Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 439 The great alliance moves forward (11)

   The soft cream-yellow façade erodes Erno's vision little by little, eventually occupying it completely.

  The earth was solemnly silent, and the oppressive atmosphere was more suffocating than the thick smoke.

  Ernold stared at the other side of the river, but he couldn't see anything.

   Wet sweat seeped uncontrollably from his palms and fingers, making the stock wet and sticky. Erno hesitated again and again, and finally, like a thief who stole for the first time, tentatively released his hand, and then quickly rubbed his pants twice.

   At this moment, the silhouette of a human figure suddenly jumped up from the wheat field on the opposite bank and fled to the valley village where Erno was located.

   "Come on!" The figure jumped into the river, and while rolling and crawling, shouted frantically: "They're coming!"

  Ernor, whose heart was in his throat and his fingers on the launch rod, understood that - that man turned out to be the lurking post that the officers had placed on the other side of the river.

The    sentry’s hoarse warning seemed to be an invisible hand pulling the opening curtain. In the wheat field where nothing could be seen, black shadows suddenly appeared one after another.

  Those shadows floated between the waves of wheat ears and the low-pressure smoke layer, neither shouting nor hiding, slowly approaching Erno.

   It was as if the blood all over his body was pouring into his neck, Erno's brain was dizzy and swollen, beads of sweat appeared on his back and forehead instantly, and his heart was also pulled into a small ball.

   "Enemy!" He only had one thought left: "Enemy!!"

   "Fire!" Lieutenant Woods' command came from his ear: "All! Free fire!"

  Erno's fingertips tingled inexplicably, and he didn't know if he was shivering. But no matter what, he hung the matchlock smoothly, stabilized the gun body, and lifted the gunpowder cap.

   Aiming at the dark human figure in the distance, Erno pressed the launch rod down with the thumping sound of his heart.

"boom!"

  Everyone heard the first thunder of Erno's arquebus.

   Like an order, the crackling sound completely shattered the peace.

The    low wall was briefly illuminated by the muzzle of the fire, the smoke screen seemed to be pushed hard by someone, and the momentum of dispersion suddenly stagnated.

   followed, and the snare drums on the other side of the river also played. Those dark figures no longer walked slowly, they let out deafening shouts, and rushed towards Hegu Village with great strides.

   "Ah, it started, finally..."

Colonel Bode, who was in charge of the battle, Colonel Geisa, who was in charge of the southern division, Colonel Skool, who was in charge of the northern division, Lieutenant Woods, who was guarding Riverdale, Lieutenant Losson, who was waiting for the sortie order, and every officer on the battlefield, by coincidence. came up with this idea.

   However, Erno, who was crouching behind the wall, was not as sentimental as the officer, nor did he have the spare time to think about where Plato would go after today. He can't be blamed because no one has ever explained to him why he was fighting this battle.

  Ernor just mechanically reloads, shoots, reloads, as he does in training.

  The entire wall along the coast was shrouded in choking smoke, and it was unclear whether it was more smoke from the enemy or more smoke from our own shooting.

Each time   Erno snapped the stick, it briefly dissipated the smoke screen in front of him, giving him a vague glimpse of what was on the other side. But the gunpowder gushing from the muzzle quickly melted into the thick fog, like those gunshots mixed in with the screams of killing—appearing briefly and disappearing quickly.

  After the first salvo, the musketeers in Baishan County began to fire freely, and there were only sporadic gunshots along the wall.

   With this density of firepower alone, it is impossible to block the charging enemy, or even delay the enemy.

  While most of the musketeers were still stabbing the second lead bullet in their barrels, the parliamentary army soldiers at the front had already jumped into the rapids, dipping their thighs into the river, holding their weapons and rushing towards the opposite bank.

   Hearing the sound of falling water coming from behind the smokescreen, Woods suddenly woke up: he just wasted the most crucial first-round salvo.

  However, Woods didn't have time to regret it, he pushed the chagrin out of his mind, kicked open the woven basket behind the fence, and picked out a palm-sized iron mound from the basket.

   "Grenade." Woods shouted with all his strength, and his voice even became strangely sharp: "Prepare!"

   However, on the noisy battlefield, no matter how loud a person's shout was, only Ernault and a few other soldiers around Woods heard the lieutenant's order.

  Erno also hurriedly dropped the musket, took out an iron mound from the basket, and shouted at the same time: "Grenade—ready!"

  The sergeants on other sections of the wall also acted as sound transmission tools, and their roars rose and fell behind the smoke: "Grenade - prepare!"

   The enemy soldiers who were at the forefront had already crossed the water and landed on the beach.

  Erno also saw the appearance of the "enemy" for the first time—similar to him, he also had two arms and one head, mostly wearing undyed linen clothes, and his face was contorted with fear and heavy breathing.

What Lieutenant Woods, who was beside Erno, observed: The puppet government soldiers only hung a short, light weapon around their waists, and at the same time, a group of people carried simple ladders and shields.

  Those ladders and shields are not new equipment prepared for the occasion, although most of the puppet government soldiers are not armored, but their actions show that they are no strangers to siege warfare.

   "Has Bazenauer fallen?" Woods sank, and his last hope for the friendly army disappeared: "Then there will be no reinforcements."

   "Today! Only me!" Woods yelled and stood up, exposing most of his body in front of the enemy, struggling to throw a lit grenade towards the river beach: "Either victory! Or death!"

   The other soldiers followed and threw grenades.

Lieutenant    Woods had already paid the tuition once, so this time he waited until the second group of enemy soldiers stepped on the river beach and the first group of enemy soldiers had reached the edge of the highland before ordering the bombing.

   A New Reclamation Corps soldier who had just followed the person in front of him running across the wheat field and across the river raised his head and saw many dark shadows flying from the high slope.

  He thought it was a stone at first, and subconsciously covered his head. But there was still a hissing "hemp rope" hanging from the **** of Hei Tie Tuo who landed in front of him.

   The New Reclamation Legionnaire immediately grabbed a handful of mud and threw it at the hemp rope—he had seen something similar in Bazenauer. The defenders there used it a lot, and he learned how to deal with it.

The    mud wets the gunpowder twist in the twine and extinguishes it, but the "hissing" sound is still there!

   The New Reclamation Legionnaire turned in horror as another grenade exploded behind him.

  The dull explosions sounded one after another, and the minced meat was lifted into the air along with the sand, and fell to the back of the low wall and into the river, like a light rain.

The    shock wave swept away the thick smoke that shrouded the river beach, allowing both parties to briefly see the tragic scene of the river beach:

  Although some grenades that fell into puddles did not explode, and although the fuses of some grenades were extinguished by quick-eyed parliamentary soldiers, all the grenades that were successfully detonated caused terrible damage;

  Above the soft soil, there are irregular pits produced by the explosion everywhere, and the fragments poke the surface around the pits with holes, like the wet marks left by water droplets on the rocks;

  The wounded soldiers whose limbs were blown off were rolling and wailing, and more wounded soldiers had several more holes in their bodies. The blood soaked the cloth near the wounds, and their lives were rapidly draining from those holes.

  Woods was shocked by the result, and Erno beside him pulled him down.

  On the east bank of the Unnamed Creek, the musketeers of the Grand Council Army have arrived at the battlefield. When the smoke screen was dissipated by the shock wave, Woods with most of his body exposed outside the parapet appeared in front of them.

  Following the instructions to kill the officer first, they immediately set up their muskets and fired at the short officer on the opposite bank.

  Woods had just been pulled back behind the parapet by Erno when he heard a series of gunshots coming from the other side.

   A few buckshots flew over his head, and the rest hit the fence and got stuck in the ooze mixed with hay.

   It wasn't until Lieutenant Woods was dragged to safety that Ernault choked out a complete sentence: "Lieutenant! Be careful!"

   After realizing it, Woods froze for a moment and nodded gratefully.

The momentum of the    Parliamentary Army's attack was thwarted, and the soldiers with all the beards and tails - probably a centurion - dropped their siege equipment and retreated to the opposite bank.

Most of the    wounded soldiers—also about a centenary—were towed away, leaving only a few crippled and completely incapacitated soldiers left on the beach to die.

   Realizing that the enemy was retreating, cheers erupted from behind the mud-covered wall.

   At the same time, however, a large number of Grand Council musketeers in light brown coats also appeared across the river.

   With a red cross-striped ensign on a white background in view, the movement of the soldiers of the Grand Council Army was more orderly.

  The musketeers of the Grand Council Army relied on the field ridge to suppress the defenders on the high ground on the opposite bank, while driving the plank they carried into the field ridge along the river, and transformed the soil ridge used by the villagers for demarcation and flood control into a temporary parapet.

  As the soldiers of the Great Council Army who attacked the "two waists" of the few words also retreated temporarily, the fighting form along the river valley village soon turned into two armies of musketeers shooting at each other across the river.

   Taking advantage of this opportunity, Woods ordered an ammunition count, transported wounded soldiers, and re-examined his line of defense.

   Disordered gunshots and screams filled the lieutenant's ears, and in addition to these two, there was the constant wailing of dying soldiers on the beach.

   It didn't take long for the miserable screams to disappear, leaving only the gunshots of "bang bang dong dong" and the exclamations of those who were shot.

   repelled the first attack of the enemy, and the soldiers under Woods were generally in high spirits, and the enemy on the other side of the shooting was not as timid as before.

  It's a pity that the lieutenant couldn't share the joy of his subordinates, because he knew very well that it was just a tentative attack, and the purpose was to find out the details of the defenders.

  As the enemy's position on the other side of the river is consolidated, the next attack will be more ferocious.

   And how many times will his troops' stockpiles of ammo — especially those good hand grenades — last?

  Woods began to regret it. He regretted that when Captain Winters Montagne sent the grenades, he didn't ask for more.

  Hand-thrown grenade looks like an iron mound, but it is not easy to manufacture. Either cast two iron shells and then forge them together, or cast them as a whole. The former is labor-intensive and time-consuming, while the latter is surprisingly difficult.

   Therefore, Hakusan County can neither manufacture hand grenades nor use the tactics of hand grenades.

  The "shells" of the hand-thrown grenades equipped by the garrison garrison in Baishan County are all from Tiefeng County. Part of it was delivered as a trade-in in the trade between the two counties; the rest was sent by Winters Montagne on his own initiative when the troops were divided.

   The "hand-thrown grenade" that Tiefeng County brought out by barter is very unsatisfactory. A blast with two petals is not as easy to use as an old-fashioned large iron-shell bomb.

   Therefore, the grenade casings provided by Tiefeng County, Baishan County merchants have been buying them as iron materials. Baishan County once suspected that the reason why Veneta came up with this thing was to sell iron materials more expensive.

   However, the new batch of grenades sent by Winters Montagne is obviously not the same thing as the old ones.

Lieutenant   Woods returned to his front-line command post, the convex fort transformed from the sheepfold, picked out a grenade that had not been inserted into the woven basket, and looked at the dark iron shell in his hand.

   He instinctively wanted to know what improvements the Iron Peak County people had made on it, but he thought more about how to make the remaining grenades play a greater role.

   Two "appointed centurions" and fourteen sergeants of the First Infantry Brigade of Baishan County were urgently summoned by Woods.

"Don't talk nonsense." The lieutenant looked around at his subordinates. If the first brigade was regarded as a human body, then the sixteen people in front of him were the bones that supported the first brigade: "The new batch of grenades sent by Tiefeng County is a good thing, it must be Make the best use of it. There were too many unexploded bombs just now, when you go back, cut the powder twist of all the grenades in half."

"My lord," a commissioned centurion replied in a low voice, "I'm afraid it's not a problem with the drug. I just saw with my own eyes that the guys in the new clothes below stepped on the drug. They have seen this thing and know how to deal with it. it."

"That's why I asked you to cut the medicine twist in half, and don't give them time to react." Woods thought for a moment and patted his knee: "Just like this - you go back and pick out soldiers with good brains and strong arms, and let them specialize in them. In charge of throwing the grenade. Uh... send another person to be responsible for the ignition. One person throws it, and the other person ignites it, so that some idiots will throw the grenade like a stone and throw it into the water. How can it explode?"

"Yes!"

   "I have sent someone to the colonel and asked the colonel to collect all the grenades from other battalions and give them to us to use." Woods sincerely asked his subordinates: "What advice do you guys have?"

   Appointed centurions and sergeants you look at me, I look at you, all silent, because they do not know if they are qualified to speak.

   These veterans knew in their hearts that the only reason they could be promoted to non-commissioned officers or even officers was that the army in Baishan County was expanding too fast, and there was a serious lack of commanders, and they had actual combat experience. No gentleman wanted to hear their opinion, and no gentleman wanted to watch them dictate.

   "Say it!" Woods clapped his hands and encouraged, "Don't be afraid!"

   "Sir." A sergeant spoke up boldly, and he pointed to the east: "There are more and more musketeers on the other side of the river, and our people are a little bit crushed and can't lift their heads."

   While speaking, the lead bullets shot from the other side hit the wall beside the crowd, making a "Puff Puff" sound.

Sergeant    suggested: "The musketeers in Leiqun County are just waiting behind you. Can you ask them to come and help?"

  Woods weighed for a moment, then nodded: "Okay. What about the others? Don't you have anything to say?"

"At this rate of consumption, the gunpowder will bottom out sooner or later." Another commissioned centurion said in a hoarse voice, "It's better to prepare more now. When the Colonel fights, I'm afraid no one will take care of us. already."

   "Indeed." Woods thought for a while: "However, we have to find a safe place to store the gunpowder."

   "How about the church in the center of the village? It's solid there."

  Woods was going to agree, but he thought about it and shook his head: "No, another place."

   The centurion and the sergeants were a bit more daring to appoint them, and they each mentioned some locations.

  Woods was just about to make a decision when he heard Erno in the bulge shout in horror: "Here again! Lieutenant! Lots of people!"

   On the east bank of the nameless river, one after another fluttered battle flags emerged from the smokescreen that had not yet dissipated.

   Accompanied by the deafening sound of military drums, hundreds of soldiers in light brown coats carried siege equipment on their shoulders, like a huge wave over the embankment, rushing from three directions to the small highland where Hegu Village is located.

  Woods looked up at the sky, the sun was hanging high in the sky, staring indifferently at the tragedy of the world.

   "It's here again, of course it's here again." Woods muttered to himself: "It's far from the end."

[The intuition of the people of Baishan County is correct. The reason why Tiefeng County wants to make grenades that they know is not easy to use is because "something is better than nothing", and on the other hand, it is to add a little added value to iron materials... production capacity It's right there, no need for nothing, it's too bad to simply sell iron materials]

   [A book friend asked Woods and Mason the level of defense. That... Lieutenant Woods is indeed the best defensive warfare expert in the three southeastern counties, but only the best defensive warfare expert in the three southeastern counties. And the three counties... have never had a defense/siege battle]

   [So in the three southeastern counties, there are some officers who are good at offense, and those who are good at defense...only Woods]

   [As of this battle, Woods lacked actual combat experience. Even if he has a solid theory and a quick mind, mistakes are inevitable. However, he is good at learning from mistakes and summarizing experience]

   [The officers of Tiefeng County know that it is necessary to select soldiers with good physical strength and use grenades in a concentrated manner, which has miraculous effects. Blue Rose, who absorbed a large number of the remnants of the expeditionary army, also pointed out the technology of "large-scale use of fragmentation grenades in the defense of the city"]

[Even in actual combat, the parliamentary army on the siege side has also summarized some experience and tips for countering grenades, such as stepping on, splashing water, and cutting the fuse (Note: This plane really has such grenades to deal with exposed leads methods and records)]

   [However, the relevant military concepts have not spread to Baishan County, so Baishan County is still the same. However, when Lieutenant Woods got the new grenade, he immediately thought of the most effective use - this may be called the convergent evolution of military technology]

   (end of this chapter)