Chapter 444 North Gate

The battle is over.

The southern city wall of the Rock Fortress was completely incapable of resisting the bombardment of heavy magic crystal shells after losing its shield protection. Facts have proved that when fighting against solid and rigid targets such as city walls, magic crystal shells have played a higher damage efficiency than the calibrator beam— —Sir Maryland thought that the fortress of rock would still have tens of minutes of resistance after the shields were extinguished, but it turned out that he had miscalculated the different effects of the cannonball and the energy beam: the wall lasted only sixteen minutes.

The heavy gate of the fortress has completely collapsed during the bombardment, along with the hundreds of meters of walls extending on both sides of the gate. The outer city behind and the inner city in the south were also damaged to varying degrees, and the military camps, armories and other facilities that were concentrated between the first and second city walls were razed to the ground.

This was a level of destruction that would never have occurred in a traditional noble war: Cecil's army ended the battle almost completely smashing the fort's defenses, leaving no stalemate and stalemate for those in the rock fortress. Room for maneuver.

After the shelling ended, the 1st and 2nd Combat Corps of Cecil, led by Knight Philip and Knight Walder Perich, began to advance towards the fortress, and reached the fortress that had lost its combat effectiveness in the evening. What the German knight lamented was that his army spent more time on the road to receive the results of the battle than it took to destroy the fortress defenses.

After the first and second legions entered the rock fortress, they encountered almost no resistance—in fact, there was no resistance at all. If I had to say it, a frightened pony suddenly rushed out of the ruins, probably in front of the soldiers. The only enemy right.

On the evening of Fire Moon 58, Ansu 736, the flag representing the Ansu royal family fluttered from the flagpole in front of the rock fortress castle, and the marks of the sword and plow of the Cecil family fluttered above this fortress with special significance.

Gawain's boots walked across the stone pavement of the fortress, which seemed to still be warm and trembling. On both sides of him were ruins and buildings that were still smoking. The fortress soldiers with frightened faces and smoky fires stood on the road. On both sides, when Cecil's flag passed in front of their eyes, these people prostrate themselves on the ground to show their submission.

"All are temporarily imprisoned in the dungeon below the castle. If there are not enough rooms, they will be imprisoned in solid buildings in the inner city," Gawain said in a low voice to Knight Philip beside him. Heal them - these people will be part of Cecil."

Philip stepped forward and saluted: "Understood."

The disarmed, gray-faced Sir Maryland walked beside Gawain under the escort of several Cecil soldiers. He heard what Gawain told Philip, and couldn't help but raise his head with a little in his eyes. Accident: "I didn't expect that you are still abiding by the noble spirit..."

"The prohibition of torture of prisoners has nothing to do with the so-called noble spirit,

Gawain glanced at the former commander. Although the other party was a respectable knight, he was obviously a traditional nobleman. "The 'captives' that I forbid to abuse include not only knights and nobles. "

Sir Maryland opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing, just lowered his head again.

Gawain looked at Knight Walder Perich on the other side, and he nodded to the old knight: "Take someone to inspect the entire inner city and the secret cellars under the castle, and search the entire city to prevent people from hiding. Get up, in addition, you must cooperate with Knight Philip to count the materials and houses in the city and report it in time. Don’t forget to emphasize military discipline during this process: no private booty, no plunder, theft, or concealment.”

Wald Perich gave a solemn chivalrous salute: "Yes."

The old knight knew very well that letting the Second Corps lead a team to search this fortress city was not only a kind of honor, but also a test-in this battle, the Second Corps finally became active as an official army, But whether these soldiers from the Kant area can become the long-term trusted troops of the lord, they must stand the test of military discipline after entering the city. At this point, the second corps converted from the original aristocratic private soldiers has to face. The test was no smaller than when they first entered the battlefield.

Afterwards, Gawain arrived at the castle area of ​​the Rock Fortress - this castle spans between the first and second city walls, in fact its main body is part of the second city wall, it used to be the most magnificent, Tall building, but now...it's less than two-thirds of the structure left.

The entire top floor of the castle and all attached tower buildings have been destroyed by the calibrator beam.

Cecil's flag had already been hung on the flagpole in front of the castle by the first team entering the city, and beside the flagpole, Gawain saw a slightly thin lady wearing a light aristocratic long dress.

Luo Penny?? Ge Lan stood there quietly, next to the loyal middle-aged butler, and behind the two of them, they followed the lady from Ge Lan all the way to Panshiling, and then from Panshiling to Panshi fortress, always. One hundred guards who are loyal and steadfast.

On the other side, stood the high-ranking ranger Solderling and the dozens of Iron Ranger warriors he led.

A shadow flashed quickly in the air, dashed to Gawain's side, and condensed into an amber figure, the half-elf lady raised her head smugly: "Hey, let me tell you, I helped hang the flag up. of!"

Gawain casually patted Amber on the shoulder (it doesn't seem appropriate to touch the head in such a formal occasion), then walked towards Luo Penny?? Glenn, after seeing the calm expression on the lady's face, he knew the other party's Revenge has been completed.

"Your credit is irreplaceable, ma'am," Gawain said earnestly. "Patty will be delighted to have you home safely."

He knew what the Countess was most concerned about.

After hearing Patty's name, Luo Penny's expression really flashed a little softness, she showed a faint smile, and bowed down to Gawain very solemnly: "Please allow me to salute you, this fortress is yours now ——Also allow me to pledge my allegiance to you again, the Glenn family will always be loyal to Cecil."

"I accept your allegiance," Gawain nodded slightly, "but not just to me or my family, but to a great cause."

Sir Maryland, who was next to him, saw this scene, his expression changed a few times, and he didn't know what complicated emotions he had in his heart, but in the end everything he wanted to say turned into a long sigh with complicated meaning: "Alas..."

He found that he couldn't even call the Countess a traitor - Ropeney's loyalty was unwavering, but she was allegiance to Cecil...

"Sir, don't be so busy sighing. Although the Rock Fortress has fallen, at least it falls into my hands, not the Eastern Rebels someday in the future," Gawain glanced at Sir Maryland. He said lightly, "Maybe you are full of regrets at the moment, but one day you will feel fortunate."

The main hall and military hall in the upper part of the castle have been smashed by the collapsed ceiling, and other parts of the area have also become precarious due to the collapse of the upper floor, so Gawain directly took the staff into the restaurant on the lower part of the castle, and regarded it as a temporary place. After the war, he took over the command and prepared to make further arrangements for the wartime control, reconstruction and repair, and follow-up management of the fortress.

Destroying the rock fortress is only the first step in the work. How to rearm the fortress and turn it into Cecil's strong northern gate is the more important thing.

Of course, prior to this work, Sir Maryland and all officer-ranked prisoners of war captured after the city was broken were sent to makeshift prisoner-of-war camps and placed in solitary confinement and heavy guard - Gawain gave them a better A good living environment, but he did not dare to relax at all in terms of security and defense. Although he did not think that Sir Maryland would make an escape from prison, he could not guarantee that the other's old subordinates would make any extra moves.

In his opinion, a chivalrous person like Maryland O'Neill may not be very popular in some aristocratic power circles, but it is easy to cultivate extreme loyal subordinates. In this case, he will It is necessary for all commander-level prisoners of war in the Rock Fort to be held individually and strictly guarded.

In the hall serving as the temporary headquarters, Gawain looked around the crowd—the two Cecil knights, Philip and Byron, the two Kant knights, Wald Perich and Margarita, and Solder. Lin, the commander of the Steel Rangers, Lady Ropeney Grant, and Amber, the guard, were all those who attended this meeting.

"Everyone, we are victorious. The Rock Fortress has become Cecil's northern gate, but before we immerse ourselves in the joy of victory, we need to know that we still have a lot of work to do. Soldrin, report what you have first. Bar."

"Yes," Solderling stood up, the high-ranking ranger's expression was serious, "The capital will soon know the news of the fall of the Rock Fortress - after the city's magical barrier is extinguished, the commander who stayed in the city immediately All the griffin messengers and pigeons were released, and a group of death squads rushed out of the city through the northern side gate. We only had time to intercept some of them, and the rest of the messengers had disappeared on the plains of the Holy Spirit. We did not destroy the griffin nest immediately. It was my fault."

"No, your manpower is limited. It's your task to give priority to destroying the Mage Tower, not to destroy the Griffin's Nest," Gawain interrupted Soldering's words, "The situation is as I expected, and the capital will definitely know about the Rock Fortress. The fallen - even if the defenders in the fortress failed to send the information out, the Earl of Pompeii would quickly detect the situation and send the letter immediately, there are still Griffon messengers in the earl territory, and there may even be magical messages."

Speaking of this, Gawain paused: "So, the first thing we have to do is to reinforce the northern city wall of the fortress and completely transform it - in fact, no matter whether the king can receive the news or not, how long does it take to receive the news? , the first thing we do is this.

"The original purpose of the Rock Fortress was to defend the Cecil family in the south, so its northern wall was much weaker and lower than the southern one - although the fall of the Rock Fortress illustrates an old-fashioned fortress that simply relied on walls and magical shields to defend against attacks. It has fallen behind this era, but they are still necessary for their existence. We must first thicken and heighten the city wall on the north side of the fortress, so we can even slow down the repair work on the southern city wall; Cover it with magic nets, set up magic crystal railguns above the city walls, and install calibrators in the future; finally, the fortress as a whole will also be transformed, and it will be built into a heavy industrial and military mixed fortress. The entire plain extending to the south of the fortress will be included in the scope of this fortress city..."

.. m.