Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 60 Duck Mouth

  Duckbill Fort is named after the duckbill headland located in Haidong Bay. This headland is shaped like a duck's bill, and is also a natural anti-wave lift, like an arm outstretched from the land sheltering Haidong Bay.

  The artillery fort was set up on Duckbill Point. Externally, it could guard the narrow entrance and exit of Haidong Bay; internally, all ships in the port were within the range of the artillery. If necessary, pull up an iron lock on Duckbill Point and the opposite bank, which can block any enemy from the sea.

   It is precisely because of the unique topographical conditions of Haidong Bay that the Veneta Navy will build a special pier here, making Haidong Port the home port of the entire Veneta Navy.

   But now, the port is lost. The heavy artillery on the duckbill fort was turning its direction and bombarding the naval ships parked in the harbor.

   And the army officers got an order: retake this place.

   In the dark night, a group of cavalry was running wildly. A total of more than 100 officers got the news and assembled in the Dongda Camp. Admiral Zio sent them all out in one breath, and a colonel led them to Haidong Port.

   Winters crouched on his horse, closely following Lieutenant Colonel Field ahead. The momentum of the hundreds of war horses running together was astonishing, and the sound of horse hooves was like the roar of war drums.

   But Winters was not affected by this momentum. At this moment, the moonlight was blocked by dark clouds, and nothing could be seen on the road. It is very risky to ride a horse on this night road, and if you are unlucky, you will lose your horse.

   Along the way, people fell off their horses from time to time and were carried to the side of the road to be rescued by the people behind.

   After running for an unknown amount of time, the sound of guns could be heard vaguely ahead, which meant that Haidong Port was ahead. This is Winters, but seeing someone in front of him waving a torch, he slowed the horse and stopped.

   In a clearing by the road, the officer who arrived before him was resting.

   Although the cavalry team consisted of only more than 100 people, when they ran at full speed, the marching troops were stretched to a length of one kilometer. Several lieutenant colonels who led the team decided to set the position where the gunfire could be heard as a sortie position, and sent three officers to reconnaissance ahead while waiting for the entire team to gather.

  The sound of gunfire coming from the front can be clearly heard at the location of the assembly point. Dong, dong, dong, there was a dull sound in the air, this is the roar that can only be issued by heavy artillery.

Lieutenant Colonel   field handed a water bladder to Winters: "Drink a little, follow me later, don't run around."

  Winters pulled out the plug, but just wanted to drink it but smelled a pungent smell: "Is it wine?"

   "Of course it's wine."

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

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

  Field and a few other officers gathered in small circles, smoking pipes, chatting in low voices, and laughing from time to time. Winters didn't know how to smoke and couldn't participate, so he just found a rock and sat there, silently playing with the two steel cones in his hand. He was going to the club tonight to play, so he only brought three steel cones in total.

  Moritz, on the other hand, took out a blanket from his saddlebag and laid it on the ground to sleep soundly. The major would not miss any chance to doze off.

   A man came over with a torch and issued orders one by one: "The people who went to scout have returned, and Colonel Kara wants everyone to come over for a meeting."

  More than 100 people formed a large circle, and it was not easy to convey orders to these 100 people at the same time. Colonel Kara, who was in charge of the command, was not a spellcaster, so he had to stand on a big rock in the crowd and shouted hoarsely:

"The duckbill artillery base has been confirmed to be lost, and now the attackers are bombarding the Navy's ships with cannons. Now the most fierce battle is on the pier, and the rest of the Navy is on the pier and the attackers are dying." Colonel Kara sneered: " But this has nothing to do with us. The order given to us is to retake the duckbill fort. Now that the navy has attracted the attention of the enemy, it is our good opportunity. Don't make a sound, go straight to the fort, all People follow their superiors and disband!"

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 difficult formations.

   Therefore, Colonel Kara's tactic was to take advantage of the enemy's lack of attention, riding a fast horse and rushing past, rushing into the artillery base to fight hand-to-hand combat. For this group of officers who were born in the military school and have several spellcasters at the same time, cold weapon fighting is more advantageous than firearm shooting.

The officers lined up roughly in two columns, with Winters in the middle, Major Moritz ahead of him, and Lieutenant Colonel Field ahead. At the front of the team was Colonel Kara, who had to be at the forefront to command this cavalry team composed of purely officers.

The    charge started with a slow walk, and when the cavalry had opened a distance of two or three meters from each other, Colonel Kara gave the order to trot.

   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 the column charge is weak, it is agile and can quickly adjust its direction. As long as each cavalry runs with the cavalry in front, it can maintain the formation.

   The trotting cavalry team left the road and entered the forest, the branches hurting like whips. After walking through the forest for a few minutes, fire began to shoot through the cracks in the trees.

   This meant leaving the woods soon, Winters took a deep breath and pulled out the saber with the scabbard between his knees.

   After crossing the deliberately cut down tree line, I suddenly became enlightened. Less than a kilometer ahead was the duckbill fort, 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 fortress like an arrow from the string. Winters followed behind him, charging hard for the first time with his spurs into the strong side's ribs.

   This charge had no shouts, no trumpeters, and the officers drove the horses in silence. For the first time, Winters saw Qiangyun show his heroic running with all his strength. Major Moritz's horses were overtaken by him, and finally kept pace with Field's dark horse.

   The distance of one kilometer was approaching in an instant. The dozen or so attackers who were going from the artillery fort to support the pier did not understand what was going on, and were chopped down by the howling cavalry on the way. The officers in the front didn't give the men in the back a chance to swing their sabers at all, and Winters only saw a corpse with its head chopped off.

   Hacking these dozen or so enemies to death was just easy, the entire cavalry did not slow down at all, and continued to rush towards the artillery base in a straight line.

   The duckbill fort is not a bastion, this fort is to guard against the enemy on the water, not the enemy on land. So it was just a boxy cannon made of stone and mortar, clumsy and solid. Later, the Half Moon Fort was added at the four corners, but the overall structure has not changed. There is still a gate to enter and exit, and there is no trench.

This is actually a gamble. If the attackers close the gate, then the hundred cavalry will have nothing to do with this stone fortress with an outer wall of eight meters high, because these temporary light cavalry teams have no siege. Means, only ants attached to climb the wall.

   And Colonel Kara bet that the attackers would not think that someone would come to support so soon, let alone that the reinforcements would not go to the rescue port, but go straight to Duckbill Fortress.

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

   The gate of the duckbill fort was closed.

   But no latch!

   The dozen or so people just came out and just closed the gate, and the attackers simply did not have enough manpower to defend the duck-billed cannon.

   The person who rushed in front pried the crack of the door and pushed open the door with all his strength. The cavalry in the back 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 got off his horse and shouted: "Catch a few live ones." Then he kicked open the wooden door where the sound of the artillery was heard, and rushed in with his saber in hand.

   Winters did not expect that the attacker's defense would be so slack. This is the blind spot of attackers' thinking. They only think about attacking others by themselves, but they never thought that they might be attacked. With an unexpected advantage, the battle is already half won.

Colonel   Kara took the lead, and a dozen officers rushed in without hesitation with sabres. There were screams from the door, and the muffled sound of metal hitting the bones wrapped in meat.

   But Winters didn't move, he and Moritz were waiting for Lieutenant Colonel Field's orders.

   "You don't need to follow them, it seems that there are not many enemies here." Lieutenant Colonel Field calmly judged: "We're going to the powder depot, I'm worried now that these guys will jump over the wall and kill us."

   Having said that, Lieutenant Colonel Field stopped two more people in lieutenant uniforms: "You two guard the gate, and lock the gate when we all come in. No one is allowed to open the door without the order of a colonel-level officer."

  The two lieutenants also wanted to follow Colonel Kara to fight with real swords and guns, and let out their anger. But he was stopped halfway by Lieutenant Colonel Field, but unfortunately the first-level official crushed him to death.

Lieutenant Colonel   field led Moritz and Winters and walked in the other direction instead of following the main force.

   "Do you still know where the gunpowder depot is here?" Winters wondered.

Lieutenant Colonel    Field snorted: "The gunpowder depots of the fort are all in the same location—the farthest point from the artillery."

   (end of this chapter)