Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 360: Sancha Town Raid (Part )

With its magic power instruments running at full capacity, the steel icebreaker was moving at full speed across the frozen river under the cover of night. From time to time, one could hear the crackling sound of the bow breaking through the thin and brittle ice.

The river becomes wider and wider from Grizzly Castle to the south. In addition, the moon on winter nights shines on the snow on the river bank, reflecting enough light to indicate the direction for nighttime navigation. There is no need to worry about ships running aground or hitting reefs.

Although there were many villages and towns built along the river banks, no one noticed that in the cold night of winter, three ghostly sailless ships were passing silently on the frozen river.

In the afternoon of the second day, the ironclad ship arrived at the designated battle site earlier than Harvey expected.

Mist rose from the water surface with only a few floating ice floes. It was here that the Ralph River split into two tributaries - one went south to Black Mountain Port, and the other went west through Fengyuan City and directly to Jinhui City, the capital of Saint Valen.

There was a light snowfall, making the visibility in the entire Sancha River section very low.

After the ship docked, Pierce summoned all the middle and lower-level officers and began to make intensive arrangements.

"The enemy fleet is coming from the river in the direction of Fengyuan City, so our main force needs to hold the two banks." He pointed to the spread-out map and simply drew the ambush position. "Your mission is to prevent the enemy from abandoning their ships and disembarking, while also cutting off their retreat along the river. So, you must hide first, and then close the door and attack them after they pass..."

The troops accompanying Pierce on this expedition were from the battalion commanded by Wayne. Naturally, he shouldered the primary task of blocking the enemy on both sides of the strait. "Commander, I don't quite understand..."

Wayne scratched his head, somewhat puzzled, and said, "It's no problem for us to ambush on both sides of the river, but if we just let the enemy fleet pass, what if they don't even dock and go straight to Sancha Town?"

Pierce sneered and took out three coins from his pocket, representing three ironclad ships. Two of them were placed exactly at the south fork of the Sancha River section, and the remaining one was placed at the location where they were currently moored.

"Two ironclad ships will block the southern section of the river. They can't get through..." Pierce then turned to the artillery crew and gave a concise order, "Artillery crew four will stay on board to man the naval guns. The remaining four crews will follow the ambush team ashore."

In this way, when the enemy fleet officially entered the fork of the Ralph River, it was equivalent to falling into a three-sided trap set in advance - if it sailed south, it would be directly blocked by two ironclad ships. Although there was only one ironclad ship guarding the river section to the north, it could not travel too fast upstream and would be more likely to become a sitting duck for the artillery crew.

Of course, if the enemy rashly turns around and flees or abandons their ship and goes ashore directly, the artillery groups ambushed on both sides of the western estuary will come into play. With such close-range artillery fire, they can almost hit the sailboat in the middle of the river with their eyes closed.

……

Unexpectedly, Archduke Ralph's fleet arrived at the mouth of the Sancha River half a day later than Pierce expected. It was not until the evening of the second day after they set up the ambush that eight medium-sized sailing ships slowly appeared in the western section of the Sancha River.

Upon receiving the news, the artillery team leader Lynx immediately issued a preparatory order to the river bank artillery team he was in charge of, and the two artillery teams on the left and right banks immediately took action.

"These guys are slower than turtles..." Wayne picked up the telescope and stuck his head out of the trench on the shore, looking at the river.

After they landed and set up defensive fortifications, they thought they would see traces of the enemy early the next morning. However, the enemy was late, forcing the soldiers to wait in the trenches in the snow and ice for most of the day.

Gunner Bobcat came over and whispered to Wayne, "If Commander Pierce gave the order, my riverbank battery could hit those turtles floating on the river right now. The distance is too close, we don't even need precise aiming..." Wayne rolled his eyes and scolded, "Who would dare to fire without orders? Besides, there are only four guns on the riverbank, and there are eight ships on the opposite side, two of which are sandwiched in the middle. No matter how powerful your shells are, can they really penetrate an entire ship and hit the one in the middle?"

The bobcat scratched his head and laughed awkwardly.

Compared to ordinary Northern Army soldiers holding magic guns, the artillery crew members who are already proficient in operating magic-powered cannons are obviously more confident in the weapons in their hands. Ordinary soldiers still need to worry about the accuracy of their shooting at all times. When encountering emergencies and encounters, they have to occasionally install bayonets and fight the enemy in close combat. The bloody and cruel fights also test their courage.

But it is different for artillery. The powerful force brought by the magic-powered cannon and the special attack method that can kill the enemy at ultra-long distances have long made them lose the tension brought by the battle. They only need to repeat the prescribed actions memorized during training, load the shells according to the prescribed procedures, aim at the target according to the prescribed procedures, fire according to the prescribed procedures, and then win.

Especially when they were rotating at the valley outposts to fight against the evil orcs, even though the enemies were powerful and fearless humanoid beasts, they only needed to stay on the top of the fortress and repeat the steps of loading and firing, and a battle could be over in half an hour. The intensity and fatigue of the fighting were not even as great as the marching around the territory during training.

……

"Received the order to prepare for attack!"

"Reload!"

The artillery positions on the riverbank immediately became busy. The preparatory steps had been practiced and executed so many times that the artillerymen could stuff the shells into the magazine with their eyes closed, and then release the ammunition safety within five seconds. Without having to consider the shooting angle, they could complete a flat shot in thirty seconds.

But the Bobcats had not yet received the order to fire from Commander Pierce on the ironclad ship.

Grand Duke Ralph's fleet had slowly passed in front of them and officially entered the Sancha River Estuary. Compared with the multi-masted sailing ships sailing on the sea, the river sailing ships were much smaller and had lower hulls. When the wind weakened in winter, a team of sailors sat on both sides of the deck, paddling their oars with all their might.

Battalion Commander Wayne was also a little anxious and complained to Bobcat in a low voice: "What's going on? Does the commander want us to just let them go..."

Before he could finish his words, a loud rumbling sound suddenly rang out from the originally calm river surface... Less than a few seconds later, two more dull roars exploded like thunder.

The artillery crew on the armored icebreaker opened fire first!

Wayne and Bobcat simultaneously picked up the telescope and locked onto the target on the river. Then they could hardly believe their eyes - two streams of black smoke suddenly rose from the deck of an enemy sailing ship in the lead. In the sudden burst of fire, deck fragments and broken limbs flew everywhere. The sailors who were crowded and paddling were hit by shrapnel and suffered heavy casualties. Blood and internal organs were flowing all over the deck.

Lynx also clearly saw from the telescope that a knight in full armor was blown away and hung on the sail mast, but only his upper body was left.

"Ugh~" The artillery team leader couldn't help but dry heave, in return for the disdainful sneer of the battalion commander Wayne beside him.

(End of this chapter)