Warlord: King of All Clans

Walking on the World Tree Avenue, watching two Pegasus flying overhead, Deputy Legion Commander Arnold, riding on his warhorse, said to Leo: "Lord Mondo, the war in the north has not yet begun. Isn't it a bit hasty for us to send troops?"

In front of them, teams of Isenbol soldiers passed by. Because there were legion commanders watching along the way, they appeared to be in an orderly and well-controlled march.

These soldiers are a mixture of farmers, warriors, and bandits. Once they lose strict supervision, there is no guarantee that some of them will find a small village along the way to earn some income.

It is simply wishful thinking to rely on the Corner Flag Knights to control the soldiers' military discipline, because the Corner Flag Knights are the leaders of this group of bandits.

Although the situation in the north is tense and all trade routes are cut off, Victor of Ilanrado did not openly declare war.

Leo is now gathering his army to march north, which is tantamount to a blatant invasion.

The perspectives of small lords and big lords are always different. Arnold's square flag knight is one of the most powerful local tyrants in Isenbol, and he considers much further than the corner flags who treat war as robbery.

Leo would not do anything without profit. When he came back from Frowald, he still had ten magic crystals given by Count Hermann in his arms.

In order to stimulate Leo to fight, Hermann gave him ten magic crystals as soon as he knew Leo needed them, and said that he would give him another twenty magic crystals after the war was won.

But this was a private transaction, and Leo was reluctant to tell Arnold, so he just gave another reason.

"It's useless to beat children on a rainy day. Now that winter has just begun, no one has anything to do. We might as well go fight. When spring comes next year, we in Hewan will be very busy. I won't have the energy to respond to Count Hermann by then."

Arnold looked back at the elite River Bend soldiers who were slowly joining the legion, and thought that Leo Mundo was too confident.

Wars can be big or small, deep or shallow. There are battles between small legions in the north, and conflicts between lords. Both sides bring their legions to fight in the wild. The defeated side can only admit defeat, cede land and pay compensation.

The other is to capture cities and territories and completely annex them, which requires long-term preparation and a longer combat time.

This war clearly belongs to the latter, but Leo expressed his intention to resolve the problem this winter.

Hearing what Leo said, Arnold could only agree, "River Bay is indeed strong now. Buck Fortress was captured in a blink of an eye. Now that all the elite soldiers and generals are out, even Elanrado can't stop them."

The firearms of River Bend were already well-known in the surrounding areas, and as their ally, Arnold was also quite familiar with them.

But now, seeing the River Bay Musketeers wearing uniform uniforms, standing in neat rows, walking steadily and quietly on the World Tree Avenue, I still feel shocked.

These musketeers still had the equipment of the giant shield crossbowmen in the Empire's regular army. They wore wide-brimmed iron hats to protect against rain of arrows, carried giant shields to protect against frontal projection, and wore leather-lined chain mail shirts.

The only difference was that the heavy military crossbow was replaced with a river musket.

They wore red regimental smocks embroidered with the black solidarity flag of the River Bend.

Leo smiled slightly. What Arnold didn't know was that Hewan didn't send out any regular troops at all. The 700 musketeers who went into battle this time were all newly trained conscripts.

The heavy infantry and longbowmen carefully trained by Hewan, and even the kobold artillery regiment under Strong, did not appear in the team.

While Basarov's Giant Shield Musketeers were showing their might in Buck Fortress, high-quality steel pipes were also produced in the imperial capital and sent to the river bend.

The quality of the wrought iron barrels made in Hewan is already up to standard, but the output is still limited, which has always been an important factor limiting the production of muskets.

Leo directly ordered a batch of 3,000 high-quality gun barrels from the alchemy workshop in the imperial capital. These gun barrels are of better quality and lighter than the wrought iron barrels produced by Hewan.

Although the cost is several times higher, it is relatively good value for money.

After no longer having to produce its own gun barrels, the extra production capacity of the Hewan Rifle Workshop was put into other components, and during this period, another 500 qualified muskets were produced.

Training musketeers is easy. Even if there are no guns, they can first use wooden stick musket models to train in military discipline, physical fitness, and formations for three months.

After another week of live-fire training, we will be able to go to the battlefield.

There are now a total of 800 Giant Shield Musketeers in Hewan. Except for the 100 who continue to train new recruits at home, the remaining 700 have been brought out and put into actual combat to test their quality.

The true performance of a musket can only be tested in actual combat, and only after problems are identified can it be further optimized.

And as time goes by, some problems will be exposed.

For example, the performance of the spring steel of a flintlock is unstable. Some gunsmiths can pass product inspection when they make it, but once it is used, after firing ten or twenty bullets, the spring steel loses its elasticity and the flintlock has to be returned for replacement parts.

In addition, there are problems such as excessive force in striking the flint causing it to break, too much gunpowder residue causing the vent to become clogged, and problems with the gun's center of gravity making shooting more difficult.

Compared to the Kobold muskets, the Riverbend muskets are undoubtedly perfect masterpieces, but they still have the various defects of early flintlock muskets.

The same goes for the Musketeers. A Musketeer who performs well on the training ground does not necessarily perform the same way on the battlefield. Only through the baptism of war can the true gold be refined.

In addition to the seven hundred musketeers, the other two hundred artillerymen were also human artillery led by Marvin, not the ogre artillery under Strong.

The artillery in their hands was a regular thousand-man cannon, and now they were equipped with gun carriages and wheels so that they could be towed by draft horses and used in field battles.

Moreover, Leo paid more attention to the construction of the River Bay Artillery Regiment than the Musketeer Regiment, and the investment was large enough, starting with an entire team of mounted artillerymen.

Not only were the twenty thousand-man cannons towed by draft horses, but each artilleryman had his own riding horse.

In addition, there were baggage donkey carts transporting gunpowder, projectiles, replacement parts, repair tools, tents, and food. The number of livestock in the entire 200-man artillery regiment was greater than the number of people.

Walking on the World Tree Avenue is more spectacular than the seven hundred musketeers next to it.

In order to collect twenty thousand-man cannons, Leo dismantled all the thousand-man cannons guarding Fort Buck and Fort Gravel.

Although the overall level of Hewan is still in the Middle Ages, the firearms army in front of them, combining Hewan technology and imperial capital technology, has reached the level of the Napoleonic era.

This was the first army to completely break away from cold weapon combat, and it was also a revolutionary army.

Ilanrado is only three hundred miles away from Isenbol, and the area in between is not uninhabited. In addition to some natural villages, pioneering knight territories, there are also two small towns.

In fact, there should have been three villages. The one closer to Isenbol was a large knight village led by Knight Gladstone. It had a population of more than a thousand at its peak.

In the North, a town can be called one if its population exceeds a thousand.

However, due to the invasion of the Petukhov family, most of the craftsmen and residents were relocated to the river bend, and they have not yet recovered.

The other two towns are under the rule of the city of Ilanrado and are the territories of the two local banners of Ilanrado.

Three days later, the Isenpore Corps arrived at the first town, Fort Bawanachi.