Lord Harland

A magic crystal cannon weighs about four tons. Coupled with the heavy alloy gun carriage, the total weight of a magic crystal cannon exceeds 5.6 tons.

The magic crystal cannon is so heavy and relies heavily on logistics that it is difficult to operate without official access.

If you want the magic crystal cannon to have field capabilities, you must strengthen the artillery squadrons. The three field artillery squadrons organized this time have more than 230 people.

The number of people in the gun crew of a magic crystal cannon is as high as thirty-five.

In addition to the thirty-five soldiers, an artillery crew was also equipped with two iron-horned horse-drawn artillery carts, twelve draft horses, four four-wheeled artillery carts, and twenty camels carrying grain and grass baggage.

There are as many as five professional officers in a gun crew.

Professionals are all strong men, and one person can carry items weighing hundreds of kilograms. Five professional officers plus a dozen strong soldiers can even lift a magic crystal cannon and march when encountering ditches and obstacles.

In order to organize three artillery squadrons, Richard recruited one hundred professional officers, more than three hundred veterans with combat experience, more than ten outstanding middle school students who have mastered parabolic calculations, and more than two hundred young students with certain education. . In terms of human resources alone, a very large cost has been invested.

Because of the huge investment in manpower and material resources, although the field artillery squadron is a newly formed unit, its combat effectiveness is already very powerful. In fact, although the number of artillery is small, the tactical position is already the core. Nowadays, many of Haaland's tactics are based on field artillery.

Although the squadron leaders of these three field artillery squadrons are served by experienced officers, the actual command officers are newcomers who are proficient in ballistic calculations.

After Richard led his troops to Saron Castle, he immediately ordered the construction of artillery positions, and the elite infantry were on standby, waiting for the artillery to blow down the city wall and begin to attack the city.

The army led by Harland appeared near Saron Castle as if a magic weapon descended from heaven, surprising Duke Isaac.

Saron Castle is a large city with a total of 14,000 defenders. The city's defense line is also relatively complete. Not only is it surrounded by rivers, which is conducive to building a defense line, there is also a small and strong castle built outside the city, which is mutually exclusive with the main city of Saron. horn. Although Duke Isaac was very afraid of the soldiers led by Harland, he did not think that Richard could conquer Saron City in a short time.

After Richard led his troops to the vicinity of Saron Castle, Isaac had already directed the soldiers to return to the strong fortress.

In the last war, Richard was already the victim of the two Dukes Hubble and Isaac. If it hadn't been for the reinforcements from the United Kingdom on the East Coast, the two Dukes of the Delon Kingdom would have been doomed.

Because he was deeply impressed by the combat effectiveness of Harland's army, Duke Isaac naturally did not want to fight in a field battle with Harland's soldiers. Therefore, the battle plan was made very conservatively, and they only wanted to defend the city.

Seeing that the defenders of Saron Castle had retreated, Richard immediately ordered to camp forward.

Although it is dangerous to camp close to the front, it shortens the attack distance and makes it easier to attack the city. Especially elite soldiers and generals like to camp close to the front, form teams close to the range of the defenders' long-range projectile weapons, and launch attacks.

After getting ready to attack the city, Richard began to wait for the artillery to build a position. In the evening, the artillery was ready and began to attack Saron Castle.

The three magic crystal cannons fired together, and a sharp whistling sound came from the sky.

An alchemical bomb weighing dozens of kilograms hit the vicinity of Saron City, and a fierce explosion was heard in an instant. Even though the siege infantry was hundreds of meters away from the impact point of the explosion, their souls still felt trembling, as if they were in the end of the world.

This is just a test firing by the artillery unit. After calibration by the artillery observers, the artillery position will fire a salvo, throwing a large amount of ammunition on the enemy's head.

Above the artillery position, two magic hot air balloons responsible for reconnaissance and calibration have taken off.

The observers on the magic hot air balloon, holding telescopes, observed the impact point of the artillery shells at an altitude of five kilometers away from Saron Castle, and then used the command flag to notify the artillery below.

Several artillery commanders who were proficient in mathematics recalculated the trajectory through upward calibration, adjusted the angle of the magic crystal cannon, and started the next round of bombardment.

After two calibrations, three field artillery squadrons launched a salvo, and eighteen heavy alchemy bombs landed in Saron Castle in an instant.

In just one round of shelling, the enemy suffered more than a hundred casualties.

The defenders of Saron Castle had not experienced artillery defense training, so it was naturally impossible for them to build artillery defense fortifications, and they had no experience in artillery defense. They still formed a dense military formation. After the shells hit, the casualties were extremely heavy.

The emergence of artillery has changed the pattern of warfare. The army of the Delong Kingdom simply cannot adapt to this new type of warfare.

After only six rounds of shelling, a section of the city wall collapsed, and the number of casualties among the defenders in the city was close to a thousand.

The collapsed gap in the city wall was getting bigger and bigger. Cannonballs exploded on the solid stone wall, and rubble flew everywhere. It was almost impossible to stand on the wall.

After finally waiting for the barrel of the magic crystal cannon to turn red and cool down for half an hour, the defenders just took a breath when round after round of shells fell on their heads again.

In an instant, many weak-willed soldiers were driven crazy by the shells.

Seeing that the enemy siege infantry had not yet launched, and the defenders were about to collapse, Duke Isaac saw this scene and decisively opened the south gate with the soldiers who could organize himself, and chose to abandon the castle and escape.

Duke Isaac had just escaped, and before he even had time to take his family with him, Harland led the infantry to attack.

Under the cover of the magic crystal cannon, the coordinated infantry and artillery attack was very successful this time, and the city of Saron was captured with almost no casualties.

As for the escaped Duke Isaac, he could not save his life either.

Harland led the army with a large number of flying troops, gryphon cavalry, bipedal dragons, and magic hot air balloon troops. They constantly harassed the enemy at high altitudes, making it impossible for Duke Isaac to withdraw his troops smoothly.

Sylph gathered 1,500 Warcraft cavalry, crossed the moat and launched a pursuit, and soon caught up with the enemy.

With the cooperation of flying units, Harland leader easily annihilated this enemy force.

Even Duke Isaac, the ninth-level epic knight of the Kingdom of Delon, lost his life in Sylph's sneak attack.

After conquering Saron Castle, Richard seized a lot of loot, first of all, eight thousand tons of grain. Enough for the Haaland Corps for half a month.

In large-scale wars, capturing the enemy's food can greatly reduce one's own transportation costs.

In order to ensure victory in this war, the Grant Kingdom mobilized almost all fronts. Some of the military rations were even shipped from northern Xinjiang. Over a thousand kilometers of transportation lines, every pound transported to the front line would be lost on the way.

The Grant Kingdom dispatched 320,000 regular troops, 200,000 auxiliary troops, and hundreds of thousands of large livestock for this southern expedition. The frontline soldiers needed to consume up to 2,000 tons of military rations every day. The amount of food lost on the transportation road is close to 10,000 tons every day.

Even if the Grant Kingdom had 30 million people, such a huge loss would still be difficult to sustain.

The royal family and the great nobles had been hoarding food for several years, but it could only last three months. Unable to defeat the enemy for three months, logistical pressure forced Grant's Kingdom to withdraw.

In addition to food, hundreds of thousands of Delong Kingdom gold coins were also seized in this battle, which was better than nothing and could supplement the logistics. The most useful trophies for the Harland Territory are about two hundred iron horned horses and three hundred collar enchanted armors, which can expand two squadrons of Warcraft Cavalry.

The number of prisoners in this battle also exceeded 8,000.

After conquering Saron Castle and killing Duke Isaac, Richard led Harland and his soldiers to garrison Saron City overnight.

"Order the 26th Brigade and the 41st Brigade to form a left-behind detachment, responsible for collecting food, guarding prisoners, capturing slaves, and guarding this food road for the army.

One hundred and sixty soldiers were transferred from the 1st and 6th infantry brigades, and 40 backbones were transferred from the 2nd Warcraft Cavalry Brigade to form two Warcraft Cavalry squadrons and formed into the left-behind detachment.

Levin was appointed captain of the left-behind detachment. "

Levin is Martin's eldest son. He is only twenty-eight years old this year and his professional level has been promoted to the fifth level. His qualifications are among the best among those led by Harland. Like Jennings, he is a legendary seed, a few points ahead of William, Soros and the like.

After Lord Martin retired from active service, Levine's position was promoted last year and now serves as the deputy captain of the first brigade. This time, he was appointed by Richard as the captain of the left-behind detachment, which was obviously an unusual reuse.

After giving the order, Richard thought for a moment and then issued the order: "Order the First Battalion to send troops to meet the artillery unit. The magic crystal cannon must not be damaged. After everyone enters the city, take the time to sleep, march early tomorrow morning, and continue to conquer Jinshan. Castle, destroy the enemy's left wing."

At about nine o'clock in the evening, the artillery troops entered the city of Salon. Harland led the soldiers to stay in Salon City for one night, leaving more than 3,000 soldiers behind, and the rest of the army rushed to Jinshan Castle in a mighty manner.

Gold mines were discovered on the hills near Jinshan Castle, so it was named Jinshan Castle. Because of the gold mine, this castle has always been garrisoned. However, before the support of the United Kingdom army from the east coast, the defenders here only had about 3,000 second-line troops.

Now it is the focus of defense, with a legion of soldiers from the United Kingdom on the east coast stationed.

As soon as Richard led his troops from Saron Castle, Valencia, commander of the 19th Legion of the United Kingdom on the East Coast, received military information about the defeat of Saron Castle.

Following the report of the defeated troops who escaped from Salon Castle, Valencia already knew that Salon Castle had been lost and Duke Isaac was killed in the battle.

After receiving the news, Valencia's eyes widened and she couldn't believe it. He thought to himself: "Although the garrison of Salon Castle is weaker than Jinshan Castle, why can't it be defended for a day? Duke Isaac's command is not weak, and his soldiers are not able to collapse at the first touch."

He suppressed the doubts in his heart and continued to interrogate the defeated soldiers. From the information reported by the defeated soldiers, he gradually restored the details of the battle. Hearing that a terrifying magic item appeared in Harland's army, Valencia immediately became worried.

In the war five years ago, the United Kingdom Army on the East Coast saw the heavy trebuchet for the first time. They suffered a lot in the battle. They finally copied the heavy trebuchet, but the enemy actually came up with a more powerful invention.

After realizing the seriousness of the situation, Valencia immediately wrote an order to retreat to his superiors. If Commander-in-Chief Mark Dean does not allow a retreat, additional reinforcements must be sent.

Harland led the army to leave Salon Castle in the early morning. At about four o'clock in the afternoon, they marched forty kilometers to the vicinity of Jinshan Castle.

This time, Richard repeated his old trick and arranged for the artillery troops to build positions first, while the infantry rested one kilometer outside the city.

Valencia had already figured out the process of last night's battle through the rout, and naturally did not allow Harland to prepare to attack the city.

Despite the lack of strength, Valencia still hopes to win a victory first and destroy the enemy's artillery while Richard is still on a weak footing.

The gates of Jinshan Castle were wide open, and the 19th Army of the United Kingdom from the East Coast came out of the city to form an array.

Seeing that the enemy's military formation was very dense, Richard decisively released a starlight bomb. A thick white light fell on the enemy's formation. In an instant, there was an explosion in the sky and the earth. Valencia, the commander of the Nineteenth Army Corps, died immediately. In the explosion, more than 1,500 people were killed and injured by the Starlight Bomb.

Taking advantage of the chaos caused by the Starlight Bomb to the 19th Army, Richard led Harland and led the elite troops to decisively launch an attack, defeating the enemy with just one charge.

After all, the combat effectiveness of the United Kingdom Army on the East Coast is not as good as that of the Orcs. Harland's army still has a numerical advantage. The combat effectiveness of the two sides is inherently unequal. In addition, the starlight bomb directly hit the command structure of the Nineteenth Army of the United Kingdom on the east coast. One thousand and five hundred people were wiped out in one attack, causing great chaos to this army.

The most important thing is that the number of Haaland's troops is as high as 42,000, which is almost twice that of the enemy. After this battle, Haaland's casualties were less than 200.

In two battles, 34,000 enemy troops were annihilated. About 100 of Haaland's troops were killed and only 200 were injured, making them almost unscathed.

After capturing Jinshan Castle, Harland captured a lot of money, including more than ten tons of gold alone. After cleaning the battlefield, they counted more than 400 intact enchanted armors and more than 300 damaged enchanted armors. They captured more than 100 flaming horses, more than 3,000 military horses, and captured more than 10,000 prisoners.

After annihilating the 19th Army of the United Kingdom on the east coast, Richard stationed himself at Jinshan Castle for one night. Once again, troops were transferred from the main force and a squadron of Warcraft was formed, leaving the 16th Battalion to guard Jinshan City. Richard, the commander of the garrison, appointed Sokes.

Socks, like Levine, is a second-generation officer in the Harland Territory. His father is Roland. Both generations of father and son have served in the Harland Territory for twenty years. Their merits are already close to being knighted.

After leaving the Suokes tribe behind, Richard took seven days' rations and led Harland's army to change direction and march eastward to attack the abdomen of the Dukedom of Hubble.

Not long after leaving the city, the flying dragon knight discovered the enemy's situation.

An army of 30,000 people was coming towards Jinshan Fort. This army is the last essence of the Dukedom of Hubble, and it is also the reinforcement sent by Mark Dean for the Nineteenth Legion.

As a result, reinforcements were still on the way and Jinshan Fort had been lost.

This army was exposed in the wild and immediately became the target of Haaland's army, ushering in the fate of defeat.