Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 220: The First Battle is in Sedan (Part 3)
“Boom boom~~”
"Bang~~"
It was November, and forty-five days had passed since the Western Army began digging trenches around the Sedan Fortress. The Western Army had already completed the digging of the second circular trench, pushing the battle line to about 1,100 meters outside the outermost wall of the fortress.
The effective range of the muzzle-loading artillery of this era was about 1,100 meters for a 12-pound infantry gun, and 1,300 meters for an 18-pound gun. Although the Spanish twins were not chemists and could not directly skip the black powder stage and enter the smokeless powder stage, they still had basic high school chemistry knowledge and could still improve the black powder.
Therefore, the range of Spain's infantry guns, with the same caliber, is slightly higher by one or two hundred meters than that of other European countries' infantry guns.
In short, the trenches were dug up to this point, and the Spanish infantry guns could now attack the fortress walls directly.
Similarly, because it occupies the height of the city wall, the range of the fortress artillery is 500 to 800 meters longer than that of ordinary infantry artillery of the same caliber. Therefore, the artillery on the Sedan Fortress can also attack the Western Army soldiers under the city.
But the problem is that the fortress cannons are high above the enemy, and the closer the enemy is, the better. In fact, the more than 20 cannons on the walls of Sedan caused considerable casualties to the Western Army when the Western Army finished digging the outermost trench and began to dig diagonally. When the Western Army dug trenches about 1,000 meters away from the city wall, the fortress cannons had little impact.
"Preparación~~" (Preparation)
"Fuego!"
Following the command of the artillery commander on the front line, another round of bombardment began. A solid projectile quickly left the barrel under the kinetic energy of the burning gunpowder, adjusted its posture slightly in the air, and then hit the city wall a thousand meters away at an extremely high speed.
Following the impact of this shell, more than 40 shells whizzed in. Then, without exception, they all smashed into the city wall. The huge potential energy caused the solid city wall to shake slightly, and in many places, the solid cement was also blown apart, revealing the iron wires of varying thicknesses under the cement.
"The Spaniards actually have fifty cannons!" Standing on the city wall, enduring the constant vibrations coming from under his feet, Henry tried his best to count the number of collisions silently, but the result shocked him greatly.
"Adrian, have our reinforcements arrived?"
"Your Highness, we have been completely surrounded by the Spanish for more than a month. No news can come in from outside, and the people inside can't get out. In short, we didn't see any signs of reinforcements on the watchtower of the south gate."
"Damn it! The stupid Spaniards actually came up with such a brilliant way to attack the city. Are we really going against God's will?"
After all, he launched a war against France right after he ascended the throne. Although Spain was a superpower of the era, its national strength was limited as the time traveler had not had time to completely transform it.
Therefore, even Rudolf, a time traveler, could not attack the four walls of the Setang Fortress at the same time. He simply concentrated all the artillery outside the north wall and focused his fire on one wall.
But even so, once the attack began, Prince Condé, who had a keen sense of battlefield, felt danger and even despair - in just one day, after more than a dozen rounds of artillery attacks, the city walls that originally seemed extremely solid had cracks in many places.
During the more than one month that the Spanish slowly dug trenches, Henry and Auvergne did not do nothing. They also led the troops in the fortress out of the city to counterattack and attack at night, but the Spanish seemed to be well prepared: the flintlock gunners directly fired at them from the trenches. The artillerymen who followed the engineers also directly leveled their cannons and bombarded them - the most outrageous thing was that the vicious Spanish took advantage of the French army just leaving the city and the formation had not yet dispersed, and fired chain bullets directly at the crowded places!
They had also tried to send messengers to the south to report the emergency, but now it has been more than a month, and they have sent five groups of 20 messengers. It won't be long before the Spaniards come to negotiate with them waving white flags: Please collect the remains of your brave warriors...
Before coming to Sedan to take up his post, Prince Condé confidently assured King Henry IV of France that as long as His Majesty gave me enough food, gunpowder and shells, I could defend the fortress for at least three years. For this reason, he even put his wife in the fortress... But now it seems that three years? It would be good if he could hold out for half a year!
"Your Highness, be careful!"
The adjutant beside him pounced and threw Henry onto the passage. When his face just touched the ground, he felt a gust of hot wind passing over his head: a cannonball fired from the city had actually hit the first wall!
"And His Excellency the Duke?"
“He also prays in the church in the city.”
"Damn it! He really thought we were fighting the Son of God!"
It can be said that the Spanish propaganda war was carried out very well under the control of the time traveler. France is still a country where Catholics account for the majority, while Spain is recognized as a solid Catholic fortress. Especially after the time traveler Rudolf showed how to turn the advantages of the bastion into an invisible trench siege method, many French soldiers lost their confidence in the fight.
"Thank you, Adrian, for saving my life."
Henry got up from the ground, carefully straightened the wrinkles on his clothes, and brushed off some dust. He looked towards the Spanish position in the north and said, "Please go and call Edmund."
"yes!"
This Edmund was a staunch Huguenot and had a very high prestige among the few Huguenots in the current army.
In short, at this point, Henry no longer dared to place any hope on the Catholics in the fortress. Next, Henry had to make plans for the situation in case the city was breached.
They couldn't surrender, as their children were still hostages in Paris. But if they wanted to break out, they could only rely on the Huguenots.
As for your moral stance? Come on, the first two generations of Princes of Condé were protectors of the Huguenots, okay? Even the current King Henry IV of France was not a Catholic before.
Putting aside Henry's little tricks, on the other side of the battlefield.
"Your Highness, today our army has come within a thousand meters of the Sedan city wall, completed twelve rounds of artillery fire, and achieved cross-fire."
"Very good. Navarro, my chief of staff, what are the casualties of our army now?"
"During the nearly one and a half months of trench digging, due to the enemy's fortress artillery bombardment and night attacks, our soldiers lost 352 men and 130 men were seriously injured. The rest of the lightly wounded were effectively treated, and some have returned to their respective units."
"Hmm." He tapped the table gently. "Have our troops in the south found any reinforcements from the French army?"
"Not yet. The 20,000 French mercenaries stationed south of Sedan Fortress before the war are still standing still. Our intelligence personnel have been closely monitoring the movements in Paris and have not seen any large-scale military build-up."
"Tsk~~ It's a bit strange. Even if these French idiots don't know that we have come up with a new siege method, they think that Sedan Fortress can at least hold out for a year or two. But if they can't even receive daily war information, they should at least send people out to investigate. Navarro, during this period of time, we only arrested the messenger from Sedan to the south, but not the messenger from Paris to the north, right?"
"Yes, your highness."
"This is not right~~Navarro, send a messenger to contact the north..."
"Report! Your Highness! Archduke Albrecht in the north sent an urgent message that the Dutch rebel Maurice led about 10,000 troops to attack Marquis Spinola!"
