Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Even the citizens and soldiers in Kingsfort, far away, heard the thunderous roar transmitted from upstream.

Even the Iron Peak County officers and men ambushed behind the river dike smelled the sulfur and gunpowder wafting in, akin to the breath of hell.

In the fortifications on the riverbank, Mason, who had been focusing intently on the Nulan Clock in his hand, desperately praying the delay devices wouldn't fail, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"My heavens! What a blast!" Even Gessa Adonis, seasoned in battle, was astonished by Mason's commotion. "Major, how much gunpowder did you actually use?"

Mason felt somewhat ashamed. "I don't know what effect blasting in water would have; there wasn't time to experiment. Just to be on the safe side, I used a bit extra. If all three delay devices had failed, we would have suffered a great loss."

"Failed? Didn't it explode loudly?" Gessa laughed. "Well done, Major. I reckon after this battle, you'll have a higher rank than that Vineta kid."

Mason felt even more guilty. "Actually... there was still a problem. The explosion occurred much later than anticipated. The delay devices are really too unreliable. I had thought at least one of the three would work; now it seems if even one worked, we were lucky."

"Enough," Gessa waved his hand dismissively, "No need to be hesitant, on the battlefield there's only victory or defeat, no such thing as luck. Send the signal, let the fleet advance."

"Yes." Mason raised his hand in salute.

On the river dike, the beacon fire, which had been prepared long ago, was immediately lit.

But in fact, there was no need to send the signal; that earth-shaking explosion was the clearest directive.

...

[Upstream of River Shijian]

No sooner did Samukinpu glimpse the flames than he rushed onto the deck.

"Beat the drums!" he shouted urgently. "Weigh anchor!"

The deafening sound of war drums and the explosion from afar resounded together over the river.

"Weigh anchor!"

"Weigh anchor!"

"Weigh anchor!"

The voices of officers repeating the command echoed across the water.

Seven converted warships from Iron Peak County, originally flat-bottomed barges, and representing the only naval force of the newly formed army, no longer lay hidden.

Sailors shouted chanties, turned the capstans, and amidst the sickening creak of wood, rusted iron anchors rose from the water.

One by one, oars emerged from the sculling holes on either side of the vessels, beginning to slap against the water's surface.

Amidst the rhythm of drums urging the men to row with all their might, Iron Peak County's fleet sailed downstream majestically and headed towards Magit Island.

Aboard the leading warship, Lannis, commander of the fifth battalion, stepped onto the deck to stand beside Samjin.

...

Meanwhile, on the west bank of River Shijian, an equally earth-shattering battle cry erupted.

A small silhouette leaped out from the river dike, crying out hoarsely: "Fight for the Blood Wolf!"

Countless voices echoed with the same fervent cry, as if the river dike itself were roaring:

"Uukhai!"

"Uukhai!!"

"Uukhai!!!"

The small silhouette lifted a sampan from the ground and charged first towards the opposite shore.

Behind him, as if emerging from thin air, hundreds of warriors carried large boats, small boats, and sampans, charging down the river dike, vigorously rowing towards the opposite bank.

...

Gessa, overseeing the battle up close, heard the battle cry from the First Battalion of the Iron Peak County Regiment, and huffed in anger, "They haven't arrived, and yet they can shout like this?"

"Well, it's a habit, hard to change in an instant," Mason tried desperately to smooth things over, "Next time I'll have them start shouting 'Fight for the Republic' instead."

"Why change it?" Gessa smirked slightly, "Once you capture Magit Island, feel free to shout whatever you like thereafter."

...

Magit Island isn't exactly near nor far.

To those onshore, the slow pace of Iron Peak County's small boats was exasperating.

But for the warriors of Iron Peak County, who had been holding back for several days, they were rapidly closing in on the opposite bank of the river.

The "caltrop" defensive line planted on the shoals by the United Provincials had already been blasted open with a gap four or five meters wide.

Around the gap, the caltrops, though not uprooted, were blasted into a jagged mess, leaning haphazardly like dog teeth.

A short figure took the lead, charging straight into the gap, seizing the beachhead, and then disappearing into the trenches.

Other warriors aboard small boats and dinghies, spurred on by the "Centurion," roared and charged toward the riverbank.

On the river surface, the few larger boats kept a considerable distance from the gap blasted by the demolition boats.

Firstly, because the larger boats had wide hulls and deep drafts, if there were broken stakes under the water at the gap, the big boats might get stuck trying to pass through.

Secondly, Mason, the Commissioner, had assigned the few larger boats more important tasks.

Each large boat had a cable trailing behind it.

To avoid capsizing the small boats with the trailing cables, the positions of the large boats were arranged at the two ends of the battle line.

On the large boats, the soldiers responsible for steering had to be careful not to graze other small boats while also avoiding being caught by the cables dragged by other large boats. The task was daunting, so each soldier was carefully selected.

So much so that there weren't enough personnel within Iron Peak County, and Mason had to borrow some skilled boat handlers from other infantry regiments.

Thus, the larger and supposedly faster boats ended up crossing the river slower than the small boats.

The short figure had already breached into the United Provincials' trenches, while the slow-moving large boats only just arrived at the caltrop defensive line.

But as soon as the large boats reached the caltrops, they sprang into action.

The soldiers standing at the bow finally got their chance to shine; they stood on the unsteady boats, skillfully casting lassos at the caltrops.

As they threw, they held two strands of rope in their hands.

Once the lassos were cast, they quickly tied the lassos on adjacent caltrops together, then fastened one end of the linked lassos to the cable dragged by the large boat, and the other end to the large boat itself.

After completing all this, a soldier on the large boat swiftly removed the lampshade from the stern's lantern.

On the West Bank River Dike, Tamas finally received the prearranged signal.

"Turn!" Tamas yelled the command, "Boys! Turn!"

Behind the river dike, out of sight of the island's defenders, the winch that Woods Frank spent days constructing began to exert its power.

The soldiers from Iron Peak County and Mont Blanc County raised their whips high, steeling their hearts and harshly lashing at the oxen on the winch.

The oxen plodded forward, and the huge winch began to turn slowly.

The thick cable first slid across the ground like a giant snake, constantly emitting a fine crackling sound.

At a certain moment, the cable suddenly pulled taut, and a "stick" with a slight arch soared out of the water.

One end of the stick was caught on a pulley on the river dike; the other end was connected to pointed stakes driven into the riverbed by the United Provincials.

Before the amplified power of gears and levers, the wooden stakes and chains the United Provincials were so proud of proved weak.

A series of stakes were uprooted one after another from the shoals by the winch on the opposite riverbank, like pulling out turnips.

Seeing the plan succeed, the soldiers on the large boats cheered enthusiastically.

"Next one! Next one!" Tamas on the river dike shouted anxiously, "Cut the chains! Cut the chains!"

The soldiers across the river seemed to hear the Acting Regimental Commander's cry or perhaps remembered their duty.

After a brief celebration, the second large boat moved in and began repeating the previous round of operations.

Meanwhile, engineers from each large boat jumped into the water with axes, clangingly chopping into the iron chains that hadn't been severed by the blasts.

On the other side, warriors from the second battalion lowered pontoons, goatskin rafts, and sealed barrels down the river dike as building materials.

They tied cables to rocks, threw them into the river as anchors, and secured the pontoons and goatskin rafts in place.

Then, they used planks and iron nails to connect the floating materials.

A simple floating bridge began to extend toward the opposite riverbank at a speed visible to the naked eye.

...

Meanwhile, on Magit Island, Colonel Raymond Montecuccoli, who was the first to arrive at the scene, was alarmed to discover that despite just starting, the situation on Magit Island was already precarious.

He needed to make a decision immediately.