Warlords of the witcher world

Chapter 113 Nilfgaard's "Cannon"

After Herme returned to his tent, he quickly forgot about this little episode of inspection.

As the commander-in-chief of this huge army, he had a lot of things to deal with, so naturally he quickly forgot about such "little things".

As time progresses, the siege equipment has been completed, and when the siege equipment is completed, it also means that the siege is about to start.

Then, the Lord Protector set the day for the siege to be breakfast, the moment when the morning fog dissipated, and that moment came soon.

The orderly on horseback ran past rows of neatly arranged soldiers, and the soldiers seemed to be very excited, wanting to rush to the battlefield to make contributions.

Everyone has learned that the number of enemy troops in Sintra City is at most [-]. With such a small number of defenders, they can take this city no matter what.

The glory of conquering Sintra made many soldiers extremely excited. This is Sintra, the place where the Nada massacre took place, the place where the Northern War started, and the northern kingdom that fell the first time.

They were thrilled at the thought of freeing Cintra from the Nilfgaardians.

The most fanatical group of Skellige fighters, they have been fighting for Cintra for five full years.

How could it not drive the Skelliges into a frenzy now that the city that had led them to such a long war was about to be retaken by them.

"Our army is strong, Lord Protector." Riding his horse and running past a group of spearmen who were on standby, Valentine said, "It is only a matter of time before we want to take down Sintra, and we have a good chance of winning this battle."

"Don't boast before the outcome of the war comes out."

Herme was not happy with Valentine's little flattery, but said a few words to him instead.

Valentine was not annoyed either, he had to go through all kinds of things around the Duke Protector.

And it's not annoying if you don't take care of the Duke, right?
Then he galloped past a troop of Lyrian riders, and these eagle-patterned soldiers kept cheering the Lord Protector.

After this period of war, many people were almost [-]% convinced of the Lord Protector.

Soon, Herme came to his main battle with King Bran, passed through Aedirn and Skellige guards, and Herme saw Skellige King Bran, where the old king was looking at the previous map of Sintra .

However, he put away the map the next moment and threw it to the followers around him.

"This city has changed a lot." King Bran said, the look of memory appeared in his eyes again, "I compared it again, and the Nilfgaardians have completely changed the city, probably only the core The castle is still the same as it used to be."

Herme didn't say anything. In fact, King Bran had already talked to him about these things, and he pointed this out at that time.

It's just that King Bran has never given up, and always compares the old map with the current Sintra, even on the eve of the war.

"The transformation of the Nilfgaardians has made this city stronger. Both Abelard and Durban told me that the magic protection here is stronger than before, and it is impossible to break into it by magic. "

Herme looked at Sintra, and saw that every wall was covered with the reflection of spears, but Herme knew that many of the spears above were held by dummies.

The immobility of the spears of the nomadic riders who had been probing the city, wandering and shooting very close to the city walls, certainly explained what was going on.

"That's why you need your artillery, right?" King Bran helped Herme say the second half of the sentence, "Alright, I have been fighting at sea all the time, and I haven't seen the artillery that has been making a lot of noise recently. I'll get to know you."

Subconsciously, King Bran looked at the artillery positions at the forefront of the army formation, his eyes full of anticipation and curiosity.

"Of course, Your Majesty Bran, the shooting is about to begin."

Herme looked at her pocket watch and said after confirming the time.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

And just as he finished speaking, the artillery had already started roaring, and then Bran saw a flash of fire on the artillery position, and then a dozen shells smashed into the city.

The stone ball hit the city wall of Sintra, and it was a piece of debris flying across. There were even shells that directly wiped out the battlements, smashing them together with the soldiers hiding behind.

However, the effect of the bombardment on the city wall was not obvious. It looked huge, but in fact it only left a shallow hole in the wall.

This made Herme frowned involuntarily, but she was not surprised.

Sintra is the most important stronghold for Nilfgaard going north. It is not a strange thing that the city wall has this level of defense. If it does not reach this level of defense, it will be a strange thing.

On the other hand, King Bran's eyes were full of satisfaction. The first time he saw the artillery, it was impossible for him to be picky about power like Herme. He was very satisfied with the power and power displayed by the artillery.

But...it would be nice if it was smaller, the current artillery is still too heavy, it would be great if it was smaller so that it could be used on a ship.

King Bran has always wanted to solve the problem of the lack of siege capabilities of the Skellige fleet, but unfortunately he has not found a way.

For the Skelliges who value speed and surprise, it takes too much time to build siege equipment on the spot, and it is easy to be blocked by enemies coming to support from all directions.

If you carry siege equipment, you can't bring more people, and you can only bring light equipment, which is not cost-effective at all.

King Bran thought that after the battle of Sintra was over, he would chat with the Lord Protector and see if Wengerburg could come up with something that the archipelago needed.

If you can't get it out, then you can only let the artisan family that ruled Ukeville Island do your own research. The artisans just can't make cannons, and it shouldn't be a big problem to make smaller ones.

After this war is over, Skellige's plunder of Nilfgaard will not end, so they need more powerful siege machines.

As for money, that's not an issue at all.

The plunder of Nilfgaard made the islanders earn a lot of money, and the war leaders of various families were happy to spend the money to buy powerful weapons.

With artillery, many small cities that they can't do anything about are not a problem. As for those big cities, if they operate well, they may be able to take them down.

And King Bran knows that the appearance of artillery may have a huge impact on the form of naval warfare.

His son Svanrigi was the first to think of this. After he explained to Bran the possible impact of putting the cannon on the city wall, King Bran has attached great importance to the cannon since then.

He knows his son Bran best. Although on the surface, he is a cowardly boy who will only obey his mother in everything, but in fact, he has a lot of ideas.

It is also for this reason that King Bran never intended to use power to make his son inherit the throne as her wife from the mainland thought.

Because he knew that this kid, Svanrigi, was capable of ascending to the throne by himself.

As for artillery, the navy, as the foundation of the Skelliges, must pay attention to this outlet

In fact, Lord Bran has ordered the islanders to focus on capturing artisans in their latest raids.

The artillery continued to bombard the city walls of Sintra. As long as the shells hit the battlements, the battlements and the Nilfgaardian soldiers behind them would be smashed to pieces.

Under the continuous suppression of such firepower, the Nilfgaardians were forced to stay away from the city wall, and this was the opportunity that Herme was waiting for.

"Let's attack the city."

The melodious horn sounded with the order of the Lord Protector, and the long-awaited northerners began to attack.

The Skelliges were the fastest group of people to rush forward. The islanders were divided into teams according to their respective families, carrying ladders and pushing shield carts, and rushed up quickly.

They were still chanting all kinds of war slogans, some of them were even shirtless, and the one who stood out was that they were not afraid of death.

The contradictions among the families of the Skelliger Islands were also reflected in such an impact. For example, between the Quite family and the Drummond family, they were afraid that they would be slower than their opponents, which would lead to their own disadvantage.

(That's Quite and Crazy Lugo, who have been having territorial disputes.)
Interestingly, a group of people in the islands still held something wrapped in black cloth, and these people had the symbol of the Tursek family on their bodies.

It was round and round, and Herme once asked the islanders what it was, but they only said it was a secret weapon.

In contrast, Hermey's foot cavalry had a lot of discipline in moving forward. Although they were not slow, they would hold up their shields to cover each other and move forward, avoiding being shot to death by arrows and muskets on the city wall as much as possible. .

In the eyes of the islanders, this is too effeminate.

But the main point is not here. The main point lies in those Weilang people who are pushing the artillery forward. Gasroga is now leading his people to push the artillery to the front line.

A total of eight artillery pieces will be sent to the front line. They are prepared from the beginning, so they will not affect the suppression of Sintra by the artillery positions.

The Nilfgaardians naturally noticed the enemy's advance, so many brave men in black poked their heads out from behind the battlements, shooting at the enemies below with crossbows and muskets.

Their attack killed several archipelagos who rushed to the front, but the archipelagos were not afraid at all, and continued to charge forward with their shields held high.

And the Nilfgaardians who did this were then baptized by artillery. After the arrival of the shells that hit the city wall or flew over their heads, they retracted their heads again.

Only those shooting ports set up on the city walls and towers can continue to shoot. This firepower is just a drop in the bucket when facing the flood of northerners.

The soldiers of Skellige quickly came to the moat. They quickly put the specially prepared ladders on it, and then carried the ladders to the city.

The first batch of Skellige soldiers who climbed the city wall were holding the things wrapped in black cloth in their hands. After climbing a certain height, they threw these things up directly.

Just when Herme was wondering what the islanders were doing, he suddenly saw Nilfgaardian exclamations and screams coming from the city walls where the black cloth was thrown.

King Bran laughed heartily at this sight, and so did his guards.

Only Hermi remained there with a puzzled expression on his face, and then King Bran explained what was going on,

"It's just a little siege skill, you can use it occasionally, not often. Before the battle, I ordered my men to collect honeycombs, and then smear these honeycombs with mud and put them in black cloth. When you attack the city, use this thing Throwing it up is enough to make the people of Nilfgaard overwhelmed, haha, those men in black probably never thought that the first thing they would fight with them would be a swarm of bees."

Herme had to admit that Skellige was very creative, at least this way of throwing honeycombs was beyond his imagination.

And the effect of the beehives was indeed as good as King Bran expected. These bees stung many Nilfgaardians and they had no time to defend the city.

The Skellige warriors climbed up in this way, and then the warriors pounced on the Nilfgaardians like wolves and tigers, fighting with them, and behind them, more brave Skellige warriors were climbing up. come up.

On the other side, the artillery pushed to the front line by the Vilan people finally resisted the post, and their goal was the gate of Sintra.

Fired at the city gate at such a close distance, it is estimated that within a few rounds, the city gate will be completely rotten.

This is exactly what Hemei paid attention to. As long as the gate is breached and his army can drive straight in, then the victory belongs to him completely.

The Nilfgaardians obviously also noticed the threat of these artillery, and the place where the gate was located was the place where the enemy's firepower gathered, so the northerners found that they were severely blocked.

The crossbows and arrows on the gate tower were firing almost non-stop. These Nilfgaardians knew the seriousness of the matter, so they ignored the northerners' shooting.

And unexpectedly, inside the gatehouse, the Nilfgaardians hid two fire scorpions, and these two fire scorpions posed a huge threat to the northerners.

The arrows of the fire scorpions with green flames could not be extinguished at all. Once they were contaminated by that thing, even the Weilang people would only have the fate of being burned to death.

Three of Herme's cannons were directly reimbursed by those two fire scorpions, and the green flames were covering them now, which made Herme feel extremely heartbroken, because what was burning there was real gold and silver.

However, despite paying so much, the other five artillery pieces still reached their positions, and during the continuous firing from the artillery positions, the two well-hidden fire scorpions were also successfully destroyed.

Then, they kept shooting at the gate.

The gate installed by the Nilfgaardians on Sintra was indeed of good quality. When the first round of artillery hit it, the gate held up to the shooting, but there was a big dent.

Then came the second round, and the third round. With this round of shelling, the gate became more and more overwhelmed. Finally, a shell pierced through the gate.

At this moment, the quantitative change caused a qualitative change, and then more shells flew over, and the gate became more and more dilapidated.

However, the besiegers also paid a high price. The gate is the most prominent part of the entire city wall defense system, which means that the firepower concentrated here is also extremely exaggerated.

Under the continuous firing of the enemy, two more artillery pieces were smashed during the shelling.

As for the crossbowmen and musketeers who covered the artillery, I don't know how many died, but they killed the same number of Nilfgaardians.

This made Hemei's heart ache more and more. Damn it, he had spent a lot of money this time, and his heart felt like it was bleeding.

While bombarding the gate, the soldiers used ladders and planks to build a simple wooden bridge on the moat to facilitate the next attack.

A lot of sacrifices have been made for this. After all, when building this wooden bridge, you have to expose yourself to the enemy's firepower for a long time, and the soldiers who work are often surrounded by only one or two comrades who hold up their shields.

Finally, as the main bolt of the gate was completely broken by a single shot, the gate of Sintra slowly opened in front of the attackers.

"Come on, making contributions is now!"

With such a cry, the long-awaited northerners and those Weilang people rushed in bravely.

Seeing this scene, Herme breathed a sigh of relief, the door was broken and the situation was settled.

However, just when he was about to say a few relaxing words to King Bran beside him, Herme saw that there was no joy of victory in King Bran's eyes.

Then at the gate, there were two explosions of gunpowder inside, and then a large group of soldiers who had just rushed in ran out crying and howling.

Herme looked at this scene, very puzzled.

At this moment, on the front line, everyone who witnessed what happened in the city gate is now extremely terrified.

Because their people had just rushed up, and then with the sound of two gunpowder explosions, many people were smashed into a sieve by a large pile of iron and stone debris, and the tragic death made everyone who saw it terrified.

Although some people were shot, they were lucky, they didn't die, and they were able to crawl out of the city gate screaming.

But this also made the atmosphere even more terrifying. After all, looking at comrades covered in blood, and even dragging their intestines and screaming, the impact on morale can be imagined.

Some veterans found that this was caused by artillery shells. They thought that such a sight would only happen to the enemy, but they did not expect to encounter it here.

Behind the city gate, a large number of soldiers holding halberds are surrounding two small "cannons".

The reason why it is called artillery is that these two things are too small, and they are not placed on the gun mount, but placed on the ground.

The "cannon" has a very small and short barrel. There are two iron brackets in the front of the barrel. It is the existence of this bracket that allows the artillery to stand on the ground.

It was these two things that shot the shotgun that had a terrifying effect just now.

Since the shooting was aimed at such a narrow space as the city gate, and the distance was so close, the power was maximized. Many "ammunition" that should be scattered under normal circumstances hit the wall and "bombed" into the crowd. among.

Otherwise, under normal circumstances, such casualties would never be hit.

That's why there was that scene, and that's why so many soldiers were so scared that they almost ran out.

The reason is simple, it's just horrifying.

And this "cannon" is the latest product of Nilfgaard itself.

At the request of the emperor, the craftsmen of Nilfgaard referred to the northern artillery in the literature, shortened and shrunk the barrel to create a small cannon that could be carried by one person.

Then this thing appeared, the weight is lighter, the volume is smaller, and the experiment period is shorter, but there are problems with reliability, range and power.

These two guns were also the first batch of experimental artillery to go north.

No one expected that the two cannons would produce such an effect, and the Nilfgaardians were also extremely surprised by what they saw.

But having said that, in fact, not many people were killed by this round of shotgun.

In fact, there were only a dozen or so unlucky people in that tragic scene, but the impact it caused was enough to deter attackers.

The Nilfgaardians obviously noticed this opportunity, and a large number of Nilfgaardian cavalry immediately began to gather.

As long as they seize this opportunity, maybe they can defuse the northerners' offensive.

Right now, they have fallen into a disadvantage in the battle on the city wall. It is very difficult for the three thousand defenders in the city of Sintra to even stand on the city wall.

The Skelliges literally swept across the walls, and basically the Nilfgaardians lost their ground wherever the islanders landed.

If no action is taken, the islanders will really come in, so we must find a way to delay their action.

Then a successful city gate assault looks very good, and there happens to be a 300-man equipped cavalry squadron stationed in the city of Sintra.

Originally, this cavalry was used as a supplement to the Central Army, but now with the encirclement of the northerners, they also joined the defenders.

And such a mounted cavalry can just be used to turn the tide of the battle, and it is enough to sweep the Yankees climbing the city.

However, what the Nilfgaardians didn't expect was that just as they taught the northerners a profound "lesson", a group of Skellige warriors rushed in.

And the man who led them was called Ogn Tursek.

(End of this chapter)