Sword of Dawn

Page 180

He saluted Gao Wen: "Lord."

Gawain waved his hand and asked casually, "How is the situation with Philip?"

Byron shook his head: "The Rock Fortress sent a team of superhumans to sneak attack on the temporary camp, but the 'sneak attack plan' that the nobles can come up with is really naive and ridiculous. Apart from the loss of manpower before the battle, I am afraid that it will not cause any damage."

Gao Wen was not surprised by this: "It's already an improvement for them to launch a sneak attack. If it weren't for those southern nobles who were beaten by us and ran to the Rock Fortress, I guess the orthodox knights in the fortress would even harass the sneak attack and destroy the camp. I can’t think of such a tactic.”

"Yeah, those nobles have finally learned how to fight," Byron smacked his lips, and then sighed, "But that Philip may have to struggle for a while, worrying that the 'war of the nobles' is gone forever, and the spirit of chivalry is vulnerable. Category……"

Gawain turned his head and glanced at Byron, his tone was a bit joking: "You know Philip pretty well."

"Hey, we've been working together for six years—that kid's talent is really strong. He became a full-time knight six years ago. I'm afraid he will be able to reach the intermediate level in the past two years. In this life, he may have the opportunity to challenge the high-level... ..." Speaking of this, Byron couldn't help shaking his head, "It's a pity that my head is a bit stupid, and I take all the fabricated things like knight stories and hero biographies as real. Believe that the knight can influence the bullshit of the dragon with faith."

Gao Wen was a legendary hero himself, and Gao Wen, who had a lot of hero biographies on his body, was a little embarrassed: "Ahem, hero biographies are not necessarily all made up..."

"Ah——" Byron immediately became more embarrassed. He scratched his hair a little nervously and apologetically, but he didn't know what to think of, and the expression on his face gradually became weird, and he hesitated to speak. look like.

Gao Wen reacted when he saw him like this, and said with a wooden face: "The book of more than 80 princesses is really made up."

"Ahem, yes, that must be the same as what you said..." Byron coughed on the spot, and then changed the subject abruptly before the boss drew a knife and slashed people (mercenary thinking), "But having said that, why didn't you see Miss Amber? ?”

"She's seasick, and she won't be able to get up for a while," Gao Wen said casually, "I was more excited than anyone else when I came out... I don't know if she will still have the strength to go to the Rock Fortress to perform the mission after arriving at the destination. .”

"Does Miss Amber actually get seasick?" Byron was a little surprised, "I thought she had no weakness in anything related to running..."

Gao Wen was disdainful when he heard the words: there is no weakness yet, the shame of all things has few weaknesses, everyone knows that "the chief of the Military Intelligence Bureau is a weak mousetrap"...

At this moment, Byron stopped joking and asked a question he was very concerned about: "Lord, actually I thought you were going to set off with Philip at first, but I didn't expect you to follow my 'second echelon'. "

In the eyes of most people—and in fact, the first and second combat regiments led by Philip are the frontal battlefield and the main force to attack the Rock Fortress, although the gate of the fortress may need to use the "Calibrator" rainbow However, it was the army led by Philip that actually attacked the fortress and wiped out the enemy's vital forces. It was rare for Gawain to set off far away from home. Everyone thought he was going to set off with Philip, but no one thought of this old man. The ancestor finally chose to go with Byron.

"You should know that although I am going to the battlefield, I hope that my appearance is just a symbolic meaning-the Cecil Combat Corps should have the ability to take down the fortress by itself. If the attack on a rock fortress is reached, I must go out personally To the extent that the army commander wants to apologize to the people of Cecil," Gao Wen explained, "I am more interested in new weapons and new technologies than Philip's battle."

Byron couldn't help turning his head back, looking at the "Calibrator" rainbow light cannon installed on the deck of the warship. In the deep night, this powerful new weapon crouched like a steel beast. On the deck, only a few runes showing energy status shimmered on its base, like the eyes of a beast.

"A new weapon... This thing is really exciting."

"It's not just as simple as being energetic," Gao Wen shook his head slightly, his eyes were fixed on the rainbow cannon, but the focus of his sight seemed to be on a farther place, "the magic crystal rail cannon and the rainbow cannon...they It can smash the noble's castle, and tear apart the mage's barrier, the value of these two things is far from being reflected in one or two wars."

……

The team sent to attack the Cecil camp and destroy the magic devices all failed.

The bad news was sent to Rock Fortress, but Cecil's army continued to advance, and Sir Maryland's hair began to wear out at a speed visible to the naked eye.

He faintly felt that his previous self-confidence...maybe a little too much.

From the mouths of those southern nobles, he really realized that the Cecils were a huge threat, and based on the available information, he worked out a plan that could weaken Cecil's army-this plan was even against the spirit of chivalry.

He knew that the Cecils' "Skyfire Explosion" was launched by some kind of magic device, and that the Cecils still needed to establish a position to make these magic devices exert their maximum power, so he sent people to try to operate them on those magic devices. destroyed it before.

But those people encountered an exceptionally powerful force that seemed to be specially designed to fight against the extraordinary, and almost all of them were wiped out.

A sneak attack by a small group of troops is ineffective, and Sir Maryland can only start sending troops to obstruct the enemy-this is the second plan that violates the spirit of chivalry.

As we all know, the army is the most fragile and chaotic in the process of marching. It is difficult for a large number of troops to conduct effective command during the operation. To organize an effective counterattack under certain circumstances, therefore, a sneak attack while the enemy is marching can often achieve miraculous results-and it is precisely because the army in chaos is very likely to cause accidental casualties to the nobles, so in traditional noble wars, "Assault and harassment of marching troops" has always been prohibited.

But now that he had already made a sneak attack on the camp at night, the Maryland Jazz no longer cared about breaking another line of chivalry.

However, on the 736th day of the fire month in Ansu 56, the Cecilians still set foot on the narrow plain south of the Rock Fortress as scheduled, and less than half of the troops sent by Lord Maryland to harass escaped back.

Facing the astonished general of the fortress, the wounded knight leading the team spoke of his nightmare experience——

When he led the soldiers towards the Cecils with great fanfare, the latter seemed to have seen them and was ready without any panic. Counterattack - first some kind of "sky fire explosion" carried by individual soldiers, then thrown explosives and magic beams fired from gauntlets, and finally enchanted swords that can easily split the armor of ordinary soldiers, all of which are powerful huge.

The so-called surprise attack seemed to be the same as taking the initiative to die.

As it turned out, leaving the fort to attack—no matter what form of attack—was not a very good idea.

Sir Maryland could only let his heart sink to the bottom, quietly waiting for the arrival of Cecil.

On the 736th day of the Fire Moon in Ansu 57, the Cecilian banner appeared at the end of the plain opposite the Rock Fortress.

Chapter 0435 On the 57th of the Fire Moon, it is advisable to bombard the fortress

After approaching the Rock Fortress, the regiment led by Philip was attacked several times - both sneak attacks at night and obstacles during the day, just as Byron said with emotion: the gang of nobles finally began to learn how to fight a real battle However, they learned later after all.

The attack plans that the commanders of the Rock Fortress can formulate are all based on the old-fashioned army-they imagine the Cecil Combat Corps as another kind of noble private army with powerful magic equipment, and on this basis Deduce the discipline, marching method, camping method and command response speed of the Cecil people, and then use them to formulate various attack plans, and the result is naturally no suspense.

Knight Philip admitted that the commanders of Rock Fortress were indeed actively fighting, but unfortunately they failed.

On the 57th of Fire Moon, on the hottest day of this summer, the flag of the Cecil Combat Corps entered the small plain area south of the Rock Fortress, a day earlier than originally expected.

The enemies in the Rock Fortress seemed to have finally given up their plan to take the initiative. As the Cecils got closer, they all began to shrink into the fortress. The Cecilians were burned before they arrived, and when Knight Philip set foot on the plain, his camp was even a piece of woodland that had been burned clean by the enemy.

In the new base camp, Knight Philip left the barracks and inspected the newly established camp on horseback. He looked to the north, and among the rolling mountains, he could already clearly see the towering walls of the Rock Fortress—that The city wall is deep and dark, but there is a layer of dreamlike magic light floating under the sunlight. At the top of the fortress, you can also see several huge mage towers in operation. The giant runes floating on the top of the tower and the city wall below complement each other. This scene is really hard to see in the barren and deserted south.

Knight Philip turned his head again and looked at a hill behind the camp - that was the location of the artillery bombardment.

The technical soldiers are transporting the main cannon components to the hill, where they are assembled as a fixed siege turret, assisted by temporary magic effects such as weight reduction, and the heavy "Justice I" orbital accelerator It will be installed quickly enough to pose a fatal threat to the first wall of the Rock Fortress, and the remaining few heavy accelerator guns and light guns will be pushed to the northwest by the Second Corps after the heavy artillery positions are established. The erection of the high ground was completed to form a more complete and dense firepower coverage.

Use artillery cover to advance the position, one position at a time, this is what the lord wrote in the "Artillery General Knowledge", and it is also the most basic and effective part of the firepower application skills, although Philip Knight is also It's the first time it's been used in practice, but he knows it will pay off.

The Rock Fortress has already appeared in the sight of the Cecils, in other words, the Cecils are now also under the nose of the Rock Fortress.

The distance between the two sides is a bit too far. At least, in terms of the range of the "Justice I" orbital accelerator, Cecil's army is too close. Philip Knight knows the cannons he has at hand. Under certain circumstances, those cannons can even strike enemies beyond the line of sight—as long as the ballistics are calculated. In this case, he can directly attack the Rock Fortress on the edge of the hilly land without setting foot on the plain.

But in this battle, he didn't need to stretch the distance that far, nor could he stretch the distance that far.

After returning to the tent, the young knight looked at the military map hanging in the tent—the map drawn by the lord himself was surprisingly accurate. On the map, he could clearly see the Rock Fortress and From his own position, he could also see the terrain around the Rock Fortress. He saw that the Dorgon River, which descended from the Holy Spirit Plain to the south, passed through a pass on the west side of the Rock Fortress, and split into two parts there, turning into white water. The tributary of the river flows all the way to the southwest, and the most suitable place for warships to anchor and become an attack point is an open area in the west of the plain area.

This area must be completely within the support range of Cecil's corps, so it is necessary for Philip Knight to advance his position to the plains, and at the same time, he must build the second highest ground closer to the White Water River, and he does not think this distance is necessary. What doesn't fit - how far can a trebuchet shoot?How far can mages throw a big fireball?

To put it bluntly, if he pushed his position forward by half the distance, the defenders of Rock Fortress could only stare blankly.

The curtain of the tent was lifted, and a young female knight wearing silver-white magic armor with a melting sword on her waist walked into the tent. The female knight stood at attention in front of Philip and gave a military salute: "Sir ! The scouts have returned, and the surrounding area is safe!"

Philip sighed: "They really watched us set up positions here..."

The young female knight - Margarita from the Kant area couldn't help but said: "Their reactions are actually quite normal."

Philip took a look at Margarita - he had a deep impression on this female knight. Mr. Kant's old knight, Mr. Walder Perich, admired this lady very much. He knew that Margarita was a knight with outstanding talent just like himself. It's just that due to the short period of allegiance to Cecil, some traditional aristocratic ideas in this lady's mind have not been completely changed, but Philip doesn't care much about it.

"Why are their reactions normal?" Philip asked casually.

"Relying on strong fortresses and magic barriers to protect themselves, waiting for opportunities to counterattack or waiting for changes behind the city walls, this is the fixed thinking of many nobles, especially when the active attack is not effective," Margarita said. Straightening her body, she wanted to try her best to leave a good impression of the Kant knights in the heart of the commander in front of her who came from the "lord's direct line circle". It is impossible to continue to send soldiers out of the city to meet the enemy, so they can only hide behind the city wall, which is a reasonable choice."

After a pause, Margarita continued: "In most cases, the siege of fortresses and fortresses is protracted. Presumably the commanders in Rock Fortress think so too. As long as the magic barrier can hold up, they will I don’t mind what we are doing outside. It’s like 40 years ago when Fort Soest was besieged. The enemy besieged it for three years. The lord of Soest was still unscathed. Instead, most of the soldiers who besieged the castle fled. In the end, the lord of Soest waited. With reinforcements coming, the enemies besieging the castle will have to retreat—presumably, the people in Rock Fortress are thinking the same idea."

Philip nodded thoughtfully: "Is that so..."

Margarita looked at Philip curiously: "My lord...don't you know this, sir?"

Her doubts are very reasonable: Philip is also an orthodox noble knight. No matter how the Cecil family declined at the beginning, it still had its own castle. How could the Philip knight who grew up in such an orthodox environment not understand the basic rules of these nobles' wars? Woolen cloth?

Facing the female knight's question, Philip did not hide anything, and said frankly: "I understand the truth, but the Cecils never fought like this, and it was not like this before the lord returned to the world."

"Oh?" Margarita's eyes widened. "How did the Cecil... fight?"

Knight Philip replied frankly: "Facing the attack head-on, if it is not necessary, try to avoid being besieged by the castle and falling into a passive defense situation. Anyway, as long as you kill all the enemies on the battlefield, the castle will naturally be safe."

"This..." The female knight was dumbfounded, "It's really a brave atmosphere..."

"It's not because of bravery, but because there is no way," Philip spread his hands, "If Cecil is besieged, no one will come to help. Once we are blocked into the castle, it will be over."

The atmosphere at the scene was a bit awkward for a while, but this embarrassment did not last too long. Philip Knight quickly changed the subject: "According to the original plan, the first test firing will be carried out before dusk—to help the dinner party at Rock Fortress." Add to the fun."

The female knight saluted immediately: "Yes, sir!"

……

The huge sun moved slowly in the sky, and finally gradually approached the mountains on the west side.

On the first high ground, the technicians are completing the assembly and debugging of the last "Justice I" orbital accelerator.

"Technical Soldiers" are soldiers born with the continuous emergence of various magical armed forces, also known as "Bachelors of Guns" or "Bachelors of Battlefield Mechanics". They are well-trained soldiers themselves, but they also have Beyond the mechanical knowledge and magic technology knowledge of ordinary soldiers, these field mechanics are equipped with special magic terminals, which can use the terminal's assistance to release simple spells such as weight loss and traction, and can also use magic terminals to The engineering components in the weapon are used for assembly, welding, adjustment and maintenance of weapons and equipment. Their appearance symbolizes the continuous development of the specialization of Cecil's magic weapon.

When the last "Justice I" orbital accelerator has been debugged, there are still 15 minutes before the launch.

The huge sun is falling towards the mountains on the west side, the bright sky is gradually becoming dim and orange-red, and the steel giants crouching in the emplacements are gradually being coated with a layer of golden-red glow .

Knight Walder Peric, who was already over middle age, even considered middle-aged and elderly, stood on a rock platform next to the bombardment position, put the binoculars in front of his eyes, and watched the movement of the Rock Fortress in the distance.

In fact, the middle-level knight himself has excellent eyesight, but after all, there is no way to compare with spells like the eyes of mages, but with the help of "telescope", he can see as far as those mages.

He could see that on the wall of the Rock Fortress, several knights were walking around, and many soldiers were defending on the wall, and those walking around could obviously see a little bit of the situation here, Occasionally they stopped to point and talk to each other.

Even though we are so far away, seeing something close through the telescope is as if we are right in front of our eyes. This kind of feeling cannot be experienced with "extraordinary eyesight".

Knight Valder Peric had no idea what the people walking on the far wall were talking about, but he didn't care either.

The appointed time is up.

The old knight took down the binoculars, and for the first time personally commanded the powerful "magic weapons" to fire.

Just like what he said to Margarita last time, the knights from Kant Land came in handy after all.

The rune trigger was pulled down forcefully, and huge energy instantly poured into the cannon mounts of the cannons. Using the magic energy to relay the obelisk transmission, the magic energy from Carroll's magic net drove these terrifying weapons to roar. , accompanied by bursts of sharp sounds, the heavy magic crystal shells rushed out of the acceleration orbit under the wrapping of light blue air masses, and rushed towards the distant rock fortress.

For the southern nobles in the fortress, the long-lost familiar voice finally came.

Chapter 0436 The Magic Barrier of Rock Fortress

Ever since the last team that left the city to harass the city fled back to the fort in embarrassment after being severely injured, the atmosphere in the Rock Fortress has fallen to the bottom.

The majestic and majestic knights led group after group of warriors to intercept the Cecils, but they could only leave their own corpses and fled back to the city. Still approaching the fort day by day, they were still near the hills two days ago, and today their flags appeared on the plain, as if they were really unstoppable.

And those southern nobles showed great wavering in this situation. They were frightened once and began to fidget after hearing that the Cecils were approaching. This reaction intensified the anxiety of the fortress defenders. Psychological pressure—anyone with a discerning eye can see that it is the existence of these southern nobles that magnifies the threat of Cecil's army and affects the morale of the fortress.

Sir Maryland even had to come forward in person to talk to those southern nobles, so that they could calm down and calm down a little, and no longer shake people's hearts. However, it was an unchangeable fact that the atmosphere in the fortress was deteriorating.

On this day, the Cecils finally stopped on the plain south of the Rock Fortress and began to set up camp. The mages who used the mage's eyes to observe the situation on the plain soon sent a more disturbing news:

Those Cecils occupied a highland in the southwest of the plain, and began to arrange some kind of huge magic mechanism on the highland.

That was far beyond the range of the trebuchets of the fortress, and even beyond the range of any mage tower.

In the inner city of Rock Fortress, in a brightly lit tavern, a bearded man put his beer glass on the table with a "boom", spilled the wine on the table, and yelled: "That's 'Skyfire' Ah! Skyfire! I know what the Cecils are doing, I've seen them from afar... They use that thing, and they can break into the fortress in no time... No one can survive!"

Then the man picked up the wine glass, gulped down the remaining beer in one gulp, and shouted drunkenly: "Come again!"

This is a down-and-out knight from the south. He fled into the fort with those southern nobles, and he has been wandering here for dozens of days now.The knight had some savings, and some gold and silver with him, but after all, he was no match for a noble lord who could sing and dance in the castle—so he could only get drunk in this noisy and messy tavern, using alcohol to numb his severely damaged nerves.

Since the appearance of the Cecils, such down-and-out knights have been haunting taverns and brothels more and more frequently. In the past, no one would bother them, but today, someone finally couldn’t stand it—a perennial resident of the Rock The local knight in the fort suddenly got up, grabbed the downcast knight by the collar, and forcibly pulled him up from his seat: "You coward! What else can you do except drink here and say something depressing?!"

The drunken down-and-out knight glanced at the hand grasping his neckline, and twisted his muscles into a weird smile: "You are not a coward, you can try to rush up when Cecil's skyfire falls..."

The local knight was full of anger, and subconsciously raised his fist high, wanting to show some color to the southerner who was disturbing the order and shaking people's hearts in the fortress. After the southern nobles and their followers hid in the fortress, the local The conflicts between the soldiers and these "outsiders" have been accumulating all the time, and at this moment when the atmosphere is depressed, the conflicts seem to have finally reached the stage of breaking out. , Indistinct thunder suddenly came.

Immediately afterwards, there was another strange howling sound in the night sky, as if something heavy was attacking quickly.

After the local knight was stunned for a short while, the southern knight caught by him uttered a strange cry, and then made a move that stunned everyone: he broke free from the hand that was holding his collar, and climbed into the table immediately Underneath, they shouted loudly: "Heavenly fire is coming! The magic of the Cecilians!"

Not only him, several southern knights and wandering soldiers in other corners of the tavern also immediately burrowed under the nearest table, yelling loudly while burrowing, the content of the yelling was basically about Tianhuo and Cecil magic--

The local knight was stunned for a moment. He wanted to reprimand the cowardly man in front of him who had no chivalry at all, how could he be so unbearable, but then, a deafening explosion came from the direction of the southern city wall. The loud noise even The wooden structure of the tavern was shaken, causing large flakes of dust to fall from the beams—the tavern was in chaos for an instant.

The southern knight who was under the table poked his head out and shouted to the chaotic tavern: "Skyfire! Skyfire is down! Find a place to get up! Get down on the ground! Don't stand and run around!"

"Calm down! Order! Take your weapon and report to the city wall!" The local knight shouted hoarsely, "Don't run around!"

However, the second and third explosions made his efforts come to naught. Those explosions continued to come from the south of the fortress, and the last one seemed to explode above everyone's heads.

However, in the midst of these continuous, astonishing explosions, as if the high-level spells cast by great magicians, the southern knight who got under the table got out again at some point. There were several other southern knights and soldiers who were looking for cover or lying down on the spot for the first time.

"The movement is wrong..." the southern knight muttered to himself, "it didn't fall on the ground...it didn't fall all over the city..."

The local knight couldn't hear the murmur at all, and he roared in the chaos: "What did you say!?"

"I said the movement was wrong! Skyfire didn't come in!"

The southern knight suddenly roared, and while the people in the tavern were stunned, several southerners suddenly rushed out the door.

They rushed to the open space outside the tavern, endured the fear that came from their nerves, and looked up in the direction of the skyfire explosion—then, they saw the huge barrier covering the entire Rock Fortress.

A hazy halo rises from the edge of the dark and solemn city wall of the Rock Fortress. On the city wall, countless magic runes are shining brightly, and the energy barrier covering the entire fortress is supported by the magic runes. It was radiant, and through that layer of translucent halo, people in the south could clearly see a few light blue streaks in the night sky rapidly passing through the darkness and hitting the barrier—or the city wall in the distance.

A thunderous explosion sounded, and the southern knight and his partners subconsciously flinched, but the explosion only rose outside the barrier—the huge flame was like a large-scale firework displayed by illusion masters, deafening and shaking the air , aroused layers of brilliance on the surface of the energy barrier, but in the end it did not transmit into the barrier.

More pale blue bright streaks streaked across the night sky and landed on the barrier and the city wall, but the southern knight and his companions stood firm. They stared at the terrible sky fires exploding outside the barrier, with fear on their faces. Finally gradually replaced by ecstasy.

The terrible "Sky Fire" was stopped.

The legendary ancient magical walls of Rockhold have proved themselves mighty.