After a few breaths following the flash of light, he heard a muffled thunder. (Please#……Net)
The thunder came from a great distance, not loud, but still deep and resonant. Accompanied by the sound was a pillar of earth, located right next to the wooden house that had been used to detonate the snow powder.
“What just happened?”
“Was the snow powder detonated?”
“Doesn’t seem like it. It looks like it was the ship.”
“Are you kidding me? That's almost a mile away.”
The knights discussed amongst themselves, while Weimas frowned. Could it be… that the enemy had already noticed the oddity beneath the ground?
Intelligence gathered from various channels indicated that the rebel king possessed extremely powerful snow powder weapons, with a range and accuracy far exceeding the iron pipes hammered out by the smiths in the royal capital. Therefore, from the beginning, His Majesty had decided not to confront them head-on, but to adopt a strategy of ambushing them with snow powder-filled barrels, rendering those weapons useless. Furthermore, the things that were emitting fire from the bow of the ship should be enlarged versions of firearms, capable of holding more snow powder and firing larger lead balls with greater power. However, they were much more difficult to manufacture than handheld firearms; even with all the blacksmiths in the city working hard throughout the winter, the results were still inferior to catapults.
Before long, the fire appeared again, accompanied by the same low rumble. This time, the earth pillar rose right next to the wooden house, and the splashing soil even hit the roof.
His guess was confirmed. The enemy was clearly targeting this house – they had discovered the snow powder buried near the dock! In that case, Tiffko's ambush plan was as good as useless, Weimas thought. Perhaps they really would have a chance to reach the city walls.
Then, whether the snow powder weapons were more ferocious or the walls of the royal capital were more solid would be revealed after this battle.
Just then, a deafening roar rolled across the city walls—
The sound was so loud that it felt like thunder exploding right next to his ears!
The ground in front of the dock suddenly bulged into a small hill, and countless mud and stones were thrown high into the air. Thick smoke and white mist burst out of the earth, forming a cloud-like mass. The violent shaking swept across the land, and the top of the city wall swayed for a moment. Weimas instinctively crouched down, and Skar twisted his ankle and fell beside him.
The mud flying into the air fell like a rainstorm, but no sound could be heard when it hit the ground. Weimas's ears were ringing, and it took him a while to recover from the sudden tremor.
Damn it, that idiot actually detonated all the snow powder without waiting for the signal!
The once flat ground was now full of potholes, as if something had been gnawing at it. Heat and white smoke continued to rise from the loose black mud, and the air was filled with the smell of gunpowder.
Weimas poked half his head out from behind the battlement, only to see the distant fleet moving again, advancing towards the dock in a line. The militia, who had been used as bait, were either collapsed on the dock or had already dropped their weapons and begun to flee in all directions.
“Who the hell was in charge of lighting the fire?” Skar angrily grabbed a nearby guard. “I'm going to wring his head off!”
“That was someone Prince arranged,” the Steelheart Knight scolded. “Keep a close eye on them. They're about to land. Prepare to raise the blue flag.”
He hoped that the guy hiding in the warehouse could complete his mission, he thought.
But even after all the enemy personnel had landed, there was no sign of any activity in the dock area.
*******************
When that earth-shattering roar sounded, Allen.Abel was tending to his sword. The huge explosion and tremor startled him so much that he almost dropped the hilt.
Even though he knew this was going to happen in advance, he still hadn't anticipated that the power of the snow powder explosion would be so astonishing.
And this was still two or three miles away. What would the scene be like if he were in the trap?
He calmed his restless mount, sheathed his sword, and gestured to the cavalry behind him, "When the gate opens, follow me and charge! Don't hold back your horses. The canal is right behind them!"
The men had not yet recovered from the thunder
The responses were hesitant and uncertain.
Allen shouted loudly, "This is a trap set by His Majesty! The wrath of thunder is punishing the enemy, not us! Cheer up, they have nowhere to retreat!"
"Yes…" This time, the answer was somewhat more unanimous.
As for the mercenaries behind him, they still looked blank. Allen shook his head in disdain. He had never taken these people seriously anyway; they were just there to clean up the mess.
However, after a long while, the city gate still hadn't opened.
What was going on? He looked at the top of the city wall with some suspicion, but the Steelheart Knight hadn't given any crucial instructions. The charge could begin at any moment, and he couldn't leave his guard position to ask what was happening. Time passed bit by bit. Suddenly, he heard another muffled sound, seemingly coming from a great distance. If he remembered correctly, it seemed to be an attack launched by the enemy.
What went wrong with the plan? Did the snow powder trap fail to rout the enemy?
Whoosh—
Just as he was feeling a little anxious, a strange whistling sound suddenly rang out. Before Allen could think about it, the blue bricks next to the city gate suddenly shattered!
Crack!
Scattered stone chips flew everywhere for a moment. He felt a numbness in his waist, stiffened, and fell off his horse. The frightened horse stepped on his thigh as it fled.
The intense pain made him shout out, "Ah, my leg—!"
"Captain!"
"Lord Allen!"
Two squires immediately surrounded him.
"Control the unit! Don't let them run wild!"
Allen shouted, enduring the pain.
The cavalry formation fell into chaos. No one knew what had happened. They all rode their horses away to avoid the danger. The squires shouted at the top of their lungs, but they couldn't suppress the sudden change.
He tried his best to get up, but failed several times. He looked down and saw that his thigh was twisted into a bizarre shape. The broken flesh was bloody. The deformed armor plate was askew, and the white broken bone tore through the skin and pants, exposing half of it, with shreds of meat hanging on it.
Allen's heart turned cold. His career as a knight was over.
At this moment, the strange whistling sound rang out again.
This time, the city gate was the one that suffered the sudden change.
He saw with his own eyes that the two guards standing behind the city gate were instantly surrounded by a cloud of debris. Scattered wood and flying stone chips swept over them like a swarm. When the dust settled, Allen was horrified to find that the upper halves of the two men had been cut off as if by a sharp blade. Blood mixed with red and green internal organs spilled all over the ground. Behind them lay five or six cavalrymen. Those harmless pieces of wood had now become deadly weapons, like knives stabbing into their bodies, and thumb-sized stones could penetrate armor!
A basin-sized gap had also appeared in the city gate, which was nearly two feet thick, and the enemy was still three miles away!
"Demons, the enemy are demons!"
Someone shouted, and the already chaotic scene instantly exploded.
The cavalry who had been preparing to charge turned their horses around and galloped back, catching up with the fleeing mercenaries and causing trampling and greater chaos. In the blink of an eye, the situation under the west city wall had become uncontrollable.
Allen could no longer support his body. He collapsed to the ground, looking helplessly at the sky. The panicked shouts of the surrounding crowd and the successive cracking sounds seemed to fade further and further away, and the surroundings gradually became quiet.
He had only one thought left in his mind.
So cold…(。)