That's right, hold the line.
Behind the camp was a gentle slope, and retreating back to the summit under a hail of bullets was nearly impossible. The rescue squads were operating independently, so reliable support was not available in the short term. In such an extremely unfavorable situation, holding this position was the only way to inflict maximum damage on the enemy.
After all, the number of people on both sides was too disparate. Furthermore, Jia Da's backpack was filled with food, clothing, and other supplies, without even a single heavy machine gun. This meant that the weapons on both sides were basically at the same level, making it difficult to compensate for the numerical disadvantage with long-range firepower as in the past.
Fifty against a thousand—Yuwan could already foresee the outcome.
He admitted that when this thought emerged, he felt a tinge of fear, but he was no longer the coward who would only cower and retreat. Fear would not affect his duty as squad leader.
Even if he died here, he would make them pay a sufficient price!
Obviously, the other teammates were also thinking the same thing at this moment, otherwise, they would not deliberately suppress their firing speed and let the enemy get within two hundred meters.
Everyone carried a limited number of bullets; only in close combat could they achieve the best hit rate.
Of course, the enemy's aim would also improve as the distance shortened. It was a double-edged sword, and willpower would determine everything.
The slope slowed down the enemy's advance. Yuwan waited for nearly a minute before seeing someone enter the hundred-meter circle—at this distance, he could use his binoculars to clearly see the faces of the attackers. And this once again confirmed his previous guess that most faces were clean, not at all like refugees who had been exposed to the wind and rain. Their actions and expressions showed no signs of coercion.
He no longer had to worry about killing innocent people by mistake.
Yuwan aimed at the enemy at the forefront and pulled the trigger.
The teammates around him also fired at this moment.
In an instant, the gunfire from the camp erupted, instantly overwhelming the enemy's movements. The attackers at the front line fell one after another in the blink of an eye, and the offensive momentum stalled immediately. The surrounding enemies all lay down and returned fire at the First Army. Whether they had learned this method of confrontation through past battles or were guided by devils, the situation turned into a mutual shootout.
While the two sides were deadlocked, the enemies behind pushed several cloth-covered two-wheeled carts closer to the front line.
Yuwan was no stranger to this kind of thing. Compared to carriages and mules, hand-pushed carts were more suitable for ordinary people, especially when moving their entire family and needing to carry large amounts of goods. He originally thought they were just props used by the enemy to disguise their identities, but he didn't expect them to continue using these cumbersome carts even after starting the charge.
It wasn't until the covers were lifted that Yuwan discovered that the carts were carrying Mark I heavy machine guns!
"Da-da-da—"
The rapid bursts of fire immediately suppressed the First Army's firepower, and the bullets were equipped with tracer rounds, making them much more accurate than bolt-action rifles. The area in front of the camp seemed to boil, with wild-flower-filled grassland and dirt flying everywhere. If it weren't for the fortifications to provide cover, this wave alone might have deprived them of their ability to fight back.
Fortunately, the enemy did not set up machine gun positions at the furthest distance, but instead deployed them together in the charge. Now, the machine guns were only about two hundred meters away from the defensive line, and the First Army was spread out enough, giving them a chance to breathe.
"Hansen!" Yuwan shouted.
The latter gave an understanding gesture and ran towards the edge of the camp fortifications with his rifle.
The First Army rarely encountered situations where their firepower was at a disadvantage. According to the regulations in the combat manual, once they were in a disadvantageous situation of weak firepower, they should quickly call for artillery support from the rear, or implement countermeasures specifically targeting the enemy's firepower points. Obviously, the only action the rescue squad could take at this time was to use efficient and precise sniping to deter the enemy's offensive momentum.
Taking advantage of the machine gun's reload, Yuwan and his teammates raised their heads and fired a barrage, attracting the enemy's attention to themselves as much as possible. Hansen didn't disappoint him either, knocking the machine gunners off the carts with two shots. Subsequent attempts to climb
onto the carts were also picked off one by one.
Without the suppression of the machine guns, the enemies who had taken the opportunity to charge were driven back by a volley of fire before they could run ten steps, and the battle returned to square one.
...
"Damn it, why haven't these good-for-nothings taken the camp yet?" Marwein raised his head and looked at the setting sun, stamping his foot impatiently. "Earl Nors, are your men too cowardly? They can't even take a flank! If it drags on until night, the Graycastle people will run away!"
As commanders, they naturally didn't have to rush to the front lines like attendants and mercenaries. Besides, these Graycastle people never cared about the noble rules of engagement—things like deliberately holding back, being captured and held for ransom...none of that existed. They had long seen the Graycastle people's attitude towards nobles; leading the charge like in the past would not earn them any honor or respect, only get them turned into a hornet's nest.
"They've already done their best, and your men aren't doing any better," Nors retorted unhappily, "You have the most men, but your front line is the furthest back. If your central troops could advance another hundred steps, the camp would have been taken long ago."
"You—" Marwein was speechless and could only stare sullenly at the front line, holding this hatred in his heart.
When I become the King of Eternal Winter, I'll make you pay!
But the most important thing now is to win the victory. Without victory, the Lord of the Celestial Heavens will not look at him differently.
He just didn't understand why the situation had become so tense?
Everything had gone smoothly as planned. To prevent the Graycastle people from discovering the flaws, they did not choose to set up an ambush in the town, nor did they divide their forces to outflank the enemy in advance—in this valley, the strength and deployment of both sides were clear at a glance, and he had carefully considered any details that might lead to exposure. As for the townspeople who might leak information, he had spared none of them.
And that was how things developed. By the time the Graycastle people noticed something was wrong, the distance between the two sides had narrowed to only a few hundred steps. With far more muskets and men than the enemy, they should have been able to end the battle quickly, but why had it stalled until now, and they still couldn't break into the camp?
Even if each of them had a musket, there would only be fifty or so, while the noble coalition had as many as two hundred!
In Marwein's imagination, the Graycastle people should have been scared into a rout in the face of such fierce firepower.
But what he saw was the opposite.
The coalition was pinned down on the hillside and couldn't move, and several charges had been repelled by dense gunfire. The counterattacks organized on this side were ineffective, and they had not been able to weaken the Graycastle people's defenses, as if the enemy had three heads and six arms and could control several muskets at the same time.
The volley guns he had pinned his hopes on had been of little use, failing not only to break the Graycastle people's will but also hitting his own men several times during the charges. Looking from the foot of the hill, he could see a circle of corpses lying around and in front of the few volley guns that had been transported with great difficulty, and no one dared to touch them anymore.
At this rate, wouldn't the wonderful future he had been looking forward to turn into a bubble?
Eternal Winter couldn't produce bullets. If he couldn't capture enough ammunition in this battle, where would he have a chance to bite off another piece of the Graycastle people in the next battle?
"Don't be impatient, Your Lordship," Fuller reassured him. "According to my observations, the enemy's gunfire is much sparser than before, which shows that they have very little ammunition left. If we persist a little longer, we can win in the way we know best. After all, they only have muskets, while we have everything."
But that way, he wouldn't be able to capture more bullets, Marwein thought resentfully. Forget it, he could ask the Lord of the Celestial Heavens for bullets later. The most urgent thing now was to completely wipe out this team of Graycastle people! He called over a guard, "Pass on my order, double the rewards promised earlier, and the first one to break into the camp will receive a bounty of a hundred gold dragons!"