Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 444 The troops are approaching the city (Part )

"City Lord, the capital is really strange... The dock wasn't built outside the city, but was brought directly into the city from the river..." Captain Tommy, the captain of the personal guard in charge of enemy surveillance, was astonished. "They built the dock right inside the city."

"Oh?" Harvey was a little surprised, but he turned around and thought it was normal. After all, Jinhui City was located in the center of the continent where the situation was peaceful and stable. Except for the occasional attacks from the evil orcs in the northern border areas, it could be said that the city had never experienced war in the more than 100 years since its establishment.

In addition to being the capital of the Principality of Saint Valen, it is considered an "upgraded version" of Fengyuan City with almost twice the population.

Moreover, the successive Grand Dukes of Saint Valen have had close ties with the Church of Glory, and have always been crowned by the Pope to assume the position of Grand Duke. The Cathedral of Glory in the City of Golden Glory is the most magnificent one built in the entire central southern region, and its reputation is comparable to the Cathedral of Grace in the holy city of Goris.

However, this prosperous capital city, which rarely experienced wars and where the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, was repeatedly plagued by the conspiracy of the church and the greed of the nobles. First, a corruption plague broke out that spread across the country, causing countless civilians to suffer unprovoked disasters. Then, it took the initiative to provoke wars and conflicts with spellcasters, causing the people to suffer from heavy taxes and labor in the wars with neighboring countries.

From the perspective of a spellcaster, Harvey naturally couldn't understand the intention and purpose of Grand Duke Saint Valen's alliance with the church. He would never believe that it was purely because of his strong faith and adherence to the Holy See.

Kings and dukes who stand at the top of secular power would not be so foolish and pious.

Now, news came from the intelligence personnel in the royal capital that the Grand Duke, like Duke Ralph, had been assassinated by a spellcaster. Harvey and Asdalen judged that the entire royal capital of Jinhui City might have fallen completely into the control of the church.

According to the agreement made with the three chiefs of the Federation before the troops were dispatched, the purpose of Harvey's large-scale military action this time was to capture Jinhui City as soon as possible and force the domestic lords and princes stationed on the border to withdraw their troops and return to the capital to support the royal capital. The Federation's Mage Corps, which no longer had to deal with the mortal army, could focus on dealing with the pressure from the church.

But the chiefs also issued a serious warning to Harvey. If he could not capture Jinhui City for a long time... within half a month at the earliest, he would probably have to face the assistance of the Judgment Army sent by the Church from Goris or Isengard. By then, the Federation would not be able to spare a hand to rescue him from being attacked from both sides.

"Unable to capture for a long time? Within half a month?" Pierce sneered grimly. "Attacked from both sides? Those wizards in the Union really underestimated you."

He clenched his fists and pounded them against his chest, then knelt on one knee and pleaded with Harvey, "Sir, please allow me to take command immediately. Once we reach the capital at dawn, it will only take half a day... I will capture the capital's gates directly for you."

Harvey also felt a little amused. He thought that the Federation looked down on him... and dared to give him such an important task as attacking a king's capital. He also thought that they valued him... but they were worried that he would lose the war and be besieged by the church's reinforcements.

"There's no need to underestimate the enemy and advance rashly just for the sake of pride. Arrive outside the capital at dawn tomorrow. I want you to hold your troops still... Just do one thing."

Pierce frowned, puzzled, "What do you want me to... do?"

"Knock on the door with a cannon."

……

The night was dark, and while the northern warship fleet was still sailing at full speed on the Ralph River, dozens of miles away from the royal capital, a faster "special forces" had already arrived at the outskirts of Jinhui City in advance.

After completing the annihilation battle at the mouth of the Alva River, the ironclad ship temporarily docked and dropped off a team of fifty bloodline warriors. The special operations team led by Vaughn and Duff rode on extremely fast off-road magic motorcycles and arrived at the royal capital at lightning speed.

They were here to scout the situation in the capital and map the battlefield terrain in advance... and if necessary, they would even sneak into the city to meet and collaborate with intelligence personnel.

"Boss, there's a group of militia-like people outside the city gate. They seem to be busy moving and burying something."

Vaughn nodded. "Are there any soldiers stationed on the riverbank?"

"They're also militiamen. Like us, they don't even have armor. I see their weapons aren't fully equipped. Many of them just carry sharpened wooden spears."

Dave rubbed his hands together and suggested excitedly, "Why don't we practice on these little mice? It's as easy to crush them as it is to crush an ant."

Vaughn immediately shook his head and refused, he felt something was wrong.

The news of Duke Ralph's death had been deliberately relayed back to the capital. Logically, the nobles of Jinhui City would have deployed defenses along the riverbanks leading into the city to prevent the city lord's fleet from entering the capital directly. Even if they didn't heavily garrison the riverbanks, wouldn't the waterway gates into the city be manned? Wouldn't these nobles' traditional method of combating an enemy be to deploy large numbers of archers and kerosene logs, or even to mount catapults from the city walls to launch a counterattack from above?

But now the other side seems to have directly given up the terrain advantage of the first line of defense and retreated directly to the inner city, leaving them with a safe landing site. This seems unreasonable no matter how you look at it.

"Wait a little longer. After they leave in the middle of the night, we'll go see what traps these militiamen have buried on the riverbank."

And things turned out just as Vaughn had expected. In the middle of the night, after the civilians and soldiers had left, they sneaked to the river bank near the water and land gate and dug out bucket after bucket of sealed black powder from the hastily buried pit.

"Wow! Dragon flame powder!" Dave's eyes widened, and he stuck out his tongue. "The nobles of the royal city really spent a lot of money to resist our attack!"

The dragon flame powder produced by the Alchemy Exploration Society has a complex formula and is very expensive. It is not expensive to add a small amount to spellcasting materials and magical ammunition, but burying barrels of it underground and using it as "land mines" is indeed a bit of a waste.

Vaughn scratched his head and guessed, "I heard that when spellcasters were expelled from Saint Valen, alchemists were also brutally persecuted. I guess these were confiscated by the church and the nobles... They definitely don't know their true purpose and are just using them as simple detonators."

"Let's dig them all up and take them away!"

Vaughn shook his head. "How can we carry away hundreds of barrels? Take this intelligence back... The city lord and the commander will surely know how to deal with it."

……

At daybreak, the soldiers on the walls of the royal capital immediately spotted dozens of thick white columns of smoke floating over the Ralph River in the distance. The wizard lord of the North, along with his armored fleet, was attacking the royal capital in a mighty force.

The news of the enemy's discovery quickly spread back to the royal court in the inner city.

Archbishop Saint Valen stood beside the throne with a gloomy face, looking at the ministers and dignitaries below who were looking gloomy.

"What are you panicking about?" he snorted impatiently. "Our walls are strong, our troops are plentiful, and the only gap in the waterway is heavily laden with dragon flame powder. If that infidel fleet dares to sail through the land and water gates, we'll immediately detonate the walls on both sides, burying their flagship beneath a thousand pounds of rubble!"

As long as the city is defended and cannot be breached, reinforcements sent from the Holy City will arrive in ten days at most. Then he wants to see how the mortal soldiers under the Mage Lord can compete head-on with the extraordinary warriors in the Holy City's Judgment Army!

Before he could continue to scold these powerful ministers who were like headless flies, a dull thunder suddenly came from the direction of the outer city in the distance, rumbling in the sky.

Soon, a dusty knight from the Royal City Guard rushed into the royal court and fell at the feet of the archbishop.

"Your Excellency, Bishop! This is bad! They... they didn't enter the city directly through the waterway. Instead, they used some unknown method from a distance to directly detonate the dragon flame powder buried on both sides of the river, collapsing a section of the city wall."

what?
All the nobles present gasped.

"They... don't plan to enter the city directly through the waterway?" The archbishop swallowed hard and asked in disbelief.

The knight trembled as he replied, "The waterway has collapsed. They landed directly outside the city. Thousands of black-clad soldiers marched directly to the land gate half a mile away and set up a siege formation."

At this time, a high-ranking priest in a white robe hurried in and handed a piece of snow-white letter paper to the bishop. The envelope was stamped with the Union's seal and a strange emblem in the shape of a towering castle and a golden star. The wizard lord of the North was clearly telling them that he was joining hands with the Union in this attack.

The bishop tore open the envelope with a stern face, unfolded the thin letter paper inside, and found that it was written with an extremely simple, yet extremely arrogant and glaring word in the common language of the southern border.

"Open the door!"

(End of this chapter)