Iron Powder and Spellcasters

  Chapter 448 The great alliance moves forward (twenty)

  [River Valley Village]

   "[There is no fortress that never falls]," thought Lieutenant Woods.

The adage    is often quoted as a metaphor, but for Woods at this moment, "there is no fortress that never falls" is literally "there is no fortress that never falls."

  Woods pondered where this wonderful sense of humor came from, while pressing his cheeks and shoulders to the **** of the gun, aiming at the enemy on the roof not far away.

   The lieutenant's shoulder was already swollen from the hit, and every time he touched the **** of the gun, he felt a pain in his heart.

   But he still held the gun body still, breathing gently, and waited until the interval between two heart beats before pressing down the firing rod steadily.

  The red flames shot from the muzzle briefly illuminated the main hall of the church, and the enemy the lieutenant aimed at raised his hands, then his body leaned back, and rolled down from the roof where only charred wood and black mud were left.

  Woods didn't feel sorry for the other party, nor did he feel any satisfaction. He just handed the musket in his hand to the wounded soldier beside him, and then waited for the latter to pass another loaded musket into his hand.

   The efficiency of the lieutenant's shooting is too high, and the four wounded soldiers do not do anything other than pour gunpowder and plug lead, and they cannot be used by the lieutenant.

  Waiting for the next musket to be handed over, Woods suddenly figured out where the hilariousness of the adage [No Fortress That Never Falls] comes from.

   comes from the contrast between weekdays and this moment.

   On the battlefield, the rules of everyday life transition seamlessly into a disparate set of rules, making many things that would not normally be funny to be funny.

  Woods thought as he looked at the altar at the end of the main hall.

Behind the altar, the silent Holy Son lowered his eyes and avoided the lieutenant's gaze; under the altar, the sacrificial utensils that the priest did not take away were brutally swept to the corner, and no one cared; The satin of worship has also been pulled down and turned into bandages for wounds... and rags that are being shoved into the muzzle of the gun.

  Woods didn't understand why he still had the leisure to think about these messy things.

  It is clear that the church where he is located has been surrounded by enemy groups, that the enemy musketeers have begun to climb the roof to suppress his subordinates, and it is clear that the enemy will soon carry the ladder from the east bank...

   But the reality is that the more critical the situation, the more urgent the situation, the more active Woods' mind is.

And the battle situation is too clear at a glance: the square in Hegu Village is too small to even be called a square. It is just a circle of open space around the church, with almost no room for advance or retreat; It was only a matter of time before the humble fortress of wagons and corpses fell.

   An overly active mind encountered an overly simple situation, so Lieutenant Woods could only consume the excess "brain power" through instinctual crankiness.

  Woods thought as he took over another musket that had been tied with a match.

   This time, his luck was not so good. The gun went off, but the enemy he was aiming for was half-squatting behind the chimney and reloading unharmed, unaware that the Death Scythe had just passed by.

  Woods didn't feel sorry either. He just handed the musket in his hand to the wounded soldier behind him and calmly told the latter: "This gun is a bit too much lead, so I'll replace it with a gun that I haven't used much."

   And wait again.

  While waiting, Woods Frank inspected the walls around the church, but inexplicably felt a trace of regret in his heart - regret that he did not diligently practice swordsmanship at the Army Academy.

   The students of the Artillery Department mostly regarded sword fighting as a game of barbarians, and sneered at the long sword skill that everyone must learn in the Army Academy.

   It is unknown how many of them were barking. The result is clear at a glance - from the students to the graduates in the artillery department, all swordsmanship is sloppy, and no one can handle it.

  Woods himself is very interested in swordsmanship, but unfortunately the artillery department has a heavy workload, so he can only follow the flow.

   Looking around the battlefield, Lieutenant Woods thought regretfully that if he spent a little more time practicing swordsmanship, he might be able to use it today.

However, another voice immediately retorted coldly in his mind: Even if Woods Frank spent more time practicing swordsmanship, for Woods Frank here and now, at most it is just a little more and a little less. difference.

  Woods shook his head and inadvertently caught a glimpse of blood on his clothes. He immediately looked away, forcing himself not to look at the bloodstains, forcing himself not to think about where the bloodstains came from.

   At this moment, the observation post on the clock tower rang out in horror: "Come! Come!"

   Immediately afterwards, the sound of attacking snare drums came from outside the walls around the church.

  The soldiers of the New Reclamation Army moved the long ladder to the high ground where Hegu Village was located. Several centenarians carried two or three siege ladders each, along the roads and paths in the village, and attacked the church in the center of the village at the same time.

   "Climb the wall!" Woods swept away all the distracting thoughts in his mind. He pulled out a sword that he had barely used, and ran out of the church first: "Climb the wall!"

   Previously, Woods personally set fire to the village, delaying the enemy. The enemy commander, while organizing the fire, dispatched musketeers to occupy the roofs around the church square. The temporary "fortress" built by Woods and his subordinates lacked bunkers, and the brown-clothed musketeers shot down the defenders condescendingly, as easily as hitting a target.

  The remnants of the coalition forces retreating to the square had to give up the open space and hide in the building.

   Seeing that the lieutenant rushed to the barrier without hesitation, soldiers from Baishan County and Leiqun County who could still fight also poured out from the church, warehouse, and cemetery.

  The brown-clothed soldiers stepped on the scalding mud and shouted to put the long ladder up the top of the barricade wall.

   "Distillate oil!" Woods pointed his sword at the direction where the ladder was emerging.

  The coalition soldiers defending the church immediately threw the last few pots containing alchemy fuel, and a heat wave suddenly erupted outside the fortress. Even if the vision was blocked by the wall, the defenders could clearly hear the heart-piercing screams.

  The enemy on a road was temporarily blocked by a wall of fire, but the enemy's offensive was launched from more than one direction, and the defenders had used up all the rectified oil.

   The hand-to-hand battle began as the brown-clothed soldier climbed the ladder and jumped into the wall.

   The remnants of Baishan County and Leiqun County used everything they could find, hoes for weeding were turned into halberds, muskets that had been depleted of ammunition turned into warhammers, stones without weapons, and nails without stones.

  People try their best to kill each other, you chop at me, I hit you. Flesh and blood flew, brains splattered.

  Woods was also slashing frantically. He suddenly realized the essence of swordsmanship, which is to chop down at another person without any mercy, chop off the arm, chop the shoulder, chop the thigh, and chop wherever it is soft.

   Hand-to-hand combat is brutal and quick: a cut in an artery can quickly cause a person to suffer from excessive blood loss and shock; a jab at the heart and lungs can immediately make a person incapacitated.

  Woods had back pain, arm pain, pain everywhere. Apart from a few scratches, there were no more fatal wounds on his body. But that's not because he's a good swordsman, or because he's lucky, but because his subordinates are desperately protecting him.

   But as the hand-to-hand battle continued, the figures of his subordinates became less and less, but the brown-clothed soldiers never retreated.

  The enemy also discovered this exceptionally brave officer. Someone shouted and gave orders, and more and more brown-clothed soldiers attacked and killed him.

   By the time Woods regained his senses, he was surrounded by three soldiers in brown.

  The brown-clothed soldiers were hesitant, exchanged glances with each other, and kept swallowing saliva. No one dared to make a move first.

   But Woods didn't care anymore, he raised his saber stiffly, and shouted that he was about to slash at the enemy in front of him.

   At this moment, a huge force came from behind the lieutenant, and someone grabbed his collar and pulled him back abruptly.

  Woods saw a thin one-armed figure pass him by, and he met the enemy instead of him, and with one block and one stab, he knocked down the brown-clothed soldier who was charging at the forefront.

   Two more soldiers in light green messenger uniforms met the other two soldiers in brown. The thin, one-armed old soldier protected Woods and retreated to the door of the church.

   "I thought." Woods gasped heavily: "You ordered me to hold on to my death."

   "We will all die, sooner or later, Lieutenant." Colonel Bode glanced coldly at the soldiers of the two armies in the melee: "But not now."

   Another round of deafening cries and drums filled the heights where River Valley Village was located.

   The 2nd Infantry Brigade of Leiqun County, which had previously attacked the east bank and was repelled, and the 2nd Infantry Brigade of Baishan County, the northernmost point of the right flank of the coalition front, simultaneously attacked the village from the northwest and southwest.

  Sanell had taken too many troops from the Central Army, and the parliamentary army attacking River Valley Village was left with only two brigades, which no longer had an overwhelming military advantage.

   Caught off guard, the troops of the New Reclamation Expeditionary Army, which besieged Church Square, collapsed and were pushed off the heights again.

It took a moment for the guards of the   church to realize what had happened. A soldier from Baishan County suddenly cheered, and another soldier from Leiqun County also cheered.

   Immediately afterwards, all the coalition soldiers, regardless of whether it was Leiqun County or Baishan County, cheered loudly, cheering with the utmost strength and heart.

   Even the hand-to-hand battle that was still alive and kicking came to an abrupt end. The brown-clothed soldiers who had entered the fort were at a loss, and subconsciously moved closer to each other. This time, it was their turn to be besieged.

  Woods Frank was cheering too, tears slipping uncontrollably from his eyes.

Colonel Bode walked towards the parliamentary soldiers trapped inside the fortress, as if giving an order to his subordinates, and said calmly: "Surrender, you are lucky, this battle is over for you. "

   Parliamentary soldiers in brown coats, you look at me, I look at you, no one knows what to do, no one moves.

   Only a middle-aged sergeant stared at Colonel Bode in disbelief, and looked at the latter from foot to head, and then from head to foot, and finally his eyes stayed on the colonel's empty severed arm.

As if suddenly awakened from a sleep, the middle-aged sergeant looked around in panic, at the dying man lying on the ground groaning, at the enemy and comrades covered in blood, what he wanted to say, but there was a big stone stuck in his throat. .

   The middle-aged sergeant lowered his head and released his weapon.

   "Dang bang", the blood-stained steel sword fell on the stone slab.

   After a moment of silence, the sound of more metal hitting the slate sounded, and the rest of the soldiers in brown also lost their weapons one after another.

   Above the bell tower of the church, the flag belonging to Bode Gates rattled.

   [One more chapter tonight! ! (Referring to the evening of July 29, 2022)]

   [Thanks to book lovers for their collection, reading, subscription, recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, rewards and comments, thank you all]

   (end of this chapter)