Chapter 295：

Biduobao was finally lost, and the lords inside took advantage of the dead of night to set up false torches and banners on the city wall, and quietly withdrew from the underground tunnel.

After dawn, the Duke's army began to prepare for a new day's attack, and Jayce sat in command with his red eyes open.

He only slept for a few hours last night. In the middle of the night, the guard troops on the west side of the castle came to report. There was a faint fire in the farther west. The officer in charge of the patrol did not dare to be careless, so he rushed to the camp to report. .

Jia Aisi endured the unknown anger of being woken up, and asked carefully: "Are you sure it's the enemy's reinforcements?"

"I can't be sure, the distance is too far, and it will disappear immediately, but I think it's better to be careful."

"You did a good job, notify the battalions to be alert!"

Jia Aisi had to be extremely vigilant, any normal person would be on his way in the middle of the night, and it would be a disaster if his side was unexpectedly attacked by the enemy.

Most of the civilian-born soldiers couldn't see clearly at night. After being awakened, they could only hack with weapons regardless of whether they were the enemy or the enemy. Moreover, the continuous failure of the offensive made the troops physically and mentally exhausted. One might blow up the camp.

So the officers and soldiers of the whole army spent the whole night nervously.

After dawn, in order to restore morale, Jaes ordered wine and meat to be rewarded, and the soldiers opened their stomachs for a full meal before starting a new day of attack.

However, they found that the thunder hammer, which was frightening to hear on weekdays, had not sounded.

The siege soldiers approached the castle slowly with their heavy shielded carts. This defensive measure is quite effective in defending against flying shells at a long distance, and it can also defend against deadly shotguns at a short distance—provided that Don't get smashed in the middle. They were trembling and fearful, but they didn't hear the roar of the thunder hammer along the way. They were used to marching next to the cannon every time. This feeling of pressure suddenly disappearing caused them even greater uneasiness. Will be ready for a more damaging move.

The frontmost troops finally approached the gate, and no grenade fell to welcome them, and finally found a clue—the figures on the city wall seemed to be made of straw.

"Did the people inside run away?"

With this in mind, some bold soldiers climbed up the wall.

Sure enough, apart from them, there was no one inside.

"The enemy has retreated! I can take Bidowburg!"

…

Hearing the news of his "victory", Jayce couldn't laugh or cry. It took more than a month to mobilize the army, and more than 3,000 people were killed or injured. Is this what they got in exchange?

Judging from the results, he was indeed victorious, but no matter how he looked at it, it was a victory handed over by the enemy.

There are no captives kneeling down to beg for mercy, and no defeated generals who are downcast. This kind of victory makes people very unwilling.

I have troops stationed on all sides of the castle, how did they escape at night? There must be a mystery hidden in this castle.

Jayce ordered the army to search every place in the castle closely, and finally found a tunnel leading underground in a warehouse.

He sent people into the tunnel to search, and they came back an hour later, which shows the length of the tunnel. The soldiers who came back said that the road was blocked as they walked.

There must be an exit on the west side of the castle, the duke's son was very annoyed, and they must have been using this tunnel to send a lot of supplies all this time.

"Brett Sean, you bastard!"

The angry roar of the Duke's son seemed to be heard throughout the castle.

The tunnel is very long, and there are perfect reinforcement measures. This kind of engineering volume shows that it cannot be dug in a hurry. It must have been excavated by the Sean family and restored for generations in response to emergencies.

…

On the other side, Paul was also very depressed after learning the news that Bidoburg had been abandoned. He thought his allies could last longer.

"It was in vain that I sent them so many weapons and supplies, and there were eight rapid-fire guns back and forth, even we didn't equip a few of them."

But it was useless for him to be anxious about this matter. He could only remind the two battalions stationed in Emden to pay close attention to the enemy's movements.

Another thing that made him more vigilant was a secret letter written to him by Schroeder. The letter mentioned that in the battle that took place on the border of the Duchy, the enemy sneaked up on the artillery position and occupied it through a detour. Although Arda's army immediately counterattacked and took back the position, and there were not a single piece of artillery missing, but the enemy had been in close contact with the artillery after all, and might have come into contact with the remaining gunpowder.

The enemy may be able to deduce one or two pieces of information about gunpowder, but Paul is not worried that they will be able to reverse engineer the real black powder immediately. Compare. You must know that in the last life, as the country where gunpowder was invented, due to the lack of rigorous chemical knowledge, China did not figure out the best ratio of various gunpowder even in the late Qing Dynasty, and could only rely on the experience of craftsmen to produce uneven quality gunpowder. To manufacture high-quality gunpowder, it needs to go through a series of complicated processes such as crushing, mixing, pressing, drying, and polishing. Since Paul created gunpowder, the Ordnance Factory has been unremittingly researching and experimenting on how to increase the concentration of nitrate and sulfur. Purity, how to safely grind gunpowder and other technologies have developed dozens of processes, and the proportion of raw materials has been slightly adjusted according to different usesAlthough there is no shortage of saltpeter mines in the Northwest Gulf, there is The method of extracting saltpeter is still the original method of boiling in water. As the saying goes, "Boiling saltpeter for a thousand days is not enough for a general." How to expand the production of saltpeter has always been a headache for Paul. In order to obtain saltpeter, he even sent people to go house-to-house. Scraping the toilets from door to door is one of the reasons why he strictly forbids defecation everywhere. Toilets are fighting power. Although the amount is not much, mosquitoes are meat no matter how small they are.

Paul did know the principle of using nitrifying bacteria and rice fields to jointly build a nitrate field to produce saltpeter on a large scale, but the principle is the principle, and it will take time to find out a set of feasible operations.

Arda's demand for saltpeter is so great, it must be hidden from those who are interested, so instead of trying to keep the gunpowder formula in every possible way, it is better to spread some misleading information.

Paul asked Old Ford, the director of the State Council, and Cecil of the intelligence department to discuss. The weather has become hotter recently, and he plans to build several ice factories.

Old Ford was shocked: "My lord, although life is not as tight as it was in the past two years, there are not too many rich people in Huxin Town to buy our ice. It is definitely a loss-making business."

"Uh, making money or not is secondary. I mainly want to use it as a cover..."

Paul told them what he wanted.

Manager Ford nodded: "It sounds like it will work, but it will cost a lot of money. It can't be seen at a glance that it is a shell factory."

Seeing that the director of the Government Affairs Council agreed, Paul told Cecil again: "You have to release some false information, mess up the formula of gunpowder as much as possible, and use your brains on the source, for example, it is extracted from seawater. Category."

"Leave it to me, my lord, spreading rumors couldn't be easier."

Cecil patted his chest and accepted the task.