More than thirty shield vehicles slowly advanced, a barrage of lead bullets struck the cowhide hardwood board, causing the guards to feel a tingling numbness in their hands.
The tearing sound of lead hitting the rivets made them shudder every ti.
Occasionally, they would peek through the small light-leaking holes on the shield vehicles.
Not far ahead, long spears, halberds, and axes stood tall like a dense forest.
The half armor in carbon black was connected in a line, with dark blue fields fluttering uniformly over the helts.
The armor plates rubbed, echoing with a crisp clang as they marched.
Their strides and frequencies were consistent, with drumrs on either side striking the drumbeats, each step soldiers took was on the rhythm of the drums.
Most importantly, their marching speed was extrely fast, almost not requiring them to halt the entire formation; they covered nearly 50 ters within a minute.
In contrast, the army on the Shattered Stone Plain had barely moved 40 ters.
"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, we have shield vehicles protecting us." A soldier, clutching the bullet hole in his shoulder, still tried to boost morale despite knowing his words lacked persuasion.
However, the overpowering montum was like a mountain collapsing, and the guards pushing the carts swallowed hard, suddenly feeling the air grow thin.
"Order the gunners to press forward." As the distance between the two sides reached 150 ters, André imdiately commanded.
Whistle sounds rang out as Captain Bai used spear guns to press the gunners' backs forward.
"First 500-n team, two-step intervals, advance quickly! First 500-n team, one-five!"
"Third 500-n team..."
At the command of Captain Bai, at the two front corners of the large array, two hundred gunners wielding lightweight spring guns accelerated their advance.
They wore black-gray jackets, donned simple chest armor and helts, with red armbands on their right arms to indicate their identity.
Amidst sharper whistle sounds and commands, they gradually disengaged from the large array, almost quick-stepping toward the shield vehicles.
In the current military system of Moliat, there was no complete Gallar Array reform.
The main reason was the insufficient number of Holy Gunn, so the Battle Group of Moliat was a combination of the Deng Jia'er Array and the Gallar Array.
Simply put, it was fifty people in horizontal rows, forty in vertical rows, with each of the four corners having a 10x10 gunner phalanx.
Currently, a 500-n infantry regint in Moliat's army comprises 100 gunners and 400 lee soldiers.
Five infantry regints form exactly a Gallar Array, still leaving 100 gunners free.
These 100 gunners are called Independent Gunners, operating outside the formations.
They are either pulled by Moliat to cover the cavalry, work as scattered soldiers for free shooting, or serve as corner gunners for rcenary formations.
Many of the Holy Gunn among them are non-sanctified gunners from Black Snake Bay, using spring guns distinct from those of Kanni Di.
These spring guns were designed and modified by the gunsmith Tom, incorporating techniques from alchemical reaction vessels, reducing mana leakage.
This allowed non-sanctified wizards to use them.
In honor of this gunsmith's innovative invention, Moliat nad this lightweight spring gun Tom Gun.
It has fewer turns, shorter barrels, and a lighter body.
Consequently, its power and range are not as great as the Ampere Gun or Kanni Di Gun, such heavy spring guns.
The latter two can pierce armor from distances of 90 ters or even 120 ters, while the Tom Gun can only pierce armor at 70 ters, and fire at most two rounds before terminating.
Currently, the dominant firearms among the gunners of the Thousand River Valley are the Tom Gun with its lightweight spring chanism, the Kanni Di Gun, and the Ampere Gun with its heavy helical structure.
At a position of around 40 ters, this is the distance for the Tom Gun to break the shield vehicle.
Standing on this invisible line of distance, eight small gunner phalanxes halted their advance.
The shooting decomposed actions laid out in the manual totaled 22, but on the battlefield, the officers wouldn't shout out 22 orders; that's reserved for newbie training.
"Prepare!"
"Aim!"
"Holy Wind!"
The first row of 10 Holy Gunn snapped the spring, and the flying lead pierced through the cowhide shield, blood seeping out from under the wheels.
Though invisible, the sounds of wailing and the stalled shield vehicles could be plainly seen.
"Second row, move up!"
As they faced infantry, according to the manual, Captain Bai didn't use the front-kneeling rear-standing shooting style, opting for a simple backward shooting technique instead.
The commands were sharp, and military boots struck the ground.
The first row turned left in unison, changing the horizontal formation into a vertical one, as the gunners on one side of the small phalanx moved toward the rear.
As they turned their backs to the enemy, the gunners of the second row raised their spring guns.
The eight small gunner phalanxes slithered like entangled snakes, and each strike echoed with wails within the Shattered Stone Plain army.
As if it wasn't enough, after pondering for a mont, André decisively ordered: "Let the artillery fire two more rounds, leave one spring warehouse."
"Yes."
Just as the ssenger was about to run off, André grabbed his arm: "Also, go urge those engineers, why isn't the winding machine installed yet!"
The dark artillery barrels swiveled, as the gun captain pulled out the interpolation table: "Direct shot, inclination 1, adjust aim."
Roughly 10 seconds later, water vapor appeared over the astrologer's head, with fresh blood trickling from his nose.
"Astrologer, aim adjusted!"
"Tilt, adjust the tilt a bit more."
"Are you sure?"
"Sure, brother, sure."
eting the determined gaze of the astrologer, the gun captain remained silent for a mont, then turned his head and yelled angrily: "Adjust the tilt a bit more, don't overdo it."
In the blink of an eye, four Deserted Eagle cannons and twelve Falcon cannons roared in succession at a range of a hundred ters,
The whistling through the air made many guards imdiately duck with their heads in their hands, too terrified to even look up.
The sound of wood splintering, cowhide tearing, and rivets being driven, the ding of them hitting rocks.
The unfortunate part was, four purple-black projectiles sliced through the air; two flew off course, one splashed into a pool creating a water column.
Only one found its mark, precisely hitting a shield vehicle.
The hub exploded into countless fragnts, and with a loud noise, the shield vehicle overturned backward.
Unfortunately, this shield vehicle was originally abandoned, causing no casualties.
The soldier who previously boosted morale hurriedly pretended to laugh: "Hahaha, see, the Holy Father is all…"
The soldiers didn't hear what the Holy Father was doing, only seeing the soldier freeze in place.
The only projectile that hit didn't stop like others.
Due to the unique angle and wind resistance during the incoming shot, the shield vehicle overturned and tilted, with its angled side facing the formation behind it.
Just like a bicycle kick relay, the 9-centiter-diater cast iron projectile was shot accurately into the formation behind.
The soldiers of the formation raised their heads to see a teor-like black shadow, their faces shifting from dazed to fear in slow motion.
"Hey, I—" The unfortunate one in the first row couldn't even finish his sentence before becoming the first to face the projectile, literally.
His helt shattered, and brain matter splattered like rain, wrapping red-purple blood vessels and skull fragnts, warm onto the face of the soldier behind him.
The projectile spun and leaped among the crowd, dismbered limbs and viscera scattered around.
Splattering mud and grass leaves thudded onto the soldiers' faces, yet they dared not turn to look.
They didn't even dare to discern whether it was mud or flesh on their faces.
Only out of the corner of one's eye could they see red blood saring the green field, the withered vertebrae of corpses staring vacantly.
Because of the gunners' forward pressing and the thunderous artillery strikes, the guards pushing the carts finally could take no more.
Despite threats and long whips from the soldiers, the guards refused to take another step forward.
Seeing this, the sergeants, to prevent the shield vehicles from blocking the path, had no choice but to order a retreat.
The remaining thirty shield vehicles moved to the flanks, opening space for the eight large staggered phalanxes behind them.
The Shattered Stone Plain phalanx with a front six and rear two, finally confronted the Thousand River Valley's single slanted row phalanx face to face.
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