? Commander!!!"

But Jansen Connelis was still polite and firmly demanded that Lieutenant Colonel Lodweck withdraw his troops from the front.

The two sides parted in disagreement.

...

"I'm still worried about Lieutenant Colonel Lodweck," Flitz's eyebrows were filled with a heart-wrenching smile, "Commander."

"William Lodweck is a qualified soldier. He will be very angry, but he will obey orders," Connellis said dismissively, "no need to explain to him."

"yes……"

"But I still want to say, Minister," Lieutenant Colonel Montecukoli looked serious, "even if we gather Lieutenant Colonel Lodweck's troops back, we have too few troops-for this city.

"Even Costantineer, there are eight thousand warriors. We only have four brigades, and two of them are recruits.

"Of course, we still have four brigades of Palathus. But I really don't know if it's better to have them or not.

"So, even if we do not consider what may be assigned, the troops responsible for monitoring the movements in the city, the walls of the castles of the kings are too long for us."

Conelis turned his back to everyone, looked into the distance in a daze, and suddenly spoke: "Not eight thousand."

"Uh...what did you say?" Montekukoli didn't react at the first time.

"I said," Conelis turned around and looked around the subordinates including the artillery director, smiling but seriously correcting, "Kostantinier's defenders are less than eight thousand."

Conelis knew it well and said with great interest: "According to the memories of the last Emperor Rome, the guards of Costantineer were only 4,773 Herons and less than 3,000 foreigners, so the guards of Costantineer were less than 8,000.

"And only the three thousand foreigners who have received military training - this is very similar to our situation."

As a senior faculty member of the Alliance Army Academy, Montekukoli has long been accustomed to his immediate superior's ability to learn and memorize, and even a little disgusted with the fact that the minister always loses his book bags, causes wars and shows his data.

So, relying on his old qualifications, the director of the Artillery Teaching and Research Department rushed back in front of others: "Even if it is less than 8,000, there are more people than we are now! And don't forget that Costantine was finally trapped!"

Conelis is always particularly tolerant to those who appreciate him, and he patiently refutes:

"But the enemy we are going to deal with is not the 'star-sized' Fleman. The walls of the castles of Kings are shorter than those of Costantineer.

"You have confidence. Raymond's fortresses are mostly broken from the inside, and the loss of fortresses is mostly started with losing confidence."

Montekukoli snorted softly: "Faith cannot help us keep the kings castles."

"So I also brought your cannon." Cornelis replied calmly.

The artillery director was very helpful to this and did not say anything strange.

"For the walls of the Kings Castle, our troops are indeed too few." Connelis first confirmed the conclusion of the artillery director, and then changed the subject. "So we cannot defend the walls, and it is difficult to expect these stones and mortar-built city walls to last for a long time under the bombardment of heavy artillery."

Conelis pointed to the fields outside the walls of the new city: "So we must stick outside the walls - we must build a fort here, and another outside the old city."

Montekukoli held his arms, measured the land with his eyes, and silently estimated the construction period.

Setting up a new fortress outside the city wall, Montecucoli and Conelis discussed several plans repeatedly in advance.

Other solutions include but are not limited to: directly building polygonal convex forts on the basis of the city wall, completely wrapping the city wall with triangular forts and trenches, simply turning the fortifications of the new urban area, etc.

However, the reality situation, which was worse than expected, eliminated other plans for the decision-makers of the Southern Front.

The Palatu Grand Council can now use only four brigades.
To be continued...