Iron Powder and Spellcaster

Although it is a strong attack, a strong attack does not mean a hard attack.

Before attacking the fort, Winters arranged for the soldiers to return to their posts next to the fort, light torches and ask for help from the fort.

The remaining people were lying in ambush between the fort and the sentry post, preparing to ambush the defenders coming out of the fort and waiting for an opportunity to seize the door.

There is no type of person on this continent who understands city defense tactics better than officers from the Senas Army Officers Academy. Because during the Sovereignty War, the elite of the Imperial Army were killed and wounded by the Senas Alliance in one siege after another.

Therefore, city defense tactics are the top priority of the Army Military Academy curriculum. Relying on city defense fortifications, even the weakest civilians can replace three elite enemies.

Because of this, in Winters' view, storming the enemy in a fortified fortress is the worst strategy. Even if a forced attack is sometimes necessary, it is best to lure the enemy out of the fortress and fight decisively on the ground.

The sentries on the fort saw the waving torches of the coastal posts, but they did not yet notice that the cables were cut.

After several calls but no answer from the coastal sentry, the commander of the fort decided to send a few people to see what was going on.

After a moment of commotion, the fort door opened, and five soldiers came out with torches.

When they were still more than ten meters away from the coast, the Hurds lurking in the grass quagmire on the side of the path pounced on them, while Winters, who was closer to the fort, led the Veneta soldiers towards the fort gate. .

Five Tanirian soldiers were suddenly attacked and were knocked down and stabbed to death before they could even escape.

The fort commander saw on the fort wall that the soldiers he sent were killed by people crawling out of the grass, and at the same time an unknown number of people were running towards the fort.

He immediately realized what had happened and hurriedly ordered the soldiers downstairs to close the door.

This temporary fort had no trenches. When the Venetians rushed to the fort door, the gap between the two doors was less than a finger wide. A Venetian soldier quickly moved his spear along the Poke through the crack in the door.

The hardwood spear shaft creaked under the squeeze of the gate, but it was not broken. At this moment, several other Veneta soldiers holding spears also inserted their spears through the crack of the door, completely blocking the door.

The gate of the fort opens outwards, while the gate of the fort opens inward. The Tanirians inside pushed out with all their strength, while the Venetians outside also pushed in with all their strength.

Several long knives were stabbed from the crack in the door toward the outside. The Veneta soldier closest to the crack in the door was stabbed four times in the arm, ribs, and thigh. He screamed and took two steps back and fell to the ground.

The Tanirians inside the door continued to poke out, and a knife was stretched too far, and the hand holding the knife was exposed. A Veneta soldier with a hatchet who was originally responsible for breaking down the door struck hard and cut off the hand holding the knife at the wrist.

Both sides put on long weapons and stabbed each other through the door gap less than a finger wide, launching a clumsy, funny, and extremely bloody and cruel battle.

When the Taniriya commander in the fort saw someone trying to seize the door, he immediately ordered the alarm bell to sound.

The alarm bell was rung as if desperate, and three beacon fires were lit on the top of the fort, which was the agreed signal for help.

Hearing the alarm bell, Winters knew that time was running out and the enemies in Red Sulfur Port would soon come to support him. He shouted anxiously and angrily: "Where is the gunpowder? Where is the person who took the gunpowder?"

"Coming, sir, coming." The soldier responsible for carrying the gunpowder replied breathlessly. He had fallen behind in the attack just now.

The Huds who had dealt with the enemy also rushed to the gate of the fort. Seeing a stalemate between the two parties at the fort, several brave Huds began to climb the earthen wall of the fort with their daggers in their teeth.

The defenders in the fort also stabilized their position from the panic of being raided, and began to use long-range weapons to kill the Veneta people outside the wall.

The Venetas armed with matchlocks and bows and arrows also began to fight back. The Heds broke the spears captured from the fort and used them as javelins to throw at the enemies on the wall.

However, the effect of the upward attack was extremely poor. Instead, the Tanirians on the wall took advantage of the situation. The distance was so close that as soon as the gunshot sounded and the bowstring vibrated, someone would fall down outside the wall. Stones the size of watermelons were thrown from the wall, and the Veneta soldiers who could not dodge had their heads smashed into their chests.

Seizing the iron pot filled with gunpowder, Winters placed the iron pot next to the crack of the door, inserted the gunpowder twist, and shouted: "Back off."

Then, he used the fire-burning technique to twist the gunpowder and ignite it.

The gunpowder was found in the fort, but there was only gunpowder and no sealed container. I had to use iron pots and kettles.

When everyone saw that the gunpowder was ignited, they quickly dispersed. However, after the medicine was burned out, there was only a muffled sound from the door, and there was no explosion effect at all. Looking again, not only the door but also the iron pot were intact.

Although Winters used a narrow-mouth pot, and although he tried to seal it as much as possible with a makeshift wooden stopper, the sealing was still not enough. The way the powder is twisted and detonated, and the successive combustion causes the gunpowder gas on the surface to blow away the gunpowder below. Setting off a whole pot of gunpowder is not as powerful as detonating a gunpowder kettle.

The angry Winters simply gave up the idea of ​​blasting the city gate, and this time he directly replaced it with a gunpowder bag tied with iron nails.

The gunpowder bag is also the equipment of the Dunbao Musketeers. It is not made of horns but sewn with leather in order to increase the lethality. Winters tied several rings of iron nails around the outside of the powder bag.

This time, Winters stuffed the soft bag directly through the crack in the door. He did not use gunpowder to twist it, but directly activated the fire technique with all his strength.

Unlike gunpowder that is twisted and ignited layer by layer, the fire-burning technique directly acts on the entire bag of black gunpowder. The black gunpowder that absorbs a large amount of energy breaks through the energy barrier and explodes instantly.

With a "boom" sound, the gunpowder bag exploded violently. The iron nails tied to the outside of the gunpowder bag were pushed by the gunpowder gas and shot in all directions.

An iron nail flew out from the crack in the door, plowing a bloody ditch on Winters' head. The situation inside the door would only be more tragic than outside. A scream came from the crack in the door, and the force of pushing the door outwards suddenly decreased.

"Listen to my command! Let's hit the door together!"

Everyone in Veneta worked together to rush towards the gate, and the gate of the fort was finally breached.

The Tanirians on the wall shouted at the top of their lungs as they realized that the fort gate had been breached.

"Captain, take two men and destroy the door shaft. The others follow me!" Winters drew his sword and was the first to rush into the fort.

Both the Veneta soldiers and the Herds bared their left arms. After rushing into the fort, they killed anyone who didn't bare their left arm.

The corridor leading to the second floor of the fort was too small, and there was no place to dodge. The people in the back are holding up the people in front, and the people in the front have nowhere to go and can only fight with each other.

Not only the Venetas and Heds, but also the Tanirians were furious. The people in the front row of both sides let out inhuman howls while stabbing at the enemies. Or get stabbed.

When the person in front fell down, the people behind him immediately followed.

The phalanx tactics of the ancient Empire would constantly replace the soldiers in the front row, but today's soldiers no longer receive this training.

In this bloody flesh-grinding battle, they can only fight to the death, and if the battle continues like this, everyone will die. People in the front row fall one by one, and the temporarily safe back row will become the front row.

When the battle has progressed to this point, it is no longer skills and tactics that determine victory or defeat, but willpower and military strength. It depends on which side has strong nerves, which side can hold on for one more minute; if both sides are not afraid of death, it depends on which side has more people.

However, in the corridor that can accommodate three people walking side by side, Winters' sword has been curled, and it cuts on the enemy like an iron rod.

There were already four or five stab wounds on his limbs. If it weren't for the instinct of practicing swordsmanship all year round to protect him, he would have died long ago.

Winters had begun to become numb. He was no longer excited, no longer nervous, or even no longer afraid. He just mechanically deflected the weapon he was swinging, and then in turn slashed at the opponent's shoulder and neck.

Spell caster, officer, these identities have no meaning. There is no need for an officer or a spellcaster in the meat grinder, only meat.

This small corridor eats alive people and spits out bloody corpses.

Winters didn't know how many men he had cut down, but he could feel that he was advancing and the enemy was retreating.

The enemy in front of him hit Winters with a stick, all over his face. Winters' mechanical "block-slash".

However, he was so numb that he didn't notice that the "stick" was actually not a stick, but a flail.

He held the "stick" in place, but the knocking rod hinged with an iron chain at the front of the stick went around the blade, swung in a semicircle and hit Winters hard on the head.

Winters felt his consciousness suddenly become drowsy, his vision went dark, and he dropped his weapon for the first time in combat.

The Tanirians, who were holding flails, were just about to take advantage of the victory and give Winters a hard blow. However, the Veneta soldiers and Hurds around Winters quickly protected Winters and carried Winters, who was nearly fainting, to the back of the corridor.

Winters, who was half-conscious, heard the sound of the gong. He shook his head and tried to cheer up, but there was an indescribable sharp pain in his skull.

Winters' diaphragm squeezed his stomach, and he retched twice involuntarily, but nothing came out.

"Is it the sound of a gong?" Winters, who looked pale, grabbed the soldier who was supporting him. He was not sure if he was hallucinating, so he struggled to ask the soldier: "Did you hear the sound of the gong?"

"Sir, it's the sound of a gong. You heard it right, it's the sound of a gong."

Hearing the soldier's answer, Winters' expression suddenly relaxed. He let out a long breath. Blood flowed from the top of his head to his chin, making his smile a little ferocious: "Withdraw! Withdraw now! Warrant Officer Cellini has already Got it!"

In the tactics course at the Army Officer School, Private Winters Montagne only learned four things: deploy reserves on the reverse slope; outflank the flanks if the front cannot be penetrated; the backup plan will come in handy sooner or later; and - -Before launching a real attack, you must feint in other directions.

[Army Military Academy, military cadets automatically obtain the rank of private when entering the school. ]

There was at least one enemy centurion in this fort, and Winters never thought that he could penetrate the Tanirians from the main gate with his makeshift army of more than thirty remnants and slaves.

All attacks from the main gate are feints. The louder the better, the more intense the better.

When the battle at the main gate attracted the attention of all the Tanirians, Andrea Cellini would lead four capable Veneta soldiers and Hurds to climb into the fort from the other direction.

Forging a cannon is difficult, but destroying a cannon is easy. Andre brought enough nails and hammers to nail all the cannon fire doors on Red Sulfur Island.

The sound of the gong signaled that Andre had succeeded.

The surviving Veneta soldiers and Hurds carried Winters and quickly evacuated the fort. The enemy in the fort didn't know what was true and didn't dare to pursue.

Winters sat on the ground leaning against the tree trunk and silently counted the remaining hands. There are only eleven people left here, and all of them are still alive and injured.

Counting three on Bud's side and five on Andre's side, Winters had twenty-three men killed tonight, half of them.

Hestas, who stayed behind at the attack position, was treating Winters' wounds. The old shaman first wiped the wounds clean and then washed them with warm salt water. Finally, he began to chant in a strange pronunciation.

A shocking scene happened. The bone-deep and bleeding wound on Winters' left shoulder was slowly shrinking. Under everyone's gaze, this wound, which was two and a half fingers long, healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and finally turned into a shallow red line.

Regardless of their injuries, the still living Huds fell to their knees one after another, pressing their foreheads to the soil and chanting.

The Veneta people who were Catholics or Protestants were greatly shocked when they saw the miracle of healing wounds with their own eyes.

This is the magic that can "give life to dead people, flesh and white bones". This is the reason why the Catholic Church was able to rise from a banned and persecuted pagan church to replace the polytheism of the people of the ancient empire and become the state religion of the ancient empire.

I would like to ask who can see such magic and not prostrate themselves before the altar of the Catholic Church?

"Old man, don't waste your magic on me." Winters grabbed Hestace's hand: "Go and save the others."

Hestas nodded and turned to treat the wounds of others.

The Hud people were all proud when their wounds were cleaned by the old shaman. It was an unparalleled honor for the Hud people to have Hestace deal with the wounds himself.

The Venetians, on the other hand, were afraid of the "witchcraft" of Hestas, a pagan. Some Venetians who were seriously injured and had to receive magical treatment also recited the Lord's Prayer tremblingly. and the Rosary.

The Hurds glared angrily at the unwilling Venetas.

"It's so fun! I nailed all the fire doors of their cannons! [Andre's poor vulgar words]! Where did these Taney guys get such good cannons? But I nailed them all On!"

Before seeing anyone, Winters heard Andre's rough voice.

"After destroying so many cannons, can we be justified in not giving us a one-kilogram medal? Can we? Ah..." Andre's tone was filled with excitement, and he was boasting about his achievements.

According to the regulations of the Veneta Army, nailing the enemy's cannon in combat is equivalent to capturing the enemy's cannon. Officers below the rank of lieutenant colonel are directly promoted to one level, and soldiers are given money and land to go home and become small landlords.

However, he could no longer laugh when he saw the miserable state of the Venetians and Hurds who were responsible for the feint attack on the main gate.

Andre walked to Winters, squatted down and looked at the knife wounds on Winters' body and the coat that was almost stained red with blood. His voice trembled and he said, "Brother... are you okay?"

"It's okay, they're all minor injuries." Winters' lips lost all color, and he asked with a sad smile: "Have all the cannons been dealt with?"

"Solved, they are all nailed to the ground." Andre nodded. He thought for a while and added: "The heavy artillery in the fort is a thirty-two-pound bronze cannon, and they are all long-bodied. No matter, Tani guys probably don’t have the ability to make such a cannon, I really don’t know where they got it from.”

"Just destroy it." The last stone hanging in Winters' heart fell to the ground. He said in a relaxed tone: "Don't worry about where they got the cannon. Let the big shots above worry about this kind of thing. We The work is done.”

Another burst of footsteps came from the south, and Bard also led the two Veneta people back to the agreed-upon rendezvous point.

"How's it going? Have you been contacted?" Winters saw Bud coming back and wanted to stand up anxiously.

"Don't move, don't move, just sit still." Bard quickly held down Winters and said softly: "We have made contact, our warship has set off."

Bud pointed in the direction of the bay: "Look, it's already here."

The sound of artillery came faintly from the direction of the entrance of the bay. Behind the hazy shadow of the trees, warships sailed into Chisulfur Bay one after another.

The Veneta soldiers shouted excitedly.

When the Hedians saw this, they realized that they were going home. The hard-hitting men also had tears in their eyes, hugging each other and crying bitterly.

Winters, Bud, and Andre also looked at each other and smiled happily.

…

…

There was the sound of artillery again, and it was heavy artillery. The roar of the artillery made the leaves tremble.

Winters' expression was horrifying... No, the direction was wrong... The sound of cannons did not come from the entrance of the bay, but from the second fort in the waist of the bay, the one that was attacked just now.

Winters and Bud looked at Andre with wide eyes.

Andre was on the verge of tears: "I...I...I really nailed all the fucking fire doors!"

Thank you to the book friends who have voted for recommendations before. Thank you to the book friends WritersBlock, Ami, Smoke and Clouds Scatter, and Justice and Purity Is Koala. I sent it out immediately after writing it yesterday, and I thanked you all today.