Chapter 332: The Second Highness is down

On both sides of the lower reaches of the Mitobro River, the camps are densely packed, and the tents arranged in a phalanx are in a continuous group, as far as the eye can see, and the river surface of the lower reaches of the Mitobro River, which was calm and wide in the past, is pregnant with the spark of war, and once the north is ready, the war will break out. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 However, from the perspective of the Principality of Madras, with a tight and deep defensive front and facilities, the army that came to attack from the north would only be bled by blood, and even if the blood stained the river, it was helpless against the strong defense line on this side.

On October 32, it was cloudy, very windy, and a little rainy.

Lorist rode his horse and looked at the other side with a telescope, and after a while turned his head and asked Baron Saheen Henned, "Are you ready?"

"Of course, all the flatbed boats and the thick planks for building the pontoons were ready. This section of the river is more than 300 meters wide, and the first 100 meters on the opposite bank are the anti-landing horses, trenches and low walls for blocking, and the 100 meters offshore are the arrow towers and walls. The arrow tower is octagonal in shape, with a total of five floors and a height of 15 meters, and the top three floors have two crossbows on each floor. A few of the fishing boats I had sent had crossed the middle line and were shot and wrecked in the river by the bastards on the other side. Henneid said through gritted teeth.

"You can now issue an order to build a pontoon bridge, and you can get revenge on the bastards on the other side of the river right away. Lorist said with a smile.

Henneid waved his hand, several guards behind him raised their trumpets, and a loud "whine" echoed on both banks, groups of soldiers and craftsmen crowded out of the camp, and freight wagons loaded with timber slacked towards the river. And a group of craftsmen and soldiers have already erected the flat boats lined up on the riverside and began to lay wooden planks on them......

Lorist raised his monoculars again and looked at the other side, where flags were also waving, and groups of soldiers of the Duchy of Madras in different styles of iron and leather armor ran towards their defensive positions, and everyone knew that war had broken out.

The so-called flat boat is a large ferry with a bottom but no upper structure, and the cabin is laid with a flat layer, and the whole ship is bare, and it can move slowly by relying on poles and oars. Nearly 100 flatbed boats lined up in a long row along the river, and then craftsmen and soldiers kept laying finger-thick planks on them and fastening them with large iron nails and wrist-thick iron chains. Nearly noon, a long row of nearly 300 meters long and more than 7 meters wide slipway appeared on the riverside.

Lorist was a little puzzled: "Henned, you should have built this slipway in advance, it's a bit of a waste of time to start building it now." ”

Henneid smirked: "I didn't build it earlier to deceive those stupid birds on the other side." Locke, you see, they always thought that the attack I was going to take was to let the soldiers hit the shore after taking the boat, and I was not idle on the other side of the flat boat here, and I was trying to make rejection horses, don't you see that the rejection horses over there are all placed in the river. Now I'm dumbfounded, I've been keeping them busy for a month and doing useless work, and they didn't expect that we would slowly pile in the slipway and smash their defenses and positions with Thunderbolt catapults before landing. ”

After lunch, the huge slipway on the river has been more than 40 meters from the shore, and now the craftsmen who are busy working on the river are building a pontoon bridge leading to the slipway, and slowly pushing this huge and heavy slipway into the river by increasing the length of the pontoon.

"It is estimated that it will take thirty meters to allow Ovikis to command the Thunderbolt Catapult camp to the slipway. Hennet looked at the length of the pontoon bridge and said.

"Watch out for rocket attacks on the other side," Lorist said, "your slipway is made of wood and is still connected. If the rocket attack on the opposite shore is concentrated, it will become a fire if it is hit. ”

Hennede said: "It's okay, I have calculated, the distance from the arrow tower on the opposite bank is three hundred and twenty or thirty meters, and the maximum range of their crossbow is only three hundred meters, and we are in a position where they can see and cannot shoot." And the best range of our Thunderbolt catapult is 350 meters to more than 400 meters, which is exactly in our range of catapults. In addition, I will soldiers splash river water on the slipway. It's not that easy to catch fire. ”

Count Kenmax yawned boredly beside him, "How much more time do you need to cast stones?"

Henneid thought for a moment and replied, "It should take about two hours." ”

"Okay. Count Kenmax said very simply, "Then I will go back to the big tent for a while, and then call me when the stone is thrown." I drank too much at noon, and I still feel very dizzy. ”

After another two hours, the slipway was in its proper position, and the craftsmen finally stopped building the pontoon bridge and had a rare rest. Ovicis commanded the soldiers of the Thunderbolt Battalion to unload the horses in front of the Thunderbolt Catapult, and then carefully pushed the catapult onto the slipway and divided it into two columns, and then fixed the catapult to the slipway, followed by various teams of people who carried stones and stone balls to the slipway.

It took nearly an hour to complete all the preparations, and the Earl of Kenmax did not need to be called out of the tent by anyone.

"It's too much to prepare, you see the day is almost over. Said the Earl of Kenmeth.

"It's all right......," said Henned, "it's okay to fight at night, and we'll smash it when it's dark anyway." Blow the trumpet and let the Knights of Ovicis start throwing stones. ”

Getting the signal, Ovicis soon ordered the five hundred catapults on the slipway to start firing. Everywhere the basin-sized stone rain went, it was the real wall collapsed, and the arrow towers collapsed in the smoke and dust, none of the arrow towers could support three rounds of stone rain, and countless guards cried wolf howls from those arrow towers that were not baptized by the stone rain, and ran towards the rear. They don't want to be like the unlucky ghosts in the previous towers. It was buried under the collapsed arrow tower in the rain of stones......

After the first and second rounds of stone throwings, except for the few arrow towers that were covered by the rain of stones, the rest of the arrow towers fired huge crossbow arrows at the slipway in the river almost at the same time, and half of the crossbow arrows were still fire. Unfortunately, all the crossbow arrows were drilled into the river at a distance of several tens of meters in front of the slipway, and none of them could reach the slipway. So in the next ten minutes, except for a dozen or so defenders who tried the range again unconvinced, the rest of the arrow towers could only watch the few arrow towers that were smashed into ruins by the stones falling from the sky collapse......

It can be said that each round of stolen stones left a large gap in the riverbank defense positions of the Duchy of Madras, and no defense could survive the rain of large stones. When Ovikis commanded the Catapult battalion to attack the rest of the towers, all the guards in the towers abandoned their duties and fled.

Without the threat of the crossbows of the guards on the towers, the craftsmen began to build pontoon bridges again, and continued to push the slipway to the opposite bank. Ovikis, who was on the slipway, also ordered the catapult to fire the canisters, aiming at the rows of wooden horses on the opposite side of the river. Soon countless flames were lit on the opposite bank, and under the blowing of the river breeze, the weeds and shrubs in the river bank and the mountains were ignited, and spread into the distance.

Standing on the mound by the river, Lorist looked at the smoke billowing from the opposite bank, and the flames were soaring to the sky, and exhaled softly: "The overall situation has been decided, and you can board the opposite bank tomorrow." However, you need to be careful at night, don't be rushed by the army of the Duchy of Madras to jump over the wall and come to a night raid or something. ”

Henneid smiled: "Don't worry, we have been prepared for this in advance, and we guarantee that nothing will happen." ”

The army of the Duchy of Madras was not as strong as Lorist imagined, until the next morning, when the slipway was approaching the opposite shore, and the craftsmen were busy building a simple wooden bridge to prepare for the Thunderbolt catapult to go ashore and send a large group of soldiers ashore to level the land, the army of the Duchy of Madras finally appeared in the distance, approaching the river obscenely, as if trying to drive the enemy ashore down the river.

However, when Ovikis ordered the Thunderbolt Battalion to fire a round of stone balls at the enemies rushing in the distance, the enemies immediately collapsed, and soon turned and fled without a trace.

"Locke, there is a magic weapon like the Thunderbolt Catapult, why don't we just sweep the entire Duchy of Madras, and we don't have to wait until the beginning of spring next year for a decisive battle. Henneid said confidently.

Lorist shook his head: "Go according to the original plan, Henned, the Duchy of Madras we want is not just a territory, the population is also a very important resource and wealth. If we go to sweep the Duchy of Madras now, the Grand Duke of Madras will definitely gather the people of the entire Duchy to fight to the death with us, so that even if we win, the Duchy of Madras will be ruined, not only will it cost a lot of money and manpower, but also the hatred of the survivors.

If we want to turn the Duchy of Madras into our family domain, we must reduce the damage done to those civilians. We are going to rectify the nobles of the principality, so we will go ashore according to the original plan and start to build a camp for defense, turn us into defenders, let the nobles of the principality of Madras become the attackers, let them load a few followers on the defenses of our camp, and then negotiate with the Grand Duke of Madras to mislead them about our purpose in waging this war by asking for the right of passage of this river and commercial trade, which is why I have sent the Count of Kenmath here. ”

Henneid said regretfully: "I know, I am in charge of the landing operation, and Kenmath is in charge of the negotiations." I really want to fight them. ”

"Forget the second prince, he led an army of 50,000 to attack the Duchy of Madras, but was defeated in the Battle of Kebo. If we can indeed destroy the Duchy of Madras by gathering the strength of our four major families in the Northland, then our losses will also be great, and how will we deal with the hostile countries that are all over the place. What I hope for this attack on the Duchy of Madras is to inflict minimal casualties, both on us and in the Duchy of Madras, so that the victory won't damage our strength, and we can effectively use the power of the destroyed Duchy of Madras to threaten the enemies around us and make them afraid to attack us, do you understand?" Lorist admonished.

Henneid nodded a little unconvinced.

"Henned, you have a misconception that if you master the Thunderbolt Camp, you will be invincible, but in fact, this Thunderbolt Treult is not as powerful as you think, and I have dozens of ways to break the threat of the Thunderbolt Catapult to yourself. Hussars are one of a kind. The Thunderbolt Catapult really dealt with defenses and castle fortresses, and it was not very useful in field battles, and it was not lethal enough against moving enemies. This is because catapults need to anticipate where rocks will fall, and not only are they slow to fire, but they are also in the air for a long time, so if they are agile, they may avoid the area where they are thrown.

This is also the role of the light cavalry against the Thunderbolt catapults, if they are willing to pay some casualties, let the light cavalry desperately carry fire oil canisters to attack the catapult's position, it is possible to burn the catapult. Others, such as marching in the wilderness, camping, sneak attacks and night raids can pose a threat to the Thunderbolt Catapults. Now the army of the Principality of Madras has encountered a thunderbolt catapult for the first time, and it is so afraid because it does not understand. If the war really continues, it will naturally come up with a way to deal with catapults after more contact. ”

Lorist's words made a lot of sense, and Henneid thought for a while and laughed: "It's me who thinks it's bad, I listen to you, Locke, don't worry, I won't do it myself." ”

Lorist patted him on the shoulder, and was about to say a few kind words, when he heard the sound of hurried horses' hooves. In the distance, a few fast horses ran out of breath and soon reached the bottom of the mound. Three messengers dressed in the armor of the Norton family's guards jumped off their horses and rushed towards Lorist and the others.

At a distance of about ten paces, the messenger stopped, and El looked over for a moment, and then turned back and reported: "My lord, they are from the guard camp, and they have come from the family to bring an urgent message from the island of Shilowas. ”

"What's the matter with the urgent letter from Shirowas?" Lorist took the letter and opened it, and was astonished. The envelope was signed by the Governor of Hansk and the Knight of Fareia, one of whom was in charge of administration and the other was in charge of military affairs, and something must have happened at the same time.

When he opened the folded letter and looked at it, Lorist was stunned. The Earl of Kenmeth next to him asked curiously, "What's the matter, what's wrong?"

Lorist shoved the letter to him: "See for yourself." ”

Count Kenmeth picked up his faith and spoke up: "At seven o'clock in the evening of the 24th of October, His Royal Highness and others arrived at the island of Hilowas, disguised as fishermen, in a dilapidated fishing boat, accompanied by Miss Norton Crisia and four escorts, one of whom was of the Golden Order and three of whom were of the Silver Order. They were received by the Governor of Hansk. The Knight of Farrea wanted them to rest on the island for a while while waiting for a reply from the Northlands, but Her Highness and Miss Chrisia insisted that they leave for the Northlands at once, hoping to meet with the Lords. On the morning of October 25, they were sent to board the passenger ship bound for the Northland, and sent the Flying Fish of Dawn to deliver this letter to your lordship first......"

"Second Highness is still alive, is he coming to the Northland?" After reading the letter, Count Kenmax looked at Lorist with some confusion, this is really shocking news.

"You are not a nobleman of the Kingdom of Antinac anymore, why are your Second Highnesses still coming to the Northland?" Henned's asked strangely.

He is not the king of the Kingdom of Antinac now, but from the perspective of the inheritance of the nobility, he is still the nominal lord of the Norton family, and he must have borrowed troops to restore the kingdom this time. Earl Kenmax said with certainty.

Today is the 33rd of October, and the 2nd Highness has left the island of Hiroas on the 25th of October, and the passenger ship to the Northland is seven days, so they have reached the Northland. Although Fareia sent the Flying Fish of Dawn to deliver the letter first, and was able to arrive two days earlier, it took three more days to run to the lower reaches of the Mitobro River to deliver the letter from the family territory, and even if it was too late to rush back now.

"I'll rush back overnight, so I'll leave it to the two of you here, just follow the predetermined plan. If anything happens to me there, I'll let you know right away. Lorist made a decision: "El, tell everyone to prepare immediately, and in half an hour we will set off for the family territory." ”

"Yes, sir. ”

...... (To be continued.) )