our family is gone

Chapter 771 Welcome to...Hell!
The neatly dressed knights came out, wearing well-maintained full body armor with a metallic luster. Each of them put on a robe to distinguish their identity. They rode on the tall horses to give orders, surrounded by their entourage. They looked very majestic.

As the ordinary soldiers looked at the figure of the knight, their ambitions and desires grew stronger. They also wanted to make great achievements and become knights.

The ordinary people standing by were also overwhelmed with emotion when they saw this. Who could possibly defeat such a powerful knight?

The Baron is not good at fighting, but he is good at fooling ordinary people.

Although we are losing ground outside, the news is actually blocked. Most people don’t know what is happening outside. They only know that the advantage is on my side!
On the contrary, the knights looked very serious, and the baron returned to the mansion after watching the team leave. He no longer had the unyielding spirit he showed in front of others, and his expression was full of confusion and uneasiness.

The huge gap between ordinary people and barons perfectly illustrates what "ignorance is bliss" means. They have never been to the battlefield or killed anyone, but they fantasize about becoming the best by killing people.

But now they have no choice but to follow the knights into battle with great anticipation...

Most of the terrain in the area south of Hamlet is plains, and some environments are at most dense forests. Even if there are some mountains, they are just small hills, so there is no such thing as using the terrain to make a comeback, you just keep pushing forward.

But there was not a single main road, only a dirt road that was barely wide enough for two cars, and it was bumpy and uneven, pulling the troops forward into a long snake shape.

The artillery and baggage pulled by horse-drawn carriages on the road became targets for those guys, and the reconnaissance of both sides began to clash in the dark.

The Baron's men are not all useless. After suffering a few losses, they have learned their lesson. They choose to be familiar with the surrounding environment and attack with one strike, which is obviously a tactic to tire out the enemy.

The cavalry dispersed into small groups of three or four to guard against possible raids from the surrounding areas, and successively repelled the enemies who wanted to harass them.

There are not only enemies in the forest, but also many dark traps. It seems that the Baron has not given up any possible way to win during this period of time.

Many of them are mercenaries. After a brief interrogation, I found that their asking prices are quite high. It turns out that mercenaries only value money and not their lives.

However, these guys probably won’t get the money once they are caught. The seriously injured ones will be dealt with directly, and the slightly injured ones will be given simple treatment and their toes will be amputated. What awaits them next is a life of forced labor with no end in sight.

The advance speed of Hamlet's army was not affected by the harassment at all, and it was easily defeated when it encountered several temporary military defense lines head-on.

Finally, they arrived at the battlefield chosen by the baron in an unstoppable manner, a farm outside a town, which had obviously been temporarily reinforced in the past few days. Outside was a large tract of farmland formed into a flat land after the autumn harvest. Without even looking, one could tell that it was full of traps and was completely unable to accommodate the war horses.

Inside the farm were soldiers relying on buildings for defense. Compared to Hamlet's army who were rushing along the way, they were obviously in better condition, at least that's what it looked like.

Patton rode forward, with Leonard beside him. Neither of them was in a hurry to attack, but instead focused their attention on the farm ahead.

"They just spent a lot of money to arrange people to harass us along the way, and now they are backing off. It seems that they have no confidence."

"They want to rely on fortifications to fight back. It will be difficult to take down this farm. If the losses are too great, the subsequent battles will be troublesome."

The farm building has obviously been reinforced, and the Baron got the stacked bricks and stones from somewhere. It is obvious that he knows that your light artillery is weak in attacking, and he wants to consume it, or drag it into a fight inside the farm to exchange for Hamlet's artillery advantage.

"We can just abandon this place and head straight for the town to make a feint attack, forcing them to come out for a field battle. If they don't dare to come out, we can just take over the town. Without a way out, they will starve for a few days and then behave themselves."

"We can attack with fire. In today's weather, we can start a fire with just a little flame. We can sneak in at night..."

The two of them easily came up with several solutions to solve the farm problem, any of which could be implemented, but they did not choose these fancy tactics for one reason only: they were waiting...

Sure enough, after waiting for a while, the falcon that flew out from somewhere landed on the head of the warhorse under Patton's crotch. The sharp claws and the feeling of a foreign object caused the horse to shake its head subconsciously.

The falcon spread its wings again and hovered in the air, looking at Patton with intelligent eyes. The thing in its mouth fell into his hands, and then it flew away again.

He opened the paper, glanced at it, and then handed it to Leonard.

That thing turned out to be a map of traps set up on the ground in front of him, and he even knew the configuration of the farm staff.

It is obvious that one of our people has reached a high position, otherwise it would be impossible to get such a thing.

"Then let's do it!"

Leonard nodded in agreement, knowing that the time had come.

The several methods mentioned before were all better, but they did not have much time to waste on them, and launched an attack immediately after getting the map.

Of course, it is impossible for the cavalry to go up and explore the way. At present, no one is clear about the accuracy of the intelligence. Sending out engineers to disarm the trap is actually a violent trigger. There is no need to clear them all. It is only necessary to sort out a route leading to the farm.

The commander on the farm side is not surprised that Hamlet is able to deal with those traps, and it is not surprising that you disarm the traps, but why is it so accurate?
Isn't this right...

Once doubt arises, it will irresistibly erode their hearts. Only a small number of people have access to the defense map, and one of them may be among them!
"It's not surprising that the power of this world is not so simple."

A knight spoke up, reminding everyone that supernatural powers still exist. If this is indeed possible, then Hamlet's ability to recover quickly from his downfall should be inseparable from supernatural powers.

Could it be true, as the rumors say, that the ruins contain the treasures of the ancient empire? Was the dark secret the power unleashed by the divine weapon?

For ordinary people who are hungry and cold, pursuing basic living conditions and becoming a noble is their lifelong luxury.

But for these knights who live a wealthy life, their pursuit is at a higher level; greater strength and power are what they desire.

Perhaps as long as they defeat Hamlet, they can take away their secret... For a time, this became the tacit ambition of these people.

"Sir! They're coming!"

Hamlet's army would not give them time to fantasize. While disarming the trap, the simply modified shield cart was pushed up.

The so-called shield car is actually a logistics cargo cart with a few wooden boards added and covered with wet linen. Not only will it freeze into ice when the cold wind blows, but it can also protect against bows and crossbows and fire.

The knights looked out hastily and found that the other side was pushing a cart towards them. Their expressions tensed up and they started shouting in a hurry.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Archers, shoot! Don't let them get close!"

The reason they were so nervous was not because they were losing their composure, but because they had fought against it before and knew what this thing represented.

What was truly terrifying was not the shield carts, but the fact that behind them were not only soldiers, but also mortars that were pushed closer... This time Hamlet dispatched a hundred artillery pieces, eighty of which were cannons and the remaining twenty were mortars.

Mortars were used more often along the way, because most of them were siege battles and there were not many field battles. Even if there were small-scale battles, the artillery was gone before there was time to adjust.

Therefore, those knights were well aware of the power of the bombs thrown by the mortar, and began to adjust their layout.

"Gather those longbowmen, quick!"

"Have the others spread out and hide in the buildings. Get down when you see them."

"Archers, prepare to release their arrows!"

Don't think that those knights were really stupid, they just knew the power of artillery after seeing it, and realized that the range was only a hundred yards, so the only ones who could fight against it were longbowmen.

Compared to the popular flintlock rifles of today, which have an effective range of 100 yards, a maximum range of 150 yards, and a firing rate of two to three rounds per minute, the longbow's heavy arrows can even break through a knight's armor, so the longbow is still a powerful weapon in war in this era.

But not everyone can be a longbowman. Those serfs can't even pull the longbow. Only by training from a young age and with nutritional supplements can they withstand the consumption of training.

The arrows needed for archery practice are consumables. Even if they can be reused during practice, they will still be damaged.

More importantly, this industry requires talent, which raises the threshold.

The effective range of a typical shortbow and crossbow is only about fifty yards, and they can shoot as far as a hundred yards, but they have no power at all and their accuracy is uncontrollable.

Only those longbows can shoot beyond a hundred yards. When thrown at a forty-five-degree angle, the effective range can even reach a terrifying distance of three hundred yards, and a skilled archer can shoot six arrows in a minute.

Nowadays, the entire baron's territory only has a little over a hundred people, and most of them are personal soldiers trained by the nobles themselves.

"Fire the arrow! Fire the arrow!"

Amid the knight's shouts, the longbowmen pulled their arrows and shot them at the shield cart.

"Puff puff!"

Because of the wet cloth, the sound was muffled. The soldiers hiding behind the shield cart and pushing it could feel the sparse noises above their heads and the whistling of arrows flying past, but they didn't pay too much attention as they didn't penetrate.

But the next second, the sound of the arrow tearing through the air became strange. You know, they are all veterans on the battlefield, and they instinctively became alert and shouted.

"Watch your head!"

Everyone tried to hide under the protection of the shield cart as much as possible, and at the same time raised the wooden shield above their heads to protect their other companions.

However, they did not expect that the thick wooden boards of the shield cart were directly pierced by the thrown arrows. Some heavy arrows even hit the mortar, making a crisp sound of metal colliding, exploding a string of sparks and leaving obvious marks directly on the cannon body.

There were also other muffled sounds as the arrows pierced the ground and penetrated the wood. In any case, the shield cart could no longer provide them with shelter, and the horror brought by the heavy arrows was instantly revealed.

Not to mention that it was not just one wave, but a continuous rain of arrows!
Fortunately, at this distance there was not much power left to penetrate the wet cloth and wooden boards, and most of the arrows were blocked by the soldiers' own shields. However, some arrows still pierced the soldiers, causing casualties, and the number was increasing.

In the first wave of confrontation, although Hamlet broke the trap, this set of shield cars actually suffered casualties.

It turned out that the first wave was just the test shooting of the crossbowmen, followed by the shooting of the assembled longbowmen.

The appearance of the longbowmen did not surprise Patton, because the intelligence had been passed to him before the war.

A strong attack is not feasible. Hamlet's soldiers are different from the miscellaneous soldiers on the opposite side who would not regret dying. They are very valuable, and Patton dare not exchange their lives for them.

He sent the shield carts forward to lure out the longbowmen and find their positions.

And Hamlet's soldiers have a characteristic: they usually don't wear full body armor, but they have breastplates and helmets to save their lives.

These soldiers were also equipped with shields, so some of them might be injured, but as long as not too many people died, that's fine.

The same power comes at a price. The longbow is almost two meters long, and a lot of space is needed to pull it. Not to mention that it is a cluster shooting to form a rain of arrows, so they must show their heads!

In this era, longbowmen do have a strong advantage, but unfortunately they no longer have any advantage over musketeers, which can be trained and fired in three days.

Not to mention that my artillery can fire at a range of 500 yards, and the maximum range is 800 yards!
Soon after the longbowmen showed up, the roar of war machines broke out from the positions on both sides of the farm, which were set up four hundred yards away.

Those knights are not stupid, how could they not know about cannons?
This was originally an undefended farm, and the bricks and stones were only laid out in the past few days, so they were unable to surround the entire farm. Instead, they chose to reinforce the buildings, and then connected the buildings with brick walls, so the longbowmen were hiding behind that line of defense.

Countless bullets were fired into the farm without even giving them much time to react. Suddenly, a rumbling sound began to echo, which was the sound of bricks and stones breaking and flying.

Under the intensive bombardment, the brick wall could no longer withstand the impact and collapsed. It was then revealed that inside it were wooden stakes nailed into the ground, covered with soil, and finally bricks and stones were piled up outside.

Well, it was only three or four days, where did they get so many bricks and stones to completely stack them? They could only have resorted to trickery.

The brick wall collapsed, and most of the archers were frightened. Some were even injured by the flying wood and stone fragments. They completely lost the confidence they had just had to shoot arrows.

However, as several rounds of arrow rain accumulated into waves, the artillery shells also had a second round.

It was another exaggerated roar that woke them up. They turned around and ran away subconsciously without any orders, and some even threw away the longbows in their hands as a burden.

But unfortunately, the artillery shells made no difference and instantly tore the flesh and blood of those guys apart. The area was instantly splattered with blood and flesh, and broken limbs were waving in the air. The hearts that were thrown out of the body were even still beating.

When it fell, blood splattered directly into the blood stream. The ground was already covered with a mat of flesh and blood, and a strong fishy smell spread instantly.

This scene gave the enemy a great shock and told those who had never actually been on a battlefield a message.

Welcome to... Hell!
(End of this chapter)