Seventeen, Force the enemy to engage in battle

  Seventeen, Force the enemy to engage in battle

  Under the scorching sun of August, the loud bugle calls, the high-pitched singing voices, and the rumbling sound of pouring stones along the Blue River formed a magnificent and majestic symphony. Standing on the city wall, one could see the surging crowds below, as the entire area around Glorious City had turned into a massive construction site. Tens of thousands of laborers, several thousand soldiers, over a dozen mages, and countless skeletal frames were all working tirelessly to block the Spirit Fleet's violent assault.

  The narrow waterway was cluttered with a jumbled mass of things including boulders, artificial reefs, sunken ships and naval mines, enough to make even the most skilled sailors turn back. In the middle, several iron chains laden with explosives were stretched across the river, which would detonate immediately if broken.

  On the mainland of the south bank, spider web-like trenches and simple artillery emplacements have taken shape, at the cost of a dozen or so deceased spirit mages and transformation mages who are exhausted and demanding higher pay. More than 300 large and small caliber cannons have entered the positions painted with huge anti-magic arrays, and a group of amateur gunners who have hardly fired a few shots in their lives are nervously surveying. Box after box of energy potions, magic-breaking bullets, and incendiary glue seem to be worthless, piled up all over the ground. Brand new breech-loading rifles and repeating rifles were issued to every soldier. Even the civilian workers got old-fashioned muskets that had been eliminated.

  In the midst of a frenzied and cost-ignoring massive procurement and swift but expensive transportation, Glory City's military strength was greatly enhanced overnight, but also left the New Enoch State Council with thirty years of debt that would not be cleared. Ludwig had become thoroughly numb to the astronomical figures on the growing bill, seemingly determined to leave the debt to his successor.

  Ferli naturally made a fortune from hosting the procurement, just the kickbacks alone were enough to match Charlotte's annual dividend. Don't be surprised, most mages are extremely selfish and never miss an opportunity to make money, unless the risk and reward are not proportional. Ferli, who is always thinking about embezzling student union funds, is no exception. Unfortunately, most of this money still exists in the form of IOUs, and it's feared that it will take longer than winning this war to turn them into gold coins.

  Relying on the new sharp weapon, the defending army successfully repelled a wave of enemy warships' attack, blocking them upstream, which greatly boosted the morale of the entire army. However, the spirit army also set up camp on the upstream shore, and now both sides are racing against time. The spirits need to gather their forces and rebuild their command system, while humans need to further strengthen their fortifications and train their soldiers. The battlefield is temporarily calm.

  "The sprite forces have already gathered fifteen ships." Ludwig observed the distant and crude sprite camp with his telescope, "The number of people should have exceeded one thousand." He put down the telescope, "Almost all are pure-blooded sprites, half-sprites are rare. With our current military strength, defense is still possible, but attacking would be very dangerous, and it's impossible to fight a melee battle. But if we wait, the enemy's numbers may increase to three thousand or more, so we need to think of a way to make them attack first."

  On Ludwig's side, there were 6,500 troops, with reinforcements arriving from all over the place, and more than 10,000 armed civilians who could provide assistance. Dealing with a thousand enemies seemed easy, but in reality, if the opponent was a pure-blooded elf, then even with ten times the manpower, humans would definitely be on the losing side in close combat, let alone the fact that the army of Glorious City was almost entirely composed of inadequately trained and inexperienced new recruits.

  The elves appear to be slender and weak, but beneath their frail bodies lies a combat potential that is unimaginable for humans who are accustomed to using firearms. Even the most elite imperial regular army often has to retreat in the face of elven soldiers' swords. They can shoot arrows at distances farther than bullets and possess rich combat experience accumulated through their long lifespan, often accompanied by several practical low-level spells. The only regret is that elves have a low birth rate, population growth is slow, and they cannot compete with humans on the battlefield in terms of numbers; otherwise, the war situation would have been one-sided long ago.

  "With our firepower, there shouldn't be a possibility of close combat. Moreover, to force them to give up their plan for a prolonged standoff, we also have something prepared." Charlotte said reassuringly, while giving Filis a glance.

  With a nod from Ferri, two massive golems immediately rumbled forward to the front line, carrying a thick and large cannon barrel on their backs, with complex magic patterns engraved on it. On a previously cleared piece of land, one golem crouched down with the cannon barrel as a gun mount, while the other golem carefully loaded the propellant package and a silver-glinting shell into the muzzle.

  "This is the Arsenal Factory's experimental *Pound Magical Amplification Cannon, which is expected to have a range of two miles. Chief of Staff Taylor had specially made giant explosive shells for it, and today we'll let those elves on the other side test them out..." Charlotte hadn't even finished introducing Ludwig when a massive explosion sent him tumbling into the mud."

  "Boom!"

  "Whoosh——" The shell dragged a long tail sound, crossed the sky, and finally landed on the outer wall of the Spirit Camp, bursting into a cloud of smoke, followed by another explosion, with countless shrapnel flying out in all directions.

  "Ah, off target." Ludwig was about to put away the telescope when he noticed something off, "Why is the smoke green? Hmm, what are they doing?"

  In the field of vision, a large area centered on the shell's landing point was shrouded in yellow-green smoke. The spirits were running around in terror, and several mages seemed to be dispersing the smoke, but the efficiency of dispersion was clearly far from enough, and the smoke was still expanding.

  "What is that?" Ludwig was still somewhat incredulous, despite having some inkling.

  "Six hundred rounds of silver bullets infused with the Stench Cloud technique!" Phil didn't seem to have any qualms, "Those guys are guaranteed to be smoked out today. To make sure they sleep stinking tonight, I've prepared two more shots."

  Ludwig rubbed his nose and thought that this little girl really had no ladylike demeanor, actually thinking about these stinky things.

  "In addition, I've also produced stink bug bombs, flea bombs, cockroach bombs, fly bombs and so on. Anyway, their ships can't hit this place due to the angle, so tonight let these guys have a taste of the fresh stuff!" Philmore rubbed his palms together, feeling very excited about being able to relive the legendary pranks.

  It seems that the place needs to be thoroughly cleaned up and pests eliminated in the future. Ludwig looked at Ferry, who had already become a demon figure in his mind, and then looked at the distant elf camp, thinking to himself.

  ****

  When another shell full of stink bugs and fleas came flying, the exhausted spirit mages and pastors couldn't help but feel an urge to cry.

  Idril and his men are still on the road, harassed by guerrilla forces, while those gathered under Glorious City are naval personnel who left earlier. These guys don't belong to each other, they just happened to be blocked together and temporarily cooperate.

  Originally, the spirits had prepared various magical protective measures when they set up camp. As long as it wasn't a saturation bombardment, it was impossible to destroy the protective barrier of the camp. However, the plague of insects and stench assault were not something that magic could deal with, even if they fell outside the camp, they would still cause harm.

  The stench can be dispelled with air purification or gust spells, but those damned little bugs are too detestable. They're neither undead creatures nor part of the evil camp, and divine magic has a hard time eradicating them. The despicable humans even sprinkled large amounts of insecticide in front of their own camp, forcing these small things to crawl towards the spirits' side. But the spirit army, which lacks everything, doesn't have enough insecticide available.

  The law masters and pastors tried every means, but the speed at which the insects decreased was still far slower than the speed at which they increased. The military camp was about to become a pest breeding center, and all the elves were pest feed. This was more unbearable for the naturally clean-loving elves than death itself.

  Facing the human pest and stench offensive, the best course of action would be to retreat upstream for a while, leaving the enemy's artillery range. However, now that autumn has begun, the wind direction is the same as the water flow, from west to east, from the mainland to the ocean. The fairy sailboats can only move with the wind, and cannot go against the current.

  It's even more impossible for everyone to return to the ship. Without a shore-based sentinel, what if the enemy sends frogmen to install explosives or simply pushes artillery over under cover of night? There's no better target than an immobile warship under the sky.

  "Can't take it anymore!" an officer yelled, clutching his flea-bitten head. "Board the ship! Board the ship! We're charging over right now!"

  With the officers leading, the sailors who had been enduring for a long time rushed up, cursing the detestable human beings and fleeing quickly from the camp. A small number of steady faction also boarded the ship under the protest of their subordinates in disorder.

  "It's finally started." Ferry smiled as he put down the telescope and said to Ludwig, "Your Excellency will soon find that this time the parliament's expenses are absolutely worth it!"