Iron Powder and Spellcaster

The soft creamy yellow curtain wall gradually erodes Erno's view, and finally completely takes over it.

The earth was solemnly silent, and the oppressive atmosphere was more suffocating than the thick smoke.

Erno stared across the river, but he couldn't see anything.

Sweat seeped out uncontrollably from his palms and fingers, making the butt of the gun wet and sticky. Erno hesitated again and again, and finally, like a thief who stole for the first time, he tentatively let go of his hand, and then quickly rubbed it twice on his pants.

At this moment, a humanoid silhouette suddenly jumped up from the wheat field on the other side and fled towards the valley village where Erno was located.

"They're coming!" The figure jumped into the river, rolled and crawled around, and yelled like crazy: "They're coming!"

Erno, whose heart was already in his throat and whose fingers were already on the launch rod, finally understood - that person turned out to be the lurking sentry placed by the superiors on the other side of the river.

The sentry's hoarse warning was like an invisible hand opening the curtain. Dark shadows suddenly appeared in the wheat field where nothing could be seen clearly.

Those dark shadows floated between the waves of wheat ears and the low-pressure smoke layer, neither shouting nor hiding, slowly approaching Erno.

It was as if all the blood in his body was rushing to his neck. Erno's brain was dizzy and swollen. Beads of sweat instantly appeared on his back and forehead, and his heart clenched into a small ball.

"Enemy!" He only had one thought left: "Enemy!!!"

"Fire!" Lieutenant Woods' command came to my ears: "Everyone! Free fire!"

Erno's fingertips felt an inexplicable tingling, and he didn't know if he was trembling. But no matter what, he smoothly hung up the match rope, stabilized the gun body, and opened the powder tank cover.

Aiming at the dark human figure in the distance, Erno pressed the launch rod with the thump of his heart beating.

"boom!"

Everyone heard the first thunder of Erno's matchlock.

Just like an order was given, the crackling sound completely shattered the peace.

The low wall was briefly illuminated by the muzzle flash, and the smoke screen seemed to have been pushed hard, and the momentum of dispersion suddenly stopped.

Immediately afterwards, the military drums on the other side of the river also played. The dark figures no longer walked slowly. They let out deafening shouts and strode towards the valley village.

"Ah, it started, finally..."

Colonel Bode, who is in charge of the battle, Colonel Gesar, who is in charge of the southern battlefield, Colonel Scull, who is in charge of the northern battlefield, Lieutenant Woods, who is guarding River Valley Village, Captain Lauzon, who is waiting for the order to attack, and every officer on the battlefield, all are in the same place. The idea popped up.

However, Erno, who was squatting behind the wall, was not as sentimental as the officer, and he had no spare time to think about where Plato would go after today. He couldn't be blamed because no one had ever explained to him why he was fighting this battle.

Elnor simply loaded, fired, and reloaded mechanically, just as he had done in training.

The entire wall along the coast has been shrouded in choking smoke. It is unclear whether the smoke released by the enemy is more, or the gunpowder smoke produced by our own shooting is thicker.

Each time Erno pressed the launch rod, the smoke screen in front of him was briefly dispersed, allowing him to vaguely glimpse the scene on the other side. But the smoke pouring out of the muzzle quickly merged into the thick fog, just like the gunshots mixed with the shouts of killing - they appeared briefly and disappeared quickly.

After the first volley, the musketeers of Baishan County began to fire freely, and only sporadic gunshots were heard along the wall.

With this density of firepower alone, it is impossible to stop the charging enemy, or even delay the enemy.

While most of the musketeers were still inserting the second round of lead bullets into the barrels, the parliamentary soldiers at the front had already jumped into the rapids, with water up to their thighs flowing, and rushed to the other side with their weapons raised.

Hearing the sound of falling water coming from behind the smoke screen, Woods suddenly realized: he had just wasted the most critical first round of shots.

However, Woods had no time to regret. He pushed his annoyance out of his mind, kicked the woven basket behind the wall, and took out a palm-sized iron weight from the basket.

"Grenade." Woods shouted with all his strength, and his voice even became extremely sharp: "Get ready!"

However, in the noisy battlefield, no matter how loud a person's shout is, it is insignificant. Only Erno and a few other soldiers around Woods heard the lieutenant's order.

Erno also hurriedly put down his musket, took out an iron weight from the basket, and shouted at the same time: "Grenade - prepare!"

The sergeants guarding other sections of the wall also acted as sound transmission tools. Their roars came one after another behind the smoke: "Grenade - prepare!"

The enemy soldiers at the forefront had already waded across the water and onto the river beach.

Erno also saw clearly the appearance of the "enemy" for the first time - similar to him, with two arms and one head, mostly wearing undyed linen clothes, with faces twisted and hideous due to fear and violent breathing.

What Lieutenant Woods, the lieutenant next to Erno, observed was that the puppet government soldiers only had a light short weapon hanging on their waists, and they carried simple ladders and shields in groups.

Those ladders and shields were not improvised new equipment. Although most of the puppet government soldiers were not wearing armor, their actions showed that they were no strangers to siege warfare.

"Has Bazenauer fallen?" Woods' heart sank, and his last hope for friendly forces disappeared: "Then there will be no more reinforcements."

"Today! I'm the only one waiting!" Woods roared and stood up, exposing most of his body to the enemy, and threw the ignited grenade towards the river beach with all his strength: "Either victory! Or death!"

Other soldiers followed suit and threw grenades.

Lieutenant Woods had already paid his tuition once, so this time he waited until the second group of enemy soldiers stepped onto the river beach and the first group of enemy soldiers had reached the edge of the high ground before ordering the bombing.

A soldier of the New Reclamation Corps who had just followed the people in front of him ran through the wheat fields and crossed the river. He raised his head and saw many black shadows flying on the high slope.

He initially thought it was a stone and subconsciously protected his head. But the black iron lump that landed in front of him still had a hissing "hemp rope" hanging on its butt.

The New Reclamation Corps soldier immediately grabbed a handful of mud and threw it at the twine - he had seen something similar in Bazenauer. The defenders there used it frequently, and he learned how to deal with it.

The mud wetted the gunpowder twist in the hemp rope and extinguished it, but the "hissing" sound was still there!

The New Reclamation Corps soldier turned around in horror as another grenade landed behind him and exploded.

Dull explosions sounded one after another, and the minced meat was lifted into the air along with the sand, and fell behind the low wall and into the river, like a light rain.

The shock wave swept away the thick smoke covering the river beach, allowing both sides to briefly see the tragic scene on the river beach clearly:

Although some grenades that fell into puddles did not explode, and although the fuses of some grenades were extinguished by quick-sighted and quick-handed Parliamentary soldiers, all the grenades that were successfully detonated caused terrible damage;

The soft soil is dotted with irregular craters caused by the explosion. The fragments have poked holes in the ground around the craters, just like the wet marks left by water droplets shattering on rocks;

The wounded soldiers whose limbs were blown off were rolling and wailing, and more wounded soldiers had several holes in their bodies. The blood soaked the cloth near the wounds, and their lives were rapidly draining from those holes.

Woods was shocked by the result, and Elnor next to him pulled him down.

On the east bank of the nameless river, the musketeers of the Great Council Army have arrived on the battlefield. When the smoke screen was dispersed by the shock wave, Woods appeared in front of them with most of his body exposed outside the parapet.

Following the instruction to shoot the officer first, they immediately set up their muskets and opened fire on the short officer on the other side.

As soon as Woods was pulled back behind the parapet by Erno, he heard a series of gunfire from the other side.

Some of the lead bullets flew over his head, and the remaining lead bullets hit the wall and got stuck deep in the soft mud mixed with hay.

It wasn't until Lieutenant Woods was dragged to a safe location that Erno could hold back a complete sentence: "Lieutenant! Be careful!"

After realizing it, Woods was stunned for a moment and nodded gratefully.

The momentum of the parliamentary attack was frustrated, and the soldiers, all beards and tails - probably a centurion - abandoned their siege engines and retreated to the other side.

Most of the wounded soldiers - almost a hundred men - were dragged away, leaving only some wounded soldiers with mutilated limbs and complete incapacity of movement left on the river beach to die.

Recognizing that the enemy was retreating, cheers erupted from behind the earth-covered walls.

However, at the same time, large numbers of musketeers from the Grand Council Army wearing light brown coats appeared on the other side of the river.

As a red cross-striped military flag on a white background appeared in sight, the soldiers of the Grand Council Army moved more orderly.

While relying on the field ridges to suppress the defenders on the highlands on the other side, the musketeers of the Grand Council Army drove the thick wooden boards they carried into the field ridges along the river, transforming the earth ridges used by the villagers for demarcation and flood control into temporary parapets.

As the soldiers of the Grand Council Army who attacked the "two waists" of the river bend also temporarily retreated, the fighting pattern along the river valley village soon turned into a confrontation between the two armies' musketeers across the river.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Woods ordered the ammunition to be counted, the wounded soldiers to be transported, and at the same time he rechecked his defense lines.

Disorganized gunshots and screams filled the lieutenant's ears. In addition to these two, there were also the continuous wails of the dying soldiers on the river beach.

Not long after, the miserable wailing disappeared, leaving only the "bang, bang, dong, dong" sound of gunshots and the exclamations of those who were shot.

After repelling the enemy's first attack, the soldiers under Woods were generally in high spirits, and they were not as timid in shooting the enemies on the other side as before.

It was a pity that the lieutenant could not share the joy of his subordinates, because he knew very well that the attack just now was just a test attack, and the purpose was to find out the details of the defenders.

As the enemy's position on the other side of the river consolidates, the subsequent attacks will become more ferocious each time.

And how many times can the ammunition stockpiled by his troops - especially those useful hand-thrown grenades - last?

Woods began to regret it. He regretted that Captain Winters Montagne had not asked for more grenades when he sent someone to deliver them.

A hand-thrown grenade looks like an iron weight, but it is actually not easy to make. Either punch out two pieces of iron shell and then forge them together, or cast them in one piece. The former is labor-intensive and time-consuming, while the latter is surprisingly difficult.

Therefore, Baeksan County can neither manufacture hand-thrown grenades nor have the tactics of using hand-thrown grenades.

The "shells" of hand-thrown grenades equipped by the Baishan County garrison all come from Tiefeng County. Part of it was delivered as a bargain in the trade between the two counties; the rest was sent by Winters Montagne on his own initiative when the troops were divided.

The "hand-thrown grenades" used by Tiefeng County to barter were very unsatisfactory in power. It explodes two pieces at once, which is not as effective as the old-fashioned large iron shell bomb.

Therefore, merchants from Baishan County have been buying the grenade casings provided by Tiefeng County as iron materials. Everyone in Baishan County once suspected that the reason why the Veneta guy came up with this thing was to sell the iron materials more expensively.

However, the new batch of grenades sent by Winters Montagne were obviously not the same as the old grenades.

Lieutenant Woods returned to his frontline command post, a raised fort transformed from a sheep pen, picked out a grenade that had not yet been twisted with gunpowder from the basket, and looked at the dark iron shell in his hand.

He instinctively wanted to know what improvements the Tiefeng County people had made on it, but what he thought more about was how to make the remaining grenades more effective.

Two "commissioned centurions" and fourteen sergeants from the 1st Infantry Group of Baishan County were urgently summoned by Woods.

"Don't talk nonsense." The lieutenant looked around his subordinates. If the First Brigade is regarded as a human body, then the sixteen people in front of him are the bones supporting the First Brigade: "The newly sent grenades from Tiefeng County are good things. They must be Make the best use of everything. There were too many unexploded bombs just now. When you go back, cut off half of the gunpowder twist of all grenades."

"Sir." An appointed centurion replied in a low voice: "I'm afraid it's not a problem with the medicine. I just saw with my own eyes that those guys in new clothes below used their feet to stamp out the medicine. They have seen this thing and know how to deal with it. it."

"That's why I asked you to cut off the medicine twist in half and don't give them time to react." Woods thought for a moment and patted his knee: "Just like this - you go back and select soldiers with good brains and arm strength, and let them Specially responsible for throwing grenades. Well... put another person specifically responsible for lighting fires. One person throws, and the other lights the fire, lest some idiot throws the grenade as a stone. How can it explode loudly when thrown into water? "

"yes!"

"I have sent people to find the colonel and ask the colonel to collect all the grenades from other brigades and give them to us for use." Woods asked the subordinates beside him sincerely: "What suggestions do you have?"

The centurions and sergeants who were appointed looked at me and I looked at you, but they all remained silent because they did not know whether they were qualified to speak.

These veterans know very well that the only reason why they can be promoted to non-commissioned officers or even officers is that the army in Baishan County is expanding too fast and there is a serious lack of commanders, and they have actual combat experience. No officer wants to hear their opinions, and no officer wants to see them dictating.

"Say it!" Woods clapped his hands and encouraged: "Don't be afraid!"

"Sir." A sergeant plucked up the courage to speak, and he pointed to the east: "There are more and more musketeers on the other side of the river, and our people are already a little bit overwhelmed and can't lift their heads."

While he was talking, the lead bullets fired from the other side hit the wall next to everyone, making a continuous "Puff" sound.

The sergeant suggested: "The musketeers from Leiqun County are just sitting back and doing nothing. Can we let them come over to help?"

Woods weighed it for a moment and nodded: "Okay. What about the others? Don't you have anything to say?"

"At this consumption rate, sooner or later the gunpowder will bottom out." Another appointed centurion said in a hoarse voice: "It's best to prepare more now. When the fight starts with the colonel, no one will be able to care about us. ”

"Indeed." Woods thought for a while: "But you have to find a safe place to store the gunpowder."

"What about the church in the center of the village? It's solid there."

Woods was about to agree, but he changed his mind and shook his head: "No, find another place."

The commissioned centurions and sergeants were a little bolder and each mentioned some locations.

Just as Woods was about to make a decision, he heard Erno yelling in terror from inside the bunker: "Here we go again! Lieutenant! So many people!"

On the east bank of the nameless river, fluttering battle flags emerged one after another in the smoke screen that had not yet dissipated.

Accompanied by the deafening sound of military drums, hundreds of soldiers in light brown coats carried siege equipment on their shoulders, like huge waves overflowing the embankment, swarming from three directions towards the small highland where the valley village was located.

Woods raised his head and glanced at the sky. The sun was high in the sky, looking at the tragedy of the world indifferently.

"It's here again, of course it's here again." Woods murmured to himself: "It's far from over."

[The Baishan County people's intuition is correct. The reason why Tiefeng County wants to make grenades that they know are not easy to use is because "something is better than nothing", and on the other hand it is to add a little added value to the iron material... The production capacity is there, it’s useless if you don’t use it, it’s too much of a loss to just sell iron materials]

[A book friend asked about the defensive level of Woods and Mason. That... Lieutenant Woods is indeed the best defensive warfare expert in the three southeastern counties, but only the best defensive warfare expert in the three southeastern counties. And the three counties... have never had a city defense/siege battle]

[So in the three southeastern counties, there are some officers who are good at offense, but those who are good at defense...only Woods]

[As of this battle, Woods lacks actual combat experience. Even if his theory is solid and his mind is quick, he will inevitably make mistakes. However, he is good at learning from his mistakes and summing up experience]

[Tiefeng County officers all know that they need to select soldiers with good physical strength and use grenades intensively to achieve miraculous results. Blue Rose, who has absorbed a large number of remnants of the expeditionary force, also pointed out the technology of "large-scale use of fragmentation grenades in city defense battles\