leonardwarren Chapter 848 - 72: Terrifying Bombardment
Chapter 848 - 72: Terrifying Bombardment
On Battery One.
Enrique was holding a mess tin, standing in a long line under the reprimand of the cook waving a spoon.
The iron pot emitted the aroma of potatoes and tomato-braised beef, with a pile of sausages and bread stacked like a small mountain beside it. The cook constantly stirred the pot with a ladle, releasing a rich scent.
After getting his meal, Enrique saw a fierce-looking quartermaster next to the cook handing out loose cigarettes: "Take it, everyone gets a share!"
Enrique quickly bit into his bread, freeing a hand to receive the cigarette. These paper cigarettes were valuable goods; even if he didn’t smoke them himself, they were a hard currency in the military, able to be exchanged for many good things from his comrades. Barry’s big pocket watch was traded for with cigarettes.
He found an empty ammunition box in the dugout and sat down to eat. At the right moment, a soldier wearing an unusual cross cloak, whom he didn’t recognize, sat down beside him. He also carried a mess tin and had a friendly smile on his face.
"Where are you from? I haven’t seen your type of face before."
"Kurd, I’m from Egypt."
Derum said with a smile, "Just call me Derum."
"Egypt? Isn’t that British territory?"
Thinking this, Enrique didn’t ask further. Instead, he introduced his own name, reached out to shake the hand of the strange man named Derum, and found this guy’s grip astonishingly strong: "Looking at your outfit, are you a military doctor?"
In Texas, only doctors and monks would wear crosses.
Derum nodded slightly: "That’s right, I studied under Bishop Urding. He’s a highly skilled master in medicine, once curing the leprosy of the King of Jerusalem. I studied with him for several months."
Enrique didn’t know where Jerusalem was, but every soldier held military doctors in high regard, so he quickly took out the cigarette he just received and handed it over.
"Haha, I don’t smoke this stuff."
Having spent some time with the Texans, Derum was not so much of a country bumpkin as to know nothing.
He had volunteered to come to Battery One, the most dangerous place, but these knights from the Middle Ages seemed to have little room for play in this era apart from some manual labor.
"Are you an... ordinary person?"
This question felt rather inexplicable to Enrique. He touched the top of his head and found nothing unusual like suddenly growing ears.
"Yes, aren’t you?"
Derum gave a wry smile: "Of course I am."
These days, he’s come to realize the fragility of mortals. Having obtained the Imperial Knight combat skills, he thought of himself as a master of swordsmanship, equestrian skills, and archery, but unexpectedly, during training with the Texans, he was completely outclassed.
Truly, there are always people better than us and heavens beyond our own.
"Enrique, why did you join the army?"
"Robbers wanted to take our wealth, cattle, sheep, ranches, and manors. Shouldn’t we rise up and resist? The lords of the Wolf Race have already fulfilled many obligations; I believe we shouldn’t stand by either."
He joined the army wanting to patrol the borders or strike at despicable invaders—be they Brits or Mexicans—with those proud cowboys.
Unfortunately, he was not qualified enough.
Even in Texas, though humans and the Wolf Race had grown equal, the inherent differences between the two still had lasting impacts. For example, local civil servants and town mayors were generally humans, while sheriffs and ranger captains were almost always from the Wolf Race.
He once asked a Yankee immigrant from the north: "Why do you Brits, already so wealthy, always want to seize our worthless cattle, sheep, ranches, and cotton?"
"Hey brother, don’t call me Brit, I’m actually a Gael from the north of the British Isles."
He first denied his identity, then answered: "For the British Isles, we Gaels are the true masters of this island. Only that pirates frequently invaded the British Isles; Angles, Saxons, Vikings, and Normans have all rooted here. The United Kingdom is a country formed by these pirate tribes. Plundering other nations is its nature. You think Brits are wealthy, they shouldn’t plunder others, isn’t that ignoring the fact that their wealth is built on constant plundering?"
Enrique relayed this conversation to Derum, who fully agreed. In the Middle Ages, Norman robbers from Sicily still roamed the Mediterranean, occasionally raiding the Eastern Empire’s coastal areas, infamous indeed.
"And you, what do you fight for?"
Derum thought for a moment and answered: "For His Majesty the King, for glory, for redemption."
Yet another pile of words that he didn’t understand.
"Although I haven’t been to school, Mr. Military Doctor, Texas doesn’t have a King."
Derum smiled and didn’t answer. Time travel, regardless of which world one is from, is beyond imagination, and explaining it clearly would waste a lot of words.
Enrique greedily used the last piece of bread to soak up the soup in the bowl, stuffed it into his mouth, and then leisurely patted his stomach: "This is the best meal we’ve had in days. They say a commander from the reconnaissance unit cleared out a group of cattle thieves, and in the process, a few unfortunate longhorn cattle died, so we had this feast."
Derum nodded. The food rationing system has been in place for quite a while now in New Basilicata, which made him deeply feel the profound differences between this country and the newly established Crusader state. Here, the administrative institutions are strong and can completely control the whole country.
A black rat suddenly darted out from the corner. Derum raised his hand and threw a stone, with a squeak, he killed the rat.
"Amazing!"
Enrique was amazed: "On the battery, the most annoying things are those rats. Our commander filed a report the other day requesting a few cats to be sent over."
Derum smiled and said, "I practiced this when I used to herd sheep."
Suddenly, a sharp, piercing whistle sounded violently.
The officer on the battery, a Corner, immediately shouted loudly: "Take cover, be aware, enemy shelling is incoming!"
But soon, his voice was drowned out by the deafening roar; debris flew over his head, the mountain shook, and he felt like the entire world had turned into a box constantly shaken by a mischievous child.
It was unknown how long it took before the intense shaking and roaring ceased.
Enrique saw the Corner’s mouth opening and closing continuously, but he couldn’t hear anything, then turned to the "Military Doctor" in the cross cloak across from him: "I’m deaf, Mr. Military Doctor, please take a look at it for me!"
Derum dug at his ears, indicating that he couldn’t hear anything either, then he tried to stick his head out of the bomb shelter to observe the enemy but was pulled back by the Corner, who ordered him to stay in place.
It took quite a while before their hearing gradually returned.
"Don’t panic, the enemy’s shelling cannot collapse our battery nor harm us who are hiding in the bomb shelter. When shelling comes, everyone remember, put on your helmet, open your mouth, you can lie down, but do not stick your chest and abdomen to the ground!"
The Corner kept repeating, while the accompanying officers loudly scolded the panic-stricken, frightened recruits, ordering them to put on their helmets immediately.
Derum and Enrique clumsily put on their helmets. For a Middle Ages person, such shelling was terrifying. Even in their era, even a hundred, a thousand giant catapults firing together might only reach this level, right?
...
On the city walls of Wolf Castle.
Losa felt the tremors from the mountain and the soaring smoke from Battery No.1, frowning deeply. Was such a terrifying bombardment really capable of being blocked just by Furin drawing some demon arrays?
If the Middle Ages belonged to the era of cavalry, then the present time belongs to the era of large cannons and great ships. The power of mankind has seen a leap in advancement; gunpowder weapons created from white crystal can completely destroy mountains and split the land.
Even the Wolf Race, possessing Extraordinary Power, felt a shudder in their hearts watching this scene.
Juliano murmured, "Aren’t they afraid of detonating the underground white crystal vein, blowing everyone to kingdom come?"
Losa hinted, "Clearly they aren’t. They’re more aware of the vein’s location than we imagine, and their understanding of this terrifying mineral is far deeper than ours. The Brits have been extensively using white crystal for nearly half a century."
There is a traitor within the Wolf Race, and of evidently high stature, otherwise, they wouldn’t have known what was previously a top secret about the white crystal vein within the Wolf Race.
Juliano still couldn’t determine who the traitor was and had no concrete evidence against the suspected targets, so he only had them all detained, planning to wait until Furin had some spare time to use magical means for interrogation.
Baron Charlie looked at the successive explosions in the distance with some amazement: "Sir, will such weapons also appear in our world in the future?"
"Perhaps."
Losa was non-committal about it. The world rules of the Middle Ages limited gunpowder weapons, and with proper adjustment, gunpowder that should have had more power could only exhibit meager firepower, creating the effect of fireworks.
However, whether the world rules would change, is hard to say.
Originally, the rather self-satisfied Baron Charlie couldn’t help but become cautious at heart too. They had indeed defeated the great enemy Saladin and were about to swallow all of Egypt and even the Crescent Fertile Land.
But the world is not unchangeable; if such a terrifying enemy invades in the future, how will they cope?
The enemy soon began a second round of bombardment. Compared to the first time, their accuracy was significantly better. Dozens of heavy-caliber cannons, including the fearsome siege cannons, poured their firepower onto Battery No.1.
At this rate, even if not a single shell hits the defenders, the concussive waves from the bombardment alone could kill the defenders in the belly of the mountain, right?