The knight's charge does not start with the highest speed, and the horse has limited stamina and can only maintain high speed for a short time. Normally, they would let the horses trot at 1,000 to 800 meters, gradually accelerate at 500 meters, and finally enter 200 meters before starting the sprint.

And the twelve-pounder Napoleon gun, when firing a solid projectile, has a theoretical effective range of up to 1,300 meters. Perhaps because the diameter was too short, the artillery built by Roland was too far away to be seen, so he had to fire within 800 meters in training. At this time, the accuracy of the artillery has been guaranteed, and the shell will still bounce forward after landing, causing line killing, and the probability of hitting multiple targets is still high.

In order to get the mercenaries first, Duke Ryan ordered the knights to stand by in the acceleration zone - this was usually a perfectly safe area, where neither bows nor crossbows could threaten the knights, and the latter had enough distance to increase their horses' speed. The mercenaries' low assembly efficiency caused the knights who were already in place to pull their mounts and wait in place. For artillery crews, they became almost fixed targets.

Unbeknownst to the Duke, when his troops stepped into the land, they were already caught in the battlefield that Roland had predetermined. The path in the middle is flat and wide, while the sides are filled with leaf-catalyzed plants, which look like ordinary grass, but under knee-deep weeds are thick vines, like a stumbling block. Cavalry trying to outflank the line could only advance at a very low speed. The distance is marked by Zoroya within a kilometer, and it may not be clear on the ground, but in the eye of lightning in the air, the battlefield is precisely divided into several sections, and the different colored markings represent different distances - the enemy is like advancing on a ruler, and the artillery team no longer needs to calculate the angle of fire from the muzzle, but only needs to follow the predetermined steps in the exercise.

The twelve-pounder cannon of the Vanna group was the first to roar.

The large amount of gas generated by the explosion of gunpowder pushed the projectile outward, and when it flew out of the muzzle, it had accelerated to more than 400 meters per second, almost between two breaths, and the cannonball smashed to the ground with a whistling sound, passed between the two knights, and fell into the grass beside the road. The splashes of dirt and gravel caused the horses to run in fright, and one of them had no time to react and accidentally fell off his horse.

The other two shells that followed closely followed were also missed, bringing up a trail of dust.

Only the last of the four cannons fired in the first round went to the lucky one - there was no one in front of the iron ball, and a knight happened to pass in front of it while controlling the frightened mount, and the armor was useless in the face of the great kinetic energy, and after the iron ball pierced the thin iron sheet along with the flesh, it broke the calf of one of the knights with a small bounce on the ground. The horses under his crotch were also disemboweled, and their entrails flowed to the ground.

If the Order was in the normal acceleration phase, the next round of artillery fire should have adjusted the angle of fire first, but this sudden blow obviously shocked the Duke's coalition forces, and they did not even know where the blow came from and how it was used - the cannonballs flew faster than the naked eye could discern. The knight did not receive the order to attack, and remained in place, trying to calm down the restless mount.

The Vanna group completed the reloading procedure as quickly as possible, and the second round of shelling began.

The flesh and blood exposed its fragility and softness under the hot weapon, and once it was grazed by the iron ball, it was irreparably seriously injured. In addition to the severed limbs, the knight who was directly hit also had clouds of blood mist flying out. Only after the shell landed on the ground formed a secondary ejection, one could faintly see a faint black ghost, wantonly plundering the lives of his companions in the crowd.

After two rounds of shelling, the Duke finally connected the fire, the roar, and the inexplicable blow in the enemy camp. The other seems to possess an uncanny weapon that far exceeds the range of a crossbow and is almost equal to that of a fort's trebuchet. Thinking of this, the Duke ordered his men to blow the horn of the attack - as long as the distance was closed, this long-range strike weapon would basically be useless.

However, the knights showed very different reactions. Some of them began to speed up in the direction of the town after hearing the trumpet, some were still struggling with their mounts, and a small number of people had retreated to the rear, and the whole scene was chaotic with the mercenaries rushing up.

The attacking knights returned to the main road, and the artillery crews were immediately busy, in addition to cleaning the chambers and reloading ammunition, they also needed to move the gun mounts again. At this time, the lightning returned to the sky above the defense line again, and the ribbon in his hand changed to red.

The red signal means that the opponent has approached to 500 meters, and within this distance, the accuracy of artillery flat fire can reach more than 80%.

Vanna shouted, "Shoot the angle of fire! quick, ignition, ignition!"

As soon as the deafening roar passed, he didn't even bother to observe the results of the battle, and turned directly to the ammunition distribution personnel and shouted: "Shotgun, send shotgun!"

During the artillery training, His Royal Highness the Prince repeatedly emphasized that if a red signal is seen and a solid cannonball is loaded in the chamber, it should be fired and loaded immediately. If it has not yet been loaded, it should be replaced with a shotgun and wait for the opponent to enter the 300-meter range before firing.

The shotgun looked like a barrel-shaped tin can, filled with finger-sized iron pellets and sawdust, and the diameter of the can was a circle smaller than the barrel, so an extra thin wooden board had to be stuffed into the bag after it was filled.

While waiting for the lightning to give a purple signal, the four guns opened fire almost simultaneously.

This was also the first time that Vanna had used a shotgun for live firing - according to His Highness, it was not easy to recover after being fired, so he only practiced the procedure and did not ignite. Today he witnessed for the first time the astonishing damage that this particular shell can cause.

The iron bucket burst due to the huge pressure difference after flying out of the muzzle, and the iron pellets inside were scattered like raindrops on the enemy, and the knights within three hundred meters were suddenly covered by a rain of metal. A little blood burst out on the human and horse's bodies, and they fell down in an instant like wheat harvesting. Some iron pellets still have a lot of kinetic energy after penetrating the human body, and overlapping targets cannot escape this fate.

The knights, who were lucky enough not to be covered by the barrage, finally approached the dash distance, and they had only one thought in their minds - to break through this thin line of defense and slaughter the cowards who would only cower behind the line and operate evil weapons. It only took twenty breaths to cross the last hundred and fifty meters, and the remaining knights lowered their bodies and raised their horses to the highest speed.

However, this one hundred and fifty meters seemed to be close at hand, but it was an unattainable distance, and the last round of shotgun shooting completely destroyed the knights' will to fight. Within a hundred meters, the iron pellets that are not easy to deform can penetrate two or three people, and the cone-shaped area in front of the muzzle has become the realm of death, and almost none of the more than twenty knights who rushed to the front are spared, the difference is only a few projectiles.

The team collapsed.

The team that had broken up in fear had no chance of recovery, and the knights behind them turned their horses and tried to flee the battlefield.

Seeing the Knights scattering and fleeing, the mercenaries were naturally not willing to take another step forward, they had always worked for money, and it was never their turn to fight at a loss. Now it's time to retreat, and the mercenaries are running much faster than they came.

The wave of rout swept through Duke Lane's coalition forces, and the situation soon became uncontrollable, and everyone fled backwards in a crowd, and those who were crushed were trampled to death, and no one had time to care about others, only hating why they didn't grow more legs.

The melody of the guerrilla song resounded throughout the audience at this time, and the infantry, lined up in battle lines, took neat steps and began to sweep the battlefield. (To be continued.) )