Iron Powder and Spellcaster

[Margit Island]

[Temporary ferry]

The Federalist attack was launched under the cover of morning mist.

The Plataeans accurately predicted this.

The first punch of the United Provinces people did not hit the Bishop's Castle, but was aimed at the "rebels" ferry.

The Platoans also judged this point.

Therefore, when the figures of the Federal Provincial People emerged in the fog, the musketeers of the Baishan County Infantry Regiment, who had already been in place, did not rush to fire, but patiently waited for the order.

Unlike the Platoans who charge into battle amidst the thundering roars of war, the infantry of the United Provinces are of the same line as the Monta infantry. They regard silence and discipline as the cornerstone of victory. No matter whether they advance or retreat on the battlefield, they will never shout wildly.

Seeing the people from the United Provinces advancing silently and quickly, the veterans of Baishan County behind the parapet immediately realized that the group of mudbumps who came this morning were definitely not the recruits from last night.

In silence, the distance between the two sides became shorter and shorter.

"Any closer is too close," the new sergeant Bocho reminded nervously in a low voice, "Lieutenant."

Alani Arthur shook his head slightly.

Wait, keep waiting.

Sweat dripped from Boqiao's forehead, slid down his chin, and shattered on the parapet.

It wasn't until the outlines of the Union Provincial men's bodies were clearly visible, and even Bocho could see the dark red embers of the match ropes wrapped around their wrists, that the lieutenant's roar exploded in Bocho's ears.

"Fire!"

The snare drum beat a rapid beat, and the flag that had been used in the Battle of the Wail Valley was unfurled in the center of the position.

Pocho cursed and pressed the firing rod, firing a precise volley with his comrades.

The lead traced tracks in the thick fog, like invisible spears, being thrown towards the enemy's body.

Alani saw the leading soldier at the forefront of the federal skirmishers falling down without warning.

Within his field of vision, there were many enemies who were stagnant and "pinned" in place, but they still did not make any noise.

Until a sharp whistle sounded from behind the wall of fog.

The counterattack of the federalists came immediately - a series of lead stones were thrown at the makeshift ferry, and the wooden fence around the ferry was crackled.

Some lead pieces passed through the gaps in the fence and flew towards the parapet behind the fence, stirring up waves of earth on the parapet.

Alani was not paying attention, and his eyes were blurred by the sand, and his vision suddenly became blurry. He sank back to the ground and leaned against the parapet, cursing and shouting the name of the orderly.

Sergeant Boqiao was startled and hugged the lieutenant hurriedly. He was relieved when he found that the lieutenant was just lost his eyes.

He handed the lieutenant over to the orderly, retrieved the arquebus, reloaded with a roar, and continued to fire pellets of hatred at the Confederates.

The orderly hurriedly took off the water bottle and helped the lieutenant clean his eyes.

Unable to see, Alani was driven crazy with anxiety.

But at the same time, he was very grateful. He was grateful that he had hurriedly repaired the fence around the temporary ferry last night. Otherwise, what would be flying everywhere now would not be lead and wood, but blood and flesh.

However, the next second, a crisp crackling sound came from the lieutenant's ears.

Alani, who had regained his sight, turned to look to his side. Boqiao, who had just been yelling at the provincials with great anger, had his skull lifted up. He was lying on the ground, his head tilted back unnaturally, his eyes that had lost their vitality were wide open, staring straight at the sky.

Alani was just stunned for a moment before Pojo's body was dragged away, his brain like yogurt dripping all over the floor, and another musketeer took over.

Alani stared at the skull fragments on the ground for half a second, then pushed past the orderly and picked up Bocho's arquebus.

"Keep firing!" Alani yelled and pressed the reflex lever, "Kill them all!"

As both sides continued to fire, smoke further obscured the view of the battlefield.

The Baishan County soldiers in the temporary ferry could barely see what was happening outside the fence and could only fire blindly.

Under the cover of smoke and fog, the Union Provincial Engineers approached the front of the fence.

A creepy bludgeoning sound was heard immediately, as if the Union Provincialists were not chopping wood with axes, but hacking at the body of this position.

"Protect the fence!" Alani drew his sword and shouted anxiously.

The offensive and defensive battle around the temporary ferry immediately entered the most brutal stage of hand-to-hand combat.

The Platons used all the weapons at their disposal, killing the Confederates on the other side of the stockade at all costs.

The Confederates are doing the same thing.

A Baishan County soldier had just stabbed a provincial man to death, and the next moment he was brought down by a musket at close range.

The engineers of the United Provinces were also constantly shot at close range by the Platons.

Shouts of killing and ping-pong-pong-pong-pong gunshots were also heard from the Bishop's Castle in the distance. According to the original arrangement, the musketeers on the Bishop's Castle were supposed to hit the flanks of the Federation of Provinces when they attacked the ferry.

But the fog was so heavy that although the distance between the Bishop's Castle and the ferry was less than 200 meters, they couldn't see each other at all.

And judging from the sound, the Bishop's Castle is also exchanging fire.

The isolated ferry defenders were forced to take out the weapon at the bottom of the box - iron-cased grenades in the first round.

This weapon, provided by Tiefeng County Arsenal, proved its power in River Valley Village.

The soldiers from Baishan County who have accumulated a lot of actual combat experience are even better at using this weapon than the people from Tiefeng County.

They cut the fuse of the grenade to be as short as a finger, preventing the enemy from stepping on the flames. Some brave grenadiers with advanced skills can even make grenades explode in mid-air.

Facing the fierce offensive of the Federal Provinces, Alani Arthur and his grenadiers frantically threw iron-cased grenades outside the fence like throwing stones.

Deafening explosions sounded continuously, and the engineers of the United Provinces were blown to pieces.

The air waves rolled, and the residual limbs were lifted into the sky along with the soil. The mist kept being pushed away, and fresh, hot smoke kept bursting out.

Finally, the people of the United Provinces could not bear the tragic casualties and retreated from around the fence.

In the mist, the painful groans of the dying could be heard.

"Did you start shouting too?" Alani's eyes were red and tears were streaming down his face, and he vented loudly into the smoke that could not be melted away, "Young man from the province?!"

What answered him were a dozen crystal clear glass jars.

Each jar is filled with pure colorless liquid, and is wrapped in flames. They emerge from the mist, draw elegant arcs in mid-air, and fall into the fence.

"Get away!" Alani pulled away the subordinate who was holding his knees and gasping for breath, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Liquid fire!!!"

Before he finished speaking, a liquid fire fell on the head of a Baishan County soldier who had not yet recovered from the fight.

With a crisp cracking sound, the soldier who was directly hit by the liquid fire instantly became a burning man.

The soldiers engulfed in flames rolled crazily on the ground, screaming in their throats that made everyone present tremble.

The comrades next to him wanted to help him put out the fire, but the fire couldn't be extinguished. Instead, his clothes were set on fire.

The liquid fire that falls elsewhere is just like its name, flowing in all directions like a liquid.

The open space behind the fence was quickly covered in flames, and there was no place to stay.

The scorching flames made people afraid to get close. The Baishan County soldiers rolled and crawled away from the fire scene as if they were fleeing from the devil.

Alani rushed to the soldier who was swallowed by the liquid fire, quickly took off his coat, and was about to cover the soldier, but was dragged away by his belt with a strong force.

"Be careful! Lieutenant!" The orderly's voice changed in tone, "Here we go again!"

More than a dozen cans flew out of the mist and shattered near the fence. The already dilapidated south fence instantly turned into a wall of fire.

However, the people from the United Provinces hadn't used up their liquid fire yet, so they threw another round. This time, the landing point seemed to be farther than the previous two, and it was aimed at the inside of the position.

Realizing that something was wrong, Alani yelled frantically, "Move the grenade!"

But it was too late, a piece of liquid fire had already fallen into the wooden box containing the grenade.

After a few breaths that seemed as long as a lifetime, dazzling fire burst out inside the ferry.

Empty grenade boxes were blown away, full grenade boxes were blown to pieces, and heavy grenades were pushed in all directions by the shock wave. Some did not explode, while others were ignited by tongues of flames.

In Lieutenant Alani's desperate eyes, the fatal red light burst out again.

…

Fifty meters away, southeast of the temporary ferry, there is a completed temporary fort.

The fort was built with a triangular wooden frame filled with earth. It was simple but strong enough to withstand musket fire.

The fort is about 250 meters away from the Bishop's Castle, which is exactly where the muskets have poor accuracy but are within the effective range of the cannons.

The fort is only fifty meters away from the "rebels" temporary ferry.

Setting up a cannon at such a short distance is almost like putting the muzzle of the cannon against the rebels' heads.

Lieutenant Colonel William Lodewijk lowered his eyes and tilted his head to listen, confirming that the continuous explosions came from the enemy's position.

"What's going on?" Lieutenant Colonel Lodewijk asked with a frown.

Lieutenant Colonel Montecuccoli, who was directing the cannon to enter the gun position, turned his head, thought for a while, and guessed uncertainly, "Could it be that the ammunition carriage exploded? If that is the case, we are lucky."

"I never count on luck," Lodewijk said coldly, "Lieutenant Colonel."

"I used to be as confident as you, Lieutenant Colonel," Montecuccoli narrowed his eyes and deliberately prolonged the word Lieutenant Colonel, "but now I believe that good luck is the most amazing skill."

"Get the cannon ready as soon as possible," Lodewijk said, not bothering to talk to Cornelius's men. "Let me see, you 'elites' who stay in school to teach have other abilities besides good luck."

"Don't worry," Montecuccoli shot back, "You've done your job, and I'll do mine. Get your men back, and as soon as the fog clears, we'll start bombarding the rebel positions. "

The two men stared at each other face to face for a long time like two bulls on their heads. The surrounding lieutenants were worried that the foreheads of the two captains would collide in the next second, but they did not dare to interrupt.

In the end, it was Lieutenant Colonel Lodewijk who nodded first, summoned the messenger, and issued the order to reorganize.

The fort was quiet for a short while.

Until Lieutenant Colonel Lodewijk sighed, "Actually, the kid opposite is quite good. He correctly judged the direction of our main attack and guessed the time of our attack correctly."

“Who let them know us as well as we know them.”

"Understanding is understanding, and decision is decision. You people in the artillery department always like to confuse these two things."

"Don't know how to make a decision?"

Lieutenant Colonel Lodewijk didn't want to argue, so there was another moment of silence.

"Given time," the infantry lieutenant colonel said, "maybe the kid opposite will be more capable than us."

"Yes," the artillery lieutenant colonel sighed, "but it's a pity that he won't have this opportunity."

…

On the west bank of the Ten Arrows River, Woods Frank stood on the shore, staring intently in the direction of Marget Island.

It was so foggy that I couldn't see anything at all.

The fierce gunshots and explosions that had just occurred had stopped now.

Woods kept biting his nails all the time. The nails of his thumb had been bitten into the flesh, but he didn't even notice.

"Should we send reinforcements to the island?"

The question was driving him crazy.

This time, however, someone made the decision for him.

The Baishan County troops on Marget Island took the initiative to cut the rope across the river.

…

The fog cleared and the sky cleared.

William Lodewijk and Raymond Montecuccoli were surprised to find that the rebels had withdrawn from the ferry and had fully retreated to Bishop's Castle.

The ferry position had become an empty shell, leaving only charred traces of the explosion all over the ground.

And the vortex of blood on the beach.

…

[Camp of Baeksan-gun Infantry Regiment]

"This is the situation," Woods Frank looked pale. "The Federals cut off our connection with Bishop's Castle. It was I who sent Arthur and his men into a trap..."

Woods stood up, his nose twitching slightly. He held back tears and bent down deeply. "It's my incompetence... I'm extremely grateful that you can come and take over."

In the tent, after driving for a day and a night, Richard Mason felt at a loss.

Because he was just here to deliver supplies.

"Don't! Don't!" Mason jumped out of his chair as if he had stepped on a mouse trap, "I'm not here to compete with you for the command of the siege of the castles of the kings."

"Do you think command of this siege," Woods asked, "is something worth fighting for?"

Mason was on the verge of tears: "So why did you push it to me?"

"Because you're the right person," Woods said firmly.

"I...I'm not," Mason said at a loss for words. "Winters is the most suitable person. I...I don't have his decisiveness."

"Where is Major Montagne?" Woods asked bluntly.

"Well," Mason suddenly lost his temper, "he went to Waixin Reclamation."

"So, you are the most suitable person," Woods seemed to be grasping the life-saving straw of a drowning man, refusing to give up no matter what, "and you are the highest-ranking person in the artillery section of the new army, so you should be in charge."

Mason was really stumped, because he was indeed the highest-ranking artillery officer in the new army—even though he was only a major.

The key is that he realized that Woods Frank's mental state was very bad, and there were even faint signs of collapse.

Mason bit his lip, grabbed his hat, and touched his junior's shoulder pretending to be relaxed, "Let's go - let's check out the terrain first."

Woods Frank seemed to be drained of all his strength. With tears in his eyes, he bowed to his senior.

[Thanks to book friends for their collection, reading, subscription, recommendation votes, monthly votes, rewards and comments, thank you all]