The Rise of the European Emperor

Chapter 119 Return to Copenhagen

After returning the horses he had borrowed from the Teutonic States, Marin boarded the ship returning to the Copenhagen front. In addition to the 200 men he brought before, there are also 100 Mongolian horses from Eastern Europe presented by Na Meng Gerehan.

In order to load these horses, Chief Philip also specially dispatched a large number of Kirk sailboats in the port of Konigsberg to help transport the horses.

It's just that Philip didn't understand why Marin took a fancy to these dwarf Eastern European Mongolian horses. Although it is said that Eastern European Mongolian horses are much taller than the original Mongolian horses, with an average shoulder height of more than 1.5 meters, they are considered medium-sized horses, but such horses are still not popular in Europe.

Because, plate knights are popular in Europe. Most of the horses the knights ride are 1.6 and 1.7 meters high at the shoulders. The Eastern European Mongolian horse with a height of 1.5 meters and shoulders is regarded as a dwarf in front of European native horses, and it is difficult to carry a knight wearing a full set of plate armor.

Marin didn't say anything, after all, his vision was completely different from people of this era. Although the Mongolian horses of Eastern Europe are short, they are very suitable for light cavalry riding, and they are also very suitable for changing rides on the road. Because, in the case of not carrying people, it does not need to eat feed, and it is enough to eat some grass. Even if it is used for transfer, after packing people, it is enough to feed some soybeans or oats.

If you travel long distances and run long distances, this Mongolian horse breed is much stronger than European horses. The characteristics of European horses are that they are powerful and explosive, but have poor stamina. The plate knights were riding big European horses, and they had no strength to charge for two rounds. On the other hand, Mongolian horses in Eastern Europe can eat for a long time. Although, the short-term explosive power can't keep up with those high-ranking horses. However, relying on the advantages of low cost and quantity, coupled with the ability to run long distances, it is enough to become a nightmare for the enemy.

The newly prosperous Grand Duchy of Moscow suffered greatly. In the face of tens of thousands of Crimean Tatar cavalry, the Muscovites could not resist, and finally had to build a series of bunkers on the southern border, which were almost connected together and became Maozi's version of the Great Wall.

...

Today, the southern waters of the Baltic Sea have become the world of the coalition navy. Marin's fleet passed all the way without obstruction, not even a single Danish merchant ship was seen.

He naturally didn't know that the combined fleet had basically robbed all the Danish merchant ships in the month or so he went to Crimea. The total number of Danish merchant ships that were robbed was as high as 500. The few remaining merchant ships in Denmark were also so frightened that they took refuge in Oslo, the Kingdom of Norway, where the Crown Prince of Denmark was regent, and never showed up again. So, at this moment, not a single Danish ship appeared on the Baltic Sea. As long as they dare to appear, they will be robbed by the warships sent out by the United Fleet to cruise, even with people and ships...

When Marin rushed back to Copenhagen, he found that the coalition had not yet conquered Copenhagen. He came to the headquarters to learn about the battle situation for more than a month.

It turned out that for more than a month, Schwartz not only continued to bombard the Danish city wall with artillery, but also used troops and horses to carry out many storms, but he failed to capture it.

Fortunately, Schwartz was not stupid, and let the mercenaries of Lübeck and Hamburg take the lead during the storm. Therefore, although there were casualties, most of them were mercenaries from Lübeck and Hamburg.

However, the mercenaries of Lübeck and Hamburg are not fools. After two storms, the mercenaries found that Denmark had used a lot of people to defend the city. Even in the past month or so, after more than a dozen short-barreled Karen cannons have damaged a certain section of the city wall, the Danes will organize the people to repair and strengthen them overnight.

So, these wretched old oil mercenaries went directly to Copenhagen to capture the strong Danes, put swords around their necks, and let them take hoes and climb the city wall first.

The defenders of Copenhagen did not know, they thought that these Danish farmers were helping the enemy to siege the city. So they used a lot of bows and stones to attack the Danish peasants who were forced to climb the walls.

Schwartz also had no objection to the Lübeck and Hamburg mercenaries.

At the very least, this will consume the Danes' arrows and stones.

But the consequence of this is that the Danes around Copenhagen hate the mercenaries in Lübeck and Hamburg. Because the Danish peasants who were forced to climb the city wall killed and injured more than 2,000 people...

However, to the surprise of the Danish army, after some Danish peasants climbed the wall with difficulty, they did not attack the Danish defenders, but asked to join the Danish army and guard the wall together...

Then, the Danes learned that the enemy was driving their peasants to attack the city, instead of killing the Danish peasants who climbed the city wall, but directly accepted them. And those peasants, although forced to climb the city wall, were willing to immediately help the Danish army to fight the allied attack together...

After Marin learned about it, he did not blame Schwartz, but asked about the effect of artillery on the city wall.

"Master, I used a dozen of the original short-barreled cannons in total, and unloaded 10 long-barreled cannons from the ship to bombard the city wall together. The effect is average, because we destroyed the city wall in time, and the Danes would also Taking advantage of the darkness, we sent masons to repair the damaged part of the city wall and reinforce it."

"That is to say, our artillery will still cause damage to the city wall, right?"

"Yes!"

"Understood, you help me convey an order. Order the East Frisian Fleet to disassemble all the 18-pound naval guns on board and send them to the front..."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Schwartz was a little surprised.

"Since more than 20 cannons can only damage the city wall, then I will remove all 600 18-pound long-barreled naval guns on board and blast them together! We must blast the city wall!"

"But...it's not very good...Master, so many heavy artillery pieces will frighten allies..." Schwartz reminded Marin that at the beginning, they said to allies that there were only more than 300 heavy artillery pieces. It would be too scary to pull out all 600 heavy artillery pieces.

"Then... just pull 300 for me! 300 Hongyi cannons are enough to smash the city wall..." After speaking, Marin said to himself.

Next, the coalition troops and horses began a vigorous artillery transportation process. The 18-pounder is heavy, almost 1.8 tons. This is still the weight-reduced version. The old version weighs 2 tons.

Such heavy artillery, transport is also difficult. Therefore, transporting the artillery from the ship requires a lot of manpower, and even requires the use of moving pulleys.

After landing on the shore, we also need to look for a cart that can carry the heavy gun body. Everyone works together to push the gun under the city of Copenhagen, then lift it down, arrange it, and aim it at the city wall...

In this way, in the following days, under the command of Marin, the coalition forces suspended the offensive and concentrated on transporting artillery...

Marin has calculated that a salvo of 300 Hongyi cannons will cost 1,800 pounds of gunpowder (the ratio of gunpowder and shells is 1:3, which is the maximum charge, but the siege must use the maximum charge measured). This time, Marin only brought 400 tons of gunpowder made from saltpeter purchased from India and 100 tons of gunpowder purchased from various countries. Moreover, about 180 tons of gunpowder were used in previous naval and land battles (infantry guns and arquebuses). In other words, there is now only 320 tons of gunpowder remaining. After all, it was only enough for 300 Hongyi cannons to fire 400 salvos.

However, in addition to the need for gunpowder on the battleship, the musketeers on the infantry side also need a lot of gunpowder. Therefore, these 300 18-pound long-barreled guns cannot run out of gunpowder. Therefore, Marin decided to stop the shelling of the short-barreled 18-pounder Karen guns and save the gunpowder to supply the 300 long-barreled heavy guns that were used to bombard the city walls. Moreover, these long-barreled guns can fire up to 200 salvos. If Copenhagen's walls don't fall, there's no need for artillery.

Considering that the Danes would repair the city wall in the middle of the night, Marin decided that this time, the shelling would not stop in the middle of the night and would not give the Danes a chance to repair the city wall.

Fortunately, in addition to the consumption of gunpowder, which cannot be regenerated, iron ball cannonballs can be recovered overnight. Because, after the iron balls hit the city wall, most of them bounced off and landed on the ground outside the city wall. After dark, while the Danes were repairing the city walls, the coalition soldiers could have gone looking for my 18-pound iron balls that fell on the ground outside the city. Fortunately, the iron balls can be recycled, otherwise, the consumption of iron balls would be extremely astonishing...

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