Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 179 Three Chances

  The situation of the battle took a sharp turn, which was stunned.

  The Hurds were defeated like a mountain, and the defeated troops who failed to siege the city rolled back into the battle and overwhelmed the central army of Teltown.

   Winters watched the tens of thousands of cavalry trample on each other and scattered like birds and beasts. He never thought that victory would come so suddenly.

  Andre was not in the fort at the moment, so Lieutenant Colonel Jesska asked Pierre to lead the Dussack light cavalry to follow the enemy for reconnaissance.

   Soon, Mr. Mitchell, who had been promoted to a temporary sergeant, brought back information: the barbarian flag was in disarray, and the army had already collapsed, and was fleeing to the west in a chaotic manner.

  The situation of the battle was clear, and the relieved Paratus cheered, and some rough men even wiped their tears. How depressed everyone was when they were surrounded by Heard barbarians, and how excited they were at the moment.

   Winters had no time to celebrate, he was busy calling the Ten Commanders to question him.

  He was found by a messenger - Lieutenant Colonel Jesska asked all the officers to come to a meeting.

Rushing to the small board room that served as the brigade headquarters, he found that in addition to Jesska, Bud and Mason, there were also two centurions originally stationed here: Lieutenant Otipa [Paratus] , Lieutenant Sanu [Veneta nationality].

   Winters winked at Sanu and dragged a chair to sit down.

   The atmosphere is very relaxed, who would have thought? The menacing Teltown Department was so futile.

   "Not to us! Not to us! Lord! Glory to your name!"

   bursts of singing came into the house, and the Platoons were singing hymns in unison.

   The defeat of so many enemies at such a small price can only be explained by miracles to the believers.

   "If the Hurd wants to run, let him run." Seeing that everyone has arrived, Jesska straight to the point: "Don't chase, continue to strengthen the fortifications."

  Winters was puzzled at first: Heard's army was defeated, and they should be fighting hard, not giving them a chance to regroup.

   But Lieutenant Colonel Jesska will not aimlessly...

   After thinking for a while, Winters made up his mind, and he laughed dumbly: "You mean... the Hurds are cheating?"

   The smiles on the faces of the other lieutenants quickly disappeared, the expressions of everyone became serious, and their bodies involuntarily leaned forward.

   "Pretend to be defeated, lure the defenders to leave the fortified city to pursue, and then wait for the opportunity to gather and surround and destroy. This is the usual tactic of the Hurds." Jesska pointed to Lieutenant Otiba and asked: "Are you from Paratus?"

  Otiba was a little stunned: "Eh? Yes, my home is in the castles of the kings."

   "Then you should know how the last Grand Duke died."

   "I heard from the teacher... but it was when Lu You was young."

  Jesska pointed to several Veneta people beside him: "Tell them about it."

   Lieutenant Otiba scratched his head and stood up, and briefly told the story that the Palatine soldiers were familiar with.

The story of    is very simple: it was another year of catastrophe, and the Hurd people invaded the east, burning, killing and looting all the way, and finally hit the castles of the kings.

  The castles of the kings have been built by the Grand Duke of Palatu for more than ten generations, and the city defense is impregnable. The barbarians were unable to attack for a long time, and they fought for the spoils, and finally they simply fled.

   Palatus Grand Duke Bello IV saw this situation, and immediately led an attack. You chased me and fled for three days and three nights.

   Finally, at the mouth of the Kalja River, the Palatine army, who underestimated the enemy's rash advance and lost all spirit, ran into the carbine of the Hudds head-on.

  When the slaughter was over, the Karja River was filled with the corpses of the Paratus.

   From then on, the Palatu people did not eat fish from the Karja River, because those fish had eaten the meat of the Palatu people.

  …

  Speak more, the impact of this campaign is extremely far-reaching: the Archduke and seven earls were killed, resulting in the complete extinction of the Hetumoger family paternal line.

  Plateau's crown went round and round, and finally fell into the hands of Bello IV's cousin, Richard IV, who was not yet called the Mad King at that time.

  Richard IV, who was periodically financially bankrupt, was such a treasure in the country of galloping horses.

   Wealth continued to flow out, and Plato began to decline.

   The border defense line was no longer able to maintain, and the tribes of Hurd rushed into Palatu to loot every year, and they were called "beating the autumn valley".

   And the emperor ignored it and ignored it.

  The principality, from the nobles to the commoners, had growing dissatisfaction and resentment against Richard IV. Beneath the veneer of loyalty, there is a turbulent undercurrent.

   So much so that when the citizens of the piedmont rose up, Plato, who was supposed to be an absolute royalist, not only did not make any efforts to suppress it, but instead became a source of troops for "rebels".

   A large number of Palatine nobles changed their names and surnames, calling their friends to join the Alliance Army, and rebelled at their own expense.

   In the early, middle and late stages of the Sovereign War, the Union Army relied on the Paratus to carry the cavalry troops.

  Ned Smith discovered that there were many strange warriors in the army who wore poor names and claimed to be from the mountains, but spoke with a highland accent.

  These people bring their own horses, weapons and armor to join the army, and do not like to obey orders, especially commanders with civilian backgrounds.

   But all of them are highly skilled in martial arts, and they do not run away without military pay.

   It is precisely because of its contributions during the Sovereign War that the Republic of Palatu enjoys a political status comparable to the provinces and Veneta in the alliance.

  If Bello IV lived until the sovereign war broke out, even to prevent himself from getting burned, he would definitely send troops to help his cousin suppress the rebels.

   Under the attack of two sides, the republican regime of the United Provinces, which was quack, was destined to be quickly strangled.

  If the United Provinces can't even hold the previous situation, then they won't be able to wait for the Veneta to join the war.

   But history does not have what-ifs. Who would have thought that a reckless decision by a young man to slap his forehead would eventually lead to the birth of five republics and a "great" alliance?

  …

   Back to this meeting.

  Otiba spread his hands to signal that he was done.

   Mason asked hesitantly: "If the Hurds just swindled, wouldn't it be too expensive? They have killed a lot of people!"

   "Whether it's a real defeat or a fraudulent defeat, in a word." Jesska paused for a moment, looked around the five lieutenants, and said word by word, "Tigers won't go down the mountain!"

He then explained: "Defend this bridge, the initiative is in our hands. If he comes to attack, we will kill him; if he runs, we will not chase. Use static braking, not to give the Hurd people a chance to take advantage. ."

Lieutenant Colonel    is right, and the five lieutenants naturally have no objection.

   asked Winters to leave the fort to pursue him, and he was also a little uneasy.

   However, the strategy of "the tiger will not go down the mountain" made Winters a little regretful. He originally wanted to take advantage of the defeat of the Hurds to get the Jinmen out of the sky.

   Now it seems that it is better to let the golden man continue to be buried in the soil to be safer.

   Now that the internal opinions have been unified, the Jesska Brigade immediately took action.

  Bard led people to continue to widen and deepen the trenches, and to insert horse-rejecting piles;

  Otiba and Sanu led people to reinforce and heighten the fort wall;

   Mason was unlucky. The lieutenant colonel got angry when he remembered that he led the wrong way, and punished him to clean the battlefield, collect shells, and drag the body away.

  Weapons, armors, leather robes, commoners, boots, accessories...all valuable and useful are recovered.

  The dead Hurd were stripped and threw directly into the river, but they were left naked, empty and clean;

   No troops were allowed to leave the camp except for a small number of Dussac light cavalry to scout the enemy.

   Lieutenant Colonel Jesska generously showed his intentions to the Hurds: As you have any conspiracy, I don't even look at it. Anyway, every second that passes, the more lives you have to fill this bridgehead.

  The other lieutenants were busy with construction, and Winters was busy with psychological construction.

   He gathered the musketeers who were in charge of the rotation and began to roll the call according to the note:

   "John of Wolftown!"

   "Ryan of Bright Valley!"

  “…”

   There are not many literate people in the entire wall.

   This made Winters deeply realize the importance of universal education. If the ten captains can read, they can record by themselves, and Winters only needs to summarize.

   But his ten commanders were all illiterate, and Winters had to copy the list by himself.

   That's why he divided the musketeers into ten teams, because people have ten fingers. The Ten Commander, who oversees the Musketeers, was illiterate and could only memorize people with his fingers.

   The musketeers who were named came out one by one. There were nearly three hundred and forty musketeers and crossbowmen who participated in the round of shooting. Winters only named thirty-three names.

   Not knowing what the centurion wanted to do, the thirty-three musketeers stood in a row uneasily.

   "These people!" Winters deliberately paused and announced in a serious tone: "It's the people who can fire the gun in each of the six and a half rounds of alternate shooting! Well done!"

   "Award!" Winters waved his hand.

  Charle and Heinrich carried a bag of small, squeaking silver coins and distributed them from one end of the horizontal row to the other, three coins each.

  Winters led the crowd to applaud again. Many people in the hands of the six-shot musket were so embarrassed that their faces were red, and their eyes only dared to stare at the toes of their shoes.

   Then fifty five-shot musketeers, each with a small silver coin, without applause.

   The third batch was seventy-eight four-shot musketeers, with no prize money and no applause.

   "The rest!" Winters slapped the note, staring at the small half of the musketeers left in the clearing: "Six rounds of shooting, you can only fire three shots at most. Some people don't even make a sound!"

  In the middle of the clearing, there was a dead silence. Many musketeers bowed their heads in shame.

"Look at me! Don't lower your head!" Winters stiffened his heart and scolded, his icy voice resounded through the fortress through magic amplification: "Kill you if you don't teach it! It's called abuse! So I'll reason with you now. If you fire a gun, you may kill one less enemy. If you kill one less enemy, you may kill one more comrade-in-arms. Everyone is raised by fathers and mothers. If you kill someone, you will pay for your life!"

  The entire fortress is now silent, even the spearmen who have nothing to do with them are listening with bated breath.

"Some of you will think it's unfair. I fired one less shot? How could one more person be killed?" Winters held up three fingers: "Three! So I'll give you three chances. Three fights, if one qualifying round in a row If you can't do it, then you deserve your life! Only the gallows is waiting for you!"

  The crowd couldn't help but look at the temporary gallows at the edge of the clearing, the noose swaying in the wind, waiting to be killed.

   Winters shouted: "Bring the gun!"

  Ciel gave Winters a arquebus.

   "I'll fire six shots. If three shots don't go off, I'll put the noose around my neck myself!"

  Charr propped up six Heard helmets twenty paces from Winters.

   Under the watchful eyes of all the Paratus, Winters skillfully loaded, aimed, fired, and reloaded.

   Six rounds of continuous shooting, all six guns rang out, and six Heard iron helmets were knocked down.

   At first, everyone in Paratus was silent. When Winters knocked down the second iron helmet, some people began to cheer.

After   , every time Winters knocked down an iron helmet, the Paratus cheered in unison, and each sound was louder than the previous one.

   When the sixth iron helmet was knocked into the air, the cheers reached a peak, and even the one-eyed lieutenant colonel who was watching from a distance was applauding.

   After six shots, Winters threw the gun away. Ciel caught it firmly, and his palms turned red.

   Six shots were fired, all six hits, and no one was dissatisfied.

   "I will never force you to do what I can't do, I can do it, and you can do it too." The power of magic actually made Winters' voice suppress everyone's applause.

   His eyes swept across every musketeer in the clearing: "Remember, there are only three chances. And you—wasted one!"

   According to the military law of the Qi family, let alone three times, in actual combat, as long as the gun cannot be fired once, the captain will cut off the ear of the gunman, and the gunman without ears will be beheaded immediately after the battle. If Qian Zong is present, he can be beheaded on the spot. Winters' subordinates are all militiamen and have just come into contact with this tactic, so he relaxed some restrictions a little.

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   (end of this chapter)