Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 465 River Crossing Floating Bridge

The sound of "bombing", the black smoke and fire generated by the bomb dropping explosion, and the fragments of the destroyed house and human limbs all flew into the sky, revealing a brutal battle picture in a single telescope. General Bolognick was indifferent, but gave cold orders to his personal deputy to allow a squadron soldier from the rear to reinforce the front line once again to compensate for the battle defectors at the defensive positions.

It was the sixteenth day of the siege of Langhu City and the twenty-third day that the fishing port town was occupied by the Hicks. Even when General Bolognick was ready to defend Lake Lang, he did not expect such a brutal battle of city alleys. More than 13,000 guard units, fewer than 6,000 of whom are still able to continue fighting, have lost more than half their lives.

At first, the Hicks only attacked Lake Lang City with a corps of light riders, but General Bolonik had more than enough to deal with. Even though Langhu City has not yet built its walls as a result of the expansion, light rides have proven unsuitable for launching siege and alley wars. The proud Hicks Light Cavalry had thought that Lake Lang City would fall into their hands like a ripe fruit, and as a result they had been ambushed by defenders as they broke into those cobweb streets and alleys, with heavy losses.

The Hicks Light Cavalry, who ate so much, would never dare go deeper into Lan Lake City, surrounding Lan Lake City on three sides. To the east is Lake Lan, which they cannot help but watch as the guards of the city transport the residents and the wounded who remain in the city across the water to the shore of Lake Lan to evacuate to the mountains.

From the eleventh day of the siege of Langhu City, however, two standing legions of Hicks kingdoms finally landed in the fishing port town before heading outside Langhu City. After only half a day's rest, a fierce attack was launched on Langhu City. In just four days, the defensive forces under General Bolognick have nearly a thousand casualties a day, and while the Hicks have lost several times as many offensive troops as their defenders, they are strong and lose money.

“I don't know if the Thunder Corps will be here in a few days...” General Bolonik can only place his hopes on the backup of the Thunder Corps. Sometimes I think of how General Bolognick really regretted ignoring the anomaly of the shipyard merchant in Fishing Harbor Town and believed in what the merchant said.

The defence of the coastal zones of the respective jurisdictions has always been of great concern to theatre commanders, and General Bolognick visited them personally. He had also been to the fishing port town, where no troops were stationed, mainly because of the proximity to theatre headquarters and the convenience of reinforcements. The other is the density of the reef in the shallow sea area there, not to mention the ocean vessels, that are offshore carriers that want to pass through until the tide rises, otherwise they can easily touch the reef to break the bottom of the boat.

The shipyard in the fishing port town can only produce a four-person flat-bottom fishing boat that eats very shallow water for offshore fishing. The last time General Bolognick visited, he also saw the shipyard connecting three or four small fishing boats with nearly a hundred flat-bottom boats, which were nailed with two large wooden boards and where heavy objects were pressed to sink the hull of the small fishing boat into the water and level with the water.

General Bolognick was also curious to ask what it was doing, and the businessman replied that it was testing the compressive leakage resistance of small fishing boats, which took up to half a month to detect whether they had deformed boat leaks. After all, it was a small fishing boat eating shallow water, and it would be unbearable if such tests were not carried out. In ten days, these boats will be out of the water, inspected and sold to residents of both Cromwell and Bering Ghana...

General Bolognick knows that the Cromwell and Bering Ghana jurisdictions have emigrated a large number of relatives of military and soldiers, and that the purchase of such a small fishing boat by the inhabitants of the coastal zone would generate an additional seafood income for their families. So he wasn't surprised why the shipyard had so many orders for small fishing boats, and encouraged the businessman to say a few words, encouraging him to guarantee quality expansion, making him rich and rich.

It was not until it was confirmed that the fishing port town had been occupied by the Hicks that General Bolognick understood that he had fallen for the merchant. And when the scouting team came back to report, it was also mentioned that the Hicks built a floating stack bridge from those small fishing boats through the shallow reef area that could connect deep-sea ocean carriers directly to the stack bridge and land ashore...

Without this Hicks agent, it would be delusional for the Hicks to land in the fishing port town, even if they built a floating bridge from the deep sea to the shore, at least for a day. By that time, they had fallen prey to the arrival of defensive forces without waiting for them to land. That is also why the theatre ignored the coastal defense of this fishing port town, where few troops were deployed, leaving the Hicks empty.

Regret is late, however, and General Bolognick only hopes to wait for the Thunder Regiment to come back before Langhu City is overrun by the enemy. Claude's last successive Eagle letters to him made it clear that Lake Lang could be abandoned, but that the Dolinibara Line must be preserved. General Bolognick didn't think of Claude's judgment, but he also had an immediate reinforcement battalion equipped with a new rifle. It should be possible to protect Lake Lang from the enemy threatening the Dolinibara Line of Defense...

Gen. Bolonik's confidence and morale were greatly boosted by the lightweight army's easy attack on Langhu City, which was shattered by the guard forces. However, when the two main Hicks field regiments arrived to attack, General Bolognick realized that the giant, unhealed Hicks thrower that Claude wrote in his letter was really very powerful, more than 300 meters away, twice as powerful as the iron pumpkin, and exploded, blowing up a big pit...

The first defensive front on the outskirts of Langhu City was quickly lost, but the Hicks also had a lot of trouble getting into the city, and the streets and broken walls prevented the Hicks from covering up the giant cantilever thrower with a shield and a wooden trailer. General Bolognick commanded the defensive forces to launch a wave of counter-attacks, successfully destroying two giant bulldozers.

The Hicks then changed their strategy, deploying the remaining three giant, unhealed cantilever throwers outside, not into the city, but using vintage throwers and iron pumpkins to make their way. This is in the hands of General Bolognick, who similarly commanded the defensive forces to fight back with teeth, using industry-produced projectiles from the theatre military industry, causing several times as many casualties to the Hicks' offensive forces, forcing the Hicks to send troops only to clear the rubble roads and to move forward with giant, unbeatable cantilever projectiles to bomb defensive positions.

Landmines played their greatest role in Langhu City's alley warfare, sometimes with guard forces badly forced to abandon defensive positions, and the swarming Hicks often stepped on landmines after occupying them, and then bombing resulted in more than a dozen casualties. The presence of too many mines led the Hicks to become skeptical, intangibly affecting the speed of the attack and giving the guard more time to prepare.

It is only regrettable that the workshop of the military manufacturing industry headed by Mr. Viberon is in the direction of the Hicks offensive, that the Hicks Light Cavalry was forced to evacuate when it appeared on the outskirts of Lake Lan town, and that the weapons and ammunition produced, not much stockpiled, were previously produced for the first time to the front line on Claude's side. This time the fishing port town was occupied by the Hicks and emergency production was handed over to the guard forces for urban alley warfare, and there are few left, which is why General Bolognick fears that Lake Lang will not be able to hold.

And the Hicks have two standing legions of 120,000, plus the light cavalry corps of the peripheral blockade, nearly 200,000 troops. It is a miracle that General Bolognick, with more than 13,000 men and horses, has been able to defend Langhu City for 23 days under a dozen times the overwhelming strength of his enemies and has been occupied by the Hicks only a third of the size of Langhu City and a perimeter line of defense.

Today, with fewer than 7,000 troops and 150,000 enemies, the defensive forces remain an overwhelming force advantage. With fewer new types of weapons, such as projectiles and landmines in the hands of the defense forces, there is growing pressure to resist Hicks attacks and more casualties...

Dolinibara River Floating Bridge crosses the river.

General Albert's nose was all twisted: "Find me the man in charge of this pontoon bridge. What the hell is going on? ”

General Albert, who arrived at the Dolinibara River Floating Bridge, found the crossing full of black crows. The north bank is full of veterans of the boring local guard corps, and the south bank is full of refugees carrying large bags and small bags of various vehicles.

Two floating bridges with one in transit refugees and one in transit troops. One of the wheels of a heavily loaded vehicle fell on the floating bridge, which was biased towards passing the troops, and the entire vehicle was distorted on the floating bridge, and the package wrapped in squares was also sprinkled on the bridge, blocking the floating bridge from passing.

The administrator of the sweaty Floating Bridge River Crossing Administration arrived in front of General Albert half an hour later. The general shouted, pointing at the carriage on the bridge and asking what was going on, and General Albert would have to shoot the steward.

The manager scared the crap out of him. He replied that the wagon was loaded with heavy materials from the local guard leader who had passed the pontoon bridge in front, loaded a wagon. When crossing the bridge, the bridge plate was broken because it was too heavy, and the two sides were in a quarrel. The pontoon bridge crossing management office claimed compensation for the broken bridge plate. Instead, the head of the local guard group asked the pontoon bridge river management office to compensate him for the loss of the goods.

“Bring me that captain!” General Albert was so angry that he ordered his guards directly: "Throw me the carriage and the cargo on that bridge into the river and get back to the floating bridge immediately. ”

It seems that the senior officers who moved from the regiment to the local guard regiment are alive and well enough to search for such a carriage's specialties and souvenirs.

“Where's your chief? Call me here.” General Albert looked around at the veterans of the vigilante guard corps.

Soon two colonels appeared before General Albert.

“What are you guys up to?” General Albert asked.

“The 108th regiment of local guards in theatre was ordered to guard the castle of Wickham, under the command of Colonel Lemandock, the commander of the regiment. ”

“The battlefield local guard sequence, one or four regiments, was assigned to the coast of Cromwell, under the command of Colonel Fareos. ”

“What about your troops? ”

“Our 108th regiment arrived here yesterday afternoon, waiting to cross the river.” Colonel Lemando replied, pointing to the location of his troops.

“Our 114th regiment arrived only this morning and is currently in recess.” Colonel Fareos replied.

General Albert pointed to the carriage on the pontoon bridge: "Do you know what's going on? ”

The two colonels looked at each other and finally Colonel Lemandoc opened his mouth: “Reporting General, this is the logistically heavy unit of the 117th regiment stationed at Buck Hill Castle, under the direct authority of Bering Ghana, which is said to have obtained a lot of cowhide and beef for hunting on the grasslands, and this time they were ready to transport all this cowhide and beef to Port Patres for trading. Last night the river was windy, it was not safe to drive across the river, they didn't cross the river, the wind started to cross the river in the morning, I didn't think the carriage was too heavy to crush a bridge plate, so it was jammed there. ”

“Humph...” General Albert grinned, staring at another floating bridge filled with refugees, and asked the administrator of the floating bridge administration: “What about that floating bridge? Why don't you evacuate the refugees and let the troops pass first...”

The management was paralyzed on the ground: “General, when I crossed the river in the morning, I also wanted the troops to cross the river first, but a team of people said who they were, pushed our management directly to the side to cross the river first, and the refugees in the back were hugged, and we couldn't stop them. They all said that their relatives were legions, no one dared to offend them, but let them occupy a floating bridge..."

These refugees are under the direct authority of Amphiston, many of whom are military dependants. As General Bolonik evacuated the inhabitants of Lake Lang, they were ready to go to Cromwell and Bering Ghana to surrender to their close friends and relatives. They were right, their relatives or nephews were either in the Thunder Corps or in the Rock Corps. This floating bridge river crossing administration is a small agency that routinely maintains floating bridges to collect river crossing fees, and indeed does not dare to offend these servicemen.

At that time, General Albert's guards returned with a big fat colonel, whose face was pale and his pants a little wet, seemed to have just pissed.

General Albert hey laughed: “So it's you, Colonel Felix. I didn't expect to see you for more than a year. You're so rich, you're twice as rounded as you used to be in the army. Looks like you're doing well. ”

The big fat colonel shivered: “General, for the sake of previous friendship, forgive me, forgive me this time, and I will never dare again. ”

General Albert shook his head gently: "Colonel Felix, I am disappointed that you were a brave officer when I was under you, and I look forward to your future. When you said you were going to transfer to the local army, I felt sorry for you, thinking that you might be a general of a kingdom in less than 10 years.

But you refused to say that you were tired of the battlefield and wanted to spend a quiet life on a ranch with your elderly parents. I fulfilled your wish to be the head of the local guard corps stationed at Buck Hill Castle, which is close to your ranch, and you can always go home to accompany your elderly parents...

I'd really like to know why the guards at the Wickham Contract have all arrived by the river, you're closer than half the way there. The guards have only crossed half the river so far. Can you explain? Besides, you got an emergency order to reinforce Lan Lake City, so are you taking all this heavy supplies on your way to Port Patres for business? ”

Colonel Fatty couldn't answer a word and stood there with his head down and begged for forgiveness: "General, forgive me this time, I will never dare again..."

General Albert sighed: "Although I really wanted to shoot you directly, that would be too cheap for you. Take him down, he has to go to military justice, take him up first, and settle with him when this war is over.....”

Colonel Lemandock and Colonel Fareos were both a little pale in their faces and naturally knew what General Albert meant. If General Albert pulled out a revolver and shot this fat man, Colonel Felix, that's it. But General Albert wanted him to be tried in military justice, which meant not only that Colonel Felix, the fat man, would still be convicted, but that all the privileges accorded to his family would be withdrawn from the war zone.

“Well, Colonel Lemandos, now you have a mission to lead your soldiers across the river, separate the refugees crossing that pontoon over there, and let our troops cross the river first. As for Colonel Fareos, you also have a mission to alert and disarm the 117th regiment after taking your troops across the river.” General Albert's whip pointed to the two colonels standing in front of him.

“Yes, General.” Colonel Lemandoc and Colonel Valeos hurried to salute each other.