Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 563 Siege (XV)

[Margit Island]

In the outpost at the southern end of the coastal defense position, the sentry was slacking off.

For this young man who had never left the mountain front before, the dark night in the country of galloping horses made him terrified, and only the cramped trenches could give him a little sense of security.

The small space, the slightly warm felt blanket, and the deep fatigue made him yawn frequently.

Just when the sentry was half asleep, a low crashing sound suddenly came from the direction of the water fence.

The sentry woke up instantly, quickly pulled out a whistle from his clothes, puffed up his cheeks and was about to blow it.

But just before giving the warning, he was more careful, held his breath, quietly poked his head out of the trench and took a look.

The river was pitch black and completely silent.

The sentry finally let out a long sigh, and only then did he realize that he had broken out in a cold sweat.

"Water bird?" the sentry speculated.

Just as he was hesitating whether to go out and take a look, two muffled sounds came from the upstream and downstream directions of the river.

This time, the sentry heard it clearly - the sound was muffled and heavy, definitely not the noise made by wild ducks.

But he hesitated and still did not blow the whistle to warn.

Because once the whistle blows, the whole island will wake up.

In order to ambush the rebels, the sentry and his comrades had been working until most of the night and finally got some time to rest. At this moment, the others had probably just closed their eyes.

If you pull everyone out of their bedding at this time, and then find out that you are just making a fuss, even if your superiors don't punish you, you will inevitably be blamed by your companions.

Besides, there are all kinds of situations on night duty. Although the night is quiet, it is not completely silent.

In addition to the noise interference from the natural environment, during this period, the rebels would also float logs down from upstream in the middle of the night to harass the soldiers guarding the island.

Therefore, if there was any sign of trouble, they would blow the whistle to warn others, but they fell into the trap of the rebels.

Thinking of this, the sentry picked up his whistle and decided to find the officer on night duty first.

Soon, the officer on duty followed the sentry to the outpost, but it was dark at night and he could not see the situation on the water surface clearly while standing in the trench.

"Lights," the lieutenant on duty gave a brief order.

The sentry took out the flint and steel, and after a few crisp strikes, the warm, bright yellow flame filled the sentry post.

The sentry put the lampshade back on, and the outpost was once again engulfed in darkness - in order not to expose themselves, the military lanterns issued by the Federal Army all had a special lampshade that could adjust the brightness.

The sentry put away his flint and steel and prepared to go out to find out what was going on.

But the officer on duty took up the lantern before him.

"You stay here," the officer on duty said with all his heart, "If anything happens, call the police."

After saying this, the lieutenant on duty climbed out of the trench.

After leaving the post, the lieutenant on duty did not turn on the lampshade immediately. He went down to the river beach in the dark, waded through the water for a distance, and came to the water fence.

Then, he opened a small gap in the airtight lampshade and searched carefully along the water fence.

Soon, the lieutenant on duty found what he was looking for: a raft hanging on a water fence.

The muffled sound the sentry heard just now should be the sound of the raft hitting the sharp wooden stakes.

At a glance from a distance, the young lieutenant determined that the raft came from the rebels.

Because only the rebels who lack boats and oars would use simple rafts to sail on the Ten Arrow River.

As the lieutenant inspected it more closely, he became more certain: the raft hanging from the fence was made of logs and barrels tied together, the same type the rebels used to smuggle supplies into Fort Bishop every night.

It's just that it's painted all black, no wonder it's completely invisible in the sentry post.

In addition, compared to the raft captured before, this time, the rebels' raft had an extra mast, on which was hung a hard sail that was also dyed black.

The lieutenant then remembered that the wind was blowing from the northwest tonight, while it had been blowing from the northeast the past few nights.

It seems that the rebels used the power of the wind to allow the raft to drift silently to the island.

The lieutenant recalled that the sentry reported hearing three muffled sounds.

He looked around, but unfortunately he couldn't see anything clearly.

Just as the lieutenant was considering whether to call someone to move the raft now or wait until dawn to deal with it, he suddenly discovered that the rebels' raft seemed to be "hanging" unusually firmly on the water fence.

In the past, the rebels' rafts were pushed by the current and loosely leaned against the water fence. They could be pushed downstream by simply pushing outward with a wooden stick.

This time, the dark raft clung to the sharp wooden stakes and did not move at all despite the waves beating against it.

He bent down to take a closer look and finally found out the reason - the raft used by the rebels this time had an extra circle of shiny steel nails on the edge compared to the previous rafts.

The young lieutenant was stunned for a moment, and suddenly realized that the rebels wanted to nail these black rafts firmly on the sharp wooden stakes.

Several terrible possibilities immediately popped up in his mind. He turned his head and wanted to warn, but it was too late.

Right in front of the young lieutenant, the pitch-black raft burst into deathly fireworks and exploded with a loud bang.

The flames engulfed the lieutenant, strangling his screams in his throat. The shock wave tore the lieutenant's body apart, throwing his remains and tons of river water into the sky.

Even the sentries in the trenches were knocked over by the gust of wind.

Then, drops of water carrying pieces of meat and wood chips fell into the trench, just like a rain.

There was no need for a warning, as everyone on Margit Island was awakened by a deafening explosion.

Even citizens and soldiers as far away as the Castle of the Kings heard the thunder coming from upstream.

Even the officers and soldiers of Tiefeng County who were lying in ambush behind the river bank could smell the smoke and sulfur coming towards them, like the breath of hell.

In the fortifications on the river bank, Mason, who had been staring at the Newlon clock in his hand and praying desperately that the delay device would not fail, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh my god! What a powerful force!" The battle-hardened Geisa Adonis was shocked by the noise Mason made. "Major, how much gunpowder did you use?"

Mason felt a little ashamed. "I don't know what the effect of underwater explosion will be, and there is no time for experiment. Just in case, I just use a little more... If all three delay devices fail, it will be a big loss."

"Failure? Didn't it explode loudly?" Gesar laughed. "You did a good job, Major. I think after this battle, your rank will be higher than that of the Veneta kid."

Mason felt even more ashamed. "Actually... there was still a problem... the explosion happened much later than expected... the delay device is still too unreliable. I thought at least one of the three would work, but now it seems that it was just luck that one of the three worked..."

"Alright," Geisa waved his hand, "Stop being so shy. There is only success or failure on the battlefield, not luck. Send the signal and send the fleet out."

"Yes." Mason raised his hand and saluted.

On the river bank, the beacon fire that had been prepared long ago was immediately lit.

But in fact, there was no need to send a signal. The earth-shaking explosion was the clearest command.

……

  [Upstream of the Ten Arrow River, far away]

As soon as Samujin heard the muffled thunder in the distance, he rushed onto the deck.

"Drum!" he shouted. "Anchor!"

The deafening sound of war drums rang out across the river.

"Weigh anchor!" "Weigh anchor!"

"Weigh anchor!"

  The voices of officers on each ship repeating their orders echoed across the water.

The seven warships converted from flat-bottomed barges from Tiefeng County - the only water force of the newly formed army - no longer hid their heads and tails.

The sailors shouted slogans and turned the capstan. With the sound of teeth-grinding wood groaning, the rusty iron anchor floated to the surface.

Oars stretched out from the oar holes on both sides of the ship and began to hit the water.

Amid the sound of drums that encouraged people to row hard, the first batch of "navy" of the Republic of Palatine sailed downstream and headed towards Margit Island in a mighty manner.

On the leading warship, the commander of the fifth battalion, Lannis, walked onto the deck and stood side by side with Samukin.

……

At the same time, on the west bank of the Ten Arrow River, a deafening war roar also broke out.

A short figure jumped out of the river bank and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Fight for - Blood Wolf!"

  Countless people responded with the same high-pitched voice, as if they were shouting on the riverbank:

"Uukhai!"

"Uukhai!!"

"Uukhai!!!"

The short figure picked up a sampan from the ground and rushed to the other side of the river first.

Behind him, as if appearing out of thin air, hundreds of soldiers carrying longboats, small boats and sampans rushed down the river bank and rowed hard to the other side of the river.

……

Geisa, who was personally supervising the battle on the front line, heard the battle cry of the 1st Battalion of the Tiefeng County Regiment and groaned in anger, "You can still shout like this even though the troops are not here?"

"Well, we're used to it. It's hard to change it in a short time," Mason tried to smooth things over. "Next time I'll ask them to shout 'Fight for the Republic' instead."

"What's there to change?" Geisa said, with a half-smile, "As long as we can take over Margit Island, you can shout whatever you want in the future."

……

Margit Island is neither near nor far.

To the people on the shore, the Tiefeng County boats seemed worryingly slow.

But to the Tiefeng County soldiers who had been holding back for several days, they were approaching the other side of the river incredibly quickly.

The "horse blocking stakes" defense line that the Federals had inserted on the shallows had been blown open, leaving a gap four or five meters wide.

Although the horse-blocking stakes around the gap were not uprooted, they were blown to pieces like dog teeth, toppling over and over.

The short figure, with a "boat" leading the way, rushed straight into the gap, landed on the beach, then jumped into the trench and disappeared.

Inspired by the "Centurion", other soldiers in small boats and sampans also roared and rushed towards the river bank.

The only few large boats on the river always kept a considerable distance from the gap created by the blasting ship.

And all the large boats were concentrated on the right wing of the battle line, which is the south side.

One reason is that the large boat has a wide hull and a deep draft. If there are broken wooden piles under the water surface of the gap, the large boat will get stuck in the gap when trying to pass through.

Secondly, the tribune of Mason assigned more important tasks to the few large boats available.

Behind each large boat, there was a cable towing.

In order to prevent the small boats from being capsized by the cables, the long boats were placed at both ends of the battle line.

On the longboat, the sergeant in charge of steering the ship had to be careful not to scratch other small boats, while also being wary of being scratched by the cables towing other longboats. The task was arduous, so each one was carefully selected.

Even within Tiefeng County, there were not enough people, so Mason had to borrow some personnel who were good at ship operation from other infantry regiments.

Therefore, the large boat, which should be faster, actually crosses the river slower than the small boat.

The short figure in the lead had already charged into the federalist's trenches, and the slow-moving large boat finally reached the other side of the river.

But when the large boat approached the horse barrier, they immediately became active and began to destroy the horse barrier south of the blasting point.

The soldiers standing at the bow finally got the chance to show their skills. They stood on the swaying boat and threw lassoes accurately at the wooden stakes.

When they threw it, they held two ropes in their hands.

When all the lassoes were thrown, they quickly tied the lassoes on two adjacent horse-blocking posts together, then tied one end of the connected lasso to the cable towing the longboat and the other end to the longboat.

When all this was done, the sergeant in the longboat tore off the shade of the stern lantern.

On the west bank of the river, Tamas finally waited for the agreed signal.

"Turn!" Tamas shouted. "Boys! Turn!"

Behind the riverbank, out of sight of the island's defenders, the capstan that Woods Frank had spent several days building began to exert its power.

The soldiers from Tiefeng County and Baishan County raised their whips high, hardened their hearts, and hit the bull on the capstan hard.

The cows took heavy steps, and the huge capstan turned slowly.

The thick cable first slid on the ground like a python, and made continuous crackling sounds.

At a certain moment, the cable suddenly became taut, and a slightly bent "stick" jumped out of the water.

One end of the stick was tied to the pulley on the river bank, and the other end of the stick was tied to a sharp wooden stake that the people of the United Provinces had driven into the riverbed.

In the face of the power amplified by gears and levers, the wooden stakes and chains that the people of the Federation were so proud of were simply not enough.

Dozens of wooden stakes were pulled out of the shallows one by one by the winch on the other side of the river, just like pulling out carrots.

Seeing that the plan was working, the soldiers on the longboat cheered enthusiastically.

"Next! Next!" Tamas on the riverbank shouted anxiously, "Cut the chain! Cut the chain!"

The soldiers on the other side of the river seemed to have heard the shouts of the acting commander, or perhaps they remembered their duties.

After a brief celebration, the second large boat came up and began to repeat the previous round of operations.

At the same time, engineers on each large boat jumped into the water with axes on their backs, chopping the chains that had not been blown off.

On the other side, the soldiers of the Second Battalion also transported buoyancy boxes, sheepskin rafts, sealed wooden barrels and other building materials down the river bank.

They tied cables to stones and threw them into the river to use as anchors to fix floating objects such as pontoons and sheepskin rafts.

Then use wooden boards and iron nails to connect the various floats.

A simple floating bridge began to extend to the other side of the river at a speed visible to the naked eye.

……

On the other side, on Margit Island, Lieutenant Colonel Raymond Montecuccoli, who rushed to the scene for the first time, was horrified to find that the situation on Margit Island was already precarious just as the war began.

He had to make a decision immediately.

  　[In the new week, I give myself a song called "A New Man"]

　　[The Ottomans used the winch to pull the wood stakes once on the island of Malta. And during the Great Siege of Malta, the Ottomans also replicated the land boating. The scale and efficiency of this land boating were even greater than the one in Constantinople. However, the outcome of the Great Siege of Malta was the opposite of the outcome of Constantinople in 1453. The Ottomans suffered a great defeat, so this land boating was not recorded in history.]

　　[Thanks to all the book lovers for their collections, readings, subscriptions, recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, rewards and comments. Thank you all]

　　(End of this chapter)