Chechen hides behind a sandbag with a height of more than one person and tries to shrink up to avoid exposing himself to gunfire and bullets.

    This is the third day of the siege of Czar Russia and zaporoze Cossacks. In the first two days, the enemy did not attack the city on a large scale, but bombarded the city wall with small caliber artillery, destroying the battlements and wooden sheds on the city wall one by one.

    The Russian artillery fire was so urgent that on the first day of the siege, the wall of the north city was seriously damaged. One third of the crenels and wooden sheds were destroyed. Several shells even crossed the city wall and hit civilian houses near the inner city wall, causing a fire.

    Fortunately, his uncle sent people to put out the fire in time, which didn''t cause more confusion. After that, Pedro had people forcibly drive away the residents near the city wall and forcibly demolish the houses as materials for repairing the city wall. Even some people who call themselves aristocrats threaten to sue in Parliament.

    After that, sandbags were stacked on all the breaks. Cherchen found that the defense effect of sandbags on shells was much better than that of brick and stone city walls. The shells hit the bricks and stones, and the broken bricks and stones are easy to hurt people, while the penetration of the shells hit the sandbags is absorbed by the sand inside.

    So Chechen told Pedro about his discovery. After that, sandbags were stacked behind all the crenels, even those intact crenels.

    "I think that''s what happened today."

    Said Ruth, sitting next to Cherchen.

    Ruth now holds the position of team leader. Arrange Ruth and Chechen in a team, which is a kind of protection for Chechen by Pedro. Ruth was a veteran, experienced in combat and more calm.

    "I hope so. I hope the Czarists and Russians will come earlier." Chechen said, picking up a pistol on the ground and carefully checking whether the flint on it was good.

    "Children just love to play." Ruth seems to think that Chechen regards war as a child''s game.

    "No," Chechen waved to block uncle Ruth''s hand touching his hair, and then said, "it''s boring to shoot all day."

    "This is war!"

    Hearing what Chechen said, Ruth leaned against the sandbag behind him with emotion. When he was young, he had the same idea as Chechen. He was very tired of the way of war in which shells flew around all day. He wanted to fight with the enemy. But when his companion was cut off by his side and his fresh blood splashed all over him, he found that the happiest thing in the war was the "peace" - at least there was no blood and flesh flying, life and death.

    The old and young leaned against the sandbag and were lost in thought. But the gunfire outside the city wall gradually thinned out.

    "Cherchen and Ruth, get up quickly. The enemy will attack soon."

    On the tower with the broken roof, Chechen''s uncle Pedro shouted through the wooden window.

    Che Chen raised his head slightly and observed through the broken crenel.

    Then, before him was such a shocking scene:

    The original position of the gun position has been obliterated by a mass of gray. This gray is like a dark cloud all over the sky, pouring into the wall of Smolensk.

    This dark cloud is composed of the lowest militia in the Czar Russian army. Usually, they use axes, sticks and simple shields as weapons and as cannon fodder to consume the enemy''s ammunition and energy. Therefore, the enemies of Czar Russia jokingly call them "the Czar''s gray cattle". At this time, these "Czar''s gray animals" didn''t even take the simplest weapons. Each of them carried a bundle of straw with a thick waist of adults and slowly approached the wall.

    "Stop them. They want to fill the moat."

    Pedro was the first to understand the purpose of these soldiers carrying straw. He shouted and commanded the soldiers.

    Chechen and Ruth, the same team of musketeers, showed their heads behind the crenel and began to aim. In fact, there is no need to aim. The dark clouds are so dense that they can hit the target even with their eyes closed.

    "Fire."

    "Fire."

    The lieutenant and the second lieutenant ordered one after another.

    Cherchen had already aimed at a bald, bearded czar Russian soldier. As soon as he heard the order, he pulled the trigger. With a gunshot, a mass of blood bloomed in front of the target''s chest - the bald head staggered a few steps and fell to the ground reluctantly.

    Other Musketeers also opened fire one after another. As the fire flickered at the head of the city, the dark cloud seemed to be cut off and assimilated into the ice and snow.

    The loss in the front row did not scare the people behind. After the first row fell, the soldiers behind continued to charge forward with straw, but their steps were faster.

    With 30 meters left, Chechen only had time to fire another shot. This shot, Chechen didn''t aim. He also found that such a dense sea of people would not be empty as long as the muzzle of the gun was facing the crowd.

    Indeed, with this shot, Chechen put down another enemy. But this time, he didn''t even see the man''s face.

    After two rounds of shooting, the soldiers of Czar Russia finally rushed to the front of the trench. One after another, they threw straw into the ditch and quickly turned back. As the straw filled in, the ditch disappeared at a speed visible to the naked eye. But the soldiers on the city wall had no choice but to load ammunition and shoot at the fastest speed.

    "If only we had cavalry."

    Ruth handed the gun that fired the lead bullet to a soldier behind him, and then took a loaded gun from his hand. Beside him, three soldiers served him.

    For Ruth''s words, Chechen was also deeply convinced. When studying in the seminary, Chechen knew such a truth: the city wall is not used to defend. If the enemy advances to the edge of the wall, it will not be far from the broken city. Therefore, wise commanders will arrange a force within the firepower range of the city wall to form a second line of defense; Or arrange a cavalry to flank the local infantry when the enemy attacks the city wall, disrupting the enemy''s attack rhythm.

    But in Smolensk, neither of these can be done. Not to mention the lack of garrison in the city, it is impossible to form an effective second line of defense, that is, the originally scarce cavalry of the mercenary regiment have been transferred to the wing Cavalry Regiment (the former noble guard).

    Finally, after paying dozens of lives, the trench in front of the north city wall was finally filled up. The soldiers of Czar Russia shouted "ula" and "ula" and turned back.

    "They just left?"

    Chechen is a little incredible. In his opinion, although the soldiers of Czar Russia were poorly prepared, they were not afraid of death. Now that the trench has been filled up, why don''t they take advantage of their courage to attack it?

    "Maybe their chief gave them the task of filling trenches."

    Cherchen asked Ruth around him, but he couldn''t say, just put forward a guess.

    In front of Prince Alexei''s Royal tent, the prince of Czar Russia looked at the soldiers who had retreated like a tide, with no joy or anger on his face. In fact, as Ruth guessed, the task assigned by the prince to these "cannon fodder" was to bury the trench. Prince Alexei, who has been on the battlefield for a long time, knows that although the number of soldiers composed of these serfs is large, poor equipment and lack of training make them not only unable to play a role in attacking the city, but also easy to hinder the attack of regular troops because of the collapse of morale.

    Prince Alexei glanced at the messenger beside him. The herald understood and began to wave the flag in his hand. So, under the leadership of the team leaders, the firing marchers lined up behind the position, carrying fire guns and taking neat steps forward. The soldiers of the shooting army agreed to wear red uniforms.

    So, after the dark clouds, a sea of blood began to hit.

    The shooting army in red stopped thirty meters away from the city wall. They formed a long line of five in a hundred and twenty rows. The soldiers in the first row inserted the tail of the long axe carried behind them into the ground, and then put the musket on the rack.

    "Don''t show up, don''t show up. The enemy is about to shoot."

    Pedro gave the order again on the tower, and then the order was conveyed to every soldier. Fortunately, these mercenaries were the elite of Franco''s careful training for a long time. None of them violated the order.

    They should also rejoice in their compliance with the law. Shortly after Pedro''s order, the first row of lead bullets of the shooting army hit the crenels and sandbags.

    Due to the remote location of Czar Russia, the forging technology of iron and musket lags far behind Western Europe and the Republic of Poland. This caused the caliber and length of the barrel of the muskets produced by czar Russia to far exceed those of neighboring countries, and became extremely bulky. The disadvantage of bulkiness is that it is inconvenient to carry, but it also has the advantage that more powerful lead bullets can be used.

    Chechen felt the power of these "silly big black thick" guns. Each lead bullet hit the crenels and sandbags like a shotgun fired by a small gun. A blow on the sandbags is a hole, and the person hiding behind is like being hammered by a hammer against the back of the sandbags.

    After firing, the firing troops in the first row retreated to the end with guns and axes. The Musketeers in the second row stepped forward and repeated the actions of the first row. Then there are the third row, the fourth row and the fifth row, and so on.

    After three rounds of shooting, the prince''s messenger waved the flag again. So teams of soldiers in cotton armor and paper hats crossed the gap between the shooting army lines and quickly ran to the city wall with a ladder on their shoulders.

    "Fight back, fight back."

    At this meeting, without the command of Pedro, all the officers gave orders to fight back to their subordinates. Each soldier stood up and shot his rifle down the crenel.

    At the foot of the city, the group of more elite tsarist Russian soldiers also fought back with their bows and arrows. For a time, lead bullets and feather arrows flew in the same space. From time to time, people who were shot fell to the ground, and from time to time, mercenaries who were pierced by feather arrows fell down the wall.

    The ladder was mounted on the wall. The loading speed of Cherchen and Ruth''s assistant can''t keep up with the firing speed of the musket. After chutcher fired the third musket, his assistant did not deliver the narrow musket to him. Chechen looked back and saw that the assistant was still bouncing into the chamber with a pusher. In a hurry, Chechen is ready to pick up the pistol around him. These pistols are loaded by Cherchen according to Ruth''s requirements, and can be used at any time.

    "Don''t worry. Wait until the enemy shows his head, then use a pistol and hide first."

    Ruth glanced at the enemy who climbed to the half waist of the ladder and told Cherchen not to be anxious. He himself grabbed two pistols, then shrank behind the crenel and hid.

    Chechen''s palm is full of hand sweat. Although in today''s battle, he has achieved two results. But it was all achieved by hiding behind the battlements under the cover of the city wall. Now, we are about to enter the most bloody and fierce hand to hand combat in the siege. Remembering that since he left Spain, he was easily defeated by his opponent several times in Eastern Europe without guns, Chechen was constantly nervous.

    These thoughts arise in a flash. A hand has been exposed at the end of the ladder.

    This is a huge hand with twisted muscles. Obviously, the owner of this hand is a powerful warrior. Che Chen stared at the hand hooked on the edge of the city wall, his body retracted into the shadow of the crenel as far as possible, and the pistol in his hand was flush with the giant hand.

    Slowly, a man with a paper hat and a bearded head exposed the edge of the wall. In the mouth of this head was a broad backed saber, and his face was ferocious.

    "Come on."

    Che Chen suddenly jumped out of the shadow. His hand holding the pistol was already flush with the man''s hand. At this moment, the pistol pointed straight at his opponent''s face.

    “@#￥@#￥”

    The man uttered a cry of unknown significance.

    Maybe it''s praying for Cherchen''s forgiveness, or shouting God''s name, but these are not important. Because Cherchen pulled the trigger.

    A cloud of black smoke from the muzzle of the gun shrouded the giant''s face.

    Then the man fell down the ladder.

    Before Chechen could catch his breath, another figure rushed out of the ladder and jumped up the wall. The man waved his knife decisively, cut off the pistol in Chechen''s other hand, and the bullet hit and sandbag. Then there was another turn, cutting down a nearby ammunition loading assistant. A set of actions is done at one go, without a trace of procrastination.

    On the other hand, Ruth''s situation is not optimistic. Although Ruth shot from left to right and killed two soldiers who climbed up the wall. But after the bullets were fired, an enemy climbed the ladder. The two immediately launched a hand to hand fight. The man held Ruth by the neck with his iron arms and pressed him to the ground.

    The enemy''s Kung Fu of chopping Chechen''s pistol is enough for Chechen to escape the attack range of saber. He retreated to his two companions behind him and picked up a long halberd next to him. The three men, with halberds in their hands, cut up against the enemy''s saber.

    Although the saber is more dominant in the narrow space, the three of Chechen didn''t cut blindly, but stabbed each other with the tip of the long halberd. In this way, the advantage of flexible saber can not be displayed. Even if the man has great ability, he can only swing and stab his long halberd without the power to fight back.

    Finally, one accidentally stabbed the man in the leg with a halberd. Then, Chechen and another halberd stabbed him in the chest, and the three made joint efforts to withdraw his body from the broken crenel.

    After relieving his danger, Cherchen hurried with his companions to save uncle Ruth. The Russian soldier who grabbed Ruth''s neck was unaware of the enemy behind him. He was cut on the back by Chechen. Ruth''s face was covered with blood, and then he fell down and pressed on Ruth.

    Chechen pushed away the body on Uncle Ruth and picked him up. The four looked around, and many gaps poured into the enemy. There were swords and shouts everywhere.

    "Pour the oil, pour the oil."

    Among all kinds of sounds, uncle Pedro''s voice was particularly clear in Chechen''s ear.