Ermu
Chapter 118: Pursuit (Part Two)
Moving troops at night was dangerous. They couldn't see the road, were easily attacked by wild animals and poisonous snakes, easily got lost, and raising torches was like offering themselves as targets. Therefore, he had to wait until the next daybreak to let the troops set off, following the Duke's Allied Forces.
To ensure the success of this operation, the prince decided to personally lead the First Army. Of course, instead of riding a horse which was bumpy and chafed his backside, he chose to travel with the Little Town.
After half a month of training, Hummingbird could control the Lighten spell duration for the twelve-pounder cannons within a fixed range. Considering the long enchanting process, Roland arranged for her to transform the cannons at dawn, making the first one last the longest, with the remaining ones decreasing in duration successively, ensuring that the four Lighten spells expired at approximately the same time.
Thanks to Hummingbird's ability, the Little Town could now carry four cannons and their gun crews at once. The huge cement boat was filled with people - in addition to the gun crew and Roland, Anna, Nightingale, Nana, Leaf, Echo, Hummingbird, and Tigu Pine were on board, Wendy was responsible for providing power, and Brian was the helmsman.
It could be said that almost all of Border Town's witches, except for Scroll, Soraya, Lily, and Mystery Moon, who were not good at combat, were out in force. Originally, Anna didn't need to go to the battlefield, but her firm gaze made Roland unable to harden his heart in the end.
The land forces consisted of the First Army's musket regiment, led by Chief Knight Carter and Iron Axe, with Lightning undertaking the entire tracking mission. The group quietly followed behind the enemy, the distance between them just outside the range of the scouting cavalry. Once Lightning discovered any scouting activity, the army would stop advancing. Along the way, they also captured many stray mercenaries and freemen, but there was no way to deal with these surrendered enemies at the moment, so they disarmed them and had them guarded by team members who had not been assigned muskets, and took them along the way.
This was also the first time Roland had commanded a "large army" to conquer the enemy. He stood at the bow of the Little Town, feeling the morning breeze blowing towards him, and felt quite ambitious in his heart.
"What are you smiling at?" Anna suddenly appeared beside him and asked, looking up.
"Uh..." Roland instantly put away his smile, "Nothing."
"Is that so?" She handed him a handkerchief, "Wipe your drool."
"..." Roland suddenly felt an urge to jump into the water, "Thank you."
It was sunset when Lightning reported that the enemy had set up camp. Compared to the uninterrupted reconnaissance on the way here, it was obvious that after a major defeat, the coalition's morale had dropped to freezing point. As soon as dusk arrived, the scouting knights couldn't wait to return to the camp, fearing they would miss the evening's horse meat.
Roland's troops were stationed on the shore two kilometers away from the Duke's army.
Having not been discovered along the way, half of the annihilation plan had already succeeded.
Next, they just needed to wait until dawn to complete the encirclement before the enemy set off.
This was also Roland's first time spending the night in the wild. He preferred sleeping on the boat rather than in the camp teeming with various insects. The wooden shed where the artillery was parked was emptied, and the gun crew unloaded the twelve-pounder cannons and moved into the camp. The Little Town became the prince's temporary palace. In addition to Roland, the other witches also stayed on the boat for the night. Everyone spread bedding all over the shed and lay down side by side, fully clothed.
Roland originally wanted to be reserved, but found that the witches were even less concerned than him. Apart from Anna, they had all suffered a lot. In their days of wandering, sleeping in the wild was commonplace. Before long, everyone fell asleep, except for Roland and Anna, who had trouble falling asleep. The former was used to soft beds and found it difficult to adapt to the hard deck bed for a while, while the latter didn't know what she was thinking and kept staring at Roland sideways. When the prince turned his head, Anna would quickly close her eyes, pretending to be asleep, but in the moonlight, her eyelashes could still be seen trembling slightly. If he wasn't afraid of disturbing others, Roland really wanted to pinch her delicate nose, forcing her to open her eyes before embracing her.
And so, the two of them barely slept all night.
Before dawn, Roland launched his plan to divide and encircle the enemy: the two hundred and seventy musketeers were to be divided into two groups, one of which, equipped with two cannons, was sent by the Little Town to the rear of the Duke's army to complete the deployment one kilometer away. Lightning was responsible for monitoring the Duke's movements. When the flanking group had set up the cannons, the little girl would give a signal, at which point Carter's remaining troops would begin a frontal assault.
The cement boat unified transportation avoided the possibility of getting lost during marching. Nightingale's black-and-white vision after entering the mist could be used as night vision equipment, and having her as the navigator allowed the Little Town to have daytime sailing capabilities.
This entire process had been practiced repeatedly, and everyone knew what to do even with their eyes closed. Wendy expanded the wind power output, and the Little Town almost rode the waves, transporting the troops in batches to the rear. About an hour later, the interception unit led by Iron Axe was in place, and Lightning flew over Carter's camp, displaying an orange flag.
At this time, dawn had just broken.
The annihilation plan officially began.
Since Echo was assigned to the rear operations, the musketeers responsible for the frontal assault did not need to move and fight. They only needed to form a battle line and protect the two cannons. The twelve-pounder cannons were quickly pushed onto the battlefield and opened fire on the enemy camp - at this time, most of the Duke's army was still asleep.
With the rumbling of artillery fire, solid cannonballs whistled towards the camp. Knights and mercenaries who woke up from their dreams rushed out of their tents, only to find that the First Army had formed a horizontal line and was quietly waiting in place. With the experience of the previous day's disastrous defeat, no one dared to challenge this seemingly thin line of defense, and could only swarm to the east to escape.
Iron Axe had been waiting behind them for a long time.
When the enemy appeared in sight, the encirclement plan finally reached the moment to tighten the noose.
As Echo played the march music, the one hundred and fifty men of the First Army stepped to the beat, formed into neat rows of two, and marched towards the enemy - in order to put pressure on the Duke's army, Iron Axe, who was responsible for the interception, had to take the initiative to attack. If they held their ground, the enemy, once they came to their senses, might abandon their mounts and escape through the woods.
Duke Ryan had fallen into despair. He simply couldn't understand how the enemy had appeared behind them.
Admit defeat and surrender? He didn't know how Roland Wimbledon would treat a duke who dared to raise a blade against the royal family. Perhaps imprisonment, perhaps exile, or more likely, being sent directly to the guillotine. No matter which it was, Longsong Keep would definitely have nothing to do with him in the future.
Seeing the approaching troops and the terrifying weapons behind them that occasionally made booming sounds and flashes of light, he knew that if he didn't charge now, he would never have the chance. He only had thirty or so people left by his side. This was his last chance.
"They can't stop us with this few people," the Duke roared, "As long as we cross this line, they won't be able to catch up on foot. We're only half a day away from Longsong Keep! Knights, charge with me!"
Then the Duke began to urge his mount to accelerate, but unfortunately, not everyone had the spirit of fighting to the death. Only ten people, including his guards, followed him in the charge, but he couldn't care about that anymore.
The music stopped abruptly.
The enemy stopped their steps in unison, standing before him like a wall.
Then he saw those people raise the short wooden sticks in their hands.
When Duke Ryan was only a hundred paces away from the human wall, a series of ping-pong sounds rang out in succession. He felt a violent shock in his chest and abdomen, as if he had been hit by a sledgehammer. What followed was numbness and powerlessness. His body leaned backwards and fell from the horse to the ground.
The Duke opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out. He coughed twice and only smelled a strong, sweet, fishy smell. A viscous liquid blocked his throat. Soon, darkness enveloped him.