Chapter 215 Siege

Chapter 216 Siege

Three days later, the Tunisian rebel army surrounded the city of Tunisia from the north, west and south.

Dhemele looked at the majestic Tunisian city in the distance, and with a stern look he raised his hand and pointed to the Guards formation below the city: "Send the order to launch a general attack!"

The melodious sound of trumpets floated around for several miles, and more than a dozen rebel army formations, under the command of their respective officers, moved forward slowly and silently.

Koca, who commanded the guards to defend the city, stood on a high ground in the west of the city, holding up a telescope, frowning and whispering to himself:

"That cursed fire... is the great Praetorian Guard about to end here?"

If it were a normal confrontation, even if the rebels were twice as many as himself, he would still be confident of defeating them.

However, the armory in the Tunisian city accidentally caught fire more than half a month ago, perhaps because of the arson by the Berbers in the city.

All in all, more than 70% of the weapons in the armory were burned.

Previously, the Guards soldiers had to return to Tunisia to live in the city, but due to the assassination of Bey, they were not allowed to bring weapons into the city, so they handed over the weapons and stored them in the armory.

After the fire broke out, fully half of the troops faced a lack of weapons and equipment.

At that time, rebels from various places were winning one after another and began to gather towards the city of Tunisia.

The pampered guardsmen in the city learned that the army lacked weapons, so they packed up their belongings and fled to Tripoli or Egypt, which in turn affected the soldiers under his command.

"In less than a week, there are thousands of deserters. These cowardly losers!"

Koja shook his head and sighed: "With the accumulation of more than a hundred years of the Guards, if we suppress the rebels resolutely and heroically, how could we end up in the situation where we are besieged in the city today?"

"Pasha?" Seeing him in a daze, the adjutant on the side reminded him in a low voice, "The enemy is approaching."

Koja nodded and waved casually: "Let's fire."

"Yes, Pasha."

In front of the Tunisian Guards' defense line, a dozen cannons roared, and the shells penetrated into the crowd of indigenous troops with a sharp whistling sound.

"ah--"

Amidst the screams, several bodies shattered by cannonballs turned into pieces of flesh and blood sprayed everywhere, and the already chaotic ranks of the indigenous troops immediately became even more chaotic.

The officers of the indigenous army, who were farmers and vendors not long ago, tried their best to suppress the fear in their hearts, waved their machetes and shouted to restrain their men: "Stay in formation!"

"Don't mess up, and don't step back!"

"Don't be stunned, keep moving forward!"

With their efforts, the attacking queue barely kept moving. However, the Praetorian cannon fired again.

In fact, this kind of solid artillery shell cannot cause too many casualties. Even if it directly hits the military formation at the best angle, it can kill at most a dozen people. In most cases, it takes away one or two lives, or even fails to hit. .

But the deafening sound of the cannons and the fear that they might be shattered by invisible shells at any time extremely tested the soldiers' willpower.

These indigenous troops who have not received formal training do not have this ability at all.

After withstanding four or five rounds of shelling, most of the soldiers began to turn around and run away uncontrollably - especially those covered in blood and brains, who ran faster than anyone else.

After a while of yelling and scolding, the officer in charge found that he couldn't restrain them at all, so he also ran back.

There are also a few soldiers who will get excited, shout the name of the prophet and the Lord, and rush towards the enemy position to prepare for death. What awaits them is the volley of the Praetorian Guards.

Two days later.

Zhemele listened gloomily to the officer's report on the casualties to him, muttering in a low voice: "More than 20,000 soldiers, more than ten rounds of attacks, but not once can they get within 50 steps of the enemy..."

He originally thought that like the previous battles, he would soon be able to invade the Tunisian city. Unexpectedly, more than 400 people died in the past two days, but the first line of defense of the Imperial Guard was not even touched.

"Cannons! Those damn cannons!" He suddenly gritted his teeth and roared with hatred, "If we also had cannons, we would definitely be able to crush those devils!"

Hearing this, the officer on the side took two steps closer and whispered: "General, maybe we can try with Ishak Pasha."

After becoming the leader of the rebel army, the generous "Zaganos Sahib" has restored his real name and became Ishak Pasha.

At dusk, the dim light caused both warring parties to temporarily suspend their operations, and the soldiers returned to camp and began to prepare dinner.

Zhemil took several major officers to the residence of the rebel leader Ishak Pasha.

"Cannon?" Isaac frowned and shook his head, "This kind of thing cannot be obtained casually."

Jamil begged anxiously: "Pasha, the enemy's artillery poses a great threat to us. If we don't have equivalent weapons, it may be difficult to win. Please think of a way..."

"Right now, only the French have cannons in Tunisia." Ishak shook his head thoughtfully, "It's just that this is the hatred between us Tunisians and the Ottoman Guards. It has nothing to do with them. They may not be willing to provide help."

Zhemele immediately said: "Why does this have nothing to do with them? We are all Roman brothers of the same clan. I believe they will not sit idly by and watch!"

Several officers nearby also nodded in agreement.

Ishaq seemed to be convinced by them and reluctantly said: "Well, let's go find the 'compatriots of Rome' and give it a try.

"By the way, it would be best to ask Elder Alayi to go with us. His extraordinary reputation should be helpful."

"Okay, I will beg him personally!"

The next day, a Tunisian indigenous "delegation" of more than ten people arrived at the Guards Regiment, and Berthier warmly received them.

Elder Ala'i is now the religious leader of the Tunisian indigenous people and gained extremely high prestige and status during this uprising. Regardless of whether he was willing or not, he was now firmly bound to the interests of the rebels, and he had long since stopped pursuing the matter of someone falsely using his name to publish prophecies.

Instead, he will now actively work in the interests of the rebels.

After he explained the difficulties he faced on behalf of the rebel army and asked for help from his "comatriots," Berthier also said to him very sincerely: "Don't worry, we will do our best to help our compatriots in their suffering.

"Not only cannons, I can also send officers to help you direct the battle. I believe their experience will be put to use."

This was part of Joseph's plan. The purpose is to let the Tunisian indigenous people understand that the Guards will never be defeated by their own strength. Without the help of their "fellow Romans," they simply could not have achieved victory.

Hearing this, Zhemele burst into tears of gratitude and took the lead to bow deeply and excitedly: "We will never forget your kindness! We will never forget the help of our French compatriots!"

The officers who came with him and many of the most prestigious indigenous tribe chiefs also saluted Berthier and said various sincere thanks over and over again.

Outside Tunisia.

Two Guards regiment artillery companies have set up six eight-pound guns on the preset positions, and ammunition boxes are neatly arranged in several rows not far behind them.

"Load!"

"aim!"

Under the command of the gunners of each artillery, the artillerymen quickly completed preparations for firing.

"fire!"

There was a roar, and six artillery shells flew straight towards the Guards' artillery position.

With the addition of the cannons of the Guards Corps, the battle situation immediately took a huge turn.

Although the number of their artillery was not as large as that of the enemy, the level of their artillery was several miles ahead of the Ottomans.

After a few rounds of simple calibration shots, one artillery shell accurately hit the enemy's artillery more than 700 steps away.

The huge impact of the shell knocked the barrel off the gun mount, killing several Tunisian artillerymen behind it, and finally landed on a rock more than 20 meters away. The cannon body has been deformed and can no longer be used.

As shells continued to fall near the Janissaries' artillery positions, the Ottoman artillerymen were so frightened that they did not even bother to drag the guns away and scattered away.

"Thank you Lord!" Zhemele was ecstatic when he saw this scene in the telescope. He turned to the officer on the side and said, "Send the order and prepare the entire army for a frontal attack!"

"I'm afraid it's inappropriate for you to attack in such a hurry." The French officer who came with him immediately stopped him.

"Ah? What do you mean?"

The French officer did not explain too much to Djemel, but directly passed him and asked his herald to issue one order after another.

The flag-talking soldiers kept waving flags to convey orders, and the French mid-level officers in front began to quickly mobilize the rebel troops.

On the frontal battlefield on the west side, a thin infantry line slowly approached the Guards position - without the threat of enemy artillery, they walked much more steadily.

At the same time, dozens of rebel columns appeared on the south side of the Guards' defense line, running toward their flanks at extremely fast speeds. The French artillery also turned its muzzle and began to carry out auxiliary bombardment towards the flanks of the Guards.

"What are they going to do?" Koja put away the telescope and was secretly surprised. The rebels had ceased fire for a few days, but why did they suddenly start fighting in an orderly manner?

After a quick analysis in his mind, he felt that the enemy forces on the front should only be a containment, and the main attack direction was his left wing.

So, he immediately turned to the adjutant and said: "Send the order to move Orhan's people to the left wing to strengthen defense."

"Yes, Pasha!"

Orhan's more than 1,000 men were in the frontal formation, and after receiving the order, they quickly formed a team and moved to the left wing.

At this moment, a rebel army of four to five thousand people appeared on the right wing of the Guards, forming six rows of infantry at the front and rear, and slowly pressed towards them.

Koja was suddenly shocked, frowned and said to himself: "These cunning guys, it seems that this is their main force!"

He immediately separated more than 500 people from the front, and at the same time transferred half of the reserve army to the right wing. He himself also moved the command position to the north to facilitate command at any time.

However, the rebel infantry on both wings never reached within fighting distance. Instead, a group of more than 300 cavalry suddenly jumped out, taking advantage of the chaos caused by frequent movements of the front troops of the Imperial Guard, and quickly attacked them. Several artillery positions galloped away.

Although the cavalry composed of these herdsmen knew nothing about formation, chopping and other techniques, their riding skills were still very good.

They came to the Praetorian Guards' artillery at great speed and dismounted.

The leading officer loudly ordered his subordinates according to the order he had received in advance:

"Mehemet, take your men to destroy the cannon! Others are on guard around, be careful of enemy infantry!"

"yes!"

More than forty soldiers immediately lined up around them with scimitars raised, and they were on alert. Another dozen or so people surrounded the cannon, stuffed the nails prepared in advance into the ignition port, and then hammered them down hard.

The nails were made of wrought iron and were extremely difficult to pull out. The cannon whose firing port was blocked immediately turned into scrap metal.

After doing this, they jumped on the saddle again and returned to their home camp like the wind.

After dozens of minutes, the rebels from three directions retreated and did not exchange fire with the Imperial Guards. It was only then that Koca finally received a report from his men that his cannon had been destroyed by the rebels.

Djemel was stunned by the command of the French officer - there was almost no direct battle, the casualties were negligible, and it took only more than half an hour to destroy all the cannons of the Praetorian Guards!

This is comparable to the God of War Saladin [Note 1]!

If I had known that there were such powerful compatriots, why would I still give blind orders on my own? Maybe the Janissary bandits were driven out of Tunisia a few years ago!

The French officer would probably be a little embarrassed if he knew what he was thinking. These are common tactics he used during training at the Paris Police Academy. At most, he arranged and combined them according to the battlefield situation, and he was "titled" the God of War...

After losing their cannons, the Praetorian Guards became extremely passive.

The rebels continued to bombard them with artillery. Although the casualties were not large, the blow to morale was extremely serious. After all, anyone who encounters this kind of situation where he can only be beaten but cannot fight back will have a hard time keeping his mentality from collapsing.

Finally, after being tortured by artillery for five days, Koca gathered all his troops and launched a desperate breakout battle against the rebels before his morale was completely lost.

On the rebel side, they had already formed a very dense defensive formation under the orders of the French commander.

Although these indigenous soldiers have poor military quality, they can still stand and fire guns.

Coupled with the huge numerical advantage and the support of artillery behind them, they finally showed bravery in the face of the enemy's crazy counterattack and beat the enemy back with intensive shooting.

Behind the position, the French officer looked at the scene in the telescope and breathed a long sigh of relief.

He also prepared a reserve team of more than 3,000 people at the back, fearing that none of these recruits would be penetrated by the enemy's defense line.

"It seems that they can still be trusted." The officer smiled and turned to the herald on the side and said, "Perhaps the enemy's attack is too slow."

After listening to the translator beside him, Zhemil translated the officer's words to him, and hurriedly stepped forward and said with a respectful look: "No, respected Pasha, I think this all depends on your superb command ability!"

[Note 1] Saladin: Saladin bin Ayyuub (1137-1193) was a Kurd, an outstanding military strategist and politician in the Middle Ages, and the founder of the Ayyubid Dynasty in Egypt. He is famous throughout the Christian and Muslim worlds for his military prowess and leadership in the Islamic civilization's fight against the Crusades. The West hailed him as a "chivalrous monarch"; Egypt and Arabs gave him the honor of a "national hero".