Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 206 Act Two

   There are no more insects and birds, and the completely silent forest is full of murderous intentions.

   Therefore, the series of hooves in the distance seemed particularly abrupt.

  The soldiers on the camp wall set up their muskets, pointed in the direction from which the hoofs came, and their fingers rested on the firing rod.

   The smoldering arquebus flickered on and off, and the musketeer's tensed jaws were looming, and everyone was swallowing saliva involuntarily.

  Three riders broke through the night and galloped straight towards the camp gate.

   Seeing the black armored and silver horse as the leader, the sergeant on the camp wall immediately shouted: "Don't shoot! It's the Montagne centurion!"

   There was a panting sound on the camp wall, and the musketeers closed the lid of the medicine pool, untied the arquebus, placed their muskets against the wall, and returned to their standby positions.

   "Open the door!"

   "crunch...crunch..."

  The heavy wooden gate slowly rose, and the three riders just entered the doorway, and immediately fell again with a bang.

  The two riders went to rest their horses, and the leading rider walked straight into the command post.

The    command post was very deserted, with only a few people inside.

   "How?" Lieutenant Colonel Robert asked without raising his head, propping his chin up, staring at the map.

"I went north first, then west, and ran for at least two kilometers before I ran into the enemy's light cavalry." Winters took off his helmet and pointed out the approximate range on the map: "There is no trace of the Hurds in the bridge forest. , not even a rabbit."

  The barbarians are not likely to attack the Bridgewood Camp—at least not from the north. This is the conclusion that Winters personally led the reconnaissance.

  The sound of footsteps and the collision of armor pieces came from outside the tent.

   "Second Lieutenant Varga is back." The guard came in to announce.

   After a while, Varga, who was scouting south, walked into the tent.

   "There's a fight in the south." Varga didn't care to salute and reported directly: "You can hear the screams of killing in the northern highlands, and you can vaguely see the fire in the southern highlands. The camp is fine for the time being."

   "How about the bridge?" asked Lieutenant Colonel Robert.

   "Half of it was destroyed." Vargar replied: "The sappers are repairing the remaining half."

  Plateau's reconnaissance and riding space was compressed to a very small area, and the battlefield became a fog, and no one knew what the white lion had planned.

  Defense has tactical advantages, but at the cost, the enemy also gets the initiative.

  The tent became quiet, and the atmosphere was dull for a while.

   "It's nothing strange." Seeing that his subordinates didn't speak, Lieutenant Colonel Robert said, "Yasin has been urinating for more than ten days, so it's time to be happy."

The metaphor    is too vulgar to be uttered by a gentleman like Lieutenant Colonel Robert.

  Someone laughed in agreement, but Winters failed to appreciate the leadership's sense of humor, and he was actually more frightened.

"The barbarians have big moves for two reasons. Either their reinforcements are coming, or our reinforcements are coming soon. Whether it's good or bad, we'll see in a few days." Lieutenant Colonel said lightly: " Let's go back to rest, you have to eat well and sleep well before you have the strength to fight."

Lieutenant Colonel    arranged the order of rotation, and the officers dismissed the meeting.

   This night, everyone spent in tension and vigilance.

   The soldiers on duty at night opened their eyes hard, trying to find the enemy's trail behind the dark wood line, but not wanting to see the enemy.

   Soldiers who were not at night could not sleep soundly, and most of them fell asleep without even taking off their armor.

   One after another, the Arpad cavalry returned to the Qiaolin camp, and most of them were wounded.

   When asked about the battle situation, these people could not explain clearly, they were all separated from the large army in the melee.

  Most people were wielding sabers and slashing left and right the first second, but the next second they suddenly found that there were no enemies or comrades beside them, so they moved closer to the nearest friendly army.

  Can't blame them, most night battles are like this: the two sides collide, fight in confusion for a while, each throws down wounded soldiers and corpses and retreats.

   In this case, the one who comes prepared always has an advantage.

   After asking them one by one, Lieutenant Colonel Robert already knew the situation of the Arpad department.

   Apparently, the cavalry led by Arpad was intercepted by the enemy.

  The two sides fought for a while, and the barbarians should have been repelled—otherwise, it was not just scattered wounded soldiers who came back.

   General Arpad continued north along the river bank with a large cavalry force.

  Lieutenant Colonel Robert ordered to take in the scattered cavalry, and arranged for people to boil water and melt salt to treat the wounds of the wounded.

   As time went on, more and more lost and wounded soldiers returned to the Qiaolin camp, and several officers were unconscious and returned by war horses.

Lieutenant Colonel Robert received more and more detailed information: the Hurds in the upper row had been routed, Arpad continued to march north, and encountered more and more Hurd cavalry.

The fierce assault of the   Platoon cavalry ended with a fire that burned the sky red.

   The thick smoke shot straight into the sky, and even the sentry sent by Lieutenant Colonel Robert could see clearly.

   Before that, Arpad led his troops to burn all the trees except for the bridge forest in a radius of fifty miles of the bridge.

   Judging from the results, the range of fifty miles is too conservative, and the white lion is underestimated.

   This time, Arpad should have hit further.

  While everyone rejoiced at Alpad's victory, Winters had a bad premonition. He couldn't say why, maybe it was just because it went so well.

   Not only Winters was uneasy, but Colonel Robert was equally worried—but he was very good at disguising it.

   At the same time when he learned that there was thick smoke rising into the sky in the north, Lieutenant Colonel Robert ordered the Qiaolin camp to prepare for the war.

The troops of   Qiaolin Camp were divided into two parts: "Can sortie" and "Cannot sort".

   Winters' centurion was drawn to the side of the strike force because of its strong combat power.

   The premonitions of the two "pessimistic" officers soon came true.

  When it was just dawn, the messenger cavalry, who had lost their helmets, brought Arpad's ring and a message: The defenders of the bridge forest camp came forward to meet.

   "Could this be fake?" Lieutenant Varga objected to taking the initiative: "General Arpad will ask us for help?"

   First trick the defenders out of the strong camp, and then gather and annihilate them. This set of things has been rotten by the barbarians, and the Paratus people can't help it.

   "Checked, the ring is real, and the person is real." Lieutenant Colonel Robert ended all discussions: "Alpad should really have encountered a problem."

   With three days of dry food, one day of drinking water, and no carriage, Lieutenant Colonel Robert led 1,200 soldiers to attack lightly.

   Winters was among them.

  …

   Walk, take steps, keep walking.

  There were only sporadic Hurd cavalry around at first, their courage was as small as sparrows, and they would flee if they were slightly frightened.

  The further you go, the more barbarians gather around Robert's group.

  The courage of the barbarians increases dramatically with the number of people. When they ride one or two, they will only spy from a distance.

   Strong Luck snorted, and Winters lightly rubbed the side of its neck.

  A horse snorts when anxious and snorts when excited, and only a close rider can tell the difference.

   "Don't worry, little guy." Winters buckled his helmet, pulled up his throat plate, and lowered his face guard: "Don't worry."

   Eight hours later, Arpad and Robert's department finally converged.

   The cavalry was defeated, but the Palatine was only victorious.

  Winters saw Dussack in Wolf Town. It turned out that the cavalry of Jieska Brigade also fought with Arpad last night.

   He didn't see Andre and Bud.

   "Andre! Bud!" Winters rummaged through the wounded frantically, and asked, "Have you seen Lieutenant Bud? Where's Lieutenant Cellini?"

  No one can give him the answer.

  The crowd roared, the horses neighed, and Winters' mind went blank.

   "Behind, I seem to see Second Lieutenant Cellini." A soldier whispered.

   Winters jumped on his horse and ran to the rear of the line.

   He didn't see Andre, but he saw Andre's extremely strong black horse.

   That horse he would never admit wrong, because it was the warhorse of the Turtletown champion and was found on the riverbank after the war.

  Winters fought the Turtletown champion as a rule, and the horse belonged to him, but he passed it on to Andre.

  Saw the dark horse, and then took a closer look. Isn't the dirty groom holding the reins Andrea Cellini?

   Winters jumped out of the saddle and sprinted over, clutching Andre's shoulders tightly. At first, I wanted to cry, but I couldn't help laughing when I saw Andre's embarrassed appearance.

   Winters had never seen Andre so embarrassed in his life.

  The latter's gorgeous hussar uniform has been charred, and the fringe fringes have been burnt.

   His bearskin hat had gone somewhere, and he was wearing a tattered knitted hat that he "would rather die than wear" - it seems that keeping warm is more important.

   Winters has a bit of stubble on his jaw, and that's because he's too lazy to shave.

   Andrei deliberately has a very delicate beard in order to be beautiful, and he has to take care of it every day.

   Now those beards are gone too, to be exact, they were curled up and charred from the burn.

  Andre's face was even more smeared, as if he had washed his face with coal.

   The contrast was so great that at first sight Winters didn't even think that the "groom" was Andre.

   "Why are you here?" Andre was taken aback at first, but he was very happy after recognizing who was in front of him.

   "To meet you!" Winters asked hurriedly: "Where's Bud?"

  Andre's face turned ashen, pointed to the simple sledge dragged by the dark horse, and whispered: "Behind."

   The dark horse dragged a simple sledge made of branches and straps. Bud lay on the sledge, with a **** clean cloth around his head, and didn't move.

   These words were like a bolt from the blue, Winters' eyes were black, and he was almost unable to stand.

   "Not dead!" Andrei also found something wrong: "Not dead!"

   Winters couldn't care less - although he really wanted to punch Andre hard - to check Bud's situation immediately.

  Bud is still breathing, but has fallen into a deep coma. The other injuries on the body are not fatal, so only the wound on the head remains.

   "There was a hammer on the head." The more Andrea thought about it, the more sad he became: "The helmet was dented."

   "It's good to be alive." Winters carefully fixed Bud's neck with his clothes: "It's good to be alive."

  Andre squatted on the ground, scratching his hair in pain: "We... what kind of thing is this!"

"I do not know either."

   "We should escape, we should have escaped from the beginning. If we had made up our minds to escape back to Veneta at that time, we now..."

"No, listen to me!" Winters grabbed Andre roughly, staring at the latter's eyes, saying word by word: "It doesn't matter what happened in the past. Now, whether you like it or not Will, we all win this battle for the Paratoans. Only then will we have a chance to live."

  …

  The reinforcements of the Hurds are really coming.

  Because the barbarians spared no effort to inform the Platonic people of this.

  The Hed people who received reinforcements were greatly encouraged. They lined up in front of the southern and northern highlands. The leaders of the tribes could not wait to let the Paratus walk down and count the heads one by one.

   This is of course a psychological tactic, extremely simple and rude.

   But it also worked, because even the most stubborn Paratus could no longer deny that reinforcements from the barbarians really came.

   As for the reinforcements of the Paratus? There is no news from them for now.

  The white lion burned two-thirds of the bridge forest, and Arpad also burned the source of the white lion's wood to ashes.

  It is not easy for trees to thrive in the wasteland. A forest may take hundreds of years and various coincidences to grow, but it is much easier to destroy them.

  The fire that Arpad set burned for two days and one night.

  If the white lion wants to get wood again, he has to travel a hundred kilometers away.

   But the Paratus also suffered heavy casualties: half of the cavalry squadrons were beaten incapacitated, and almost no one was uninjured; the loss of horses was greater than the loss of personnel in long-distance raids.

   Arpad is said to have sent away the flags of the cavalry squadrons and the eagle flag of the Fifth Legion.

  The cavalry that could continue to fight was reorganized into nine squadrons of cavalry - the first time since the establishment of the Legion.

   Auxiliary soldiers can be scattered and reorganized at will, but for a standing army with a stronger sense of belonging and honor, dismantling and reorganizing is equivalent to the destruction of an honorable collective.

The   Platoons began to shrink their forces, and the Qiaolin camp also received an evacuation order.

  The logging teams cut down all the trees that could be used, and the remaining shrubs and small trees were burnt down.

   Then Lieutenant Colonel Robert led the crowd to demolish the Qiaolin camp and retreat to the main camp.

   Winters' team is back with the Jessica brigade, and Bud's centurion is now in the hands of him and Mason.

  Bud regained consciousness, but began to have a fever again.

After   Father Kaman's examination, it was judged that Bud's skull had a linear fracture, and his doctor's order was very brief: rest.

   All of Palatu's army was shrunk to three camps: the South Highland, the North Highland and the Great Camp.

   Sackler and Arpad also knew that they could not count on auxiliary troops, so the three camps were defended by the standing army.

All the    auxiliary soldiers were put into the bridge building, and the Jesska brigade was also transferred to the bridge building headquarters.

  The white lion's fire raft destroyed the original bridge, which had a length of more than 110 meters, to less than 50 meters, and the remaining bridge piles also needed to be reinforced.

The   Palatu people have been driven to a dead end, rushing to repair the old bridge piles and reinsert the new bridge piles almost day and night.

   At the same time, the white lions also attacked the fortresses on the north and south highlands.

  The city is being attacked on the mountain, and the bridge is being built under the mountain. The people building the bridge can hear the fighting on the hillside, and the people on the hillside can hear the piling.

   The agony of the Platonic people is beyond words.

   It was too late to build bridge piles, bridges, and bridge decks step by step. The engineer officer was impatient, and proposed the idea of ​​"do not build bridges, directly use bridge piles to fix pontoon boxes and rafts, and build [pontoon bridges]", which was immediately adopted.

  Plateau Sappers no longer erect beams.

   After they laid the stakes, they fixed the pontoons, rafts, and boats directly on the stakes. If you put on a simple wooden board, you can barely leave.

  The speed of building bridges has been greatly improved.

   And the offensive and defensive battle on the hillside once again verified an unbreakable truth: Human beings learn other things very slowly, but killing skills are the fastest.

   The Platoons never imagined what the White Lion had learned from them.

  The Palatu people blasted the Bianli city wall three times, and now the barbarians have begun to blast the Palatu camp according to the gourd painting.

   Their first blast was no accident with fireworks.

   The second time too.

   The third time too.

   At first, the Platoon soldiers were still laughing at the barbarians, but soon no one could laugh.

   With practice and improvement time and time again, the Hurds gradually mastered the know-how, and the blasting power became greater and greater.

  The speed at which the barbarians absorb military technology is so fast that the people of Paratus are terrified.

   The proliferation of military technology is a hundred times, a thousand times more terrifying than the simple circulation of weapons.

  Any Palatine who sees this scene will no longer question the strategy of strangulation of the past three decades. They will only regret why they didn't hold the white lion's throat harder.

   The blasting sound that was heard almost every day was the best whip. It slapped the backs of the Praetorian sappers and auxiliary soldiers hard, urging them to exert 12% of their strength.

The progress of the    bridge was rapid, and it only took two days to cross the middle of the river again.

   At this time, it doesn't matter what Veneta people, Platonic people, regional discrimination, and portal views, everyone is a grasshopper on a rope. If you lose this battle, no one will survive.

   Winters also had a sense of crisis as if his back was held against a sharp blade, so he took up the axe and worked hard like the lowest-ranked soldier.

   The only thing that comforted him - Bud's fever was gone.

  Father Kaman stayed with Bud for one night, and the next morning Bud miraculously subsided his fever. Just because of the massive blood loss, he is still very weak and needs to rest.

   Seeing that the bridge pile was less than 50 meters away from the other side of the river, the last thing everyone wanted to see happened.

   Accompanied by the sky-shattering explosion, tons of soil mixed with human body fragments flew into the sky.

The    camp was like a rain of mud, and the **** sludge even flew to the feet of Winters, who was sawing wood.

   Winters saw: First one man fled from the southern highlands to the camp, then two men, and finally hordes of rout soldiers ran down the hillside.

   Even the supervising team couldn't stop the rout.

   Winters didn't speak, he spat twice in the palm of his hand and continued to bury his head in sawing wood.

   In the morning, the southern highland camp was breached.

   In the afternoon, the barbarians pushed the cannons up the southern highlands and bombarded the bridge.

   In the evening, Lieutenant Colonel Jesska, Winters and Andre were called to the Legion headquarters for a meeting.

   Colonel Laszlo, Lieutenant Colonel Robert and their surviving centurions were there.

Colonel    Laszlo remained as calm as a dead man.

   Lieutenant Colonel Robert was shot across the cheek by a heavy arrow, three teeth were knocked out, and the wound was sewn with cotton thread.

   He couldn't speak, and nodded to Winters.

   In addition, there are two centurions with shaved hair and red cloth tied to their left arms - officers of the death row.

   These are all the units of the Palatine Army that still have the power to fight.

   Sackler didn't talk nonsense, and told all the officers present bluntly: "Retake the southern highland fort, tonight. If you win, you will live, if you don't, you will die."

  …

   In the darkness, the Montagne Centuries have assembled.

   By the dim moonlight, Winters saw his warriors one by one.

  Here are the soldiers he brought out from Wolf Town, the young men who were added in from Heishui Town and Shengke Town, as well as other farmers and tenants from newly cultivated land.

   He can call everyone by name and recognize everyone's face.

   This battle, campaign and even war has entered the moment of life and death.

   Winters didn't need to say much, he trusted them and they trusted him.

   Winters' eyes were sore, but the tears were swirling in their sockets, and they stubbornly did not flow down in the end.

   "Go away, night. Fall, stars." A word echoed in Winters' mind, and he slowly recited: "At dawn, we shall prevail!"

  The cold wind blew through the corners of everyone's clothes, and the River Styx flowed silently.

  Winters was the first to walk into the night: "Go!"

   Draw a map of the Battle of Styx, which can be found in this chapter and in the circle of book friends.

   I owe another chapter... Turandot didn't premiere until 1926, but please ignore the details. Because before this story was born, the scene of Winters chanting "Go away the night, the stars go down. At dawn, I shall prevail" was born. This singing has been echoing in my mind for more than a year at least.

   Thank you book friends for reading, subscribing, recommending tickets, monthly tickets, tips and comments, thank you all.

   (end of this chapter)