Chapter 470: Battle of Silver Moon Island 2

In the years since Richard entered the Red Moon Plane, Harland Territory has been expanding its military, not only increasing the establishment of technical arms such as artillery and magic airships, but also building more magic ships and steamships.

After more than three years of accumulation, the number of Harland Territory's naval forces has now reached 7,000.

About 2,000 of the 7,000 naval forces are inland fleets, and the remaining 5,000 naval forces are active in the near sea.

Although Harland Territory has a large magic ship flagship that can sail on the ocean, because there is no long-distance hydrological data and unfamiliarity with the route, the Harland Territory's navy has not left the near sea and entered the ocean adventure in recent years.

Harland Territory has two major arteries, the Black River and the Samba River, but there are snow crystal fish in the Black River waters that return to spawn, and the navigation period is only half a year. Although the situation in the Samba River is better, the geographical location is further north, and the freezing period is as long as four months.

Due to the restrictions of climate and geographical environment, every winter, the inland fleet of Harland Territory has to go to the warm Xiaguang Port in the south to take refuge.

Xiaguang Port is located 280 kilometers south of Xinghui Castle. It is a settlement built by Harland in recent years.

This port city is located in the southern part of the East Coast Province and has a relatively warm climate. The harbor does not freeze all year round and is a natural harbor that can berth large ships.

After three years of development, the population living near Xiaguang Port has exceeded 8,000.

Today, a total of three port cities have been built in the coastal areas of Harland, from north to south, namely Haikou, Xinghui, and Xiaguang. Among them, the population near Xinghui Port is the largest. This city at the mouth of the Black River is the focus of Harland's operations and has a population of about 30,000. The populations of Haikou and Xiaguang are less than 10,000.

With the construction of the port city, Harland has also focused its development on the eastern region. In the past three years, due to the sharp increase in fiscal revenue and the reduction in the proportion of military expenditure, it has the financial resources to continuously build magic ships.

As of the spring of the 3280th year of the Dawn Calendar, Harland has launched nine magic ships, two of which are large flagships that use legendary magic cores as energy cores. More steamships were built, and the inland fleet had already launched 32 ships.

After seven or eight years of development, the number of watercraft in Harland is comparable to that of the Kingdom of Sith. Because it is equipped with a large number of magic crystal cannons, it is almost a dimensionality reduction attack compared to its opponents, and its combat effectiveness far exceeds that of coastal countries such as the East Coast and Sith. It can even defeat hundreds of magic ships of the Holy Glorious Empire by surprise.

Despite its very strong water power, the Harland Navy did not provoke a naval battle with its neighbors. In the past three years, the offshore fleet has been under the command of Sutton, training and familiarizing itself with magic ships while taking on transportation tasks to support the Red Moon Plane.

After Sutton returned from Hawkins Castle, Richard decisively issued an order, and the two major fleets of the offshore and inland rivers came out in full force, carrying the second legion directly to Silver Moon Island. The Harland noble coalition served as the second echelon, and only after the fleet won could it free up its hands to transport to the southern front.

In recent years, Sutton has traveled this route many times and has rich sailing experience. It took only three days for Harland to lead the navy to the waters of the Silver Moon Islands and found the patrol boats of the East Coast United Kingdom.

The Silver Moon Islands are located northeast of the estuary of the Oram River, only 120 kilometers away from the mainland. This archipelago was originally the territory of the Kingdom of Grant and belonged to the Earl of Silver Moon Island.

Twelve years ago, the Kingdom of Grant lost the naval battle, the Earl of Silver Moon died in the battle, and the Silver Moon Islands fell.

In the following years, although the East Coast United Kingdom suffered a lot on land and lost more than 100,000 square kilometers of territory, and the legendary knight Mark Dean died in the war, Silver Moon Island has always been controlled by the East Coast United Kingdom and is the forward base for the East Coast to invade from the sea.

There are more than 30 islands in the Silver Moon Islands, most of which are small and lack fresh water. Only three islands have an area of ​​more than 300 square kilometers, with seasonal rivers and a large amount of fresh water resources.

The main island of Silver Moon has the largest area, more than 8,000 square kilometers. The eastern part of the island is relatively flat, and the western part is mountainous. Silver Moon Island has been developed for many years and has more than one million acres of fertile land on the island. A large-scale seaport was also built in the east of the island, where a large number of supply ships were moored.

In order to maintain the sea transport line and protect these supply ships, more than 70% of the main fleet of the East Coast United Kingdom was stationed near Silver Moon Island, with the main force being ten magic ships.

After discovering the enemy, the East Coast magic ship immediately sounded the alarm and used the magic conch to pass the information to the rear.

After the alarm sounded, Harland's navy rushed forward, and the magic crystal cannons on the ship opened fire one after another, pouring a large amount of ammunition at the enemy ship.

Although there are attack arrays on the magic ship, the magic attack range is relatively short, and most of the magic is defensive magic, and the effective distance is about 20 to 30 meters around the magic ship.

And Harland's magic crystal cannon, depending on the caliber and the amount of charge, the attack range of the alchemical bombs fired is also different. Generally speaking, the range of the army artillery is about five kilometers, and the range of the navy artillery can reach up to sixteen kilometers.

Although the range of the magic crystal cannon is far less accurate than that of the land due to the bumpy ship, the range of 16 kilometers is enough to easily destroy the enemy ship.

The magic ship equipped with the magic crystal cannon is like a cross-era weapon.

In the naval battle, the magic crystal cannon appeared and immediately showed its destructive advantage.

Although the East Coast United Kingdom Navy was brave, it was still easily destroyed by the navy led by Harland.

After destroying the enemy ship, Richard immediately launched a landing battle.

Before the army landed, the magic crystal cannons still launched the artillery battle.

Each of Harland's warships was equipped with a large number of magic crystal cannons. Generally speaking, steamships are equipped with six magic crystal cannons, small magic ships are equipped with twelve magic crystal cannons, and medium magic ships are equipped with twenty. The two large flagships are equipped with more than sixty magic crystal cannons, and the range of the twelve main guns on each flagship is up to sixteen kilometers.

Harland's naval fleet has two large flagships, three medium magic ships, four small magic ships, and thirty-two steamships. The fleet is equipped with up to four hundred and twenty magic crystal cannons. The number of gunners operating magic crystal cannons exceeds three thousand.

If this batch of magic crystal cannons is placed in the army, it is enough to be reorganized into eighty artillery squadrons, expanding the artillery in the army by more than half. From this aspect, Richard's emphasis on the navy can be seen.

Not counting the money spent on building ships and training sailors, the gold coins invested in equipping the navy with more than 400 magic crystal cannons alone have exceeded one million.

If it weren't for the industrial capacity and fiscal revenue of Harland Territory, Richard would not have been able to build so many warships like dumplings.

More than 40 warships were lined up in a row, and each salvo fired 200 alchemical bombs. Such a high-intensity bombardment immediately caused casualties to the East Coast defenders.

Although the East Coast United Kingdom has more than 10,000 troops left on Silver Moon Island, and there are also strongholds such as castles. However, the lack of coastal defense artillery and the lack of means to deal with magic crystal cannons caused the Silver Moon Island defenders to passively take the beating. They only held on for half a day, and the Harland Territory Army had not landed yet, and the defenders had already collapsed.

According to statistics after the war, Harland Territory had less than 100 casualties and wiped out the Silver Moon Island defenders.

Most of the casualties of Harland Territory soldiers came from the pursuit war.

After conquering Silver Moon Island, Harland Territory seized a large number of supply ships.

These supply ships are basically traditional wooden sailing ships, which have a small load capacity and basically no autonomous navigation ability. Relying on wooden sailing ships to sail in the Dawn Plane is very dangerous. Not to mention the terrible creatures such as deep-sea monsters, even if you encounter low-level monsters and fishmen in the ocean, you can easily sink and overturn the wooden sailing ships. Only under the protection of the magic fleet can wooden sailing ships sail in the near sea.

Compared with wooden sailing ships, steam ships made by Harland are safer. Steam ships are not only equipped with magic crystal cannons, but also have steel plates on the outside of the hull. The hull strength is far greater than that of wooden sailing ships. Because steam engines are used as power, the speed and flexibility are better than sailing ships. When sailing in the near sea, as long as you don’t encounter deep-sea monsters, you can deal with most dangers.

Despite this, Richard did not dare to let the steamship sail alone, let alone let the steamship stay away from the coastline.

The seizure of supplies from the East Coast Army greatly reduced the supply pressure on Harland’s army.

Silver Moon Island is a supply base for the 200,000 troops on the East Coast. The stored food and supplies are enough for Harland’s 20,000 troops to eat for three years. After capturing Silver Moon Island, Richard no longer needed to mobilize ordinary supplies such as food, salt, cloth, and wood from the rear. The more critical point was that he successfully cut off the supply line of the 200,000-strong army on the East Coast.

Through inventory statistics, Lord Harland seized more than 80,000 tons of food, tens of thousands of cotton cloth, more than 100 tons of salt, and more than 18,000 prisoners on Silver Moon Island. Among them, 15,000 were sailors on wooden sailing ships, and there were only 3,000 soldiers. In addition, Silver Moon Island has a population of more than 300,000, and 99% of these people are serfs, who were originally the property of the Earl of Silver Moon Island.

Lord Harland made a fortune on Silver Moon Island, and the East Coast United Kingdom was in danger of being defeated on all fronts.

After receiving the information that Silver Moon Island had fallen, the 200,000-strong landing army of the East Coast United Kingdom immediately fell into chaos.

The East Coast Army only had enough food for 20 days on the front line. Now that the retreat was cut off and the naval fleet was completely wiped out, it immediately fell into an extremely dangerous situation.

Seeing that the whole army was about to be annihilated, the East Coast Army began to struggle desperately and launched a crazy attack on the Grant Kingdom Army, hoping to break through the defense line, enter the core area of ​​the Grant Kingdom to plunder, and survive by fighting to support the war.

The East Coast Army began to fight desperately. For a time, whether it was the Four Eastern Marquises or the Royal Guards Corps, the casualties suddenly increased. In just three or four days, the casualties of the defenders exceeded 14,000. The casualties of the attacking East Coast Army exceeded 30,000.

Such a crazy attack put heavy pressure on the Four Eastern Marquises. However, they knew in their hearts that the East Coast Army was already desperate. In order to withstand the enemy's last madness, the Four Eastern Marquises took out their accumulated foundation. In order to protect their family and property, the backbones under their command also fought desperately and blocked the enemy on the front line.

Unable to defeat the enemy head-on and the logistical supply was cut off, the remaining 160,000 troops on the East Coast were suddenly in a dilemma.

The forward attack caused heavy casualties and failed to break through the enemy's defense line. It was also difficult to open up the supply line backwards because of the lack of magic ships.

With 30,000 casualties, they temporarily lost their offensive capabilities. They had no magic ships to retreat, so they could only wait for death on the beach. They were unable to advance or retreat, which put this army of up to 160,000 people on the verge of collapse.

After barely holding on for more than ten days, when the food ran out, part of the army collapsed, and part walked out of the camp, surrendered their weapons, and surrendered to the Kingdom of Grant.

Grant had fought with the East Coast for more than ten years. After five battles, he finally defeated the East Coast United Kingdom Navy and wiped out one front and ten corps of the East Coast.

After selecting the captives, Harland and Grant carefully selected 60,000 elites from the captives. The Grant royal family, the Harland family, and the four marquises in the east each selected 20,000 captives and incorporated them into their own legions.

Then after three days of rest, the three legions of the Grant royal family chose to return to support, two to reinforce King Roger, and one to the empty Nolan.

About 20,000 captives were recruited, and the number of the three guard legions was seriously exceeded, with a total number of 25,000 to 26,000 in each legion. More than 50,000 troops reinforced the front line. Although the captives were somewhat unstable and the reinforcements had just experienced a major battle, King Roger finally stabilized the situation and quelled the rebellion launched by Elena and the Bloody Horn.

Although the rebels were defeated and the rebellion was quelled, the Grant royal family could not keep the backbone of the Venus family. Under the cover of the legendary magician Elena and the legendary knight Charlemagne, the backbone of the Venus family successfully withdrew from the battlefield. For the Grant royal family, the failure to deal a heavy blow to the Venus family was ultimately a hidden danger.

After completely annihilating the East Coast United Kingdom Maritime Front, Richard led the Eastern Four Marquis Coalition and marched south in two routes. The Four Marquis Coalition had 80,000 troops and marched south by land to reinforce the Southern Earl. Richard used the leapfrog tactic and once again relied on the navy to attack the coastline of the East Coast United Kingdom.

Although the Eastern Four Marquis Coalition was closer and only 400 kilometers away from the front line, Harland's army, with the power of sea transportation, crossed a distance of more than 600 kilometers in just two and a half days to attack the stronghold south of the Andorra Mountains.

With the power of the magic crystal cannon, Harland's army easily captured several coastal castles and pointed directly to the south of the Mara River.

Harland's army stirred up the storm behind the Andorra Mountains. The Eastern Four Marquis and the Southern Seven Earls joined forces to break through the natural defense line of the Andorra Mountains in one go.

In an instant, the Andorran army of the East Coast United Kingdom was also attacked from both sides, and its retreat was cut off.

The Andorran army planned to break the encirclement and break out from the southwest, but was surrounded and annihilated by Richard and the coalition of the nobles of the Grant Kingdom.

In this war, the Grant Kingdom paid a price of 30,000 troops and completely annihilated the two armies of the East Coast United Kingdom. In just a dozen days, the East Coast lost 300,000 soldiers and was on the verge of extinction.