The midnight in Jixia shouldn't be so cold, but the villagers on the defensive line at this moment are actually grateful for it.
Because the low temperature makes the armor on their bodies less stuffy, although many people still criticize the makeshift armor - especially the harsh edges and ill-fitting outline - after seeing it After the samurai tested it with big bows and waist knives, they also knew that these were indeed things that could save lives.
The materials used for armor are all found in daily life. The blacksmith in Hot Spring Village can at best hammer some shoe nails and sharpen a sickle. It is difficult to expect him to make the entire village's armor in two or three days. Because Zhangzhou is not a big iron-producing state, even the amount of iron ingots is not enough.
So in fact, these armors are all hardened soft armor - beeswax and bone glue are added to a cauldron to make a liquid, and then rawhide and scraps of cloth are added to the boil. This method is not the Crescent Continent tradition of fine workmanship, but the Rigal method recommended by Henry - that is, the "boiled leather armor" in mercenary light armor.
Beeswax and bone glue will turn into liquid state at high temperatures. Since cowhide is relatively rare in the Crescent Continent, more people actually wear cotton armor made of multiple layers of worn-out clothes at home. Soak it in liquid, boil it thoroughly, and then pick it up and dry it, and you will have a warrior like Kazuto. The defense capability is similar to that of high-grade patent leather armor.
It takes three months to make the large lacquer leather armor, and it takes a week for the lacquer to dry before continuing. If you pursue speed, direct exposure to the sun will cause the paint layer to crack, but this Rigal-style rough method can make more than a dozen pieces of armor in a few hours.
The tape-soaked vests stacked two centimeters thick were invulnerable. After encouraging the villagers with practical demonstrations, everyone dutifully put on these strong-smelling and crooked-looking but functional armors.
After all, after seeing the sharp teeth and claws of the ghoul that Henry carried back, no one wants to be disemboweled after getting close.
The sage used his knowledge to adjust to the highest efficiency and prepare for the war. However, the attack that came at midnight in Jixia still caught the villagers of Hot Spring Village by surprise.
The teenagers all ran away, and except for a few mature people, almost all the people left behind were old and weak. The youngest person on the entire defense line is 37 years old.
Farmers who were accustomed to going to bed early fell asleep at midnight due to the low temperature. Their already numb consciousness and the whistling wind masked the movement of the densely packed ghouls approaching. So they waited until the first ghoul climbed onto the roof and knocked down the man on guard, then they realized it and started screaming in panic.
The ronin, who was scattered on the defense line as the backbone of the grassroots, roared at the top of his lungs, but how could the peasants with no military literacy understand his instructions. They made a mess, some wanted to run back out of fear, and more people gathered together and rushed forward to save their neighbor who was knocked down.
As a result, several gaps appeared in the originally well-laid defense line.
The battle took a turn for the worst in just 10 minutes.
Originally, relying on the fighting power of these old and weak villagers and the temporary bunkers, as long as they could make good use of the city defense equipment to buy enough time for Henry and others' special forces to execute the decapitation tactics, they might still be able to win at a relatively small cost. .
But now the defense line has completely collapsed. There are loopholes everywhere and no one is guarding them. Except for a few ghouls being stabbed by the passive bamboo thorns above, it is literally "like entering an uninhabited land".
The twisted monsters easily crossed the low wall, which was only two meters high. They rushed up like rats and like a tide, and quickly widened the gap in the defense line caused by the running of the villagers. In just 10 minutes, the time gap expanded to the point where it could not be easily suppressed. At a speed of several heads per second, the ghouls quickly crossed the defense line and spread to the entire hot spring village.
"Where are those bandits!" The bandits who were supposed to act as cannon fodder on the perimeter of the defense line did not even scream as an alarm - or maybe they did, but were ignored by the villagers because they were sleepy. .
"They stole the boat and ran away overnight!" said one of the ronin who escaped from the defense line and reported back. Apparently they still underestimated the survival instinct of these low-level gangsters. Although they were sandwiched between walls and ghouls, they still had waterways. Optional. Because the villagers let teenagers flee in large numbers and Ryunosuke needed to preserve his strength, the manpower of the guards on the defense line was insufficient, and ships near the water side only occasionally patrolled.
Apparently these bandits took advantage of this and took the opportunity to sneak away with a batch of supplies.
Ryunosuke wanted to use them as cannon fodder to consume the ghoul's military power and serve as an early warning, and these gangsters were running around for days just to get enough food and drink. Some of the villagers below were yelling at them for eating inside and outside, because in their opinion, they should serve as cannon fodder for fighting after giving these bandits food. But from the perspective of the bandits, this move is not incomprehensible.
And the fundamental reason is the lack of manpower caused by the villagers letting the teenagers escape privately, which gave these bandits an opportunity.
Throughout the ages, the beginning of a war has always been the place where people's hearts are most intensely intertwined. The decisions and wills of different people influence each other, making nothing easily achieved with a simple layout. But now that the situation has been decided, will the incompetent people rush to find a scapegoat to start blaming? They must change their policy and attack immediately.
"Use the house as a stronghold to attack, first cover the frontline retreat and let them save their troops to regroup. Has the backup plan that sir mentioned before been completed?" Ryunosuke said to the sage, and the latter nodded? He turned randomly The head gave an order to his subordinates: "Blow the trumpet and abandon the wall."
"Woo-wu-wu-wu-" the long horn sound sounded? When the rogues who were still fighting on the wall heard this sound, they yelled and asked the villagers under their command to gather together. However, many of the villagers who had already dispersed had a large number of people. Part of them was entangled by several ghouls? They could only turn a blind eye to the helpless hands reaching out to them.
"The archers went to the roof to cover, and the cavalry came out." Under the commander's order, the well-trained ronin troops spread quickly with the help of torches and moonlight and climbed up to the roof to occupy the commanding heights? But in the dim night They can't tell the difference between ghouls and humans, and the strike efficiency of their bows is greatly reduced.
"These things have night vision?"
"Yes." The person who answered was our Luoan girl? Although she was not completely sure that these ghouls were the same as the original ones, it was obvious from their unimpeded performance that they also had the ability to see in the dark.
After dark, human vision is greatly limited and combat effectiveness is severely reduced. The attack of these ghouls at midnight may prove that their commander Saburo still has the ability to fully plan operations-but this may not be just a bad thing.
"Infantry, passive defense."
"Archers, load up the rockets." Ryuzosuke gave the order in a calm tone: "Sign up the houses on the left and right sides."
"Sir, that's my home——"
"It's time to worry about this! If people are gone, nothing will be lost." The farmers shouted in all directions. This did not affect the former county magistrate at all. The thatched roofs were dry and flammable in the summer. The rockets ignited them easily. And the huge torch illuminated half of the sky, allowing the archers to distinguish monsters and humans from their outlines.
"Cavalry out!!" The precious cavalry units had to be thrown in at this moment? In order to preserve the strength of the front line, they launched a counterattack against the pursuing ghouls.
The war horses in Crescent Continent are not as tall and strong as Rigar's. In addition, due to the lack of vests, several horses were scratched to pieces in this head-on encounter. The blood-soaked horses' physical strength declined rapidly. Although they immediately returned to the infantry cover, the cavalry became weaker every time they were dispatched.
"Head count."
"Push out the stab car to block the road!"
"Archers, keep shooting, don't stop!" The adjutants issued instructions one after another. Wheelbarrows filled with sharpened bamboo and movable roadblocks transformed from bullock carts were pushed out and blocked the middle of the road. However, after crossing the wall at the narrow intersection and spreading into the entire village, the routes that the ghouls can travel greatly increase. The corridors between the scattered houses extend in all directions, which is simply not something that this small amount of manpower can hold.
Hot Spring Village is not a military town, so the houses are basically built randomly. Due to the large rice fields, only the part near the swamp has a relatively narrow entrance due to the existence of water. And this is where a group of people built a wall. At this moment, the wall defense line is breached and the ghouls gradually spread into this huge area, which will only become more and more disadvantageous for humans.
"Retreat to the hotel." After the headcount was completed, no more than one-third of the personnel on the defense line were successfully withdrawn.
The already stretched troops were in a more serious situation at this moment. Fortunately, they had a second choice. Manager Yazhi's hotel had a strong structure and was large enough to serve as a retreat fortress.
"Retract the archers!" the adjutant ordered loudly, and the archers on the roof quickly returned to the team with almost no loss of strength after consuming half of their arrows.
"All retreat!" They retreated from the center of villages and towns extending in all directions towards the hotel on the slopes. A few scattered ghouls on the way were quickly killed, but there were also villagers who couldn't keep up with the forced march and fell behind in the darkness and were knocked down and eaten. Food. They will definitely lose if they compete in an open field, but if they occupy key points, they still have a chance of winning.
"Tap tap tap tap -" The dense and messy footsteps of humans and horses sounded one after another on the hard ground covered with debris. The house fire ignited by the rockets behind them gradually spread and heat waves followed one after another.
"Crack, crack, crack!" The running ghoul waded through the middle of the harvested rice fields, splashing water in the darkness and following closely.
"Go upstairs and set up defenses at the window!" From the previous movements and the fact that he was returning now with wounds all over his body, the non-combatants and some ronin still stationed in the hotel quickly understood what had happened. Master Jian and others began to dig out the medicine cabinet to prepare for healing, while the sage, who was still at the door of the hotel, narrowed his eyes and observed the black tide of ghouls that gradually gathered at the door of the hotel like a thin tributary.
Bidige
"It's time." Henry said to Ryunosuke, and then they pushed out several wheelbarrows filled with barrels that had been placed near the hotel, and lit the fuses with torches.
This is a hidden card.
Since the hot spring village has hot springs in its name, it must have sulfur, a by-product of natural hot springs.
Gunpowder made from a mixture of saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal has been invented by Xinyuezhou a long time ago, but their formula ratio is biased towards exploding gorgeous fireworks rather than being used for killing.
The existence of a fireworks craftsman in the village was a surprise, but considering the products, it was expected. The summer festival was coming soon, so the craftsmen who planned to make a lot of money made many fireworks and stored them at home. The sage changed the recipe and mixed them with pebbles and put them into wooden barrels.
The ferrous lead gave off a dull spark, rapidly closing the distance as the cart was pushed downhill toward the ghoul.
The "cracking" fuse made a "pop--" sound when it reached the end of the burn. A second after the green smoke that was clearly visible under the moonlight came out, the entire barrel expanded.
"Bang boom!!!" Broken stones and other debris flew at high speed and tore apart a large group of ghouls in front of them, but this was not over yet. Since the pyrotechnics maker's inventory of finished gunpowder was still limited, other wooden objects What's in the barrel is actually combustion.
Gunpowder was originally named so because people discovered that it could speed up the burning process of flames.
Straw, peat, animal oil. Everything that can accelerate combustion is simply and roughly mixed together, combined with the cartridge arranged in the middle to expand the killing power.
"Quickly put it out!" Some of the flying sparks and stones even fell on the hotel. Fortunately, the roof was made of fireproof tiles, and the few that fell on the corridor were quickly extinguished.
But the rice fields and houses of villagers not far away were not so lucky.
The painless ghoul was burned to black charcoal and still tried to move forward. Along with the houses ignited by the previous rockets, the huts where many hot spring villagers lived for generations were reduced to ashes.
The villagers who had been comforting other people before that if their houses were gone could be rebuilt, everything would be gone if they were gone. They knelt down with a bang and looked at the burning rice fields and houses. Perhaps they had not clearly realized the disaster until this moment. No joke.
But even so this is not the end.
The explosion and flames killed at least a hundred ghouls, but they kept coming.
The beasts that lacked intelligence rushed directly into the sea of fire and were burned and fell down, but they still had a numerical advantage and gradually used their corpses to extinguish the flames in some places and successfully crossed over.
And their trump card has been played.
The explosion only bought them time to set up defenses in the hotel and weakened the number of ghouls to a certain extent.
Nothing went according to original plan.
The black tide has come, and although the number is much smaller, there are still three to four hundred ghouls that appear under the light of the sky.
The archers' arrows were half consumed, and at least one-third of the cavalry's horses were in a weak state due to injuries. Although the infantry ronin are still relatively well-preserved, they were also the most severely attrited in the previous battles.
The villagers who were supposed to share the pressure lacked military literacy and all the young people had fled, so their remaining combat effectiveness was almost negligible.
And the next battle.
It was a pure war of attrition, relying on the hotel as a base.
The hotel was built solidly, but it was still not a fortress. There are many windows and entrances on the first and second floors.
With the ghoul's pace, it would be difficult for them to even retreat.
A last-ditch fight is the only option.
But the hope of a comeback still exists - because the ghouls clearly target humans' sleepiness at midnight to attack, which proves that Saburo still retains his consciousness as a human being.
And as long as we are human, we will make mistakes.
"Huh-" Ryuzosuke glanced at Henry, nodded, and then took the torch from his subordinate.
He pulled up his hair, lit it with a torch to make sure his face was visible, and walked out of the hotel dignifiedly.
"..." The former magistrate said nothing, but the ghouls did not swarm him and tear him apart.
They suddenly dispersed like a raging tide encountering a rock in the middle of the river, and then Saburo came out with a few followers who were still human.
This snake-like man's eyes were bloodshot and he looked at Ryunosuke teasingly.
Like a cat looking at a mouse that has nowhere to escape.
- He took the bait.
