Time, like a blowing wind, cannot be seen or touched, but in the ordinary, it easily erases everything, no matter who or anything, it seems so fragile and vulnerable in front of him.

The flames burned, the flames soared into the sky, the shouts of killing came and went, and the mournful wails continued, but soon, everything was drowned in the endless roar of artillery fire.

Felitence stared blankly at the hell-like scene in front of him, which was originally like the most dazzling golden eyes in the night sky, but at this time he lost all his lustre, looking dull and godless.

It had been almost a year since their elven race lost the final battle for the elven throne, but the blood that night was like a nightmare that could never be forgotten, deeply imprinted in the hearts of all the elves who had experienced the long bloody night, and as the nightmarish situation resurfaced, a desperate and dreamlike scene resurfaced in Felitin's mind......

War is always so cruel, it is like a sharp blade that suddenly penetrates between heaven and earth, mercilessly slashing towards the head of their elven race.

That night, both the bright moon and the bright stars were completely stained red by the blood that kept spilling out.

The two sides collided like two huge grinding plates, it was a cruel collision of life and life, without any fancy or whitewash.

In the midst of the raging waves, Phyllitinus felt that the large number of people gathered together was like a boat drifting on the sea, and even the only wave that tossed out of nowhere was enough to overturn them.

The rout and casualties spread rapidly in the collision of true iron and fire.

Soon after the confrontation, it was a complete crushing situation, and the battle formation formed by the elves on the opposite side continued to advance like a steel fortress, while their elven race was losing and retreating, no matter how much they persisted, it was just in vain.

And at the forefront of the battle between the two sides, the front line of contact was like a grinding plate of flesh and blood, crushing everything in front of it into bursting minced flesh and crimson plasma.

The wind is whining, the blood is dancing!

The silence of the night slowly faded in the roar and shouting of the furious sea, and even the stars and moon in the sky seemed unwilling to see such a bloody picture, allowing the dark clouds to obscure their vision.

And in the collision of iron and fire again and again, the night also became deeper.

And in the end, whether Felitins wanted to or not, under the merciless slaughter of the other party, they could only choose to flee.

For all of them, that battle was a huge shame that was difficult to wash, but right now, the battle that was originally easy to win in the eyes of all elves would eventually evolve into the situation in front of them.

On the surface of the sea, the waves are surging, and the color of blood is surging again......

************

"Ahem, ahem, ahem......"

Thor coughed a few times, and the tremor of his body immediately stimulated the hideous wound on his right arm that had been torn by the high-speed splashing wood chips, and beads of sweat the size of beans slid down his forehead like raindrops.

His mouth was concave, his face, which had turned pale from intense pain, was even more distorted, and his low and desperately suppressed moans sounded like the devil's wail, but his body did not dare to move at all, for fear of causing his right arm to shake again.

......After a long while, Thor couldn't help but open his mouth wide to breathe, and the whole person behaved like a survivor who had just been saved from drowning, greedily breathing the air around him.

After the body was half-lying on the ground and gasping for half a day, the hideous color on the original face had dissipated a lot at this time, but the paleness became more and more prominent.

And just when Thor's tense body relaxed slightly, the nightmarish scene resurfaced.

"Boom-"

Hearing this loud bang again, Thor's originally pale face also changed again, and his body trembled and wanted to move, but before he could take a few steps, the black iron ball flew over his head and smashed on the cabin behind him.

Splashing planks mixed with flying dust swept in all directions like a storm.

"Hoo ......"

Seeing those iron balls falling, Thor was also obviously relieved, and his originally almost stiff body suddenly eased a lot.

However, looking at the people who were all in a panic all around, Thor was a little helpless at the same time, under this blazing roar, all the clansmen could not resist anything.

Just when Thor felt sad and helpless, in the outline of his vision, there seemed to be some black dot enlarged at a rapid pace.

After that, a huge wave of qi covered like a tide, and Thor's consciousness gradually fell into the endless dark abyss.

The swaying dark red flames began to burn sporadically as the iron balls kept falling, and at first they were still inconspicuous, but as the firelight converged and rose little by little, it eventually turned into a devouring beast, harvesting those fragmented lives little by little.

***********

One galleon, three brigs, three brigs, five corvettes, twenty heavy galons, and almost in an instant, nearly four hundred guns were fired in unison!

Under the frenzied catharsis of this terrifying artillery fire, no matter how much the two ancient trees of war were stopped, they were completely powerless, and their amazing recovery power lost all meaning in the face of this violent roar, and only at the moment of contact, it was washed away by the absolute impact force and shattered.

As the roar of the cannon fire gradually came to an end, one by one the Imperial warships quickly approached the elven warships that were already crumbling.

At the same moment, the black barrel of the gun had been pressed against the shoulders of the line infantry, and a pair of sharp eyes were staring at the sea, and the barrel in their hands was constantly adjusting the angle of shooting with the continuous ups and downs of the waves.

"All ready, shoot!"

With the slightly heavy and majestic voices of the captains of the frontmost battleships fell, the bloody curtain opened again.

"Bang bang-"

With the fierce collision of the flints, the cold barrels suddenly bloomed with blazing light at this moment, and the black oppressive phantom flashed like a dream, and the flesh and blood of the elves were so vulnerable under the crazy roar of this metal.

With a crisp sound like popping beans, red blood kept pouring out of these elves, and the originally blue sea was gradually stained red with blood.

"The front row stepped back, loaded with ammunition, and the back row stepped forward, ready to shoot."

A demonic roar rose, followed by a roar from hell.

And with the faint smell of gunsmoke, the frenzied lead bullets were also like the light of the sun in the sky, shining on those elves.

It's just different from the warmth brought by the sun, which is the despair and coldness mixed with the breath of death.

**********

"Go in and search, be careful, and be vigilant."

At this time, the warships of the two sides were already staggered together, and under the roar of the surging cannonfire before, because the two ancient war trees tried their best to block them at the cost of their lives, blocking a lot of solid iron balls, so at this time, there were still many elves who were lucky enough to survive.

They relied on the bow building, the stern building and the cabin, and they were still stubbornly resisting, most of the bows and arrows in their hands were discarded or damaged by the fierce artillery fire at this time, but these elves were not only good at using bows and arrows, the only remaining elves were still using the elven swords pinned to their waists to resist desperately.

In such a complex environment, the salvo power of flintlock pistols is undoubtedly reduced to a minimum, but these line infantry are not just good at shooting.

As the most mainstream line soldiers in major European countries in the eighteenth century, their daily training is naturally not only to practice shooting, but also to tactical assembly, charging and other traditional infantry training items, and in addition to these, there is also a very important one, which is to fight bayonets.

The invention of the musket is undoubtedly of symbolic significance, as it represents the war of mankind and officially transitions from the age of cold weapons to the age of hot weapons.

Unlike ordinary bows and arrows, muskets are more fatal, and the bullets can penetrate any armor, causing severe trauma to the person who is hit, and basically losing their combat effectiveness.

In addition, the use of muskets is easier to master, although bows and arrows have the advantage of easy operation and fast shooting speed, but archers need long-term training to master archery skills, and the use of muskets is relatively simple, and after a short period of training, ordinary laborers can be transformed into extremely lethal warriors.

In addition, muskets do not have special requirements for human fitness, archers usually have good arm strength, and even then, continuous archery will cause a rapid decline in physical strength, which will affect the accuracy and speed of shooting, while musket shooting does not have such a problem, its energy source is gunpowder rather than the physical strength of soldiers.

However, the performance of the musket was not enough to provide adequate protection for the musketeers, and the fire of the flintlock pistol alone could not withstand the onslaught of the cavalry.

Until the end of the 18th century, that iconic experiment of the Prussian army still fully demonstrated this.

They fired in a swarm at a canvas 100 feet wide and 6 feet high that simulated enemy troops at different ranges. At 225 yards, only 25 percent of the bullets hit this massive target, compared to 40 percent at 150 yards and 60 percent at 75 yards——— confirming what every experienced soldier knows: the closer the two armies are in an engagement, the better.

And such a shooting hit rate, on the real battlefield, will also be affected by the psychological quality of the soldiers, the complex environment of the war and many other reasons, so the real shooting hit rate will only be lower than this.

There is a paradox, on the one hand, musketeers need to shoot at close range, otherwise the hit rate will be low, but if they are too close, they are vulnerable to the impact of the opponent, especially against faster cavalry.

By the time they were scrambling to reload their ammunition after a shot, the opposing cavalry had already rushed to the front, in which case the musketeers had to wait for their hands to be killed.

Therefore, as early as the 17th century, the infantry was mainly divided into spearmen and musketeers. The prevailing method of combat was to have the spearmen line up in a dense phalanx, and then the musketeers would stand in front of the phalanx or on either side to shoot at the enemy. When the enemy approaches, the musketeers who are not capable of melee combat retreat, leaving the spearmen to cover. But this method of warfare was too complicated, so in the 18th century, the bayonet was invented, and a new class of arms was born: the line infantry!

They usually shoot in three rows, shooting like 17th-century musketeers, and playing the role of spearmen with bayonets when the enemy approaches. Due to the single type of infantry during this period, the combat mode was mainly to stand still and shoot at each other, so it was jokingly called "lining up to shoot".

The invention of the bayonet can be said to be an epoch-making weapon, because the bayonet appeared, and the musketeers could participate in white-knuckle combat on their own, without the protection of melee soldiers such as spearmen

And the choice of the bayonet as a weapon mounted on the musket was due to a number of reasons and considerations.

First of all, there is the cost: spears and bayonets only require a small piece of iron, and they do not have to be sharpened, as long as the head is sharp enough to poke a person. In contrast, weapons such as swords not only consume more steel, but more importantly, they require more time to forge, polish, etc., which is more expensive.

The second is the ability to pierce armor: with the continuous improvement of metallurgical technology, the armor of soldiers on both sides has become stronger and stronger, which makes soldiers need a sharp weapon that can pierce armor, so that the sword that used to be used for cutting and stabbing has evolved into a stabbing sword specially used for armor breaking. The spear fits this very well.

Thirdly, it is to fend off cavalry: when the enemy's cavalry rushes at you on horses weighing hundreds of kilograms and more than two meters high, and carrying a rifle more than two meters long, you will know how important it is to have a long spear that allows you to poke the enemy from a safe distance instead of being trampled to death by the horse's hooves. In contrast, the sword has no effect on this occasion.

In addition to this, there is a rather important reason, which is to maintain the density of troops: the peculiarity of the spear is that it has only one way to attack: to poke forward. This means that he doesn't have to swing left and right, so he doesn't have to worry about accidentally injuring his comrades on the left and right, so he doesn't need to leave a gap of one or two meters between people like when using a sword. The fact that the soldiers in line to shoot often stood shoulder to shoulder allowed them to have a superiority of two to one, or even four or five to one, when confronted with loosely formed sword-wielding enemies.

At this time, as a famous line infantry raised a flintlock pistol with a bayonet in his hand and rushed past, the bloody collision at sea finally came to an end.

However, the blood on the surface of the sea is still spreading......

ps: Thanks to the "poor and lonely" pro for the 100 coins tip. 18110