I will be crowned king

On June 21st, 102nd year of the Saint's Calendar, Daocao Town, which had completely forgotten the previous "Beast Slave Riot", was once again shrouded in pungent smoke and soaring firelight, and the densely packed flags and stretching fronts turned into blue. White and white chains locked most of the town tightly.

Under Borre Levent's order, the 20,000 Jihadi troops scattered throughout the Eastern Colonies, intercepting and ambushing the New World Legion, hurriedly assembled and built a copper-walled and iron-clad siege position outside Strawtown.

This is the most prosperous and densely populated area among the five eastern colonies, and it is also the last stop to the Ice Dragon Fjord. As long as this is captured, Anson Bach and the Luen family's base camp in the New World will be completely exposed to the Holy War. Under the strength of the army, the holy war that has just started for two months is likely to usher in an opportunity for a quick victory.

Perhaps out of confidence in victory, or perhaps instinctively maintaining a little caution, Beaure Levent, who hurriedly assembled his troops, did not launch an attack before the defenders in the town could react, but instead dug trenches around Straw Town. The construction of fences and other fortifications was delayed for three days before the attack on the city began.

Three days and three nights... The cautious and bold Borei used this time to thoroughly understand the terrain around Daocao Town, control the water sources and roads, and raid the surrounding farms and small settlements. While obtaining supplies, he also obtained information about the city defense of Daocao Town. Structural intelligence.

Like all eastern colonies, the structure of Strawtown is extremely simple: the only brick and wood structure in the center of the town, a two-story building with a church spire is the local council. The entire town is divided into four by the council and two roads, one south and one north. The area is surrounded by rammed earth, a "wall" surrounded by fences, gravel and sandbags, and a trench almost three meters wide.

As long as the trenches are filled up, the walls are broken through, and the parliament in the center of the town is occupied, the entire Straw Town will fall; there are mostly open roads, farmland and wilderness around the town, with only raised highlands on the west and north sides, but the distances are all It is too far away to threaten the siege position, and at most it can resist stubbornly after the town falls.

After confirming that he had an absolute advantage and could attack or retreat with ease, Borre Levent finally gave the order to attack. The morale of the 20,000 Jihadi soldiers was high, and they marched towards Straw Town with confidence.

The screaming shells streaked across the clear sky one after another, exploding into clouds of smoke, dust and gravel in the rammed earth walls and trenches, and the smell of burning filled the air.

The towering parliament spiers, dilapidated mud and thatched houses, long wooden houses... have all been covered by the artillery fire of the jihadist army and turned into rubble. The collapsed houses turned into small mounds one after another, scattered in the mud. The town with craters looked like tombs.

Less than a day after the war started, Strawtown was already in ruins under heavy artillery bombardment by the Jihadists.

Faced with such extravagant artillery fire, the "main force of the Storm Legion" in the city had to give up its key defenses and instead used skirmishing tactics to spread out the troops and arrange them dispersedly behind the wall.

Since you are going to be bombed no matter what, it is better to spread the army out to reduce casualties and reduce the chance of artillery shells falling on your head.

The rapid and cheerful bugle sounded, and thousands of line infantrymen of the Jihad Army walked out of the siege position, holding rifles with bayonets in hand to form dense phalanxes, advancing towards the wall that had been smashed to pieces by artillery shells. .

Soon, scattered and sparse gunshots rang out from behind the walls of Daocao Town, which was suppressed by artillery fire; soldiers fell down one after another in the slowly advancing jihadist formation; the back row stepped directly over the bodies of their comrades, indifferently. Despite the shooting from the opposite side, they continued to advance slowly in a dense formation.

Beaure Levent also walked out of the bunker and stood on a makeshift earthen platform with a gun cart as a staircase. He looked at the battlefield. His right eye, which was covered by the telescope, was full of vigilance. He could not see the sparse front line and firepower on the opposite side. For example, the size of a legion of tens of thousands of people is only two or three thousand at best, and I have not seen the artillery position on the opposite side until now.

But he didn't dare to tell his soldiers about this worry. On the one hand, the battle had already begun, and a sudden order to stop the attack would be very demoralizing. Moreover...even if the other side really had any premeditation, he didn't think there was anything difficult to conquer in Strawtown. At most, it depends on how many casualties you pay and whether you can annihilate more enemies.

"The Ring of Order is above——!!!!"

Large swaths of smoke exploded on the thick smoke and gravel. The Jihadi soldiers stepped on the explosion point of the last round of shelling, quickly broke through the outer slopes and trenches, and launched an attack on the earth wall that had been blocked by the outside world, shouting.

The defenders behind the wall quickly retreated in a hurry and gathered in the few remaining intact fortifications to fight to the death... The front row set up their bayonets, and the back row pulled out large-caliber shotguns from their backs, stuffing them full. , the fist-sized gun hole was aimed at the gap where the fortification was blown down.

Ever since the Guards Company relied on shotguns to shine in the battle to defend Blackreef Port, this simple and crude old-fashioned "trumpet gun" has been popularized in the Storm Legion - it is simple to make, low cost, and does not require additional manpower. Each Four to five pieces of platoon equipment are enough.

"Don't panic, stay calm, be sure to stay calm..."

Yu Lian, the commander of the 5th Infantry Regiment, personally sat at the front line, holding his sword flat and constantly comforting the soldiers behind him; only his trembling right hand and the cold sweat on his face had exposed his state of mind. This regimental commander was even worse than the soldiers under his command. Be nervous.

Until he saw a figure swaying in the smoke behind the gap, Julien couldn't hold back and smashed the blade on a piece of gravel in front of him, and a dazzling fire suddenly lit up.

"Bang-bang-bang!!!!"

Thick white gunpowder smoke surged across the battlefield, and the spurting lead bullets stirred up countless screams and whines, mixed with blood, devouring and biting the flesh and blood of the Jihadi soldiers.

Thousands of figures fell in a pool of blood, slightly delaying the enemy's attack. The nervous Captain Julien suddenly heard the bugle sound behind him and stood up decisively: "First and second companies, go up. Bayonet—attack!”

Before he finished speaking, the young officer Clovis took the lead and rushed towards the oncoming crowd. The soldiers in the back row were afraid that their regimental leader would be lost on the spot, so they rushed forward in a panic with bayonets in hand.

The two sides fought frantically in a narrow gap with rifles as tall as one person. The limited terrain and the smoke that blocked the field of vision made each other's killing efficiency extremely low. For a full quarter of an hour, no one was able to force the other side back. Half step.

There is no way, the battlefield is so wide, and no one on both sides is a fool: if the Holy War Army breaks in, it will end up being stabbed into a hedgehog with bayonets by the New World Legion hiding behind; the Storm Legion, which is already short of troops, cannot be stupid enough to give up. The true meaning of stability rashly launched a counterattack.

Seeing that the battle was in a stalemate, Beaure Levent issued an order again - two thousand cavalry bypassed the east gate and quickly raided the north and south wings, which had the weakest defenses.

In addition to quickly breaking through the outer defense line of Strawtown, he also hoped to take this opportunity to test whether Anson Bach had built secret fortifications and forts on the high ground outside the west side of the town; if so, it meant that the other party had given up on Strawtown. Preparing to retreat to Gray Snow Town's frontline defense, this can be explained by the fact that he has not encountered the main force of the Storm Legion before.

The roar that shook the earth raised plumes of dust and smoke. The fast-moving cavalry protruded from the two wings of the siege position and quickly divided into four columns and approached the north and south gates of Daocao Town. Almost at the same time as they appeared, the rapid alarm bells immediately sounded in Daocao Town. .

After learning the information, the two infantry battalions quickly assembled and began to slowly retreat under the offensive of the Jihadi Army. They retreated to the streets with buildings on both sides and continued to resist relying on the terrain.

But doing so also meant that the outer wall was completely exposed to the hooves of the cavalry, and could no longer pose a threat to the Jihadi Army... It only took a little time to organize, and the cavalry on both sides quickly broke through the perimeter and began to cover the infantry to continue. Launch an attack into the town.

During the full half-hour battle, the cavalry scattered outside the city never encountered any threat; from beginning to end, no enemies from outside the town appeared to rescue or attack the jihadi army with its back wide open.

There was a hint of disappointment on Borre Levent's face.

It is certainly a good thing to quickly capture Straw Town, the eastern gate of Ice Dragon Fjord, but the too easy war somewhat made this victory less glorious; if he missed it, he probably did not defeat Anson Bach for the second time. opportunity.

With the promise of "Shadowless", even if Anson Bach really has the support of an Old God Sect family behind him, he is destined to be unable to escape the pursuit of the Judgment Knights; without this commander-in-chief, even if the Storm Legion does not fall apart, he will probably choose Surrender to the Clovis Crusaders?

With a heavy sigh in his heart, the helpless Bo Lei gave the order to the messenger for the general attack.

In the choking smoke, the cavalry who broke through the outer wall dismounted one after another, guarding the flanks of the line infantry as skirmishers with sabers in one hand and carbines in the other, and continued to advance toward the inside of the town.

Looking at the oncoming jihadi army, the defenders on the east and west sides continued to rely on the buildings next to the street, firing volleys of guns while slowly retreating.

The cavalry who sneaked into the town went directly into the streets, smashed the windows and broke into the rooms, trying to attack the straw defenders from the flanks and rear; but the soldiers of the Storm Legion obviously knew the structure here better than the opposite party, and threw out the retreating phalanx. Several grenades landed accurately under the windows and at the exits of the alleys, smoking and rolling deep into the ground...

"Dong-dong-dong-!"

Accompanied by a series of explosions and splashing fire and rubble, screams came one after another from the narrow alleys and dark windows.

Although this level of harassment only delayed the efficiency of the enemy's attack, it was enough for the Storm Legion... Near noon, the 3rd Infantry Regiment guarding the two wings had successfully merged; relying on the composition of the council in the center of the town The 5th Infantry Regiment, which had formed a hollow square formation and was still resisting tenaciously, sent a signal to retreat.

Julien, who was about to be penetrated by the enemy, personally led an infantry company to break off the rear. The large troops quickly rushed to the center of the town to join the 3rd Infantry Regiment. He himself fought and retreated in front of enemies that were several times or ten times more numerous. He tried his best to fight back. The efficiency of delaying the enemy's entry into the city.

But no matter how much he delayed, the outcome of this battle had already been decided... According to Borre Levent's order, nearly half of the total jihadi army launched poured into Straw Town, and their number was at least four times their number.

If the streets were not too narrow, and the complicated alleys and rubble ruins hindered the efficiency of the Holy War Army entering the city, the two infantry regiments of the Storm Legion would not be overwhelmed by the enemy in the blink of an eye.

An army of just over 2,000 men defended a town that could be said to be defenseless, facing an army ten times their size. The two infantry commanders had done their best.

But even so, they failed to secure the last stronghold of the Parliament in the center of the town, and began to retreat under the squeeze of the army; they were forced to crowd in the middle of the road to the west gate.

Seeing that the battle was no longer suspense, Bo Lei sighed and put down the telescope in his hand: "Inform the cavalry that if the pagans on the opposite side do not put up a stubborn resistance, let them evacuate and don't pursue them - our goal is Straw Town, don't stand by. Cause trouble."

"As you command!"

The messenger nodded in response, but the expression on his face was obviously a bit reluctant: "Don...Legion Commander, we can obviously annihilate the defenders of less than 2,000 people and win a complete victory, why don't we pursue them? ?”

"Because what you see is only part of the Storm Legion, not their real main force - if we pursue, no one can be sure whether these people are a trap deliberately set by the opponent!" Borre Levent was slightly dissatisfied. road:

"Listen, there are two things that are most taboo on the battlefield. The first is acting randomly without a plan, and the second is excessive greed! Either one of these two things will definitely..."

"boom--!!!!"

Before he could finish his words, a distant, thunder-like loud noise suddenly came out, causing the expressions on both of their faces to freeze.

The next second, the stunned Bo Lei and the messenger turned around at the same time, looking in the direction of the sound; they saw a faint black shadow skimming the sky under the dazzling midday sun, drawing a beautiful arc, and then steadily He landed steadily in the middle of the street in Daocao Town.

Accompanied by countless exclamations and screams, hot six-pound solid bullets hit the crowd. A neat and dense square instantly resembled an unfortunately fallen watermelon, and the stumps and severed arms of more than a dozen soldiers were mixed with plasma. The heat wave splashed around, and the roaring and wailing comrades turned into sandbags that were knocked away. The back of the neck and head hit hard on a raised and cracked gravel.

And this is just the beginning... Dozens and dozens of black afterimages are like falcons rising from the sky, one after another taking off from the high ground on the west side of Daocao Town, emitting a bone-chilling roar under the dome, Pounce on the town filled with half the Crusaders.

The earth is trembling slightly.