The violent explosion caused the ground and the mountain wall to tremble, and countless pieces of gravel and dust fell from the sky like rain, making crackling sounds.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
"Watch out overhead!"
"Pay attention to cover and hide!"
"B-4 plan, use 'Folding Barrier' immediately!"
The Imperial Army officers responded quickly, blowing sharp whistles and shouting loudly.
The whistle consisted of three long notes and one short note, then two short notes and one long note, which seemed to contain some secret code.
The army did not panic under the sudden bombing. Thanks to their daily training and strong obedience, they quickly took action at the orders and whistles of their superiors.
Except for a few extremely unlucky soldiers who were hit on the spot by bombs falling from the sky and shattered into pieces, the rest of the soldiers worked in groups, took out palm-sized metal cubes from the backpacks they carried with them, operated on them, and then threw them on the ground.
With a few clanging sounds, the metal block fell to the ground and spread out into a cross-shaped metal sheet. It then continued to flip several times and spread out on the ground to form a large piece of iron sheet. Finally, it bulged like a balloon to form a hemispherical shelter the size of a tent.
The soldiers got into the "iron ball" in an orderly manner to avoid the bombing. Although they could not completely resist it, they could effectively reduce a large amount of shrapnel and burn damage... At the same time, on the outer shell of the "iron ball", the square iron sheets opened several holes, from which flintlock barrels stretched out, aiming at the enemy troops on the mountain walls on both sides of their heads.
“Fight back!
”
The imperial officers did not even hide in the bunkers, but stood outside, standing straight, facing the shock waves and strong winds, and blew their whistles.
Rest, rest, rest—
The sound of the whistle penetrated the canyon, and several officers were killed on the spot, with limbs and arms flying everywhere, but the rest of the officers turned a blind eye, still looking indifferent, as if they were not afraid of death.
Boom boom boom…!
Bullets were shot up into the sky from the bottom of the canyon like inverted rain. For a moment, the death squads of the United Kingdom of Anlong were killed at a very fast speed and fell from the mountain wall.
The bodies looked like broken rag dolls, spinning at a very fast speed and hitting the ground, making a dull thumping sound. Some of the bodies hit the iron hemisphere, creating deep pits, and the blood dyed it dark red.
At this time, General Vance had already got off the carriage, and four military strongmen over two meters tall followed closely behind him, holding special shields the size of door panels to protect him.
The general stood straight with his hands behind his back, walking calmly through the hail of bullets. He also had a pair of sunglasses on his face and looked up at the enemy's situation.
It was seen that the Anlong enemy troops on the mountain wall had suffered heavy casualties. Although they had ambushed here in advance, they were outnumbered. After being exposed, they lacked cover and protection and were directly killed by the counterattack of the Imperial Army.
After a moment, General Vance said calmly:
"Give the order to send out the 'Mechanical Falcon' to pursue. Do not let any enemy go."
"Yes, General."
The messenger following behind him responded immediately and immediately conveyed the order to the officers of various departments via the intercom:
"Mechanical Falcon is out! Chase the enemy!"
Beep—
There was another strange whistle.
Hundreds of metal falcons spewed steam, the precision gears under their abdomens turned, and they flapped their wings to soar into the sky and circled above the canyon.
They quickly locked onto the naked bodies fleeing on the cliff. Their eyes lit up red and they immediately opened their beaks, revealing a pitch-black steel pipe.
Rest, rest, rest—
The steel pipe sprayed out flames and shells, falling accurately.
Boom!
The shells bombarded the mountain wall indiscriminately, and the Anlong Suicide Squad that attempted to evacuate were shattered into pieces in this round of bombing by the Mechanical Falcon. Accompanied by smoke and rubble, the flesh and blood were even carbonized into tiny particles, blooming like fireworks.
*
*
*
After a moment.
Chen Lun, surrounded by his subordinates, walked through the cluster of temporary tents.
"Captain, General Vance seemed to have anticipated the attack. He didn't need our help at all when it happened. Those 'military guards' who were trained with mysterious substances had already protected him..."
Frey and other congressmen reported the situation in a low voice.
Chen Lun hummed and nodded slightly.
He looked around and saw many medical soldiers carrying stretchers and bringing the wounded into the tent in an orderly manner. Some soldiers who had been treated walked out as if nothing had happened, put on their uniforms and returned to the team while communicating.
'The Imperial Army is firm in its loyalty to the Sun Royal Family, and is extremely obedient and disciplined. In addition, the various black technologies developed by the Extraordinary Workshop, as well as medical standards that surpass those of other countries, directly give the Imperial Army the military strength to crush other countries... I still underestimated them.'
Chen Lun couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.
Although he participated in the Western War in his previous life, he was always fighting in a favorable situation. In every battle, he almost swept the Anlong army with a crushing attitude, so that he failed to see some hidden countermeasures of the Imperial Army.
Now that he had personally experienced this ambush counterattack, he re-evaluated the Imperial Army in his mind, but with it came deeper doubts.
"If the Imperial Army is so powerful, why did they suffer a Waterloo at the Hercule Bridge? Was it because they were overconfident? Judging from General Vance's character, this may be a possibility."
Chen Lun thought.
After a while, he came to the command room, which was the tent where General Vance was. Under the watchful eyes of several guards, Chen Lun asked his men to wait outside and walked in alone.
General Vance and the top military brass remained as before, sitting behind the table, while the clergy of the Moon Church and the Hailing Group sat opposite each other.
As soon as he entered, Chen Lun heard the middle-aged male priest of the Hailing Group expressing his dissatisfaction to the general in a deep voice:
"General, the fact is as we said, there is indeed an enemy ambush in the canyon... We, the three churches, have warned you at the same time, why are you still insisting on doing it?"
"Priest Kuni, first of all, thank you for your warning..."
General Vance smiled and nodded.
"We did take your opinions into consideration, but after discussion at the headquarters, we decided that continuing to advance deeper into the canyon was the best option... In this encounter, only 122 of our men were killed, and all the wounded have been treated and recovered, while the enemy lost 750 men, with none of them surviving."
As he spoke, he tapped the table lightly, his expression becoming more serious.
"That was Anlong's death squad, carrying extraordinary items with concealment effects and a large amount of high explosives! They wiped out all 750 people. This is a great victory! How many times can the entire Anlong send out such a team?"
The clergy of the Hailing Group frowned.
General Vance continued:
"I don't need to explain anything to you, but for the sake of our future relationship, I feel it is necessary to tell you... In war, victory is the goal, and any means are justified. The Imperial Army is particularly good at this. Please remember your duties, Priest Kuni. You have no right to interfere in matters involving strategy and decision-making."
Kuni sighed softly and nodded solemnly.
At this time, General Vance turned to look at Chen Lun and asked calmly:
"Archon Jack, what's the matter this time?"
"Nothing, I just want to know the battle situation and ask about the next action. What do you need us to do?"
Chen Lun did not sit down, but just stood at the door and spoke calmly.
General Vance nodded slightly.
"You can ask Major Fuller for the specific battle situation. His subordinates have already completed the statistics. As for the next action... we need to wait until the troops enter the Kerr Plain before we can inform you. It's not that I don't trust you, but the command center also needs to make temporary arrangements based on the specific situation."
"Okay, I understand."
Chen Lun nodded and left the tent.
He turned around, but he knew very well in his heart that the military actually had no requirements for the Church of the Seven Gods. They only needed to deal with the enemy's extraordinary people and various strange and extraordinary methods... Other than that, the military did not want them to interfere in anything.
The best way for both parties to get along is to keep to themselves.
*
*
*
Time flies, and it is the morning four days later.
At about eleven o'clock, the imperial army had crossed the Kel Plain. In the distance, they could see a wide river that stretched across their sight. The water flowed rapidly, and it was simply wishful thinking to cross the river by ordinary means.
The width of the river, which is hundreds or thousands of meters, also gives people a feeling that the other end is far away.
In the past few days, the Imperial Army has been attacked several times by Anlong's side in the plains. Chen Lun, representing the Kangkai Council, and the clergy of the Hailing Group of the Moon Church also performed their duties conscientiously and warned General Vance in advance.
However, in these encounters, General Vance did not retreat, but chose to fight hard... The result was just as Chen Lun expected. Even though the imperial army was repeatedly in a passive position, it won a great victory every time.
These attacks caused Anlong's side to lose thousands of death squads, countless extraordinary items and weapons and equipment... On the other hand, the Imperial Army only lost more than 400 people.
The endless stream of cutting-edge technology from the Empire's Super Workshop refreshed Chen Lun's cognition once again. Many supernatural things that he had never seen in his previous life were used extremely skillfully in the hands of the Imperial Army, reversing many obvious disadvantages.
However, during this period, Chen Lun informed General Vance and the Imperial Command of some of the intelligence he knew, using the excuse of "the results of observation and inference"... He said that there were reconnaissance and early warning measures deployed by the extraordinary people of Anlong on the Kerr Plain, and the actions of the Imperial Army were clearly detected by the enemy.
General Vance actually saw the clues. After all, the enemy's attacks came one after another, and it was obvious that they knew their movement trajectory... So the general canceled the "crossing the river" strategy and chose to turn directly to the Hercule bridgehead, intending to capture it head-on in the simplest and crudest way.
There is absolutely no problem with the strength of the Imperial Army.
This is also Trisur’s strong self-confidence.
More than two hours passed.
Chen Lun sat in the carriage, opened the curtain, and saw through the window in the distance on the right front of the Benavides River. A stone bridge stood quietly, and the other end was connected to a huge fortress.
The solid, wide, high walls were dark grey, with small bunkers standing on top of them like candles on a cake. Many large-caliber metal cannons were placed on the notches of the walls, like fierce eyes staring at the imperial army on the riverside.
The city walls were surrounded by thick wooden spikes. Faintly, one could see many of Anlong's troops patrolling on the high walls, with flickering firelight.
After a while, the carriage stopped.
Golov lifted the car curtain and whispered:
"Mr. Jack, the messenger has conveyed the order. The Imperial Army is to prepare on the spot and will officially begin the attack on the bridgehead in the evening."
"Yes, I understand."
Chen Lun nodded.
He stood up from the sofa and turned to look at the rest of his men.
"According to the plan I told you before I set out, we can start moving now."
"Yes, Mr. Jack."
Everyone agreed in unison.
They then stepped down from the carriage and escaped into the spirit world.
Although Chen Lun had already anticipated that the extraordinary people on Anlong's side would be on guard in the spiritual world near the bridgehead, he believed that Fuluoyin and others could solve this minor trouble.
After sitting alone in the carriage and thinking for a while, Chen Lun began to operate on the panel and then issued tasks to the more than 2,000 circus players who were accompanying the army -
Side quests: Western War/Battle of the Hercule Bridgehead/Siege!
Mission Description: You have chosen to follow Jackspeight, the Consul of the Kangkai Parliament, on the expedition. Your primary goal is to find ways to break through the blockade of the Hercule Bridge and attack the bridgehead!
Mission Reward: Successfully attack the bridgehead and gain 5,000 experience points, 80 silver trophies, and 20 contribution points. (Additional kill rewards: enemy soldiers or ordinary players, 100 experience points; enemy sequence nine extraordinary people, 500 experience points and 1 contribution point; enemy sequence eight extraordinary people, 1,000 experience points and 2 contribution points.)
"Wow! Here it comes!"
Behind the cluster of tents, Dongyang and others were sitting in a tent. Goutoujin was the first to notice the prompt from the panel and stood up and shouted.
"Brothers, the mission is here!"
Dongyang carefully scanned the task description, smiled slightly, and chose to accept it.
Then he turned and looked at everyone.
"After the battle begins, we will follow the army to see the situation and figure out the enemy's attack pattern before discussing and researching... Anyway, it's only a matter of time before we reach the bridgehead. We must get the reward for this mission. After all, we know how strong the Imperial Army has been these days. Some of them are ridiculously strong... So what we have to do is save as many resurrections as possible."
"Dongyang is right."
Chenxi nodded in agreement, and then looked towards the North Star.
"During this process, if you encounter an enemy Sequence 8 NPC, notify everyone in the chat room. Together we can trap the enemy and create an opportunity for Polaris to fight him in a one-on-one duel."
"Okay, it's settled!"
Su Keying waved her fist and responded.
Polaris looked at everyone, took a deep breath, and led the way out of the tent with a determined look in his eyes.
The other side.
Chen Lun had already stepped off the carriage alone. He lowered the brim of his hat, and quietly walked past many makeshift tents with his silver cane, passing by the imperial soldiers.
For some reason, these soldiers seemed to ignore his existence, but they avoided Chen Lun's body and made way for him as if by reflex.
After a moment.
In the headquarters tent not far away, a human figure appeared behind General Vance and made a low voice:
"Vance, the head of the Kangkai Council's military, the governor named Jack, is leaving the camp and heading west to the river."
General Vance looked down at the papers and maps and waved his hand.
"Let him be. If it doesn't affect the Imperial Army, don't worry about it."
"Okay, got it."
The shadow then fell and shrank back into Vance's shadow.
Benavides River.
Chen Lun took off the black glove on his left hand, the moonlight on his palm, bent down, scooped up some water, and took a sip. The cold and slightly sweet taste made him sigh that the water here was of excellent quality, but it was a pity that the artillery fire and the mountains of corpses and blood would eventually pollute it...
Immediately, he took out a dirty glove covered with mold and put it on his left hand.
This is the A-level monster he applied for from the Kangkai Council Headquarters - Desire for Decay. It can suppress the target's desire to fight, kill, and conflict on a large scale, and can even affect the reaction of firearms. However, it is only effective against ordinary people and objects, and its effect on mysterious forces will be greatly reduced, so this monster is rarely used.
During the last bloody battle, Chen Lun had already memorized some information about strategic-level monsters in his church, so when he was thinking about countermeasures, he thought of it first.
Chen Lun raised his left hand and snapped his fingers lightly.
Countless dark green particles emerged from his hands and dispersed like dust or spores, flying towards the Hercule Bridge and the fortress.
They avoided people's sight, as if they were traveling between the mortal world and the spiritual world. Even when they flew past the eyes of the imperial soldiers and Anlong soldiers, no one noticed.
Until it flew to the countless gunpowder barrels hidden in the stone bricks under the bridge, on the Benavides Riverbed, in the basement of the Hercule Bridgehead, and beside the load-bearing stone pillars...
The dark green particles sank into the gunpowder, took root, sprouted, and finally grew into a strange mold...