Iron Powder and Spellcaster

The Duckbill Fort is named after the Duckbill Cape located in Haidong Bay. This headland is shaped like a duck's bill and is also a natural breakwater. It is like an arm stretched out by the land to protect Haidong Bay.

Setting up an artillery fort on Duckbill Point externally can guard the narrow entrance and exit of Haidong Bay; internally, all ships in the port are within the range of artillery fire. If necessary, set up an iron lock between Cape Duckbill and the other side to block any enemies from the sea.

It is precisely because of the unique terrain conditions of Haidong Bay that the Veneta Navy built a dedicated dock here and made Haidong Port the home port of the entire Veneta Navy.

But now, the port has been lost. The heavy artillery on the duckbill battery is turning around to bombard the naval ships parked in the port.

And the army officers got the order: Take it back.

In the dark night, a group of cavalry was galloping. A total of more than a hundred officers received the news and gathered at Dongda Camp. General Zio sent them all out in one go, led by a colonel and rushed to Haidong Port.

Winters leaned on his horse and followed closely behind Lieutenant Colonel Field. The momentum of hundreds of war horses running together is amazing, and the sound of horse hooves is like the roar of war drums.

But Winters was not infected by this momentum. At this moment, the moonlight was blocked by dark clouds, and it was so dark that nothing could be seen on the road. Riding a horse on this night road is extremely risky, and if you are unlucky, you may stumble.

Along the way, people fell off their horses from time to time and were carried to the side of the road to wait for rescue by people behind them.

After running for an unknown amount of time, the sound of gunfire began to be faintly heard ahead, which meant that Haidong Port was just ahead. At this time, Winters saw someone waving a torch in front of him, so he slowed down and stopped.

In an open space beside the road, the officer who arrived before him was resting.

Although this cavalry team only had more than a hundred people, when running at full speed, the marching column was stretched to a length of one kilometer. Several lieutenant colonels leading the team decided to set the location where the sound of gunfire could be heard as an attack position, and sent three officers to conduct forward reconnaissance while waiting for the entire team to assemble.

From the assembly point, the sound of gunfire from the front could be clearly heard. Boom, boom, boom, there were dull sounds in the air. This was the roar that could only be made by heavy artillery.

Lieutenant Colonel Field handed a water bag to Winters: "Drink a little, and follow me later. Don't run around."

Winters pulled out the cork and was about to drink when he smelled a pungent smell: "Is it wine?"

"Of course it's wine."

Winters nodded and put the stopper back in. He didn't think that drinking strong alcohol to numb his nerves would do any good in fighting.

The wait before the battle was long and torturous. The officers did not know who the enemy was or how many there were, but with an order they had to fight against these unknown enemies. This made everyone feel uncomfortable.

Field and several other officers gathered in a small circle, smoking pipes, chatting quietly, and laughing from time to time. Winters didn't know how to smoke and couldn't participate, so he just found a rock to sit on and silently played with the two steel awls in his hands. He was going to the club tonight, so he only brought three steel cones as backup.

Moritz, on the other hand, took out a felt from his saddle bag, spread it on the ground, and fell asleep. The major would not miss any opportunity to take a nap.

A man came over with a torch and gave orders one by one: "The people who went to conduct reconnaissance are back. Colonel Kara wants everyone to go over for a meeting."

More than a hundred people formed a large circle. It was not easy to convey orders to more than a hundred people at the same time. Colonel Kara, who was in charge of the command, was not a spell caster, so he had to stand on a big rock in the crowd and shout at the top of his lungs:

"The duckbill fort has been confirmed to have been lost, and now the attackers are bombarding the navy's ships with cannons. The most intense battle is now at the pier, and the remaining people of the navy are fighting the attackers on the pier." Colonel Kara sneered: " But this has nothing to do with us. The order given to us is to recapture the duck-billed artillery fort. Now that the navy has attracted the enemy's attention, it is our good opportunity. Don't make a sound and go straight into the artillery fort. All People should follow their superiors and disperse!"

The officers scattered back to find their horses. They had never trained together, and they were not all cavalry, so it was difficult to organize into a difficult formation.

Therefore, Colonel Kara's tactic was to take advantage of the enemy's lack of attention, ride a fast horse to rush past, rush into the fort, and engage in hand-to-hand combat. For this group of officers who came from military academies and had several spellcasters, cold weapon combat was more advantageous than firearm shooting.

The officers were roughly arranged in two columns, with Winters in the middle, Major Moritz in front of him, and Lieutenant Colonel Field in front of him. At the front of the team is Colonel Kara. He must rush to the front to command this cavalry team composed purely of officers.

The charge began with a slow walk. After the cavalry were two or three meters away from each other, Colonel Kara gave the command to run at a small pace.

Winters didn't know which way he was going, and he didn't need to know which way he was going. Although the impact of a column charge is weak, it moves quickly and can quickly adjust its direction. As long as each cavalry follows the cavalry in front, the formation can be maintained.

The trotting cavalry left the road and entered the forest, the branches of the trees hitting them like whips. After walking through the forest for a few minutes, firelight began to shine through the gaps between the trees.

This meant that he was about to leave the woods. Winters took a deep breath, held the scabbard between his knees and drew out his saber.

After passing through the deliberately cut tree line, it suddenly became clear. Less than a kilometer ahead was the duckbill battery, and the navy and the attackers were fighting fiercely on the pier on the left.

Major Moritz, who was in front of Winters, accelerated suddenly and rushed towards the gun emplacement like an arrow from a string. Winters followed him, piercing Qiang Luck's ribs with his spurs for the first time, and launched a charge.

There were no shouts or trumpeters for this charge, and the officers drove their horses in silence. For the first time, Winters saw Qiang Yun show his heroic spirit of running at full strength. Major Moritz's horse was overtaken by him, and finally kept pace with Field's dark horse.

The distance of one kilometer was reached in an instant. A dozen attackers who were heading from the fort to support the dock did not understand what was going on. They were cut down by the roaring cavalry halfway. The officers in front did not give the people behind them a chance to wave their sabers. Winters only saw a corpse with its head cut off.

Killing these dozen enemies was just a matter of course. The entire cavalry did not slow down at all and continued to rush straight towards the artillery base.

The duck-billed fort is not a bastion. This fort is designed to defend against surface enemies, not land enemies. So it was just a boxy fort made of stone and mortar, clumsy but sturdy. Later, half-moon forts were added to the four corners, but the overall structure remained unchanged. There was still one gate for entry and exit, without trenches.

This is actually a gamble. If the attackers close the door, then these one hundred cavalry will have no way to attack this stone fortress with an outer wall of eight meters high, because these temporarily formed light cavalry teams have no siege. The only way to do this is to have ants climb up the wall.

Colonel Kara's bet was that the attackers would not expect support so soon, let alone that the reinforcements would not go to the rescue port, but go straight to the Duckbill Fortress.

After being attacked from Haidong Bay, Admiral Zio got the news and gathered troops to come to support. It took less than three hours in total. Three hours later, before the attackers could finish off the defenders at Haidong Bay, this light cavalry, composed entirely of officers, had already arrived.

The gate to the duckbill fort was closed.

But the door latch was not inserted!

The dozen or so people just left the door ajar after they came out, and the attackers simply did not have enough manpower to defend the duck-billed fort.

The person at the front pried open the door and pushed it open. The cavalrymen behind them filed in and rushed into the open space inside the fort.

At this moment, the attackers in the fort were still unaware and were still manipulating the artillery in the fort.

Colonel Kara dismounted and shouted: "Catch a few alive." Then he kicked open the wooden door where the sound of artillery was coming from, and rushed in with his saber raised.

Winters also didn't expect that the attackers' defense would be so lax. This is the blind spot of attackers' thinking. They only think about sneak attacks on others, but never think that they may be attacked by sneak attacks. Taking advantage of surprise is already half the battle won.

Colonel Kara took the lead, and a dozen officers rushed in without hesitation with sabers in hand. There were screams from inside the door, and the muffled sound of metal hitting bones covered with flesh.

But Winters did not move. Both he and Moritz waited for Lieutenant Colonel Field's order.

"There is no need to follow them. It seems there are not many enemies here." Lieutenant Colonel Field made a calm judgment: "We are going to the gunpowder magazine. Now I am worried that these guys will jump over the wall and risk their lives on us."

With that said, Lieutenant Colonel Field stopped two more people wearing lieutenant uniforms: "You two guard the door, and lock it when all our people come in. Don't open the door to anyone without an order from a colonel-level officer."

The two lieutenants originally wanted to follow Colonel Kara into a real fight to vent their anger. But he was stopped halfway by Lieutenant Colonel Field. Unfortunately, he was crushed to death by a senior official.

Lieutenant Colonel Field, Moritz and Winters did not follow the large army, but walked in another direction.

"Do you also know where the gunpowder magazine is here?" Winters was unbearably curious.

Lieutenant Colonel Field snorted: "The location of the fort's gunpowder magazines is the same - the farthest place from the artillery."