I will be crowned king

Just as Lieutenant Colonel Alexey embarked on this road of no return in despair, the entire Storm Division's destination had already fallen into hell amidst the sky full of artillery fire and the sounds of fighting.

"Soldiers—advance!"

Heart-rending shouts echoed amidst the rumble of cannons, and hysterical officers waved their already tattered fleur-de-lis flags, driving their men to attack.

The terrified soldiers crowded into company-based square formations, carrying firearms of different lengths and even wooden sticks with bayonets attached to them. They marched into the distance to the cheerful drumbeats and the roaring sound of artillery behind them. The low walls advance on the hills.

After several days of siege, the imperial army, which had suffered many setbacks, finally discovered the weakest point in the city's defense line in Black Reef Port - especially after receiving the help of the bounty hunters and mercenary groups ambushing in the city, they began to target concentrated fire attack.

As for those bounty hunters who tipped off the empire and even tried to open the city gate at night. They were not so lucky: the hospitable people of Black Reef Harbor carefully prepared the same treatment for them as the loyalists, adding a few more decorations to the high-rise buildings in the city.

But no matter how much he vented his anger, he couldn't stop the golden iris flowers outside the city from approaching, bit by bit destroying the originally strong defenses of Black Reef Port.

"Boom-boom-boom-!!!"

On the artillery position at the foot of the hillside, artillery flames flashed one after another, and bursts of gunpowder smoke filled the trembling ground; pieces of artillery shells roared past the heads of the terrified soldiers, and a small part fell on both sides of the hills. But more of them hit the low walls and bunkers, exploding plumes of smoke.

Relying on the excellent technology of the imperial artillery and the continuous concentrated fire, the infantry can even step on the explosive spots to launch an attack without any scruples. There is no need to worry about being "named one by one" by the condescending volleys of guns like they did in the past few days, and they will die. Don't know how he died.

Even if occasionally an unlucky person falls down due to a stray bullet or a cold gun from nowhere, the rest of the people will step over the corpse and continue to move forward under the pressure of the officer supervising the battle and the "companions" behind them with their guns and bayonets. .

And when they finally climbed up the hill after all the hardships and walked to a place only ten meters away from the low wall and the bunker, the sound of artillery behind them suddenly stopped.

Almost at the same time, gunshots rang out from the fortifications that had just been ravaged by artillery fire; the soldiers in the front row wailed and fell into a pool of blood; hundreds of Black Reef Port militiamen took advantage of the opportunity to rush out of the ruins shrouded in gunfire and stood up. He raised his bayonet and pounced on the enemy who was caught off guard.

"Charge forward—for the glory of His Majesty Hred, charge forward!"

Accompanied by the officer's roar and the corpses of several deserters shot dead by him, the soldiers who turned around and tried to run away immediately turned around, stared at the Black Reef Port militiamen with fierce eyes, and pounced fiercely. to each other.

The collision of bayonets and flesh and blood, gun flames spurting out among the rubble, thunder exploding deep in the throat... all kinds of sounds were mixed together, and extremely cruel hand-to-hand combat was constantly staged on the entire defense line. Plasma mixed with gravel sprayed onto the low wall that was already dark red.

After several rounds of back-and-forth battles, the Imperial soldiers were finally expelled from the defense line under the siege of the reinforcements from Black Reef Port that arrived in time... And it wasn't just them, all the Imperial troops on the entire front were defeated. The whole process It didn't last even a quarter of an hour.

In a makeshift command post at the foot of the hillside, Bernard Molwes, holding a monocular, looked expressionlessly at the "Imperial Army" being driven down the hillside like a drowned dog, with no trace of emotion on his expression. .

But this does not mean that he has truly cultivated to the point where he does not take pleasure in things or feels sorrow for himself, or that he has been deprived forever by a black mage - it is simply that it does not matter.

Since three days ago, all the attacking armies have been replaced by vassals who came to the empire - exiled loyalists, bandits, mercenary groups, bounty hunters...

Although these people had basically no experience in large-scale wars and their morale was basically zero, Bernard had not originally expected them to have much combat effectiveness. He purely used them to fight a war of attrition against the defenders and save some supplies by the way.

Not only that, all the vassal troops he consumed were "property" in the names of those officers. The part he controlled had been sent back to Sailing City by Bernard long ago in the name of "increasing the logistics workforce" and dumped at a low price... Eighty percent of them are currently sweating profusely in some industrial owner's plantation or mine.

Of course, since his boss has done such a good job, he cannot expect his subordinates to carry out the order unconditionally: Bernard's order was for four infantry regiments to attack at the same time and attack two bunkers on the defense line of the Black Reef Port. In the end, only four battalions launched the attack under artillery fire, and not even four companies rushed into the defense line...

Considering that the soldiers of the vassal army all provide their own weapons and are not uniform except for the military flag, the firepower of these four companies may not be as good as the equivalent number of Black Reef Port militiamen.

What makes Bernard regretful is that although these people's fighting ability is extremely impressive, their escape skills are among the best in the industry.

Although they have clearly issued near-fatal combat missions many times, they are always able to keenly sense the good opportunity to retreat before the entire army is annihilated, and decisively escape from the battlefield, stably controlling the death rate to one-twentieth. .

In other words, as long as eight people from a line infantry company of a vassal army fall, the entire line will collapse on the spot and disappear from the battlefield at the speed of light.

Such an astonishing speed of movement once again made Bernard determined to completely consume them as cannon fodder - otherwise, he would have to let them defend the flanks in the decisive battle with the Clovis people. Bernard seriously doubted that he would be able to attack him by then. There may not only be Clovis people on the flanks.

As for the gang of traitors in Black Reef Port in the city...since the war started, these people are no longer even within his consideration range.

Although the loyalists were thoroughly purged before the war began, and they decisively strengthened the walls and cleared the country when the army was approaching, Black Reef Port had sufficient supplies and troops.

However, as an "ordinary colony" that is not very wealthy and has neither high nor low status, Black Reef Port has neither experienced troops or officers, nor a complete manufacturing industry, nor sufficient weapons reserves... It does not have the ability to fight at all. A modern warfare capability.

In the battle just a few days ago, he also obtained a homemade firearm that was said to belong to a certain Black Reef Port militia and resembled a Leyden rifle.

As a wealthy member of the empire, Bernard would certainly not be unfamiliar with this "classic style" of Clovis arms; the biggest feature of this weapon is that it is cheap and extremely simple to manufacture... Of course, the failure rate is also famous.

However, even the impressive failure rate cannot conceal its advantages of low cost and ease of manufacturing... Therefore, not only the Clovis army is equipped with such weapons in large quantities, but even the empire is importing and imitating them in batches to arm the army.

After all, cavalry and artillery are the key to the invincibility of the imperial army. As long as the infantry can maintain a good line and not collapse easily, it is enough. Combat effectiveness does not matter at all.

As for the Leyden rifles in Black Reef Port, Bernard speculated that they should be imported from Beluga Port, or even arms assisted by the Clovis people. After all, Black Reef Port did not have the ability to make homemade firearms.

This further proves that the original arms reserves of Black Reef Port have been exhausted, and the assistance provided by the Clovis people must be used to barely maintain it.

What really worries him is still the Clovis officer who defeated and clearly captured him in Hantu.

"It's been so long, why is there still no news from Dongju City?"

An anxious Bernard said to himself. There was a thick pile of "important information" piled on the desk behind him: "The Good People of Beluga Harbor", "The Honest People of Long Lake Town", "Winter Torch City" Pioneer Journal"...

Even though so much time has passed, these enemy newspapers are still the most important source of intelligence for the Imperial Colonial Administrator; as for the officers in the Sailing City Council and the army - unless it is absolutely necessary, someone needs to take the blame, and they can't wait to let the Administrator Nothing.

"Well... mainly the bounty hunters and mercenary groups sent there, none of them have returned yet."

The herald who had just dealt with some "logistics personnel" for the Minister-in-Chief, who rushed back from Sail City, replied cautiously: "Winter Torch City is an inland colony, and its location is particularly remote. It should be normal for the information to be limited. ?”

"Occlusion? No matter how blocked it is, there should be an echo by now!" The Minister in Charge said with a irritable look on his face:

"Today is the 17th. No matter how much we delay, the meeting of the Free Confederacy should have been completed long ago; but let alone Beluga Harbor, even how the meeting went and what was confirmed are not reported, as if the world has evaporated. !”

Bernard is very nervous now. Based on his experience in Hantu, Anson Bach should start to assemble the troops of the Free Confederacy with great fanfare at this time, clamoring to rescue Black Reef Port while setting up a defense line near Red Hand Bay, waiting for the Empire Taking the initiative to bump into it, he took the opportunity to send out the main force to cut off his supplies and fight a defensive counterattack.

Passionate about bluffing, extremely confident and extremely cautious at the same time...this is all Bernard knows about Anson.

But this time, he was so quiet that it was almost eerie.

Not only was there no news, there was not even any news about the mercenary group he sent; Bernard certainly did not expect to rely on these people to kill the entire top management of the Free Federation and the entire Clovis Army; but there were more than two thousand people It would be too weird to smash it in without even a little splash.

You must know that this is a new world, with more than two thousand people... It is more than enough to directly conquer a medium-sized colony in other places.

The irritable Bernard turned around in a dream, and the herald was so frightened that he trembled and took half a step back, with a look of horror on his face.

When he saw the other party's appearance, the chief minister who originally wanted to ask something sighed and waved his hands helplessly: "Forget it, you just came back from the rear, so it won't be difficult for you - by the way, Yangfan City is the closest. Did something happen?"

"Uh...yes!"

The herald nodded quickly: "A lot of things have happened in Sailing City recently - almost after you left with the army, the entire colony was almost in chaos!"

oh?

Bernard was stunned for a moment, and the corners of his mouth began to rise unconsciously in surprise: "Really, is it really that bad?"

After all, for those congressmen who are keen to cause trouble for themselves and always want to be independent, the minister in charge simply wishes that they would die suddenly; even though he knows very well that in the end he still has to deal with the matter himself, so as to give the other party a headache. It's also very enjoyable.

"It's really that bad!" The herald was not as gloating as he was, and his expression was extremely solemn:

"Almost on the third day after you led the army to leave, a beast slave riot broke out in a mine outside the city. More than two hundred beast slaves occupied the mine and kidnapped a daughter of the mine owner, threatening to reduce her daily wages and hours to Twelve hours, and provide each person with one kilogram of potatoes and two kilograms of water, otherwise the entire mine will be blown up!”

"Oh, these are really a bunch of vicious villains!" Bernard, grinning from the corner of his mouth to his ears, said angrily:

"What happened?"

"The owner of the mine hired a dozen bounty hunters and killed the leading beast slave mercenary, and luckily averted a danger." The messenger sighed:

"But it is very regrettable that the mine owner's daughter could not be rescued."

"Why did those bounty hunters fail?"

"That's not true. Their operation was successful, but the mine owner's daughter was killed before entering. According to the confession of the beast slaves, the eldest lady did not realize that she was kidnapped at all. As usual, She punched and kicked the beast slaves like that, and as a result, the leader of the beast slaves was negligent, and she was killed by the others..."

"..."

"Similar incidents broke out about a dozen times after you left. At least hundreds of beast slaves fled from plantations and mines, which also destroyed the security of many settlements outside Yangfan City." The herald continued:

"Not only the periphery, but also various riots began to occur in Yangfan City; businessmen were assassinated in the streets, workers in workshops disappeared mysteriously, and legends of the Shadow Demon and the Lord of the Abyss were spread throughout the city... Some people even swore that I saw a female elf from Iser, disguised as a nun, appearing in a small church outside the city..."

What, a female elf?

Bernard, who was keenly aware of something, was shocked. Just when he was about to raise his hand to stop the herald from continuing, a loud noise suddenly came from the defense line of Black Reef Harbor behind him.

"boom--!!!!"

The two people who were unprepared were staggered by the shock, and then they fell down decisively.

After waiting for a while to confirm that there was no movement, he cautiously got up and turned towards the direction of the sound.

Under the leaden sky, the bunkers on the defense line of Black Reef Harbor were blown into ruins; a golden fleur-de-lis flag was rising slowly among the ruins and thick smoke!

"Ah... we're attacking?!"