Steel Dynasty - Chapter 252

[Chapter 252 Going deep alone]

On the city wall, the cold wind from the north blew, which heralded that the next cold winter was coming.

By choosing this time period, we can take advantage of the lean period to seriously attack the barbarian’s logistics.

After making a plan to harass the barbarians, Niu Ben and Lu Fei led two thousand cavalry into the grassland in two groups, while Luo Xin stayed in Cangzhou City to deal with the barbarian cavalry who might come to harass and prevent the construction of the new city wall.

Xiao Ming had a complicated look on his face as he watched Niu Ben and others disappear into the sky. This is the real test for Niu Ben and Lu Fei. Whether these soldiers can come back this time is also unknown.

“Zhan Xingchang, start digging trenches.” Xiao Ming ordered.

In Xiao Ming’s plan, this time was divided into two parts. The first part was to send cavalry to fight guerrillas on the grassland, so that the barbarian cavalry was exhausted and had no time to take care of Cangzhou City.

The second step is to dig wide trenches outside the new city and arrange catapults to throw gunpowder cans to defend against barbarian attacks.

This time Zhan Xingchang brought more than 10,000 slaves who were specialized in construction. He also invested a lot of money to hire local people. Now there are 30,000 people participating in the construction of the new city wall.

Slaves who are professional in construction will be responsible for the construction of the city wall, while these common people are responsible for transporting materials and digging trenches on the outside, which do not require technical skills.

After the order was issued, Zhan Xingchang immediately directed the people to leave the city and dug a continuous deep trench within 500 meters of the new city wall.

The Cangzhou Army increased the number of trebuchets in the city to 200 and placed them on the platform reserved in the trench. When the time comes, they will launch gunpowder cans at the barbarian soldiers who rush into the trench.

Now that Cangzhou City has sufficient preparations for gunpowder tanks and artillery support at the top of the city, if the barbarians want to break through this barrier, they will have to pay a huge price.

The people in the city carried hoes, shovels and other tools out of the city, and Zhan Xingchang also followed to make arrangements, while Xiao Ming led the slave craftsmen to excavate the foundation of the new city wall.

Like the old city wall, the new city wall is 500 meters long. More than 10,000 craftsmen are distributed over 500 meters. Almost 20 craftsmen can be assigned to every meter.

Without modern machinery, Xiao Ming could only make up for it with manpower.

The city wall is 20 meters high and 8 meters wide. Every ten meters within the 500-meter area, there will be a fort protruding six meters forward. Each fort is large enough to install six artillery pieces. , the six artillery pieces can not only shoot at enemies on the outside, but also at enemies climbing the city wall.

In this way, the artillery installed on the fort alone can accommodate 300 artillery pieces, and this does not include the artillery between the battlements and the artillery on the mezzanine of the city wall.

If this fortress-style city wall is built, it will basically be equivalent to a huge sailing warship lying between two mountains.

“Excavate!”

A loud chant sounded, and the slave craftsmen immediately started digging in groups of twenty. This time, only the foundation of the city wall was five meters deep. If the barbarians wanted to blow up the city wall, they would have to be able to dig it.

Tens of thousands of people were busy, and Xiao Ming did not take any time off. He shuttled among the slave craftsmen and carefully inspected the excavation of the foundation.

Unlike modern excavators that can excavate a five-meter deep trench in half an hour, twenty people are responsible for a one-meter-wide foundation. From morning to night, this one-meter-wide, eight-meter-long, and five-meter-deep foundation is completed. .

As the sun set in the evening, tens of thousands of people finished their work and retreated into the city. At this time, the excavation of trenches outside was also completed.

At this time, Xiao Ming couldn’t help but sigh. In ancient times without modern machinery, there was indeed strength in numbers, and this population was always the number one resource.

“Your Highness, based on my experience these days, the barbarian cavalry usually arrives on the third day.” Zhan Xingchang climbed up the city wall with worry in his eyes.

Frequent barbarian harassment seriously affected his plans, which troubled him greatly.

It is precisely because of this that when Xiao Ming arrived in Cangzhou in person this time, he was determined to continue advancing this plan even if there was another war with the barbarians.

The black night gradually enveloped the grassland, Xiao Ming said: “I just hope Niu Ben and Lu Fei will not let me down.”

Zhan Xingchang nodded when he heard this. This time Niu Ben and Lu Fei were sent to fight against the barbarians. Caught off guard, disrupting the barbarian’s attack plan.

…

In the vast grassland, there were only a few cold stars in the sky and no trace of moonlight. Zi and Niuben divided their forces into two groups, and Lu Fei led his cavalry to search for the barbarian tribes everywhere on the grassland.

The hard work paid off, and when night fell, he saw a bonfire not far away through the telescope.

“You guys come with me and see how many people there are in this tribe?” Lu Fei said.

The soldier who was called answered and followed Lu Fei toward the campfire on tiptoe.

Although the land of Youzhou is occupied by the Blood Wolf Tribe, according to barbarian customs, the Blood Wolf Tribe is composed of many small tribes, and these small tribes will be given their own pastures for grazing.

It was pitch dark on the grassland at this time, and no one could be seen outside the bonfire.

When Lu Fei and his soldiers approached the barbarian tribe, no one noticed them.

Around the campfire, these barbarians were roasting cattle and sheep, laughing, drinking and eating meat.

“Damn, the life of these barbarians is really good. They eat meat and drink alcohol every day. They are much happier than me.” Lu Fei twitched his nose, the smell of meat made him drool a little.

“Colonel Lieutenant, look at these barbarians, there are only more than 500 of them. It seems that this is a small tribe, with only a thousand people in it. What are you waiting for? Just grab the meat and eat it.”

Following Lu Fei The soldier said that his name was Lei Ming, and he was the Youzhou soldier who asked Xiao Ming about the Guan Ning Cavalry when Xiao Ming mentioned it in the last battle of Cangzhou.

After that, he was incorporated into the cavalry. All the soldiers led by Lu Fei were from Youzhou, and they were the Guanning cavalry that Xiao Ming wanted to build.

“Hey, this is what I like. Let’s go back. Since His Highness asked us to fight guerrilla warfare, we will launch a night attack on him.” Lu Fei said.

Lei Ming nodded bloodthirsty. This was once their hometown. No one understood the pain of their hometown being occupied by foreign enemies better than they did, so the hatred for the barbarians in their hearts exceeded that of anyone else.

After leading the soldiers to figure out the situation, Lu Fei and others secretly turned back.

“Captain, are you going to attack now?” someone asked.

“It’s a waste of time to attack. Of course we have to wait until midnight when they are all asleep. Remember, we won’t ride horses this time, but sneak over. Once we enter the tent, we will kill them all. No one will be left alive.” Lu Fei said.

“Yes.” The soldiers said in a suppressed voice.

Lu Fei glanced at the bonfire in the distance again and gently touched the telescope on his body. This time he was able to discover this tribe in advance and was not discovered by the tribe because of this telescope.

(End of chapter)