In this realistic war game, only I understand the course of the battle.

"Take whatever you want. Ladders, hooks, grappling hooks, gunpowder packs—we have them all."

Shen Du walked in and saw that the warehouse was piled up to the brim.

A long ladder leaned against the wall, and bundles of sickles were stacked in the corner, with dried mud still clinging to the iron hooks of the grappling hooks.

The gunpowder packets were wrapped in oiled paper and stacked on the wooden frame.

Shen Du shook his head. These things were indeed standard siege equipment, but they wouldn't be of much use this time.

This is because Shen Du knew that Dezhou City was merely the command center and rear support of the entire defense system.

Texas itself had a "Texas Garrison", which was guarded by tens of thousands of troops and strong city walls. The residents of the city were mainly military households.

The difficulty of this siege lies not in Dezhou itself, but in Dezhou's front-line defenses, the twelve linked cities!

The Twelve Linked Cities were the outer defensive system of the Southern Army in the north of the city, built by Commander Han Guan on the orders of Emperor Jianwen.

After General Li Jinglong's defeat, the main force of the Southern Army was stationed here as the main position to meet the Yan Army to the north.

It was not an ordinary military camp, but a series of interconnected battle fortresses consisting of 12 independent camps.

The entire camp complex is about 10 li long from north to south and about 5 li wide from east to west, forming a huge defensive depth.

Each camp's walls were constructed of rammed earth, and the walls were equipped with "horse faces" to eliminate blind spots for firing.

The fortified villages were mostly square, with gates on all four sides, and trenches dug outside the gates for concealing and deploying troops.

This design allows the various camps to support each other, forming a defensive system that is both offensive and defensive.

The Beichang Caocang, located north of Dezhou City and adjacent to the east bank of the canal, was the core target protected by the Southern Army.

This place stored more than 100 million shi of military grain that were eventually captured by the Yan army. Therefore, the Twelve Linked Cities functioned as "granary guards" to protect this granary.

Shen Du first picked out four long-handled axes to try out, then took fifteen sets of shields and two hook-and-sickle spears.

The hook-and-sickle spear is a long-handled cold weapon designed to counter cavalry on the battlefield; it is an "advanced version" of the ordinary spear.

Its distinctive feature is a sharp, inward-curving barb below the spearhead, which serves both stabbing and hooking functions, making it a powerful weapon for ancient infantry against cavalry.

However, this time the hook-and-sickle spear was not intended for cavalry.

Shen Du picked out four or five gunpowder packets, specifically choosing those that were tightly wrapped in oiled paper.

Finally, they found the most important items in the corner—a bundle of burlap sacks and 10 shovels.

The old soldier in charge of the warehouse shook his head as he kept the accounts. "What kind of equipment is this? Are you sure it's for siege warfare?"

Shen Du didn't answer. After counting the items, he called for people to carry them out of the warehouse.

Shen Du led them and this huge pile of stuff to the training ground; it was already late at night.

Shen Du ordered his men to put the things on the ground.

"Come here, everyone."

The nine men gathered around, and their expressions changed when they saw the sacks, sickles, and gunpowder packs on the ground.

Zhao Laoliu asked, stammering.

"Master Li, this is..."

"Tomorrow, we will replenish the attack force to twenty men and send them as the first batch to attack Dezhou."

The faces of all ten people turned pale at the same time.

Shen Du's gaze swept across everyone's face.

"Afraid?"

No one answered, but every soldier's Adam's apple bobbed.

Shen Du picked up a hook sickle from the ground and weighed it in his hand.

"The first siege team sounds like they're going to their deaths, but..."

Shen Du didn't say anything extra. He stood in front of the ten people and spoke in a low voice.

"With unlimited risks come unlimited opportunities. After the city falls, I will distribute all the war merits to you, which is what you deserve."

"However, those who fear battle and refuse to advance shall be executed!"

Shen Du's sudden shout startled the soldiers.

The next morning, just after Shen Du finished selecting his men, the order to form a unit came down, and Shen Du was assigned to the Po Cheng Camp.

When the news came down, there was a moment of silence in the ranks.

Upon hearing this news, Zhao Laoliu put his pipe in his mouth and tried to light it several times but failed.

They knew perfectly well what the Broken City Camp did.

Those who stand at the very front will die at the very front.

Every obstacle was fought with lives at stake. After each battle, the casualties of the City-Breaking Battalion were always the highest among the three battalions.

Shen Du was naturally very familiar with the configuration of the siege team.

The Yan army's siege force was divided into three battalions.

The first battalion was the firearms battalion.

Five hundred men, equipped with twenty muskets, ten cannons, ten rocket carts, and fifteen crossbows.

Two additional observation towers were built, equipped with wheeled elevated pods that could rise to several meters high. These towers were used to observe the troop movements and granary distribution within the Twelve Linked Cities and to provide firing coordinates for the catapults.

Commander Feng Tai, a veteran artilleryman who joined Zhu Di's uprising in Beiping, has black spots on his face from years of gunpowder smoke.

The second battalion was the city-breaking battalion. A thousand men. They were responsible for clearing away everything in their path: antlers, barricades, trenches, camp gates—anything blocking their way.

The third battalion was the ladder battalion. Two thousand men, the main force for attacking the city.

The breaching camp tore open a gap, and the ladder-laying camp carried long ladders to the wall, allowing a large force to surge up the ladders onto the city wall.

The first to scale the cliffs receives the greatest merit, and the military reward is three times that of a regular beheading.

Tan Yuan, also known as "Tan the Immortal", was a commander of a thousand households.

He survived being hit by three arrows while fighting Zhen Ding, and he also survived falling off the city wall while fighting Yong Ping.

The Pocheng Camp's assembly point was in a depression, a low-lying area surrounded by low rammed earth walls, where the wind couldn't get in and it was as stuffy as a steamer.

When Shen Du led his men inside, there were already several hundred people standing there.

The dark mass of heads huddled together, their uniforms dusty and gray, making it impossible to tell who was a veteran and who was a new recruit.

Some people were sharpening knives, some were squatting on the ground in a daze, and some were leaning against a low wall with their eyes closed.

The air was thick with the smells of sweat and cheap liquor, which made Shen Du sneeze.

Shen Du could occasionally hear people whispering to each other, but they kept their voices very low, just quiet discussions.

"See that?"

Zhao Laoliu kept muttering to the people next to him.

"This is a damn cannon fodder camp. Good iron is not used to make nails, and good men do not become soldiers. If you do become a soldier, don't go to the broken city camp."

Shen Du didn't reply, his gaze sweeping across the crowd before pausing for a moment in a low-lying corner.

The garrisons were nominally drawing on elite troops, but the reality was clearly different.

To preserve their own strength, they would simply send out some remnants of their troops to participate in the siege.

Moreover, the casualties were indeed enormous, and the personal guards and generals of each garrison would not come to such a place to fill pits and bury people.

Even if they were to go, it would be to the Cloud Ladder Camp to risk their lives for a better future.

There was a group of about thirty people standing over there.

Their armor was much neater than that of the surrounding infantry; though old, it was polished to a shine, clearly indicating that they were well-trained elites.

The leader, whose helmet plume was of the standard of the general flag, stood spotless in the dusty crowd, making his plume stand out conspicuously.

He was a tall, broad-shouldered young man with a square face that was taut.

His posture was also noticeably different from others; his waist was straight, the knife was close to his side, and his eyes were focused.

However, Shen Du noticed that the expression on his face didn't look like fear, but rather like cowardice.

It's like being shoved into a place nobody wants to be, with a burning anger inside and nowhere to vent it.