What are the ways to increase the lethality of weapons?

Simply mentioning the sword, we can go on and on at length: from the shape of the blade, to the overall shape, to the appropriate handle length to exert its strength.

But to give up all those fancy intestines, those craftsmen need to consider, and the soldiers need to verify, think, and improve the details on the actual battlefield.

There is actually a simpler answer to this question.

And that's—

Increase.

The 30-centimeter-long dagger can only be used for self-defense, while the two-meter-long spear is the absolute workhorse of the battlefield, and the light crossbow that can be carried by manpower also has a version of the "big brother" that can penetrate all the heavy armored cavalry.

There are many aspects to consider in the downsizing of weapons, and the higher the complexity, the more sophistication. But scaling up is not, just doubling the aspects of the current viable design, which is something that almost all military designers can do.

The reason why Parnilla's defenders were beaten to the point of being cringed was understood by Henry and Constantine when the cannons roared.

Where the empire loses is not national strength or military strength, but intelligence.

and the human heart.

Parnira is a commercial city, a port city, and it is a matter of course to turn a blind eye to the prosperity of commerce and border control and management. But not to mention allowing them to smuggle in so many hand cannons, there were more than 20 of them even in the enlarged version of the two-wheeled cannons.

Whether the people above are too peaceful and numb, or the southern kingdoms and dwarves are too well prepared, the answer is probably both.

They had a good idea. Since the attack was launched in the heart of the empire, the arrival of reinforcements was also expected, so this attack was prepared. Not even in the previous attacks was revealed, not even the messenger calling for help knew about it.

One only has to look at the black muzzles of the huge bronze cannons a hundred meters away, and you can imagine how deadly they can unleash.

Any reaction is already too late.

The huge granite ball, propelled by gunpowder, leaped over the distance of six hundred meters at a slight speed only slightly slower than sound, and many of the more than twenty cannonballs the size of a human head fell in front of the infantry array—if the ground was soft and rotten soil, they might have escaped, but the rock slabs and tiles on the bustling Parnila ground made the granite cannonballs bounce like stones for children to play with, and then fell heavily in the dense array.

No shield, sword, helmet, or plate armor could hold off its attacks.

The dense array of infantry and mercenaries was forcefully carved out of more than twenty bloody paths.

Stumps, shredded flesh, blood, and cracked metal and wood littered the sky, the shattered floor was quickly filled with blood, and a cannonball even flew above the city walls, sending half of a knight's body flying.

The neatly arranged and magnificent infantry array, within less than ten seconds of entering the East City Gate, blood was splattered on the spot, and mourning was everywhere.

"What the hell is this——!!" The roar of artillery fire from a hundred meters away caused all of them to ring, and the horses, frightened by the loud noise, turned around on the spot and tried to escape. Almost no one could react in this situation, and they were all stunned, whether they were paladins or magicians, nobles or commoners.

Konstantin's eyes widened as one of the cannonballs with astonishing kinetic energy shattered over the city gate in front of him. The lime from the cracked east gate turned a large pile of soldiers' helmets white, and the shattered stones made several people dizzy.

Everyone didn't know what to do.

Still calm.

There is only one person.

"Smack-" The sage who turned over and dismounted rushed to the front of the commander with an arrow, and then snatched the horn from his hand, which was still in a daze, and blew it with full breath.

"Woo-woo-woo-" one long, two short.

The people of the Padrossi Empire were dazed, but the longbowmen and Minna, who were born in Avenella, were immediately confused and their eyes lit up.

This is not a local horn signal, but a West Coast style on the other side of the inland sea.

"Flank it!everyone, mount!" Heavy siege weapons are powerful, but they are not invincible, and their slow reloading is a disadvantage on the one hand, and on the other hand, if there is a lack of obstacles and favorable terrain to defend.

These heavy big guys are often unable to defend themselves, because they are flanked by light cavalry because of slow turning, etc.

"Stampe, trample, trample—" "Spread out!, focus on the operator!" After a brief command, like a galley and a thunderbolt, the Arvennera longbowmen with their stirrups spread out in a fan-shaped plane, and as they passed in front of the bronze cannons, they let go of the reins and stood up on their horses—for the longbow was not designed to be used on horseback, otherwise they would not have been able to draw their bows.

But even in the face of such disadvantages, they still did not hesitate. The longbow was drawn like a crescent, and the white tail feathers of an arm-long arrow fluttered slightly in the running wind.

His eyes were as sharp as an eagle, his longbow was tight, and his arms were as strong as a rock, and even on horseback, they were as solid as the roots of an old tree on a cliff.

"Smack-"

Incomparable to the sound of bronze cannons and hand cannons, the sound of soft strings.

Under the bright golden sunlight, the arrows shook like sharks swinging their tails towards the surface of the water, and rushed towards their targets fiercely and decisively.

"Snatch-" The unprotected face, neck, and chest were pierced by powerful arrows, and the mercenary man in charge of operating the cannon immediately fell to the ground, covering his bleeding wounds, trembling all over. The Padrosi mercenaries and hunter crossbowmen who had seen this scene a hundred meters away also immediately reacted, and the messenger first raised his horned bow: "Follow me!" and then everyone rushed up from all directions on foot and on horseback in a chaotic formation.

"Change the small, change the small!" The southern Lamanites are not as elaborate as the official empire, and they have a rustic atmosphere like old peasants. There was no technical terminology and no systematic command, and the mercenaries in charge of this side just shouted loudly for their men to replace them with those pre-loaded hand cannons.

"Woo-" The Arvenella longbowmen who crossed and galloped by kept firing. "Hide, hide, hide!" Many of them had just picked up their cannons and were immediately shot through the throats, but the longbowmen were outnumbered, and with more than twenty cannons, they only succeeded in dumbing the exposed parts on both sides, and the middle one attacked again after reloading.

"Bang!!" like a thunderclap, the sound of the huge cannon fire heard at close range made several horses foam at the mouth in fright and threw off the archers above, and as soon as they landed, they were immediately hacked to death by the mercenaries who rushed forward.

"Dismount!" Minna gave the order decisively, and it was more nimble to walk through the complex terrain of a dwelling than to ride a horse.

Dozens of archers vanished as quickly as fallen leaves scattered into the forest under her command, and the horses galloped past in a flurry of brushes, wailing the fallen horses that made many grit their teeth, but they also knew that this was not the good time for revenge.

The most important thing is to silence the two dozen cannons.

"Kill, ahh

"Bang!!" The huge granite cannonballs fell in the direction of the East Gate again, the accuracy of these cannons was very bad, and the infantry arrays that had scattered haphazardly after the first shelling did not have many casualties this time - but the perceptive Konstantin still frowned: "The purpose is to suppress?" he asked Henry, and the sage nodded: "If you want to pursue casualties, you should wait for more people to come in, and shoot as soon as you come up, obviously you don't want us to come in." ”

"They're stalling for time!" Filippo added, his eyes lit up, and although he knew the purpose of the other party, Konstantin waved his hand and ordered the army that had not yet entered the eastern gate to retreat to avoid unnecessary casualties.

"Ahhhhh They had dumbfounded all seven of their guns, but there were still nineteen to deal with, and the retreating rebel mercenaries had formed a dense formation that made it impossible for them to hide in the alleys.

"Tsk, how many arrows are left!" Minna asked as the long-range weapons were consumed rapidly in the heat of the battle, and then everyone reported their remaining arrow vectors.

"Ten", "Nine", "Thirteen" - the numbers are almost in the single digits, they have arrived from Scotti on horseback, unlike the rebel mercenaries who have been in good time after beating the defenders of Parnila into shrunken turtles, and they cannot keep their weapons stockpiled nearby.

"Damn, if only there was a magician. "Simple, non-lethal magic that affects the air is quite effective against such delicate weapons, and they have proven this before, but the mages in the army can't stand the bumps and turns, so they are not in the scout array.

The distance between the two sides was five or six hundred meters, which was already the limit of magic casting, and the difficulty of communication meant that they had no way to even call for help.

The thousands of main forces of Henry and Constantine in the rear were blocked outside the gate of the east city gate, and the knights above the city wall responded and ran down from above, intending to get close to support Minna and others, but compared to the remaining nineteen artillery pieces of more than 1,000 troops, the additional hundreds of foot knights could not become a decisive combat force.

It was so difficult for Minna and the others, who were suppressed by the firepower, to continue to advance, and the crossbowmen hid in the alleys and houses, but as if that wasn't bad enough, the chaotic sound suddenly rang out on both sides.

"Here, here, here!" the Lamanite dialect of the Southern dialect rang out at the worst moment, and it was clear that the rebel mercenaries had no intention of sparing their enemies. A large number of mercenaries with melee weapons rushed over in a chaotic manner.

"Draw your sword!" cried the blonde lady, and the people drew their hunting knives and one-handed knives in a mixed manner. The civilian hunters, who only knew how to wield bows and crossbows, trembled, and there was no way to avoid the death of more than a hundred people. "It's coming!" Minna spread her feet and lowered her weight to clench her sword, and at the end of the alley appeared a bunch of mercenaries with long-pole weapons, but it was at this time.

Something unexpected happened.

"Bang Bang !!" a huge roar resounded in the sky, and behind the rebel mercenaries there was a flash of light, followed by countless pieces of wood and bronze scattered in all directions.

"Hum-" The constant tinnitus echoed in everyone's ears, but Minna, who came to her senses, stabbed a mercenary in the throat with a single sword, and then kicked him out of the alley.

"Boom-" The fallen mercenary joined his miserable companions.

"Ahem—" The blonde dame approached the smoke-filled intersection, grabbing her scarf to cover her mouth so she could breathe, as she leaned her back against the scarred walls of the house.

"Hum—what's going on—" The messenger ran over, and the dame poked her head out to glance at the large number of rebel mercenaries outside. "Whoa, whoa," several of the people on fire in the garden screamed and ran towards the well, and when she looked closely, several of the guns that had been near the north side had all shattered, and together with the gunpowder next to them, they had apparently exploded after overheating after continuous firing.

"It seems that the dwarves don't make anything that reliable, or—" The messenger whispered, poking his head out to see the scene.

"No matter, seize the opportunity, go!" and Minna decisively seized the opportunity.

"Hey!" Mikhail and the others, who were holding their long swords, poked their heads out at another intersection behind them, they were obviously shocked by the explosion and hid inside for a while, and only reappeared when they saw the archers rushing out.

"Slow down and let the knights come to the front!" the reacting command quickly changed the formation.

"Retreat! Retreat!" the rebel mercenaries began to shout, and the Imperial army, which had seized the opportunity to run, had already approached them.

"Drink!!" Powerful tomahawks and warhammers slaughtered mercenary gunners with only short swords like chopping melons and vegetables, and the more well-equipped melee fighters had suffered heavy losses from the explosion of their own cannons. They pulled back in a panic, and the Imperial knights followed like bloodthirsty sharks.

"If you can't pull it, throw it away!" Minna, Mikhail and the others came in from the north, which was more fully covered, and the dozen or so artillery pieces on the south side had been successfully withdrawn.

"Bang Bang Bang-" The remaining mercenaries with about a thousand people still firing the last round of hand cannons to suppress them and then retreated in a panic to the direction of the market, and the knights were about to continue walking, but Mikhail waved his hand to stop them: "Poor Komo chase"

They surrounded the more than 100 mercenaries and three cannons that were left behind, and the ground was littered with dead bodies, and the flames in the distance were still burning and emitting poisonous gases.

"Qiang Lang-" "We surrender! We surrender!" The rebels, dressed in a variety of costumes and accents with a uniform southern accent, dropped their weapons and knelt on the ground with their heads in their hands, and a knight raised his weapon to attack, but Minna stopped him.

"I'll keep it for now, I have something to ask them. She said this, then turned her head and nodded at one of the archers. The white-haired young man drew a special arrow, then spread his feet and shot at the sky.

The sharp sound of "——!" resounded through the heavens and the earth, and with the silence of the artillery, the main forces on the periphery were finally able to enter.

The battle lasted just over 40 minutes, and the total casualties on both sides were already more than 1,000.

Constantine, with a blue face, rode a tall horse to the subdued rebels, holding the reins of his horse tightly and pursing his lips without saying a word.

Henry, Mira, Filippo, and Margaret, who were in the rear, climbed off their horses and walked in front of the hundred or so southern rebels who were surrounded by groups.

"Who's in charge?" asked the sage with Kramer on his back.

"That's supposed to be me—"

“......”

“......”

"It's a coincidence. A smile that could not be counted as a smile appeared on the other party's dirty face, and this face looked closely to be the one who was responsible for guiding them when they arrived from the West Coast.

"I remember it..... Alessandro?" Henry began, and this kind of thing could only be described as no coincidence. It was this man who led them when they came to Parnira, and now that they had returned to the city, they never thought they would meet again in this way.

"Yes—" Alessandro didn't seem to have any sense of being captured, he still seemed neither humble nor arrogant, but lowered his head, "I told you that there was something to come to the tavern to find me, but you didn't come in the end." ”

He tilted his head, and Henry understood the meaning of the sentence in light of the current situation.

"We've got to talk. ”

"Is there any wine?"

"The defeated are not polite to speak. ”