“For my benefit, pay careful attention to the enemy’s position!” Van’er snapped, “If any of you dare to talk any more rubbish, I will punish you with cleaning the toilet when we return!”
Hearing the threat, Cat’s Claw stick out his tongue, and then turned his body around to explore the outside situation.
The artillery captain sighed in his heart; nowadays these guys have lost their sense of tension, they weren’t like a few months ago where their hands and feet trembled at the beginning of the battle. He couldn’t say if this changes were good or bad, he always felt that some of them held too much contempt towards the opponent, but he also couldn’t severely reprimand his men, because he was in no way better than them. Since he had become a soldier of His Royal Highness, Van’er’s understanding of battle had undergone changes as great as the difference between sky and earth: The seemingly bloody and cruel fights, no longer had anything to do with your personal strength, skill, and courage. They now only needed repetitive drills to learn all of the necessary steps by heart. Ready themselves according to the rules, meet the enemy according to those rules and open fire according to the rules was equivalent to winning.
Especially when Border Town had to withstand the attack of the new King’s Militia, the opponent obviously had astonishing strength, a fierce spirit, and didn’t show any fear of death, just like humanoid beasts. But the fight only lasted for half an hour. When it was time to clear the battlefield, he discovered that he didn’t feel even the slightest trace of fatigue, as if he had only gone through a warm-up exercise before his training, yet they had already exterminated the enemy.
In this way, will there be a day when they will fight wars over distances where they couldn’t even see the enemy’s face? Will they be able to wipe out the enemy thousands of miles away just by operating some metallic machines?
Just when Van’er got lost in his own world, he was drawn back by Cat’s Claw’s warning shout.
“I see the enemy!”
“Fill in the ammunition!” Van’er ordered with a firm voice while shaking his head, pushing all of the distracting thoughts to the back of his head.
The people within the compartment suddenly became busy; they had already gone through the following steps so many times, that they could now fill the cachet and artillery shell into the chamber even if their eyes were closed. Under the circumstances that they didn’t need to reset the cannon into the starting position or to adjust the shooting angle, the artillery group could easily shoot once every twenty breaths.
His Highness Roland and Iron Axe had already planned and put the strategy for the battle long ago. Moreover, it was similar to Border Town’s previous defense battle, so Van’er could fluently recite it from memory. Therefore, the moment they saw Miss Lightning wave the red flag, they immediately tore down the window’s cover plate and opened fire. The two cannons nearest to the river bank were filled with bullet canisters intended to wipe out the deck, while the rest of the cannons bombarded the hold of the ships with their solid shells.
He calmly waited for the arrival of the red signal.
…
Lotus no longer needed an observation mirror to keep a lookout, she could see that the fleet of the Fake King had already neared the ambush place.
Compared to the three-masted or four-masted seafaring sailing ships, these ships were notably much slimmer, had no tall rigging or fences, and with their low hull, they looked as if they were at the same level of the river. In addition to their bulging sails, they were also pushed forward by sailors on both sides of their decks, who were slowly pulling the helms in their hands.
Even now, His Royal Highness still hadn’t issued any new orders.
She could not help but become somewhat anxious; standing at their observation point located at the top of a high hill. Even though they could overlook the whole battlefield from here, it was still far away from the river. Without Lightning or Maggie by His Highness’ side, sending new instructions to each team would waste a lot of time, and even if they were only a little late, Lotus was afraid that there wouldn’t be enough time to stop the fleet from passing through the Redwater River fork.
Seeing that the leading sailboat was about to pass by the soil houses, Lotus couldn’t help but want to open her mouth to inquire, but at that very moment, a loud bang suddenly rolled over the river. As if this were the signal to attack, more than a dozen thick smoke clouds mixed with a blazing flame came spouting out of the soil house, sending an unending oppressive and earth trembling sound across.
In the end, what exactly had happened?
When Lotus turned her eyes back to the river, she could hardly believe what she was seeing, She didn’t see any fight between knights or mercenaries, however, on the deck of the first sailboat, it looked like a boiling pot had just exploded. Wood chips, disabled limbs, and severed arms splashed everywhere in all directions. More than half of the scullers had been killed or injured in a flash, and as the bloody mist cleared up, it had smeared the deck a bloody red.
After losing half of its moving force, the speed of the vessel quickly slowed down, while the thundering explosion sound hadn’t stopped for even the slightest moment. Not long after, several shadows cut the tall mast at the center of the ship in half; it shook twice before falling to the ground with a loud bang, burying two knights who had just climbed out of the cabin under it.
The sailboat was pushed by the water current and slowly began receding, while the other ships fanned out while trying to avoid it. After hearing the cacophony of sounds, lots of people rushed out from within the hold of the ship, only to helplessly look at the leading ship which had already sunken into hell, seemingly not knowing what they should do anymore.
Then the horrible attack fell on the second ship.
The bloody mist emerging from the now crowded deck became even more raging, and Lotus could see, that after another round of rolling thunder, those enemies who originally stood nearest to the river bank had been completely broken apart and had given birth to many scarlet red empty spots. Those people who were still alive, gave out heartbreaking screams as they tried to push their intestines back into their body. While other lucky survivors immediately jumped into the river to try and escape, no longer willing to spend another breath in the hell on top of the deck.
Finally, Lotus understood what His Highness had meant when he said that they would not be able to get through, but… how had his men been able to do this?
Chapter 281 Redwater River Ambush (Part 2)
Compared with Lotus who could only survey the scene from an elevated and distant position, Sylvie’s view was much more vivid.
Through the thick walls of the soil houses, she could see the soldiers busy themselves in an orderly manner, everyone was repeating the same single motion, but all seven to eight people became one complex whole and moved like clouds and flowing water. The paper bags and iron balls stacked at the back of the compartment, were continuously fed into a thick and robust iron pipe, which then erupted with the sound of thunder.
Taking a closer look, Sylvie noticed that the soldiers first lit a rope that was at the end of the iron pipe. The jumping sparks then entered the interior of the pipe and directly ignited the previously loaded paper bag. In the following split second the light became so bright that she was unable to bear keeping her eyes open, the sparks quickly expanded into an orange-red fireball, filling every room in the pipe. With no further place left for it to go, the still growing flame then pushed against the iron ball, ejecting it outward as if a giant hand had thrown it out!
Within the blink of an eye, the iron ball turned into a shadow rushing in a straight line towards the ship sailing on the river. Its strength was so great, that it directly drilled through the planks leaving a fist sized hole in the side. Although its speed slowed down a lot the iron ball’s power could still not be underestimated. When it hit one enemy that was trying to climb out of the cabin it immediately tore him in two.