CH 155 Bloody Rose

The light blue mist of the early morning seemed to be dissipated by this thunderous roar in an instant, and all the birds in the woods flew up at the same time, the flocks of birds screeching in the sky that was about to dawn.

The Legrand soldiers had blown the death horn that was to reap life.

"What is that?"

Tarry heard Duna, the subordinate next to him, asking in horror. Their ears were filled with the loud noise of artillery fire, and flames lit up in the shadows of the valleys and bushes on both sides.

Iron bullets came through the air, and while the knights tried their best to control their horses, they raised their shields to avoid this strange attack. The whinnies of war horses and the screams of knights mixed together, and the entire narrow valley was in chaos. The Eternal Knights fell from their horses one after another, and one after another blood splashed in the pungent smell of sulfur and saltpeter.

"They accepted the temptation of the devil! These heretics!"

Someone in the Eternal Knights roared in horror.

The sky was dark blue, metal iron bullets shot down from the woods with a huge whistling sound. Sturdy plate armor, exquisite and expensive chain mail, in front of these things that made loud noises, were more fragile than the knights imagined. They swung their swords in a vain attempt to fend off attacks from both sides of the valley.

"Holy Lord, Legrand's hand cannon...is that still a hand cannon?!"

Tarry couldn't believe his eyes and judgment.

Hand cannons, like cannons, have sporadically appeared on the battlefield earlier. Tarry had also seen hand cannons in the hands of military traders along the coast of the Hopeless Inner Sea. But the hand cannon, which was nearly one meter long, was only regarded as a "novelty" by the nobles at that time.

Holy Lord above! Weren't hand cannons inferior to longbows and crossbows on the battlefield? Everyone knew that it was useless except to scare the enemy!

However, right now, the hand cannons appearing on both sides of the valley showed a completely different side from the previous impressions. Tongues of flame spewed from the muzzles of those clumsy guns mocked by traditional knights, and with each flicker of fire, the knights fell one by one.

The muzzle flames illuminated the faces of the Legrand soldiers lying in ambush here. The lines on each of their faces were etched like iron and steel. After the soldiers in the front row fired the first round of iron-lead bullets, they immediately retreated to the back to make room for the soldiers in the second row.

The projectiles were intertwined, forming a tight fire net.

It was not that the Eternal Knights, whose retreat route was blocked by giant trees, didn't organize the knights to launch a counterattack charge, but they were greeted by cold iron bullets accompanied by loud noises. The sound of hundreds of hand cannons firing together almost pierced the eardrums. The horses were more afraid than humans of this kind of nightmarish attack that they had never seen before.

Tarry had to shout to get everyone to dismount and gather together. With the help of the horses and the corpses of comrades-in-arms, they held up shields to form a defensive circle.

Almost all the Eternal Knights subconsciously stretched out their hands and pressed the cross symbol coat of arms on their chests. These soldiers who had launched cold-blooded and cruel massacres against heretics time and time again almost lost their senses in fear at this moment.

Except for Tarry, almost everyone firmly believed that the Legrandians must have accepted the invitation of hell and the devil. Only with the help of devils, could they use terrifying and evil means to transform the hand cannons that were originally decorations on the battlefield into hideous death scythes.

"The accuracy is still too bad."

The Rogers brothers, who were identified by the Eternal Knights as "complicit with evil", and Mr. Raul, the head of the military design department, stood on high ground with a wider view.

Mr. Raul was holding witch glasses, and the brothers Rogers were writing and drawing with pen and paper.

Mr. Raul clearly observed the battlefield in the valley with witch glasses.

Legrand's first military industrial department moved out of hell before the official war between hell and the angels. Despite the help of the skeletons, the military-industrial sector was established in too short a time. For a limited time, their improved hand cannons and cannons were only able to arm a small group of elites.

"The barrel of the gun is not stable enough, and the trajectory of the bullet is difficult to grasp."

While roughly judging various data, Mr. Raul quickly pointed out the shortcomings of the current batch of gunpowder weapons.

"The No. 3 gunpowder you newly developed is less stable than the No. 2 gunpowder, but the hand cannon that uses the No. 3 gunpowder as a filler is 10% more powerful than the No. 2 gun... the 'Lizard' hand gun exploded once, there is a problem with the arc of the barrel..."

While the head of the military design department and the two chemist brothers Rogers, observed the bloody battlefield and frantically jotted down various stats, the King was also examining the entire battlefield.

The Eternal Knights were indeed the elite knights of the Holy Court. They quickly used their horses and the corpses of their companions to build a temporary protective wall for themselves. Coupled with the resistance of the shield, the power of the hand cannon, which had not been completely improved at this stage, had obviously begun to decline.

Regarding this result, the King knew it well.

The current hand cannons were not enough to cause truly terrifying damage on the battlefield. In fact, if the valley was not too narrow, the front and back retreats were cut off by the King first, and the Eternal Knights were forced to gather together in large numbers, becoming a natural target that even the blind could hit, then the hit rate of the hand cannon would drop by half.

Unless after a longer period of research, the hand cannon was officially transformed into a more convenient gun, the damage value of a single weapon in this era was actually lower than that of a bow and arrow. However, even the most primitive hot weapons have natural advantages that cold weapons could not match.

After the arrow was aimed at the enemy, unless each arrow could directly hit the enemy's throat like the Kriyan archer, killing them on the spot, it would take some time to cause exhausting internal bleeding. However, when bullets made of iron and lead hit cavalry at close to the speed of sound, they could not only penetrate the hard plate armor, but also shatter the metal armor. The fragments of the armor would form new uneven wounds on the human body, making the knight incapacitated in an instant.

Watching the lethality of the hand cannon against the Eternal Knights gradually decrease, the King issued a second order:

"Fire."

The gunners who had received training for a whole month stood in front of a large-caliber cannon made of bronze. This was the only material they carried during this rapid march. Now was the time for this bronze cannon named "Bloody Rose" by the Head of Military Design to show its might on the battlefield.

The "Bloody Rose", which was supposed to be used for siege like a trebuchet, was used by the King in this valley ambush.

As the fuse burned out, the gunpowder in the bronze barrel was ignited, and the sound of the cannon that shook the mountains and forests sounded in everyone's ears. "Bloody Rose" was like an ancient beast, and this beast had stepped out onto the world stage today. It uttered its first roar full of fighting spirit towards the old age——and as if the entire mountain forest trembled at that moment, the leaves rustled down, the birds dispersed, and the people were all chilled down to their bones.

The bronze muzzle spewed out dazzling and eye-catching flames, and the heavy artillery shells jointly developed by the lunatics from the Military Design Department and Gunpowder Research Department smashed into the defensive circle formed by the gathering of the Eternal Knights, dragging tails of flames and gunpowder smoke.

The Eternal Knights holding iron shields didn't even realize what happened——

Their ears buzzed at the moment the cannon sounded, and their heads spun in dizziness.

They were almost subconsciously looking for the source of the roar of the ancient beast, and the moment they looked up, they saw the "shooting star" falling towards them with a trailing flame tail.

The "Bloody Rose" exploded the moment it smashed into the center of the crowd of knights.

Dust, fragments of iron armor, blood, human remains…

All these things were thrown high, as if coquettish and bloody roses bloomed in the valley.

What kind of lethality would a shell capable of blasting through a thick city wall present when it was aimed at a crowd?

Tarry didn't know the answer to this question before, but he knew it at the last moment of his life.

It was a horrific massacre like hell on earth.

The city wall made of flesh and blood was mercilessly torn apart at this moment, the shells exploded right in the middle of the crowd of knights, and the entire defensive line vanished in an instant. Where the shells fell, the ground turned blood-colored, and the people who stood there had been turned into fragments of corpses, the ground dyed with blood ink.

If the previous hand cannons only terrified them, then the "Bloody Rose" blooming in the crowd completely destroyed the cognition and reason of the Eternal Knights.

They didn't even know what was going on right now. The courage and force they were so proud of became worthless at this moment. They felt that this was the Holy Lord's punishment for them!

These knights who were able to set fire to heretic villages and towns could no longer maintain their defensive formation. They either scattered in all directions like madmen, or threw away the swords in their hands, fell to their knees, and surrendered loudly.

Moore looked at the King.

The cannon itself and the shells were very heavy. They couldn't carry more this time when they rushed to the aid of Yoringshire County. The few shells just now were actually all the "Nightrose" shells they carried this time. In addition, after the Eternal Knights did not gather together as before and began to flee in all directions, the aiming of the hand cannon became a problem.

The sun rose from the horizon.

The sunlight passed through the woods and fell into the blood and dust mixed valley. 

Facing the defeat and surrender of the Eternal Knights, the King drew out the sword at his waist and pointed down.

The Legrand cavalry, who plugged their horses' ears early, appeared from both sides of the valley. Under the dazzling sunlight, they surrounded the Eternal Knights, which suffered heavy casualties. Whether it was the deserter who had no intention of fighting again, or the surrenderer who put down his sword, they all met the murderous cavalry and the cold blade.

War horses stomped past, and swords rose and fell.

This was the King's answer:

——Legrand refused to accept the surrender of the Eternal Knights.

An eye for an eye.

Blood debt paid by blood debt.