Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 637 Precision Bombing
The shrill sound from the sky arrived in an instant, and the next second there was a deafening explosion!
Boom——

A thick plume of black smoke suddenly rose from the wide crenellations of the city wall, and a violent explosion blasted the arched watchtower to collapse, causing the stone-paved walls to tremble irregularly.

Earl Westwind was tackled to the ground by his guards. When he staggered to his feet again, the cold sweat on his back had soaked through the lining of his armor.

"The Saint Valenians also possess Heavenly Fire and Thunder Punishment, which can be used for sieges... Just how many of these terrifying contraptions have they created?"

Burns stumbled to his feet, gripped his sword hilt with one hand, and said with a grim expression, "Even if they still have this trick up their sleeve, the thunder and fire attack came from the mountains several miles away, swarming towards us like headless flies. We just need to have the soldiers and believers hide in the troop shelters, wait until their weapons are exhausted, and then lure the ground troops into the city!"

Before he could finish speaking, a terrifying shriek came from the sky again, and the city wall became the intended target once more... The stone-built walls could not withstand the bombardment, and a section of the wall, several meters long, collapsed directly, like a crack in the rim of a porcelain bowl.

"Retreat! Retreat! Have all soldiers abandon the city walls and retreat into the city's hidden bunkers... Pass down the order! We will only launch a counterattack once the enemy has entered the city!"

"Your Majesty, the enemy troops outside the city are beginning to approach us. Why don't we try to retaliate with catapults and crossbows?"

Earl Westwind huddled among the guards surrounding the city, hurrying down the city walls while shouting angrily, "No! Abandon the walls and let them in... Staying here will only make us targets for those magical lightning and fire attacks."

Soon, amidst the constant shouts and urging of the royal guards, the city's outer walls, which had been under heavy guard, were cleared away. Large numbers of soldiers, along with civilians and believers, retreated from the defensive area into the city, hiding in dozens of troop shelters built into the mountainside.

The Divine Punishment faction's Judgment Army galloped through the narrow streets, using thick ropes to drag down wooden sheds and use the broken wood and stones to build layers of roadblocks to hinder the enemy's advance.

Because the city of Rilke was built entirely on a mountain terrace, the main part of the city was divided into upper and lower parts due to the difference in terrain. The military caves were located on the relatively higher slope and had always been an important means for the royal family to store weapons and food and defend against foreign invasion.

It was precisely because of these strategically important military facilities, such as the hidden troop shelters, which were situated on high ground with complex and interconnected passageways, that Rilke was historically known as a model of a city that was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and was hailed as an isolated mountain city that would never fall.

……

boom--

The loud explosions continued to come from overhead, but Count Westwind, who was now in the hidden troop cave, felt much more at ease.

No matter how powerful the lightning and fire were, they couldn't blast through the rocky mountain dozens of meters thick and attack the defenders hiding inside... Not only that, they also stockpiled a large number of rolling stones and logs of the same size as the city wall at the entrance of the troop hiding cave, and they were fully equipped with fire oil bows and crossbows. Even if they misjudged the enemy's reserves of lightning and fire weapons, they were just giving up the city wall that they never intended to defend in the first place.

The Divine Punishment Sect's holy medicine had already been distributed among believers and soldiers. As long as those heretics of Saint Valen dared to attack the city, they could immediately take advantage of the city's complex and narrow terrain to defeat them one by one... With their numerical advantage, Burns was convinced that the berserk soldiers who had taken the holy medicine and the fearless believers could completely suppress the magical weapons in the enemy's hands.

Even spellcasters sometimes run out of magic and are caught in a human wave tactic, and the magical weapons in the hands of ordinary mortal soldiers will naturally run out of arrows and ammunition.

If their plan succeeds and they manage to wipe out these heretics of Saint Valen in Rilke, then the exiled Papacy and its tens of thousands of followers, who are being driven back to the Holy City, will be encouraged by the victory… Perhaps they can use this opportunity to recapture Goris and completely drive the enemy out of the Papal States! "Your Majesty! The enemy has blown open the city gates! They've stormed the city!"

"Your Honor! The enemy has split into three groups and is advancing towards the upper city... They are moving slowly and are still clearing roadblocks along the way."

"Should we order the soldiers and believers to take the pills and charge them?"

Burns shook his head and waved to Earl Westwind, saying, "Don't rush things. Wait a little longer... until they push up from the lower town, then we'll give them a good beating in the church square below the hill!"

As the enemy drew ever closer, their figures moving through the streets and alleys clearly visible even through the binoculars, Earl Westwind felt a growing unease.

A group of Saint Valen troops who had arrived at the church square suddenly stopped. More than 500 men lined up and crowded at the alleyway at the end of the square. They suddenly split into dozens of small groups of two or three people, took off the strange devices they were carrying on their backs, and began to tinker with them.

They appeared to be hollow cylinders about the thickness of a thigh, with a triangular iron frame standing at the end, and a strange metal support rod fitted in the middle of the cylinder, on which several hollow rings of different sizes seemed to be stacked.

These heavy, seemingly cast-metal objects, which had been carried by ordinary Saint Valen soldiers, were now being hastily assembled in less than a few minutes... Until they embedded a shield-like iron plate into the back of the cylinder, Count Westwind and Chief Justice Burns still couldn't figure out what it was for.

But this question only lingered in their minds for a moment.

Soon, a soldier was seen inserting a sharp-edged iron can into the cylinder, while another person half-squatted and fiddled with the hollow ring on top... Then, the dozens of soldiers in the separate groups suddenly pulled the lever at the end of the cylinder, and a beam of orange flame mixed with black smoke shot out of the cylinder mouth.

Dozens of almost indistinguishable black shadows suddenly shot down from below, crashing precisely into the hidden troop cave on the high slope, with a thunderous explosion just like the lightning and fire that had erupted overhead earlier.

"How is that possible? What kind of thing are they carrying? The alchemical apparatus that releases lightning and fire attacks in the rumors doesn't look like this at all..."

Neither Earl of Westwind nor Burns had seen Saint Valen's "Thunderfire Weapons" in person, but based on the scattered descriptions from scouts and the gathered populace, they could roughly guess what they looked like—most of them were as huge and heavy as the Alchemy Exploration Society's Dragonfire Thrusters and Demon-Slaying Crossbows, requiring a four-wheeled carriage to move them, but impossible to control by manpower alone.

But the magical firearms carried by these soldiers could unleash explosions with the same power as thunder and fire, which was simply unbelievable to them!

The second round of bombardment was less than half a minute after the first. Dozens of dark figures attacked again, and dazzling fireballs rose from the entrances of several hidden troop caves. The scorching air waves, carrying black smoke, overturned the catapults and ignited the logs and oil cauldrons. The pungent smoke and dust drove the soldiers who were huddled nearby out without a care.

"We can't wait any longer! Their lightning strikes are more precise than those coming from afar. Every attack is heading straight for the hidden bunker. If this continues... once the entrance collapses, we'll be buried alive inside!"

Burns drew his longsword and swung it fiercely, gritting his teeth as he ordered, "Have all soldiers and believers take the holy medicine, and we will charge them from our high ground!"

(End of this chapter)