Unknown Knight

Chapter 423 Strong walls and clear fields

Inside the Khafre Fortress, Sultan Niza, who personally went up to the city to supervise the battle, had a solemn expression on his face.

This castle once belonged to the Mondhari family of the former Chivir (Prime Minister). It has a steep terrain and is easy to defend but difficult to attack. It is of vital importance to the Sarand royal city of Shariz. It was here that Aix almost suffered a defeat before.

At that time, inspired by James, Aix learned from the British example and greatly increased the temperature of the city walls by burning animal fat and fat sheep. He used the principle of thermal expansion and contraction to destroy the load-bearing structure of the castle, causing a corner of the castle with hidden dangers to collapse. Only then did he finally capture the castle.

Today, the Fort of Cabras has changed a lot. At the request of Aix, the castle underwent a large-scale reconstruction. Not only were the unreasonable structures rebuilt, the city walls were also reinforced as a whole, and many arrow towers and riprap platforms were added.

Now if Aix used the method of digging tunnels and burning fat sheep and animal fat, it might not work. Even if he prepared enough animal fat to burn for a week or so, it might not be able to destroy the current city wall.

But this time, Niza’s three brothers came all in and were determined to kill their younger brother.

Coupled with the attack of the Khergit Khanate army in the direction of Uruzdak Fort, the enemy's total strength was nearly three times his, which made it quite difficult for him to cope with the battle on two fronts.

Fortunately, Niza's overall strategy was correct. Long before the two waves of enemies attacked, Aix had sent a message through the falcon, telling him to focus on holding on and implement the tactics of clearing the countryside.

Although the Khergit army led by Saiga Khan was the strongest of the two attacking armies, their desire to attack was not the strongest. Aix suggested that Niza use strong defense to eliminate the Khergits' desire to attack, and at the critical moment, abandon Uruzdak Fort and retreat to Weiyeha Fort in the desert.

Although this is a helpless move, it is also a very effective method.

You should know that in ancient times, wars paid great attention to logistical support. The saying "food and fodder must be sent before troops move out" is based on this principle. However, food and fodder are only part of logistical support. Another very important logistical support is water.

Just imagine an army of thousands or tens of thousands of people, including the horses, donkeys and mules that accompany the army. The total amount of water they drink every day is huge, enough to drink up the water in the wells and streams near the military camp.

This is particularly prominent in the hot and arid desert areas. In the history of Calradia, several powerful empires have sent troops to attack the Sarand Emirate, but each invasion ended in failure, mainly due to this reason.

The villages and castles of Sarande were all built along water sources, especially the castles guarding strategic locations. High walls were usually used to enclose important water sources within the castles so that they could be heavily guarded.

This makes every castle located in a strategic location an important node on the marching route, the kind of node that must be taken down if it cannot be crossed.

Imagine that the attacking army is marching in an uninhabited desert. In addition to carrying huge amounts of military supplies, they also need a large number of water trucks to transport drinking water. The logistical pressure is very great.

The key point is that the technology at that time was very backward. The wooden barrels used to transport water not only had poor sealing properties, but the drinking water in the barrels would quickly evaporate and leak out even if they were not drunk. The water inside would also quickly deteriorate and become smelly, making it impossible to store and transport it for a long time.

If the castle controlling the water source along the way cannot be breached in a short period of time and the two armies are in a stalemate, it will be a nightmare for the attacking side. The entire army will soon fall into the dilemma of thirst and will have no choice but to retreat.

It was precisely because of this that Aix asked Niza to abandon Uruzdak Fort, which had relatively abundant water sources, when necessary, and to guard Weiyeha Fort, which was located in the desert and controlled the water source.

Just yesterday, the defenders of Uruzdak Fort sent news that they had evacuated the castle through a secret passage that night, gave up their defense of the place, and fled to Weyeh Fort.

During the nearly one-week-long resistance, the Kugits used the tactics of cavalry archers and long-range attacks with catapults, causing great casualties to the soldiers guarding the fort. Nearly half of the more than 500 defenders were killed or wounded. The losses were extremely heavy. If they did not retreat, they would be in danger of being wiped out.

Meanwhile, the Karaf Castle, where Niza was personally in charge, was also not in a good situation. This time, his three brothers put almost all their capital at stake in order to completely reverse the situation. They came with great momentum and their attack was extremely fierce.

They were well prepared, not only were there no shortages of food and supplies, but they also received help from the Kugits in making siege equipment. It was said that the Kugits' siege equipment came from the far east and was extremely sharp, far beyond the siege equipment native to Calradia. (Of course, except for the territory of Aix where there were time travelers)

The key point is that Niza's three brothers are all smart people. They know that partnership business is not easy to do, and cooperative war is not easy to fight. Before the war, the partners often say good things, but when the war comes, it is inevitable that they will blame each other and not work hard.

So the three brothers discussed it and came up with a strategy of rotating attacks. Specifically, the three brothers would draw lots to choose the order of battle, and then each family would take turns for one day to attack the city in the order of the draw.

The three families also swore an agreement in advance that no matter how much each family invested or how heavy the losses were, as long as one of them captured the target territory on the day of the siege, the territory would belong to the family that captured the city that day, and they would not regret or fight over it.

This made the three brothers very willing to attack, and every day when it was the turn of one of them to attack, the princes would desperately order an attack, for fear of missing out on today's opportunity and giving the other two brothers behind them an advantage.

Every day before dawn, it was the prince's army's turn to attack, and they would prepare early for fear of wasting precious time.

And once they launched an attack, they would show no mercy and attack with extreme ferocity, using catapults, crossbows, battering rams, siege towers, ladders, etc. They used all the means they could.

Especially when they had a chance to break through the city walls, their attacks would become more fierce when they saw hope of breaking through, and would even continue until late at night, until the last moment of the day when they would be forced to withdraw their troops with hatred.

Although Niza expected his three brothers to kill him in this battle, he deployed his main forces on the front line of Kafra Fort, focusing on defending against his three brothers.

He also ordered the urgent reinforcement of Fort Kafra and deployed many additional city defense equipment. He even risked his own safety and personally went to the front line of Fort Kafra to supervise the battle.

However, no one would have thought that the sparsely populated troops under the three princes would attack so fiercely this time, as if they had taken drugs.

Even though Niza had inherited Aix's true skills, his army was far superior to his contemporaries in terms of training and equipment. In the beginning, he was not afraid of the attacks from his three brothers at all.

However, no matter how strong the army is, it cannot withstand continuous and repeated attacks. Facing the enemy's desperate rotation tactics, after more than a week, the entire army, including Niza whose body had been strengthened, gradually felt physically exhausted, and everyone felt that Fort Kafra was at risk of being breached.