Let's turn our attention back to Charlot, where the army of the Kingdom of François has finally arrived in the city.

Count de Fronna, who knew them very well, told Salian and the others according to the scout's report that this neat army was one of the newly organized mixed legions of the Laborious Kingdom that had undergone military reform, and that they had also absorbed the advanced experience of the Marshal of Córdoba. However, unlike the army of the kingdom of Mulassen, which mainly conscripted natives to serve, King Feli still believed in mercenaries, believing that money could buy loyalty, which was the mainstream idea of the feudal aristocracy at the time.

After reconnaissance, Franços's 5,000 men consisted of two wings of Mars mercenaries, whose mountain spears and halberds could not be faked. Three hundred dual-paid mercenaries certified by the Brotherhood of Warriors, most of them bearing the Brotherhood's sigil, Imperial two-handed swords from Solingen, or other specialized weapons. The magic guns and Ruo** soldiers composed of Itkanria mercenaries, because of the sneak attack, they did not carry heavy magic cannons that were too slow. The rest were hussar regiments, mostly made up of François nobles, and gendarmerie guarded foreign mercenaries.

Incidentally, the so-called Brotherhood of Warriors is a for-profit organization jointly founded by several unaffiliated Tutonian Juggernauts, which can be seen as a professional training company, which has signed contracts with the Adventurers' Guild, and mercenaries recommended by the association can receive systematic training of various schools in the training base of Solingen.

People like the "Karakuri Mercenary" Meier who are famous in their divisions and have already made a name for themselves by relying on good luck naturally do not have to take this path, but those ordinary mercenaries who are from poor backgrounds and have not been guided by famous teachers rely very much on the cultivation of the Brotherhood of Warriors. Now it has become a golden sign among the Tutonian mercenaries. The Gospel Lion's Mark, the symbol of the Brotherhood, is now synonymous with high martial arts and high prices.

When the other party camped outside the city, Salian felt that the opportunity was rare, so he quietly led Makminus to a nearby hill to let the heirs of the empire have a good look at the army of the strongest opponent in the future.

The Duke of New Mark said to his young monarch after taking advantage of the opportunity to be in the grove in the mountains.

"Look at them, a terrible charge from the spearmen and halberders of the Mars Mountains alone can intimidate most of their opponents. If the opponent had an equally strong soldier who dared to stand in their way, the double-paid mercenaries who played a similar role as the Murassen Shield Swordsman would immediately follow, cutting off the opponent's spears with their weapons and tearing through the line in one fell swoop, until Franços's hussars swarmed up from the flanks to crush their opponents. Hehe, this is a combination that no one wants to encounter in the field. ”

"When will I have a team like this, knowing that the spearmen, halberdiers, and two-handed swordsmen like Big Meyer are all Tutonians!"

"Your Highness, it takes money, and you don't have the financial resources of Franços or Grandi or Mulasson. Although our Divine Grace Empire is vast, with all due respect, the royal Rokenhausen family can only control the headquarters of the Grand Duchy of Altenburg. ”

"If only my family could get the support of the Vanolia Kingdom and the Ruger family! ”

The two returned to the City Lord's Palace, just as the Count de Fronna was preparing to issue an order for battle. Salian took the opportunity to raise his opinion.

"Your Excellency, the François army has come from afar and is still settled, and if a sneak attack is launched, it should be able to deal a serious blow to them!"

"Hey, Your Excellency the Duke of New Mark, it seems that you know Franços well! Even if 10,000 horses come, it will crumble in front of this new bastion. What's more, if one of the other party's generals leads the troops, it may not be possible to bargain for a sneak attack out of the city. ”

"That's right, I'm too confident, and the odds of winning a frontal field battle are indeed very low, but can this city defense really work?"

The Count replied proudly.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let me show you the power of the most advanced building technology and magic science today! François is so big that he didn't even bring a heavy cannon to attack me, and he underestimated me, and this time he must let these ignorant fellows taste the bitterness. ”

Whether this was absolute confidence or sheer arrogance, Salian couldn't be sure. He whispered to Max.

"In any case, Xia Luocheng is already prepared, we can at least reverse the many forces of the François Kingdom and relieve the pressure on the Duke of Grandi. ”

In the afternoon, the fighting sounded, and the François army launched the first round of attacks, a speed of preparation that showed the well-trained soldiers and the strict management of the commanders.

In front of them, the low wall seemed to be able to be crossed in one step. But when they rushed to a distance of five hundred paces from the city, the magic cannon in the fortress began to bombard, and at three hundred paces there was the sound of magic guns sounding one after another, and these mercenaries from the Mars Mountains were indeed brave, and they still stepped on the corpses of their companions under the dense fire net like a drizzle. Each of their regiments is from the same state, and most of the people in each wing are from the same village, and this kind of cohesion of native and blood relatives is indeed amazing.

Seeing that a small number of enemy troops had rushed past the first low wall, Salian led a group of Bolandi soldiers out of the trench to meet them, and under the cover of crossfire, not many could reach the guards. These Mars mountain people threw away their spears and fought with their swords and halberds.

Of course, this approach of short and long strikes would not succeed, and Salian attacked with great courage and no one of his men could not be combined, and the commander had to blow the horn of retreat when the enemy suffered heavy casualties.

The first day of fighting is over. The others were already surprised by Salian's bravery, but Miss Fernanda was worried, and as soon as the Duke of New Mark returned to the city defenses, she came to greet her.

"Your Excellency, oh no, Salian, you are not hurt, and it frightens me to see the blood flowing in front of the trench!"

"Hahahaha, thank you for your concern, dear Miss Fernanda, none of that blood is mine. I don't want to boast, but today's battle is really nothing, and I've had more dangerous moments than this!"

Sally Anxin wondered who the other party's commander was, whether he knew it or not, and there were many Franços heroes he had met in the past few years. I don't know which unlucky guy was sent here. On the other hand, he couldn't understand why the abbot had asked her daughter to come with them to defend the city, and Miss Lola didn't object, Miss Fernanda was obviously an ordinary girl who had never been to battle!

After a night of calm, the next morning of the next day. The rumbling of artillery rang out from Franço's side, and it turned out that they had built artillery positions overnight.

The so-called light siege magic cannon of that era was actually very cumbersome. Because the efficiency of the magic explosion powder was still very low at that time, a larger charge of magic explosion powder was needed as power to fire heavy shells, and the backwardness of metallurgical technology led to the inner wall that needed to withstand the energy of the magic explosion powder to become thicker and thicker. As a result, the ordinary 150 mm caliber and 20 times the diameter of the light copper magic cannon already needed special board carts and more than a dozen pack horses to transport, and Franços did not master the manufacturing technology of the cannon lugs, so they had to dig inclined pits for the magic cannon for a long time to counteract the recoil and provide inclination. And for the previous reasons, this powerful weapon has no mobility on the battlefield.

The three magic cannons, closely guarded by the spearmen, slowly bombarded several rounds, slowly adjusting the depression angle, and the gunners continued to put planks in the pit behind the magic cannons, and finally let the cannonballs hit the foremost protrusion of the bastion.

"Aren't we going to fight back? Salian asked, curious.

"No, no, we just need to wait patiently for their magic cannon to run out of magic blast powder. Master Palatio's designs have been the baptism of numerous civil wars in Itcanlia. ”

The protrusion of the fortress is on the diagonal of the building, and the double walls here make it very thick and amazing, and these three light siege magic cannons alone are really helpless against it, and can only create some shallow craters.

Soon the cannon fire stopped, and the Count said to Salian.

"Duke New Mark, if you really want to see a counterattack, I have a secret weapon here, which is the heavy magic howitzer that Duke Bolandi just bought from the Magyar Kingdom at a high price last year, which can fire a high-explosive magic grenade with a heavy charge of twenty kilograms. If you use it to bombard the besiegers, it will scare them to tears!"

"The Kingdom of Magyar is the eastern neighbor of the Vanoria Kingdom, and I know that both of them are very good at forging magic cannons. Then please show me the power of this magic cannon!"

In this way, Salian followed Count de Fronne to the terrace at the top of the main fortress, from which the position of Franços in the distance could be clearly seen, and in the middle of the terrace was something covered with tarpaulin, which was ordered by Count de Fronne to be removed, and a monolithic battery appeared. Having seen the truly huge "Warcraft" siege cannon at Max's Royal Arsenal in Fort Veral, Salian was not surprised by the size of the fort in front of him. It's just that he's interested in the new structure above.

The entire cannon is connected to the gun carriage by two geared lugs, which allows for a stable firing angle, and under the gun carriage Salian also found a ring of metal rails and a box mechanism that was much longer than the gun carriage.

"It's really novel, how exactly does this cannon work?"

"Hehe, look!"

I saw more than a dozen gunners skillfully filling the barrel with magic blast powder, compacting it and then loading the shells, and then they pushed the box-shaped mechanism carrying the gun carriage to move on the metal rail, and it turned out that there were dozens of pairs of metal wheels with flanges stuck on the guide rails under the box.

Salian, who was watching from the sidelines, couldn't help but admire: "What a clever thing to do, the metal rails allow the fixed turret to shoot freely in any direction." ”

"Duke, this is just a little trick, and the best is yet to come. ”

"My lord, the turret is in place, and the shooting preparations are complete! ready to fire!" the gunner reported.

"Well, let's test fire first, and let Duke New Mark see the starting hit rate of this gun. ”

"Yes!"

Experiencing the firing of the heavy magic cannon at such a close range was of course very violent, but Salian did not feel the imaginary earth shaking at all. The entire gun body, together with the gun mount, magically slid back a few meters along the center of the box-shaped mechanism, and quickly returned to position after the gun was ejected.

"Ah, what is the principle, Count de Fronna, who can absorb most of the recoil. ”

"Haha, this is a reenter invented by Mr. Urban, the famous magic cannon designer of Magyar, you can take a closer look. ”

Salian walked in and saw that there was a stout spring in the box. That's the secret to its ability to counteract a lot of recoil while also returning the entire gun carriage to its original position.

Just listen to the Count de Furonne add.

"In addition, only by reducing the recoil force so much can we put the entire battery on the track, otherwise all these things will be scrapped as soon as the cannon is fired. ”