Chapter 255: Retreat!!!
Lancelot and Francis were causing trouble on the grasslands again. They acted like thorns in the enemy’s side, always messing things up.
When the army of the Eldorian Empire showed up again on the grasslands, Clinton the reaver commander became so angry he almost broke his teeth from clenching too hard.
"Commander, we should retreat!"
Inside Clinton’s tent, many commanders of the tribes were kneeling. Their people had come to beg for help, and many soldiers no longer wanted to fight after hearing the news.
Clinton suddenly felt very tired. He looked toward Dunmere City and started to think: maybe the Order would never be able to capture it.
Because this wasn’t just a city wall; it was protected by the clever Prince Simon of the Eldorian Empire.
The recent manhunts had already tired his army. And now there was trouble behind them again. With danger in front and behind, Clinton felt hopeless like never before.
"Prince Simon, if you have courage, come out and fight us on the grasslands! You cowards from the Eldorian Empire!" Clinton shouted inside his tent.
But no one inside Dunmere could hear him. As Clinton struggled with his decision, a messenger arrived with news.
"Commander, Fern has ordered us to retreat. He said we must save our strength and not waste more troops on this city."
Clinton and the other commanders inside the tent let out a deep sigh of relief.
"He is wise." They said.
Clinton placed his hand on his chest and saluted in the direction of the capital, Cloverton.
Far away in Cloverton, Fern didn’t know exactly what was happening in Dunmere. But after hearing that their raid attacks weren’t stopping the wall construction, and that the army of the Eldorian Empire was ready to die defending it, he made a choice: don’t lose more men, wait until their cannons are ready.
He thought: "A strong wall just means we’ll use more cannonballs. But if we lose soldiers, we can’t replace them easily."
So once Clinton got the order from Fern, he didn’t wait. He gave the order to retreat. He didn’t want to throw his soldiers into a fight that felt like a bottomless pit.
Next time, they would return with powerful fire weapons and burn Dunmere City to the ground.
"BOOM! BOOM!"
As Clinton led his army away, the cannons on Dunmere’s city walls fired again. Clinton looked back. It felt like the city was laughing at him.
His heart burned with anger. The Order had never been shamed like this. He swore: when Dunmere falls, he would lead his iron cavalry to kill everyone in Prince Simon’s land, to wash away this humiliation.
On the walls of Dunmere, the soldiers watched the enemy leave. They cheered loudly. Liam excitedly ordered them to fire more cannon shots to celebrate.
The soldiers were happy. In their eyes, the reavers weren’t scary anymore. With strong walls and cannons, they believed no matter how many times the enemy came, Dunmere would never fall. Their families would stay safe behind the walls.
But not everyone was relaxed. Benjamin and Simon were still worried.
"My Lord," Benjamin said. "The reavers have suffered too many losses because of our gunpowder. They are getting smarter. If they aren’t confident, they won’t try to attack again."
Simon nodded. "The Sunderland Tribe’s retreat must be because of Fern. They tried to stop us from building the wall at first. But now that we’re really doing it, he doesn’t want to waste troops. But what worries me most is that maybe the reavers have made real progress with their cannons. That’s why they dared to retreat so calmly."
"If that’s true, then we’re in big trouble." Said Benjamin. "The reavers already have many advantages over us. If they also get cannons, how can we fight back?"
Simon frowned. "I’ve been thinking about this too. We don’t know how good the Sapphire cannon technology is. When I return, I’ll make sure our Imperial Guards get more cannons. But don’t worry too much. Making good cannons is hard. Even if they make some, they won’t be as strong as ours. Without our iron mould method, their production is slow. If Fern only has a small batch, he’ll probably use them for revenge right away."
"That might be worse." Said Benjamin. He looked at Simon’s calm face and thought, How can he be so relaxed when danger is coming?
"Hahaha..." Simon laughed. "General Benjamin, I built this new wall for their cannons. When Fern returns, he will realise this fortress cannot be broken."
This wall was made of reinforced concrete, strong enough to survive even World War II cannons, let alone old solid cannonballs.
The steel inside gave the wall a strong skeleton. Even if the outside concrete was blown apart, the wall would still stand.
After celebrating the retreat, Simon gathered the workers to keep building.
The first 5 meters of the wall were done. Next was filling the inside with soil. Carpenters worked on holding up the wood frames, and ironworkers continued tying rebar.
Now that the enemy was gone and Lancelot and Francis had worn them down, Simon could focus on finishing the wall.
After building the next layer, Simon handed the job over to Viktor.
He had already explained everything to Viktor using the blueprint. Now it was time for practice.
Lancelot and Francis returned to Dunmere. Their raids had been very successful; they attacked more than ten tribes and stole over 10,000 warhorses.
With these horses, the Squad Divincox could grow by another 3,000 riders, making a total of 8,000 soldiers.
Now, Simon thought it was time to give them new weapons.
The reavers were great at shooting arrows on horseback. They learned from a young age. The Eldorian Empire couldn’t match them in that skill. But Simon had another idea.
He would give the Squad Divincox a special weapon: compound crossbows.
There were many designs in the system. Simon decided to build a three-string pulley crossbow. This kind of crossbow used less strength to pull back, only one-third the usual force. That meant soldiers could shoot while riding horses.
Simon had also thought about giving them triple-barrel guns. But those were weak and could only shoot three times. They weren’t good for long battles. The crossbow was better.
The best weapon would be a flintlock rifle. But making one took a lot of time and skill. Without machines to smooth the inside of the barrel, it had to be done slowly by hammer.
So for now, the crossbow was the better choice.