The first battle in the 35th chapter

The first battle came suddenly and brutally.

Just in the sight of the defenders, two sentry towers collapsed. The rat man hollowed out the underground, causing the buildings built by the dwarves to collapse instantly. Prince Hoga once ordered the scouts stationed at the sentry tower to retreat immediately after they discovered that the enemy attacked. But the reality is that even if they received such an order, the troops in the sentry tower still had no chance to retreat.

Now, the place where the sentry tower is located has become two huge caves, just like some kind of huge existence poking two holes directly on the ground with his fingers. Countless rats have drilled up from these two holes.

When Prince Hoga came to the high place of the city to observe the enemy situation, what he saw was no longer an army, but a tide. Countless rats in ragged and dirty clothes covered every piece of land within their field of vision, so they could not even see a gap. These rats obviously prepared for the attack carefully, and they even knew the range of the dwarf cannons, because they were now densely arranged outside the range of the dwarf cannons.

"Prince!" Just as Prince Hoga was observing the enemy's army under the city, a soldier hurriedly caught up from behind. "Underground...the rat man launched an attack!"

"The beard is on!" Prince Hoga cursed. He knew that these rats were definitely not bluffing this time. Just from the scale of the city, the number of rats was more than five times that of the defenders. If underground attacks were added, then the army mobilized by the rats this time was conservatively estimated to be ten times that of the dwarves.

But he was the parent and child of the Supreme King, and his most noble and brave blood flowed from the dwarves. He would never give in to these dirty rats.

"Cannon is in place!" The prince's cry of Hoga echoed above the city. "Long bearded warriors, attack!"

...

Ashu Rufate stared at the dwarf city in the distance.

From the perspective of human beings, the dwarves are masters of craftsmanship and construction. If the architectural style of the elves is beautiful, then the architectural style of the dwarves is exquisite. Karak Grom is a favorable proof of this view. At this moment, what stands in front of Ashurufate is a magnificent city built against the mountain. No, the word "built against the mountain" cannot be correctly described in the correct way, but it should be said that this city itself was built by hollowing out inside the mountain. This city has no wall in the ordinary sense, because the rock wall of the mountain itself is the best wall.

And this is a city ready for war.

According to the reconnaissance of the Assassin in the Essin clan, coupled with his own observations and analysis, there is no doubt that Carac Grom is an extremely easy-to-defense and difficult-to-attack city.

The first line of defense is the empty plain in front of you.

Like humans, the dwarves cleared a large open space in front of the city, which is exactly the limit of the range of the dwarves' cannon. This is like a road to death, because there is no hidden place here. To attack the dwarves' city, you can only pass through this open space - passing in front of the dwarves' cannons that the dwarves are proud of.

The rat people have tried to dig a shallow layer directly under the wall of Karak-Grom to avoid enemy artillery fire. But the problem is that there is a hard rock layer that cannot be excavated below this open space. Although the rat people are also a race that is good at digging, it takes years or even decades to dig this rock layer.

Although it is a long distance away, Ashu Rufate can still see the rock walls of the mountains in the distance. There are many gun doors and windows on these rock walls, revealing half of the black holes of muzzles. These gun doors and windows can be closed. No one knows how many windows are not open yet.

Anyone knows that if you are condescending, long-range weapons such as cannons, muskets, bows and arrows can obtain better shooting vision and a longer shooting distance. If you shoot at the top of the city, the one who suffers from the city will definitely suffer from it.

At the end of this open space, a series of complex trenches were dug. This is essentially the same as the moats of human cities, but because the mountains lack rivers, these trenches were not filled with water, but were added with more dangerous things such as iron thorns, bamboo sticks, grease, etc. It can be seen that the dwarves' fortifications were very complete and meticulously built. Every drop of sweat they shed when they built these fortifications, the enemy who attacked the city must repay them with blood.

To attack Karak Grom, you must first rush through the open space in artillery fire, then fill all the trenches, and finally try to attack the city itself. It sounds like attacking an ordinary human city (or an elves city), but in fact it has essentially different.

This is because whether it is humans or elves, the main protection measures for cities or fortresses are city walls. Due to the development of new construction technologies, especially after the popularization of the construction of the urn city, attacks on city gates have become less mainstream. Usually, the main method of attackers' attack is to "cross" the city wall, followed by "destroying" the city wall. The main war machinery for climbing over the city wall is cloud ladders, earth slopes, siege towers, and destroying the city walls can only rely on long-range weapons such as cannons and catapults.

Theoretically, as long as you have sufficient troops and enough siege equipment, you can always occupy the city wall. But that is the general situation. For Carac Grom, this theory is not valid.

This is because the city was excavated from the mountain peak. It is itself a building with a "top". Any siege equipment that uses "crossing" as the main attack method is invalid.

Weapons targeting destroying the city walls are also meaningless, because no matter what kind of artillery is, it is impossible to blow a mountain. The thickness of the outer wall of Carac Grom exceeds the power of all artillery.

The only thing that can be attacked is the city gate.

To attack this city, soldiers must first brave the enemy's artillery fire, pass through the open space, and fill in obstacles and traps in that area. After doing this, soldiers can push the city-breaking hammer to the city gate and break open the city gate. Finally, they can rush into the city and launch a full-scale offensive.

Although it's troublesome enough, things are not that simple yet.

The long-range firepower arranged on the walls of ordinary cities is always limited. With ten steps one cannon (this is the limit of cannons arranged on the walls), a city with a front of one thousand steps can only be equipped with at most one hundred cannons. However, Karak-Grom is different. It is a city dug up from a mountain, so it has a complex structure. With more layers, cannons can be placed many times more than ordinary city walls.

Ashu Rufate has identified at least four floors here, which means that the dwarves have four times more firepower than ordinary cities. Of course, this number is only a lot more.

In short, it would be a nightmare to attack such a city under normal circumstances. If you change the environment, Ashrufate will adopt the normal (and commonly used) siege tactics. Surround the city and wait slowly for the defenders to run out of food. When the dwarves are so hungry that they can't stand, then any defense becomes a decoration that can be easily conquered.

But this approach cannot be done without considering the time issue. Because the dwarves have very advanced excavation skills, and because they use advanced gunpowder excavation methods, they have the ability to dig more quickly on hard rock formations. This is beyond the reach of rats. Once the siege begins, the dwarves will probably dig an outward underground passage from the rock formation and transport a large amount of food and supplies. There are even the worst reinforcements.

Ashu Rufate shook his head and drove away all kinds of unnecessary imaginations from his mind. Everything is illusory, and the current situation is that he must conquer Karak Grom in a short-term siege.

It must be said that fortunately this city is divided into two parts: underground and above ground. The attacks launched from the ground are far less dangerous than those on the ground.

"Lord... Lord!" A soldier reflected an obvious fact to Ashrufate in a nervous tone. "They... they came out of the city to fight!"

The city gate opened wide, and a whole group of dwarf soldiers walked out and formed a square array at the entrance of the city gate.

The dwarves did not close the city gate and blocked the city gate with stones or something? Ashu Rufate was surprised, but he immediately understood that this cowardly and simple defense idea did not belong to the dwarves. The dwarves' stubbornness and courage were both famous. And this approach was not good.

Asu Ruffat has experienced many siege battles. He knew that on the surface, closing the dead city gate was a very clever approach, but in fact it was equivalent to giving up his initiative. Thomas had long said that taking the initiative and taking advantage of the opportunity to counterattack is the essence and right path of defensive operations. Simply huddling in the turtle shell and being beaten is more harmful than good. Excellent generals will not make such a choice.

Anyway, a tentative attack must be launched.

Ashu Rufate made a gesture to a general beside him. The latter immediately understood, and he turned around and shouted at the back.

A short while later, a large group of slaves passed through the military formation of the ratmen and came to the front line. This time, the slaves and rats were different from usual. Although they still carried collars representing the identity of the slave and dragged a small chain, they were no longer bare-handed. Some were equipped with rough-made short spears and shields, but most of them were holding simple stone catapults.

For the rat man, this is not something that goes against tradition. In fact, when a civil war occurs in a rat man clan, the weaker side often uses this method to enhance the combat power of slave rats. Although it is regarded as an unexpected gain, the most powerful slaves can indeed knock down a small number of enemy troops. In such cases, the bravest slaves will be given the opportunity to advance to the clan warrior class. However, in any case, the slave rats who fled in battle will not receive any mercy.

Ashu Rufate is now accustomed to this practice of the rat-man society. In fact, perhaps the Rat-man army is not very good in other aspects, but these slaves and rats are perfect cannon fodder on the battlefield and are especially suitable for some tasks that are sent to death. In a sense, this result is even a kind of compassion for slaves and rats. Because the life of the Rat-man slaves is painful and miserable, ending this life can be considered lucky.

The slave rats were ready at this time. Ashu Rufate made a gesture, and thousands of slave rats immediately began the first round of charge.

The dwarf's cannon fired.

It was not one, two cannons. At this moment, Karak Grom's artillery fired collectively. The roar of the cannon even made people feel that "the mountain is about to collapse." Countless solid shells swept through the attacking slave rat group with terrible kinetic energy. Wherever the shells reached, there was a piece of scattered limbs and flesh. No flesh and blood could resist the power of the cannon.
Chapter completed!