Chapter 797 We Move Forward
The tanks' preparations were too obvious, and the commander of the Duchy of Tis immediately ordered his soldiers to scatter and take cover.
The soldiers moved with practiced skill and experience, and in just a moment, the battle line that had just been assembled was quickly dispersed into the trenches.
Before the tanks could even fire, the soldiers had already taken to the ground.
Even if shells were to fall at this point, there would be almost no results.
It's clear that these soldiers from the Principality of Tisse are already accustomed to dealing with steam tanks. Although they lack weapons for direct destruction, they are still able to maneuver around them.
“If I were the commander of the Holy See, I would have the tanks kept in a ready-to-fire state and then let the soldiers charge,” Gwen’s voice came from the side.
Nora didn't respond, but she nodded inwardly; this was the best choice.
Once the Papacy's soldiers launch an attack, the Principality of Tiss will be in a bind. If they run, their tanks will fire; if they stay put, they will be waiting to die. If they counterattack, their scattered forces will suffer heavy losses compared to the Papacy.
But the Papacy's soldiers just stood by the tanks and waited. After a while, the tanks fired.
Boom! Boom!
Dust billowed up on Tiss's position, but the soldiers had already taken cover in makeshift fortifications. Except for one unlucky fellow who was hit by a shell that happened to hit the trench, the rest of them shook off the dust and stood up again.
"Things aren't going so well here at the Vatican," Gwen remarked.
Not very good?
Nora watched the group of soldiers who waited for the tanks to start moving before following them forward.
There is indeed a significant difference in the quality of the two armies, but...
"I don't think there's anything wrong with the Papacy's army."
"Huh? But them?"
“Gwen, think about our battles in the North, what those noble armies are like.”
Gwen immediately fell silent.
Nora and Gwen's resistance was, in the end, just a group of refugees, while their enemy was the regular army of noble lords.
Although the resistance was fighting a tough battle, it wasn't a one-sided affair. Even disregarding Nora's own combat prowess as a superhuman, the fighting was quite even.
The military organization in this world is not very high to begin with. Most of the resistance forces under Nora's command are believers of the Holy Church. They are brave and fierce, and obey orders without question. With Nora's personal leadership, the Northern Border has been suppressing the resistance forces for several years, and the more they are suppressed, the stronger their momentum becomes.
The Papacy performed as expected, but the new army of the Duchy of Tiss far exceeded the average level of armies of this era.
The ability to not flee in the face of an invincible enemy is a testament to an army's organizational capabilities, and the ability to execute tactical maneuvers quickly and precisely is a level of skill typically found only in elite units.
These soldiers were only tasked with holding off the enemy, and their equipment was far from elite; they were considered second-line troops in Tiss.
Realizing this, Gwen fell silent.
She had always known that Castell's Guardians were strong, but she believed that their strength lay in their powerful firepower, their airships that could fly in the sky, and their banshees that resembled gods of war.
Gwen gave her resistance fighters the same thing, and she didn't think she was much worse off.
But it wasn't until today, seeing these purely mortal armies, that she realized how terribly wrong she had been.
The most important thing in the military is always people; no matter how powerful the weapons are, they still need people to use them.
If Tiss's soldiers can have this level of tactical skill, what would the more demanding and elite resistance army be like?
“I’ve heard that during the Bloodharbor Rebellion, the evil god [Mother] descended upon the world. Although it was the bombing of the airship that destroyed it, it was a squad of mortal soldiers who initially restrained it and delayed it,” Nora said leisurely.
"At the time, I didn't think there was anything wrong with it, since the guns in the soldiers' hands couldn't threaten the evil god."
"It was only much later that it suddenly occurred to me that this might be the first time a mortal had dared to fire a gun at an evil god, right?"
The mundane is mundane, and the extraordinary is extraordinary.
This has been the way things have been on the continent for thousands of years. Let alone evil gods, even for ordinary supernatural mutations, the lords' only thought is to seek help from the church to solve the problem.
The fact that mortals used gunpowder instead of supernatural beings to fight off evil gods was itself a huge shift.
But almost no one paid attention to this, as if it were a given to Castells.
"Perhaps Castel's strength lies not only in what we can see," Nora thought to herself.
Every time she thought Castells was strong, reality always proved her thinking too conservative.
Perhaps one day in the future, mortals firing at evil gods will not just be a testament to courage.
Nora turned to look at "Gwen," before her stood a self-propelled artillery piece weighing over fifteen tons.
What if this cannon had been standing there during the Blood Harbor rebellion?
Nora didn't know, but now she and Gwen were standing on the battlefield.
She moved her cannon barrel and aimed it at the steam tank that had just finished firing and was now stationary.
This is the battlefield, the battlefield she knows best, the place she both longs for and loathes.
"Gwen."
"exist!"
"Let noble rage engulf the enemy ahead! Fire!!"
The machine spirit and the steel roared simultaneously, a flash of fire appeared in the thick cannon barrel, and the surrounding air was instantly shaken and almost distorted!
If someone were to look down from the air, they would see the nearby dust being instantly stirred up, as if a giant drumstick were striking the earth.
But the sound of drums rang out from the enemy's position!
boom!!!
The explosion was far more intense than the tank cannon fire, and the orange-red flames were mixed with a trace of black pollution. It turned incandescent white instantly upon the explosion, pushing the explosion even higher!
The two steam tanks were immediately engulfed in flames.
The soldiers around them were stunned. They stared blankly at the steam tank not far away, not understanding what had happened.
Weren't steam tanks supposed to be invincible? So why are they now just charred shells?
The steam tanks on the position were firing from their stationary positions. Nora and Gwen had been aiming from a high vantage point for a long time. With the help of the machine spirit, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, two shells directly destroyed the two tanks!
“This power.” Gwen’s eyes lit up. She turned her head to press the turret and looked at Nora next to her, only to find that her entire cannon was trembling slightly.
The pain and frustration after being beheaded, the helplessness of being a soldier unable to return to the battlefield, and the powerlessness of losing one's body all transformed into a soaring fighting spirit, making the body tremble and the soul surge.
Nora felt as if she had returned to her childhood, in the snow, imagining herself charging on the battlefield.
At this moment, I am surrounded by reliable comrades, riding a steel steed, and facing the enemy in neat rows.
"Gwen."
"I'm here! I'm here! I've always been here!!"
"For the Sanctuary, for the Bone Raven, for Castel, let us march forward!"
Nora's voice came from the cannon's loudspeaker.
(End of this chapter)
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