Warlords of the witcher world

Chapter 65

"Keep in formation and move forward steadily!"

With the shouts and orders of the Nilfgaardian officers in plate armor, the Nilfgaardian phalanxes advanced in an orderly manner.

Most of the officers wore the standard flying wing helmets of Nilfgaard, and the gorgeous bird feathers fluttered in the wind, looking very majestic.

The good discipline of the imperial army was fully reflected in the advance. The formation of the black-armored soldiers was very strict, and no one whispered during the entire advance.

However, even the Nilfgaardian Empire cannot equip all soldiers with uniform armor and helmets, and each imperial army will have more or less unique characteristics.

However, the general style is still the same, and everyone can see the prominent golden sun logo on their bodies, which will clearly indicate their identity.

The neat phalanxes are advancing like this, and the distance between the phalanxes seems to be almost the same. Looking from the sky, it seems that this is a black wave pulsating, full of the beauty of order.

In the past month, it was this black wave that defeated the northern armies and kept the golden sun moving forward.

And now, they plan to defeat the enemy in front of them, the last Aedirn army in front of them, and draw the final end to the victory of the empire.

"That kid Geerma, who is usually awesome, fought some northern remnants with a sense of superiority. He was extremely proud in front of us, but now he shows timidity when he goes into battle, and behaves like that when facing northerners. Even the northerners They didn’t look carefully at the army formation, let alone scout around here.”

The man who was complaining was none other than Stribert, the commander of Baraka's division.

His complaints are also normal. In Nilfgaard's war strategy, scouting has always been a very important part.

But now the other side is still like an information black hole. They don't know anything, so they can only bite the bullet and continue to move forward. At the same time, they hope that the cavalry advancing with the army can figure out the situation as soon as possible.

This responsibility must undoubtedly be attributed to the brigadier of the Wind Tower Brigade who was in charge of the investigation work.

In the scout battle, he can be said to have been beaten into a mess, and the Cossacks drilled around his front, as if his troops did not exist.

In the end, it was the arrival of the main force of the army that forced the Cossacks to retreat.

A regiment of infantry from Baccarat's division, flying the stag standard, was advancing beside Stribert when he complained.

The morale of these soldiers is very strong, and it can be seen from their raised spears that in their view, they are just heading for another victory.

They also cheered when they saw the division commander, but Stribert simply waved his hands in response, trying to hide his troubles. As a junior officer, he attached great importance to the relationship with his subordinates.

"Don't criticize Gwama too much. After all, I am a young man, and I feel that the enemies I encountered this time are indeed different. Have you noticed? The number of firearms held by those Cossacks is quite high. We are far apart. We heard so many crackling sounds from so far away, and this is the first time we have encountered such an enemy."

The commander of the Central Route Army, Commander Wenger Burnie, said Markos. He was still very calm, and he was not angry because of the failure, but just analyzed calmly.

"Firearms? Isn't that a big toy? The enemies in front of us are actually equipped with that thing? Is there anything to be concerned about?"

Compared to Markosh's analysis, Stribert just doesn't care.

Big toy, that's what many Nilfgaardian generals thought of the Fire Portal.

This thing is troublesome to load, and its power is not very great. It cannot completely seize the ecological niche of the crossbow. The biggest advantage is that it can make loud noises and create some war effects.

After the fire door gun entered the market, everyone introduced some with the attitude of trying. This thing is also a good choice as a supplementary firepower on the battlefield.

A small group of keen generals saw the value of this weapon, and they believed that this weapon could be used to perform some tactical actions, but they were basically still groping.

After the invention of the matchlock, the shooting efficiency of the fire door gun has greatly increased, and the power can also be solved by charging. This weapon seems to be more reliable.

Under the pressure of the war, everyone naturally uses whatever is easy to use, so both the North and the South have more or less introduced some muskets into the army.

The confrontation between the North and the South has also affected the popularity of this weapon. After all, no matter what this weapon is, you can't live without it.

However, this does not affect some generals who continue to regard it as a large-scale toy. After all, veterans judge weapons from their own experience. If gunpowder weapons are to be completely free from discrimination, they must be performed on a large-scale battlefield.

Such sentiments are especially evident among grassroots officers like Stribert. Generals like them, who have been shot with one knife and one gun, especially don't like to see such new weapons.

"Looking at the battle report, the way those people use firearms is very interesting and interesting, which is enough to show that they are not a simple army."

Makosh has no prejudice against muskets. In his opinion, such weapons have an infinite future, but how to use them still needs to be explored.

Behind Marcos, it was his Winniberg division, and the key flag was flying above the army's head.

And this army, like Makosh's character, is rigorous and orderly, and the soldiers are all dressed as neatly as one person.

Baccarat's division is on the left, and Wenger Burnie's division is on the right.

Then various regiment-level and battalion-level troops were deployed, and the two generals were at the intersection of the two armies.

A group of Nilfgaardian cavalry under the banner of the tower ran past them on the right. The cavalry were all in black armor and looked quite mighty.

That was the troops of the Wind Tower Brigade, where the cavalry was deployed to defend the right flank of the army.

As for the left flank, various motley cavalry and some cavalry tactical regiments were in charge there.

"You ordered that kid to try to attack? Are you not afraid that he will get on the head?"

Striberg watched the cavalry advance and couldn't help feeling a little worried.

But he didn't say anything else, because he knew that this was Makosh's order, and he knew that this always cautious general must have considered it.

As for the Wind Tower Brigade acting without authorization, that is simply impossible.

There were many dudes in the imperial army, but no one dared to violate the military discipline of the empire.

In the face of military law, even the top dignitaries in the City of Golden Pagodas must die, and there is no room for negotiation on this point.

"Don't let the Wind Tower Brigade go, let those Scoia'tael and rebel cavalry who have been demoralized? And Gwama is also very smart, see that flag? That's not Nilfgaardian, it's collected from the province cavalry."

Makosh's answer also said that it was on point. Several troops that should have been used as the first wave of cannon fodder all lost a lot in the previous battles, so it is time to go now, that is, the second wave of cannon fodder, that's all. Provincial people.

"Speaking of which, the northern army I encountered this time was very interesting, and it was the first time I saw such a car formation."

Stribert raised his head and looked at the Aden army position on the hill.

What came into his eyes was a group of tightly interlocking carriages, all of which had thick baffles, and the northern soldiers were standing behind them.

Although he didn't see any northern cavalry activities outside the car formation, Striberg knew there must be some. Most of the cavalry were in the car formation or nearby forests and could attack at any time.

Stribert could see the banner of Aedirn, and a falcon in flight.

What made the general curious was that he saw many huge iron pipes on the positions of Aedirn's army.

He was curious what it was, a super-amplified version of the fire door gun?Are you not afraid of exploding?

After the appearance of the large fire door gun, many people from both the North and the South realized that they could expand the caliber plug of this thing to increase the power of the weapon.

But this kind of thing is just a small fight of the frontline officers, without the support of the national policy, and after they made a bunch of explosions, there is no support.

This also made some senior officers regard muskets as toys.

"Herme Botterdan... In the report I read, apart from the capture of Marshal Ode, at most it described how he made money as a second-hand businessman. There was no record about his use of troops at all."

Distress appeared on Makosh's face, and the lack of information annoyed him.

Over the past four years, the imperial intelligence department has been continuously collecting information on the nobles and generals in the north, and this information has greatly helped Nilfgaard's offensive.

But for Hemei, a "marginal figure" in the Kingdom of Aden, the intelligence collection can only be said to be pitifully small.

"Forget it, I don't want to think about it. How is that Herme? You will know after the battle. Well, this car formation looks very difficult to fight. Let's move the Sericanian fire scorpion up first, and use them to drive." Pry open the enemy line."

Putting aside the distress of not understanding Hemei, Makosh issued a new order.

Stribert shook his head indiscriminately. Marcos was using the provincial cavalry as cannon fodder. He didn't like this, but he didn't raise any objections.

The rules of war were just like this, and no matter how unhappy Stribert looked at it, he could only abide by it.

Although, as a high-ranking officer who rose from the cannon fodder, he should have been a staunch supporter of this system, in fact he loathed it.

Right now is the moment when the Sericanian Fire Scorpion should perform. This weapon is especially suitable for such a fixed offensive.

The Sericanian Fire Scorpion was a weapon introduced by the Empire from Sericanian, and shortly after its introduction, it became the standard war machine of the Imperial Army, with each division carrying several of them.

And when carrying out large-scale siege operations, in addition to various common types of Sericanian fire scorpions, Nilfgaard will also build large Sericanian fire scorpions.

And on the hill at this moment, there was a crackling sound, which surprised the generals of Nilfgaard.

Listen to the sound, there are a lot of muskets.

.

On the hill, Herme had just watched how the probing cavalry sent by the Nilfgaardians were defeated by matchlock guns and crossbows.

Following the commander's order, the arquebus shooters opened fire, and then the crossbow followed. Facing the sudden violent firepower, the Nilfgaardian cavalry kept falling from their horses, and a large number of soldiers fell in a short period of time.

The matchlock guns of Fort Sazar proved their power, and the sturdy Nilfgaardian armor was directly pierced by them. This undoubtedly proved that the development path chosen by Herme was correct.

If it weren't for such a heavy matchlock gun, they still wouldn't be able to break those armors. At that time, they might have to learn how to use the three-eyed musket, and hit the "bomb gun", that is, to break through the armor through excessive charging.

That's why Hemei didn't choose to install the three-eyed gun. The loading capacity of this thing is not ideal. If it is increased, it will be too heavy to lift the gun. We can only find a bracket, but how to use the bracket to support it right away? .

Now, the arquebuses continued to project fire, and as a result most of the Nilfgaardian cavalry fell.

Hemei also saw a few unlucky people being hit in the head by a large fire door.

Oh, that scene is a bit ugly, because the whole head is broken directly.

The provincial cavalry belonged to the group that was not determined to fight. They knew that the Nilfgaardians used them as cannon fodder, so they retreated decisively after suffering such a blow to the head and face.

Anyway, the task is to test the enemy's firepower, so it's time to test it, so let's go.

Herme stood on a carriage, leaning on the fender and looking at the black army formation below.

Around him were Cossacks and soldiers with scimitars and spears. They were cheering for the defeat of the Nilfgaardian cavalry in front of them, and they were speaking all kinds of obscenities to the fleeing Nilfgaardian cavalry.

Someone stood on the carriage and took off his pants, and waved the thing under him at Nilfgaard. This looked really indecent, but seeing the cheers of the soldiers, no one stopped him.

Herme didn't care much about the defeat of these scouting cavalry. This was just a process on the battlefield, and the important thing was the actions of the Nilfgaardians below.

He saw the Nilfgaardians pushing up a kind of ballista he hadn't seen before, and then a group of engineers with unique uniforms began to get busy and began to load.

Although he had never seen it before, Herme knew what it was.

Sericanian fire scorpions, a common siege tool in Nilfgaard, fire an inextinguishable green flame.

"Dirban, Boning, it's time for you to perform!"

When Herme saw the appearance of these fire scorpions, he understood the intentions of the Nilfgaardians. He could not let the Sericanian fire scorpions work. He needed to crush these siege machines first.

"Okay, let's get to work, boys, get to work!"

Bonin responded with his dwarven loud voice, Durban had already begun to calibrate the artillery around him, and there were more artillerymen busy.

After about a few minutes, fifteen roars sounded, and the artillery bared its fangs for the first time in this world.

.

"What is that! By the Great Sun, what is that? Some witchcraft of the northerners?"

Streibert's roar echoed, but no one answered him.

Everyone was stunned, whether it was an officer or a soldier, a general or a civilian husband, everyone who saw this scene was extremely shocked.

Because just now, after a series of thunderous roars, the expensive Serikania fire scorpion of the Eight Door Empire was smashed into pieces.

The stone projectiles came with messy power, directly smashing the empire's expensive war machine into pieces.

Moreover, many engineers were injured by this thing. When they encountered the stone bullet, they would either die or be injured, at least losing a hand.

This was the first time the Nilfgaardians had seen such a sight, so everyone was stunned.

In the end, it was only after the wailing of those unlucky ones injured by the artillery that they reacted, and rushed to rescue the wounded or give mercy.

"The northerners have really developed some cutting-edge weapons."

The fastest responder was Marcos. He had been watching the formation of vehicles on the hill, and he saw the scene where the artillery on it fired projectiles.

He had seen these before, and thought they were some large fire door guns, but he didn't expect that the northerners would actually do such a big job, directly smashing their fire scorpions.

As soon as the words of Commander Markos fell, there was another thunderous sound. It turned out that the artillery directly fired at Nilfgaard's army formation.

Most of the stone bullets hit the ground, plowing a deep ravine in the ground, but some stone bullets still hit the phalanx.

And the stone bullets that hit the phalanx directly broke the thighs of a series of soldiers, and many of them didn't even react when their thighs were broken.

It wasn't until the body without legs hit the ground that I realized what had happened.

And more people passed out like this, and then died amidst exaggerated bloodshed.

Then the phalanx became terrified, and the entire phalanx almost broke up immediately. The nearby phalanxes also shook, and their weapons shook.

But fortunately, the nearby Nilfgaardian officers responded quickly. They stabilized their morale with the fastest speed—killed the timid—and then yelled in front of everyone to attract everyone’s attention instead of letting them Their minds are dominated by fear.

However, although the fear effect caused by this scene is very strong, it only hit one of the many Nilfgaardian formations.

Moreover, the casualties caused were not serious, at most five or six people were seriously injured, it was just scary to look at, so the Nilfgaardians were able to quickly control the situation.

But the next moment, there was another thunderous roar, and a bunch of stone bullets slammed into the Nilfgaardian army formation. This time, these stone bullets were much more accurate.

As a result, there were tragic scenes of shells raging everywhere in the Nilfgaardian army, and the impact on morale was also visible to the naked eye.

As before, not many people were killed or injured because of this, but for the army in black who saw such a scene for the first time, it was really terrifying.

However, the Nilfgaardian army will not collapse immediately after seeing this scene, and it is just that the morale is not stable.

Back then, Nilfgaard dared to withstand the indiscriminate bombardment of warlocks, let alone this.

At present, the army is still under the control of the officers, but if it continues to be exposed to the firepower of the Adian people for a long time, the damage to morale will become more and more serious, and the army may end like this.

"Bastard, let the Yankees take the initiative."

After listening to the report of casualties, Makosh, who has always been calm, said angrily that this veteran who had fought for the empire for more than ten years immediately realized what kind of strategic situation he was in front of.

"Marcos, what are we going to do?"

Stribert, who was flustered by a series of news, said, his words were full of urgency.

It was difficult for the division commander to deal with a large amount of news at the same time, which is why it was Markos, not him, who became the leader of the large army.

"Attack, the only option we have now is to attack. Is it possible to continue to be bombed here? Or let the troops retreat?"

Marcosh grasped the crux of the problem. The artillery that has the greatest impact on the battle situation now is that the Nilfgaardians have to take the initiative to launch an attack to attack the pre-set positions of the Aedirians.

Originally, the Nilfgaardians planned to use the Sericanian fire scorpions to continuously bombard the Adian army's position. Using the nature of the green flame that is difficult to extinguish will inevitably make the Adian people run out of their strong position, and then Nilfgaardian was planning to attack.

But now the fact is that the Nilfgaardians had to launch an attack on the strong Aden chariot formation under the artillery attack of the Adian people.

But there is no other way, there is only one option right now, retreat is unacceptable, at least not before a fight.

Right now, Nilfgaard's momentum is overwhelming, largely due to the military myth that the imperial army is invincible on the battlefield.

If this myth is broken, the offensive of the imperial army will definitely be greatly affected, and Makosh will not do things that may be blamed in the future without authorization.

So the only option is to attack. This is the only option right now. Even though many people will die because of this, war is like this.

The young commander of the Wind Tower Brigade was very satisfied with this, this kind of fight was exactly what he was looking forward to, and it was the moment where he could get his revenge.

But the Nilfgaardians did not expect that the people of Aedirn on the hill had prepared many, many gifts for them.

.

Watching the army in black begin to advance, Herme's face was already dominated by his smile.

Hemei really didn't want to laugh so exaggeratedly, it would make him look a little wretched, but he really couldn't help it.

His biggest tactical goal, which is to force the Nilfgaardian army to actively crash into his position, has been completed.

Then he looked at the army behind him, and began to roar uncontrollably,
"My brothers, my soldiers, have you seen it? The men in black are coming towards us. What should we entertain them with, showing our enthusiasm and curiosity in the north."

"Blood and death!"

Everyone answered in this way. After seeing those iron bastards roaring and making the Nilfgaardians so embarrassing, everyone was fanatical, and now they are hoping that the Nilfgaardians will come up so that they can be chopped down.

Selchik was the most surprised person in the Aden army, looking at Herme who was boosting morale, and at the fanatical soldiers under his command.

The White Knight of Aedirn has a lot on his mind, not least of which is all sorts of shady politics.

But the next moment, he threw all these thoughts out of his mind, or temporarily put them aside.

No matter what the future holds, the most important thing now is to deal with the Nilfgaardians in front of us.

Thinking so, Selchik drew his long sword.

Although he gave the Nilfgaardian a slap, it didn't mean that the next battle would be easy. The Adenians were just one step ahead.

(End of this chapter)