Chapter 579 Siege (Thirty-One)

Under the cover of night, a small boat drifted down from upstream silently, without lighting or paddling, and quietly anchored on the shore.

In the darkness, Winters crossed the river bank and walked towards the boat, followed by Mason and Bart Shilling.

In the distance, there were faint lights flickering in the north and northeast.

That was the Bishop's Fort on Margit Island and the "Castle" battery at the southernmost end of the new city, conveying messages.

Both forts are currently in the hands of the enemy, and they are mutually supportive.

On the river beach below the castle battery, the remains of a barge can be vaguely seen.

The part of the hull above the waterline has almost been burned clean, leaving only a charred bottom, lying lifelessly on the mudflat, like a collapsed tombstone.

Among the seven warships of the new army, three more warships suffered the same fate.

However, with the crew's strenuous efforts to save them, they did not drift into the enemy's defense zone, but ran aground on the river beach controlled by their own side, and were then recovered by friendly forces on the shore and turned into part of the fortifications.

The warships transformed from cargo ships were still too weak in front of real warships.

The muskets of the new army hit the hull of the Union Province people, leaving only a little flesh wound.

The cannons equipped on the Union Province warships had devastating power for the new army ships.

It was even difficult to drag the Union Province people into hand-to-hand combat - the side of the new army warships was too short, only slightly higher than the lower deck of the Union Province warships, and ladders were needed to jump on board.

Not to mention that the Union Province warships also had poop and forecastle.

At the critical moment, Samukin, who was in charge of commanding the new army navy, made an amazing decision.

He ordered the command ship he was on to beat the war drums and rush straight towards the enemy ships.

Things happened so fast that there was no time to communicate with flag signals. When the other six new army warships saw the command ship rushing towards the enemy ship, they also stopped retreating and turned to fight.

This time, the federal sailors were thrown into disarray. They fired several rounds of broadside volleys, which saw the "rebel" boats being riddled with holes, but they could not slow down the enemy at all.

In the end, the captain of the federal warship decided to retreat and distance himself from the "rebel" boats.

It was not that the federal captain was afraid of boarding battles, but because the crazy momentum of the boat rushing towards him made him think it was a fire ship.

The decision of the federal captain gave the new army a glimmer of hope on the surface.

Because it was not just firepower and tonnage, in terms of speed, the new army's inland barges were also inferior to the federal navy's paddle warships, and the wind direction was also unfavorable to the new army.

If they just ran away, they would only be caught up by the federal warships, and the decks would be cleaned one by one with cannons.

Instead, the small boats of the new army took the initiative to fight, catching the federal people off guard and forcing the latter's large ships to retreat.

Taking advantage of the temporary retreat of the federal warships, Samujin ordered the abandonment of four severely damaged warships and instructed the other three less damaged warships to retreat upstream.

With the strenuous rescue of the new army sailors, the three severely damaged warships successfully rushed to the beach on the west bank of the Ten Arrow River and ran aground in their own control area. The most important thing is that the crew evacuated safely, and even the wounded were carried ashore.

But there was still a ship that was too hot and had to be abandoned directly.

The abandoned ship drifted all the way to the "castle" turret at the southernmost end of the new city of the Kings Castle.

Perhaps to mock the "rebels", the federal people did not recycle it and left it on the beach.

And all this was just the beginning.

As the federal "navy" made its debut, with only one warship, it severely damaged the inland fleet that the Palatians had worked so hard to put together.

Therefore, the confidence of the federal people seemed to swell.

During the day the next day, they once again dispatched warships to intercept the new army boats that were transporting supplies to the island, and tried to completely destroy the "rebel" ships stranded on the river beach.

However, this time, Richard Mason, who was prepared, taught the federal navy a good lesson.

Although the new army artillery suffered considerable losses in the artillery battle the night before, the gunners who could still go into battle were still injured;

However, the earth wall against the wooden wall, the long-barreled gun against the short-barreled gun, the fixed dead against the floating position, after all, the wooden wall, the short-barreled gun, and the movable turret could not hold up first.

After several large holes were dug out of the hull, the [Marco Good Luck] withdrew from the battle in a panic and fled to the dock of the Fortress of the Kings.

If it weren't for the fact that this warship named "Good Luck" was really lucky and was not hit below the waterline, perhaps this federal warship that was still showing off its might the night before would have to go to the river beach to accompany her enemies the next day.

From then on, the Federation never dared to expose its warships to the range of the new army's artillery - at least during the day.

At night, the Southern Front would still send surface troops to go upstream from the channel on the east side of Margit Island.

Sometimes they would send large ships carrying artillery to harass the new army's positions on the west bank;

Sometimes they would send small boats full of flammable materials to destroy the floating bridge that the new army was building.

Obviously, the Southern Front knew very well that if they watched the new army build the floating bridge, it would only be a matter of time before Margit Island was completely lost.

So even at considerable risk, the Southern Front insisted on sending ships to interfere with the new army's actions, especially to slow down the construction progress of the floating bridge.

Affected by this, the new army's floating bridge has not been completed so far.

Mason was also very troubled by this.

The new army's artillery position is located on the west bank of the Ten Arrow River, which can block the river on the west side of Margit Island to a certain extent.

But Margit Island is an island in the middle of the river, and both sides are navigable.

For the river on the other side, the cannons set up on the west bank of the Ten Arrow River are powerless.

Mason did consider moving the cannons to the island, so that the water surface in both directions could be blocked at the same time.

But in the end, he gave up the idea.

First, it was too difficult to move the cannons to the island, and second, once the cannons were moved up, it would be more difficult to move them down than to move them up.

Considering the risks involved, Mason did not act rashly.

So when Winters arrived at the front, Mason was preparing the second plan - iron chains across the river.

That is, use an iron chain across the river to completely block the waterway.

If this plan can really be realized, then the new army can work between Margit Island and the west bank without interference.

The problem is that the iron materials needed to make the chains can only be transported from the rear.

But the siege troops have already brought a huge burden to the supply line, and it is simply too much to transport iron materials.

In fact, Mason also tried to make ropes with materials that were easily available on the front line, such as flax, leather, and bark.

However, after the southern army overturned the fireboat with hemp ropes the night before, they immediately responded the next night by sending a manned boat to cut the rope first, and then sending the fireboat to burn the pontoon bridge.

So after going around in circles, Mason finally found that he had to use iron ropes.

But the iron materials could not be transported.

The only solution Mason could think of was to solve the problem of food and grass on the front line and free up the transportation capacity of the baggage troops.

At the same time, try to collect iron materials on the front line as much as possible.

However, the new army marched all the way to the Kings Castle and then attacked the city, and almost did not put much effort into "receiving".

Many towns in Xilin Province just changed their flags, and then everything was the same.

There are still many towns that did not even change their flags and still sat on the fence.

So Mason had to try to communicate with local towns, collect and purchase supplies, and coordinate and arrange routes.

On the way to the Castle of Kings, Winters met Andre.

Andre complained to Winters for a long time, complaining that during this period, he had returned to his "old job" of escorting baggage.

In Winters' view, Senior Mason has actually fallen into a vicious circle of "which came first, the chicken or the egg":

In order to rule Palatus, it is necessary to conquer the Castle of Kings;

In order to conquer the Castle of Kings, it is necessary to draw resources from the Province of Xilin;

In order to draw resources, it is necessary to establish effective rule in the Province of Xilin...

For Winters, the more serious problem than the vicious circle of "conquering the Castle of Kings first, or ruling Palatus first" is the matter of "establishing effective rule", which is not only completely beyond the ability of a front-line command, but also exceeds the authority that a front-line command should have.

In other words, in order to solve the endless new problems, Senior Mason has turned the "siege command" into the de facto government of the New Republic in the Province of Xilin.

The National Assembly in the rear had not yet decided how to take over the towns, and the messengers from the siege front were already issuing orders to the autonomous cities in the Xilin Province.

And all of this was just for an "iron chain", which made Winters at a loss for words.

But Winters had no intention of blaming the senior, because just by seeing Mason's haggard face, he knew that the senior was trying to solve problems, one after another.

In fact, he thought that Gaisa Adonis should check for Mason.

But the problem was that Gaisa Adonis didn't think this was a problem at all - and this might be a bigger problem.

However, no matter how big the problem was, it had nothing to do with Richard Mason, because in Mason's view, his mission was to solve the problem at hand.

In fact, in addition to "moving the cannon to the island" and "crossing the river with iron chains", Mason had a third plan:

The artillery position moved forward until it moved to the position where the Ten Arrow River, which was divided into two by Margit Island, merged into one again, directly blocking the route between Margit Island and the Castle of the Kings.

Just by taking a look at it, Winters understood why this seemingly simplest and most reasonable plan was ranked third.

Because the ideal location for "blocking the route between Margit Island and the Fortress of the Kings" already has a fort on it - the "Fortress" fort, which was built by the Federation at the southernmost end of the new city.

In other words, this has become a question of "which came first, the chicken or the egg".

To block the waterway, you have to attack the "Fortress" fort first;

To attack the Fortress fort, you will be flanked by the Bishop's Fort on Margit Island;

And to capture Margit Island, you have to block the waterway first.

For a moment, Winters even began to feel sorry for Senior Mason.

On the other hand, he became more and more convinced that the Federation did not randomly choose a few locations and build a few forts.

It is very likely that the current predicament faced by the new army was designed by the enemy.

This has to be mentioned again about the battle situation on Margit Island.

If we regard Margit Island and Ten Arrow River as two independent battlefields, then the intensity of the battle on Ten Arrow River is nothing compared to Margit Island.

In Andre's words - when he said this, Andre's expression was disgusted and serious - it was "a mess".

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