I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 279 Explosions on Both Sides

Alto was very distressed; he realized he seemed to have gone too far.

The plan to lure the enemy deep into their territory did not fail, but things went wrong in the final stages. The troops that surrounded Chris's heavy infantry suffered heavy losses and failed to complete their mission.

Surrounded by the enemy, with advantages in terrain and psychology, and outnumbering the enemy by more than five times... to be honest, General Otto never thought he would lose.

However, facts speak louder than words. In a battle where the Bohemians outnumbered the enemy and were well-prepared, they were indeed defeated. After an hour of fierce fighting, the arquebusiers, who were being bombarded by artillery and arrows, were the first to collapse.

Next came the phalanx of spearmen flanking them. They held out a little longer, but it was to no avail, and they soon collapsed, taking the reserves with them.

Faced with such a large-scale collapse, Alto tightened its reserves and did not launch it, because it would cause the collapse to continue.

As a result, while the reserves were in his hands, the Bagnian heavy infantrymen were running rampant in the Bohemian camp, causing destruction and killing people, which was something Otto had not expected.

You defeated my troops, yet you didn't retreat to regroup, rest your formation, or go back to reinforce your friendly forces who are being repeatedly attacked by swordsmen and light cavalry.
These heavy infantrymen are out of their minds. They've been fighting for an hour. Aren't they tired?

Believe it or not, the players weren't tired at all. In fact, after defeating the enemy, they were full of energy and glowing with vitality. They were giving themselves a shot of adrenaline and then scattered into the Bohemian military camp, killing and burning everything in sight...

set fire!?
Alto stared speechlessly at the thick plume of black smoke rising from a corner of his own military camp.

These lunatics actually dared to set fire to a Bohemian military camp in the winter. Aren't they afraid of burning themselves to death?

I'm sorry, the player who set the fire hadn't really thought about this issue.

Sensing something was wrong, Otto ignored the light cavalry and swordsmen fighting outside the camp and quickly found the nearest watchtower to climb up.

As soon as he got up there, he realized that the situation was really bad. Looking at the flames leaping around in the binoculars, Otto's knuckles turned white from clenching his fists.

Those heavily armored lunatics were actually setting fires. They even used long halberds to carry burning tent fabric, running around the camp like torch-bearing revelers, and the flames spread eastward towards the camp.

"Quickly, find the troops closest to the eastern granary and have them block the passage, preventing any enemy from getting close!"

He lowered his head and shouted loudly at the messenger below the watchtower.

"At the same time, notify the colonel of the Third Battalion to lead men to clear a firebreak within the camp, quickly!"

But the winter wind was faster than his orders. Before the messengers could find the troops whose whereabouts were unknown, the westerly wind, carrying sparks, swept across the haystacks in the stables, instantly creating a ten-meter-high fire dragon.

Inside the stables, the dry birchwood fence crackled from the high temperature, and flames spread across the camp area, weaving a crimson net along the tar-covered barricades.

"General! The main gunpowder depot!"

The adjutant standing next to the Alto suddenly screamed.

Otto looked westward following his adjutant's gesture, and his blood ran cold. In the southwest corner, three heavily armored figures were hacking at the iron locks of the warehouse with battle axes. At their feet lay the corpses of seven or eight guards, one of whom, a madman, still had a stolen wine bottle tucked into his waistband, flames climbing up his cloak along with the spilled wine.

"Where are the reserves?! My reserves... wait a minute?"

Otto's roar changed, but when he challenged his perspective and looked at the location of the reserve force, he suddenly discovered that the cuirassiers who should have been waiting seemed to be temporarily unable to move.

A large group of reserve soldiers in gray uniforms were rushing headlong into the reserve formation in blue uniforms, blocking the latter's attack route.

Seeing this, Alto was furious. As a veteran general who had seen countless battles, he could tell at a glance that there was a traitor within his army.

The discovery of the granary's location could be accidental, because by its very nature, a granary must be in a very obvious location, occupying a large area, and cannot be hidden at all.

The Bagnians didn't need to search deliberately; they could simply grab a soldier and interrogate him to find out the location of the granary.

However, the location of the gunpowder depot was absolutely a secret. Gunpowder was extremely important to the army. The Bohemian army had phased out most of its crossbows and bows, and more than 90 percent of its long-range firepower relied on muskets and cannons.

Without gunpowder, 90 percent of the Bohemian army's long-range firepower would be rendered useless.

Therefore, the gunpowder depot was located in a very secluded place, and its appearance was extremely inconspicuous. It did not occupy a large area and was a building that was half-buried underground. Only Otto and mid- to high-ranking military officers knew its location.

To maintain secrecy, the soldiers guarding the gunpowder depot only knew the weight of their responsibility, but had no idea what they were actually guarding. If the enemy did not know the exact location of the gunpowder depot, they would never have been able to find it accurately within the complex and vast Bohemian military camp.

These three heavily armored infantrymen are now heading straight for the gunpowder depot, clearly indicating they received advance warning. Someone must have leaked the information and led the way.

Before Otto could react, he led his general's guard to fight desperately. Suddenly, an explosion that didn't sound like artillery fire came from afar and attracted his attention.

Otto turned his head and looked through the binoculars, cold sweat running down the back of his neck and into the gaps in his armor... What he saw was Lin Ruoyu's audacious use of high-explosive flammable rockets to bombard Bohemia and his own allies.

"The commander of Prince Chris's army, has he gone mad? Isn't he afraid of being shot in the back by his own people!?"

Otto couldn't understand the enemy commander's choice. It was understandable that the latter wanted to eliminate his own swordsmen and light cavalry, and wipe out Bohemian elite infantry and mobile forces in one fell swoop.

But Bagnia's skirmishers are also elite troops, aren't they?
In any place and any country, the selection criteria for skirmishers must be that they are more outstanding than ordinary soldiers in marksmanship, subjective performance, and morale. Therefore, skirmishers are also elites and more valuable than ordinary musketeers.

Is the enemy insane with this indiscriminate bombing?

Before Otto could figure it out, the explosion behind him, loud enough to shake the watchtower, made the old general wail. He didn't need to turn around to know what had happened.

The main powder depot in Bohemia... exploded.

(End of this chapter)