Iron Powder and Spellcaster

After a night of fierce fighting, the corridors near the gun emplacements on the west side are now strewn with corpses, including those of Venetians and Tanirians.

If the Venetians hadn't brought leftover gunpowder back to the barracks every day, last night's losses would have been worse.

After daybreak, the Venetas began to clean up the battlefield and collect the remains of their comrades.

Winters and Taylor, who hurriedly treated their wounds, immediately returned to the West-Fourth Artillery Group.

There was a gruesome wound on Winters' forehead, and the wound was barely closed with black cotton thread. If the injured position was two inches lower, Winters' right eye would definitely not be saved.

Taylor suffered a stab wound on the top of his head and had to shave his head completely in order to have it stitched up.

Yet they are the lucky ones because they are still alive.

Bubba lay before them, his body already rigor mortis. His dilated eyes stared blankly at the sky, and his mouth was wide, as if he was still shouting.

The right side of his neck was nearly smashed, and a lead shot from a heavy musket killed him. In addition to this fatal gunshot wound, there were more than a dozen other large and small wounds on his body.

He fought wounded until a lead bullet killed him.

At the last moment of his life, Bubba still clutched his halberd. He held it so hard that Taylor couldn't separate his hand from the halberd.

Winters stood silently behind Taylor. In the last scene in his memory, many enemies rushed towards him. Suddenly, he felt like he was hit hard on the head with a war hammer, and blood blurred his vision. Taylor and Wake dragged themselves further and further away from Bubba as he roared and swung his halberd at the enemy.

He couldn't remember clearly what happened after that. The hit on his head almost knocked him out, blurring his consciousness.

In the melee at the artillery position, the Taniriya shooters immediately noticed the Veneta officer who was charging at the front.

Three powerful crossbows were quickly aimed at Winters. Two crossbowmen missed, but the third one succeeded.

A short, thick iron crossbow bolt hit Winters in the face, knocking him to the ground.

If not for his helmet, Winters would have been shot dead on the spot.

Even Taylor and others thought that Warrant Officer Montagne had been shot to death. When they snatched the "body" back, they discovered that the Warrant Officer was still alive. Although the crossbow bolt penetrated the helmet, it failed to penetrate any further.

In the melee, the surviving soldiers desperately tried to protect the unconscious Winters, and Bubba was killed in the process.

If Bubba hadn't left behind to block the Tanirian soldiers, Taylor and Wake would have had no chance of dragging Winters away.

"He died like this." Winters thought sadly: "Before he died, he only ate half a piece of white bread and drank a little beef soup. He said he was happy to eat white bread, and then he died like this."

Sacrificing one's life for one's country is glorious and great, perhaps the messenger would tell Bubba's parents. But Winters knew that Bubba did not die for Venetta at all. He died from the inflated ambitions of a small group of careerists.

Those people took him from his hometown to this island with a piece of coarse bread, and then let him die here.

"He is not yet twenty years old, and he has only eaten white bread once..."

"Isn't this what you want?" Old Taylor closed Bubba's eyes with trembling hands: "Isn't that why you gave Bubba white bread and meat? Isn't it just to make him fight to death? Fighting?"

Winters didn't answer.

"Is it?" Taylor suddenly became excited. He turned around and grabbed Winters' arm, looked into Winters' eyes angrily and asked, "Is it or is it not?"

"no."

Old Taylor seemed to have aged more than ten years, his anger dissipated, leaving only endless emptiness. He murmured: "Then Bubba, this stupid boy, didn't die in vain... he didn't die in vain..."

Winters was silent for a long time and whispered: "No, he died in vain. If it weren't for some people's ambitions, he wouldn't have to die, Dan wouldn't have to die, and many people wouldn't have to die. We don't have to die either. Here our lives are at stake with the Tanirians."

"I ate military rations when the emperor was still alive. Over forty years have passed and I have already seen clearly that the life of a big-headed soldier is the most despicable thing in the world. Buba's life and my life are both, nothing. The big shots treat us like human beings." Old Taylor carefully arranged Bubba's appearance, turned his back to Winters and said, "The big shot is not afraid of death, but is afraid of dying in vain. Bubba is not doing this for the big shots, he is doing it for you. Fight the Taney guy. If you weren't using him, he would be worth it..."

Taylor covered the wound on Bubba's neck with his collar, stood up, looked into Winters's eyes, and said seriously: "Warrant Officer Montagne, you have a magic... a way to make Big Head The magic that makes soldiers willing to die. I have only seen this ability in one person before you, and that was Ned Smith. Please do not abuse this magic, please remember your kindness now, when you become a big shot Don’t let us die in vain again that day.”

…

…

The Tanirians raided three of the eight artillery positions at night, nailing two and a half groups of guns.

All the artillery pieces of the West Second and West Third Artillery Groups were nailed, and all the star officers and sentries on duty were killed. The artillery of the West-Fourth Artillery Group was mostly saved due to Winters' counterattack, and most of the heavy artillery deployed at the rear was saved.

After the reinforcements from the rear arrived, they quickly repelled the attackers on the West-4 artillery position, and all the twenty Taniriya soldiers who did not run away were captured.

The strangest thing about this raid was that the sentries at the other two positions failed to sound any alarm.

Post-war surveys proved that the sentries indeed put up fierce resistance, but no one heard any abnormal noise from those two positions. The same is true for the Montagne team at the west-fourth artillery position and the Sokolu team at the west-first artillery position.

Rumors spread in the military camp, and the soldiers privately said that the Tanilao in the city had sacrificed six children to the devil in exchange for some evil method that could kill people silently in the dark.

Upon learning of this, Leighton was furious, and the furious Leighton personally tortured the captured prisoners.

According to the confessions of the prisoners, they did not attack from the city gate. Some sailors in the city came up with an idea and applied the pulley technology used by large warships to launch small boats on the city wall. They built a set of temporary elevators using pulleys and wooden boards, and quietly lowered the soldiers from the corner of the west city wall.

According to the prisoners, the first one they attacked was the West 3rd Artillery Group. When they were about to attack the West 2nd Artillery Group, the West 4th Artillery Group sounded the alarm.

In order to knock out one more group of artillery pieces, Captain Hernan, who led the night attack force, took the risk and sent half of his men back to attack the West 4th Artillery Group, and then led the attack on the West 2nd Artillery Group himself.

However, no matter how Leighton tortured the captured Tanirian soldiers, they could not explain how they managed to quietly raid the Veneta position.

On the night of the night attack, not only the Venetans could hear nothing, but even the Tanirians who launched the attack could not hear anything. Footsteps, shouts, the clash of weapons, nothing could be heard.

In the past, their ears were filled with screams and shouts of death during hand-to-hand combat, but this time they could only see others opening their mouths, but could not hear others making any sound.

All the prisoners testified that they could only hear their own voices during the night raid, and what they heard was the sound of their own voices that sounded like they were covering their ears.

According to the prisoners, Captain Hernan knew a kind of black magic. As long as he wants to, he can deprive other people within a few dozen meters of hearing.

Only one prisoner recalled that there was a masked guard next to Captain Hernan. The masked guard did not go into battle, but no one thought it was strange because he was a personal guard.

But that prisoner has always been Hernan's subordinate. Before tonight, he had never seen this mysterious masked guard beside Hernan. Before tonight, he had never heard that Hernan knew any black magic.

Other than that, I couldn't find any valuable information.

Unexplained loss of two officers, more than 60 soldiers and 28 cannons, the furious Roster Leighton ignored the dissuasion of other officers and vowed to execute all the prisoners in the most brutal way in front of the defenders.

But when Layton decided to act recklessly, no one could stop him.

The Tanirian soldiers on the city wall watched with trepidation as the Veneta people prepared for execution: the soldiers moved dozens of two-meter-long logs to the front of the position, and the carpenters began to sharpen the moved logs.

The shackled Tanirians were brought to the front of the city walls, many of them tortured to the point of dying.

After the prisoners were pushed to the ground, they immediately understood their tragic fate. They begged, howled, and prayed, but the executioners remained unmoved.

The executioner drove a sharpened stake into the prisoner's door, and the tortured prisoner let out a scream that would give the bravest man nightmares.

Another executioner behind the prisoner raised a large wooden pole with both hands and struck it downwards with all his strength. The wooden stake was suddenly driven into the human body.

Death on the spot was a relief for the captives, and the captives who survived had to experience even more horrific torture.

The executioner then lifted the wooden stake and inserted it into the open space in front of the city wall. Under the body's own weight, the wooden stake continues to be inserted into the body bit by bit.

The victim will die quickly, but the wooden stake will not stop. Eventually, the wooden points will penetrate from the prisoner's mouth and neck, and the prisoner's body will be pierced on it.

More than twenty wooden stakes were placed in a row there, and the prisoners died miserably under the watch of the defenders.

Witnessing this hellish scene of cruelty would make even the most insensitive person tremble.

Not only the Tanirians on the city wall endured great mental torture, but even the Veneta soldiers were shocked.

Leonard, the priest who accompanied the army, even said bluntly to Layton: "General Layton, you will go to hell!"

"Humph, as long as William Kidd goes down first." Layton dismissed the disdain from the clergy.

Even Andre, who had no empathy, couldn't bear to see such a scene, and whispered to Winters: "General Layton has gone too far. If you want to kill him, just kill him. Why do you need to do this... "

Winters replied expressionlessly: "No, Layton didn't 'kill' them, Layton 'executed' them. This was not aimless violence, this was a bloody show."

"You... will only make the Tanirians on the wall more tenacious..." Antonio sighed.

"Maybe so." Layton said nonchalantly: "But I also imprinted fear into their souls."

In the singing of crows, this war is falling hopelessly in a more barbaric, cruel and bloody direction.

In the past, sometimes when I came home and felt tired, I would go to bed first and then get up to write. This was not good. Adjust your schedule so that you must go to bed before 1 o'clock and write as much or as little as you want.

Thank you to the book friends who voted for recommendation before, thank you to the book friends Black Computer Accessories, There is a Beauty in Tianshui, Justice and Purity is Koala, Book Friends 20181202201418435, writersblock, With the World, Leisaki Gangster, Ami, Yuan Hongjian, Please Thank you all for your recommendation votes for Call Me Pleasant Goat, Book Friends 20190303064452621, and Dawn in the Dream.