Chapter 364: Only My Unique Method Chapter 364: Cannonade

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

Late night.

Outside Ma La. Council Chairman Gasa Ye, Second Cavalry Regiment Commander Sir Vladimir, and High Priest Iyal were secretly inspecting the damaged city wall.

The High Priest wore a fine black robe; his pale hands disregarded the filth as they grabbed handfuls of mud, sniffing hard.

Gasa Ye and Vladimir watched him tensely.

"No traces of sorcery." The High Priest reached the conclusion with extreme reluctance. This meant the wall he had blessed was destroyed by brute force. A failure in a confrontation.

Vladimir's heart skipped a beat; like a young girl about to be forced into a relationship, he asked, "Is it a Divine Art Knight?"

"Perhaps."

The High Priest thought, it would have to be a powerful Divine Art Knight. The blessing spell on this wall was cast according to the standard of withstanding two Divine Art Knights.

What he couldn't figure out was, what use were the heavy cavalry and the things they brought out, as described by the witnesses? Could they be sacrifices?

The more he thought, the more conflicted he became, his brows knitting into a "卅" shape.

The West Continent does have explosives; alchemists often produce weapons rivaling nitroglycerin in power. In those temple wars and racial wars, catapults, crossbow cannons, and such equipment would maximize power wherever possible, but in terms of quantity, even a beast-load of explosives could not destroy a third of a city wall.

This turned the High Priest's thoughts quickly back to Divine Arts.

He began recalling those old knights who had already left the battlefield but were still alive.

Hundreds of years ago, powerful Divine Arts were popular on the Continent for a time.

The scholars of the West Continent cannot comprehend the explosive power of 1 ton of high explosives detonating at a precise location; its core significance lies in the precise location and simultaneous detonation. It sounds simple, but is actually quite high-end. A precise location requires a deep understanding of engineering and thorough reconnaissance and preparation. Simultaneous detonation is fine for 1 kilogram of high explosives, but very difficult for 1 ton of safe explosives.

If not for the "Knowledge Solvent" and the instruction of special forces veterans, the scholars of West River Water Fortress couldn't have pulled it off either.

Issar cannot understand such a thing that is both simple and profound, just like scholars on Earth cannot understand how a human running 100 meters in 6 seconds can exist.

The Policy Research Office guys, although they can't even handle the simplest staff work, are fortunately not completely ignorant; they studied with Shi Nengren and others for three days and selected 7 key points, all structural support points of the wall. Blasting any one of them would be far stronger than an ordinary Divine Art Knight's Divine Art, and by a huge margin.

Of course, 1 ton of high explosives certainly cannot compare to their powerful Divine Arts; this is also where the High Priest's doubt lies. The West Continent long ago stopped trending toward powerful Divine Arts. Slightly higher-level fortresses all have Grand High Priests blessing them, work completed through thousands of years of accumulation. Only an old fortress like Ma La would have its walls blessed by a High Priest like him.

"Can you tell which temple?" Gasa Ye asked cautiously. Divine Art Knights are the ultimate weapons of temples and city-states; everyone qualified to advance to a Divine Art Knight receives attention from all sides. A well-trained High Priest can judge their origin from the slightest clues on the battlefield.

The High Priest disappointed them again, merely offering comfort: "Their cannon is not a crossbow cannon's cannon; it's formidable. I wasn't present at the time; it's also possible that too many attacks damaged the blessing's effect, and finally a Level 9 Combat Knight completed the destruction."

"Not a Divine Art Knight, that's... just fine." Council Chairman Gasa Ye laughed incoherently.

"I only said it's possible." The High Priest immediately composed his expression and said, "It could be a Divine Art Knight, it could not be; I cannot be certain."

The Chairman's laughter stopped abruptly.

Ma La cannot contend with a Divine Art Knight. Even if they once produced a Divine Art Knight, they would be absorbed by the Temple first.

As for seeking the Temple's help... Gasa Ye glanced at the High Priest, thinking: if a Divine Art Knight appeared now, Iyal might kneel and beg him to join the Fire Dragon Temple, just like his favorite male pets do.

Recruit a Divine Art Knight before the Temple War erupts?

Even a Temple High Priest would qualify for commendation!

"Go back." The High Priest dug up a bit of soil and said, "Don't worry; perhaps it was an alchemical sacrifice, a result forcibly caused by some Temple Knights."

Just rephrasing the previous words in another way, without any meaning.

The Knight and the Grand Knight returned to the city interior dejectedly. Gasa Ye grabbed the High Priest and said, "If anyone asks you, you must say the damage was possibly caused by a Level 9 Combat Knight using sacrifices."

Along with his words came 500 Conch Shells, a very, very heavy large bag.

The High Priest happily carried it away on his back. Gasa Ye went gloomily to report to the Elder Council; the nobles were all waiting for him to say something pleasant.

The next day at noon, the cannonade organized by Li Changning began.

Ma La's residents should be glad the "Jiangning People" lacked curved firepower. Mortars played a limited role in the slaughter, even more limited against knights. Coupled with its accuracy and rate of fire being closely tied to the soldiers' training level, on the priority list its demand level was C, lower than Cola's Loyalty Level B, lower than Beer's B-, even lower than TV drama discs' C+.

This time a total of 6 tanks fired a base number of 34 shells.

Among them, 4 were official members of the Tank Company; the other 2 were student tanks still in training. Qin Dajiang was among them.

If not for their numbers, Li Changning couldn't tell which 4 were the Tank Company's; their levels were about the same. Hu Yang had fired 30-odd shells, while Qin Dajiang had fired over a thousand "Big Poison Snakes" and a dozen Milan rounds; the only thing needing serious study was the fire control system. The integrated aiming and rangefinding of late WWII was still relatively simple.

The cannonade lasted 2 hours. When they retreated, one vehicle's road wheel had a problem. This scared Li Changning, who was watching, terribly.

In their view, losing a tank was an unforgivable crime. Chinese-style officers' thinking is generally like this: thrifty household managers, caring about everything except soldiers.

Sun Ruihe was more familiar with this. Upon hearing, he rushed over and said, "No problem, tanks breaking down is normal; just fix it."

Li Changning pursed his lips and said, "Within their attack range, though."

"How could you drive that close!" Sun Ruihe blurted out reproachfully.

Li Changning said with an embarrassed face, "Wasn't it to strafe the Ma La people repairing the wall?"

The Type 59 has three machine guns. The top 12.7mm is for anti-aircraft, requiring climbing out to fire, which is inconvenient. The two side 7.62mm only count as general machine guns; within 1000 meters it's hard to hit accurately.

"Two men, come with me." Due to work needs, Sun Ruihe wouldn't use the tank cannon, but he could drive and repair tanks.

The two veterans following Sun Ruihe exchanged a glance, hugged their toolboxes, and boarded the armored vehicle.

Sun Ruihe actually wanted to lead the Tank Company directly. Although it lacked the rank of a command position, he held actual authority.

Now was the time to display his martial valor.

Including the damaged tank, no member dared climb out of a tank at this distance; that was suicide. Sun Ruihe was different. He maneuvered the armored vehicle laterally to the tank's side, naturally forming a shield, then dismounted from the left side and could directly inspect and repair the damaged part.

The soldiers on Ma La's wall were extremely worried about the armored vehicle driving under the city. They tensely summoned Temple Knights, but Sun Ruihe fixed the tank and withdrew, and they didn't dare stop him.

Hu Yang, who had retreated halfway then returned, looked worriedly toward the rear. Not seeing Chen Yi's figure, he felt slightly more at ease.

However, that very evening after returning to West River Water Fortress, Hu Yang received a notice from the Policy Research Office: "Selected for advanced study at West Continent Chen Family Martial Arts Hall Outer Hall; Tank Company duties to be concurrently assumed by Sun Ruihe."

The veterans had all stayed at the Chen Family Martial Arts Hall's Outer Hall. One by one, they didn't know what to say.

This is just like attending Party School. The immediate benefits are all thrown away; whether it's good later depends on opportunity. As of now, losing the position in the rapidly developing Tank Company is very unprofitable.

Hu Yang left helplessly, while Sun Ruihe went to take up his post happily. He understood the significance of the Tank Company better than the newly arrived veterans, so his primary goal was to expand training, expand the Tank Company, and thereby completely master the armored forces of the West Continent.

He was qualified to see the supply list and knew Chen Yi had obtained equipment for an entire Tank Battalion, and might obtain even more—that was far more powerful than a few heavy machine gun squads. If they could train several hundred tank crewmen, the armored forces might even be assigned mechanized infantry. Sun Ruihe knew Chen Yi's habits: as long as there were people, there were offices. The West Continent was a barren land awaiting reclamation, and one's own strength determined the composition of power.

Also selected to attend the Chen Family Martial Arts Hall's West Continent branch were some of the early batches of students, especially members of the Basic Construction Group, who particularly liked going to school. On the construction site, braving wind and rain, although they had slaves and native workers doing the labor, the environment was ultimately not good enough. They all hoped to improve their ranks further through one session at the martial arts hall, just like the martial arts halls on Earth.

The next day, the attack was carried out by a Native Company, which included one of the army's few sharpshooters. The Tank Company underwent a simple reorganization and did not participate in the artillery barrage. Sun Ruihe selected eight men to form two crack tanks, thereby guaranteeing more than four aimed shots per minute. The remaining two tanks followed with concentrated fire, constituting a simple firepower net.

On the third day, Sun Ruihe led his newly reorganized Tank Company onto the battlefield and conducted firing on the move, focusing on knocking out the blockhouses between the mountains on both sides.

This barrage greatly shocked the nobles on the tower inside the city. The tremendous power displayed by the tanks made even the nobles who had seen Earth Dragon Knights feel danger.

Vladimir could no longer suppress the calls for surrender within the city, and tacitly allowed the Council Chairman to send the envoy Muse to the West River Water Fortress for negotiations.

……(Unfinished. If you like this work, welcome to come to Qidian (qidian. com) to cast recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)