Chapter 419: 417: Marne River Meat Grinder (Subscription Request)
Marne River,
In the Bonaparte Empire, there is a river running east-west dozens of miles outside the city of Lutetia.
The river channel is not very wide, only about twenty meters; the riverbed is not deep, only three or four meters at most; the water is not turbulent, but flows quietly, as if the years are peaceful forever.
But it was this river that separated the empire and the coalition forces.
The Imperial Legion was stationed in the north, with trenches, bunkers, machine guns, cannons...
These have everything!
The coalition forces gathered in the south and dug trenches and tunnels to defend against artillery attacks.
In fact, they dug deeper and longer than the empire.
There is no way around it. They are the ones being bombed, so of course they have to be prepared.
Stationed here is a division of the Allied Forces, with a strength of 10,000 people and equipped with a 50-man mage regiment.
Such a group of mages is actually not very strong.
Although the leader is a third-level extraordinary person, there are not many second-level mages. Most of them are mage apprentices who only know a few tricks.
However, the situation changed when the coalition forces equipped them with magic cannons.
This group of mages has neither magic power nor intelligence and knowledge. They will learn how to use it through trial and error.
In this way, across the Marne River, they were not simply being beaten, but had the means to fight back.
The battle here, at the beginning, was similar to that in other places.
The Empire took advantage of the weapon advantage and suppressed the enemy with magic artillery, plowing through the enemy first and then sending in Imperial soldiers to rush in and seize the position.
However, because of the addition of a river, it is not easy for the empire to cross the river. The wooden bridge built is easily damaged, and the small boats prepared are even more inconvenient.
The coalition forces' resistance was equally tenacious, and the two sides fought back and forth repeatedly!
There are so many things like this on the long front that there is not much to say.
But I don’t know when this place started to receive attention from the empire.
The Bonaparte Empire also sent a mage group, led by three extraordinary mages and composed of twenty second-level mages.
However, they are not the mechanical mages carefully trained by the empire, but traditional elementalists.
Yes, the Empire is vigorously developing magical machinery, but that doesn't mean there are no traditional magicians.
These people in front of them performed a ritual and used the natural disaster spell "Three Feet of Ice".
Yes, in the unbearable heat of September, they actually froze the Marne River.
Moreover, with the ice three feet thick, you can run freely.
At this point, the Marne River was no longer an obstacle, and the imperial soldiers rushed forward directly on the ice under the cover of artillery fire.
The soldiers holding machine guns suppressed the enemy, while the other soldiers fired indiscriminately, clearing the way all the way.
We were really close to taking this position.
But at this critical moment, the reinforcements of the coalition forces arrived, namely the Knights, the armored rhinoceros knights who had never been seen before.
Decades ago, the Bonaparte Empire and the Habsburg Empire had a confrontation and collision. The two sides were evenly matched and ended in a draw.
But after returning, I have to study the other party and come up with corresponding measures.
And this armored rhinoceros knight is one of the killer weapons they have carefully cultivated.
Most mounts cannot withstand heavy machine gun fire. The bullets have too strong penetrating power and the attack range is too far. During the charge, they will be shot into sieves!
But this armored rhinoceros can’t do that!
The rhinoceros looks like a cow but is not a cow. It has great strength and is covered with a hard skin like armor all over its body.
Yes, not scales, just hard skin, somewhat similar to keratin, which provides amazing defense once it grows up.
In addition, the armored rhinoceros also likes to roll in the mud. The thick mud dries on its body surface and becomes another layer of armor.
Although it seems to be not very clean, who says it is strong enough?
That’s not even counting the armored rhinoceros’ innate magic, which covers its body in iron armor.
It can be said that this is a certain level of armor stacking. Unless it is bombarded head-on by a large-caliber magic cannon, ordinary bullets or shrapnel impacts will have no effect on it.
Moreover, this kind of monster is quite violent. When it gets angry, it will charge without caring about anything and will kill its enemies with the horns on its head.
Of course, because it is too violent, it is actually difficult to tame.
It is not easy to command from the heart. Moreover, this kind of monster is good at short-distance sprinting, but not so good at long-distance raids.
Therefore, it is not suitable to be a knight's mount!
But the Bonaparte Empire still tried its best to tame a group of them and sent them into the battlefield at this moment.
And it turns out that their investment is worth it.
When these one-ton monsters ran rampant on the battlefield, the imperial soldiers' guns were useless.
The bullet hit the armored rhinoceros, making a series of clanging sounds and bounced off directly.
Even special armor-piercing bullets can only break through the outermost magic defense and leave shallow marks on the thick mud armor.
The charges, horn butts, and trampling of the armored rhinoceros are not something ordinary soldiers can withstand.
A victory turned into a massacre in an instant!
They chased the enemy all the way from the south side of the Marne River to the north side of the Marne River. Not only did they break through the imperial defense line, they also rushed into the artillery positions in the rear.
In just such a short period of time, thousands of casualties were caused!
It was also at this time that the Empire's reinforcements arrived, with the support of two divisions, but they were helpless in the face of the mad armored rhinoceros.
However, when the buzzing sound was heard, the Imperial Flying Corps had arrived.
Leading the way was the fiery and bloody Red Baron, which cut through the battlefield with a huge buzzing sound.
The bomb he dropped accurately found an armored rhinoceros.
The next second, a huge roar was heard, and the air was filled with smoke. The armored rhinoceros that was killing indiscriminately died without even a grunt.
Immediately afterwards, more magical aircraft dropped bombs.
Of course, they don’t have the Red Baron’s accuracy, but they are too numerous!
This indiscriminate bombardment was so destructive that it stunned a group of armored rhinoceros knights!
However, where there is the Imperial Flying Corps, there is also the Allied Sky Knights.
The Wyvern Knights have become a remnant, but they are unwilling to miss any air battle.
The Griffin Knights are also not fully staffed, but they have established good coordination with the Dragon Knights.
In addition, there is the Goshawk Knights.
They rode Lamia eagles with a wingspan of ten meters and a body length of over eight meters. They were known for their ferocity and intelligence and also mastered wind magic.
They can spit out wind blades and kill enemies from dozens or hundreds of meters away.
The intervention of these Sky Knights led to a direct clash with the magical aircraft, which was equally tragic.
On earth, the imperial soldiers also seized the opportunity to fight back.
Strong warriors rushed up with rocket launchers, or used grenades at close range to cause some damage.
The two sides fought each other, and more and more people died!
In the end, it was the Imperial Mage Corps that achieved success.
They simply melted the ice on the Marne River, allowing the water to flow again.
At this moment, the coalition soldiers who rushed over were dumbfounded. With their retreat cut off, they instinctively began to panic and fear.
On the battlefield, whenever fear takes over the mind, morale will be greatly affected and the original strength will not be able to be exerted.
However, just as the coalition forces were about to be killed, the mages on the south bank also took action.
They manipulated the earth and built a stone bridge, giving the coalition forces and the armored rhinoceros knights a chance to retreat.
This battle came to an end. Both sides rested, ate, drank, treated the wounded, and recovered their strength...
But this peace did not last long. In the early morning, the empire organized another artillery bombardment.
The roar seemed to fill the world, and the pouring shells plowed the positions over and over again.
Then, flares exploded in the sky, and under the flashing red light, the figures of imperial soldiers charging were seen.
They launched a night attack!
Because the armored rhinoceros has night blindness and cannot see the road clearly at night.
Moreover, because of the poor visibility at night, the coalition's air knights were useless, and of course, the Empire's flying corps was also unable to fight.
At this time, what matters is the quality of the soldiers on both sides, and in this respect, the Empire is undoubtedly much stronger.
They once completely occupied the position, but something unexpected happened on the coalition side.
A fourth-level necromancer actually entered the battlefield and opened a legendary scroll.
Then, countless dead bodies crawled up, waving their weapons, and were about to kill the enemies in front of them.
There are also cracks torn in the void, leading to a world full of bones.
Countless bone warriors, under the command of a crowned bone dragon, passed through the cracks and came to the human world.
This is the most classic legendary magic of the Necromancer, the Scourge of the Undead!
This time, it was a fight between gunfire and undead warriors.
One created a metal storm, and the other was a dead object and was not afraid of dying again.
Their fight depended more on the number of bullets, and later on, the imperial soldiers had to retreat.
A gun without bullets is actually not as useful as a fire poker!
However, this time, it is different after all.
The Church of the Seven Gods sent enough priests to join the battle, and their divine magic and evil strikes were more effective.
The undead scourge wins by numbers, and the endless skeletons are really scary.
However, when the holy light swept over, no matter how large the skeleton army was, it would be suppressed.
This night attack ends here.
However, the fighting around the Marne River was not over. Both the Allied Forces and the Empire began to continuously send reinforcements here.
Again and again, each time more than the last.
But on this battlefield, the survival time of ordinary soldiers does not even exceed one day.
Such a brutal fight finally brought a new nickname to this place.
Whether it was the Imperial General Staff or the Allied Front Command, they all recognized a name: Marne Meat Grinder!
But do you think that's the end?
Wrong, wrong, wrong. In fact, this is just the beginning!
Until the coalition forces suffered another defeat, they took ruthless action.
They held a grand sacrificial ceremony, summoned an abyss fire demon, and raised the battle situation here to a new level.
It’s time to go to bed!
(End of this chapter)
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