Mount and Blade Central Asia

Li Rufeng and Muzaffar exchanged a glance, each seeing a hint of worry in the other's eyes. Their ancestors had been completely short-sighted in their attempts to do this, but the current group of Green Wind followers outside the city might have the exact opposite goal. They were probably counting on this tactic...

Fortunately, at this time, after several adjustments, the catapult on Li Rufeng's left finally launched a counterattack after a command.

Unfortunately, this shot also missed. The stone bullet, which was ignited by grease, hit the relatively hard ground outside the city. Because of the right angle, it bounced several times, but the first landing point was fifty meters away from the opponent's catapult position.

Soon the catapult on the other side also completed the test firing. This time the landing point was closer, and the stone bullet even knocked away a soldier on the edge as it rolled, which was a good start.

But soon, the enemy's second catapult was ready, and with a bang, it smashed another corpse towards the direction of Aleppo city.

Compared to the catapult positions, the city of Aleppo was a large target after all, so this time the body flew high over the city wall and landed on the roof of a house behind the wall.

"Don't move! Let Isabella and the others handle it!" Li Rufeng shouted immediately, "Any corpse thrown in by the enemy may be poisonous. Anyone splashed with blood, leave your post immediately and report to the medical team!"

Isabella Darhe, who was previously doing epidemic prevention work outside the city, has now been appointed by Li Rufeng as the director of Aleppo Hospital. The hospital's current temporary address is near the city gate to facilitate the treatment of soldiers.

Li Rufeng knew very well that the outcome of this war did not depend on fighting. The number of people outside the city was not enough to fill the walls of Aleppo. The real battlefield was in health and epidemic prevention.

But the situation soon got out of control, because the Green Wind believers outside the city not only launched corpses, Li Rufeng saw with his own eyes that the group of people cut off several craftsmen who operated the first catapult in half, and then launched their upper bodies into the city of Aleppo.

The thing didn't die when it fell to the ground. It stubbornly crawled more than 20 meters on the ground, scaring the entire team of militiamen around it to collapse.

As Li Rufeng watched a corpse fly low over the city wall, he unsheathed his weapon, hugged one of the defenders, and fell off the wall together with him...

The author says:

Author's words: I happened to be reading the British military history of the 15th century recently. It was recorded that in 1408, Henry V attacked Harlech Castle with cannons, completely destroying the south and east walls. The defenders held their ground in the castle and towers until February of the following year, when most of the defenders starved to death and the war was considered over.

In contrast, in Asia, the relatively mature use of artillery was nearly twenty years later. I have never been able to find out when the Ottoman Yericheni Corps began to use firearms. Some say it started in the late 14th century, while others say it started in the mid-15th century.

Chapter 261 The Siege Begins

As daylight began to break, the tireless enemy outside the city had already set up a fifth catapult, during which time they threw twenty-two corpses, or living people who looked like corpses, towards Aleppo.

The good news was that all the guards still holding on the city walls had adapted to this type of attack and were no longer panicked. The bad news was that half of the militia, which was already short of manpower, were frightened.

Abiramah was a native of Aleppo. He was still a teenager when the Aleppo massacre took place a few years ago. Thanks to his father's wise decision, his family escaped the disaster and returned to their house after Timur the Lame's army left.

In fact, his father took the opportunity to occupy several neighboring houses, so that his home would be big enough and his sons would have a place to live.

From this perspective, Abiramah became the beneficiary of the disaster, so his family did not have much resistance to the Mughals returning to Aleppo and becoming the rulers.

As the son of a tinker, the reason why Abiyar chose to be a soldier was simple - his father had no more wealth except for his little cleverness, but on the contrary, his father had many children.

Abiramah had six brothers and sisters, not counting those who died in infancy.

Before Li Rufeng came, the older children in Abiram's family relied on helping passing caravans carry goods to earn some extra money to supplement the family income. It was not until Li Rufeng took over Aleppo that his father's pot-mending business improved a lot because of the arrival of new immigrants.

But there are many blacksmiths among the new immigrants, and those blacksmiths can also mend pots. Although Abirama is not very old, his vision is much better than his father's.

Because he was too old, Abiyala could not enter the lord's free school to learn knowledge, but his own brothers and sisters were sent there; because he was illiterate, Abiyala missed the opportunity to be selected as a grassroots official by Li Rufeng.

Therefore, serving as a soldier for the lord's review became Abiram's best and least likely to miss opportunity.

Of course, another reason was that Abhirama didn't want to be like his father, who spent his whole life hustling around pots and pans. The money his father earned was not enough to support his wife and children...

Looking at another corpse thrown into the city wall by a catapult, Abiram sniffed nervously. He had never worn a mask before, but now he had worn one all night and felt that half of his face was wet with his breath.

This was Abirama's first time on the battlefield. The veterans always boasted about the real battlefield with mountains of blood and corpses. Now he knew that they were not bragging. This was all true.

of.

But he still felt a little contempt for his frightened colleagues. They thought that corpses were not that scary. His father said that the Mongols also killed a lot of people in Aleppo, but they were still alive and well here.

Just as Abirama squinted his eyes, half asleep and half awake, waiting for the next corpse to fly over, his companion suddenly screamed a few meters away. He saw that the other party was hit in the face by something unknown and fell to the ground with his hands covering his face.

The next second, countless stone bullets several times bigger than fists fell from the sky. Abirama subconsciously used his shield to block his head, and moved his body as close to the edge of the parapet as possible, shrinking his body under the shadow of the shield.

Abiramah's ears were filled with the sound of stones hitting the city wall and the screams of other soldiers. He also felt as if his shield was kicked hard, with such force that it seemed to break his arm.

Then, he heard the ancient, textured sound of the Mongol horn. Hiding beneath his shield, Abiram took a moment to realize it was the horn his instructor had told them would blow when the enemy officially began their siege... Wait, the enemy had begun their siege?!

The stubbornness deep in Abiram's heart gave him the courage to look outside the city wall. He saw that in the faint sunlight, a narrow wooden bridge that was only wide enough for one person to pass through had been built on the moat outside the city wall. In the moat, there were seven or eight soldiers soaking in the water, reinforcing the fulcrums on both sides of the wooden bridge.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack! Here! Someone has built a bridge!" Abirama shouted at the top of his lungs. These people must have sneaked in last night under the cover of darkness. They hid in the moat for half the night without making a sound.

When Abiramah thought of this, he really didn't want them to have the chance to climb the city wall. That was his and Aleppo's last resort...

There should have been more soldiers on the city wall, but his colleagues were so frightened that they hid under the wall and dared not come up.

"I'm not afraid of you!" Abirama grabbed the stone he had prepared in advance and threw it towards the moat. Although he didn't hit the target, he splashed water all over an enemy who was soaked in the water.

As the horns of Aleppo City sounded, Moser no longer planned sneak attacks. He just waved his hand lightly on his horse, and two heavy infantry centuries raised their shields, covered the battering rams, and began to advance towards the city gate.

"I've heard that Aleppo is a rare strong city, but Timur conquered it easily. I think I can do it too," Moser said to the other immortal knights watching behind him, "with or without your help."

But the group of immortal knights who were not even wearing armor just watched everything indifferently, as if they didn't care about the outcome of the battle at all.

In their eyes, victory was part of the father's great plan. If Moser conquered it today, it would be no different from a few months later when the last healthy person in the city began to cough, have a fever, and vomit until he was too weak to pick up a weapon and then open the city to surrender.

As the bells on the city wall rang, the soldiers who were resting under the wall were awakened from their sleep. They frantically groped for their weapons in the dim light and immediately ran towards the city wall.

Li Rufeng had also taken a nap on the city wall before, and he and Muzaffar took turns watching the movements outside the city wall.

At this moment, Muzaffar was staring at the situation outside the city with red eyes, and deploying the defenders in the city: "Sir, do you want to let them in and fire a cannon?"

He had witnessed the Genoese practicing firing cannons on a daily basis and knew that cannons were far more reliable than catapults. As for the two catapults on the city wall, they had been overwhelmed after throwing more than a dozen times and could no longer continue.

"Let them fire one round, aim at the cars, and don't give them a chance to engage in street fighting." Li Rufeng felt a splitting headache. At this time, a person who had only slept for two hours was not as energetic as one who had stayed up all night.

Maybe Li Rufeng will adapt to this wartime schedule in the future, but not now.

Following Muzaffar's order, the artillery team, which had also been busy all night, finally gathered together and prepared to do their job. The cannon was placed on the watchtower early in the morning, intending to give a surprise to the enemy who was preparing to attack the city gate.

The author says:

Author's words: There will be another chapter later, count it as today's

Chapter 262: Attack and Defense (I)

When the city of Aleppo was awakened by the sound of trumpets and alarm bells, Moser also ordered the slaves to beat the heavy war drums. With the sound of drums, the soldiers who had remained silent began to charge towards the city gate step by step.

If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, you would never have imagined that these people were so...ready to die. That was the main gate of Aleppo, the place where the most concentrated firepower of this fortified city's defense was.

After hearing the drumbeats signaling an attack, the Mughal officers in the corridors and ramparts blew their whistles and ordered torches to be lit to dispel the darkness before the rising sun.

However, the enemy charging in silence was like a tide coming from the darkness, beating the defenders' spirits. They had never seen such an enemy before. There was no battle cry, no roar, as if everyone had lost their tongues and only silence remained...

No, not everyone has seen it. The silence of this army reminded Li Rufeng of the silent knight beside him when he and Dosite first encountered each other, but this time

At once the number of enemies increased tenfold.

What remains unchanged are the soldiers under Li Rufeng's command, who are still of varying quality... The professional army he dreams of can probably only appear with the continued advancement of productivity.

But in fact, the Mongols under Li Rufeng were already rare soldiers who had experienced many battles. They were almost trained by Timur as professional soldiers, but they were not so standardized. Their military pay came more from plundering rather than state supply.

So don't expect them to be very motivated when defending the city. What's more, for the Mongols, the fact that the shaman insisted on living in the city was not understood by everyone. All they had to do to stand here and do their duty was Li Rufeng's past prestige and the old shaman's face.

Compared to the Mughals who were still in shock, the other defenders were frantically stringing their bows and crossbows and shooting randomly without the permission of their officers.

This seemed to be a signal. When one person did this, the others followed suit. For a moment, it was unknown how many arrows the defenders shot at the approaching figure in the distance. They seemed unable to stop and kept repeating the process of drawing bows and shooting, turning a deaf ear to the shouts of the exasperated Mughal officers.

Part of the reason was because of the language barrier and the lack of instinctive reaction, and part of the reason was that these recruits were too nervous. They encountered an enemy beyond their specifications for the first time on the battlefield, and the force of the silent march overwhelmed their rationality.

Fear is contagious. The silent momentum of the Green Wind believers has plunged the defenders into fear. Only by pouring arrows at the enemy can they feel a little safe.

In the end, when the enemy really got close to the distance where bows and arrows could cause damage, Li Rufeng estimated that less than one-third of them could effectively shoot - for those amateur archers who had not undergone long-term training, the first three arrows still had a force of blood and courage, and the arrows shot after that would not cause any damage at all unless they hit the weak part of the enemy's defense.

The sparse rain of arrows, accompanied by the shouts of the Mughal officers, finally completed the coverage, but the results were minimal because the enemy was crowded in front of him and he didn't even see anyone fall.

Master Li also shot a few arrows himself, but he did not achieve any results. He did see one of his arrows hit a gap in the enemy's armor, but the enemy continued to advance with his arrow.

He didn't know how many people in the darkness had seen this scene, but it would undoubtedly further destroy the defenders' limited fighting spirit...

"Let our cannons fire!" Li Rufeng shouted to Muzaffar, knowing that now was the time.

Soon, Muzaffar's order was heard by the group of panting old soldiers on the watchtower. The leading old soldier kissed his cannon. This time they had a proper artillery position, and it was much easier to adjust the angle back and forth.

He was still lying on the cannon, squinting one eye to observe the target, then turned over, adjusted the angle, and nodded to his companions... A few seconds later, a deafening sound of artillery fire dispelled the strange silence on the battlefield!

The spherical shell flew nearly fifty meters and hit the exposed enemy. Although it did not hit the battering ram, it crashed into the infantry formation on the right side of the battering ram.

Even the most taciturn and ruthless of men let out a shrill scream at this moment. The scene was like a game of billiards where someone hits a powerful shot at the start, the cannonball being the cue ball, and the heavily armored soldiers being the balls of various colors...

For a moment, Li Rufeng couldn't tell how many people the other side had lost. He only saw blood splattered three or four meters high. The enemy's entire right wing was almost cut off by one third!

After enduring for a whole night and watching the outdated weapons and the cannon in front of him showing off his power, he finally had his highlight moment!

"Good fight!" Li Rufeng slammed the city wall hard. He had known for a long time that this was the future!

On the Watchtower, the artillery team occupying the best shooting position in the entire battlefield was working hard to clean the barrel, and then applied expensive grease inside and outside to cool it down. Then they retreated back to the inside of the Watchtower in a panic. They could not fire a second shot for less than half an hour.

Li Rufeng has always wanted to buy more cannons, but he has never had the opportunity. Now it is a seller's market.

Under the cover of shouts, flames and artillery fire, the enemy troops who had built a single-plank bridge close to the moat during the night had already crossed the moat one by one under the rain of arrows.

These soldiers also did not shout, but silently endured the casualties. Several people carried ladders in a group and planned to climb up the city wall by force.

The first place where the ladder was placed was some distance away from Abirama. The guard there was the one who had been hit in the face by a stone and fell to the ground, his life or death unknown. When Abirama shouted loudly, the catapult on the opposite side launched another round of shotgun shells when the enemy was very close to us!

Madmen! They're all madmen! Abirama felt that the enemies below the city wall might have suffered more damage this time than they had, but the barrage of scattershot still hindered the speed of the reinforcements below the city wall... Abirama rushed forward with all his might, first trying to push down the ladder, but the ladder was hooked at the top and bottom, and the weight of the heavily armored soldier climbing on it made his efforts futile.

At this moment, Abhirama even saw the

The crawling soldier had a pair of eyes that you would never forget once you saw them. But this did not stop Abirama from throwing down his weapon, picking up a stone the size of his head and smashing it down on the other side's head!

Chapter 263: Attack and Defense (2)

Because his most elite troops were cavalry, in order to give full play to the cavalry's greatest advantage of mobility, and also to prevent the enemy from attacking the city with peace of mind, Li Rufeng placed his own cavalry troops and Kurds outside the city to wait for an opportunity.

That's right, wait for an opportunity. Since ancient times, no city has ever been trapped unless there is no other choice. And isolated cities trapped in this situation often end up badly, such as Diaoyucheng in the Song Dynasty and Constantinople half a century later...

The former has the spirit of the Song Dynasty, and the military and civilians are united, while the latter is the last home of the Eastern Romans, and there is no way to retreat. Li Rufeng has no reason to fight such a stupid battle, so when the number of people on both sides is similar, he has always thought about turning passivity into initiative.

Although he knew that the enemy this time was a believer in the Four Wind Gods, an enemy that even the Eagle of Order had to be cautious in dealing with, Li Rufeng himself was a time traveler. Deep down, he had a kind of arrogance unique to time travelers towards the Four Wind Gods, and of course, towards those local gods whose existence he didn't even know existed.

How do you know you can’t do it if you don’t try it, right?

But Li Rufeng did not expect that the other party had only launched a brief attack and almost achieved victory.

"Muzaffar! I leave this place to you!" Li Rufeng shouted when he saw the area on the city wall that was almost breached, and then went in that direction to provide support.

Because the walls of Aleppo are long enough and the city cannot be left empty in any direction, the already limited number of troops was further dispersed. Even if the enemy's main attack direction was determined, Li Rufeng could not concentrate all the soldiers on one wall. Those followers of the Green Wind also had cavalry!

So when the city wall was in crisis, Li Rufeng couldn't find a reserve force that he could completely trust...except for the twelve personal guards left by his side and himself.

"Follow me!" Li Rufeng did not need to make additional war mobilization for his personal guards, but he had to let other soldiers, especially the militia, see his figure and hear his voice, so that they knew that the lord was here and with them.

Fortunately, Li Rufeng brought his armor with him when he went out in the morning, and his personal guards helped him put it on before the battle. The last time someone helped him put on his armor, it was Bater.

This time, Bater and Bell were thrown into the city by Li Rufeng. He had finally trained an apprentice that he thought was good enough, but it would be a waste if he threw him on the battlefield.

All the hot oil and asphalt were spilled, and the defenders on the city wall did not collapse because they were completely crazy and had no time to care.

Li Rufeng had a sharp weapon in his hand, so he could naturally behead the enemy with one sword, but he was alone. When another heavily armored soldier climbed up the siege ladder from the gap thirty meters away, two arrows hit the opponent one after another, but the opponent just shook and ignored the damage.

The guards came close to a distance of five meters and shot at the opponent's visor with armor-piercing arrows. Every arrow hit the target. Three arrows pierced the opponent's face. The hard arrowheads even popped out from the back of the helmet, causing the enemy to fall down completely.

Li Rufeng was a novice on the battlefield. He forced himself not to pay attention to what was happening in other directions. When another enemy climbed up, he pierced the opponent's throat with a sword. The opponent made a series of bubbling sounds and fell down.

(Your two-handed weapon proficiency +1, 45/50)

"Leave this to me, you all go over there to provide support!" Li Rufeng looked intently at the siege ladder and even risked looking under the city wall. There, he saw more than a dozen wounded soldiers who had fallen from the ladder and were used as stepping stones.

In the distance, the catapult belonging to the Corrupted Green Wind once again threw out a volley of small stone bombs, targeting the area where Li Rufeng was going.

The only good news was that when Li Rufen killed the third enemy, he finally heard his cannon sound again...

The author says:

Author's Note: There will be another chapter soon

I'm a little stuck, let's go together tonight

I'm stuck with that book from Qidian, and my hair seems to be turning white...

Chapter 264 [Walking on the Sharp Edge]

Compared to the amazing effect of the last bombardment, this time the artillery team stationed on the watchtower "only" killed four enemies, but their target was the battering ram. After being hit by a cannon, the battering ram broke down instantly, and one side of the wheels fell to the ground.

But the soldiers did not retreat. The armored soldiers dug out the iron-studded log used as a battering ram from the wreckage of the battering ram. More than ten people abandoned their weapons and continued to drag the log towards the city gate.

Behind them were hundreds of slaves carrying ladders and shovels. They needed to fill the moat first and then ram the city gate, which was not a one-day job.

However, the pressure faced by Li Rufeng did not decrease due to the changes on the front battlefield. The Green Wind believers' fearless style frightened all the soldiers except his personal guards.

In its place again assumed siege ladders.

Several relatively agile believers seized the opportunity to climb up the city wall. One of them jumped down to the inside of the city wall holding a personal guard without hesitation.