industrial lord

Chapter 747 Reinforcements Arrive
The Piaster Kingdom's Winged Hussars' camp on the opposite bank of the river was located at the junction of the woods and the riverside farmland. The direction facing the river and the farmland was heavily guarded to prevent the Rhine Alliance army from breaking out, while the direction facing the woods was only sparsely guarded with some sentries and some obstacles to guard against infantry.

Baron Gunnar led hundreds of elite warriors from the Kingdom of Sardinia, who spread out and crept stealthily in the shadows of the forest.

They patiently lay in wait until the attention of the winged hussars on the watchtower was briefly drawn to the planes flying overhead. They immediately seized this fleeting opportunity and launched a surprise attack with lightning speed.

The Sardinians pounced on the sentry post with astonishing speed and silent ruthlessness, their cold blades precisely slicing open throats, the heavy blows shattering bones with a dull thud.

The sentries collapsed in shock before they could even sound the alarm.

Then, this elite force, like tigers released from their cages, rushed straight to the perimeter of the camp and cleared the obstacles leading to it.

Apart from the Osmarca Empire, few armies would place their main cavalry force in dense forests.

The commander of the Winged Hussars clearly followed this principle, and the defensive fortifications set up at the edge of the forest were rudimentary and lacked specificity, and were quickly dealt with.

When Gunnar led his commando team like a sharp knife to break through the wooden wall surrounding the camp, horns were already sounding inside the camp.

The defending troops were demoralized upon seeing the leaflets, and when the enemy attacked, they were thrown into chaos.

The soldiers managed to organize themselves and hurriedly climbed the scaffold behind the wooden wall, trying to set up a defensive line.

In the morning light, Gunnar's magnificent full plate armor stood out.

The winged hussars on the wall mistook him for a brave enemy warrior charging forward. Several soldiers wielding heavy tower shields immediately jumped down from the battlements, the heavy thud of their landing accompanied by the clang of metal striking metal. They intended to use their sturdy shields and numerical superiority to surround and strangle the reckless warrior.

However, Gunnar's lips curled into a cold smile.

He raised the seemingly unremarkable short magic wand in his hand, and the magic crystal embedded in the top of the wand suddenly burst out with a dazzling red light, and the magic power inside was completely drained in an instant.

The air twisted violently, and a forty-meter-long battle blade made entirely of raging flames materialized out of thin air, carrying an aura of destruction that could incinerate everything, and slashed fiercely at the wooden wall and the shield-wielding soldiers in front of it!

"Boom!"

A deep, muffled roar, like thunder from the earth, suddenly exploded, its power so great that it could be clearly heard even from the Hongshuiche Village fortress on the opposite bank of the river.

Rattle and Vanke were on guard duty on the fortress wall facing the river. Like everyone else, they were startled by the sudden, terrifying sound and instinctively turned their heads to look towards the enemy camp on the opposite bank.

A huge plume of smoke mixed with fire fragments shot into the sky above the enemy camp, only to be quickly dispersed by the biting north wind.

On the wooden wall of the Winged Hussars' camp, a dozen mages who had just arrived after hearing the news broke instantly broke out in a cold sweat. They were secretly glad that they had arrived in time. Almost instinctively, they joined forces to cast a spell, and a thick magical shield that shimmered with an earthy yellow light instantly opened up in front of the wooden wall.

The shield barely managed to block the devastating blow, but the intense energy impact caused cracks to appear on its surface.

Below the wall, the shield-wielding warriors who were trying to besiege Gunnar were less than half a meter away from the edge of the shield. The burning giant blade exploded almost in front of their noses, and the terrifying heat wave leaking through the cracks in the shield instantly burned their skin and hair.

Before the relief of escaping death had faded, their faces suddenly turned deathly pale.

Gunnar calmly removed the empty magic crystal from the tip of his wand, which had lost all its luster and become dull and transparent, and casually tossed it into the dirt at his feet as if discarding a useless stone.

Then, he reached into the leather pouch hanging from his lower back and took out a brand new magic crystal of the same size, but brimming with surging magic power and flashing with a dangerous red light, and skillfully and quickly installed it back on the top of his wand.

This extremely simple action struck the hearts of all the soldiers who witnessed it like a heavy hammer.

Despair does not stem from the inability to withstand the next attack, but from the unknown.

No one knows how many of these destructive weapons, enough to destroy walls and priceless castles, are hidden in that small leather bag of this terrifying enemy!

The appearance of each magic crystal signifies a blow capable of wiping out their defenses.

Another earth-shattering roar!

This time, the blazing giant blade of fire slammed into the military camp with even more ferocious power than before. The magic shield that had been hastily re-established only lasted for less than a breath before collapsing with a deafening cracking sound.

Unhindered, the giant flaming blade slashed through the thick wooden wall with unstoppable force.

With a deafening cracking sound and the popping of burning wood, a section of the wall, more than 30 meters long, was cut in half and completely destroyed.

Burning wood and the remains of the defenders were scattered everywhere, and a huge gap was exposed to the attackers.

In the military camp, sharp bugle calls rang out one after another, urgently relaying orders. Although the breach in the wall had resulted in heavy losses, for the experienced Winged Hussars commander, it at least clarified the direction of the enemy's main attack, which was crucial information for concentrating forces to counterattack.

The tactic of feinting to the east while attacking in the west sounds simple in a tavern, but in the ever-changing real battlefield, facing a massive amount of unknown information, it is extremely difficult to accurately judge whether the enemy is using this tactic.

When the commander heard that the enemy had gone so far as to use two top-tier magic crystals, worth even the castle itself, just to break through this one section of the wall, he almost immediately concluded that this must be the enemy's main attack direction, which they were focusing all their efforts on.

Without hesitation, he ordered the most elite main force troops in the camp to be quickly transferred to the breach and to build a new defensive line, determined to block the enemy outside the breach.

Although the Duchy of Milan was not as wealthy as the Duchy of Wessen, it was not comparable to the bumpkins in the north. The difference in economic experience led him to make a fatal misjudgment.

Just as Gunnar and the Sardinian army launched a fierce feint attack at the breach, drawing the attention of the main Winged Hussars, a thunderous sound of hooves echoed from another direction of the camp—deep in the dense forest that was considered impassable for cavalry.

"Hussars! Hussars from Osmarca!"

The sentry on the wall screamed in terror, his voice distorted with extreme shock.

No one could have imagined that the Osmarca Empire would travel thousands of miles to join the battle.

The Osmaga Empire and the Kingdom of Piast had been at war in Bohemia for many years, and their hatred was ingrained in their bones. Before the battle, Mary did not need much verbal mobilization; she only needed to say the enemy's name, and morale would soar to its peak, with only the flame of revenge burning in their eyes.

Several mages on horseback took the lead, and several magical attacks accurately struck the weak points of the wooden wall, blasting open a gap large enough for the cavalry to charge. The grenade launchers then provided fire support behind the gap, giving the enemy no chance to defend themselves.

Mary took the lead, her warhorse swift as an arrow, and she was the first to charge into the enemy camp through the breach.

The cavalry behind her roared like a raging torrent, charging forward in unison with their commander. The horses' hooves never slowed down throughout the entire process.

The winged hussars in the camp were completely stunned.

Most of their attention was drawn to the battle at the breach, and the enemy's weak attack made them think they were superior, never expecting that the fatal attack would come from another direction.

It was too late to adjust the defensive direction in time. The cramped interior of the chaotic camp prevented the Winged Hussars from effectively assembling and forming ranks, thus failing to capitalize on their prized advantage of charging.

Bullets cleared the way, blades flashed, and horses' hooves trampled the ground as the cavalrymen's scimitars stirred up a bloody storm in the chaotic crowd.

Seeing that defeat was inevitable, the commander of the Winged Hussars could only painfully order the abandonment of the camp and the entire army to break out and retreat towards the bridge in the distance, attempting to cross the river and return to the main camp.

However, when they arrived at the bridge spanning the river in disarray, having lost all their armor and weapons, they were met with a deadly trap that the Helvetti Federation mountain mercenaries had already set up.

These silent and deadly warriors meticulously set up a cleverly disguised position at the bridgehead overnight.

When the first wave of fleeing winged hussars entered firing range, they were met with an overwhelming, precise, and deadly crossfire.

The Helvetii's well-equipped guns emitted a deathly shriek, and bullets rained down like hailstones.

The charging winged hussars were swept away like wheat by an invisible giant scythe, falling in droves, their cries of agony echoing, and their blood instantly staining the ground at the bridgehead red.

This sudden and fatal blow completely shattered the last vestiges of organization and will to resist of the remaining Winged Hussars.

The entire column collapsed instantly, and the soldiers were forced into a desperate situation of fighting for themselves: some, blinded by rage, recklessly spurred their horses into the icy river, attempting to swim across; others, in despair, turned their horses around and fled for their lives in the seemingly empty fields, far from the bridge.

At the edge of that seemingly empty field, Theodore's Mainz army was already in full battle array, ready for action.

The soldiers, organized by company, formed two sparse but resilient dotted lines, marching with firm and unified steps, like two slowly closing steel walls, steadily and irresistibly pressing towards the fleeing soldiers.

Meanwhile, on the walls of the Redwaterwheel Village fortress, Leiner launched a decisive attack.

The fortress gates roared open, and soldiers of the Duchy of Bain filed out, quickly deploying along the riverbank to block the river. Any enemy attempting to cross would be killed without mercy.

The fields across from the Hongshuiche Village fortress were instantly transformed into a massive open-air slaughterhouse.

The winged hussars, trapped in a desperate situation, struggled and charged around like headless flies between the Mainz army's firepower and the Bahn army's blockade on the riverbank.

The Winged Hussars fell one after another, their lives disappearing like harvested wheat stalks.

(End of this chapter)