At noon, the fortress of Silver Helmet Mountain, which hung high in the sun, and the tragic siege battle had entered the most critical moment.

Loud explosions rang out one after another, and black plumes of smoke rose from the ground—the once majestic fortress of Silverhelm Mountain was now in ruins, and the eyes were all in ruins.

During the ten-day "Tunnel Offensive", the soldiers of the Byrne and Grand Bowi coalition advanced the front line under the city walls with the support of alchemists' projectile weapons and the use of trenches and earthen ramparts as cover.

But for the offensive of the Byrne army, the "revenge" of the dwarves came with ferocity.

With a long roar, violent roars and explosions rolled up large patches of smoke and dust outside the city walls, and the trenches three or four meters deep and the two-meter-high earth ramparts were smashed to the ground under the bombardment of dozens of kilograms of boulders.

The entire siege position was struggling under the incessant "terror of revenge" from the dwarves, and the closer they got closer, the more fierce they became, and large swaths of land were turned upside down, and the sound of violent bombardment was like a downpour.

The engineers and the heavily armored knights, who had no time to escape, completely disappeared under the bombardment of the dwarves, and there were not even bones left.

But that doesn't stop the Byrne army from advancing, or even the opposite.

Under the repeated bombardment of the dwarves, the originally hard ground was smashed more and more soft, which was more conducive to digging trenches and piling up earth barriers, speeding up the advance of the army.

And the dwarves' increasingly monotonous means of counterattack are becoming less and less effective under the "tunnel offensive"... Unless you are lucky, most of the stone-throwing cannons will not be able to jump over the earth ramparts and fall directly into the trenches.

The heavy trebuchets that could really threaten the position were too sluggish and scarce enough to pose much of a threat.

Under the command of Count Eckert of Fury Castle, the entire siege position, the army of more than 20,000 people is like a huge war machine running in an orderly manner, every soldier, every banner is a gear, a lever, pushing the army forward continuously.

The seemingly rough trenches had become a complete and tight system in his hands—each tunnel was interlocked, from narrow paths that could only be passed by one person to smooth roads that could even be traversed by horses... The whole nine yards.

And when the battle line advanced to a distance of only two hundred paces below the city, even the stupidest dwarves knew what the Byrne army was trying to do.

Two hundred steps - as long as they blast through the city walls, the foot knights in leather armor and wielding two-handed swords can crush everything with a desperate charge.

In order to take the fortress of the dwarves, for the glory of victory, chant the names of the Holy Cross and the Valkyries, and die with the enemy; They can do it!

But when the dwarven "advance army" launched a surprise attack from below, they were greeted not by heavily armed infantry and cavalry, but by heavy crossbows and trebuchets hidden behind trenches and earthen ramparts.

In a quarter of an hour, the tight phalanx and queue were instantly torn apart under the same continuous bombardment, and the broken limbs and broken arms almost covered the land below the city, and not a single dwarf could return alive.

On a barren battlefield, the Earl of Fort Fury, whose face was still calm, walked out of the trenches, and looked at the dwarven army that was still rushing out from behind the city walls to meet the battle, raising the mottled and broken black and gold lion flag:

"Offense... Capture ——! City"

There were no impassioned speeches, no words of encouragement, and the moment these two words fell, the entire siege position immediately boiled, and the mountains launched a fierce attack like a tsunami!

With the clarion call to attack, the defenders under the city gates quickly fell... Only the dwarves on the walls were still wielding their hammers and shields, and the Boi hussars who threw away their armor and brandished their sabers rushed straight up.

But their stubborn resistance didn't last long, and the heavy crossbowmen in the back row climbed up after them, harvesting the corpses with rows of crossbows.

After ten days of hard work and exhausting tunnel operations, the soldiers and knights who finally broke the city were completely red-eyed, just thinking about letting these dead dwarves all go to hell.

On the siege positions outside the city, the roar of stone cannons and heavy crossbows lasted for a quarter of an hour before finally ceased slightly, and the phalanx infantry and foot knights launched an attack along the still intact tunnels towards the city gates.

The city gate is too narrow, and the number of troops invested at one time is extremely limited for the attacker, and exceeding this number will become a "gourd baby to save grandpa"-style refueling tactics.

Therefore, after stabilizing the position of the city gate, the Earl of Fury Castle quickly ordered the main phalanx infantry and heavy servants to capture the fortress's various fortress towers and walls, leaving only a small number of troops and elites to try to advance.

The dwarves of Silverhelm Mountain also took advantage of this time to quickly reorganize a new defensive line in the rear row, which was used to prevent the Byrne army from further expanding its victory, relying on strong walls and fortifications to resist steadily.

At this moment, the battle line of the dwarves of Silverhelm Mountain has been completely cut off by Eckert, and according to the laws of war since ancient times, the defenders in the city and on the city walls have been a lone army that has no way to retreat.

For reasons that are difficult to verify, the actual army of the dwarves on the walls is simply pitiful, even more than Eckert imagined - only the hussars and a small number of crossbowmen of Boi were invested, and half of the walls had already been taken before the army of the rear line had entered the battlefield.

So the dwarves could only watch one watchtower after another, the passes continued to fall under the fierce attack of the Byrne's army, and the walls were already covered with the banners of golden lions on a black background!

After reorganizing the offensive a little, the Earl of Fort Fury, who confirmed the dwarf's reality after several tests, did not hesitate to give the order for the final general attack.

Killing and death, blades and shields, blood and cruelty, war cries and wails!

Without any military formations advancing, the phalanxes were staggered, and from the moment of the battle, the two sides entered the most brutal hand-to-hand combat, and Count Angot, who wielded a two-handed sword, and Count Ramalos of the City in the middle of the lake directly pounced on the enemy formation, roaring and struggling forward in the sea of corpses and blood.

Although the dwarves of Silverhelm Mountain are still gritting their teeth and resisting, using various fortifications and defending weapons, so that the two rounds of attacks have cost the Byrne army quite heavily, but the constant shrinking of the enemy has also made the Byrne warriors see the weakness and fatigue of the enemy.

The more ferocious the counterattack of the Silver Helmet Mountain, the more it can highlight the fierce stubble of the dwarves at this moment.

In fact, from the moment the city gate fell, the offensive and defensive relationship between the two sides had been quickly reversed.

Standing on a makeshift ruined rampart amid the deafening sound of the battle, the Earl of Fort Fury watched coldly as the dwarven army was crumbling under the onslaught of the Byrne army, and was on the verge of collapse several times, but it was able to retract and restore order in time to block the front of the black and gold lion banner.

Clutching the tattered flag in his hand, Eckert's face sank as he shouldered the burden.

"Why are you so miserable and sullen?"

Out of nowhere, Salika Jonah, covered in smoke and dust, carried a blood-stained saber and slapped the Count of Fury on the shoulder:

"It's okay, these little dwarfs won't last long-when the army behind them arrives, they can be completely annihilated, and the credit for taking the Silver Helmet Mountain Fortress will be ours when the time comes!"

"Well, but then again, you benefactors really can... I thought that Loren guy was just talking, and he could really knock down the Silver Helmet Mountain easily!"

The smiling girl glanced at her, but she didn't see any pride or joy in Eckert's face; There is only life-threatening indifference and solemnity.

Even in his eyes, there was a trace of fear.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it just feels like you're right. Looking at the battle situation in the distance, Ackert, whose face was as heavy as water, shook his head: "Easy, too easy... It's a surprise to the extreme. ”

As the words fell, the smile on Salika's face faded.

"My Lord of the Castle of Fury, you're joking with me, aren't you?" frowning, the girl stared at his face and said coldly, "In order to take down this fortress, do you know how many people we have died in the past ten days alone?!"

However, the serious Ackert turned his head and looked at her calmly: "I know, I know it clearly. ”

"Ten days of bloody battles, not counting missing and minor wounded, the Boi hussars lost one-third, and the silver-armored cavalry suffered more than half of the casualties, and when the battle is over, this number will only be more, not less;"

"Of my Byrne's six large phalanxes, the infantry alone has lost 2,000 people, two phalanxes have been completely disabled, the knights have suffered no less than 300 casualties, two-thirds of the engineers who can operate projection weapons have been lost, and even the alchemists who accompanied the army have lost more than a dozen people;"

"If it weren't for the projection support of His Excellency Ain Rand in the rear line, and the timely formation of the ambulance team, half of our army would not have been able to enter this fortress alive by tonight!"

"You don't need to tell me the casualties of the siege, Miss Salika Jonah. Staring at the girl who was silent and unconvinced, the Earl of Fury Castle said coldly: "I know it clearly. ”

"But... In comparison, it was too smooth!"

"Compare with whom?!"

"And they... And ourselves. ”

Eckert sighed and clenched his back molars, "Do you know how much it cost Byrne last time when he captured the Dwarven Fortress?"

Before Salika could speak, he gave the answer: "Eddard Turin, the penultimate knight king of Byrne before his allegiance to the Empire, laid siege to a dwarven lonely city and captured their last bridgehead for attacking Byrne. ”

"For this reason, the Thirteen Commanders mobilized an army of 90,000 men, blocked the roads, cut off all external water sources, and burned the entire mountain forest to the ground... After four years of fighting, more than 50,000 people were killed in battle alone, and the last fortress in Byrne was taken. ”

"The tunnel offensive I used was a tactic invented by Ed Turin. Ecter gritted his teeth and said with difficulty: "This battle has left Byrne with great vitality and has not recovered for decades, so that even later joining forces with Boe could not stop the centaur invasion." ”

"As a last resort, I swore allegiance to His Majesty Eckhart I of the second generation, and achieved his 'great conquest'!"

"And the Silver Helmet Mountain we are attacking right now is a fortress in the territory of the Yunling Kingdom—in terms of solidity, the depth of the defensive line, and even the disparity in strength... More than ten times more difficult than Ed Turin back then?"

With a sigh, the Count of Fury Castle turned his gaze back to the battle: "That's why I said... We played too easily. ”

He frowned, his eyes narrowed.

Even if you want to beware of the Supreme King's counterinsurgency, the garrison of the dwarves of Silverhelm Mountain will never be the only thing they see, not to mention that they have already captured the city gate, how can they still blindly hold on.

Could there be other factors that are holding their armies back from fighting?

No, it's not true... It shouldn't be like this, there must have been some accident, and it was an unforeseen accident.

"Could it be because of Loren and them?" Salika hesitated, but asked tentatively, "Maybe he thought of some good way to make our fight so smooth." ”

"As much as I have great respect for my duke, and have infinite confidence in his wisdom and strength, I ......" Eckert sighed:

"I still don't think he can fight an army alone, and a regular army of thousands of dwarves!"

Shrugging, the girl was silent for a moment.

But this brief tranquility was soon shattered.

"Lord Jonah, Lord Eckert!"

The wounded herald rushed back from the front line of the battlefield, gasping for breath: "Count Angot asked me to send news that the enemy has begun to break up, and is breaking through on all fronts, and is breaking through on all fronts——!

Almost at the same time, the two of them were startled, and turned their gaze to the battlefield - as the herald had said, the dwarven banners were no longer visible on the narrow battlefield, but a sea of colorful swallowtail flags, and everywhere there was a tsunami of revelry and deafening shouts.

Silverhelm Mountain, it has been captured!

"Very good, inform the front line to stabilize its position, and prepare for the attack on the spot. Eckert calmly ordered: "When the rear line army arrives, prepare to start ......"

"No, it's not!"

The pale-faced herald interrupted him in a panic, nervous to the extreme: "Those dwarves... It's a rout, but they're breaking up in a strange direction!"

Weird?

The Count of Fort Fury had a look of surprise on his face, but Salika narrowed her eyes, still desperately looking at the battlefield in the distance.

Wait, are they ......

"All the dwarves, hundreds, thousands, ......thousands," the herald shouted, "there are troops and civilians, and the great swaths are scattered... They're all heading out of the city!"

What the?!

"Miss Salika Jonah, we must change our plans at once!" Eckert looked back sharply, staring nervously at the girl beside him:

"Salika Jonah, now, please make a decision now——!"