Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 204 Prelude

   The patrol boat on the Styx was the first to warn.

  The things tumbling in the river sank and floated, and the speed was extremely fast, passing the boat and approaching the bridge.

  The bridge is not afraid of barbarian fireboats - this is the consensus reached after discussions at the building bridge headquarters.

   "Want to use fire boats?" Colonel Hogwitz said disdainfully at the meeting: "Barbarians must have boats first!"

   Shipbuilding generally requires wood, nails, glue, and sealants, and the ingredients of sealants vary from place to place.

  The Veneta people mostly use asphalt, while the Union province people like to use tung oil.

   The material conditions are fairly easy to solve, but craftsmen who are proficient in shipbuilding will not fall from the sky.

   Even the "canoe" that seems to lack technical content, does not need glue or nails, its requirements for craftsmanship and the labor hours consumed will reach an astonishing level.

   Who can’t hack people with a knife?

   But Plato's army could build furnaces to melt iron, use hydraulic power to saw wood, and build bridges across rivers under the noses of the enemy.

   As for the Hurds... Colonel Hogwitz said: "It would be nice to be able to make two rafts."

   This is the engineering capability gap.

   Winters is also optimistic about the threat from the water.

  Shipbuilding is indeed not easy. If it were easy to build boats, the Palauans would have crossed the river by boat long ago.

   With all the resources and resources of the whole army, they could only build twelve ten-man paddle boats that were barely leaking. Also nicknamed by the soldiers as [The Twelve Apostles].

   Even if he wanted to weave a raft, the white lion had to get ropes and nails first. Most importantly, he could not find wood.

   Within a radius of fifty miles, there is no second forest outside the bridge forest.

  In order to prevent the white lion from taking advantage of it, Arpad led people to burn down even a few small woods that were not good enough.

   This is also the reason why the Paratus must build a bridge here.

   And Sackler also arranged three lines of defense on the water.

   Even if the white lion can make a raft, he has to break through the three lines of defense before he can touch the bridge pile.

  The shadows in the water swept past the Platoon ship, and the first line of defense was easily broken through.

  The speed of that thing is too fast, the musketeers of the main camp have not yet arrived, only the posts along the coast have fired a few shots at it.

   So the second line of defense didn't work either.

  The black shadow was like a giant snake running through the water, rushing towards the bridge.

   Winters had a cold sweat in his palms, now it all depends on whether the third line of defense can work.

  The moonlight is hazy, and the shadows float up and down in the water.

   Winters couldn't see clearly at all, he could only barely see the distance between the shadow and the bridge pile getting closer.

   "Boom!"

   A loud, dull sound.

  The shadow in the water collided with the [Dragon Slaying Sword] in front of the bridge pile.

   Dragon Slaying Sword - This is the name of Brother Rhett.

  Selika people often compare rivers to dragons, and the name of Dragon Slaying Sword is poetic and majestic. Winters thought it sounded good, and learned to call it that.

  The Platonic sappers called it [water-dividing piles].

   That is, another wooden pile is driven two or three meters upstream of the bridge pile, and an inverted V-shaped water divider is installed on the wooden pile.

  The turbulent water will be divided into two by the Dragon Sword, and the impact on the bridge pile will be weakened accordingly.

   Usually, Zhanlongjian is responsible for reducing the erosion of water flow on bridge piles.

   Once attacked, Dragon Slaying Sword is a water city wall.

  If you attack from the water, you must first destroy the Dragon Sword, and then you can approach the bridge body unhindered.

  But if you want to pull out the Dragon Slaying Sword from a boat, you have to withstand the hail of bullets fired from the bridge and the shore.

   This is the third line of defense.

  [Note: There is no rope or chain connection between the water-dividing piles. Otherwise, if one of the diverter piles is pulled out, the other diverter piles will be taken away.]

   I saw the shadow and the Dragon Slaying Sword collide firmly, the latter swayed suddenly, but like a boxer who was hit hard, he stubbornly refused to fall.

   The shadow was bounced off and went downstream.

  The Platoons on the shore—including Winters—regardless of officers and soldiers, all breathed a sigh of relief.

  The third line of defense still plays its due role.

   But soon, Winters' smile froze at the corner of his mouth.

   He saw that the slashed dragon sword seemed to be under some kind of enormous force, and was slowly falling down in the direction of the water.

   Accompanied by the exclamations of the soldiers on the bridge, the Dragon Slaying Sword was uprooted and slammed into the pier, and then went downstream.

   Lieutenant Varga with outstanding eyesight pointed upstream and exclaimed: "Look! Here! More!"

   It turned out that the shadow just now was just an outpost, and countless shadows were rushing towards the bridge in groups.

   "Could it be that the barbarians are still raising monsters in the river?!" Lieutenant Colonel Robert was shocked and angry.

   His subordinates did not know how to answer, and the shore was dead silent, only the sound of the rapids could be heard.

   "I see!" Winters slammed his thigh hard. The strength is so great that the strong luck is startled.

   Winters didn't know the pain, and stared at the water with gnashing teeth: "Wooden rafts! White lions are going to release rafts to overrun the bridge! No wonder! No wonder General Arpad is heading north!"

   "Wooden raft? How could that thing be a wooden raft!" Lieutenant Colonel Robert frowned.

"If it's really a wooden raft, it's easier to handle. Two small boats can kill all the people in the raft! I don't know what to call it." Winters grabbed the reins and gestured to his colleagues: "That thing in the river is Trees! The white lion must have connected two or more trees with ropes and chains and lowered them from upstream."

   "[Angry swear words]!" Lieutenant Colonel Robert was sharp in his thinking, and he was very penetrating.

   And the other officers were still ignorant and didn't understand what it meant.

Winters held the reins with both hands, using the horse's neck as a bridge stake, and continued to explain: "A single log is lowered and it is likely to float directly between the bridge stakes. Two trees are connected by a rope and rushed down upstream. , even if the strength is not enough to knock down the water-dividing piles and bridge piles, the wooden piles can be dragged down. It is like pulling a net in a river! This trick is useless for pontoon bridges, it is specially designed to deal with bridge piles!"

   Speaking of this, other officers also suddenly realized.

   But the means of seeing through the white lions are useless, a group of them are standing on the shore and can only be anxious.

  Lieutenant Colonel Robert dispatched Varga to report to headquarters what Lieutenant Montagne said.

Winters also thought of two countermeasures: first, use a boat to pull the net on the river and drag the driftwood; second, send water-savvy soldiers down the river and cut off the ropes hanging on the bridge piles - the white lion should have no money Use iron wire.

   He could only think of these two solutions in a hurry, and Winters said without confidence: "There may have been someone capable of thinking of what I said at headquarters."

   "Don't worry about this." Lieutenant Colonel Robert said simply: "Tell me."

   The rapidly changing battle situation gave Winters a severe headache.

   When he was a trainee in the Vengeance Fleet, there were people on board and at sea who arranged things properly, and he was qualified if he did not spit into the cabin.

  Vinetta's large number of naval officers, any one of them is better at surface combat than him, but he is a landlubber who has not even learned to swim.

   At this moment, Winters very much misses the loyal enemy of the Veneta Army - the Veneta Navy.

   If Captain Speyer and Adjutant Cage are here, should they be able to come up with better countermeasures?

  It is useless to think too much, Winters shook his head, trying to empty his mind.

   "Let's go!" Lieutenant Colonel Robert pulled the reins and turned the horse around: "Our responsibility is to guard the camp and not let the Hurds take advantage of the chaos. Others are responsible for matters on the water."

   All the officers followed suit.

   A centurion grumbled dissatisfiedly: "If they can't keep the bridge, our hard work will be in vain..."

   "You can't do everything alone, trust your colleagues." Lieutenant Colonel Robert said without turning his head: "I trust them as much as I trust you."

   Winters chewed this sentence, remembering what General Nareshaw had said during the Battle of Lighthouse Harbor, "Veneta expects everyone to do their jobs."

  The army does not fight by one man, one centurion. In any case, he can still trust his seniors, seniors and even generals.

  Thinking of this, Winters calmed down.

   After finding out the situation, everyone rushed back to the Qiaolin camp.

   The centenary teams have been assembled, and the surrounding area of ​​the camp is pitch-dark, and there is no sign of the Hurds appearing.

   Lieutenant Colonel Robert suddenly sighed heavily: "Now... it's up to Arpad's ability."

   The centurions do not know why.

   "The Styx River is meandering, and the location where the Hurds put their 'rows' upstream will never be too far. Otherwise, those 'things' will all be washed ashore."

   A centurion asked: "General Arpad led his troops from the camp just now to deal with the Hurds upstream?"

   "I guess so." Lieutenant Colonel Robert frowned.

   "Where did the barbarians get the wood?" Winters couldn't figure it out: "Didn't we clean up the woods around here?"

   "I don't know either." The lieutenant colonel clenched the whip tightly and said angrily, helplessly, and unwillingly: "The white lion is not an ordinary barbarian, we... still underestimate him!"

  …

  The Platoons are desperately trying to protect the bridge.

  The cold wind whistled, and the brave soldier stripped naked and jumped into the icy river with only a hemp rope tied around his waist.

   They don't have much time, and every second the river takes a lot of heat from their bodies.

The    water-dividing piles were dragged down one by one, and the ones that had not been dragged down were just struggling to support them.

  Because of its arched structure, the bridge piles can barely withstand one or two impacts.

The   Hard ropes were tangled in the bridge piles, and the submerged Paratus had to cut them before they lost their heat.

   Braziers were lit on the bridge to warm up the diving soldiers.

   But when many soldiers were pulled up, they were so cold that they couldn't even speak, and only their bodies shook uncontrollably.

  Some people's skin has turned blue-purple, and their limbs are swollen like radishes.

   Sackler's heart is sad, these soldiers who jumped into the Styx are his best sons.

   But he couldn't show any emotion and just kept sending more people into the water.

   The river Styx was swift, and the river slammed into the bridge with a giant tree in it.

  What the Platoons are fighting against is the power of nature. Swords and muskets are all useless at this moment, and the weapons of mankind are only courage and will.

   All twelve small boats were dispatched, but the fishing nets were not found in a hurry, and the soldiers on the boats only tried their best to intercept the driftwood in the water with long spears.

  A half-thick tree trunk was half-submerged in the water, and it didn't surface until it got close to the bridge pile.

   The soldier who was cutting the rope next to the bridge pile couldn't dodge and was hit by the tree trunk, and immediately vomited blood.

When    was pulled out of the water, he had died.

   This is a very young, handsome young man, who is lying naked on the bridge at the moment, his eyes are wide open, there is blood on the corners of his mouth, and a large chunk of his chest has been crushed.

   Someone was crying softly.

   Sackler took off his cloak, covered the young man's body, and gently closed his eyes for him.

   "What's his name?" Sackler asked.

   "I don't know, General." Colonel Laszlo replied blankly: "I don't know."

   The Hurds on the other side also discovered the abnormality of the Palatu army. No matter whether the White Lion communicated with them in advance, they would not miss this opportunity.

  Arrows and stones hit the Paratus on the bridge, and the brazier was the best guide.

   Hunters with rifled guns hurried over, the sound of gunfire and arrows breaking through the air symphony. Some fell into the river, and some fell on the shore.

   "Ship!" The Platoons in the boat exclaimed: "Ship!"

   On the river, a huge object was emerging from the night, pressing towards the bridge step by step.

   "Where did the ship come from?"

   "It's not a boat." Colonel Laszlo only glanced at it, and replied calmly as if it was none of his business: "It's a raft, a sheepskin raft."

  The Platoon soldiers in the boats rowed hard and slammed into the huge sheepskin raft.

   And there are Heards on the sheepskin rafts, shooting arrows at the boat oarsmen.

   "Such a big sheepskin raft." Sackler sneered: "I'm afraid I don't know how long I have been preparing... I thought I had looked down on him. In the end, I still looked down on him."

   The Paratus were eager to return home, and the Hudd were equally eager to destroy them. Therefore, it is impossible for the barbarians to let go of any opportunity to pursue and intercept, and the same is true for the Paratus.

   The raft prepared by the white lion was used to cross the river. Before that, he never thought that the Paratus people could build a bridge across the river. Like his venerable foes, he is a man of tricks, making the most of the limited resources at hand.

   This chapter has some schematics, if you don't see it, please refresh it later.

   [Dragon Slaying Sword] not only divides water, but also breaks ice, which is found on Lugou Bridge.

   When I read this story myself, I feel that Winters is having a hard time, and I swear I will treat him well in the next volume...

   Thank you book lovers for reading, subscribing, recommending tickets, monthly tickets, tips and comments.

   (end of this chapter)