"Head...... I—What are we going to do now?! ”

On the city wall, a soldier with a shield behind his back, a pair of silver-white steel plate cuirass, and leggings gasped, and asked in fear to an equally panting little leader beside him.

These people are actually soldiers who belong to the elite Dendan warrior team in the town of Ystad, and they belong to a group of professional soldiers, loyal to the lords here, and their status is not very high.

However, the situation here in the town of Stad has now become like this: their governor and lord, Lord Edarion, has been beaten to death by the women in the distance who are armed with demonic weapons! Then, the lord's deputy was also killed! Even, even the knights under the lord who are usually above the top of their eyes are all dead, and they are still dead that there is not even one left!

At this moment, in the town of Stard, apart from those political officials, the highest-ranking military governor seems to be this little centurion who is responsible for coordinating and leading the two teams of Dengdan warriors?

"What else can I do? I can only hold on! ”

"The iron rods in their hands, which make loud noises and emit fire and smoke, must be some kind of devil's weapon! Therefore, we must not go out of the city to fight with them easily! ”

The leader of the Dendan warriors, who was the first to run back with his team just now, gasped violently for a while before finally calming down.

"Explain it now, and calm down the brethren! They don't have as many people as us, so they shouldn't force the siege, as long as we hold on to the city wall and don't go out, in a few days, they will definitely leave by themselves! ”

In any case, he would never go out of the city to find death again!

Then, after looking at the corpses of the knights outside the city, he suddenly found that right now, it seemed that he had a great chance to succeed in ascending to the throne?

The situation is already very bad now, the lord and his hardcore knights have all died outside the city just now! And at this time, all that is left in the city is their useless family members? The people in the town of Ystad must have been gnashing their teeth at them for a long time, right?

And if he can successfully defend the city wall this time and slowly take over the other auxiliary soldiers with his two hundred elite Dendan, perhaps, when the enemy retreats, he may be able to become the lord of a new stad town?

The more he thought about it, the more he couldn't help the excitement in his heart that almost wanted to laugh out loud! This is directly from a small centurion who is not a nobleman, to a big lord of this large land, including tens of thousands of people in the surrounding area......

"Hurry up! Immediately send a few trustworthy brothers to guard the city gate and get something more to block it! As long as they hold the city gates, no matter how powerful their weapons are, they will not want to attack inside! ”

Rumble!!!

The words of the leader of the Dengdan warriors had just fallen, and suddenly, he felt a shocking sensation like shaking mountains on the city wall, and then one after another, there were bursts of thunder and lightning explosions, which shocked him when he hurriedly retreated, and directly planted himself from the more than three-meter-high city wall into the city......

"What's going on......"

When the leader of the Dengdans, who had just dreamed of being a lord, staggered up from the ground, he saw that the large, tough, riveted iron-timber gate of their town of Ystad, the sturdy gate that was said to be able to withstand the impact of the trolls, had been pierced directly by some terrible thing?

Moreover, at the same time that the city gate was shattered and collapsed by the huge force, only a small half of the tattered wooden block was still hanging in the city gate hole? What kind of methods did those enemies use to smash a city gate in such an instant?

Think about that loud bang just now, isn't it...... Did they summon the thunderbolts?

……

On this day, the battle here in the town of Ystad is over quickly!

When the gates of Ystad Town were blasted open by the enemy's large devil's iron rod weapon, the soldiers who were already terrified by the annihilation of the lord and the knight lord ran away almost instantly!

Some of them, after discarding their armoured weapons, ran back to their respective homes and loaded up civilians; After some of the former lord's belongings were looted, some of them ran away with others from the direction of the city gate on the other side of the town!

The rest, who were reluctant to abandon it because they had their own families and possessions in the city, chose to fly the white flag and surrender to the army equipment of the Alician United Kingdom outside the city.

"Alas...... Middle-earth, the age of individual valor, is finally gone......"

Looking at the tattered city gate in the distance, and touching the huge cannon body in front of him, which was still hot and smoking, Groyin sighed deeply as he looked at the almost empty soldiers and the white flag waving his willingness to surrender on the walls of the town of Stad.

Although, the old dwarf himself had been prepared in his heart before this, and he could probably imagine the performance of cold weapons in the face of muskets?

However, looking at the tragic battlefield in front of him now, he still sighed with emotion...... The hundreds of skilled and heavily armored human knights of Dengdan were all easily killed by a group of women who had barely touched a weapon before without even touching the edge of the musket team......

It seems that this little girl witch has created something amazing with the help of their dwarven hands! In the future, the rules of war, under the ravages of muskets and artillery, I am afraid that there will be a major change, right?

Having seen the actual combat effects of the new weapon, Groyin felt that if he armed himself with thousands of musketeers and a part of the number of cannons, and with sufficient logistical supplies, perhaps, he would dare to lead an army of several thousand people, push all the way, and fight all the way to Mordor?!

"Sir Anne, I seem to have discovered a little inadequacy in the musket......"

"The range of this first model of the 'Wrath of the Goddess' musket is long enough, and the penetration power seems to be okay! However, I think its caliber is still a little smaller, and if it is against a super-large target, it seems to be slightly less powerful? ”

Having been exposed to the whole process of musket manufacturing, Groyin was not very unfamiliar with the technology and process of producing this weapon, and he had fully understood the construction principle of this weapon, and he soon remembered some better improvement plans.

That is: increase the caliber! He Groyin needed a larger and thicker barrel, as well as a larger and heavier conical projectile!

After thinking for a while, he found that the eighteen-millimeter caliber, in his opinion, still seemed to be a little smaller? If it were used by the dwarves themselves, they would definitely be able to expand the caliber directly, at least to about thirty millimeters? Anyway, they are dwarves with strong bodies, great strength, low center of gravity, and large calibers without fear of being overturned by strong recoil?

The more he thought about it, the more feasible Groyin secretly decided that when he returned to Bray Town, he would definitely privately tailor a 30mm rifled rifle for the more than 200 dwarves under his command to see if the power could meet his own expected standards!

"Dealing with large targets? And increase the caliber? Do you want to fight the dragons? Are there dragons here in Middle-earth?! ”

Little Anne was also a little curious about the dwarf's thoughts.

She had read the literature in Rivendell, hadn't the last dragon in Middle-earth been killed decades ago? So why does he still want to increase the caliber?

Could it be that there are still large, playful creatures like dragons in Middle-earth?

Anyway, in Anne's own opinion, the front-loading rifled flintlock Mini rifle with long range, high accuracy, and super armor-piercing ability is already very good, and she has directly crossed the smoothbore arquebus and made this epoch-making super elite weapon!

If you add it to thirty mm, it's hand-held artillery, right? The humans of Middle-earth must not be able to stand that kind of powerful recoil!

Moreover, the battle just now is enough to illustrate: the 'Goddess's Fury' muskets, they can easily penetrate and shred the enemy's knight's plate armor at a distance of more than a hundred meters, such a power is not small, right?

If it was necessary just now, they would have directly shot at the opponent's city wall at a distance of 300 meters, and fired at a long distance, so that they could fight until the opponent could not get their head up, or even until the opponent's morale collapsed?

"Giant, dragon?!"

"No, no, no! Lady Anne the Witch! I don't want to fight any more dragons! And I haven't seen any dragons other than the dead Smaug in decades! ”

At the mention of the dragon, Groyin hurriedly shook his head with a messy beard and hair. He himself is not stupid, how can he still go to trouble the dragon for no reason?

The psychological shadow caused by Smaug in the Battle of the Lonely Mountain decades ago has not been completely eliminated until now!

Where is the terrifying and invulnerable existence that cannot be destroyed even by melting gold, the mythical monster that flies in the sky and can breathe flames at a height of hundreds of meters, where is it that mortals can easily fight against?

If it weren't for the fact that Smaug carelessly underestimated the enemy, and was shot directly into a defective unprotected scale cortex on the opponent's left chest with a special demon-breaking black arrow, and thus killed the other party by luck, the current Riverdale Town and the dwarves they originally went on an expedition to the Lonely Mountain would have died long ago, right? There will also be no Turin Dwarven Kingdom with the current Lonely Mountains and Iron Hills!

"Oh! By the way, Lord Anne! I also found a very important problem! ”

"I think so, in case in the future, our enemies ...... I mean the Orcs of Mordor or their allies! What if they also copied this terrible gunpowder weapon? ”

In Groyin's opinion, even if they don't use those precision machine tools and steam boiler power for standardized industrial production, and replace them with the dwarves themselves to build them by hand, they still have enough capacity to mass-produce imitations and install them in large quantities in the army, right?

In his own opinion, this is really not too difficult, it is nothing more than an even iron pipe with gunpowder? And the only thing that is a little difficult here is at most the rifling and the correct recipe for gunpowder, right?

He had secretly experimented before: if the hand-built rifled smoothbore gun fired a ball buckshot, although the range and accuracy were not ideal, but at close range, within a hundred yards, its power was actually not much worse than that of a rifled Mini rifle.

And this distance of 100 yards alone is enough to overwhelm most of the archers in Middle-earth, as well as almost all the cold-weapon armies!

And the only trouble is that the caliber of the hand-crafted musket may have a large error due to the skill of each craftsman? And then also make the projectile have to be made specifically according to the caliber of each gun?

Or just send down small cauldrons and lead blocks, and let the soldiers smelt them with lead according to the caliber of their muskets and rub them out themselves? It's easier to melt a lump of lead anyway, right?

For the formula of gunpowder, it is actually much simpler!

If beings like the white-robed wizard Saruman, or the demon lord Sauron, were to be seized by the other party and studied against each other, Groyin believed that they would be able to quickly imitate the correct formula! After all, this kind of black powder is nothing more than a few very ordinary materials, which is much simpler than the kind of flash fire that their dwarves used to make that would explode if thrown out......

"The enemy wants to imitate?"

Hearing this, Anne blinked, then tilted her little head and thought for a moment.

"I'm not afraid of them copying it! When the time comes, if they dare to imitate it, then we will make it even more powerful! ”

Anne wasn't really too worried about this.

Because, not only does she have drawings of various eras, but also the Queen Orfina under her has now begun to train the core royal guard, and plans to train some loyal subordinates to specialize in garrisoning the war workshop, as long as the steam turbine and those industrial machine tools are kept secret, such as muskets and cannons, there is definitely no way to keep it secret for a long time!

So, in Annie's opinion, those villains, at most, are just imitations of front-loading smoothbore guns? When the time comes, they'll be able to build a more advanced breech-loading Mini Shotgun rifle that will be able to blast out even those stupid enemies in terms of range and reload speed!

And when the time comes, if they dare to continue to copycat shamelessly, then she will leap into the age of internal combustion engines and electricity, and order semi-automatic rifles and automatic machine guns with metal cartridge shells, and then suddenly kill the enemy when they are lined up?

If you can still imitate it after all this, then it must be those gods who are cheating! Then she herself will be shameless, and when the time comes, she will directly use those electromagnetic rifles, siege tanks and space battleships, and then throw Big Ivan to death, and if they have the ability, they will imitate it!

"A more powerful musket? How powerful can it be? ”

Groyin was a little stunned when she heard this.

He thinks that the current rifled rifles and cannons are enough! If the power is insufficient, the caliber and barrel length can be increased at any time, so as to increase the power and range and so on? Other than that, he really couldn't think of any kind of improvement that would be more advanced.

"Hmm...... Probably the kind that can fire thousands of rounds per minute? ”

Thinking about the abrupt Vulcan cannon she had come into contact with in the first New York world she had crossed, Anne said with a little uncertainty.

If she's not mistaken, it seems to be a machine gun like the Vulcan Cannon, which seems to be thousands of rounds per minute, right?

"How many rounds per minute? This is by no means possible!! ”

Groyin screamed on the spot, he really couldn't imagine, how could there be such a high-rate musket? No matter how hard you try, the ammunition can't be loaded so fast, right? Today's rifles, a few shots a minute is already remarkable!

And if there really is such a terrifying weapon of thousands of rounds per minute, he thinks that he only needs to be alone, and then bring enough ammunition, he can completely push Mordor and blow up Sauron's Barado Tower?!

"Humph! You ignorant fellow! I've got more powerful than that, and there's more! ”

After glancing at the yelling bearded old dwarf beside her, little Anne patted the foal beneath her, and led the dozens of musketeers who were still stranded here and the gunners pushing the cannons down the hill towards the city.

Now, that Renus has already entered the city, and has quickly completed the control of the city's head area and surrendered the soldiers of the former Stad Town! Now, it was time for them to go inside and see the new city she had conquered.

————

"Hey! I said Pippin, are we going to stay here like this all the time? I don't like this eerie cavern at all! ”

"Not only is the air muddy, but there is also a strong rancid smell......"

In the Moriath Pit, little hobbits Melly and Pippin were together again, muttering to Gandalf who was sitting alone and smoking a pipe.

Although they hobbits are also cave-dwellers and like to make caves or make comfortable houses like caves, they definitely don't like to stay in this kind of deep, dark cave for a long time, and they can't see the sun, which will make them feel very depressed and uneasy!

After all, they hobbits are a normal race that likes to enjoy life and activities in the sun.

"Shh......h

"Be quiet, Merry, and let me tell you: that Gandalf above, he must be lost! And we're probably going to be stuck here forever, never getting out! ”

Before, at the top of the hill at the Red Horn Pass, when they found the large group of black crows used by the white-robed wizard Saruman to monitor the pass area, knowing that their whereabouts had been exposed, they had to follow Gandalf's advice and try to pass through Karahoras, intending to force their way through the cold and icy world, and over the peak of the Misty Mountains that towered into the clouds and was covered by vast white snow all year round!

Then, the white-robed wizard Saruman, who was thousands of miles away, used a long-range lightning arrow that penetrated his soul to teach them a cruel truth! That is: never try to climb a dangerous snowy peak under the nose of a wizard!

Therefore, after failing to cast a spell in the end, Gandalf, who was forced to be helpless, when he was buried by an avalanche once, saw that the hobbits could not adapt to the cold climate and were almost frozen to death, he had to lead the team back again, planning to go to the Moriaya pit of the other party's cousin Barin according to what the dwarf Jin Li said before!

However, it is a pity that after Gandalf finally cracked the gate of the dwarf and successfully escaped the big octopus in the lake outside the door that he didn't know how many years he had lived, he was obviously a saltwater creature of the sea, but he could survive in the freshwater lake, but they found an extremely surprising thing: in the mines of Moria, there was no cousin of Jinli, let alone a large cup of ale, soup or a large piece of barbecue meat that had been promised before?

Here, the corpses of the dwarves and orcs of the Misty Mountains will always be owned! And those rotten and tattered armor, rusty weapons and arrows of the other side! The current Moriaya Mine is a silent mountainside tomb! It seems that these original dwarves have been dead for countless years?

Later, when they had to venture deep into the pit to venture through the Misty Mountains, they discovered an even more terrible fact: they were now lost in this huge pit!

Now, they had climbed the mountain and returned the same way, and it had been more than twenty days since they left Rivendell......

"I think too, Gandalf must be lost! He is probably thinking about it now! ”

"Yes, as you probably know, old men like them are very easy to forget things!"

“……”

"We may not really be able to get out...... Unless, we go back the way we came? ”

"No...... I don't think any of us can beat the octopus monster outside the gate, I never thought it would have so many tentacles? It's still growing so big! ”

"So what do you say you should do? It doesn't look like there's much to eat or drink here! And we don't have a lot in our bags! ”

Pippin and Melly, the two hobbits, were still muttering to each other.

Although their voices were already very small, their voices were still clear to everyone in the empty and silent Moria Mine......

It's just that those other people who have the same worries as the two of them now, and have their own concerns, are not in the mood to care about them for the time being?

Gandalf himself, who was muttering, was now busy with his own thoughts and memories, and he was in no mood to deal with the two little hobbits as soon as possible, even if he wanted to find his way out as soon as possible.

“？！”

Suddenly, Frodo, who was in a daze, suddenly noticed that on the wall of the pit below, there seemed to be a sturdy little figure crawling? The other party's big, bright eyes are staring at him, and he doesn't seem to have good intentions?

It was just that it was so far away and the light was dim that he couldn't see what it was.

"Gandalf, down there, there seems to be something!"

When he found out about the situation, he immediately ran to Gandalf's side and whispered his findings.

"That's Gollum......"

Gandalf replied a little nonchalantly, still struggling to remember the path in Moria.

Those damned, greedy dwarves, they dug the Moriah Mine so hard! A lot of things that haven't been dug up before have been made unrecognizable by the other party, not only adding a lot of paths, but also, there are countless doorways and cabins, which is like a maze, and he really can't recall that he was familiar with many years ago, where is the way out of the road?

"Gollum?"

Frodo was a little confused, looking at Gandalf's appearance, he seemed to know about it for a long time? And he didn't seem to want to pay attention to the thing that was following them from afar?

"He's been with us for three days...... From the moment we walked down the snowy mountain and prepared to enter the Moria's pits......"

As for the Gollum who had been following them, refusing to leave even if they were to leave, Gandalf and the others had already found out, but they didn't really want to pay attention to it.

After all, the poor existence distorted by the Ring doesn't pose much of a threat to them, except for the Hobbit, if it dares to come closer, they can easily subdue each other by any person here.

"Gollum? Hasn't it already been caught a long time ago? Don't...... It escaped again? ”

Frodo was still curious about this.

Because, when Charles was at Broken Cave, he remembered very well that Gandalf had already told him, that Gollum, who knew the whereabouts of the Ring, had already been captured by Mordor's minions at that time!

"Run? Not ......"

"It's likely that it was deliberately released! The Lord of the Rings has brought it here again, and it will never be able to shake off its desire for the Ring...... For the Lord of the Rings, it is like to itself, love and hate? ”

Gandalf muttered as he smoked his pipe.

"Smeagol's life is actually a tragedy! It's been ruined by the Ring......"

"Before the Lord of the Rings found it, and before it was crazy about the Ring, he was actually ...... Forget it, I'm not going to talk about it......"

Speaking of which, after glancing at Frodo, who was now holding the Ring, Gandalf didn't know what was coming to mind, so he quickly stopped.

Then, instead of continuing to talk to Frodo, Gandalf sighed softly to himself.

Gandalf actually knows not only about Gollum's past, but also why Gollum was released at this time! Sauron or Saruman, they just want to use it to monitor the exact location of the One Ring? In this Middle-earth, I'm afraid there is nothing more useful than the Gollum as a humanoid self-propelled radar......

"It's a shame Bilbo didn't kill it at the time!"

Frodo suddenly uttered such a sinister remark that Gandalf quickly stopped remembering and turned his head again.

"Pity? Didn't kill it? ”

Frodo...... You know, it's the pity for life that prevented Bilbo from killing it in the first place......"

"There are people who live in the world, but they should have died a long time ago! And some people who should not have died died early......"

"Can you bring them back to life? Frodo......"

The last thing Gandalf wanted to see happened.

It seems that the Lord of the Rings is having some very bad effects on Frodo? Let this innocent hobbit actually say such murderous words? In this way, Frodo doesn't seem to have enough willpower like his Uncle Bilbo?

You know, Bilbo Baggins held the Lord of the Rings for so long, for decades, and it was only in his later years that he was gradually influenced by the Lord of the Rings? But he was able to control it on his own, and he took the initiative to leave the ring!

However, Frodo is ...... now

"Frodo, remember: don't judge the life and death of others so easily! Even the wisest of people can't see through this...... My instincts tell me that even with this Gollum, it still has its own mission......"

"Whether it is righteous or evil...... What Bilbo did may have affected the fate of many people......"

Glancing down at the Gollum who was climbing on a mining noose, and then at the Frodo in front of him, the two of them were actually really similar! Aren't Frodo and Gollum also people whose fate has been influenced by Bilbo Baggins?

"But...... When I was in Rivendell, Her Excellency Anne Witch told me...... If you deal with the bad guys, you should burn them...... Isn't it? ”

After slowly sitting down next to Gandalf, Frodo asked suspiciously.

During the time when Rivendell was recuperating from his injury, he also dealt with that little girl, and even took the initiative to give the other party the Supreme Ring around his neck several times! Then, Frodo was surprised to find that the little girl was the only one of all the people he had ever met who would not be affected by the Lord of the Rings! This alone can make him admire it very much.

In Frodo's mind, that little girl Annie, she must be a very powerful wizard, even more powerful than Gandalf, right? Therefore, in some cases, he will secretly remember in his heart the words that come out of the little girl from time to time and are a little inconsequential.

For example: the best enemy is the dead enemy? My things are mine, and everything I fancy should be mine? And then there's this: the bad guys should be burned by the flames! Whoever dares to provoke me, I'll beat him? And so on and so forth......

Anyway, Frodo thinks that some of the words are quite reasonable!

"It's Annie?!"

"Okay...... Frodo! I warn you: if you want to have a good relationship with that little girl, I will never object! But keep one thing in mind: never imitate that little girl, and don't take her word for it! Especially if you're not a wizard as powerful as her! ”

After secretly breathing a sigh of relief, knowing that it was not the Lord of the Rings that affected Frodo's thoughts, Gandalf hurriedly spoke up to correct the other party.

He didn't want this simple hobbit Frodo to be led astray by that hateful little girl! Look at her, what kind of dross has she instilled in Frodo? Those thoughts are all wrong and undesirable!

"Okay, I got ......"

"But actually, Gandalf, I really wish the Ring never reached my hands, and I hope none of this happened......"

Imagine the thrilling events along the way, since he obtained the Ring, not only was he hunted down by the Ringwraith, but he was almost stabbed to death by a sword at the abandoned watchtower at the top of Fengyun Hill? Then, when they embark on their expedition, they experience being watched by crows, struck by wizard lightning, and causing an avalanche to almost be buried alive?

And now, when I walked into this mine, I was not only caught by a big octopus at the door and almost eaten, but even went straight to get lost?!

So, when so many things came to his mind together, when Frodo saw that there were so many more exciting things in this period of time than all the exciting things he had seen in his more than fifty years of life combined, and that he was hovering on the brink of life and death almost every time, he really felt a little discouraged and didn't want to go on like this anymore......

"Well, in fact, everyone who is in trouble will think like you! But, Frodo, don't let the slightest difficulty in front of you scare you do! Sometimes, none of us can avoid our fate, but we can at least choose how to overcome it! ”

Seeing that Frodo, the ring-bearer, was a little discouraged, Gandalf hurriedly spoke out to encourage him.

"Frodo, you have to believe: in this world, in addition to those evil forces, there are some more magical existences! For example: Bilbo, who is destined to get the Ring, and you ...... It is also destined to experience what it is going through now! Do you understand? You have to face it, not run away from it! ”

Looking at Frodo in silence, he could only sigh secretly. There are some things that Gandalf really can't say too much about or reveal too much, and he can only point to it so far now.

"Aha! I think I finally know which way we should go, and this must be the one! ”

After calming Frodo, Gandalf suddenly stood up with a cheer, finally figuring out what direction she was going! So, once again, using the soft white glow of the gem on the wand head, he beckoned the crowd to hurry up with him.

They had been delayed long enough in this dangerous Moria pit that they had to get out of here cleanly before they really touched the presence of some danger.

"Do you remember the way out? Gandalf? ”

Pippin, who followed behind, hurriedly asked out loud, did he really want to leave this oppressive dark world as soon as possible, this kind of place where he can't see the sun and doesn't know the time, he doesn't want to stay longer for a moment!

"Nope! I didn't! ”

"It's just that the air on this road doesn't seem to be as bad as it is in other directions! My friend told me one thing: sometimes, it's always good to follow your nose......"