When the enemy came into view, Vanna saw the heavily armed knights, riding tall horses and shining armor, slowly approaching the town. Usually, a knight lord in the town is a high-ranking existence, but now nearly a hundred people have come out at once, and this scene makes him gasp.

Vanna felt his palms sweat again, just as he had when he had faced the beast for the first time while standing on the wall, but this time, he was facing a coalition of nobles from his own kind, the Fortress of Long Song.

No, he spat and threw his thoughts aside, kind-for-kind, when did those nobles treat you like one-kind?he thought to himself. The purpose of their trip was to seize the border towns and bring the North Slope mining area back under the control of the fortress. What's more, they actually planned to drive His Royal Highness the Prince out of the Western Frontier, which was something that all the members of the First Army could not accept at all.

Yesterday, His Highness made it very clear in his pre-war lecture that Tifeco Wimbleton, the elder brother of His Highness, had used intrigue to take the throne and kill the old King Wembless III. Originally, Vanna did not have any opinion on these matters between the royal family and the nobles - who should be the king or not? But Duke Ryan wanted to take this opportunity to take away His Highness's territory, which was too much.

Think about it, before His Highness came here, what was the border town like? The former lord seemed to be an earl, who was rarely seen in ordinary times, and when buying furs, he always brought his personal guards with him, and often used low prices to buy good goods in the hands of hunters. The first to flee when the Demon Moon arrived, and the townsfolk never asked when they suffered in the slums of the fortress.

Nowadays, the border town is getting better and better under the governance of His Royal Highness the Prince, and these changes are visible to everyone. The more miners produce, the more they are paid, Fanner thought. After His Highness threw the black machine into the North Slope Mine, the extra output was still counted on the miner's head. Whether it is the construction of the city wall or the gravel of the mine, the villagers are paid on time. Not even a single person died of starvation and froze to death this winter.

Of course, the biggest change is still in the militia - no, now the First Army. With them guarding the town, everyone doesn't have to huddle in the cold wooden huts of the fortress in the winter, begging the big guys for a bite of food. If His Royal Highness the Prince is gone, will the Duke still allow the First Army to exist?

Vanna took two deep breaths and wiped his sweaty hands from his clothes. Of course they won't allow it, the nobles of the fortress don't care about the lives of the townspeople, which is exactly what His Highness said: only an army made up of the people will be willing to fight for the people.

He raised his head and looked at the left side of the sky, and there was a faint black dot hovering in the distance. It was the firing commander of the artillery group, Lightning, who took cover from the woods on both sides of the road and watched the enemy's movements from a high vantage point. When she flew back, Vanna also noticed that as long as she didn't take the initiative to go to the open area, the people below would only see the branches on both sides when they looked up, and it was difficult to spot the witches scouting from above.

In a quarter of an hour, lightning flew closer to the front of the battle, and a green ribbon appeared.

That means the enemy has entered a 1,000-meter range of ready fire. Fanner didn't know how far away the "one thousand meters" was in His Highness's mouth, but when he saw the green signal, he subconsciously shouted the command to load and adjust the angle of fire according to the regulations during the comprehensive exercise.

The four gun crews quickly completed this maneuver, the muzzle firing angle was adjusted to the third gear, and the gunpowder and solid shells were filled into the chamber.

He thought that he was already experienced if he had stood on the city wall and fought against the evil beasts, but Vanna only realized today that he was still far behind Iron Axe and Brian. When the formation was assembled in the afternoon, it was difficult for his heartbeat to steady. The two men led their respective teams into the firing position, and not only did they look as usual, but he could even hear a hint of eagerness in Brian's shouting voice. But until now, he has not regained his composure, and even the Rodney brothers seem to be better than they are. This made Vanna a little depressed.

He licked his dry lips and looked for the lightning bolt again.

At this moment, the enemy's advance suddenly slowed down a lot.

"What are they doing?" Rodney asked.

"I don't know," Catpaw's eyes widened, "it seems to be adjusting the formation? ”

"They're waiting for the troops behind," Grape's voice trembled, "It's impossible for the knight lord to fight alone, they must be followed by a large number of men." ”

"You know all this?" Nelson pouted.

"I've seen a knight lord bring at least two servants, and a dozen serfs to carry grain and grass for them," he counted with his fingers, "you see, a duke of a fortress has at least a hundred knights under his command, right? plus the earls and viscounts in the territory...... And the mercenaries, they are all swords, licking blood, killing people without blinking! There are only 300 of us in total. ”

There were less than three hundred, Vanna corrected in his heart. The musketeers were only more than 270 men armed with weapons, which, according to His Highness, was called a lack of capacity. Now those who did not have muskets were sent to the artillery group to carry ammunition for the four guns. But seeing that there were others worse than his own performance, he felt a little better.

"That's the mercenaries, they're coming!" exclaimed Yuzupi.

Vanna looked over, and saw a group of well-dressed guys gradually occupying the front of the battlefield, they did not ride horses, nor did they line up, but gathered in twos and threes to the middle of the field. The knights spread out to the sides, as if to make way for the mercenaries. Compared to half an hour ago, the Duke's coalition was much closer to him.

At this moment, a knight galloped out of the coalition and made a quick run towards the border town. Vanner's heart tightened, and he almost shouted the command to fire.

What is this for? He looked up, still not seeing the lightning, as the other man got closer and closer, waving a white flag at the same time.

"He's a messenger sent by the Duke," muttered Yuzupi, "presumably here to persuade him to surrender." ”

"That's none of our business," Rodney crouched down behind the cannon and aligned his gaze on the center line of the barrel, "Team leader, the cannon needs to be reoriented, most of the knights have already left the field. ”

In previous live-fire exercises, they had been taught repeatedly that the range of the gun was in the line in front of the muzzle, so in order to hit the target, the target had to overlap the center line of the barrel. Together, the five men turned the gun carriage slightly until they re-integrated the knightly units at the front of the coalition forces into the direction the guns were pointing.

The emissary who came alone was immediately escorted behind the line by Master Carter, but Vanna knew that the Duke's move was just a waste of time, and His Royal Highness would never agree to surrender.

Suddenly, lightning suddenly accelerated towards the town's defenses, her arms waving, and the yellow ribbon in her hand fluttering in the wind.

-- The yellow signal indicates that the opponent has entered the range of 800 meters, and within this distance, the solid shells of the artillery have a chance to hit the target. As long as the captain of the artillery team did not signal that the guns were not fired, the gun crews could fire freely.

The group also noticed the signal, and everyone turned their eyes to Fanner, who nodded and took a deep breath, "Fire!" (To be continued.) )