Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 303 Artillery

The    gate fell, the drawbridge was raised, and the Tordun armored soldiers who had entered the city gate were trapped dead.

   The crisp sound of the steel blades colliding penetrated the sound of horses’ hooves, and it was heard far away; there were flashes of fire from time to time in the city, which seemed to be the red flames of the muzzle.

   "There should be a wall in the city." The fire roaster had a sullen face: "Where are the followers? Catch him here!"

  The big quiverer didn't say a word, and immediately took someone to look for the red dog.

  The old interpreter was not very surprised. He sat on the saddle and watched the battle. He said with certainty, "It seems that there are not many men and horses defending the city, otherwise they would not use such dangerous tactics."

The    First Den Centurions were ambushed, and it looked like the situation was not good for the Teltowners.

   However, [a bag of water can quench thirst, and a pool of water can drown a person], the Teldun people who break into the city are the most fierce and brave armored guards. They are in a desperate situation, and they are bound to give their lives to fight.

   If you want to eat Xian Deng Suwei in one bite, the defenders have to break a few front teeth. Under the cooperation of the inside and the outside, it is a good opportunity to break the city.

   Luring the enemy into the urn is a dangerous move, and a little carelessness can be self-defeating.

  In the memory of the old interpreter, almost no defenders would take the initiative to let the enemy into the city.

   Even if it is a large fort with multiple layers of walls, a reasonable commander would not take such a risk, not to mention that the small town in front of him only has a simple, low earthen wall.

   "Rebel officer named Mason, are you brave?" The old interpreter thought to himself, "Are you jumping off the wall?"

  If Mason himself heard the old interpreter's question, he would probably just smile helplessly and not answer.

   The next change in the battle made the fire-boilers even more furious—the walls were low, and the trench was not deep, but the Terdun troops stopped at the edge of the trench and could not enter.

   Observed from the position of the fire roaster, the red light flickered on the inside of the south gate, and the sound of fighting came from there. There was almost no muzzle fire along the city wall.

   This means that the Su Wei who broke into the city is still fighting with the defenders, and has attracted a large number of defenders.

   The other hundred cavalry teams outside the city should take this opportunity to go straight to the city, and attack with the Xiandeng Suwei inside and outside, and capture the city in one fell swoop.

   But the hundred cavalry teams stopped at the edge of the ditch and refused to go any further.

   In the eyes of the fire-boilers, the city wall of Revodan is only as high as one person, and even if he wears armor, it is not difficult to turn over.

   However, the Teltown people who really stood on the edge of the trench saw a different scene:

In front of   , the earth wall and the trench are integrated, the wall and the trench are a continuous plane, and there is no "corner" as a dividing line.

   Standing on the flat ground, this city wall is only as high as one person, which is very inconspicuous.

   But once you go down into the trench, the depth of the trench and the height of the wall superimpose everything, and the city wall that was originally as tall as one person suddenly increased to a height of two and a half people—that is not something that humans can easily climb over.

  Richard Mason designed the Revodan fortifications: the wall is 2 meters high, the trench is 2.5 meters deep and 4 meters wide. The bottom of the trench is covered with a series of pickets, so you don't even think about coming up again.

  The Terdun people on the outside of the moat listened to the gunfire and screams in the city. They didn't carry any siege equipment, and could only shoot arrows at the location where the sound came from.

  The armor-clad Suwei who had entered the city climbed over the wall and fell into the bottom of the ditch, either falling to his death on the spot or being stabbed to death by a picket.

  The Teltown people circled the city walls, desperately looking for a place to climb.

   A young and reckless Telton man, in a hurry, beat his horse hard and rushed into the ditch.

   The warhorse was in pain and leaped high on the edge of the moat.

  The rider stepped on the horse's back in mid-air and jumped into the city wall in a thrilling manner. After all, the poor warhorse could not break free from the law of falling, and fell heavily into the bottom of the ditch, where it was stabbed to death by a stake on the spot.

   The other Teltowners were amazed and admired, but no one followed suit.

   Soon, the reckless young man who jumped into the city wall climbed up to the top of the wall covered in blood again, just stretched out his upper body, and was dragged back by an invisible hand. After a few cries, he soon disappeared.

   A wall is like a gate between two worlds, and the Terdun people outside have no idea what's going on inside the wall.

   They fired arrows, cursed, shouted, and the walls were taken down, only to respond with silence.

   Not long after, the sound of fighting inside the city wall gradually fell silent, and the hearts of a few red feather feathers on the edge of the trench sank.

   Soon, the black hole of the gun protruded from the wall - Mason, who had dealt with the enemy who had fallen into the city, finally freed his hand to deal with the barbarians outside the city.

  The old city walls were built tall, not only to increase the difficulty for the siege, but also because the height itself is a weapon.

The principle of    is very simple, even children understand: the heavy object thrown from the higher position, the stronger the lethality.

   But as gunpowder weapons were slowly used in sieges, military engineers soon realized that the towering walls were not only fragile, but also detrimental to the power of firearms.

   The projectile propelled by gunpowder is much faster than arrows and has greater power, and can even penetrate the human body continuously.

   In addition to the falling of the shell during flight, the more parallel the flight trajectory of the shell is to the ground, the higher the killing efficiency of the artillery.

   From the point of view of developing firepower, it may be better to have a shorter city wall.

   As a result, the low wall integrated with the wall and trench gradually came to the center of the stage.

  This kind of design is not a new thing. The outer fortifications of the old city defense system—the sub-wall, the small outer wall, and the sheep-horse wall have similar structures.

   However, the application of the integrated wall and moat structure to the main body of the city wall is a breakthrough that belongs to the new era.

  This city wall is a "gift" prepared by Richard Mason for the Teltown people who stayed in the old era using the design of the new era.

  The unwilling Terdun people also tried to continue killing the defenders behind the wall with bows and arrows, but two thunders drowned out their fighting spirit.

  The focal point of both the offensive and defensive sides—outside the South City Gate, two waves of air sweep across the ground with gravel and iron slag.

  The wounded warhorse neighed in horror and ran away; the shot rider was thrown off the saddle, and the charred holes in the clothes were gradually soaked with blood.

  Standing on the wooden stand, the musketeers who only had half their heads exposed at the top of the wall also opened fire.

   "[Hedde] Thunder!" Smoke filled the gunpowder, screaming again and again, and someone was exclaiming: "[Hedde] There is a big thunder on two legs!"

  [Note: The Hurds call gunpowder weapons 'lei', muskets are generally called small thunders, artillery is called big thunder, so throwing grenades is called black thunder]

   The distance was too close, and the Terdun people who were staying near the trench were almost shot twice by the defenders on their foreheads.

   No one knows more about the lethality of artillery than the people of Teltown, and they have personally tasted the blood of the battle of the Great Wasteland.

   Artillery, walls, and staunch defenders—this city, while not infallible, is by no means something the people of Teldun can take away.

   Another Hong Lingyu saw that nothing could be done, so he gritted his teeth and ordered the retreat.

The trumpet sounded, and the Teltun people who attacked the south gate dragged the dead and the wounded to retreat, and the rest of the Teltun people who were feigning heard the horn sound and quickly fled.

   The new city of Gervodin fell into a long silence, until the hooves of the barbarians gradually receded.

   "Did you win?" a militiaman asked timidly.

   "Win!" Mason patted his third-generation wooden cannon lovingly.

  In an instant, the new city burst into thunderous cheers, and the people who survived the disaster were crying and shouting.

   For the vast majority of the militias who were laborers the day before, they did almost nothing, but this did not dilute their joy and happiness.

  The frenzy flowed across the St. George River, and the residents of the old city who were anxiously awaiting news were also infected.

   Every family in the old town on the north bank knocked on the doors and windows, and the cheers drifted across the river bank back to the south city.

   The believers waiting in the Gervoudan Cathedral prayed in unison and praised the Savior.

   And the true saviour of Gervodin is now scrutinizing his cannon.

  The structure of the first-generation wooden cannon is a log wrapped iron tube, which will be scrapped after a few uses;

  The second-generation wooden cannon goes a step further, it is a hollow wooden stake, one-time use;

   And the three generations of wooden cannons are the real artillery, and should no longer even be called "wooden cannons".

   With the full support of Forge Township, the third-generation wooden cannon is wrapped in wrought iron to forge the barrel, and the process is close to forging the barrel.

  The prototype barrel is then wrapped with iron hoops and belts for pre-tensioning, and finally knocked into the fresh and tough log core to further reduce the possibility of blowing the chamber.

  Although the three-layer structure of wrought iron, leather, and wood makes the artillery bulky, it is not a big problem to use in the defense of the city.

   "Good." Upon closer inspection, Mason saw no cracks or leaks.

   So he ordered his subordinates to infiltrate the barrel with grease to cool the gun - the three-layer wrapping structure resulted in poor heat dissipation of the gun body.

  The artillery captain looked at the "beautiful daughters" and thought a little smugly, "I'm really a genius."

   At the same time, on the north bank of the St. George River, Anna, Catherine, and Madame Mitchell came to the Cathedral of Gervodin.

  Catherine held Anna's hand tightly, as if she was afraid that if she let go, her sister would disappear.

  Ana was the same, a little body temperature passed from Catherine's palm to her, reminding her that at least she still had a younger sister.

   Not the first time the Navarre sisters have experienced war, but never before standing so close.

   Just looking across the river bank, the hearts of the two ladies are clenching tightly. Occasionally, there are even bad possibilities that spring to mind.

   But they did not and could not show any concern.

  Because in the eyes of others, one of them is Madame Montagne and the other is Madame Montagne's sister, any negative emotions they have will be interpreted, amplified, and then spread in this small city.

   At this point, Katherine is better than Scarlett and even better than Anna.

  Scarlett rarely hides her emotions, and her worries about her father, brother and Winters are almost on her face. In her view, being candid doesn't mean being weak.

  Catherine quickly adapted to the burden. When Anna was busy helping Mason manage the women's and children's camp, it was Catherine who accompanied Madame Mitchell to contact with Gervodin's female relatives, smiled and injected confidence into the latter, and then spread this confidence to a wider range.

  Because Anna doesn’t like these kinds of occasions, Ms. Navarre the Big is easily tired of salons, tea parties, compliments, and polite smiles—Ms. Navarre Jr. is just the opposite.

   To a certain extent, they each inherited half of their mother's.

   Mrs. Mitchell took Anna and Catherine to follow the crowd until they reached the altar of the church.

  Anna accompanied Mrs. Mitchell to carefully place the candles on the altar and pray silently.

   In this small city on the edge of the world, Mrs. Mitchell, like a mother, sheltered Anna and Catherine under her wings.

   "What are you praying for?" Katherine asked.

   Mrs. Mitchell looked at the two children with pity: "I pray...you never need to be strong."

  …

When the first round of siege of the Teltown people was frustrated, Winters' first round of counterattacks had already begun.

   He watched Samukin's fleet leave the Oxhoof Valley and drift downstream.

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   (end of this chapter)