Iron Powder and Spellcaster

Late at night, outside the Fort of the Kings, the attacking party's position.

Captain Charka Matt, the commander of the 1st Battalion of the Thunder County Infantry Regiment, led a small team of light infantry to quietly climb out of the trench at the forefront, following the marks left by the scouts, and moved to the bastion located in front of the main gate of the new city of the Fort of the Kings.

Since the federals would send riflemen out of the city every night, in order to avoid surprises halfway, the route Captain Matt took tonight was cleared in advance by the scouts.

Through the mouth of the man who claimed to be an insider, the attacking party obtained a lot of intelligence about the Southern Front Army.

For example, they knew that the so-called Southern Front Army was basically a donkey covered with horse skin, with a total of four battalions of infantry, plus a little artillery and engineers, and less than 3,000 people at most.

For example, they also knew that because Jason Cornelius himself loved playing chess, all the new fortresses built by the federals were codenamed after chess pieces.

The artillery on the bank of the Ash Stream River is codenamed "Knight";

The fortress on Margit Island is codenamed "Bishop".

The target of the light infantry who sneaked into the death zone between the attacking and defending positions is codenamed "Queen".

Just by the codenames chosen by the federal province, we can understand how dangerous this large fortress standing in the center of the battle line and protecting the entire new city is to the enemy and how important it is to the defenders.

At the same time, in the upper reaches of the Ten Arrow River, on the opposite bank of Margit Island, diagonally opposite the Bishop's Fort.

Captain Woods Frank led more than 20 men to carry four rafts down the river bank in the dark.

They pushed the rafts into the river as quietly as possible, and followed them into the water.

But they did not sit on the rafts, but stayed in the water, in groups of six, pushing the rafts against the current, sliding towards Margit Island under the night.

Standing on the shore, the surface of the slowly flowing Ten Arrow River is as delicate as velvet.

However, once you step into the water, you can immediately feel the great power hidden under the calm appearance of the river.

There is no sky or earth. The river envelops you from all directions, oppresses you, and gently but irresistibly takes you to where she wants you to go.

Woods Frank is fighting against such a force.

The river never stops pushing the raft downstream. Anyone who wants to challenge her will find himself in a bitter battle that is doomed to fail.

Fortunately, after a few days of trying, Woods has also found some tricks.

He grabbed the edge of the raft with both hands and distributed his body weight on the raft as much as possible. At the same time, tighten his lower abdomen, lift his waist, and push his legs backward and downward.

The most important thing is not to fight against the river. No matter where the river wants to take you, just push towards the other side.

Woods, who has realized this trick, is no longer as embarrassed as he was when he swam across the river on the first night. The subordinates he selected are also good at swimming.

Everyone cooperated well, and the raft quickly passed the center line of the river.

As Margit Island got closer and closer, the water of the Ten Arrow River became slower and slower. The destination was within reach, but Woods Frank's nerves became more and more tense, and the White Mountain County soldiers escorting the raft moved less and less.

There was a dead silence on both sides of the river, only the insects tirelessly responded to the flow of water, stirring the listeners' heartstrings.

Woods stared at the other side of the river with his eyes wide open.

Suddenly, a shrill whistle covered all the noise.

A blood-red meteor shot up into the sky with the whistle, illuminating the water surface near the shore of Margit Island.

"Go!" Woods shouted without hesitation. He turned around in the water skillfully, kicked off the raft, and swam in the direction he came from.

Woods's men had even abandoned the raft and turned back before the federal rockets were launched and the captain gave the order. Many soldiers went directly into the water and disappeared on the river.

Their early action was correct, because the next moment, a series of muzzle flashes burst out on Margit Island.

The defending musketeers fired fiercely at the river surface from the trenches behind the "horse stakes" - the Palatians called the sharp wooden stakes that the federalists inserted into the riverbed.

But because Woods and his men had retreated at the first time, all the lead bullets hit the empty space.

Some of the lead bullets hit the raft and embedded in the wood; the rest of the lead bullets hit the water surface, accompanied by the sound of "plop", gliding in the water for only a short distance, and then running out of power and falling to the bottom of the river.

At the same time, there were gunshots on the riverbank on the west bank - the White Mountain County musketeers began to shoot at Margit Island to cover their comrades' evacuation.

The federal musketeers were not to be outdone, and they also turned their guns and fired at the "rebel" positions on the other side of the river.

The two sides were separated by the river, ping-pong, and it was difficult to tell.

It was not until the cannons on the federal battery in front of the Bishop's Castle joined the battle that the "rebels" were completely suppressed.

Two rounds of shotgun shells splashed on the breastwork of the "rebels", and the gunfire on the west bank suddenly became much sparser.

A venting cheer broke out on Margit Island.

On the battery in front of the Bishop's Castle, Lieutenant Colonel Raymontecuccoli, who personally operated the cannon and fired these two rounds of accurate shots, casually inserted the iron rod back into the brazier, without any smugness on his face.

In the eyes of the artillery lieutenant colonel, firing across the river with the "rebels" was a pure waste of ammunition.

Even if the cannons were used, it would be difficult to cause effective damage to the "rebels" hiding behind the bunkers.

However, the number of casualties is not the only evaluation indicator of a battle. Although shooting across the river is a waste of ammunition, it is necessary to maintain morale.

"At least the rebels are also wasting gunpowder," thought Montecuccoli.

As expected, the bombardment only silenced the "rebels" for a short time. Not long after, red lights flashed again and gunshots rang out on the breastworks of the "rebels" on the other side of the river.

Seeing this, the provincial musketeers in the trenches also re-engaged in blind shooting that wasted gunpowder.

The same thing happened every night recently, except the night before, because it happened twice the night before.

The "rebels" never stopped trying to transport supplies to the Bishop's Castle with small rafts.

But in Raymond Montecuccoli's view, the rebels were simply doing useless work.

Not to mention that the "rebels"' overly regular action pattern completely lost the important advantage of "surprise" in offensive operations.

Even if the "rebels" could approach Margit Island without being noticed, how could they break through the defenses set up by the defenders on the shore with only a few rafts of troops?

In the past few days, Montecuccoli has been strengthening the defenses of Margit Island.

Nowadays, the shallows on the side of Margit Island facing the west bank of the Ten Arrows River are full of sharp wooden stakes.

Those sharp wooden stakes are half underwater and half above the water, one arm's length apart, forming an airtight long line, like a fence on the water.

Iron rings are also installed on the wooden stakes. An iron rope passes through each iron ring, turning the scattered wooden stakes into a whole.

Any ship that wants to go to the island from the west must first break through this "water fence".

After the completion of the water fence, Montecuccoli led his men to dig a circle of trenches along the river bank.

Through this circular trench, even in the dark night, the musketeers under Lieutenant Colonel Lodwijk can quickly reach any river beach.

Anyone who tries to destroy the water fence will have to endure the deadly fire from the trench.

At the same time, the fire from the other side of the river can hardly suppress the shooters in the trench.

Give Raymond Montecuccoli some more time, and there will be a rammed earth road around Margit Island.

By then, even the cannons can be moved at any time to quickly support any possible landing site of the "rebels".

Rammed earth roads can also be upgraded to gravel roads, and gravel roads can also be upgraded to paved roads.

As long as the director of the artillery department is given enough manpower and time, the entire Margit Island can be turned into a fortress.

Therefore, Lieutenant Colonel Montecuccoli is not very worried about the safety of Margit Island.

Sometimes, he even reflected: Did he lose his sense of proportion because of the easy loss of the Bishop's Castle, and did he go too far, so that the rebels completely lost the desire to attack Margit Island, destroying the original battle plan of "luring the rebels to the island and then killing them".

Now, Raymond Montecuccoli is more concerned about the situation of the new city of the Kings Castle.

The corner trenches growing from the "fence stakes" gave him a very serious sense of crisis.

If the rebels are determined to fight head-on, then the only way out for the Southern Army is to burn the new city, retreat to the old city, and defend by the river.

Because Cornelius has too few troops at hand, he has to allocate people to monitor the movements in the city. If he is dragged into a tug-of-war by the rebels, then the Southern Army will definitely collapse first.

But if they retreat to the old city, what awaits the Southern Army is just a delayed death sentence.

The people of Palatine will never forgive a group of federal provinces who burned down their capital.

Grove Magnus's rule will collapse completely - no, maybe Grove Magnus will stand up and oppose the burning of the new city.

By then, the Southern Army will be a small group of foreigners surrounded by hostile Platonians.

They may be able to hold on for a while, and if they are lucky, they may be able to hold on for a long time.

But the possibility of winning will be completely gone.

Yes, win.

Perhaps infected by Jason Cornelius's annoying self-confidence, even if the situation in the Kings Castle is already precarious, Montecuccoli has never given up the hope of winning - although many times, he himself feels ridiculous.

After all, there are only a few people in this world who can continue to move forward knowing that the end is failure.

And [the loss of the fortress begins with the loss of hope].

Montecuccoli dare not guarantee that he can "die for victory", but he knows very well that he cannot "sacrifice knowing that he cannot win".

From this point of view, Montecuccoli admires Jason Cornelius.

He didn't want to explore the inner world of his old colleague, nor did he disdain to do so, but as long as Cornelius was still fighting, he would continue to fight.

So, Raymond Montecuccoli wanted to win this battle.

So, although he was now on Margit Island, his mind was all on the new city on the other side of the river.

As the illumination rockets ran out of alchemical fuel and disappeared into the night sky, the musketeers on both sides soon got tired of "shooting at the lights".

The sound of insects sounded again, and the banks of the Ten Arrows River returned to peace.

The raft of the "rebels" that had lost control, although deviated from the original trajectory, still drifted to Margit Island and hung on the sharp wooden stakes in the water.

Montecuccoli sent a lieutenant to deal with it.

A moment later, the lieutenant returned to report, "The rafts have been fished out."

"Where did it drift to this time?" Montecuccoli asked.

"A little bit downstream of the Episcopal Castle."

"Got it," Montecuccoli nodded calmly, "Leave the sentry on duty and let the others go to rest."

Although the artillery lieutenant colonel thought that the "rebels"' idea of ​​crossing the river with a small raft was very stupid, he had to admit that the "rebels"' swimming skills were getting better day by day.

When the "rebels" tried to use a small raft to deliver supplies to the island for the first time, they did not calculate the distance of the drift. Their rafts made of large wooden barrels filled with flour and painted with asphalt for waterproofing missed the island of Margit and were directly washed downstream, almost crashing the floating bridge connecting the new city and the old city.

When the "rebels" tried the second time, although the raft drifted to the shore, it was still a long way from the Episcopal Castle because it drifted directly to the east coast.

And tonight, the "rebels" can accurately deliver the raft to the front of the Episcopal Castle.

Unfortunately, as long as the defenders were on high alert every night, even if the "rebels" could deliver the supply rafts to the location, they could not move them ashore, let alone deliver them to the "rebels" in the Bishop's Castle.

Compared with the "rebels" crossing the river on a small raft to the shore, Montecuccoli was actually more worried about the "rebels" in the Bishop's Castle rushing out.

So after digging the trenches around Margit Island, Montecuccoli immediately started digging trenches around the Bishop's Castle.

The rebels dug trenches outside the new city, and Montecuccoli dug trenches outside the Bishop's Castle, which was interesting.

It's just that Lieutenant Colonel Montecuccoli really didn't have any interest in the small fish and shrimp in the Bishop's Castle.

Contrary to Jason Cornelis's opinion, Montecuccoli always believed that the rebels would abandon the remaining soldiers in the Bishop's Castle, and even give up attacking Margit Island - for this, the artillery lieutenant colonel believed that he had some responsibility - and instead launched a frontal offensive against the new city.

Therefore, although Raymond Montecuccoli returned to Margit Island as soon as he attended the combat meeting in the Castle of the Kings, his mind was all on the Castle of the Kings.

So although he ordered the soldiers to disband, he himself did not plan to rest and wanted to wait for news from the new city.

The northwest wind was blowing tonight, and the wind direction was just right. Montecuccoli hoped to hear good news from the new city.

On the other hand, the musketeers in the trenches were extremely happy to receive the order to disband.

The "rebels" harassed once a night, and occasionally several times a night. Although they were defeated every time, they still made the island guards very tired. Even if they took turns to guard the night, the fatigue was gradually accumulating.

Moreover, the island guards had to guard the night at night and work during the day, which made the soldiers physically and mentally exhausted.

So when they learned that they could rest, the soldiers were relieved and lined up to return to the camp in the monastery as soon as possible, hoping to rest as soon as possible.

Those unlucky guys who got the night duty could only yawn and stand alone in the trenches.

While the defenders on the island were resting, several dark rafts were pushed down the river farther upstream of the Ten Arrows River and drifted silently towards Majit Island.

[Looking back at the previous article, some key information, such as the strength of the new army, was not explained clearly, I am very sorry]

[So I added the relevant description at the beginning of Chapter 40, and here I will explain it to the readers who are following me]

[The total strength of the new army outside the Zhuwang Fort is currently seven battalions, two battalions each in Tiefeng, Leiqun, and Baishan, and one battalion in Bianjiang. Theoretically, the total force should be 3,500, but in reality, it is less than 3,000, because the battalions are generally understaffed, and Geza is anxious to launch an offensive, so many battalions can only go to the front line first and then slowly replenish people]

[In addition to the seven battalions of infantry, the new army also has six squadrons and more than a thousand light and heavy cavalry]

[These cavalry are the key to blocking the Kings' Castles, and are also the reason why the Southern Front has completely given up the desire to fight the new army in the field]

[Geza is eager to launch an offensive, which has led to many of his troops failing to replenish their personnel on the one hand, but on the other hand, it has also compressed the time for the Southern Front to build fortifications, leaving many loopholes in the defense line on the old city and Margit Island. There are pros and cons.]

[As for the subsequent replenishment of the new army, it depends on Skull's ability]

[I haven't been able to write in the best state recently, I'm very sorry]