Iron Powder and Spellcaster

The gun fort at the entrance of Chiliu Bay is located on the west coast of the bay, and there is a small fort located on the east coast of the bay, across the sea from the gun fort.

The two ends of the sea-blocking iron cable at the entrance of Chiliu Bay are fixed at the fort and the pier respectively.

The structure of this pier is very simple, consisting of four rammed earth walls roughly forming a square shape. The base of the square pier is more than ten meters wide, and the wall height is more than six meters, which is about as high as two stories.

In the defense system of the old era, this pier was completely unattainable and was simply four earthen walls. It's not steep enough, nor high enough, and there isn't even a shooting hole on the parapet.

In the new era of defense systems, such fortifications with blind spots, lack of artillery, and pure high-defense are even more outdated.

But for Winters, a team of light infantry who lacked siege means, this fort was still a tough nut to crack.

On the top of the pier, the Tanirian sentries were also sleepy. In order to prevent the enemy from approaching quietly from the woods, the trees within 30 meters of the Dunbao have long been cleared. Under the bright moonlight, nothing can be hidden.

For the Tanirians defending this fort, the excitement and tension of ambushing the Venetas that day had long since dissipated, and all they had to do in this war was the tiresome standing guard, standing guard, and standing guard.

Several muffled sounds rang out, and the half-asleep sentinel was suddenly awakened by the knocking sound. He shuddered and listened with bated breath. There were several more muffled sounds.

This time, he confirmed that he was not hallucinating. The sound was coming from under his feet, neither near nor far.

The sentry drew his armed sword, walked lightly to the female wall, and looked down carefully.

As soon as he stretched out his head, a dark hand suddenly stretched out from outside the wall and grabbed his collar. The next moment, the sentry felt a strong force coming from his neck, dragging him directly outside the wall.

The sentry screamed, fell down the high wall in an upside-down position, broke his neck, and died.

Immediately afterwards, two Huds, with their heads shaved and naked, their whole bodies smeared black with ashes and black mud, climbed up the female wall. In order to hide their figures in the dark, they had nothing reflective on their bodies, and even the only short knife they carried was baked into matte black.

Winters and the remaining men lurked at the edge of the woods, watching the actions of the two Hurds. These two men were chosen by Hestace as warriors from among all the Heds, the most adept at climbing.

No Venetian can climb a six-meter-high wall with bare hands, not even a rammed earth wall. However, if the remnant soldiers and slaves who lacked siege weapons wanted to break into the fortress, the only way was to send people to get in and open the gate.

Winters watched silently as the two ghostly Hurds quietly approached the castle and began to climb up. At this moment, even though Winters was an atheist, he suddenly wanted to pray.

But he still heard the sound he least wanted to hear, screams and the sound of landing. He didn't know whether the sound came from the Hurds or the Tanirians. The two Hurds had disappeared from Winters' sight.

"We've been discovered, change the backup plan!" In the silent night, the scream could be heard clearly even by Winters, who was more than thirty meters away, let alone the defenders in the fort. Seeing that the sneak attack failed, Winters immediately ordered: "Follow me, even if we all die here, we must destroy this iron chain!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Winters came out of the crowd, took the caster and equipment, and strode towards the coast. The others were stunned for a moment and immediately rushed out of the woods.

Everyone stepped forward and ran, and the night attack turned into a force attack, so there was no need to tiptoe.

This pier is located on the high ground along the coast. The end of the iron cable is fixed inside the pier, extending from the hole in the wall of the pier to the water.

Unlike the fort in the middle of the bay, this fort is less than ten meters away from the sea, and the shore part of the iron cable is within the range of the fort's projectile weapons. It is simply an impossible task to destroy the iron chain under the eyes of the defenders without being discovered.

But the plan to seize the Dunbao has gone bankrupt, so we can only force ourselves to do it.

However, something that no one expected happened. A bright line first appeared on the gate of the Dunbao. The bright line became wider and wider, and the gate slowly opened.

Winters saw the door open. Before he could think about it, he waved his hand and shouted, "Seize the door!"

The door opened with difficulty by less than one meter. The people inside screamed and tried to close it again, but something seemed to be stuck again.

The distance of thirty meters was reached in just a few steps. Winters drew his sword and jumped in through the gap between the two wooden doors of the castle with a roar.

There were six or seven Tanirian soldiers inside the door. They were all stunned when they saw the figure flashing in. However, Winters, who had experienced many life-and-death fights, did not give the opponent time to react, and viciously slashed the enemies around him.

It wasn't until Winters nearly split a Tanirian in two that the Tanirian soldiers realized what was happening.

They screamed and stabbed Winters with knives and guns. Winters was about to draw his knife to block, but his scimitar was stuck in the bones of the corpse and could not be pulled out.

Now Winters is no longer the stupid boy he was when he just left the military academy. He has been tempered in iron and blood.

Finding that the machete was stuck, Winters abandoned the knife and retreated without hesitation. At the same time, he abandoned his distracting thoughts and entered the spell-casting state.

The next moment, the gunpowder bottle on a Tanirian soldier suddenly exploded. The power of the explosion not only made a big hole in the waist of the soldier carrying the gunpowder pot, but also injured the soldiers around him. Even Winters was pushed against the door by a wave of air.

This is Winters' first original spell, improved from "Axel's Hair Burning Technique". During the fight on the day of landing, Winters realized that since the fire-burning technique could ignite the enemy's hair, it could also detonate the gunpowder on the enemy's body. After several attempts, he found that this spell worked surprisingly well.

A whole kettle full of gunpowder was detonated, like a bomb dropped in a small doorway. The doorway was filled with gunpowder smoke, and blood, pieces of meat, and intestinal contents were splashed everywhere on the walls and floor. The people who were still alive screamed, and their voices were extremely horrifying.

The blast of air from the explosion hit Winters' chest like a heavy hammer, making his chest feel tight. But he struggled to stand up, spit out a piece of meat that flew into his mouth, picked up a spear from his side and stepped into the smoke again.

Only then did the other Veneta and Hurd slaves follow Winters. The Venetian soldiers and Hurd slaves who broke into the gate of the pier were trembling with fear at the tragic scene in front of them. No one dared to step into this corridor of flesh and blood. .

"XX! What are you doing standing still? Kill!" Bard came to his senses, cursed rarely in his life, and rushed into the castle with a scimitar.

An officer took the lead, and the others plucked up their courage and charged into the castle with shouts.

There were only a dozen defenders in this fort, and half of them were killed by Winters in the doorway. The remaining defenders had no fighting spirit and hid in dark and hidden corners, shivering, but in the end they were all killed by Winters' men. Found it out.

The living Taniriya soldiers were dragged out of cabinets, baskets, and warehouses, and pushed to the open space in the center of the fort. Some cried and begged, while others closed their eyes and began to pray.

Venetian soldiers and Hurds surrounded the prisoners.

"We don't have anyone to guard them, so we'll kill them all." Winters ordered the execution of the prisoners without expression. He found a clean towel and was wiping the blood on his face.

The Hurds couldn't understand what Winters was saying, and the Veneta soldiers were at a loss.

When Winters saw this, he didn't say much. He grabbed a spear and walked to the prisoner. He gritted his teeth and said, "This is for my soldier who was nailed to the stake... I haven't forgotten a single thing."

With that, he stabbed one of the prisoners to death cleanly.

The other prisoners rolled and crawled in an attempt to escape, but were pushed back by the Venetians and Hurds on the side.

Bard also expressionlessly grabbed a prisoner by the hair, inserted the machete through the collarbone, and executed a prisoner.

Two officers took the lead, and the other soldiers gritted their teeth and attacked the remaining prisoners. There were no living Tanirians in the castle.

"Two of our men were wounded, but not dead. No Hurds were killed...except for those two men." Bud and Winters reported the casualties: "One of them fought hard to open the door, and the other destroyed it. A wake-up call...if it weren't for them, we would be on the coast right now, taking bullets."

Winters turned his back to Bard and said nothing, just loading the matchlock gun found in the fort.

"The time is coming, you hurry up and go to the beach with the flare. You don't need to do the rest." Winters said without looking back: "If both of us are gone, who will deliver the message to the legion commander? Go quickly Bar."

Bud sighed, but did not leave.

Winters also sighed, put down the musket in his hand, turned around and said helplessly: "I know it is not good to kill prisoners, but if I do it again I will still do it."

"I'm not against you executing the prisoners. We really don't have the manpower to guard them." Bard said sincerely: "I just hope you won't be obsessed with revenge, and you won't attribute the responsibility for the destruction of the Centurion to yourself."

Winters said nothing.

Bud stood at attention and saluted, Winters also stood up and solemnly returned the salute, and Bud turned and left.

Bud led two Veneta soldiers to leave the fort and head towards the beach to the south.

Winters used up the remaining iron-melting casting materials in one go, and the iron cable across the entrance of the bay was cut off on the east coast and sank to the bottom of the sea.

Winters saw the Hurd warrior who was desperately trying to open the pier door. He finally understood why the Tanirians had failed to close the door, because the Hed had jammed the door's axis with his own body.

His tribesmen took out his body and laid it flat on the ground. There were three stab wounds on the abdomen of the corpse, and half of the body was almost crushed.

Winters saluted the Hed's corpse, and Veneta's soldiers followed suit.

"There is no need to be sad for him, he is already waiting for us on the banks of the River Styx." Hestas said calmly: "He went to the River Styx as a free man, and we will go to him as a free man."

The old shaman squatted beside the corpse, put a silver coin into the palm of the deceased's hand, and sang the Hed's requiem song.

In the low chorus of the Hurds, Winters led the remaining soldiers and the Hurds out of the fort and headed towards the artillery fort in the middle of the bay.

In the ambush battle a few days ago, although the Tanirians failed to eat the Veneta Revenge Fleet, they also had an unexpected gain.

There is a blocking tactic in naval warfare, that is, self-sinking ships block the channels in and out of the enemy's port and block the enemy's fleet in the port.

Blocking tactics can prevent ships in the port from leaving, but they can also prevent ships from outside the port from entering.

Three sunk Veneta warships lay across the bay channel, forming an artificial reef. Even if there are no sea-blocking iron cables, a ship passing by this reef will hit the bottom of the ship and even capsize or sink.

It is for this reason that the Chek Liu Island Council believes that Chek Liu Bay is impregnable. Even without these two sea-blocking iron cables, the shipwreck reef alone and the two artillery forts are enough to resist the Veneta people.

If Veneta breaks through head-on and sinks a few warships, the bay will be completely blocked.

But tonight was different than usual.

A nearly full moon hung in the sky, and she hindered Winters' surprise attack. But she will also make amends to the Venetians in her own way.

Tonight is the seventeenth day of the lunar calendar, the astronomical tide!

Since nightfall, the tide in Red Sulfur Bay has been rising. According to Bard's calculations, the tide would reach its highest level in a month between one and two o'clock.

By that time, even shipwrecks and reefs can no longer hinder the Veneta warships. As long as the two sea-blocking iron cables are destroyed, the Veneta warship will march straight into Red Sulfur Port.

Kalman claims to be able to get Winters off Red Sulfur Island, using a secret smuggler's route, and he can get two people out at a time.

But Kalman told Winters just to destroy the unity of the Veneta people from within. He did not expect that Winters would use this smuggling route to get in touch with the Veneta fleet.

The fleet that has been preparing for departure in the outer sea will immediately enter Red Sulfur Bay after receiving Bader's signal.

Winters can now find a safe place to hide and wait for the Veneta Army to return to the Red Sulfur Port after it captures it. His mission has been completed. In the original plan, he only needed to destroy two iron cables.

But he understood that there was one more thing he could do - destroy the cannons in the east bank forts.

Chek Sulfur Bay is guarded by two forts. The west bank fort guards the entrance of the bay, and the east bank fort guards the middle part of the bay.

The forts on the west bank were beyond his reach, but if the forts on the east bank could be destroyed, many Veneta people would die less.

Winters himself didn't know what was driving him. He was not doing it for military exploits, nor for a sense of honor. There was no honor left in this war for him.

After thinking about it, he convinced himself with only one reason: "If those cannons can be destroyed, many Veneta people will die less."

Maybe he just didn't want to see Veneta bodies anymore.

"Our target is the artillery fortress on the east coast." Warrant Officer Winters Montagne, Centurion of the Chief Battalion, mobilized the last soldiers of the 100th before the war: "We have fewer numbers than the enemy. , the only hope of victory is to attack fiercely, rush in before the enemy can react, destroy those cannons and withdraw immediately."

"You have done a lot for Veneta, but we still need to fight for Veneta again." He glanced at the soldiers who followed him to hide from XZ on Red Sulfur Island. Under the bright moonlight, everyone's eyes were shining brightly. He stopped talking nonsense and pulled out his scimitar: "Follow me!"

In front is the artillery fortress of Red Sulfur Island.