Chapter 563 Siege (XV)

[Margit Island]

In the sentry post at the southern end of the coastal defense position, the sentry was slacking off.

For this young man who had never left the front of the mountain before, the dark night of the country of galloping horses made him terrified, and only the cramped trenches could give him a sense of security.

The small space, the slightly warm felt blanket, and the deep fatigue made him yawn soon.

Just when the sentry was half asleep and half awake, a low collision sound suddenly came from the direction of the water fence.

The sentry woke up instantly, quickly pulled out the whistle from his clothes, puffed up his cheeks and was about to blow it.

But before giving the alarm, he was more careful, held his breath, quietly poked his head out of the trench and took a look.

The river was dark and silent.

The sentry finally let out a long breath, and then he realized that he was scared out of his wits.

"Water bird?" The sentry speculated.

Just as he was hesitating whether to go out and take a look, two muffled sounds came from the upstream and downstream of the river.

This time, the sentry heard it clearly - the sound was muffled and heavy, and it was definitely not the noise made by the wild ducks.

But he hesitated for a moment and still did not blow the whistle to warn.

Because once the whistle sounded, the whole island would wake up.

In order to squat on the rebels, the sentry and his comrades had been tossing and turning until late at night, and finally got time to rest. At this time, the others had probably just closed their eyes.

If everyone was pulled out of the bed at this time, it would be found that they were just making a fuss. Even if the superiors did not punish them, they would inevitably be blamed by their companions.

Besides, there are all kinds of situations in the night guard. Although the night is quiet, it is not completely silent.

In addition to the noise interference of the natural environment, during this period, the rebels would also float wood from upstream to harass the soldiers guarding the island in the middle of the night.

Therefore, if there is a slight disturbance, you should blow the whistle to warn, but you will fall into the trap of the rebels.

Thinking of this, the sentry took the whistle and decided to find the night officer first.

Soon, the officer on duty followed the sentry to the sentry post, but it was dark at night, and standing in the trench, he couldn't see the situation on the water surface clearly.

"Light," the lieutenant on duty uttered a brief order.

The sentry took out the flint and flint, and after a few crisp knocks, the warm bright yellow fire filled the sentry post.

The sentry put the lampshade back, and the sentry post was swallowed up by darkness again - in order not to expose themselves, the military lanterns issued by the federal army all have a special lampshade that can adjust the brightness.

The sentry put away the flint and flint, ready to go out to find out.

But the officer on duty picked up the lantern before him.

"You stay," the officer on duty was still frugal with words, "if there is a situation, call the police."

After that, the lieutenant on duty climbed out of the trench.

After leaving the post, the lieutenant on duty did not turn on the lampshade immediately. He went down to the river beach in the dark, waded for a distance, and came to the water fence.

Then, he opened a small gap in the airtight lampshade and searched carefully along the water fence.

Soon, the lieutenant on duty found the target he was looking for: a raft hanging on the water fence.

The muffled sound heard by the sentry just now should be the sound of the raft hitting the sharp wooden stakes.

At a glance from a distance, the young lieutenant had already determined that the raft came from the rebels.

Because only the rebels who lack boats and oars would use simple rafts to sail on the Ten Arrow River.

After checking closer, the lieutenant was more certain: the raft hanging on the fence was made of logs and barrels, which was the type used by the rebels to smuggle supplies to Bishop's Castle every night.

It was just painted black, no wonder it was completely invisible in the post.

In addition, compared with the rafts seized before, this time, the rebels' raft had an extra mast, and on the mast hung a hard sail that was also dyed black.

The lieutenant then remembered that the wind was northwest tonight, while the wind was northeast the previous few nights.

It seemed that the rebels used the wind to let the raft drift to the island silently.

The lieutenant also remembered that the sentry reported hearing three muffled sounds.

He looked around, but unfortunately he couldn't see anything clearly.

Just as the lieutenant was considering whether to ask someone to move the raft now or wait until dawn to deal with it, he suddenly found that the rebels' raft seemed to be "hung" on the water fence very firmly.

In the past, the rebels' rafts were pushed by the water flow and leaned loosely on the water fence. As long as they kept pushing out with a wooden stick, they could push the raft downstream.

But this time, the black raft was close to the sharp wooden stakes, and it didn't move at all despite the waves.

He bent down and looked carefully, and finally found out the reason - the rafts used by the rebels this time had a circle of cold steel nails on the edge compared to the previous rafts.

The young lieutenant was stunned for a moment, and suddenly realized that the rebels wanted to nail these black rafts firmly on the sharp wooden stakes.

Several terrible possibilities immediately popped up in his mind. He turned his head and wanted to warn, but it was too late.

Right in front of the young lieutenant, the black raft burst into death and exploded.

The blazing flames engulfed the lieutenant and strangled his shouts in his throat. The shock wave tore the lieutenant's body apart, and threw his remains and tons of river water into the sky.

Even the sentry in the trench was thrown over by the air wave.

Then, drops of water fell into the trench with pieces of meat and wood chips, just like a rain.

There was no need for a warning, as everyone on Margit Island was awakened by a deafening explosion.

Even the citizens and soldiers as far away as the Kings' Castle heard the thunder coming from upstream.

Even the officers and soldiers of Tiefeng County who were ambushing behind the river embankment smelled the smell of gunpowder smoke and sulfur rushing towards their faces, like the breathing of hell.

In the fortifications on the river bank, Mason, who had been staring at the Newlon clock in his hand and desperately praying that the delay device would not malfunction, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh my God! It's so powerful!" The battle-hardened Gesar Adonis was shocked by Mason's movements. "Major, you...how much gunpowder did you use?"

Mason felt a little ashamed, "I didn't know what the effect of underwater blasting would be, and I didn't have time to experiment. Just in case, I just used more... If all three delay devices fail, it will be a big loss."

"It malfunctioned? Didn't it explode loudly?" Geza laughed. "You did a good job, Major. I think after this battle, your military rank will be higher than that of Veneta boy."

Mason was even more ashamed, "Actually... there was still a problem... the time of the explosion was much later than expected... the delay device was still too unreliable. I thought at least one of the three would work, but now It seems that you are lucky if one of the three works..."

"Okay," Gesa waved his hand, "Stop being so coy. There is only success or failure on the battlefield, not luck. Send the signal and let the fleet dispatch."

"Yes." Mason raised his hand in salute.

On the river embankment, the beacon fire that had been prepared was immediately lit.

But in fact, there was no need to send a signal at all. The earth-shattering explosion was the clearest instruction.

…

[Upstream of Ten Arrows River, far away]

As soon as Samu Jinfu heard the muffled thunder coming from the distance, he immediately rushed to the deck.

"Drum roll!" he yelled, "weigh anchor!"

The deafening sound of war drums sounded on the river.

"Weigh anchor!"

"Weigh anchor!"

"Weigh anchor!"

The voices of the officers on each ship repeating their orders echoed on the water.

The seven warships converted from flat-bottomed barges from Tiefeng County-the only water force of the new army-no longer hide their heads and tails.

The sailors shouted slogans and turned the winch. With the tooth-breaking sound of wooden groaning, the rusty anchor emerged from the water.

Oars protruded from the oar holes on both sides of the ship and began to slap the water.

Amidst the sound of drums that encouraged people to paddle vigorously, the first formation of the "Navy" of the Republic of Plato sailed down the river and sailed toward Margit Island in a mighty manner.

On the leading warship, Lannis, commander of the fifth battalion, stepped onto the deck and stood side by side with Samkin.

…

At the same time, on the west bank of the Ten Arrows River, a thunderous war cry also erupted.

A short figure jumped out of the river embankment, shouting at the top of his lungs: "Fight for the blood wolf!"

Countless people responded with the same high-pitched voice, as if they were shouting from the river embankment:

"Uukhai!"

"Uukhai!!"

"Uukhai!!!"

The short figure picked up a sampan from the ground and rushed to the other side of the river first.

Behind him, as if they had appeared out of thin air, hundreds of soldiers carried large boats, boats, and sampans, rushing down the embankment and rowing hard to the other side of the river.

…

Gesa, who was on the front line to supervise the battle, heard the battle cry of the Tiefeng County Regiment’s 1st Battalion and groaned angrily, “How can we shout like this even though no one is here?”

"You're used to this, and you can't change it for a while," Mason tried his best to smooth things over. "Next time, I'll ask them to shout 'Fight for the Republic' instead."

"Is there anything to change?" Gesa smiled half-heartedly, "If we can capture Margit Island, you can shout whatever you want from now on."

…

Marget Island is neither close nor far.

To those on the shore, Tiefeng County's boat was unnervingly slow.

But in the eyes of the Tiefeng County soldiers who had been holding back their energy for several days, they were approaching the other side of the river extremely quickly.

The "blocking stakes" defense line installed by the Federation Province people on the shoal has been blown open with a gap of four to five meters wide.

Although the horse-blocking posts around the gap were not uprooted, they were blown up like dog teeth and were swaying here and there.

The short figure took the lead as the "boat", rushed straight into the gap, grabbed the beach, and then jumped into the trench and disappeared.

Other warriors in boats and sampans, inspired by the "centurion", also roared and fought towards the river bank.

On the river, the only few large boats kept a considerable distance from the gap opened by the blasting ship.

And all the large boats were concentrated on the right wing of the battle line, which was on the south side.

Firstly, because the large boat has a wide hull and a deep draft, if there are broken wooden piles under the water surface of the gap, the big boat will get stuck in the gap if it wants to pass through.

Secondly, Tribune Mason assigned more important tasks to the few large boats.

Behind each large boat, there is a cable towed.

In order to prevent the small boat from being swept over by the cable, the position of the large boat was arranged at both ends of the battle line.

On the big boat, the sergeant in charge of the helm had to be careful not to scratch other boats, and at the same time be careful not to be scratched by the cables towed by other large boats. The task was arduous, so each one was carefully selected.

Even the manpower within Tiefeng County was insufficient, and Mason had to borrow some personnel who were good at operating ships from other infantry regiments.

Therefore, the large boat, which should obviously be faster, crosses the river more slowly than the small boat.

The short figure at the head had already entered the trenches of the Lian Provincial Man, and the slow boat slowly reached the other side of the river.

But when the boats were close to the horse-blocking stakes, they immediately became active and began to destroy the horse-blocking stakes south of the blasting point.

The soldiers standing at the bow of the boat finally got a chance to show their skills. They stood on the swaying boat and threw lassoes accurately at the wooden stakes.

When throwing, they held two ropes in their hands.

When the lassoes were thrown, they quickly tied the lassoes on the two adjacent horse-blocking stakes together, and then tied one end of the lasso to the cable towing the boat, and the other end to the boat.

After doing all this, the sergeant on the boat tore off the lampshade of the lantern at the stern.

On the west bank of the river bank, Tamas finally waited for the agreed signal.

"Turn!" Tamas shouted and ordered, "Boys! Turn!"

Behind the river bank, out of sight of the island defenders, the capstan that Woods Frank spent several days building began to exert its power.

The soldiers of Tiefeng County and Baishan County raised their whips high, made up their minds, and hit the bulls on the capstan hard.

The bulls took heavy steps, and the huge capstan slowly turned.

The thick cable first slid on the ground like a python, and kept making crackling sounds.

At a certain moment, the cable suddenly tightened, and a slightly deflected "stick" jumped out of the water.

One end of the stick was tied to the pulley on the river bank, and the other end of the stick was tied to the sharp wooden stakes that the federal people had inserted into the riverbed.

In the face of the power magnified by gears and levers, the wooden stakes and chains that the federal people were proud of were not enough.

A dozen wooden stakes were pulled out of the shallows one by one by the capstan on the other side of the river, just like pulling carrots.

Seeing that the plan was effective, the soldiers on the longboat shouted enthusiastically.

"Next! Next!" Tamas on the riverbank shouted anxiously, "Cut the chains! Cut the chains!"

The soldiers on the other side of the river seemed to have heard the shouts of the acting commander, or they might have remembered their duties.

After a short celebration, the second large boat began to repeat the previous round of operations.

At the same time, engineers on each large boat jumped into the water with axes on their backs, chopping the chains that were not blown off.

On the other side, the soldiers of the second battalion also transported buoys, sheepskin rafts, sealed wooden barrels and other building materials down the riverbank.

They tied the cables to stones and threw them into the river as anchors to fix floating objects such as buoys and sheepskin rafts.

Then they used wooden boards and iron nails to connect the floating objects.

A simple floating bridge began to extend to the other side of the river at a speed visible to the naked eye.

…

On the other side, on the island of Margit, Lieutenant Colonel Raymond Montecuccoli, who rushed to the scene as soon as possible, was horrified to find that the situation on the island of Margit had just begun, and it was already in danger.

He had to make a decision immediately.

[In the new week, the author ordered a song [New Man] for himself]

[The Ottomans used the winch to pull the wood stakes once on the island of Malta. And in the Great Siege of Malta, the Ottomans also reproduced the land boat. The scale and efficiency of this land boat were even greater than that of Constantinople. However, the ending of the Great Siege of Malta was the opposite of the ending of Constantinople in 1453. The Ottomans suffered a great defeat, so this land boat was not recorded in history]

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