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You know, these two thousand cavalrymen are not all his strength, they also have to include Prince Harold’s personal guards. The loss this time is so heavy that the eldest prince must tear him apart!
"Fire back and cover the cavalry's retreat!" Rickman shouted angrily. The cavalry's charge and sacrifice were not worthless. At least they covered them from the artillery attack and reached a distance where they could use arrows and crossbows to fight back.
However, after witnessing the tragic plight of the cavalry brigade, the army of more than 10,000 people had already fallen into chaos, and several nobles prepared to flee with their men when they saw that the situation was not good.
The priests on the field tried their best to use magic to appease the army and prevented it from completely collapsing. Only Rickman's personal soldiers obeyed orders faithfully. Just as they fired a wave of arrows, continuous artillery fire fell on their heads.
"Stop shooting, stop shooting, stop!" Rickman, who was afraid of being targeted by artillery fire, quickly changed his mind.
"It seems that we have overestimated them. These people are simply a group of scattered sand..." At the same time, Lin En's figure appeared in front of everyone.
But it's also true that this legion was originally temporarily assembled from the personal soldiers of dozens of nobles. It would be a miracle if they could be dispatched and commanded at will and enforce orders.
It was fine to fight with the wind in their favor, but once the wind was against them, they would inevitably take care of themselves. The fact that they could withstand the attack of artillery and the volley of musket fire without completely collapsing was entirely due to the magic...
Chapter 267 Nord: The great Lord will use the fire of purgatory to burn everything!
The sudden change in the situation stunned Raeder, Ham and others. They could not see the scene of the artillery fire in the valley, but could only hear the continuous sound of artillery fire. However, they could see every move of the musketeers clearly.
These people simply held something like a long stick horizontally in front of them and pressed a small pull ring. A burst of fire gushed out with a loud noise, and then those fierce cavalrymen fell off their horses one by one.
"Sir Lin, what kind of weapon is this? Is it the power of magic?" Redel asked with great curiosity.
"No, it should be said that this is the power of technology!" Lin En said with a smile.
"Technology?" Reddle paused, looking confused.
"That's right!" Lin En nodded. "To put it bluntly, whether it's a musket or a cannon, in the final analysis, it's just throwing stones with greater force!"
Ham, who was eavesdropping on the side, had a very strange expression on his face. He thought that this mysterious adult must be joking. How could such a powerful weapon be associated with throwing stones?
Philip and the others also had a helpless expression on their faces, but they could not refute Lin's words. After all, the other party was right. The principle of the musket was to use the impact force generated by flames and explosions to throw stones!
"Well, have you figured out anything?" Lin En straightened his face and asked.
"The number of people in the musketeers is still too small. If those cavalrymen had not retreated just now, they might have really rushed over..." Orlando said thoughtfully.
The effective range of the flintlock rifle is only about eighty or ninety meters, which means a charge for the cavalry. If it weren't for the double deterrence of artillery and muskets that made those people lose their courage, there would probably be considerable casualties.
"The firing rate is the biggest drawback of this thing. It would be great if it could load two or even three bullets at a time!" Orlando said with emotion.
Philip shook his head. He felt that this flintlock rifle was already a perfect creation. If it could fire more times, then a skilled gunner would be more powerful than many wizard apprentices or even first-ring wizards.
……
"Don't panic. Those followers of the evil god won't be rampant for long. The great Lord of the Stars is watching us from the depths of the Kingdom of God. Those who died bravely in the battle will receive eternal glory in the Lord's Kingdom of God..."
On the other side of the battlefield, Archduke Rickman shouted loudly, trying to maintain order in the legion, but his voice was trembling slightly, and it was obvious that he was not as calm as he appeared to be.
Rickman is in a difficult situation at this moment.
Since this action concerned the throne, when he assembled the army to march south to attack, he reorganized the troops with the mentality of using all his strength even if it meant a lion fighting a rabbit. Not only did he bring along the personal soldiers of the nobles, he even brought a cavalry team of two thousand people.
Such a force is more than enough to deal with a small miners' riot, and it is more than enough to serve as the main force to conquer a kingdom!
Who would have thought that among those ragged miners, there would suddenly be thousands of well-trained regular soldiers armed with strange weapons, who beat his cavalry regiment to pieces. There were even wizards involved, bombarding them with magic...
The cavalry brigade that fled in panic eventually managed to return to the formation, but at the cost of nearly half of their men being killed or wounded.
Most people died from the blows of muskets and artillery, but many also fell from being trampled by their teammates or collided with while fleeing...
Seeing the miserable plight of these people, Joyce's forehead broke out in sweat. Fortunately, the reckless Johnson blocked the disaster for him, otherwise he would be the one dying on the battlefield.
But before Joyce could rejoice, Rickman grabbed him by the collar and said viciously, "Lord Joyce, is this the miners' riot you told me about?"
So many wizards and a legion of thousands of people appeared in the earldom at the same time, mixed with the rioting miners. As the lord, Joyce could not possibly be unaware of it!
And now think about it, how could a few unorganized miners drive Joyce, the lord, out of his territory? It was clearly the believers of the evil god who provided help behind the scenes!
Joyce didn't mention a word about all this information. Rickman couldn't help but wonder if the other party was a spy sent by the second prince. No wonder that man sat firmly in the capital and didn't seem anxious at all.
Some of the nobles present wanted to skin Joyce alive on the spot.
Faced with the Grand Duke's questioning, Joyce was speechless. After all, he really knew nothing about the power behind these miners.
"Now is not the time to ask for accusations, Rickman. Let's find a way to end this battle first, and then slowly settle the accounts after we return..." Archbishop Nord said in a deep voice. The priests behind him erected a series of solid divine barriers to block the incoming artillery fire.
But they obviously couldn't take care of every corner of the battlefield and could only protect a small area in the center of the battlefield.
The sound of gunfire continued, and Nord was extremely anxious. Could it be that the magic of these wizards was unlimited?
Rickman pushed Joyce away in anger, and then calmed down a little and asked solemnly, "Bishop Nord, do you have a way to use magic to eliminate those wizards hiding in the valley?"
This is the key to breaking the deadlock!
As for those musketeers holding strange weapons? After the initial shock, Rickman soon realized a shortcoming of this weapon, which was that the range was less than 100 meters.
Once the cavalry brigade crossed this distance, the weapons in their hands would no longer be able to penetrate the armor, and the musketeers would immediately stop shooting.
The effective throwing distance of the longbow is about 130 meters. They can fully utilize the advantage of the long-range throwing ability of the bow and arrow and use the bow and arrow to fight back in places where the opponent cannot reach.
Then the heavy armored infantry with shields would slowly advance, settling in front to attract the attention of these people, while the remaining cavalry of more than a thousand would attack from both wings, driving away the miners and forcing them to squeeze the musketeers inside, disrupting their actions...
Rickman, a veteran of the battlefield, was undoubtedly sharp-sighted. After calming down, he quickly thought of a way to deal with the situation. However, the most important problem was to stop the round bullets that kept flying from the valley, otherwise their longbowmen would not be able to stand at all.
Nord wondered what kind of magic could span a distance of hundreds of meters and still retain enough power.
"We can beg the great Lord to bring down the Last Judgment and burn everything with the eternal fire of purgatory, but... we need some time to gain the Lord's mercy!" Nord said slowly.
Chapter 268 This is at least a fifth-ring, no, even a sixth-ring magic!
"They're moving! They're moving again!"
Redel, who was paying close attention to the battlefield, was the first to notice the enemy's movements. The army in front, which was originally in chaos, actually gathered again. Thousands of shield soldiers formed neat rows, like a solid city wall, and slowly advanced forward.
A continuous rain of arrows flew over again.
Immediately afterwards, a melodious hymn resounded across the battlefield.
"It seems that these bishops are not giving up and are preparing to do something new!" Lin En couldn't help but frowned.
From the information he had obtained, the cardinal should still be in the royal capital. Only a few ordinary bishops and a whole group of priests came with the army this time. However, they did not seem that easy to deal with. The powerful divine spell that covered the entire place just now gave us some clues.
Lin En guessed that it should be some kind of magic that could enhance fighting spirit, otherwise at the moment when the artillery fire sounded and the muskets fired in unison, the horses under the cavalry would have been frightened and run around.
However, it was obviously not easy to use a more powerful force. The previous hymn lasted for more than half a minute...
"We must not let them use it again!" Lin En said with a serious face. Gao Huan's magic and divine arts are completely capable of determining the outcome of a local war.
Except for the 3,000 musketeers who are relatively well-trained, the rest are just refugees. Once attacked, they are likely to collapse on a large scale, which will affect the performance of the musketeers.
"Do we need to mobilize the gunners to concentrate their firepower?" Philip asked.
"No, let them focus on those longbowmen." Lin En shook his head. The number of artillery pieces was limited, and those longbowmen were the only few forces that could threaten the musketeers.
"Does that mean we're going to use that?" Orlando said in surprise.
"It's a good opportunity to try out its power." Lin En nodded, then a fireball condensed in his right hand and sent it into the sky.
At the same time, hundreds of meters in the sky, seventy airships were hovering above the battlefield.
On the leading largest airship, Lydia was lying on the edge of the cockpit, observing the battle situation below with the help of a telescope. When she saw the charging cavalry brigade falling in rows like wheat being cut, she couldn't help but curl her lips.
"What's the situation?" A group of halflings asked eagerly. This alchemical telescope was still a new gadget, and each airship was only equipped with one, so they could only wait for Lydia to report the battle situation.
"These people are too weak, they are all scared out of their wits..." Lydia said rather depressedly, which meant that the new gadgets they prepared might not be of any use.
Darren rolled his eyes. He had personally witnessed the power of artillery. Anyone facing this thing would be scared to death.
Suddenly, a burst of fire shot up into the sky, interrupting the conversation of several people, and a brilliant spark exploded behind the airship.
Lydia's expression immediately became extremely excited. This was the signal that Lynn and they agreed upon.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry... I'll do it myself!" Lydia jumped down from the stool, ran quickly to the driving seat, pulled the joystick, and flew the airship over the priests.
Darren and others brought a cannonball the size of a human head, stuffed it into the drum, and it quickly fell into the cabin at the bottom through the pipe.
"Fire!" Lydia shouted loudly and slammed her hand hard on the button.
Almost at the same time, the cabins at the bottom of seventy airships burst open with a bang, and countless shells fell from the sky, accompanied by bursts of fire, and then exploded in mid-air!
Countless points of fire appeared in the sky, and swaying white fireworks filled the sky!
……
On the other side, Grand Duke Rickman was directing his troops to put pressure on the enemy to prevent them from directing all their firepower here.
The sound of artillery fire rang out again, and Rickman's heart suddenly tightened. However, he was relieved when he saw the black bullets flying towards the archers' ranks as he expected.
However, a guard beside him shouted in horror at this moment.
"Look at the sky...it's raining fire. It's raining fire!"
Rickman and others all looked up at the sky, and sure enough, tiny sparks of fire were falling from the sky.
Nord and others who were chanting and praying to the great Lord to send down the fire of purgatory were all excited. Could it be that the wrath of God had finally arrived?
But they didn’t seem to have received God’s response just now…
Nord was wondering, but soon realized something was wrong, because the flames were actually flying towards them!
"It's the wizard's magic!" Joyce shouted in horror, waking up everyone present.
A solid protective barrier appeared above everyone's heads. It was a protective spell cast by Nord and others before chanting and casting the spell.
Sparks with swaying white smoke slowly fell on it, making a hissing sound. That was the sound of the divine barrier being gradually corroded.
Those soldiers who were not within the range of divine protection could only watch the sparks falling from the sky and landing on themselves.
"Don't panic, this is just a way for the enemy to intimidate us!" Rickman shouted loudly. According to his judgment, although the rain of fire this time was very wide, what fell were just some sparks. It was very likely that the enemy wanted to make them lose their composure.
But just as he finished speaking, screams echoed across the battlefield. Soldiers were constantly hit by the so-called "sparks" and then fell to the ground and rolled over. Some even took the initiative to pull out their armor just to dig out the white phosphorus that had seeped into their skin...
A round of shrapnel attacks almost covered half of the battlefield. Whether it was the shield soldiers who were advancing or the crossbowmen who were pulling their longbows to shoot, they were all hit without exception...
More fire rain fell from the sky. The thick white smoke, the pungent smell, and the soldiers who were running and rolling to extinguish the white phosphorus formed a path to hell.
This horrific scene almost caused Rickman to fall off his horse.
Even the loud hymns had stopped, and Nord and the others looked at the nightmare-like scene in front of them in horror. The protective magic they had set up before had been corroded and holes had appeared, and fire rain was falling through these holes.