Section 36: Assault

Just a short interval of time, the cannon fired a second time. Dwarven gunners are much more proficient than human gunners, their cannons fire nearly half as fast as normal human cannons, and they calibrate their cannons incredibly fast.

The second round of cannon salvos also caused great damage. In particular, due to the ground, the effect of "ricocheting" is formed, which greatly increases the lethality. Just these two cannon salvos reduced the number of attacking slave rats by a third.

Ashrufat had now seen that the dwarves had four tiers of cannons on Karak-Grom.

"Hehe, that's a lot. There were 360 cannons in total. In her mind's eye, Carrie gave Ashrufat the answer. "But master, these cannons don't seem to be the same, for example, the first and second cannons seem to be ordinary cannons, the cannons on the third layer have multiple barrels, and the cannons on the lowest level, although the muzzles are exposed, have not fired so far. ”

"That's true. Then, in the brief gap when the smoke cleared, Ashrufat also noticed what Carrie had said.

The top two rows of cannons are ordinary cannons, although the dwarven cannon and the human cannon are completely identical in principle, but because of the better casting process and metal smelting technology, the dwarven cannon is more accurate, has fewer firing failures, and fires faster.

The third platoon is a four-barreled multi-barreled gun. It looks a bit like the Ryan "Wind Cannon". However, it has a thinner barrel and only four barrels. This is what the dwarves call an organ cannon, or a four-barreled cannon.

For the charging slave rats, the organ cannon can cause far more damage than the cannon. Perhaps these cannons are not suitable for attacking large war machines, but they are suitable for attacking soldiers.

At this time, the chaotic formation of the rat people played a positive role. Because of their lack of training, they had no formation to speak of during the charge, which allowed these powerful cannons to cause less damage. If it had been a neat human infantry, then probably at least half of it would have been lost by now.

By the time the two rounds were over, the slave rat had already crossed about half the distance. Ashrufat didn't ask for more, as long as the slaves could reach the fortified area ahead, their role would be done. Because of that distance, the dwarven musketeers had to shoot so that Eshurufat could see the intensity of their firepower in order to make a correct assessment of future battles.

It looks like these slave rats should be able to accomplish this task.

At this time, the cannon of the lowest layer opened fire. Unexpectedly, it was not a cannonball that shot out of these cannons, but a long fiery dragon.

"Flame Cannon?!" Ashrufaat whispered. Hell, these dwarves look far tougher than expected.

Eshurufat knew something about the dwarven firecannons. In fact, it is a legendary weapon in the Anthropocene. Flaming cannons and normal cannons are a completely different way of thinking. The interior cavity of the flame cannon is filled with a special dwarven oil mixture. The air is pumped into the cannon chamber, causing the pressure inside the cannon to rise to the limit. During the fire, the dwarf ignited the oil-soaked filler and stuffed it into the nozzle of the cannon, and released the pressure in the cannon cavity, which instantly ignited the mixture and sprayed out under the pressure of the fire, shooting at the enemy like an arrow of fire.

Legend has it that once the flaming cannon hits its target, the stream of fire will sputter out, and the burning hot oil will stain the enemy's body, causing them to howl and be burned to death. In addition to attacking soldiers, the Flaming Cannons can also attack fortifications and machinery - anything that can be burned will not survive the Flaming Cannon.

This time, Ashrufat witnessed it and confirmed the power of this weapon. The fire of the flaming cannon took on a fan-shape, which was incredibly powerful, turning all nezumi in the range of attack into torches in the blink of an eye. The unfortunate slave rats struggled for a moment before they fell to their ground and turned into a black solid.

This round of shooting cut the number of slave rats in half again.

The remaining slave rats are on the verge of collapse. At this time, the motivation that supported them to continue to rush forward was not so much because of fear of their master, but because of a kind of inertia, which made them unable to hold their feet for a while.

Because it was close enough, the dwarven muskets began to fire. One row of gunfire was followed by another, musket bullets rained down on the battlefield, and the slave rats fell to their deaths. In front of them, an invisible wall appeared that all the nezumi who crashed into the wall were not spared.

At least three thousand musketeers...... No, five thousand musketeers. Ashrufat estimates the intensity of the fire. Musketeers plus gunners, plus the necessary melee troops, plus a few other scattered personnel. There were about 10,000 soldiers on the front of the dwarves. If he's not mistaken, it means that the dwarves have placed at least a third of their combat power on the ground.

This is also in line with his estimates. According to normal logic, it is true that a third of the troops should be placed on the surface, a third of the troops underground, and the remaining third as reserves. The dwarven general, Prince Hoga, made a normal arrangement.

And Prince Hoga was very clever in putting the gunpowder troops on the surface. Everyone knew that ignition of gunpowder produced gunsmoke, and this smoke would obscure the shooter's vision. In the Underworld, due to the lack of air circulation, the smoke of gunpowder is easily so dense that one cannot see anything. In the surface world, there is not such a big trouble, and a gust of wind is enough to blow away the smoke that is in the way.

This time the tentative attack is over. The dwarves did not save ammunition, and the remaining slave rats were destroyed by various cannon fire as they broke down and fled.

It was only about ten minutes before and after, and thousands of slave rats completely disappeared from this worldly realm. Although the nezumi soldiers did not care about the life and death of these slaves, the current situation was also moving. At least a group of high-ranking officers around Ashrufat showed obvious unease.

"How can this be fought?" asked a gray prophet on his own initiative. It was clear that he was frightened by the heavy fire of the dwarves.

Ashrufat ignored him, and instead turned to look at the Great Grey Prophet. The Great Grey Prophet did not speak, but the confusion in his eyes made it clear that he had this view too. It's not that they value the lives of nezumi soldiers, but it seems that it is completely impossible to attack head-on. No matter how many troops there are, there is no way to survive in the face of such powerful firepower.

Now, each of them had a clear understanding of what the previous attack would be repulsed by the dwarves, and eventually completely wiped out by the dwarves and greenskins in the front and back. Although it is said that the remnants of the defeated soldiers who fled back before blame the enemy situation is unknown, but at the moment, even if they understand the enemy situation, what can they do?

"Assault!" replied Ashrufat. "There is no other way but to attack. ”

......

"Hurry, hurry, give it to me, or you'll regret not being killed by these dwarves!" a nezumi lord shouted hoarsely, whipping his own soldiers into battle.

Torrison could clearly hear the nezumi leader's shouts. At this moment, he and his soldiers retreated to the intended place for a short rest. Their positions have been handed over to another group of dwarven warriors. In the previous battle, Ranger Captain Torrison's unit performed well, destroying the same number of nezumi as they were, but they suffered no casualties themselves.

This is a small section of the underground passage, which is the outpost of the dwarves, and the goal of the nezumi is to completely occupy this passage as a bridgehead for the next attack. The dwarves have placed elite troops here, making the battle a war of attrition that is not played. The dwarves have the upper hand in almost every skirmish, but the nezumi army seems to be never-ending. Every time a batch is eliminated, they immediately replenish it.

Prince Hoga himself oversaw the battle here, and the dwarves now retain a strong reserve. Every warrior knew this, so at this moment, Torrisson's men didn't feel any particular pressure. They were laughing and talking about trivial matters, and showing off their performance in the battle. The only exception is the Ranger Captain himself.

I couldn't say exactly why, but Torrison felt a deep sense of unease.

His emotions caught the attention of his subordinates, but they only thought that the captain was still in a bad mood about the previous capture. It's a shame for an honorable dwarf.

With them, there are some other troops. All of them are temporarily retreating and resting on the front front.

A herald hurried past Torrison.

"Hey, have you seen the prince?" the herald stopped and called out to one of the dwarven warriors closest to him.

The herald was still young, and his beard barely grew to the point of a dwarf. And the dwarf he shouted at was a "long beard". It's a name as the name suggests, and it is given when a dwarf is old enough to braid his beard into a long braid.

Of course, the longbearded warriors are all seasoned veterans who have seen countless battles. But even if they haven't seen that much fighting, they'll disguise themselves as experienced. Everyone, these long-bearded warriors are the backbone and elite of the dwarven soldiers, far more tenacious and combative than ordinary soldiers. Some of the long-bearded soldiers were concentrated as elite troops on key battlefields, and the other part were mixed into ordinary troops, so that they could play the role of supervision and guidance, so that ordinary soldiers could fight more bravely and firmly.

Before the herald was questioned, the long-bearded warrior was babbling about his heroic past and comparing the enemy in front of him to the bitter battles he had experienced. And the result of this comparison—as anyone who knows anything about the dwarven race will understand—will always be the same. In a word, these debris are nothing compared to the enemies I've killed in the past.

"Boy, what does this attitude mean, when Lao Tzu and Greenskin fought, your mother was still a fetus!" the long-bearded warrior jumped up, enraged by the herald's rudeness.