When the enemy appeared far in the field of vision, Fanner saw the knights in full armor, riding tall horses and wearing shiny armor, slowly approaching the town. Usually a knight in the town is a high-ranking existence, but now nearly a hundred people came out at once, and the sight made him gasp.
Fanner felt that his palms were sweating again, just like when he stood on the city wall and faced the evil beast for the first time, but this time, he was facing the same kind of noble coalition army of Longsong Fortress.
No, he spat and threw his thoughts aside, kind of? When did those nobles treat you as one of their kind? he thought to himself mockingly. The purpose of their trip was to snatch Border Town and bring the North Slope mining area back into the fortress' control. More importantly, they actually planned to drive His Royal Highness out of the Western Territory, which was something that all members of the First Army simply could not accept.
Yesterday, His Highness made it very clear in his pre-war lecture, that Timothy Wimbledon, the elder brother of His Highness, used conspiracy and tricks to gain the throne and killed the old King Wimbledon III. Originally, Fanner didn't have any opinion on the matters between the royal family and the nobles. Who should be the king? But Duke Ryan wants to take this opportunity to take away His Highness's territory, which is too much.
Think about it, what was Border Town like before His Highness came here? The former lord seemed to be an earl, and he was rarely seen. When buying furs, he always brought his own guards, and he often bought the good stuff from Orion at a low price. The Demon Moon was the first to flee, and the townspeople never bothered when they suffered in the fortress slums.
Today, Border Town is getting better and better under the governance of His Royal Highness, and everyone can see these changes. Fanner thought that the more miners produced, the more they were paid. After His Highness put the black machine into the North Slope Mine, the extra output was still counted on the miners. Whether it is building a city wall or mining gravel, the villagers are paid on time. Not even a single person froze to death this winter.
Of course, the biggest change is that the militia is not the current First Army. With them guarding the town, everyone doesn't have to curl up in the cold wooden sheds of the fortress in winter, begging the big guys for a bite of food. If His Royal Highness is gone, will the Duke still allow the First Army to exist
Fanner took two deep breaths and wiped the sweat from his hands on his clothes. Of course they won't allow it. The fortress nobles don't care about the lives of the townspeople. This is exactly what His Highness said: only an army composed of the people will be willing to fight for the people.
He raised his head and looked towards the left side of the sky. There was a faint black dot circling in the distance. If he looked at it casually, he thought it was a huge bird. It was Lightning, the firing commander of the artillery team. She used the woods on both sides of the road as cover to observe the enemy's movements from a height. When she flew back, Fanner also noticed that as long as she did not take the initiative to go to the open area, the people below would only see the branches on both sides when they raised their heads, and it was difficult to find the witches reconnaissance above.
Lightning once flew to a position closer in front of the formation in a quarter of an hour, and flashed a green ribbon.
That means that the enemy has entered a 1,000-meter ready-to-fire range. Fanner still didn't know how far the "one thousand meters" in His Highness's mouth was, but when he saw the green signal, he subconsciously called out the command to load and adjust the shooting angle according to the regulations of the comprehensive exercise.
The four artillery groups quickly completed this set of actions, the muzzle angle was adjusted to the third gear, and the gunpowder and solid shells were filled into the barrels.
I thought that standing on the city wall to fight against evil beasts was already considered experienced, but only today did Fanner realize that he was still far behind Iron Axe and Brian. When the formation assembled in the afternoon, his heartbeat had been difficult to stabilize. And the two led their respective teams into the shooting position, not only looked as usual, he could even hear a hint of eagerness from Brian's shouting voice. But until now, he has not regained his composure, and even the Rodney brothers seem to be better than themselves. This made Fanner feel a little frustrated.
He licked his dry lips and looked for the lightning bolt again.
At this moment, the enemy's advance speed suddenly slowed down a lot.
"What are they doing?" Rodney asked.
"I don't know," Catpaw's eyes widened, "It seems to be adjusting the formation? Their people look a little messy."
"They are waiting for the troops behind," Yupi's voice was trembling, "Master Knight can't fight alone, there must be a large number of people behind them."
"You know that?" Nelson pouted.
"I've seen it before! A knight master will bring at least two squires and a dozen serfs to carry food and grass for them," he counted with his fingers, "Look, a fortress duke has at least a hundred subordinates. Famous knights, right? There are at least 300 people who can fight on horseback. Plus the counts and viscounts in the territory... There are even more! There are also mercenaries. Don't blink an eye! There are only three hundred of us in total."
With less than 300 people, Fanner corrected in his heart. Only more than 270 people in the musket team were equipped with weapons. According to His Highness, this was called insufficient production capacity. Now those without muskets were sent to the artillery crew to carry ammunition for the four guns. But seeing that there was someone worse than himself, he felt a little better.
"That's the mercenaries, they're here!" Youpi whispered.
Fanner looked over and saw a group of guys in various clothes gradually occupy the front of the battlefield. They did not ride on horses or line up, but gathered in twos and threes to the middle of the field. The knights scattered to both sides, as if to make way for the mercenaries. Compared to half an hour ago, the Duke's allied army was much closer to him.
At this moment, a knight galloped out of the coalition and rushed towards Border Town. Fanner was so nervous that he almost shouted out the fire code.
What is this for? He raised his head, but still did not see the lightning, and the other party got closer and waved a white flag at the same time.
"He is an envoy sent by the Duke," Yupi muttered, "should have come to persuade him to surrender."
"That's none of our business," Rodney squatted behind the gun and aligned his sight on the center line of the gun barrel. "Team Leader, the gun needs to be adjusted downward, and most of the knights have already left the field."
In the previous live-fire practice, they were repeatedly taught that the range of the artillery was on this line in front of the muzzle, so to hit the target, the target must overlap the centerline of the barrel. Together, the five turned the gun carriage slightly until the knight troops at the forefront of the coalition were brought back into the direction the gun muzzle was pointing.
The messenger who came alone was immediately escorted by Carter into the rear of the defense line, but Fanner knew that the Duke's move was just a waste of time, and His Royal Highness would never agree to surrender.
Suddenly, lightning suddenly accelerated towards the town's defense line, her arms were waving, and the yellow ribbons in her hands fluttered in the wind.
The yellow signal means that the opponent has entered the 800-meter range. Within this distance, the solid bullet of the artillery has a chance to hit the target. As long as the captain of the artillery team did not signal the prohibition of firing, the artillery units were free to fire.
The team members also noticed this signal, and everyone turned their attention to Vanna, who nodded and took a deep breath, "Fire!" (.)