"Dong dong dong!..."
Fierce war drums sounded outside Shuigu City, accompanied by the shouts of the Mexican Legion, announcing an even more brutal siege!
Soon, thousands of warriors from the Tekos tribe, hunched over and pushing two hundred heavy wooden shield carts, slowly approached outside the southern city wall. These Tekos warriors were all surrendered troops collected during the kingdom's southern expedition. They wore rattan hats on their heads, short spears on their backs, and loincloths tied around their waists. The most valuable equipment on their bodies was their cheap paper armor. Their establishment costs are astonishingly low.
"Squeak...squeak..."
The heavy wooden shield vehicle passed through the trampled solid soil and gradually approached the south wall of Shuigu City, approaching within eighty steps. At this point, the elite long archers guarding the city were able to accurately hit the shield cart.
"God of hunting bless you! Shoot the enemy to death!..."
On the south wall, the vacancies left in battle were quickly filled. The leading hereditary nobles clenched their longbows and shouted fiercely.
"...Buzz!..."
Upon hearing the order, densely packed Tlaxcala warriors and militiamen all held up long bows, short bows, hunting bows, copper arrows, bone arrows and even stone arrows attached to reed poles, and shot towards the city one after another!
"Whoosh whoosh!... Whoosh whoosh!"
Large swaths of feathered arrows were shot in a mess, just like the rushing sand. Dozens of Tekos warriors howled miserably in an instant. They were hit by arrows in their heads and faces and fell to the ground sideways, leaving only fresh blood marks.
The people of Tlaxcala worship Miscuatl, the god of hunting, and claim to be descendants of the "Cloud Serpent." The weapon of the God of Hunting in mythology is the "disgraceful" bow and arrow. Therefore, they are different from the Mexicans who value close combat to capture prisoners. They especially like to use bows and arrows. Almost everyone is good at archery and there are many inherited bowsmith families.
A few years ago, when the news came that the Mexicans had invented a new type of longbow, the nobles of Tlaxcala were surprised and in disbelief. The imitation of long bows was immediately promoted in various parts of the Four Kingdoms Alliance, and results soon came to fruition, with the first batch of new large bows being created.
Of course, the Tlaxcalans soon discovered that if they wanted to use longbows and increase the power of bows and arrows, it would mean a significant increase in the cost of making bows. They had to use stronger bronze tools, spend more manpower, use better wood, make larger bows, and stronger arrow shafts. And behind all this, we need rich and sufficient food, and strong men who work for a long time!
To this day, the proportion of longbowmen in the legions of the Mexica and Tlaxcalans is still very limited. The difference is that the Mexica are limited by the number of elite archers, while the Tlaxcalans are limited by the lack of manpower and material resources.
"Swish swish!..."
Arrows are flying and death is howling. The Tesco warriors bowed their waists more and more, lowered their bodies, and continued to push the shield car forward. In just a moment, the shield cart was already filled with bent arrows. There were constant groans or screams from tribal warriors, who were shot in the exposed vital parts and fell to the ground to die.
Fortunately, these shield vehicles all have simple large shields erected on the front, which can form a protective space. Not long after, a large number of shield vehicles were pushed to within 60 steps outside the city, and gradually stopped, forming a covering shooting position. The hundreds of surviving Tesco soldiers all held their heads, curled up as much as possible, and crouched on the ground to make more space.
"good!"
Black Wolf Toltec looked at the situation on the battlefield and nodded with satisfaction. The casualties of hundreds of Tekos soldiers are not worth mentioning. Instead, they managed to consume the Tlaxcala's arrows and push the covering shield cart to the designated position.
"Order, the Guards Corps and the Longbow Warrior Battalion, advance in and shoot!"
"Dong dong dong!...Longbow Warrior Battalion, attack!"
"God bless you!"
The sound of the war drums became more and more urgent. The longbow warrior battalion shouted in unison, then lowered their heads and ran towards the shield chariot in small steps.
Compared with the Tesco soldiers, the equipment of the longbow warriors of the Imperial Guard is much more luxurious. They all wore bronze medium armor, bronze helmets on their heads, bronze short axes on their waists, strong long bows in their hands, and two bags of bronze arrows on their backs. These thousand elite guards were handed over to Black Wolf by His Highness as the key force to suppress the city. Tekos, who was pushing the shield cart to pave the way, dropped his troops precisely to reduce their casualties to the greatest extent.
"Whoosh!...Whoosh!...Whoosh!"
The longbow warriors braved the rain of arrows and ran non-stop. In just a few dozen breaths, they arrived at the shield car and entered the shooting position sixty steps away from the city wall. Then, they all raised their big bows, aimed at the Tlaxcala warriors who were shouting and shooting arrows at the top of the city, and fired back with precision.
"Swish swish!..."
"ah!..."
A large number of miserable screams suddenly sounded at the top of the city. Hundreds of Tlaxcala warriors were injured by arrows. Many fell directly from the top of the city, with their heads broken and bleeding. The defenders at the top of the city were immediately suppressed and no longer dared to show their bodies unscrupulously. The arrow rain from the city was slightly sparse, and the archers from both sides began to shoot at each other.
Under the shield car, the huddled Terkos soldiers also breathed a sigh of relief. The most dangerous moment has passed, and you should be able to survive today.
"Damn it! It's these bronze-armored warriors who shoot arrows again! Next, they must set up wooden ladders and send lowly barbarians to the city to fight!"
"Black Snake" Turcotte swung his war stick angrily and hit the wooden shield in front of him hard. His strength was so strong that he smashed the sharp obsidian blades on the war stick into pieces!
The Four-State Alliance of Tlaxcala lacks sources of copper mines, and bronze weapons are in extremely short supply. However, they also have large obsidian mines and mature obsidian technology, so they have always used obsidian weapons.
In early March, the Mexican Army of the Southern Route arrived at Shuigu City and immediately began to siege the city. They set up a large camp outside Nancheng, pulled out the camps in the east and west mountains in turn, and established two small camps. After only a few days, Shuigu City was surrounded on three sides, with only a "way of survival" left in the north.
When he was first surrounded, "Black Snake" Turcotte maintained sufficient confidence.
The city wall of Shuigu City is six to seven meters high. It is made of stones mixed with corn mortar. It is extremely hard. It is the strongest city in the south of the Four Kingdoms Alliance! The old and weak Moth people have been driven out of the city, leaving only 15,000 defenders and enough food to hold out for two years. There are also five thousand militiamen guarding the mountain camps on both sides, which can contain the Mexica attack. Over the decades, Shuigu City has been besieged by the Mexica several times, but it has never fallen!
The "Black Snake" also sent envoys to the northern states asking for help. The Talsas River flows outside the East City, and the upper reaches of the north are still in the hands of the Tlaxcala Navy, which can continuously bring in support.
"Blessed by the God of Hunting! We can guard this city wall until we die of old age!"
Faced with His Highness the "God of Death"'s envoy to persuade him to surrender, "Black Snake" replied like this. He even ordered people to cut off the messenger's ears and blind the other party's eyes as a response to the fight to the death with the Mexica people!
In the following ten days, the Mexicans did not make any big moves, and it seemed that there was nothing they could do about the city.
The Mexican Legion outside the southern city was quiet, but they continued to build equipment in the camp outside the city. The east and west of the city are old rivals who have been fighting for many years, the city-state legions of the Mexicans. They carried wooden ladders and tried to launch two sieges. However, they were attacked by arrows, slings and lime jars, leaving hundreds of warrior corpses in vain.
"Black Snake" Turcotte became more and more confident and even organized thousands of warriors to fight back outside the city under the cover of night.
Unfortunately, the enemy camp outside the southern city was very stable and the camp was built meticulously. The warriors were unable to attack, but were shot with arrows, leaving hundreds of corpses behind. And outside the East City and West City, they once again achieved a small victory, defeating the four militia battalions outside the city-state army, killing more than 2,000 people!
A large number of militiamen died in the battle and dispersed. The Mexica city-state legions were accustomed to it and their morale was still stable. They spent a day sending out samurai to regroup the defeated militia. The practice of these city-state legions in fighting is to spread out a large number of militia battalions far away and station them on the periphery of the warrior camp, without even setting up fences. The warrior camp in the center set up wooden fences, lit fires, and was heavily guarded.
If there is a night attack and the militiamen are killed by the enemy, the warriors will not support them at all. They just clung to the camp and waited for dawn. If any militiamen dared to rush into the camp, they would directly kill them as enemies. The militiamen did not dare to flee to the center, they would just scatter everywhere. When daybreak comes, the attacking enemies will be killed all night long. If they do not retreat in time, they will receive a fierce blow from the warriors!
"Black Snake" Turcotte went out of the city to attack twice, but he was still unable to shake the main force of the Mexicans and even damaged some elites. He had no choice but to retreat to the city, hold on patiently, and wait for reinforcements from the north.
However, by mid-March, the situation changed! The Mexicans built more than a dozen stone-throwing wooden beasts outside the southern city. They kept throwing burning fireballs into the city from a distance of one to two hundred steps! These fireballs burn on contact and can even burn on rocks, emitting billowing poisonous smoke. They cannot be put out with water at all, they can only be covered with sand and soil, and they also emit the evil smell of the crater.
The priests in the holy city of Cholula saw this scene and made a quick judgment.
"This is indeed the power of evil spirits and evidence of the depravity of the Mexica people!"
However, facing the powerful power of the volcano demon, the priests were helpless. The God of Hunting seemed to have abandoned his descendants, and the boundless darkness surged from the south, gradually engulfing Shuigu City.
In the following days, the blockade on three sides of Shuigu City became increasingly tight. The power of evil spirits continued to appear, and balls of flames shot into the city, and pungent smoke spread everywhere. In Central America, where there are many volcanoes, sulfur is much easier to obtain than saltpeter, and the cost of sulfur paper fireballs is also much lower than refined gunpowder.
The poisonous smoke dispersed and the fire burned, Shuigu City looked like a deserted place, like a battlefield of divine war. The morale of the defenders continued to decline, and the priests racked their brains to appease the people in the city. And "Black Snake" Turcotte dreamed of black and red evil volcanic lava even when he was sleeping!
