The Knight could not charge at the highest speed at the beginning. Horses had limited physical strength and could only maintain high speed for a short period of time. Generally speaking, they would let the horse trot at a distance of 1000 to 800 meters, gradually accelerate at 500 meters, and finally sprint at 200 meters.
When the 12-pound Napoleon cannon fired solid projectiles, the theoretical effective range could reach 1300 meters. Perhaps because of the short range, the cannon made by Roland was too far away to be seen from a kilometer away. Therefore, he had to open fire at 800 meters. At this time, the accuracy of the cannon was guaranteed, and the shell would still bounce forward after landing, causing line damage. The probability of hitting multiple targets was still relatively high.
In order to let the mercenaries go first, Duke Of Ryan ordered the Knight to wait in the acceleration zone. In the past, this was an absolutely safe zone. Bows and crossbows could not threaten the Knight, and the latter had enough distance to increase the speed of the horse. The low efficiency of the mercenaries caused the knights who were already in position to pull their mounts to a halt and wait quietly. For the artillery team, they were almost fixed targets.
The Duke did not know that when his troops stepped on this land, they had already fallen into the battlefield that Roland had prepared. The middle road was flat and spacious, and both sides were filled with plants catalyzed by Leaf. It looked like an ordinary grassland, but under the knee-high weeds were thick vines, like tripping ropes. If the cavalry wanted to outflank the defensive line, they could only advance at a very low speed. Within a kilometer, the distance was marked by Soroya. It might not be clear on the ground, but in the eyes of Lightning, who was overlooking the whole situation from the air, the battlefield was accurately divided into several sections. Different colored marks represented different distances — the enemy was advancing on a ruler. The artillery team did not need to calculate the angle of the muzzle, they only needed to follow the predetermined steps in the maneuver.
The 12-pound cannon of Van'er Group was the first to roar.
A large amount of gas produced by the detonation of the gunpowder pushed the projectile outward. When it flew out of the muzzle, it had accelerated to more than 400 meters per second. Almost in the span of two breaths, the shell hit the ground with a whistling sound, passed between two Knight, and fell into the grass beside the road. The splashing soil and gravel startled the horses. One of them did not have time to react and accidentally fell off the horse.
The other two cannonballs also missed, causing a trail of dust to rise.
In the first round of firing, only the last group of cannons was lucky. There was no one in front of the iron ball. A knight happened to pass in front of it when he was controlling his frightened horse. His armor was useless in front of the huge kinetic energy. After the iron ball pierced through the thin iron skin and flesh, it bounced a little on the ground and broke another knight's calf. The Knight's horse was also cut open, and its internal organs flowed out on the ground.
If the knights were in the normal acceleration phase, they would have adjusted the angle of fire for the next round of bombardment. But this sudden attack had clearly shocked the duke's coalition army. They did not even know where the attack came from or how it was launched — the speed of the cannonball was beyond the ability of the naked eye. The Knight did not receive the order, but he still, he could not see the speed of the shell.
The Van'er team completed the reloading process as fast as possible, and the second round of bombardment began.
Under the hot weapons, the flesh and blood were exposed to the fragility and softness of the body. Once the iron ball passed by, it would be an irreversible injury. The knights who were hit directly not only had their limbs broken into several pieces, but also blood splattered everywhere. Only when the shell fell to the ground and formed a second ejection, people could faintly see a vague black ghost, wantonly taking the lives of its companions in the crowd.
After two rounds of bombardment, the Duke finally connected the fire, roars, and inexplicable attacks in the enemy camp. The enemy seemed to have an incredible weapon, whose range was far beyond the crossbow, almost comparable to the fortress's trebuchets. Thinking of this, the Duke ordered his men to blow the horn to attack — as long as the distance was closed, this long-range weapon would basically lose its effect.
However, the Knight showed a completely different reaction. After hearing the horn, some people began to speed up in the direction of the town, some people were still competing with their horses, and a small number of people had retreated to the rear. Coupled with the swarming mercenaries, the whole scene was chaotic.
The attacking Knight returned to the main road, and the gunner team immediately became busy. In addition to cleaning the barrel and reloading the ammunition, they also needed to move the gun carriage. At this time, Lightning once again returned to the line of defense, and the ribbon in her hand was replaced by a red one.
The red signal meant that the enemy had approached within 500 meters, and at this distance, the cannons could hit more than 80% of the targets.
Van'er shouted: "Level the firing angle! Quick, ignite, ignite! "
After the deafening roar, he did not even have time to observe the results of the battle, and directly turned to the ammunition delivery staff and shouted: "Shotgun, send the shotgun up!"
In the artillery training, His Royal Highness had repeatedly stressed that if a red signal was seen and the barrel was loaded with solid shells, they should immediately fire and load the shotgun. If it had not been loaded, they should change to the shotgun, and wait for the enemy to enter the range of 300 meters before shooting.
The canister shell looked like a barrel-shaped tin can filled with finger-sized iron pellets and sawdust. The diameter of the can was smaller than the barrel, so after filling the canister shell, an extra thin piece of wood had to be stuffed in before the canister shell was filled.
When they waited for Lightning to send the purple signal, the four cannons almost simultaneously opened fire.
This was also the first time that Van'er used the shotgun for live firing — according to His Royal Highness, the shotgun was not easy to recover after being shot, so he only practiced the procedure without igniting it. Today was the first time that he witnessed the amazing damage caused by this special shell.
After the tin barrel flew out of the muzzle, because of the huge pressure difference, the iron balls inside rained down on the enemy, and the Knight within 300 meters was suddenly covered by a metal storm. Blood spurted out of the bodies of the men and horses, and they instantly fell down like wheat being cut down. Some iron balls still had a lot of kinetic energy after penetrating the human body, so the overlapping targets could not escape this disaster.
The Knight, who were lucky enough not to be covered by the barrage, finally approached the sprinting distance. There was only one thought in their minds — that was to break through this thin line of defense, and slaughter those cowards who only knew how to hide behind the line of defense and use evil weapons. It only took a short 20 breaths to cross the last 150 meters. The remaining Knight lowered their bodies and accelerated their horses to the highest speed.
However, this 150 meters seemed to be close in front of them, but it was actually an unreachable distance. The last round of shotgun fire completely destroyed the fighting will of the Knight. Within a range of 100 meters, the iron balls, which were not easily deformed, could already penetrate two or three people. The conical area in front of the muzzle became the domain of the Grim Reaper, and almost none of the more than 20 Knight who rushed at the front was spared. The only difference was that they were hit by a few bullets.
The team collapsed.
There was no way to recover the team that had collapsed because of fear. The Knight in the back turned their horses around and wanted to escape from the battlefield.
Seeing the Knight Regiment scattering in all directions, the mercenaries were naturally not willing to take a step forward. They had always worked for money, and they would never risk their lives to do this kind of unprofitable business. Now that it was time to retreat, the mercenaries ran away much faster than when they came.
The tide of defeat engulfed the Duke Of Ryan's coalition forces, and the situation quickly became out of control. The people squeezed back and fled, and those who were pushed down were trampled to death. No one had time to care about others, and they only hated themselves for not having two more legs.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
