Chapter 785 Artillery Barrage
"Your Majesty, something seems amiss up ahead."
“Don’t call me Your Majesty,” Isabella retorted instinctively, but when she looked up, she saw Galahad’s serious face.
The knight was gazing into the distance.
Isabella also turned her head to look. She was not a superhuman, but her experience in the Bloodharbor Energy Hub had still strengthened her body to some extent.
Squinting slightly, Isabella could vaguely see the smoke of battle in the distance.
Smoke and fire!?
Why is there gunpowder smoke?
Before leaving, Isabella specifically instructed her subordinates to maintain a stalemate with the enemy for the time being and not to launch an offensive.
There were no more ignition sources on the battlefield, so how could there be so much smoke?
Did his subordinates launch a full-scale attack on their own initiative?
“Your Majesty, this location is quite a distance from where our army is encamped. Could it be…” Galahad looked at Isabella with a worried expression.
"Just say what you want to say. Is this my first day on the battlefield?" Isabella laughed in exasperation at Galahad's anxious look. "So what if the camp has been breached? Come on, let's go take a look."
Isabella flicked the reins, and the horse snorted and trotted forward.
Seeing his lord's calm demeanor, Galahad's mood also calmed down considerably. Little did he know, Isabella's heart was far from at peace.
The army left behind by Isabella was not just cannon fodder; it was a newly re-equipped army.
In the entire army, 70% of the troops were issued bolt-action rifles of the Castells standard, while the rest mostly used rifled rifles that had been phased out.
Moreover, the new army has been specially trained in tactics and is already accustomed to these weapons. Isabella personally assessed that the combat effectiveness of her new army is not much worse than that of the Guardians of the Church.
Of course, it has to be a friars armed only with light weapons. Castells' friars call in airships all the time, which she can't handle.
"Your Majesty, I'll activate my abilities. Shall we hurry over?" Galahad has recovered somewhat. He had activated too many abilities while traveling, and now he can only barely use them.
This time, Isabella shook her head.
"If something really goes wrong at the front, it's not something the two of us can solve. Let's conserve our strength for now."
As Isabella spoke, she felt a little regretful.
She should have brought more attendants.
This time, they didn't plan to stay in Castel for too long, and Galahad was an extraordinary being, so they simply rode off on horseback.
Now, if you have a guard squad at your disposal, you can do even more.
Galahad nodded. He had also spent many years on the battlefield. At this moment, he silently took the Gatling gun off the rack, mounted it on his horse, and began loading the ammunition belt.
Fortunately, he was a knight, which allowed him to maintain a certain level of combat effectiveness even while traveling.
It would be really difficult to travel with dozens of kilograms of weapons and ammunition by other means.
As the two approached, gunshots could be heard, indicating that the battle was still ongoing.
A flash of fire suddenly appeared in the distance, followed by an explosion a few seconds later. The two looked in that direction and saw another plume of smoke slowly rising.
Galahad and Isabella exchanged a glance, both with solemn expressions.
"It's not our weapon."
"It's somewhat like Castel's newly developed cannon, but its power is far inferior."
Castells was somewhat dismissive of artillery in his tactics, since the Gatling gun could handle almost any enemy, and there was no need to build more cumbersome cannons.
However, there is one situation where artillery is the main battlefield: the navy.
Castells' ironclad ships greatly needed this kind of heavy firepower, so heavy cannons were generally only equipped by the navy. The army was also issued them, but they were rarely used.
Therefore, Isabella compared it to the heavy cannons on a warship!
Generally speaking, the main guns of ships far exceed the limits of army artillery in terms of both firepower and range. After all, portability is not a concern on ships, so they can be made as large as possible.
This power is often excessive in army operations.
While the artillery they saw was far inferior to naval guns, it still held an overwhelming advantage on this battlefield, since Tiss's new army only had Gatling guns.
etc!
Isabella's eyes widened suddenly: "It seems we don't have much heavy firepower on our side."
The supply lines to the Tiss are stretched out. With the recent continuous rain, many Gatling guns are stuck in the mud and probably haven't been delivered to the front lines yet!
No wonder we could only hear sporadic gunshots along the way, without the distinctive roar of a Gatling gun.
The two men immediately sensed something was wrong. Before, the lack of Gatling guns had only slowed down the offensive, and the new army could have easily overwhelmed them with their superior weaponry. But now that the enemy had brought out artillery, the weaponry gap might have become the enemy's gap!
Galahad looked around, his gaze settling on the woods not far away.
He then spurred his horse forward like an arrow, and a moment later brought someone back.
Isabella looked the man Galahad had captured up and down: "Deserter? Which unit are you from?"
The man was terrified. Everyone in the new army knew Galahad and Isabella. He trembled on the ground, unable to speak.
Galahad kicked him, grabbed his collar and lifted him up. Just as he was about to rouse him, the man cried out in pain, "Sir, sir, I'm the cook of the Third Battalion! Our unit was scattered, and I was out of my mind when I came to this. Please put me down, and I'll go back to fight the enemy right away!"
As he spoke, the man's eyes darted around, trying to find a chance to slip away.
Isabella frowned: "Which Third Battalion?"
"It's the one in the camp."
“Your Majesty, that seems to be a reserve force, which shouldn’t be directly involved in combat,” Galahad said sternly. “The camp has been breached? Tell me the entire battle situation from the beginning, don’t try to bluff!”
Okay, okay.
The man began to stammer and stutter.
The story begins a few days ago.
Upon hearing of Castells' defeat in the Rhine, Isabella pondered the matter and decided to return to see for herself.
She's definitely going to attack Rhine, so knowing some intelligence beforehand won't hurt, and the battle here has become quite intense.
The Empire's recent contraction has slowed, and the Papacy's soldiers, taking advantage of their numerical superiority, have begun to build fortifications in an attempt to counterattack.
Although Isabella's command led to the breakthrough of several battle lines, Tiss's offensive eventually slowed down.
On the one hand, the previous progress was too fast, and the recovered land had not been digested in time; on the other hand, the supply lines were stretched too long.
The Empire clearly hasn't properly repaired the roads, and may even be intentionally causing damage.
(End of this chapter)
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