In the following time, Sultan asked the remaining officers of Ottoman to formulate an siege plan.
Everyone got together to discuss and decided to copy Vitus's siege strategy:
At a position four hundred steps (six hundred meters) away from the city wall, dig the first parallel trench, then dig numerous communication trenches, and then dig the second parallel trench...
At first, the excavation work went relatively smoothly. It was difficult for the defenders' artillery to hit the soldiers digging the trenches at a distance of 400 steps.
As Parallel Trench extends to both wings, Mamluk encounters two problems.
The first is the southwest area. The terrain here is low-lying. The rainfall in the past few days caused a small pond to accumulate here. When the trench extended nearby, groundwater mixed with mud surged up and was submerged up to the knees in an instant.
Under this situation, the trench could not be formed at all, and the piled up soil quickly flowed back into the trench. The soldiers complained and asked to bypass this low-lying area.
The second problem is the eastern area of Trace Italienne. This is a low hill. The woods and shrubs have been cleared in advance, and the view is wide.
A Outwork was built on the top of the hill, about 230 steps away from Trace Italienne, connected to each other by a low parapet.
Outwork occupies a small area and looks easy to attack. Sultan agreed to the suggestion of a close confidant and sent 3,000 people to launch a forcible attack in an attempt to capture this commanding height overlooking the battlefield.
"I feel like this attack is going to be lost." Elion stayed in a corner where no one was paying attention, using binoculars to observe the Mamluk soldiers who were in formation.
On the west side of Outwork is Main Fort, which can obtain fire support. The slope on the east side of Outwork is rugged and difficult to navigate, and is also not suitable as an attack direction. As a result, Mamluk was forced to launch an assault from the south.
Although they had an overwhelming numerical advantage, the attackers were unable to deploy their formation, and the first batch of troops invested was only 500.
With the sound of the attack horn, the soldiers ran up the hillside carrying wooden ladders, enduring artillery fire from both directions on the top of the hill and the west side (Main Fort).
Bang!
The shells roared towards them, and sometimes they would bounce up after landing on the ground, knocking down multiple soldiers in a row.
After several rounds of shelling, more than 200 soldiers were killed and blood stained the ground nearby. The survivors' morale collapsed and they evacuated the battlefield one after another.
Looking at the dejected soldiers, Elion discussed with the members of the mission:
"Their formation is too dense. Sometimes one shell kills more than ten people. The attack should be dispersed."
Mercenary Regiment's long reply, "Dispersed formations mean that fewer troops are put into attack each time and the chance of victory is lower. For this kind of fortress built on the top of a mountain, only a long-term siege can be adopted."
After some time, Mamluk launched another attack.
The officer's idea coincided with Elion, which was to increase the distance between each row of soldiers to weaken the damage of enemy artillery shells.
This time, the commando rushed to a distance of 70 steps from Outwork, but was fired upon by muskets and shotguns, killing all the soldiers in the front row. This tragic situation destroyed the will of the soldiers in the rear, and the second round of attack also failed. Helpless Afterwards, Sultan agreed to the request of officer Ottoman, avoided the obstructive Outwork, and focused his energy on dealing with Main Fort.
In order to solve the problem of stagnant water in the southwest, Mamluk soldiers dug a ditch to divert water into lower-lying areas.
After finishing this project, the time came to September 8th. Most of the soldiers had nothing to do and stayed in the camp in a daze. All the nearby residents fled. Sultan could not collect food and could only rely on sea transportation for supplies.
This time, the number of troops assembled by Sultan is as high as 42,000, and the total number of cavalry is close to 20,000. The number of the New Army is 13,000. The remaining troops have poor combat effectiveness and are suitable for some auxiliary work.
Different from the rumors, this time the Mamluk army did not carry elephants. There are two reasons:
At first, Mamluk tried to load artillery on the back of the elephant or place musketeers on the elephant sedan, but the results were not satisfactory. During the battle with Ottoman, the elephant was often frightened by the artillery, lost control of his emotions, and in turn trampled his own military formation, causing unimaginable chaos.
The second reason is that they eat too much. The food consumption of each elephant is equivalent to fifty soldiers. If you include supporting logistics personnel, the cost will increase.
Subsequently, Sultan plans to dismantle the elephant army and reward the remaining dozens of elephants to the nobles as ornamental animals.
"This military branch should never have existed in the first place."
For a long time, Mamluk lacked the tradition of using war elephants. Until ten years ago, then Sultan suddenly had the idea to equip elephants and camels with artillery to enhance the mobility of Artillery.
The practical value of Camel Gun is higher than that of Elephant Artillery, and it has become a fixed system of the New Army, with a quantity of nearly 400 doors. Camel Gun has a small diameter and is cast The difficulty of making is much lower than that of the conventional Field Gun and Siege Cannon. Egypt craftsmen can cast it by themselves and do not need to spend money to purchase it from the Italy city-state.
If Camel Gun performs well this time, Sultan plans to expand its scale and use quantity to make up for the shortcomings of artillery quality.
"Speaking of which, the soldiers are about to dig the third Parallel Trench. I wonder what their situation is like?"
Sultan came to a slope with a wide view. Looking from a distance, the land to the south of Trace Italienne was covered with ravines. Countless soldiers were digging soil inside the trenches. The artillery above the battlements continued to fire in an attempt to delay the progress of trench digging.
Something is wrong.
They (Officer Ottoman) claimed that the trenches effectively blocked the defenders' long-range firepower. Why did my soldiers continue to suffer casualties?
According to the plan before the attack, after the second parallel trench was completed, the soldiers dug numerous communication trenches. These winding and complicated trenches extended towards the city wall. When the distance was reduced to a hundred steps, they began to dig the third parallel trench.
Today, the construction of the third Parallel Trench has not yet started, and some communication trenches are suppressed by the defenders' artillery.
The most serious casualties were in the cross fire coverage area of the two Trace Italienne convex angles. The defenders could fire from the front, left and right side at the same time, killing and injuring Mamluk soldiers who were digging in the ground.
Sultan was furious and announced that trench digging would be suspended and the servants would call a meeting with the corresponding officers.
Ottoman officer was deeply confused. Based on past experience, these tortuous and complicated traffic trenches should block longitudinal fire.
For some reason, the traffic trench dug this time happened to be exposed on the oblique firing line of Trace Italienne. As a result, some zigzag turning points became killing areas. When the soldiers rushed to the corner, the unshielded flanks were facing It is easy to aim at the defenders' guns. What's even more fatal is that because the terrain is slightly concave, the attackers can't see the defenders' shooting holes at all. By the time they can see clearly, they have already entered the precise shooting range of Three-Pounder, and they can hit every shot accurately.
It was the first time Sultan came into contact with this new concept of city defense. He was dizzy. He drank a glass of ice-cold Rosewater to moisten his throat. After calming down for a long time, he asked a question:
"Vitus attacked your town. Have you ever encountered such a situation?"
Ottoman The officers looked at each other and said, "It seems not. Our new city defense only thickens the wall, making it low and sloping to improve defense. However, the layout of the city wall is still a regular figure. There has never been such an irregular and concave polygon without geometric beauty."
Sultan suddenly realized.
"I seem to understand. The layout of the trenches should be adjusted according to the actual situation, but you will only copy past experience. Use the idea of attacking the conventional city defense layout to attack this weird-shaped fortress, which will waste our troops in vain."
Faced with the monarch's rebuke, officer Ottoman was worried about being punished, so he came up with an alternative plan: tunnel blasting.
"This is also Vitus's way of attacking our city wall. Digging a tunnel leading to the bottom of the city wall, piling up a lot of gunpowder, should be able to destroy a section of the city wall, and then let the infantry launch a close combat assault to capture the fortress."