King of Mercenaries

Chapter 280: Artillery clashes

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"I... I... I want..." The Duke of Saxony was too angry to speak, but pointed at Marin who stood on the high platform and directed the soldiers to shout slogans.

"My lord, what do you want?" Baron Doenitz, the adjutant of the Duke of Saxony, asked.

"I'm going to kill that kid Marlin!" Albrecht, Duke of Saxony, roared.

"My lord, didn't you promise His Majesty the emperor to only arrest him and give it to His Majesty?" As the deputy of the Duke of Saxony, Doenitz naturally knew some inside information.

"I don't care, this kid has humiliated me so much, I can only use his blood to wash away the shame. As for the emperor's intentions, let him go to hell!" The Duke of Saxony was already filled with anger.

"Okay, as you wish!"

"Order the knights to charge immediately, break the enemy line, and capture that little bastard Marin alive. I will put him in the dungeon and whip him a thousand times a day! A thousand times!" the Duke of Saxony continued to roar.

Denitz was a little confused, didn't he just say that he was going to kill him? Why was it changed to capture alive and then tortured

At this moment, the Duke of Saxony was stunned by the loud insults, and he didn't know what he was talking about...

However, Dönitz was not dizzy. So, he grabbed the Duke of Saxony who was still trying to get mad:

"Lord Duke, in my opinion, don't send cavalry to charge. The opponent's battle formation is very neat. If you charge at this time, even if you win, you will suffer huge losses..."

"Huh? Then what do you say?"

"My lord, we still have artillery!"

"Oh, yes, we still have artillery, and I was so confused by that little bastard. Come on, let the vehicles carrying the artillery come to the front of the formation quickly, let's use the artillery to disrupt their formation..." the Duke of Saxony ordered .

The artillery of the Saxons does not have a gun mount, nor does it have fixed ears for the artillery like the French. Their cannons are all transported in carriages with only barrels.

When crossing the river, the carriage is the last in line. Because the carriage loaded with artillery is very cumbersome, you need to be very careful when crossing the river. Because, the pontoon bridge is not a real bridge. The real bridge is fixed, so there is no problem passing a carriage. And floating bridge is easy to sway from side to side, very unstable. When a carriage loaded with artillery crosses a pontoon bridge, special care is required and it must pass slowly. Therefore, it is generally the last in the army to cross the river.

Therefore, the carriages loaded with artillery were the last batch to cross the river, and arrived at the battlefield relatively late. When Marin was cursing there, the carriage loaded with artillery just crossed the river completely.

After a while, the carriages loaded with artillery began to drive to the front of the Saxon army formation, about 180 meters away from the Marin phalanx. Then, a group of gunners and other sergeants helped lift the bronze gun barrel from the carriage, and dug holes on the land in front of the formation.

Because the recoil force of the artillery is large, when using the artillery, it is necessary to dig a hole in front of the formation, fix the bottom of the barrel, and let the ground absorb the strong recoil force of the artillery...

Marin saw that the opponent was setting up artillery, and quickly ordered his artillery commander:

"Gao Qi, quickly order the artillery unit to step forward. Pay attention, our artillery must face the opponent's artillery position, and the purpose is to kill the opponent's artillery as much as possible!"

"Yes, my lord!"

Soon, the 50 front-mounted three-pound guns that were originally hidden in the phalanx were pulled to the front of the formation one after another, facing the position of the Saxon artillery position...

"What?" The Duke of Saxony, who was observing the enemy's situation in front of the battle, was taken aback. When he came this time, he brought a total of 50 small bronze breech-mounted guns, one-pounder, two-pounder, and three-pounder, all of which were bronze breech-mounted "Franco cannons." The reason why so many artillery were brought was to blast away the battle formation of Marin's army.

The Duke of Saxony is not incompetent, on the contrary, he is very talented. After deciding to go to war, he sent someone to inquire about Marin's tactics from the earliest people who served in Marin's original mercenary regiment.

A former member of the Hoffman Mercenary Corps who returned home after participating in the Italian War briefly introduced to the Duke of Saxony the method of their formation. So, the Duke of Saxony knew that what Marin was best at was the well-disciplined infantry phalanx. Such a phalanx, the plate armor knights will indeed suffer a lot of losses when they charge up. So, he brought over the artillery used by most of the infantry of the Principality of Saxony, just to use the artillery to tear a gap in Marin's phalanx, disrupt the opponent's formation, and then let the knights charge to completely destroy the enemy formation .

Then, to his surprise, Marin also dragged out 50 artillery pieces...

The Duke of Saxony was still in a daze, but his adjutant Doenitz panicked:

"My lord, please go to the back and command!" Doenitz changed his expression after seeing Marin's artillery moved out. Because, at this time, the armies of the two sides were about 180 meters apart. The position where he and the Duke of Saxony are standing now is exactly within the range of the opponent's artillery... If they are hit by the opponent's shell... Doenitz dare not think about it... So he pulled the Duke of Saxony and wanted to retreat...

Albrecht, Duke of Saxony, thought for a while and understood what Doenitz meant. As an old and cunning duke, Duke Albrecht didn't want to die under the gunfire of the opponent for no reason. So, he followed Doenitz back to the middle of the Saxon army without remonstrance.

On Marin's side, Marin also felt the danger. Although the range of the Saxon artillery is not far, it is also 200 meters. Standing at the forefront, absolutely within the range of enemy artillery. So, he also wanted to retreat. However, he didn't want his subordinates to see that he was afraid, so as not to affect morale. So, he winked at Kohler who was following him. Kohler quickly reacted and immediately came up to persuade:

"My lord, the other party has artillery, and it is dangerous in front of the battle. Please go to the back to command!"

"No, I won't go, I want to face the danger together with the soldiers!" Marin said shamelessly. This speech moved the soldiers who heard it by the side. It's just that they didn't know that Marin was just pretending.

"No, Lord Earl, your safety is the most important priority in East Frisia. Therefore, it is the best choice for you to sit in the middle of the town!"

"But my brothers..." Ma Linman looked at the musketeers around him with a "full expression", full of affection...

"It doesn't matter, Earl, you can go to the back. You are a nobleman, and it will be fine if you get hurt!" At this time, there were musketeers in the front row who took the initiative to rescue Marin...

Marin still had to put on a show, but Kohler became impatient, and directly copied Kahn and waved. Then, Kahn threw away the mace, directly picked up Marin, and strode back.

On Kahn's shoulders, Marin is still "struggling":

"No, I want to go back, fight side by side with my brothers, live and die together..."

After some performances, Marin retreated to a safe position. The musketeers and gunners in the front row were very moved by Marin's performance. You know, in this era, the lives of ordinary people are as cheap as worthless, and the lives of nobles are very valuable. Marin has repeatedly stated that he wants to live and die with these humble civilians, which really touched many soldiers...

After a period of time, Marin's artillery, which was later deployed, was prepared before the Saxon artillery. Because Marin's artillery is flexible and has wheels, which is very convenient. However, the Saxons had to dig holes and make visual inspections to arrange artillery, which was more troublesome.

Therefore, the 50 three-pound guns under Marin's command took the lead in roaring:

"Boom—boom—boom—" the iron ball shells whistled and flew towards the Saxon artillery positions...

As a result, the artillery took the lead in the dialogue between the armies of the two sides...