Chapter 19 Fire Burns the City (Part 2)

"What do you need us to do?" the director suddenly asked.

"Ah?" The attitude of the high-ranking official in front of him changed so quickly that the fire brigade captain couldn't accept it for a while, but he quickly regained his sense: "Check the house! The house here must be unsustainable, and we need to retreat two more steps. Neighborhoods, take out the median.”

"Everyone is here! Back - turn! Start - go!" The noisy and chaotic sounds outside the fire scene were covered up by the order amplified by the amplification technique. The headmaster directly gave the order to all the students through magic.

He has an aggressive nature and does what he says: "Tell me which houses you want to demolish!"

"I'll take you there!" The captain of the fire defense team nodded hurriedly and led the way: "I really don't have enough manpower. It's great that you can lend a helping hand. God will bless you."

"Hmph." The director snorted again, obviously not interested in such flattery.

Residents whose houses were located in the isolation zone designated by the fire brigade captain realized what the soldiers were going to do. The fire is still two blocks away! Of course they didn't want to let the soldiers demolish their houses.

"What are you going to do?"

"Why are you robbing our house?"

"If you want to demolish my house, step over my body."

"Why don't you pick up other people's things but pick up ours?"

"Soldiers kill people!"

Residents living in areas designated as isolation zones blocked the street and picked up door bars, kitchen knives and other objects, waving them to keep the military cadets away.

The captain of the fire brigade ran back and forth, trying his best to persuade, but no one was willing to listen to what he was saying.

Residents living inside the isolation zone have also come to realize that once the isolation zone is removed, it means that their houses will be abandoned.

Therefore, they also joined the team to prevent the demolition of the house, determined not to let the officers and students get close to the house.

Residents living outside the isolation zone are very supportive of the plan to demolish their houses, but they just watch the excitement with their hands folded.

"Go away!" The headmaster yelled with magical power, frightening the residents who were full of momentum just now. He couldn't stand the farce anymore: "Third year! Infantry Division! Get out!"

Winters heard the order and reflexively took a few steps to stand outside the queue.

"Whoever dares to stop me will be shot to death!" It was still the deafening voice amplified by the amplification technology: "If you want to pay compensation! Ask the city government for it!"

Winters also didn't expect that the minister would directly issue a "shoot to kill" order. In his opinion, the matter did not reach the level of killing people.

The residents of the port area obviously did not expect that this official would be so ruthless. They were fighting with each other. If they had not supported each other, they might not be able to stand. They no longer had the unreasonable momentum they had just now.

Winters stood face to face with residents who were protecting their houses, and he saw horror and fear in their eyes.

"Do we really want to take action?" Winters thought to himself. He clutched the shovel in his hand tightly and swallowed hard.

"Do it!" The head of the department yelled again.

Winters' heart was lifted, and his sense of responsibility to obey orders trumped all distracting thoughts. He didn't care that his arm was still injured, he picked up the shovel with both hands and smashed it towards the person opposite.

However, Winters deliberately used the wooden handle instead of the iron end. He thought to himself: "The wooden handle should not kill anyone."

A group of ordinary citizens were no match for these quasi-officers who had been trained for many years. They were quickly beaten until they cried for their parents and fled.

"Killing!"

"Soldiers kill people!"

"It was people from the military academy who set the fire!"

"Demolish!" the head minister ordered. He completely ignored what the dispersed residents were shouting and just carried out the original plan.

This time no one dared to stop him. The residents all turned around and ran home to move their belongings, trying to salvage some more belongings before the houses were demolished.

The houses in the port area of ​​Guitucheng can be said to be a typical example of letting nature take its course and not planning the city artificially.

Starting from the pier, the city grows naturally without any rules, with houses wrapped one on top of another like an onion.

There are houses of various uses: residences, warehouses, workshops, shops; houses of all materials: wooden, adobe, brick, stone; and houses of all ages. It's just a hodgepodge.

The military cadets fixed the rope to the wooden house facing the street, and with all their strength, they pulled down one wall of the house.

The fire prevention captain was very particular about the location of the isolation zone. The isolation zone was drawn along a smelly ditch. After the cadets demolished the house, the construction waste generated could be pushed directly into the smelly ditch, which greatly improved efficiency.

"Don't all gather here, we can't do anything! Stay here for the third year! For the first-year department, go to the east block! For the second-year department, go to the west block! Anyone who dares to stop them will be shot to death!" The head of the department commanded in an orderly manner.

"Montecucoli!" The director called another person's name.

"Here!" the director of the Artillery Science and Research Office responded immediately.

"Go back to the armory to get gunpowder and blow up all the masonry houses!"

"Yes!" The director of the Artillery Science and Research Office led a subordinate away without saying a word.

While all the soldiers on site were demolishing the house in full swing, a hoarse chanting sound suddenly came from the distance.

"Be in awe! Feel the fire of God's wrath! His glorious Judgment Day has arrived!" A mendicant monk wearing coarse linen clothes strode over holding a prayer flag high. The residents who were watching just now knelt down at his feet. , many people tried to kiss his clothes and shoes.

The mendicant monk held up the prayer flags with both hands and shouted loudly: "The angel of fire has descended on Sodom! This is the sacred fire to punish you for your daily sins! Repent..."

"Fuck you!" The director whipped the magic stick with his horse whip.

"Anyone who comes to help with the work! Each person will receive twenty large silver shields! Regardless of gender, age or child!" After dealing with the clergy who blatantly promoted defeatism, the head of the department recruited people from the residents who were watching the scene non-stop: " If you don’t help, the fire will come and your house won’t be saved!”

[Large Silver Shield: Refers to the large silver coin minted by the United Provinces Republic in 537 AD of the Imperial Calendar. Correspondingly, there is the Small Silver Shield. The ratio of the silver content of the two is 12:1]

Who will pay for it? That's definitely not from the military academy.

According to the director's thinking, "Go to the city hall and ask for it yourself."

This minister doesn't care how much trouble his words will bring to the Guitucheng ruling committee. What he is thinking about now is how to demolish the isolation belt quickly and efficiently.

Through coercion, inducement, and threats, the demolition brigade has added a large number of people.

The Sheriff arrived with the assembled Guitucheng City Guards, just in time for the City Guards to maintain security on the scene.

Two infantry brigades (with a full strength of 960 soldiers and 14 officers) stationed outside the city also rushed to the scene, and the army soldiers quickly got into the work of dismantling the isolation belt.

There were dull explosions and the sound of houses collapsing one after another. The war horses were put on simple yokes to drag down the houses. The house demolition project was being carried out in an orderly, tense and against the clock.

But plans never change quickly. From nightfall to now, the speed of the sea breeze blowing from the ocean to the land has been gradually increasing.

With the blessing of the sea breeze, the flames spread faster than everyone expected. The fire line is accelerating towards the isolation zone, and the demolition work of the isolation zone still has a large area left to complete.

"Sir, I'm afraid we are too late... we should set up the isolation zone two blocks further back." The fire brigade captain grabbed his hat in his hands with great annoyance and crumpled it into a ball of rags.

"I know." The director's attitude was still cold, but he was thoughtful and seemed to have some idea.

"Christian!" The director called a name loudly.

"Here!" The director of the Spellcaster Teaching and Research Office heard the summons from the head of the department and ran over from a distance.

"If all the spellcasters focus on using the wind control technique, can the wind direction in an area be temporarily changed?" The director proposed his wonderful idea.

"It is difficult for the power of a spell caster to compete with the power of nature." Teacher Christian felt that the director's idea was too whimsical: "Spell casters should use the power of nature to use spells, and cannot go against the trend..."

"I ask you whether you can or not?" The director didn't want to hear nonsense.

"Theoretically, it should be possible." Teacher Christian continued to explain: "But in fact, I think it should be difficult to do it with our current caster power. We don't have enough and strong enough casters..."

"As long as you can." The director only heard what he wanted to hear.

"I said it's possible in theory, but actually..." Christian quickly tried to explain that there was a gap between theory and reality.

"Doing something is better than doing nothing." The head of the department made a judgment: "Gather all the spellcasters on site, and I will tell you where to go in a moment."

Winters, who was immersed in demolishing the house, was suddenly called, and he noticed that the people called out with him were all spellcasting students.

All the spellcasters at the scene were gathered together. Instructor Christian repeated the order loudly: "As soon as you hear the order, use the Wind Control Technique with all your strength directly forward. No need to hold back. Remember! It is directly forward."

Winters understood the leadership's plan as soon as he heard it. He thought that even though his level of acceleration magic was so poor, he would be captured and used as a tool. This shows that the director is really treating a dead horse as a living horse doctor.

Later, the casters were taken to an area that had not yet been demolished. In order to distribute it evenly, some caster students were even arranged to stand on the roof.

Winters did not go to the house. He stood on the street and could already see the burning house more than 20 meters away through the smoke.

"Wind control, activate with all your strength!" An order came from not far behind.

After hearing the command, Winters kept the gesture of pressing his middle finger with his left thumb, recalling the feeling of using acceleration magic, and entered the spell-casting state with all his strength.

Scorching heat and extreme cold took turns torturing his "third hand," and it seemed like thousands of knives were cutting off his "fifth limb."

He could feel that the direction of the wind around him was changing. The wind blowing from the front gradually became smaller, stopped, and then turned into the wind blowing forward from behind.

Winters knew that the minister's plan was working, but he couldn't hold on anymore, so he tried to relax his mind and exit the spell-casting state.

But something frightened him. He couldn't leave the spell-casting state. In the past, I couldn't maintain the spell-casting state without concentration, but now I couldn't retreat even if I wanted to.

He even became paralyzed and lost control of his body.

To others it may appear that Winters is just standing at attention on the street, but in fact he is being forced to undergo endless torture. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. His vision went dark and he lost consciousness.

At the last moment before falling down, he saw a giant flame python rising into the sky.

Credible records of the use of black powder blasting and mining were written in 1627, but the true origin of blasting technology is unknown. Apparently people realized long ago that black powder could be used for blasting. For example, Urban was killed by his own cannon in 1453; the British Gunpowder Plot in 1603; and the siege of Antwerp in 1585, when the Dutch tried to use two large ships filled with gunpowder to blow up the pontoons. Therefore, it is not surprising that the artillerymen of the military academy know how to use gunpowder blasting.