When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 786: Haji Fort Attack and Defense
Green Hollow Township, Hotham County.

On the high ground by the river, a gray veil of fog swayed.

The surging river water rolled up the mist.

In the fog, a five-pointed star-shaped fortress looks like a giant beast with its ferocious fangs bared.

Haji Fort, located on an important tributary of the Nauan River, is a bridgehead that provides mutual assistance with Adam Fort upstream.

Although this place is not as important as Xialu City, it is an important link in protecting the transportation of Nauan River.

The commander of this bastion, which had a total garrison of 400 people, was Besser.

Standing behind the breastwork, he wiped the dew off his breastplate with a leather glove and watched the huge blades of the winder being pushed by the rushing water.

During the attack just now, a dozen red knights dived over and tried to destroy the winding machine.

But how could the people of Qianhe Valley, who had suffered losses before, be fooled again?

These red knights, who seemed to have low IQs, first got lost in the complex culverts.

Then his limbs were shattered by clockwork guns and shotgun shells, and then he left.

With both hands pressed against the parapet, Besser could not help but caress.

He had previously distrusted these low walls that barely reached his neck.

But after the attack and defense of the bastion in the Gravel Plain War, he had fallen deeply in love with this kind of bastion.

It can be built quickly, troops can be mobilized flexibly, and two clockwork cannons can be placed at each corner to achieve a dead angle.

Especially the depressions at the two protruding corners. Once the enemy comes in, they will be attacked from all sides.

What a great castle. What a great castle.

This Haji Castle, located on a high ground by the river, was renovated from an old knight's castle. It only added three layers of breastworks and gun positions, but its defensive power increased dramatically.

The 400 men of Besser were besieged for a month by 5,000 men, but suffered little damage.

They broke the defense of the generals who were commanding the siege of Leia, and yesterday they even ran to the edge of the bastion and demanded a one-on-one battle with Besser to decide the outcome.

"You really don't know what I'm talking about. Do you still think it's the same as before?" Beth wanted to laugh.

"Their shield vehicles are moving!" the sentry on the watchtower suddenly shouted.

Besser took three or two steps and rushed to the direction pointed by the sentry. He put his eyes on the telescope and looked at the black spots emerging between the tree lines on the opposite bank.

As the mist gradually dissipated, the black spots became clearer.

Twenty oak-covered shield carts emerged from the fog, each pushed by six heavily armored soldiers, the wet cowhide on the roofs sheening ominously.

"Load!" He grinned and slapped the copper bell beside the gun position. The cast iron breech block opened with the sound of gears turning. "Let the Leia boys see the power of the clockwork cannon!"

These Leia soldiers had learned their lesson and thought they could use shield carts to block the three-pound Falcon cannon.

However, they had not expected that the water level of the Nauan River had risen generally, the current was turbulent, and a batch of six-pound cannon spring magazines had been delivered to the rear.

Ever since they learned the technique of ricocheting, the artillerymen suddenly realized that they could use a mainspring with greater power.

Anyway, there is no problem with airtightness of clockwork cannons, and there is no problem at all with the clockwork chamber of a six-pound cannon with a three-pound caliber.

As the sound of gears turning came from inside the stone wall, the orichalcum springs of the six three-pound cannons tightened at the same time.

After the gunners stuffed the shells embedded with iron chains into the gun barrels, they began to pray.

"We praise you, Holy Spirit who moves in the cannon..."

When the first shield vehicle entered the 300-yard range, Besser's scimitar split the humid air: "Fire!"

Deafening cannon fire tore through the swirling fog, and cast iron shells spun in the air in a dance of death.

Six shells hit the riverbank and puddles, creating dozens or hundreds of splashes of water and flying gravel.

It was a pity that the attack didn't hit the target the first time, instead the shield car sped up.

"Don't worry." Besser shouted, "They are still far away from us. Reload first, and then fire when you see them pass the marker."

A minute later, as the gunners shouted to Holy Thunder, six shells flew out again.

Thanks to the markers, this time three of the six shots hit the target.

The cast iron ball swept across the top of the shield car, and the double-power shell cut off the oil-soaked cowhide and the arm underneath.

"Beautiful!" As soon as the gunners cheered, Besser felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

"Be careful!" Adjutant Edwin grabbed Besser's collar and rolled down the parapet. The one-meter-two-meter-long steel crossbow arrow pierced through the stone wall with terrifying kinetic energy.

Gravel rained down on Besser's breastplate, and he heard a teeth-grinding tearing sound above his head.

As Besser raised his head, a long arrow as thick as a quail egg brushed past his helmet.

The gravel and dust stirred up by the steel arrowhead that chiseled into the stone wall fell on Besser's head.

"It's a crossbow!" Adjutant Edwin's roar was filled with blood, "They used the shield car as bait!"

More crossbow arrows flew into the air from behind the shield cart.

Besser huddled behind the breastwork, listening to the muffled sound of the meter-long weapons chiseling into the stone wall.

When the scream of some unlucky guy suddenly exploded at the right artillery position, he saw the young gunner Roy was pierced through the chest by a crossbow arrow, and the whole person was nailed to the wall like a rag doll.

"Medic!"

Just as Besser was about to stand up, Edwin grabbed the ribbon and pulled her back: "Do you want the Holy Father to take another wronged soul?"

The river water tirelessly drove the clockwork mechanism, but three of the eight guns fell into silence.

If no one had died, they would have been hiding under the battlements and trembling.

Besser counted his heartbeats and waited for a gap in the crossbow arrows, then suddenly turned over and jumped up to grab the telescope.

In the lens, hundreds of soldiers were surrounded by ladders and were rushing towards the moat under the cover of crossbows.

"Switch to shotgun shells!" He ripped open his collar that was torn by the gravel and roared, "Blast those ladders for me!"

The surviving gunners trembled as they stuffed the tin cans into the gun barrels. At the moment the firing hammer hit the joystick, nearly a thousand lead bullets turned into a metal rain and poured onto the moat.

The Leia soldiers who were setting up ladders immediately fell down like straw, and their blood dyed the river water a strange pink color.

"Go to hell, you Leia bastards!" Besser personally turned the screw of the clockwork cannon, "Load the bullet, aim at those crossbows, they move slowly!"

…………

As the sun set, the Leia people finally took down their blood-stained battle flag.

Besser slumped over the clockwork barn, watching the medic saw Roy's body.

The crossbow arrow was stuck too deep, so they had to saw off the man and the arrow together.

"casualties?"

"Two killed, five seriously wounded." Edwin's quill pen scratched on the list, "The three-pounder was slightly damaged, and there was a crack in the west breastwork."

Besser took a sip of sour beer and suddenly squinted at the other side.

In the twilight, the Leia camp was lit up with unusually dense torches, and human figures could be vaguely seen shuttling back and forth among the flames.

"They're digging." The old artillery officer Walker came over, his pitted nose twitching. "From the sound, there are at least ten groups of trench shovels working at the same time."

As the crescent moon rose above the bastion's spire, the soldiers who ran out for reconnaissance confirmed Walker's judgment.

Three trenches meandered towards the moat like poisonous snakes and dug into the city like a spider web.

The iron helmets of the Leia people glowed faintly in the moonlight, and the creaking sound of the earth-carrying baskets even faintly drowned out the noise of the river.

"If there is a twelve-pound cannon with double springs that can fire shells into their vertical trenches," Walker said after confirming the news, "it would be too tragic."

"It's not like the six-pounder cannon is useless." Besser handed the softened bread to Walker. "Let them dig tomorrow. When they get close, you can teach them a lesson."

"Hey, just watch."

"Let the boys take turns to rest." Besser rubbed his scimitar beside the fire, "Release the pigeon for Xialucheng."

In front of his subordinates, Besser is quite confident.

But to be honest, he was not that confident.

Previously, when Horn was explaining artillery tactics in class, he mentioned that zigzag trenches could effectively reduce artillery damage.

Now that the Leia people have understood the straight trench, who knows when they will discover the secret of the zigzag trench?

"Your Majesty, Saint Sun, we still trust you very much. Please don't be absent..." Muttering, Besser took another sip of wine.

(End of this chapter)