Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 396 "Push" Operation

Fengyuan City is located in the central plains of the Principality of Saint Valen. The abundant tributaries of the Ralph River divide the entire city into two. The inner city and military camp are located on the north bank, and to the south across the river is an endless expanse of fertile farmland.

Many branches of Duke Ralph's family also owned fiefs in the south. Standing on the watchtower on the city wall of Fengyuan City, one could see the scattered pastures and farms on the south bank at a glance.

Unlike other cities within the principality, Fengyuan City has been carefully managed by several generations of Duke Ralph. The old castle fortress has been expanded several times and is divided into two parts: the inner and outer cities. The walls of the outer city are not very high and strong. They are more for demarcating the city area and for the Duke's family to collect entry taxes.

Around Fengyuan City, where there has not been a large-scale war for decades, the war forts and outposts that originally served as early warning and defense have long lost their due role. The small nobles and knights who were enfeoffed by the first generation of dukes when they followed Grand Duke Saint Valen to establish the country have also long since retired and become leisurely landlords and wealthy people.

Fortunately, the current Duke Ralph is still an excellent successor. Although the military equipment in the territory is in disrepair, the Duke's direct line of the Fengyuan Knights still maintains a very high combat effectiveness. They have followed the Duke himself through countless battles of all sizes. Their main achievement was to go north to resist the evil orcs who crossed the Divine Spine Mountains and invaded the border of Saint Valen.

However, due to the flat terrain in central Saint-Valen, few cities have been invaded by foreign enemies using waterways as the main attack route. Therefore, the Fengyuan City Wharf, which originally had no military defenses, was directly exposed to Harvey's armored fleet without any resistance.

Harvey's fleet sailed south from Grizzly Castle and arrived at Sancha Town in just one day. After a brief rest for one night, they immediately set off westward, marching at lightning speed along the rushing Ralph River. In the evening of that day, they saw the outline of the city wall of Fengyuan City.

"Several villages, towns and docks along the way should have discovered the whereabouts of our fleet, but no one probably realized that it was an army attacking Fengyuan City. I guess no one would come to the city to report the news at all." This is Wayne's second time in Fengyuan City. Compared with others, he is more familiar with the local situation.

"So what if they send a message? Unless they use carrier pigeons and frost-wing eagles, by the time they arrive in Fengyuan City on horseback in the cold weather, we will have already blown open the gates of the Duke's Mansion." This was not the first time that Dave went south to fight. During the Battle of Sancha Town, he witnessed with his own eyes the incompetence of these southern nobles and knights.

Commander Pierce was silent for a moment, then looked up at Vaughn and asked, "Do you think we should seize control of the docks, gather our forces, and then launch the attack tomorrow morning... or should we attack under cover of darkness?"

Vaughn stared at the simplified map of Fengyuan City before him and said in a deep voice, "According to the information provided by our intelligence personnel, the enemy is mainly concentrated near the inner city barracks and the Duke's residence. The outer city walls are guarded by the poorly equipped city defense troops and patrols. They are not to be feared at all."

He paused, then pointed his sturdy finger at the dock. "It'll only take half an hour to take control of the dock. Our fleet should be deployed here on the river, using naval guns to directly block the two outer city gates in the southwest... while the ground forces' main attack direction will be the east gate closest to the inner city!"

"Before Duke Ralph fled, he took away all of his bloodline knights and spellcasters. Currently, there are less than a thousand knights stationed in Fengyuan City. They may be able to temporarily gather some city defense troops, but the total number will not exceed two thousand."

Pierce held two magic bullets, representing his army's attack targets, and placed them directly at the inner city barracks and the Duke's residence. "Our artillery operations can only be carried out at these two locations. The ground forces must advance quickly enough to avoid accidental casualties among civilians."

Wayne asked quietly, "What about the empty north gate..."

"The special operations team will ambush there in advance. This is a deliberate escape loophole for the Duke's family. Otherwise, after we capture Fengyuan City, we will have to spend a lot of time searching for them in the city."

Pierce was quite experienced in setting traps to catch the defeated nobles. The people in the Southern Territory did not have magical identity cards like the people in the Frontier Territory, and just identifying and verifying the identities of the defeated nobles could make them extremely anxious.

...Captain Hansen of the city defense army was so frightened by a horrible loud noise that he fell directly from his chair to the ground. Before he could get up and rush out of the house to check the situation, the continuous rumbling sounds accompanied by the shaking of the ground and the house almost made him lose his balance again.

"What happened?" Hansen grabbed the guard's collar as he saw him rush in with his face covered in blood. "Could it be that one of those spellcasters in the city accidentally cast their spells into our city guard barracks?"

The guard's face was filled with fear and confusion. He trembled and said, "No... I don't know, sir. Some strange things fell from the sky. We couldn't see what they were. Not only the barracks, but also the city gates and the walls were directly blown to pieces. The guards nearby..."

Hansen pushed the guard away, took the sword from the wall, held it in his hand, and ran straight out of the barracks.

When they walked outside, they found that the entire city guard camp built next to the city wall was engulfed in flames. The heavy wooden city gate not far away was broken open and tilted like two pieces of rags. Several unlucky guards were pinned down and kept screaming for help.

There were also several gaps in the wall above. Fortunately, when it was cold, there were no guards patrolling the city wall for a long time, so there were no casualties.

"What the hell is going on? Who dares to attack the city guards?" Hansen was completely overwhelmed, but luckily he had some sense. He quickly called over a guard and ordered, "Hurry to the Knights' base in the inner city and ask for help! There might be enemies sneaking in and causing chaos!"

Just as the guards mounted their horses and rushed towards the inner city, a group of city guards, looking even more miserable, ran towards Hansen, crying, "Boss! This is bad! It's the enemy from Sancha Town!"

What? Sancha Town?
Hansen's heart sank. "They came by boat? Why didn't we receive a warning from the dock?"

"It was too late. They stopped the boat a long way away. We didn't even see who was coming before the whole dock exploded. They must have a spellcaster on board attacking us!"

Hansen immediately thought of the terrible rumor that the Duke had sent a fleet full of elite knights to Sancha Town, but in the end no one returned to Fengyuan City.

The border lord who openly opposed the entire Principality of Saint Valen actually came to our door so unscrupulously.

And they didn't receive any news or warning at all. How did the other party do it?
Before he could think it through, there were several whistling sounds above his head, and the city defense soldiers almost subconsciously lay on the ground to avoid them.

This time Hansen finally figured out where the attack came from... The huge roar coming from the direction of the dock could not be completely covered up by the tragic noise of people and horses falling to the ground in the camp.

"It's the dock! The enemy is attacking us at the dock!"

Oh my God...how did they manage to attack the city gate from such a distance?
What kind of weird magical weapons are these horrible things that fly from the sky and explode directly in the city!

(End of this chapter)