Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 258: Artillery

“We have to retreat.” Claude said to the officers around him.

“Can't we just stick around for a few more days?” Markci's face was a little ashamed, and it should be his fault that the enemy launched a second strike in the morning that dozens of people rushed into position. The lack of control over the rhythm of the two artillery launches, which was so tense that the two artillery fired shotguns almost simultaneously, gave the subsequent enemy an opportunity to recreate the cannon, rush into position within the short two minutes of loading, and engage in a brief physical battle with the guards, resulting in more than 20 casualties among the guard soldiers.

Claude's men now have more than eighty soldiers to fight, plus three artillery crew members and three of his own, Mike and Big Grimes, about a hundred. The three attacks launched this morning by the Allied Coalition of Territorial Lords in the two Principals, although devastating, still cost more than 3,000 people. If they continue to attack this afternoon, Claude will have little assurance that the defensive positions will not be captured by the enemy, which is far too far apart.

Another morning of defensive combat exhausted the soldiers on the ground, and fortunately it was those brave conscripts, not trained elite veterans, who rushed into the position in the morning. Coupled with Markzi's re-firing of shotguns by two light infantry guns to shield the forward position and cut off the enemy's subsequent reinforcements, Claude and others had time to destroy those who had rushed to the position.

Claude shook his head: "We'll see if the enemy will launch a deadly attack like this one this afternoon. We are not here to defend ourselves against the enemy, but to reduce its viability by virtue of favourable terrain. If the enemy continues to attack, we need to maintain our own guard and not cause too many casualties here. If we can't resist the enemy's attack, we must retreat. There is no need to die here with the enemy. ”

In fact, Claude saw only too large a difference between the forces of our enemies, and he did not know that the heavy casualties caused by those three attacks in the morning had almost frightened the territorial nobles of the two countries. More than 1,500 people attacked, three times, and only more than 600 people could stand back, or more than 600 who lost their souls and lost their nerve. Few aristocratic militias temporarily formed into two brigades were withdrawn, mainly because the guards at the positions gave priority to assailants in uniform with guns in their firing hands. After three attacks, more than 500 of these retreating conscripts lacked the oversight of noble militias and died not to launch another attack.

Territorial nobles had no choice but to return to their barracks and no longer attack in the afternoon. Instead, they had gathered in large accounts to renegotiate ways of dealing with the situation at hand, and even proposals had been made to withdraw their troops home. However, the proposal to withdraw was soon abandoned by the aristocrats of the territory. After all, the enemy was less than 200, and there were more than 3,000 on his side. If he returned this way, he would soon become a disgrace to the aristocrats. The Grand Duke of the two countries would probably use this as a pretext to deprive them of their title and reclaim their territory...

With regard to the survival of the families of the aristocrats of the Territory and the bottom line of the title of the Territory, the aristocrats of the Territory who are here have finally gone hard and negotiated a half-day decision to destroy the enemies of these squirrel villages, regardless of the cost of casualties. Once again, they proportionally redeployed their respective militias, reconstituted three brigades of more than 700 personnel, and joined all remaining conscripted residents, allocating an offensive force of more than 2,000 troops in parallel, led by one militia and led by two residents.

In order to reduce casualties, the nobles of the Territory decided not to attack again in the afternoon, to allow the offensive team to rest and to act in the evening. At the same time, it was decided to divide a temporary private militia unit to lead a conscript colonial army up the hill from point A hill after dinner, detour back to the side of the enemy's defensive position, wait for this side to attack suddenly, let the enemy lose sight of each other, unable to cope with the two sides of the clamp, and use the strength of the force to attack the position to destroy the enemy.

“Boss, we touched the enemy's camp and found the enemy to be heavily guarded. I observed with a single telescope that the enemies in the camp were resting, most of them lying on the ground asleep, few moving...” I took a few soldiers for reconnaissance and wanted to sneak a Muriel back to Claude to report.

Claude touched his chin: “Looks like the enemy doesn't want to attack this afternoon. Now let the soldiers rest. It's clear they want to attack at night. In that case, let's hurry up and not let them sleep too deep and get them to pee. Markie, you take a team and move two light infantry artillery forward a thousand meters. Fire at the enemy camp within maximum range and do not let the enemy sleep too comfortably.

If the enemy is in full force, you will immediately retreat with two artillery guns, we will retreat as we fight, and the enemy will pack shotguns close to 200 meters, alternating fire and retreat. If a small enemy unit strikes, just keep firing at the camp, and we'll take care of these enemies, okay? ”

This is already risky behaviour, with the camp of the Allied Lords of the Territory situated opposite Point A, approximately 1,500 metres from the defensive position of Point D Claude. Light infantry artillery has a limit range of 700 metres, but is generally in operational use, which is around 600 metres. Claude asked Marquette to take a team to help the two teams move the two light infantry artillery forward by a thousand meters and fire on the enemy's camp, with the main aim of terrorizing the enemy and preventing him from resting properly. In fact, the killing and injury caused by live ammunition of iron balls the size of fists is very limited, and there is also a risk that the entire enemy army will attack itself and cannot safely retreat with two artillery guns...

Muried first took a small group of soldiers to attack the guards of the enemy camp to see if he could lure some of the enemy out. However, as Claude had expected, after three failed attacks in the morning, the Allied Lords of the Territory, which had suffered heavy casualties, did not have their minds engaged with Claude and, as in the past, had been attacked by cold guns and chased out of the camp with a crowd of people. After losing a few of their guards, they hid behind the log fence of the camp and didn't leave the camp. There were only a few enemies who shot cold anyway. Can't they come in? Hang in there for one afternoon and wait for the evening to arrive before they settle the bill...

Only less than an hour later, the gunfire sounded, two fist-sized iron balls landed in the camp, injuring only one soldier, but the entire camp was messed up like a vegetable market, no one could sleep peacefully, the frightened conscript colonists wandered around to find a safe place to avoid shelling.

Two more gunshots were fired, and two more shells fell into the camp. This time the effect was good, killing one soldier and wounding two other headless fly-like inhabitants. Blood and the screaming of the wounded have added to the chaos and insecurity in the camp. Many conscript colonists are already panicking and going crazy. They scream and roam everywhere. They push them to the ground whenever they get in front of them, whether they are people or things...

Two or two shells continued to fire into the camp, and several territorial nobles ventured to the death probe to observe, almost exhaling blood. The enemy in the defensive position dared to move the artillery less than six or seven hundred meters from the camp building to open fire, which is unjustifiable. No one saw the noble coalition as a dish. There was no need for any discussion, and several nobles directly ordered their own family members to storm out of the camp and seize the enemy's two artillery guns.

Two or three hundred aristocratic militia stormed out of the camp and headed straight for the artillery. While the artillery found the enemy rushing out of the camp, it hastily stopped firing and pulled the two horses behind it and pulled the artillery towards the defensive position.

The aristocrats of the territory to which the militia were sent were eager to scream for fuel in the back. The artillery was fired at a distance of about 1,000 meters from the defensive position. Even if there were horses in the mountains, their own militia would be able to catch up within a decade if they ran faster. By then, those two standard light infantry field artillery produced by the Kingdom of Orvilas would be their own. With both guns in hand, there is no need to worry about the cost of casualties when attacking enemy defensive positions.

In the fiery eyes of the aristocrats of the Territory, the militiamen who had just chased out more than 200 meters were suddenly shot from the side. A small group of enemies fired at the private soldiers who had chased them from the weeds. Five or six unlucky ghosts who had been shot fell on the ground...

“Leave them alone and go after the artillery!” The nobles of the territory in the camp witnessed some hesitation in pursuing the private militias. They did not know whether to continue pursuing the artillery or turn to the attackers of the small group. They rushed to their feet, shouted and waved their hands to show the attackers that they would ignore the attackers and chase the artillery first. It was clear that the attackers were trying to slow down the pursuit of the soldiers so that the artillery could withdraw smoothly. If the soldiers turned to them, they would be counted.

There were also sober minds among the militiamen who pursued him. He saw the indications of the nobles in the territory behind the camp and hurried to greet the militiamen to chase the artillery, ignoring the sneakers on the side and pursuing them in the direction of the artillery. Soon, however, the small group of enemies attacked on the side did not turn, loaded with flawless loads, fired again at the back of the militia, and defeated seven or eight more militiamen...

Territorial nobles in the camp rushed again to organize more than a hundred militiamen to storm out to that group of attackers. At the very least, they had to be kept away from them before they could take advantage of the fact that they had been following the militiamen who chased the artillery. Now it is these clan militias who can command the nobles of the Territory, and the conscripts are still panicking and freaking out in the camp. If logs hadn't been stopped on the outskirts of the camp, maybe these guys would have run away.

Another group of sneakers opened fire on the side of the private militia pursuing the artillery, again causing the deaths and injuries of seven or eight private militiamen, and the leader who led the pursuit of the militiamen still ordered his men to ignore it and continue pursuing the artillery. And the territorial nobles in the camp assembled more than a hundred militiamen and went after this group of attackers...

Three hundred meters, two hundred meters, the private soldiers chasing were getting closer and closer to the two guns, and the gunmen of the two guns saw that they were still far from the defensive position, and they unloaded the guns from the horses and put them on the ground to pick up the gunpowder buckets and pour the gunpowder into the canals.

“No, the enemy is going to blow up the artillery. Run, stop them!” The eye-catching militia was shocked to see the actions of the gunmen. It is simple, the gunpowder that exceeds the firing capacity is poured into the cannon tube, blocked with wood or cloth, and then the cannon is pointed downwards towards the ground, and the cannon tube is destroyed as soon as the flaming rope explodes. This is a type of cannon destruction training that every veteran will undergo in the army. Generally, the simplest thing is to nail the gun door with a burning red nail. But now the enemy has nowhere to look for nails to burn red...

All the pursuing militiamen did not notice that the guns accidentally pointed in the direction they were coming from, and those who seemed to panic next to the guns actually had a huge performance-like exaggeration, namely, the two gunmen who poured gunpowder into the canisters with gunpowder buckets, with no tension on their faces or even a smile on their faces. The powder barrels they had were empty and there was no powder at all.

The private soldiers who saw the chase were less than a hundred meters away, and the two gunmen who had poured the gunpowder threw an empty powder barrel in their hand, pretending to panic and yelling: “Run, the enemy is coming after us! ”

We got two cannons! All the pursuing militiamen had a smile on their faces, and all they wanted to do was take the guns back to the camp and get rewards from the nobles of the Territory. Everyone wants to catch up with these two guns as soon as possible, even forgetting the guns in their hands as they run so hard...

“Fire!” A loud drink awakened several aristocratic militiamen running in front of them, who saw nothing but the flashes of fire at the mouth of the two artillery guns, a large black granular object coming face to face, followed by several places on their bodies, a heat, a sound of leakage, and then into perpetual darkness.

One hundred and thirty and forty aristocratic militiamen who chased ahead were almost emptied by shotguns fired by two guns. Sixty or seventy militiamen who fell behind were stunned by this sudden occurrence. They really didn't expect that the two guns were loaded with shotguns and ran so far purely to tempt them to catch up...

Before they returned to God, more than fifty enemies with guns stood on both flanks of the two artillery guns, gunshots were fired and smoke was spreading, and one of these surviving militiamen was knocked down.

The nobles of the territory in the camp almost watched as the two or three hundred militiamen to pursue were completely overthrown, and the guns were reloaded with gunpowder and shotguns, and the soldiers next to them pulled out their bayonets and stuck them at gunpoint to examine the noble militiamen who had fallen on the ground, occasionally using bayonets to wound an individual in order to relieve their suffering and scrape the money on the bodies of the militiamen on the ground.

Those two sneak attack teams led more than a hundred pursued militiamen behind them around the mountain forest back to the side of the two artillery guns. Looking at the two artillery guns already ready for firing and the forty or fifty soldiers ready for firing, the militia leader wisely chose to retreat to the camp instead of rushing with heat...