It didn’t take the four groups of gunners a long time to complete their tasks, the canon angle was adjusted to the third setting while the gunpowder and the solid artillery shell were also inserted into the cannon’s barrel.
He had thought that after he had stood on the wall and fought against the demonic beasts he could regard himself as an experienced fighter and also thought that he was talented, but today he came to discover that there was still a huge distance between himself, Iron Axe and Brian.
During the afternoon assembly, he’d had great problems trying to calm his heart. But these two men, when they led their groups to the appointed area, they not only looked as if there was nothing special about today, no, he could even hear from Brian’s voice just how eager he was to fight. But he himself until now was unable to calm himself. With a bit of shame in his heart, he had to acknowledge that even the Rodney brothers seemed to be acting better than his own performance. This thought made Van’er feel very depressed.
He nervously licked his lips and checked Lightning’s position once again.
But at this moment, the enemy’s movement slowed down by a lot.
“What are they doing?” Rodney asked.
“That’s currently unknown,” Cat’ s Paw answered. “For me, it seems like they are adjusting their formation? But they still look a little chaotic.”
“They are waiting for the other troops,” explained Jop with a slightly trembling voice, “It’s impossible for knights to fight alone, they always need a large number of people to follow them.“
“How do you know all this?” Nelson wasn’t convinced.
“I have already seen it! A knight will always take along at least two squires, while there will be another dozen serfs who have to handle their foraging,” he began to count it off on his fingers, “First, there is the Duke, as the Lord of Longsong Stronghold, he has at least a hundred knights, right? Then there is the light cavalry, who are at least three hundred people. Plus, the counts and viscounts who have their own territory… Many more! And don’t forget the mercenaries, they have all already tasted blood themselves, so they won’t even blink as they kill you! They will do anything for money! While we only have three hundred people.”
Actually, less than three hundred people, Van’er corrected in his mind. We only have two hundred and seventy soldiers armed with weapons, according to His Highness’s explanation it is because we lack in the area of production capacity. Now those who did not have guns of their own were sent to the artillery teams, they were to handle preparing the ammunition for the four cannons. When Van’er discovered that they were a lot slower than his own group, he also felt a lot better.
“The mercenary, they’re coming!” Jop cried out.
Van’er looked towards the enemy, there he could see a group with various kinds of armors taking the front in their battle formation, they did not ride, nor did they march in line, they just walked in small groups of twos or threes to the middle of the field. While the knights scattered to both sides, it seemed as they were giving up their position for the mercenaries. After a quarter of an hour, the Duke’s allied forces were finally ready.
At this time, a knight came riding out of the enemy’s camp into the direction of Border Town. Van’er became so nervous he almost gave the command to fire.
What should I do? Van’er looked once more at the sky, but he was still unable to discover Lightning, while the enemy was constantly coming closer while waving a white flag.
“He is the messenger sent by the Duke,” Jop muttered, “He should be coming over, trying to persuade the Prince.”
“It’s none of our business,” Rodney squatted down behind the canon and aligned his line of sight with the centerline of the barrel. “Leader, we need to adjust the canon, most of the knights have left the impact zone.”
During their previous practice with live ammunition, they were repeatedly taught, that the canon attack range was represented by the centerline of the barrel, so if they wanted to hit their target, they had to make sure that the target overlapped with the barrel’s centerline. So the five men began at the same time to turn around the canon until the canon once more pointed in the direction of the knights.
The messenger who had come in alone was then escorted by Carter to the back of their defense line, but Van’er knew that this move of the Duke was just a waste of time, the Prince would never agree to surrender.
Suddenly, Lighting abruptly flew in the direction of the defensive line, wildly waving a yellow flag in her hands.
The yellow signal meant that the opponent had entered the 800 meters range, at this distance, they had the chance to hit the target with a solid projectile. It also meant, that as long as the gunner captain didn’t prohibition firing, the gunner teams could fire at will.
His other team members also noticed the signal, so they all looked into his direction, and after he nodded once he took a deep breath then shouted, “Fire!”
Chapter 116 War for Border Town (Part 2)
It was not the case that the knights could charge from the beginning at their fastest speed, after all, horses were limited by their physical endurance, so they were only able to maintain their fastest speed for a short period of time. At a thousand or eight hundred meters they would begin to gradually increase their speed until they reached five hundred meters away from their mark, only when they came within two hundred meters would they would start galloping.
While in theory, the twelve-pound Napoleonic cannon had an effective range of up to 1,300 meters if it used solid shells. Maybe because it only had half the diameter than normal, Roland’s cannon only had an effective range of a thousand meters. As a result, the furthest distance his artillery group were allowed to open fire at was at eight hundred meters. At this distance, reaching the target area could be guaranteed, while at the same time the cannon balls would also bounce forward after hitting the ground. Resulting in line damage, with a high chance to kill multiple targets with a single shot.
In order to let the mercenary attack first, Duke Ryan had ordered his knight to step to the side — letting them wait in an absolutely safe area, meaning an area where bows and crossbows were unable to reach the knights, but this distance was still close enough for an effective knight charge to be launched. Knowing of the low efficiency of the mercenaries, the knights were always ready to pull the horse’s reins, waiting for any resistance in one place. However, like this, they became an almost fixed target, for the artillery group.
But the Duke certainly did not realise that by the time he ordered his troops to step aside, that they had already stepped onto Roland’s prepared battlefield. While the middle of the road might have been flat and spacious, both of its sides were crammed with leaves and with other vegetation. What seemed from afar to be just ordinary grass, was in truth actually thick vines covered by a knee-deep layer of weeds, it was like a road plastered with natural tripwire. If the cavalry wanted to start a flanking assault on the defensive line, they would only be able to move forwards with a very slow degree of progress. The thousand-meter distance was clearly marked on the ground, it may not have been visible for the people on the ground, but to Lighting flying in the sky, it was clearly visible. The battlefield was precisely divided into several segments, and every differently colored mark represented a different distance — the enemy was now just a ruler moving about on a chess board, which permitted the artillery group to shoot without having to calculate the barrel’s angle. They only had to go through the steps as they had implemented them during their training.