Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 88 Fortress
The gun emplacement at the entrance to Chiliu Bay is located on the west bank of the bay, while a small fortress sits on the east bank of the bay, facing the gun emplacement across the sea.

The two ends of the iron chain at the entrance of Chiliu Bay are fixed at the gun emplacement and the watchtower, respectively.

The structure of this fortress is very simple; it is simply a square formed by four rammed earth walls. The square fortress is more than ten meters wide at the base and the walls are a little over six meters high, roughly the height of a two-story building.

In the old-fashioned defense system, this fortress was utterly insignificant, consisting of nothing more than four earthen walls. It wasn't steep enough, nor high enough, and there weren't even any firing holes on the parapets.

In the defense systems of the new era, such fortifications that have blind spots, lack artillery, and rely solely on high defensive capabilities are outdated.

However, for Winters' light infantry, who lacked siege tactics, this fortress remained a tough nut to crack.

On the top of the fortress, the Tanilian sentries were also drowsy. To prevent the enemy from sneaking up from the woods, the trees within thirty meters of the fortress had long been cleared. Under the bright moonlight, nothing could hide.

For the Tanirians defending this fortress, the excitement and tension of ambushing the Venetians had long since dissipated; all they had to do in this war was the tedious task of standing guard, standing guard, and standing guard.

Several muffled thuds sounded, startling the half-asleep sentry awake. He shivered, held his breath, and listened intently for several more muffled thuds.

This time, he was certain he wasn't hallucinating; the sound was coming from beneath his feet, neither too close nor too far.

The sentry drew his sword, tiptoed to the parapet, and cautiously peered down.

He had just poked his head out when a dark hand suddenly reached out from outside the wall and grabbed his collar. The next moment, the sentry felt a strong force coming from his neck, dragging him directly over the wall.

The sentry screamed and fell headfirst off the high wall, breaking his neck and dying.

Immediately afterwards, two Hed men, their heads shaved, naked, and covered from head to toe in ashes and mud, scaled the parapet. To conceal themselves in the darkness, they wore nothing that could reflect light, and even their only weapon, a short sword, was baked to a matte black.

Winters led the remaining men to lie in ambush at the edge of the woods, watching the movements of the two Hurds. These two were warriors chosen by Herstace from all the Hurds, the most skilled climbers.

No Venetian could climb a six-meter-high wall by hand, not even a rammed earth wall. But the only way for the remnants and slaves, lacking siege weapons, to storm the fortress was to send men in to sneak in and open the gate.

Winters watched silently as two ghostly Hed men approached the fortress and began to climb. At that moment, even Winters, an atheist, suddenly felt the urge to pray.

But he still heard the sounds he least wanted to hear: screams and the sound of someone falling to the ground. He didn't know if the sounds came from the Heds or the Tanirians; both Heds had already disappeared from Winters' sight.

"We've been discovered! Change to the backup plan!" In the silent night, the scream could be clearly heard even by Winters, who was more than thirty meters away, let alone the garrison inside the fortress. Seeing that the sneak attack had failed, Winters immediately ordered, "Follow me! Even if we all die here, we must destroy these chains!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Winters stepped forward from the crowd, carrying the spellcaster's equipment, and strode towards the shore. The others hesitated for a moment, then immediately followed him out of the woods.

Everyone started running, turning the night raid into a full-scale attack, so there was no need to tiptoe anymore.

The fortress is located on a high ground on the coast, with the ends of iron chains fixed inside the fortress and extending from holes in the fortress wall all the way to the water.

Unlike the fortress in the middle of the bay, this bunker was less than ten meters from the sea, and the entire shore section of the iron chain was within range of the bunker's projectiles. Destroying the chain under the noses of the defenders without being detected was an impossible task.

But the plan to capture the fortress had failed, so they had no choice but to proceed by force.

However, something unexpected happened: a bright line first appeared through the gate of the fortress, and as the line widened, the gate slowly opened.

Winters saw the door open a crack, and without thinking, he waved and shouted, "Break the door!"

The door opened with difficulty, less than a meter wide, and the people inside screamed and tried to close it again, but it seemed to be stuck by something.

Thirty meters was just a few steps away. Winters drew his sword and, with a roar, leaped through the gap between the two wooden doors of the fortress.

Inside the door were six or seven Tanilian soldiers, who were startled when a figure flashed in. But Winters, who had experienced many life-or-death battles, gave them no time to react, ruthlessly hacking at the enemies around him.

The Tanilian soldiers didn't realize what had happened until Winters nearly cleaved a Tanilian in two.

They shouted and stabbed Winters with their knives and guns. Winters tried to draw his knife to parry, but his scimitar got stuck in the bones of the corpse and he couldn't pull it out.

Winters is no longer the naive young man he was when he first left military school; he has been forged in iron and blood.

Upon discovering that his scimitar was stuck, Winters didn't hesitate to abandon it and retreat. At the same time, he cleared his mind of all distractions and entered a spellcasting state.

The next moment, a gunpowder flask on a Tanilian soldier suddenly exploded. The force of the explosion not only blew a large hole in the soldier's waist, but also injured the soldiers around him, and even Winters was pushed against the gate by the blast wave.

This was Winters' first original spell, an improvement upon "Axel's Hair Burning Spell." During the battle on the day of the landing, Winters realized that since the fire spell could ignite an enemy's hair, it could also detonate the gunpowder on their body. After several attempts, he found the spell surprisingly effective.

A whole jug of gunpowder was detonated, like a bomb being dropped into a narrow doorway. Smoke filled the doorway, and blood, chunks of flesh, and intestinal contents splattered everywhere on the walls and floor. Those who were still alive screamed in agony, their voices utterly horrifying.

The blast wave struck Winters' chest like a hammer blow, making his chest feel tight. But he struggled to his feet, spitting out a piece of flesh that had flown into his mouth, picked up a spear from beside him, and stepped back into the smoke and fire.

Only then did the other Venetians and Hurds catch up with Winters. The Venetian soldiers and Hurd slaves who rushed into the fortress gates were trembling with fear at the horrific scene before them, and no one dared to step into the corridor of flesh and blood.

"Damn it! What are you standing there for? Kill!" Bard snapped out of his daze, swore for the first time in his life, and charged into the fortress with his scimitar.

With an officer leading the way, the others mustered their courage and charged into the fortress, shouting as they entered.

The fortress had only a dozen or so guards, half of whom were wiped out by Winters in the gate. The remaining guards lost all will to fight and hid in a dark, secluded corner, trembling with fear. But in the end, they were all found by Winters' men.

The surviving Tanirian soldiers were dragged from cabinets, baskets, and warehouses and pushed onto the open ground in the center of the fortress. Some wept and begged, while others closed their eyes and began to pray.

The Venetian soldiers and the Hed surrounded the prisoners.

“We don’t have enough manpower to guard them, kill them all.” Winters ordered the execution of the prisoners without expression. He found a clean towel and was wiping the blood off his face.

The Heds couldn't understand what Winters was saying, and the Venetta soldiers were at a loss.

Seeing this, Winters didn't say much. He grabbed a spear, walked to the prisoners, and said through gritted teeth, "These are the soldiers who were nailed to the stake for me... I haven't forgotten a single one." After saying that, he cleanly and swiftly stabbed one of the prisoners to death.

The other prisoners scrambled to escape, but were pushed back by the Venetians and Heds nearby.

Bard, expressionless, grabbed a prisoner by the hair, plunged his scimitar through the collarbone, and executed the prisoner.

Two officers took the lead, and the other soldiers gritted their teeth and attacked the remaining prisoners. There were no more Tanirians alive in the fortress.

“Two of our men were wounded, but not dead. None of the Heds were killed either… except for those two.” Bard and Winters reported on the casualties: “One of them risked his life to open the gate, and the other destroyed the alarm bell… If it weren’t for them, we’d be sitting on the shore getting shot right now.”

Winters, with his back to Bard, said nothing, but was loading the musket he had found in the fortress.

"Time's almost up. Hurry up and head to the beach with the signal flare. You don't need to do the rest." Winters said without turning his head, "If we're both gone, who will deliver the message to the legion commander? Go now."

Bard sighed, but didn't leave.

Winters sighed, put down his musket, turned around and said helplessly, "I know killing prisoners is wrong, but if I had to do it again, I would still do it."

“I’m not against you executing prisoners; we simply don’t have the manpower to guard them,” Bard said sincerely. “I just hope you won’t be so fixated on revenge, and that you won’t take the blame for the Hundred’s demise on yourself.”

Winters didn't say anything.

Bud stood at attention and saluted, and Winters stood up and solemnly returned the salute. Bud then turned and left.

Bud led two Venetta soldiers away from the fortress and headed towards the beach to the south.

Winters used up the remaining materials for the Iron Melting spell in one go, and the iron chain spanning the entrance to the bay was cut on the east shore and sank to the bottom of the sea.

Winters met the Hed warrior who had risked his life to open the gate. He finally understood why the Tanirians had failed to close the gate: the Hed had used his body to jam the hinges.

His people removed his body and laid it flat on the ground. There were three knife wounds on the abdomen, and half of his body was almost crushed.

Winters saluted the corpse of the Hed, and the Venetta soldiers followed suit.

“There’s no need to grieve for him. He is already waiting for us on the banks of the River Styx,” Herstas said calmly. “He went to the River Styx as a free man, and we will go to him as free men.”

The old shaman squatted beside the corpse, placed a silver coin in the deceased's palm, and began to sing a soothing song for the souls of the Hed people.

Amidst the low chorus of the Heds, Winters led the remaining soldiers and Heds out of the fortress and toward the gun emplacements in the middle of the bay.

Although the Tanirians failed to wipe out Veneta's revenge fleet in the ambush a few days ago, they did have an unexpected gain.

One naval tactic is blockade, which involves scuttling ships to block the entry and exit channels of an enemy port, thus trapping the enemy fleet inside the port.

Blockade tactics can prevent ships inside the port from leaving, but they can also prevent ships outside the port from entering.

The three sunken Venetia warships lay across the bay channel, forming an artificial reef. Even without the sea-blocking iron chains, ships passing over this reef would have their hulls damaged, or even capsize and sink.

This is why the Chiliu Island Council considered Chiliu Bay impregnable. Even without these two iron chains blocking the sea, the shipwreck reefs alone, combined with the two gun emplacements, would be enough to hold off the Venetians.

If Veneta stubbornly forces his way through and loses several more warships, it will actually block the bay completely.

However, tonight is different from usual.

A nearly full moon hung in the sky, thwarting Winters' surprise attack. But she would also compensate the Venetians in her own way.

Tonight is the 17th of the lunar calendar, a spring tide!
From nightfall, the tides in Chilifu Bay begin to rise. According to Bader's calculations, the tides will reach their highest point of the month between 1 and 2 a.m.

By then, even sunken ships and reefs will no longer be able to hinder the Venetian warships. Once the two sea-blocking iron chains are destroyed, the Venetian warships will sail straight in and storm Red Sulfur Harbor.

Kalman claimed he could get Winters off Chilu Island via a smuggler's secret route, and he could send two people out at a time.

But Kalman told Winters that it was only to undermine the unity of the Venetians from within. He never expected that Winters would use this smuggling route to make contact with the Venetian fleet.

Once the fleet, which was already poised to strike in the open sea, received Bard's signal, it would immediately rush into Chiliu Bay.

Winters can now find a safe place to hide and wait for the Venetian army to capture Red Rime Harbor before returning to his unit. His mission is complete; the original plan was for him to destroy only two iron chains.

But he knew there was one more thing he could do—destroy the cannons in the fortifications on the east bank.

Chiliu Bay was guarded by two gun emplacements: the western emplacement guarded the entrance to the bay, and the eastern emplacement guarded the middle section of the bay.

He couldn't reach the fortifications on the west bank, but if he could destroy the fortifications on the east bank, many fewer Venetians would die.

Winters himself didn't know what was driving him. It wasn't for military achievements or a sense of honor; this war held no honor for him anymore.

After much thought, he could only convince himself with one sentence: "If we can destroy those cannons, many fewer Venetians will die."

Perhaps he simply didn't want to see the Venetians' corpses anymore.

"Our target is the artillery fortifications on the east bank." Warrant Officer Winters Montagne, the centurion of the chief battalion, gave a pre-battle pep talk to the last soldiers of the Hundred Men's Squad: "We are outnumbered by the enemy, and our only hope for victory is to launch a fierce attack, break in before the enemy can react, destroy those cannons, and then withdraw immediately."

“You have done so much for Veneta, but we must fight for Veneta once more.” He surveyed the soldiers who had followed him through countless battles on Red Iwo Jima. In the bright moonlight, their eyes shone. He said no more, drawing his scimitar: “Follow me!”

Ahead lies the artillery fortification of Chiliu Island.

(End of this chapter)