The Release That Witch
Chapters 116's

It was not that knights could attack from the start with their fastest speed, after all, horses were limited by their physical endurance, so they were only able to maintain their fastest speed for a short period of time. At one thousand or eight hundred meters they would begin to increase their speed gradually until they reached a distance of five hundred meters from their target, only when they came within a distance of two hundred meters would they begin to gallop.

While in theory, the twelve-pound Napoleon cannon has an effective range of up to 1,300 meters if using a solid shell. Perhaps because it only had half the diameter of a normal, Roland's cannon only had an effective range of a thousand meters. As a result, the furthest distance the artillery group was allowed to open fire was eight hundred meters. At this distance, reaching the target area can be guaranteed, while at the same time the cannonball will also bounce forward after hitting the ground. Produces line damage, with a high chance of killing multiple targets with a single shot.

To let the mercenary attack go first, Duke Ryan had ordered his knights to step aside – letting them wait in a completely safe area, he said, which meant an area where bows and bows could not reach knights, but this distance was still close enough for an effective knight attack to launch. Knowing the low efficiency of the mercenaries, the knights were always ready to pull the horses' control s, waiting for the resistance in one place. However, like this, they became an almost certain target, for the artillery group.

However the Duke certainly did not realize that by the time he ordered his troops to step aside, that they had already stepped onto Roland's battlefield ready to take a step. While the middle of the road may be flat and broad, both sides are crammed with foliage and other vegetation. What seemed from afar was just ordinary grass, actually a dense vines covered by a layer of knee-high weeds, it was like a road plastered with a natural tripwire. If the cavalry wanted to start a wing attack on the defensive line, they would only be able to move forward with a very slow rate of progress. The distance of a thousand meters was clearly marked on the ground, it might not be visible to the people on the ground, but to the Lighting flying in the sky, it was clearly visible. The battlefield is precisely divided into several segments, and each mark with different colors represents a different distance – the enemy is now only a ruler who moves on the chessboard, and each mark with a different color represents a different distance, which allows the artillery group to fire without having to calculate the angle of the barrel. They just follow the steps they have implemented during training.

The cannon from Van 'er' s group was the first to rumble with anger.

The large amount of gas produced by the gunpowder explosion pushed the projectile out, and by the time it flew out from its muzzle, it had reached a speed of over four hundred meters per second, and by the time it flew out from its muzzle, it had reached a speed of over four hundred meters per second, so after two seconds, his shell had already nearly reached the knight. It instantly flowed through the group of knights and immersed itself into the ground beside the road. Splashing the ground and pebbles in all directions and creating panic among the horses, a knight reacted a little too late and fell off his horse.

The next two bullets also missed the target and only produced a lot of dust.

But the last group managed to get a lucky hit – originally there was no one in its flight path, but a knight who was unable to regain control of his frightened horse happened to pass through it. In front of this massive amount of kinetic energy, his armor only existed in name. The cannonball simultaneously pierced through the thin iron and human flesh, and after bouncing off the ground, it then hit another knight, cutting off his calf. In addition it finally penetrated through the horse's chest under the knight's hips and spread its internal organs throughout the ground.

If the Knights were in their normal phase of the attack, the artillery group would need to adjust the angle of their fire, but the sudden blow apparently shocked the entire Duke's coalition of troops. They didn't know what had hit them, how could they - the shell was too fast to be seen with the human eye. So the knights didn't receive orders to attack, instead, they were still pacing back and forth in their original location, trying to calm their passionate mounts.

It was once again Van 'er's group who were the fastest to complete the reload process, starting the second round of shelling.

The new weapon reveals how fragile and tender the human body, once hit by a passing iron ball, can cause incurable injuries. But when his rider was hit directly, other than he lost some limbs, it would also splash blood everywhere. Only when they were hit by the second round artillery shells could they finally see a vague black shape, while it claimed the lives of their comrades.

After a second round of shooting, Duke was finally able to connect the fire and roaring sounds in the enemies' camp with an indescribable strike against his unit. It seems the other side is already hands on an incredible weapon, with a range farther than automatic arrows, almost like one of the fortress' trebuchets. Realizing this, Duke immediately gave the order to honk – thinking that as long as they could reach close range, these ranged weapons would also be useless.

The knights, however, when hearing the horn, showed some kind of reaction. Some of them actually rushed towards Border Town, but others were still fighting on their own horses, while a small portion of the knights retreated to the back of the battlefield. Together with the huddled mercenaries, the entire scene quickly turned into chaos.

When the invading knights returned to the road, the artillery group suddenly became panicked, moreover, in order to clear the barrel and recharge its ammunition, they also had to adjust their cannons. At this moment, Lighting flew once again towards the defensive line, holding a red ribbon in his hand.

The red signal meant that the enemy was approaching the five hundred meter line, at this distance, the level of artillery attacks would reach over eighty percent.

When the deafening roar rang out again, he did not even look to see if they had hit anything, instead, he immediately turned towards the ammunition distribution staff and shouted: "! Tubes, send in tube shelling ”

During the artillery training, His Majesty had repeatedly stressed that when the red signal was sounded, even if the barrel was already filled with solid bullets, they had to immediately shoot and then recharge with tube bullets. In case the barrel wasn't loaded, they had to immediately fill it with tube shells, and then wait until the point where the enemy reached three hundred marks.

The canned shell looked like a can containing balls the size of a thumb and sawdust. To make a tube shell, they first make a hole in the can, then they fill it with a ball and sawdust, and then they stop it with a thin piece of wood.

When Lighting finally showed the purple ribbon, the four artillery groups fired almost simultaneously.

It was also Van 'er's first time using tube shells - according to His Majesty, the injuries caused by the tube shells were very difficult to heal, so they only practiced the loading procedure. So today was also the first time he had seen the incredible killing potential of this particular shell.

Due to the enormous pressure difference, the lead broke into pieces after leaving its muzzle. The small iron ball inside the can fell like raindrops to the enemy, placing the knights three hundred meters away in the midst of a deadly metal storm, and turned the people and the horses into a bloody mist that resembled wheat that fell as it was cut down. A few iron pellets after penetrating the bodies of the knights still had so much kinetic energy left that even the knights standing behind them were weren't able to escape either.

The knights who were lucky enough to survive the storm finally entered the sprint distance, while having only one thought in their minds – that was to break through this thin defensive line, and slaughtered the cowards who could only hide behind those ruthless weapons. Just a small amount of time it took to cover the last hundred and fifty meters, the knights had already lowered their bodies, pushing the horses to reach their highest speed.

However, this seemingly short distance of a hundred and fifty meters, turned into an impassable distance, the last round of tube-bullet shooting completely destroyed the last part of their fighting will. Within a hundred meters, the solid iron ball was able to pierce through as many as two to three people, turning the area in front of the cannon fire into a death field. Of the twenty knights riding on the frontline, almost no one could survive, the only difference between them lay in the number of iron balls they struck.

The knight attack had completely collapsed.

Because the fear brought about by the collapse of the knight attack was so great, the knights who followed tried to reverse their horses that wanted to escape from the battlefield.

When they saw the knights deploying the mercenaries weren't willing to take a step forward. They always work only for money, but they immediately turn around when they see how much they have to pay. Now, by the time they retreated, they were running much faster than when they attacked.

When a wave of their crushing defeat swept through the dukedom of an allied army, the situation soon became impossible for control. The crowd only had one thought left, they had to flee. There are people who fall and are trampled to death, no one takes the time to care for others, they just hate themselves for not being able to grow another pair of legs.

At this moment the melody of guerrilla war songs resounded across the battlefield, and the infantry ranks began to march, sweeping across the battlefield.