Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 201 Good fortune and misfortune depend on each other
A silver-gray steed charged into the camp, sounding the alarm bells as if it were a matter of life and death.

"Emergency assembly!" A loud shout shattered the night: "Emergency assembly!"

The Parat people were awakened from their sleep and scrambled out of their tents.

Torches were lit one after another, and the disheveled soldiers first assembled in groups of hundreds before heading to the drill ground.

The standing army was able to maintain order, but the auxiliary troops were in complete chaos.

Lieutenant Colonel Robert arrived at the alarm bell barefoot, carrying his helmet and wrapped in his bathrobe, without even wearing boots.

“What’s going on?” he asked Winters loudly.

"Fire!" Winters slammed down his hammer. "The Hurds are setting fires!"

Lieutenant Colonel Robert was immediately terrified and his body stiffened: "Where?"

"I don't know! I smelled smoke!"

Lieutenant Colonel Robert ripped off his bathrobe and threw it violently to the ground: "Barbarians...what ruthless methods!"

The moment of losing control was fleeting; Robert quickly rallied and urged Winters, "Whatever tricks he has up his sleeve, we'll deal with them! Go back and get dressed; aren't you afraid of catching a cold?"

Winters' blanket, which he had worn when he left the camp, had long since disappeared, and he was now standing shirtless beside the bell tower.

He was in a hurry to return and warn others, and hadn't felt anything at first. But after hearing the lieutenant colonel's words, he suddenly felt a chill.

Winters raised his hand in salute and strode toward his tent.

……

White Lion couldn't hear Lieutenant Colonel Robert's "ruthless" assessment. Even if he could hear it, he would take it as a compliment.

When the alarm bells rang at the Bridge Forest camp, the riverside camp, as well as the camps on the South Highlands and North Highlands, were simultaneously attacked.

Requests for help and warnings poured in, and all sorts of intelligence reports came in quick succession.

"What's wrong with Yassin?" Arpad was furious and kicked a stool, smashing it. "What's the point of this little trick?"

The older you get, the more precious sleep becomes. Awakened in the middle of the night, Alpard's mood was also somewhat off.

Selek rubbed his forehead, his brow furrowed: "It's all a feint, just to distract us. The Heds' real attack must be elsewhere."

A messenger rushed into the command post, bringing with him a gust of cold wind.

"How reckless! What kind of behavior is this?" Arpad roared. "Get out of here and come back in!"

The messenger, holding his helmet, backed out and then came back in.

"Say!"

"Report from Beidaying: There is a fire in the northwest direction of Qiaolin!"

Sackler slammed his fist on the table: "Oh no!"

……

At first, it was a barely perceptible smoke, which only livestock could smell.

The horses were restless, their neighing echoing throughout the room.

However, the dry winter weather, coupled with the westerly winds, caused the fire to ignite very quickly.

When the troops of the Qiaolin camp set off, everyone could already see red light through the gaps in the tree trunks.

This fire was like cutting off the very source of the problem; the Paratites wanted to build a bridge, but the white lion burned all the trees.

Winters had never seen a forest fire before, and the scene was vastly different from the fire in Guido.

It wasn't the trees that caught fire first, but rather the bushes and dry grass in the forest that started burning.

Flames shot into the sky, climbing all the way to the treetop. The treetop was ablaze, but the trunk remained intact.

Flames spread through the tree canopy like red clouds floating on the ground.

The smoke visibly thickened and became increasingly pungent.

Lieutenant Colonel Robert, along with several officers including Winters, went to investigate the fire.

Even when the firelight was still faint, black ash could already be seen floating in the air.

They were still at least two miles from the fire, and the officers could not go any further.

A scorching heatwave hit us. The horse neighed, refusing to move no matter how much it was whipped.

Snakes, rabbits, deer... wild animals that are usually hard to find are now running towards humans like madmen.

The sounds from the fire were like the screams of ghosts, or like thousands of people tearing cloth together.

There were also loud "bang" sounds – the sound of fire burning wood and stones until they cracked.

“It wasn’t just a single spark.” Lieutenant Colonel Robert pulled on the reins, struggling to control the warhorse that was about to go out of control, and shouted to the others, “The barbarians probably set fires in multiple places at the same time, otherwise it would never have burned so quickly.”

Strong Luck remained relatively calm, only pacing back and forth with slight anxiety, which saved Winters a lot of trouble.

He covered his mouth and nose and shouted at the lieutenant colonel, because he couldn't be heard unless he shouted: "This fire can't be put out! We need to dig a firebreak immediately!"

"Withdraw first!" Lieutenant Colonel Robert turned his horse and rode away.

The other officers followed suit.

After retreating to a safe place, the officers dismounted and held a meeting.

Winters took out the map—a map drawn by Lieutenant Colonel Jessica.

When he took the map tube out of his pocket, the other officers stared wide-eyed.

The situation was urgent, and there was no time to go through the formalities of hierarchy.

Winters cast a spell of light and pointed to the map, explaining: "The logging teams have already cleared a lot of land and made roads in the forest. If we connect and widen the logging sites near the camp, we might be able to save some of the forest."

Without wasting any words, Lieutenant Colonel Robert slapped his thigh and said, "Let's do it!"

The lieutenant colonel then added an order: "Centurions, make your own judgments as the situation escalates. If things get really bad, retreat! Trees can still be used after a fire, but don't let people get hurt!"

The on-site commander gave the order, and the troops at the Qiaolin camp immediately sprang into action.

The efficiency of Plato's army was beyond question; each hundred-man squad carried tools and marched into the logging camp.

Following the orders passed down through the ranks, everyone took out wet towels and scarves to cover their mouths and noses and began digging the isolation zone.

The method of setting up firebreaks was something Winters learned from the fire in Guido.

He didn't know if it would work, but even if there was only a sliver of hope, he couldn't just stand by and watch the white lion burn the forest to the ground.

The warhorses were all taken to safety, and Winters walked through the forest on foot.

His voice was amplified by magic, even drowning out the noise of the forest: "Take away all the dry grass, branches, and pine cones! Leave nothing that can start a fire!"

When scouting the fire, Winters clearly saw that it wasn't the trees that caught fire first, but rather the dry branches and leaves on the ground.

More than 3,000 soldiers and militiamen were scattered in the forest and had almost lost unified command.

At this moment, the only thing they could rely on was the will and ability of the centurions.

The Paratul people should be grateful for two things: first, they have an extremely elite force of junior officers; second, the vegetation in this forest is very sparse.

Fate can be so cruel.

The trees on the wasteland don't grow very tall; you can only see dense primeval forests by heading south and north into the foothills.

The sparse vegetation and scarcity of usable timber in Qiaolin were a major headache for the Paratu people. However, this very "disadvantage" has now become an "advantage".

Not long after, reinforcements sent by the main camp arrived at the scene.

Upon discovering the fire in the bridge forest, Sackler immediately dispatched all his engineers and auxiliary troops, led by Colonel Bode, to provide support.

Colonel Bode also brought General Sackler's order: "Save them if you can."

"Bullshit!" Lieutenant Colonel Robert was also furious. "What do you mean 'can be saved'? Doesn't it mean they have to be saved no matter what?!"

With reinforcements and the original troops of the bridge camp, everyone went crazy and fought fiercely.

Trees, regardless of their size, were all felled and dragged away; even the turf on the ground was shoveled away.

Not only did they remove the turf, they even turned over the soil.

The fire has burned down to a line, and it's getting closer every second.

Winters' face was scorched by the heat, and the scarf covering his mouth and nose would dry in just a few minutes.

He sent people to the river to fetch water again and again, but the water was used up quickly and could not be supplied at all.

Two militiamen ran over and found the centurion.

Their faces were blackened by smoke, and Winters couldn't make out who they were at all.

It wasn't until one of them spoke that he recognized the voice as Ish, the Ish from Ganshui Town.

“Sir, this is old Lalo!” Ish said, pulling the militiaman beside him. “He’s from Good Spring Valley, he has a way!”

Winters felt a bitter taste in his mouth and had no energy for pleasantries: "Speak!"

The "old Lalo" that Ish had mentioned spoke up, sounding like a middle-aged man: "My lord, why not fight fire with fire!"

How to attack?

"Before the fire reaches us, let's light a fire and set it off! We'll fight fire with fire! But we'll have to wait until the firebreak is dug."

"The wind is blowing east!" Winters pointed to the sky. "If they set a fire, they'll burn us down first! How can we fight fire with fire?"

“That’s not how it is, sir,” old Lalo explained anxiously. “The wind in a fire is chaotic! It can even swirl! Fire can suck in the wind!”

Winters suddenly remembered the fire tornado in Guido City; a fire that gets big enough can indeed suck up air and disrupt the wind direction.

"Are you sure?" Winters stared at old Lalo.

Old Lalo lowered his head and said hesitantly, "No, I...I'm not sure."

“My lord, when he spoke to us, he made perfect sense,” Ish shouted, grabbing old Lalo. “With the centurion here! What are you afraid of!”

Winters gritted his teeth, grabbed old Lalo's shoulder, and said, "I'll take responsibility if anything goes wrong. Tell me everything you have to do! I'm going to find Lieutenant Colonel Robert."

As he spoke, Winters began to rummage through his pockets, but after searching his entire body, he found nothing of value.

Having no other choice, he could only make a wish: "I don't have any gold or silver on me. If your method works, I'll have Anglu pick out the best horse for you to take home."

……

The 20-meter-wide median strip, extending from south to north, is already taking shape.

Lieutenant Colonel Robert agreed to conduct a small-scale experiment with Winters' "fire against fire" technique.

This is a complete gamble; nobody knows if it will work, and everyone is on tenterhooks.

Outside the cordon controlled by Montagne's 100 team, Winters personally set off another fire.

Lamp oil, resin, and any accelerant the militia could find. Flames shot into the sky and began to spread eastward.

Everyone was on high alert as flames reached the bare firebreak.

People watched in terror as red embers flew from the sky toward them, fearing that the tree canopy would be ignited by the sparking ash.

With its eastward advance blocked, the new fire began to spread westward at an increasingly rapid pace.

Seeing that fighting fire with fire was effective, everyone cheered and their eyes, which had been dried out by the heat, couldn't stop the tears from flowing.

Behind the thick smoke, out of sight, two lines of fire collided violently, burning everything in their path to ashes—including themselves.

……

……

The fire burned all night.

The next morning, the leaders of Hart's tribes came to observe the enemy.

The woodland was still shrouded in smoke and dust, the trees were burned bare, and some dark red embers could still be seen on the burned ground.

The white lion pondered, remaining silent.

"White Lion, it seems you've burned them all to death," the Blackwater chieftain said with a fawning tone.

The Blackwater tribe suffered heavy losses, and its chieftain is now a staunch supporter of the White Lions.

“Thank you for your kind words, Shortbow. I hope so too.” White Lion still showed the Blackwater chieftain the same respect as always: “However, I’m afraid it won’t be that easy.”

Paratu's scouts spotted the group of enemies on a nearby hillside and quickly ran back to report.

"Let's go, we should head back." The white lion gently spurred his warhorse. "Just take a look around, no need for the Paratu people to see us off."

A short while later, Paratu's scouts led a black-armored cavalryman out of the smoke-shrouded forest.

The two personal guards accompanying the tribal leaders drew their spears to fight, but were successively cut down by the black-armored cavalryman.

The black-armored cavalryman ran to the adjacent hill and shouted a few words to the tribal leaders.

Before the other guards could surround him, the black-armored cavalryman had already left laughing.

"What did he say, little lion?" the fire-gatherer asked.

"Trying to burn us alive?" The little lion stared at the retreating figure of the heavily armored cavalryman, translating expressionlessly, "Go to hell."

……

Bad news: Two-thirds of the bridge forest was burned down.

Good news: There is still one-third of Qiaolin left.

And another piece of good news: some of the fire-damaged wood still has value, especially the large-diameter pieces. The white lion inadvertently helped the Paratul people with the selection of timber.

“Misfortune may be a blessing in disguise. A blessing may be a misfortune in disguise.” Brother Reid stroked his beard and smiled: “The ancients were right.”

[In this volume, although Winters is still a centurion, he often commands thousands or even more troops, which are invaluable experiences. In Venetia, there was a great tree to shelter him. In Plato, he had to grow on his own.]
Generally speaking, an army with poor organization will collapse without even trying to fight a fire, let alone put it out.

The troops in the Qiaolin Camp were superior in two ways: firstly, they discovered the fire very early, and secondly, they were a highly organized standing army, a level above feudal troops.

Some readers have previously mentioned that having only one centurion in a hundred-man squad is too few. In fact, for armies in the feudal era and the Renaissance, that was already a lot.

According to the Spanish phalanx organization, a Cap (originally referring to a captain, later evolving into a lieutenant rank) was to lead 250 soldiers.

For a long time, officers were exclusively held by nobles. As far as I can recall, the promotion of ordinary soldiers to officers didn't happen until Cromwell's Model Army.

In battle, the Roman army could send out separate hundred-man squads to carry out tactical tasks, such as flanking attacks.

However, in the Middle Ages, armies rarely exhibited this kind of nimble dexterity.

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(End of this chapter)