Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

However, the number of casualties is not the only indicator of a battle's evaluation. Although firing across the river wastes ammunition, it is necessary to maintain morale.

"At least the Rebels are wasting gunpowder as well," Montekucoli thought.

As expected, the artillery fire only briefly silenced the Rebels. Shortly after, red flashes appeared again on the breastworks of the Rebels across the river, accompanied by gunshots.

The United Province Musketeers in the trenches, seeing this, resumed their blind firing, wasting gunpowder once more.

The same scenario happened every night recently, except for the night before last, when it occurred twice.

The Rebels never ceased their attempts to send supplies to Bishop's Castle using small rafts.

But in Raymond Montecuccoli's view, the Rebels were simply doing futile work.

Not to mention that the overly regular action mode of the Rebels completely lost the important advantage of surprise attacks.

Even if the Rebels could approach Magit Island undetected, how could they break through the defenses set by the island defenders on the shore with only a few soldiers transported by small rafts?

Over the past few days, Montecuccoli has been strengthening the defenses of Magit Island.

Nowadays, the shallow beaches facing the West Bank of River Shijian on Magit Island are already filled with sharp stakes.

Those sharp stakes are half underwater, half above water, spaced an arm's length apart, forming an impenetrable long line, like a water barrier.

Iron rings are also installed on the stakes. An iron cable passes through each ring, transforming the scattered stakes into a solid barrier.

Any vessel wishing to approach the island from the west side must first breach this "water barrier."

After the completion of the water barrier, Montecuccoli led his troops to dig a trench along the riverbank.

Through this circular trench, even on nights where visibility is minimal, Colonel Ludwick's musketeers can quickly reach any riverbank location.

And anyone attempting to disrupt the water barrier would face deadly fire from inside the trenches.

Meanwhile, the firepower from the opposite bank finds it very difficult to suppress the shooters in the trenches.

With more time, Raymond Montecuccoli would ensure that a tamped earth road encircling Magit Island would emerge.

By then, even cannons could be repositioned quickly to support any possible Rebel landing site.

The tamped earth road could eventually be upgraded to a gravel road, which in turn could be upgraded to a paved road.

Given enough manpower and time to the director of the army's artillery research division, all of Magit Island could become a fortress.

Therefore, Colonel Monteccolli is not very worried about the safety of Magit Island.

At times, he even reflects: perhaps he overreacted to the easy fall of Bishop's Castle, acting excessively, thus completely quelling the Rebels' desire to attack Magit Island, disrupting the original plan of "luring the Rebels onto the island for destruction."

Currently, Raymond Montecuccoli is more concerned about the situation in the New Town of Kingsfort.

The angled trenches growing from the "fence stakes" gave him a very severe sense of crisis.

If the Rebels decide to go all out, then the only way out for the southern army is to burn the New Town and retreat to the Old City to defend against the river.

Because Cornelius has far too few troops at his disposal, and he must also monitor the movements within the city, if dragged into a seesaw battle by the Rebels, the southern army will be the first to collapse.

However, if they retreat to the Old City, what awaits the southern army is merely a postponed sentence of death.

The Paratu People will never forgive the United Provincials who destroyed their capital city.

The rule of Grof Magnus would completely collapse—no, perhaps even Grof Magnus would stand against the burning of the New Town.

Then, the southern army would become a small group of foreign forces surrounded by hostile Paratu People.

They might still hold out for a period of time, and if lucky, perhaps a long time.

But the possibility of victory would be entirely erased.

Indeed, victory.

Perhaps it was the infectious, annoying confidence exuded by Jansen Cornelius, that despite the precarious situation at Kingsfort, Montekucoli never abandoned the hope of victory—though oftentimes, he found himself laughable.

After all, only a small fraction of people in this world can continue even knowing the end is failure.

And [the fall of a fortress begins with the loss of hope].

Montekucoli dared not promise he could "die for victory," but he was quite certain that he couldn't "sacrifice willingly knowing victory was impossible."

In this regard, Montekucoli admired Jansen Cornelius.

He did not wish to explore his old colleague's inner world, nor did he bother to do so, but as long as Cornelius continued to fight, so would he.

Thus, Raymond Montekucoli wanted to win this battle.

Therefore, although he was physically on Magit Island, his mind was entirely focused on the New Town across the river.

As the illuminating rocket exhausted its alchemical fuel and vanished into the night sky, both sides' firearms soldiers quickly grew weary of "firing blindly at places with light."

The chirping of insects sounded again, and the banks of the River Shijian returned to tranquility.

The uncontrolled "Rebels'" rafts, although deviating from their original trajectory, still drifted towards Magit Island, snagging on the sharp stakes protruding from the water.

Montekucoli sent a junior officer to handle it.

A moment later, the junior officer returned to report, "The rafts have all been hauled up."

"Where did they drift to this time?" Montekucoli asked.

"A bit downstream from the Bishop's Castle," the officer replied.

"Understood," Montekucoli nodded subtly, "Leave the sentries on their rotation, and let the others go rest."

Although the artillery major considered the "Rebels'" idea of using small rafts to cross the river very foolish, he had to admit that the "Rebels'" swimming skills were improving day by day.

The first time the "Rebels" tried to use small rafts to send supplies to the island, they miscalculated the drift distance, and the rafts made from large barrels filled with flour and waterproofed with pitch missed Magit Island and were washed downstream, nearly hitting the floating bridge connecting the New Town and Old City.

The second time the "Rebels" tried, the rafts floated ashore but were still a great distance from Bishop's Castle because they floated directly to the East Bank.

This night, however, the "Rebels" managed to accurately deliver the rafts in front of Bishop's Castle.

Unfortunately, as long as the guards remained vigilant every night, even if the "Rebels" managed to send the supply rafts to their intended spot, they couldn't unload them to the shore, let alone deliver them into the hands of the "Rebels" inside Bishop's Castle.

Compared to the "Rebels" crossing the river with small rafts, Montekucoli was actually more worried about the "Rebels" inside Bishop's Castle launching an attack.

So, after digging trenches around Magit Island, Montekucoli immediately began to dig trenches around Bishop's Castle.

The Rebels were digging trenches outside the New Town, and Montekucoli was doing the same outside Bishop's Castle, a comparison that was truly interesting.

Only, Colonel Montekucoli was not interested in the small fry inside Bishop's Castle.

Contrary to Jansen Cornelius' view, Montekucoli always believed the Rebels would abandon the remnant troops inside Bishop's Castle, even abandoning the attack on Magit Island—an opinion for which he took partial responsibility—and instead launch a frontal assault on New Town.

That's why, although Raymond Montekucoli returned to Magit Island immediately after participating in combat meetings at Kingsfort, his thoughts were all concentrated there.

So while he ordered the soldiers to disband, he had no intention of resting, wanting instead to await news from New Town.

The northwesterly wind was blowing tonight, and the direction was just right, raising Montekucoli's hopes of hearing good news from New Town.

Meanwhile, upon receiving the order to disband, the musketeers in the trenches were overjoyed.

The "Rebels" harassment, once a night, sometimes several times a night, although repeatedly thwarted, left the Island Defense Force extremely fatigued. Even with rotational night duties, exhaustion was gradually accumulating.

Moreover, the Island Defense Force had to work during the day after night duties, leaving the soldiers physically and mentally drained.

So the news of being able to rest made the soldiers breathe a sigh of relief as they promptly formed up and returned to the camp within the Monastery, hoping to rest as soon as possible.

The unlucky ones who drew the night guard duty had no choice but to yawn as they stood guard in the trenches, isolated.

And just as the island's defenders were each resting, further upstream on the River Shijian, a few pitch-black rafts were pushed silently into the water, quietly drifting towards Magit Island.