Quoted By:
You think over several ideas, mulling over what plan you could possibly use to speed up the siege. You wonder over the possibility of finding some way to start a great fire within their city; the damage a grand blaze would bring would certainly work to convincing them to surrender. Though you quickly realize some problems with this plan - first of all, there is, of course, <span class="mu-s">the rain.</span> In this manner of weather, a fire might simply not last long enough to burn a considerable portion of the city. Second of all, there is the <span class="mu-i">how.</span> You've read, in books, of incendiary projectiles thrown from mangonels or trebuchets over cities with the goal of burning them to cinders. But <span class="mu-i">you do not have access to such rudimentary tools here.</span> You've only the cannons and mortars brought to the siege.
<span class="mu-s">Perhaps you could talk to one of the artillery masters</span> to see about the possibility of such a plan. For now, however, you'd go about something simpler: concentrating fire upon a particular position. You had, in your travels between camps, seen the southernmost bastion upon the hill to be rather...isolated. A great stretch of wall lies between the fortresses of the southeastern side of Montechia to the bastions of the western curtain wals. It would be far less costly to the men if you were to break in through it.
You approach Don Carles with your plan, suggesting that the cannons focus fire to the south. The man, ever so deep in thought, does not even turn to you as he continues to read from some manner of book.
"You are correct in purporting it to be the weakest of points amidst their fortifications, Don Alessandro, but focusing our fire would only tell them of this. To do so would announce to the defenders that it is that place in particular that we plan to attack."
"Then how shall we break it, then? All of the cannonfire has been focused upon that hill wal and the fortress in the south." you reply, asking.
"<span class="mu-i">Sapping</span>, of course. The trenches have finally reached the hill; from there, they may tunnel their way to the fortification in the south, and use gunpowder to cause a massive cave-in. So long as we similarly do so to other points of the wall, they shall not know which of them we intend to use for our entry until it is too late."
Of course, the sappers! You had knew they were making their way towards the walls, but you had not found their progress to be particularly effective. Yet if it is the goal of his highness to leave obscure which path he intends to take, it is far more understandable. Don Carles tells you that, by his predictions, <span class="mu-s">the sappers should reach their goal by no more than april</span>, short of any great setbacks occurring.
