Chapter 812 Escape!
"Ten times?!"
Three shots hit! Generally speaking, on the battlefield, a steam tank would have a hard time withstanding three consecutive shots from a self-propelled gun.
If it hits the frontal armor, it might be okay, but if it hits the side or vital parts like the steam engine, a single shot can often take out a car.
The original design intention of self-propelled artillery was high mobility and powerful firepower. For this purpose, much of the armor was sacrificed, and it can only withstand damage from small arms, making it a glass cannon.
In other words, the armor thickness of the war fortress is completely incomparable to that of the steam tank, even though the steam tank is also known for its heavy armor.
It takes ten shots to penetrate.
"I'm just saying it's possible. The outer armor of that battle fortress only suffered minor deformation and tearing. However, if it were hit repeatedly in the same spot, it could indeed cause damage."
A moment of silence.
"Let's evacuate," Galahad said with some difficulty. "Our mission is complete. We've at least tested some of the war fortress's capabilities. Although it's sturdy, it's not entirely invincible."
Indeed, although its armor is excessively thick, it is not entirely impossible to hit ten times in a row.
The current battle is still mainly characterized by a large number of infantry advancing and a small number of tanks/artillery engaging in combat; neither side has the capacity to deploy a large number of armored units for the time being.
But things may not be so in the future.
Given Castells' artillery production capacity, it would be easy to deploy ten artillery pieces at once on the battlefield, and perhaps even dozens of self-propelled artillery pieces would advance together.
A barrage of dozens of cannons might be enough to breach this war fortress.
This is a very simple principle, anyone with even a slight understanding of Castells would know it.
The group quickly figured it out, which somewhat eased the somber atmosphere.
“Let’s go around in circles and go back by another route!” Galahad shouted to the rest of the team.
This was part of the plan. Now they are being pursued by enemy forces and there is basically no way to turn back. There are several alternative routes to return from here, and Galahad chose a relatively safer one.
"Watch out, that war fortress is about to open fire!" the old woman suddenly exclaimed.
The group immediately perked up, floored the accelerator, and began to maneuver erratically.
In the distance, a huge cannon barrel gradually rose from the front of the war fortress. The barrel was not long, but the caliber was ridiculously large.
At the same time, a ring of smaller cannon barrels rose up from the surrounding sharp edges.
"Damn it, so many cannons? How are we supposed to dodge this?!"
"We're fast enough that it might not be able to hit us, and we're this far away, probably close to its maximum range!"
Although we haven't seen this war fortress fire, everyone has seen steam tanks. They have considerable firepower, but short range and poor accuracy. This war fortress may have the same problems.
—It would be best if it were available.
Nora couldn't help but start praying in her heart, praying that she wouldn't die. Halfway through her prayer, she suddenly remembered that she seemed to be immortal, so she started praying that others wouldn't die.
They didn't have to endure the ordeal for long before the cannons opened fire!
boom!
Boom! Boom!
The explosion caused darkness to fall, and the surrounding area was filled with fire. The group had only ever seen such a sight during airship bombings, but now it was happening right on their heads.
“I’ve been hit!” Gwen shouted.
"How is the situation?"
"The cannon barrel was blown off, but it can still move!"
"Hold on! We'll be out of its range soon!"
As the group scrambled to avoid the attack, a tremendous roar suddenly erupted from behind, followed by a beam of flame that swept across the battlefield!
The main gun of the War Fortress has fired!
The pitch-black night sky was instantly illuminated as if it were daytime, and the sudden artillery barrage was impossible to dodge!
The group felt a sudden swaying, as if they were not piloting a self-propelled artillery piece, but rather a small boat teetering precariously in a storm.
Fortunately, the violent tremor only lasted for a moment, and the blazing white beam of light gradually dissipated, leaving a black trace in the field of vision.
"Grandma's been hit! Damn it, she's been hit by the main gun!" Gwen screamed.
The group was startled and turned to look, only to find a huge ball of fire remaining.
The self-propelled artillery driven by the mother-in-law was not hit head-on, but was only grazed. However, this tiny graze ignited the entire artillery, causing a secondary explosion in the ammunition magazine and turning the artillery into a large fireball.
"My mother-in-law—"
"I'm fine."
The old woman's voice came from above Gwen's head. She looked a little disheveled and climbed down the blasted-open turret of Gwen, temporarily staying in her crew compartment.
The group was relieved. The old woman was a moth drawn to fire; her extraordinary abilities were best suited for escaping danger. If Chloe hadn't intended to perish together with the Pirate King, she would have been very difficult to kill.
"No, we can't let that main gun keep bombarding us!" Galahad gritted his teeth and turned to look.
The main gun over there started charging up again. Unlike the shells used here, its main gun seemed to need to accumulate some energy before it could fire.
"I'll cover their retreat!"
As he spoke, he prepared to turn around.
The self-propelled artillery of the Crazy Squad is quite fast. If he can delay until the main gun fires once or twice more, his teammates will be able to escape successfully.
"No, that main gun has too high a rate of fire, you can't dodge it!"
"It's okay, its accuracy isn't very high. I'll be fine as long as I drive faster!"
Despite saying this, Galahad's tone was somewhat weak.
He was indeed the fastest among them, but he wasn't sure if he could dodge the long, raging flames.
Galahad was about to order his men to leave when Nora suddenly spoke up: "Galahad, could you... could you fire the shell into the main gun's barrel?"
He was taken aback by these words, but after a moment, Galahad's eyes lit up.
To fire a shell into the enemy's gun barrel from such a distance is practically a pipe dream.
However, if it were Galahad, it might not be impossible.
[Knight] can perfectly unleash the full potential of self-propelled artillery. This distance slightly exceeds the accuracy limit of the artillery, and even with his abilities, he may not be able to do it.
But you can give it a try.
Looking at the massive cannon muzzle, Galahad took a deep breath and gradually calmed down.
The white light gradually gathered in front of the fortress's main cannon, and soon it would be fully charged and ready to fire again.
That was the end for those people.
Bang!
Galahad opened fire, and moments later a burst of fire erupted from the war fortress.
"Did it work?" Gwen asked expectantly, while the others held their breath.
Galahad's heart sank; he knew the shot had been missed.
As the smoke cleared, sure enough, the main gun was still gradually charging up, but the barrel was slightly tilted. It then turned slightly to straighten itself.
"Damn it, what am I going to do!" Gwen's voice was filled with despair. She opened the hatch of her crew compartment, and her mother-in-law took over the operation. She grabbed her sword and prepared to jump out of the car to fight to the death.
"Wait, give me another chance!" Galahad's hoarse voice rang out from the loudspeaker.
(End of this chapter)
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