Chapter 941 (1/2)
The red sun rises in the East.
Eboden harbor.
”Sneeze!”
Lucian, who was immediately behind Lauren, suddenly sneezed, frowned and rubbed his nose.
”The weather turns cold. Be careful of catching a cold, Lucian.” the black haired wizard turned his head and smiled at the gray pupil boy wearing only thin armor: ”if you are seriously ill now, I have to send you back quickly.”
”You'd better worry about yourself, Lord Loren.”
Lucian, who was ”concerned”, snorted ungratefully and wiped his nose with his thumb: ”I used to be a Ranger in duanjie mountain fortress and glacier wasteland. This weather is almost the same as at home for me.”
”... it's probably said by that guy again. Last time it was...” the gray pupil turned his head and whispered.
The dark haired wizard who lost his voice and smiled shook his head and turned his eyes to the sea level - a cloudless sunny day, light water mist floating on the calm sea, like a sapphire wrapped in gauze, pure and elegant.
But on this pure sea, an irresistible storm is brewing.
Winter is coming.
Eboden is a seaport city in the north. The gem River, which originates from Saxony, passes next to the city and flows into the fog sea - the advantage is that it has extremely developed airline traffic, and the city is adjacent to water on both sides. There are both ocean ports with deep water and embankments for inland ships.
The disadvantage is that although the fog sea will not freeze in winter, the gem river will; The coastal sea surface diluted by the water of Baoshi river may also freeze.
Once frozen, all ports in eboden will be frozen for at least three months until next spring; This is not over, because the river water in the spring flood season will not melt, but break ice - the only end of any ship berthing at the port of eboden at this time is that the ice hit back and forth will become a pile of broken wood.
In the past, every winter was a big headache for eboden; Now Loren is eager to freeze the sea - as long as the sea freezes, the Azores fleet will not be able to land in eboden in three months.
In three months... Loren could hold the city with natural danger without doing anything, and the imperial army would assemble in eboden and stand by and confront the Azores along the river and the coast.
Unfortunately, the midsummer of this year is so long that winter comes too late. There should be no chance to wait until the eboden port is frozen.
But it's still worth looking forward to.
”If only it could start freezing in a week,” whispered the dark haired wizard.
”What?” Lucian, who didn't respond, was stunned.
”The enemy's movement.” Loren changed the topic: ”have the scouts and lighthouses along the coast still got nothing?”
”Nothing was found; not to mention the fleet, not even a fishing boat... Although there can be no fishing boats this season.”
”There remained but a single one. The small boats that Eboden had left were make complaints about the coast, but nothing was done.”
”But because of this, you can look at the sea and be stunned here, calmly arrange the defense deployment and design the next defense plan.”
With the corners of his mouth raised, Lucian inadvertently glanced at the eboden wall behind him.
Under the city wall, the imperial Legion soldiers are working with the urban defense army of eboden to build simple fortifications around the fortress tower with horses and boards, and then dig trenches behind the fortifications.
They divided each team of 100 people into three teams, divided their work and worked together. They stacked a layer of wood boards every half foot, and stacked them according to the standard of compaction of loess and gravel, so as to build the simplest two meter high and half meter thick wall; Each wall can stand about two rows of people up and down, wide enough to house half a hundred people team.
Not only that, the walls are not arranged side by side, but in a group of three, one behind and two in front, and the walls on both sides of the front row have a slight inward arc; Then take three groups as one side, the same front, two back... And so on.
Different from the normal offensive and defensive war of battle array confrontation, it is difficult for both the offensive and defensive sides of the harbor landing war to fight with a neat and unified front. Once the war starts, it will inevitably evolve into a scuffle; This small and many small ”single-sided fortress” defense chain will tear the battlefield apart.
In this way, it is difficult for the enemy to quickly pass through the battlefield and gather forces to attack the fortress and wall near the harbor; The defenders on the city wall can take advantage of this opportunity to aim stone catapults and heavy crossbows at the ”wall line” and kill the enemy in large numbers.
Behind each wall, there is a trench two people deep and slightly narrower than the wall, and then insert barbs into it to pour asphalt - so that because the width is smaller than the wall, the defenders can retreat calmly, but the attacker is not necessarily.
Once the asphalt filled trench ignites, it can temporarily curb the enemy's offensive momentum. It can not only give full play to the projection troops on the city tower, but also give the retreating defenders enough time to complete the reorganization, rather than a sudden collapse.
As for eboden... Although she is a commercial port, it does not mean that she really has no means or preparation to defend against foreign enemies... In fact, as early as the birth of eboden, she began to have a defense plan for the port and coast.
”Although there are many coastal fortresses in eboden, only three are really important.” looking at the wall behind him, the black haired wizard seemed to be talking to himself and raised three fingers:
”First of all, nature is the circular fortress guarding the harbor, which is also the top priority for us to defend the coast, because there are a large area of open land and sand beach in front of her, but it is condescending, so all temporary fortifications are prepared for her.”
”The second is the high tower close to the city wall. Once the enemy invades, the lighthouse deep in the harbor will be lost. This high tower is the only commanding point of the whole battlefield and will certainly become the target of the enemy.”
”As for the last...” the black haired wizard frowned slightly, and his eyes moved from the sea level in front of him to the gem River in the West:
”It's the ancient castle hanging outside on the other side of the gem river.”
The grey pupil boy looked down Lauren's line of sight and couldn't help frowning.
In the city, the wall of eboden doesn't look so strange, but once you stand outside the wall, it looks very abrupt.
The whole eboden can be said to be built along the coast and along the river, but only at the sea mouth of the gem River, a fortress was built on the other side of the river, and she was forcibly connected with the walls in the north and West, just like an extra triangle.
In order to connect the fortress with the city wall, eboden also made great efforts to build two huge steel gates under the city wall. Therefore, the city wall at the connection was made very thin. It is said that the city wall is more like two bridges, one before and one after blocking the sea entrance of the gem river.
Why build such a thing... Lucian scratched his head in great trouble.
Not to say that the eboden people knew that they would be attacked by the Azores sooner or later hundreds of years ago?
”When the castle was built, of course, it was not used to guard against the Azores.” the black haired wizard narrowed his eyes and gave a mocking sneer at the corners of his mouth:
”On the contrary, she is used to guard against the Empire.”
Empire?
”Yes, more accurately, it's the imperial capital - or any merchant ship from the upper reaches of the gem river.” seeing the confused eyes of the gray pupil boy, Loren nodded:
”Two walls or gates sealed the best berthing port along the river and the only deep-water port on the gem River... Eboden firmly controlled the control of ocean trade and the dominance of inland trade in this way.”