I will be crowned king

At 2:40 in the morning, the watch tower of Hongshou Bay Port.

Joseph, who was yawning over and over again, was muttering grumblings while holding a torch and climbing up to the top of the tower step by step.

As the uncle of the "second in command" of the Storm Legion, the nominal deputy commander and the real commander-in-chief of the Shooting Army, he not only does not have any privileges, but also has a lot of extra work, let alone any freedom - he cannot sleep in the middle of the night I still have to run out to check the posts. The day before yesterday it was Karl, the Chief of Staff, yesterday it was Fabian, and today it was my turn.

This is really weird... There is no freedom and no privileges. It is true that the money is earned, but the price and risks are also many times higher than ordinary work; Joseph really doesn't understand why his nephew does this Are you willing to follow a rebel leader who has no future and continue to serve him conscientiously?

Shouldn't a practical person like Fabian rebel as soon as possible and wait for an opportunity to escape from this ghost place?

On the top of the lonely sentry tower, the moist and cold midnight sea breeze howled past; under the not-so-wide wall stacks stood a few sleepy-eyed colonial militiamen, holding rifles in their arms as if they were about to fall.

Angrily, he woke up a sentry who was about to fall asleep, and took away the cigarettes and matches in his arms - these have become hard currency since the jihad.

Needless to say, tobacco, even if it can be grown in the cold New World, is no more than a weed; seemingly simple matches are really difficult to achieve, and there is not even a match factory in the entire New World.

Originally, Anson considered setting up a match factory in Gray Snow Town. After all, the value and profit of this kind of daily necessities were small and limited even compared with salt; but because of the outbreak of the Jihad, he had to give up this unrealistic idea.

The aroma of low-quality tobacco entered his throat, and Joseph's bad mood finally relaxed a lot. He leaned against the wall leisurely and looked at the endless turbulent sea in the darkness.

He really didn't understand. It was clear that the Holy See and the Holy War had already planned to give the Free Confederacy a way out. Louis Bernard...that young man from Adlan had nothing to hesitate about, and he still needed to think about it for a day.

Doesn't he know that the longer the night is, the more accidents are likely to happen... Wait!

Joseph, who could not help but complain in his heart, suddenly froze, his cheek biting the cigarette butt suddenly froze, and his eyes stared directly in the direction of the dock in the distance.

There, in the darkness...the airship floating in mid-air seemed to be slowly...moving...in the direction of the town?

Joseph was stunned for a while before he came to his senses, but he still couldn't believe his eyes... After all, the night was so dark, even if he saw slightly wrongly, he might think that the surrounding clouds were part of the airship. , it seems not completely impossible...

He just comforted himself, repeating "I saw it wrong, I just saw it wrong" in his heart like a hypnosis, as if just doing this could turn it into a joke that could be laughed off.

Unfortunately not.

The airship was still slowly approaching the guard tower, and its huge size was truly unreservedly displayed in his sight.

"This...this...this is..."

Trying his best to suppress the involuntary trembling of his body, Joseph, who had never seen such a close observation from a distance, could not even notice that the cigarette butt in the corner of his mouth fell to the ground.

He subconsciously sensed an ominous atmosphere, but his body seemed to be controlled by other forces, unable to move at all - like a hare being stared at by a lion, forgetting even the instinct of running for life. net.

At this moment... the dark dome suddenly cast a beam of light. The light golden light was so dazzling that it was difficult to look directly at it.

Um? !

Joseph suddenly woke up, his pupils shrank, and the compassionate heart hovering above his head turned on all its searchlights, bathing most of the Red Hand Bay city wall in its light, leaving nothing to hide.

Without the slightest hesitation, he decisively turned around and ran away. The half-awake guards around him didn't seem to realize what had happened or what was about to happen. They still stood there blankly, rubbing their eyes and looking up with surprised expressions. .

Almost at the same time, Joseph, who was looking frightened, ran to the bottom of the sentry tower, shouting loudly as he ran:

"Enemy - fire - coming - attack...!!!!"

The heartbreaking roar awakened the sleeping sea, and the golden-red python surged up from the dark horizon, splashing thousands of meteors...

Cut through the sky!

…………………………

Accompanied by the whistling that tore the air, the thunderous roar sounded almost continuously in the port of Red Hand Bay; the flames rose up one after another, rolling up the hot air waves and ravaging the shivering colony wantonly.

Eighteen-pound naval guns, twenty-four-pound mortars, thirty-eight-pound main guns, sixty-eight-pound carronades... solid shells, shrapnel shells, explosive shells, chain shells... Sixty warships lay across the Red Hand Bay On the sea outside the port, following the coordinates and instructions provided by the airship's searchlight, they poured out all their most ferocious firepower at all costs.

On the sea shrouded in darkness, the fierce gunfire of the warships had turned the sea into daylight. The deafening roar stirred up the sea water and set off huge waves.

This is a scene that everyone in Red Hand Bay, and even the entire New World, will never forget:

Flames flowed in the night sky, sea water boiled in the smoke, and magnificent fireworks burned on the earth again and again, and in turn illuminated the night sky... The stars dotting the dome came one after another to the world, blooming with countless silvery fire trees.

In this unprecedented summer of bombardment, which is already comparable to a natural disaster, the city walls and docks of Hongshou Bay were not surprisingly wiped out... Not to mention those brick and wood structures, the city walls made of stones, even if they are steel structures and cement pouring, There was no possibility of survival under such ferocious firepower.

The colonial militia stationed at the port position, the Sailing City Legion, and the residential buildings near the city wall were also destroyed. Except for a few who were lucky enough to evacuate quickly in the first round of shelling, the rest were all engulfed in a sea of ​​flames.

And even the very few survivors could not escape the near-constant bombardment that followed... Because of the darkness and over-saturated firepower, the scope of the bombardment by the Jihad Army fleet was soon no longer limited to the port, but Continuing closer to the streets, military camps, residential areas, commercial streets... the towns hidden in the night were gradually exposed by clusters of fires.

The raging flames are boiling on the ground, and the rolling tongues of fire are like thousands of demons dancing happily.

"...According to the information we have so far, the two Red Hand Bay militia regiments stationed in the southern city wall and position, the four Yangfan city line private battalions, and the shooting army of nearly a thousand people have all lost contact. …A sentry who had a chance to escape saw the military flag of one of the line barracks when passing by the outer city, and could basically judge that the entire army had been wiped out.”

In the basement of the parliament, Fabian, who hurried back, reported to Louis: "In addition, Joseph, the deputy commander of the shooting army, happened to be on a guard tower in the outer city when he was checking the sentry post. He was temporarily missing and his life and death are unknown."

"As for the current damage and casualties in the city... I apologize for my incompetence and cannot give you an accurate figure, but you should have seen the general situation..."

"Yeah, I saw it..."

The expressionless young knight gritted his teeth and his eyes turned red: "I saw it all."

There was deathly silence in the dark and crowded basement; only the roar of artillery outside was like thunder.

No one dared to speak, no one knew what to say. Everyone stared at the silent Louis, waiting for the marshal of the New World Army to make his decision.

Three minutes... He seemed to have remembered something. After three minutes of silence, Fabian suddenly stepped forward and asked in a very calm tone:

"By the way, I suggest that everyone not gather in the basement of the parliament. Although it is indeed strong here, it is still not absolutely safe in front of the twelve-pound or eighteen-pound naval guns."

"What's more, even if this place will not be penetrated by naval guns, if the parliament above completely collapses and blocks the exit, it is still possible that everyone will be buried alive under the ruins."

"In order to avoid an accident that will lead to the destruction of the entire Free Confederation and the New World Legion's top brass, it is best to spread out in case..."

"Boom!"

The silent Louis punched the wall behind him without warning, interrupting Fabian's speech.

"Sixty battleships, as well as the Holy See's most powerful airship, launched an attack on the small Beluga Port at the same time... The Jihad Army really thinks highly of us..."

Holding back the endless anger in his heart, the young knight whispered, every word as if he was trying to tear the enemy's flesh and blood into pieces: "I am so easily fooled. In their eyes, I can probably be fooled and let them do whatever they want. Just someone to cheat on, right?"

As he spoke, the veins on his forehead popped out one by one, and an abnormal flush appeared on his cheeks.

No one dared to speak. This was the first time they had seen Louis look so angry. No one dared to interrupt easily or speak to comfort him.

Because of the special nature of the power of blood, Louis rarely puts his mind on the verge of collapse, and maintains extreme restraint even when he is excited or sad.

But at this moment, he couldn't bear it anymore... Not only was he deceived, but also because of the fact that he was deceived, it was very likely that the entire Free Confederation would be annihilated and destroyed!

For such a serious mistake, what really made Louis angry was not his enemies, but himself.

The elf girl on the side narrowed her eyes slightly, and her ruby-like eyes revealed a real murderous intention.

"You...did you already know that?"

Trying his best to control his anger, the young knight looked at Anson who was sitting in the corner, chewing on his pipe: "It was just because he guessed that I wouldn't refuse, so he didn't stop him, right?"

"of course not."

Feeling the glances directed at him from around him, Anson exhaled a breath of smoke calmly: "It's just that, like you, I have deep doubts about the sincerity of the Holy War Army."

"As for now? Now that the enemy has moved their fleet and airships in front of us, we cannot rule out the possibility that they will directly turn against us and use force to try to eliminate us."

"From the very beginning, we have been enemies of the Holy See forces throughout the Old Continent. The previous victories were just due to the enemies' internal conflicts, which happened to be exploited by us; now they have just reunited and are attacking us without leaving any behind. That’s all.”

"...just?"

"Yeah, that's it, no big deal."

Anson nodded slightly: "It's just to fight with all your strength and be prepared to die."

The young knight's face was stern, and the atmosphere in the basement where the cannons roared seemed to have changed subtly.

Louis, who was silent for a moment, raised his head again and looked at Anson with burning eyes: "What's the plan?"

"Nothing special... The enemy used shelling to destroy the defense line in our port area, and also caused large areas of ruins and casualties in the city. This can explain two points: first, the enemy has made a desperate plan, and second, the enemy probably has not Really ready.”

"The reason for the desperate move is that with such intensive firepower, even destroying the entire city seems too wasteful. They fire regardless of the consequences and costs. I wish everyone could be assigned a shell, proving that this is the final offensive of the Jihadi Army."

"And such a ferocious bombardment did not immediately organize the troops to land, and even made the airship take the risk of taking on the task of flares. The firepower was ferocious but almost only in one direction, which means that this was not a carefully planned offensive, but an unprepared and bold one. And a crazy military adventure.”

Anson stood up and knocked the table with his pipe, and slowly said: "I guess the enemy will definitely organize troops to land as soon as possible, but it will definitely be disorderly and hasty; if their goal is not clear, they will definitely occupy the red area. Hand Bay is regarded as the only mission to be completed, and there will be no careful and complicated operations."

"In that case, we might as well give them what they want... let the troops and some people in the city evacuate quickly, and try to avoid too many casualties as much as possible first... Fabian!"

"exist!"

"You now immediately organize the entire grenadier regiment and all the shooting corps that can be found to control the north and west gates of Red Hand Bay. Make sure the roads in both places are clear. Anyone who tries to block traffic and hinder movement..."

"It can be considered as collaborating with the enemy!" The deputy commander of the Storm Legion said solemnly: "They were robbed and beaten to death on the spot!"

The merciless words made everyone present shiver.

"What about Red Hand Bay?" Louis continued: "Just give it to them and cut off the rear communication line of the New World Army?"

"Of course not. We need to leave behind a smaller target, but with stronger combat effectiveness and more deterrence, to block the landing of the jihadi army."

"A more intimidating presence, who?"

"There is only one person who can complete this task." As he said this, Anson suddenly turned his head and bowed to the elf girl next to him:

"That is the Queen of Iser, Her Majesty Freya Mossfield!"