Chapter 134 Death Fog
To produce a one kilogram alchemical bomb, the cost is 700 grams of blood steel, which is worth eight silver coins and twelve copper coins. Three hundred grams of black powder is worth five silver coins and sixteen copper coins. In addition, it requires a magician to invest four hours to draw magic runes.
Even including the labor of making bomb casings and black powder, apart from the magician's time investment, the cost does not exceed two gold coins.
Although the alchemy bombs sold by the Heart of Elements are more powerful, their price is as high as one hundred gold coins. The price-performance ratio is not comparable to the magic bombs produced in the Harland territory.
Before leaving for the expedition, Richard had a premonition that this war might encounter trouble, so he stored a lot of war supplies in the bottle of starlight in advance. This includes alchemy bombs.
There are only a total of 500 alchemical bombs stored in Harland's territory, all of which are stored in a separate underground warehouse in Fort Sophia.
This time Richard went on an expedition, carrying 300 alchemical bombs, hidden in the bottle of starlight.
Opening the bottle of starlight requires reciting a special incantation. This incantation requires reciting the incantation to open the bottle of starlight in Mandarin.
Richard didn't want outsiders to know anything about Mandarin, so he would often quietly recite a spell and open the bottle of starlight late at night when no one was around.
Today's tentative attack did not go well, so Richard asked everyone to take a day off.
Late that night, in a deserted place, Richard quietly opened the bottle of starlight and took out thirty alchemy bombs.
After the alchemy bomb was successfully manufactured, a lot of actual combat training was conducted in the territory. Many veterans of the First Squadron had personally thrown alchemy bombs and had a clear understanding of the dangers of such things.
Grenadiers who specialize in bomb delivery were also selected within the squadron.
The selection criteria for grenadiers are very strict and require more than six points of strength.
Generally speaking, the strength of first-level professionals is around six points. Before advanced professionals, their strength exceeds six points. They are all people with great natural strength.
The soldiers of the First Squadron have been practicing the breathing method for five years. There are no advanced professionals, and there are no more than ten soldiers with strength exceeding six points.
These people focus on training in throwing skills. They throw one kilogram of alchemical bombs, not only from a long distance, but also very accurately.
Today, Richard planned to let the 1st Squadron take the lead and conduct a sneak attack with thirty alchemy bombs to defeat the enemy in one fell swoop.
When the enemy in the camp is in chaos, let the two cavalry squadrons attack from above.
After formulating the tactics, Richard called the officers together and arranged the combat mission.
At about ten o'clock in the morning, after the soldiers had eaten breakfast, Richard saw that there was plenty of sunshine and pleasant weather, and he immediately gave the order to attack the city.
The first squadron slowly walked out of the camp, and after approaching the archers' shooting range, they raised their heavy shields.
The giant shield weighs a hundred kilograms and can protect five or six people.
If it weren't for the high quality of the First Squadron, many of the people would be strong men with more than four points of strength and would not be able to lift such a heavy shield.
This special shield is made of iron sheets on the outside, a thick wooden board in the middle, and a sheepskin lining on the inside.
The defensive power of a heavy shield is very strong. Unless you encounter a powerful archer like Richard, ordinary archers cannot shoot through this three-layer heavy shield.
Relying on the protection of heavy shields, the first squadron suffered minimal casualties and rushed to the trench outside the camp.
Seeing that the distance was no more than thirty meters, the grenadiers and professional officers of the first squadron threw alchemy bombs one after another.
Thirty alchemy bombs exploded in the camp almost simultaneously, causing the camp to be filled with dust.
Sputtering shrapnel flew everywhere, knocking down a large number of people.
Because the grenadiers threw them very accurately, most of the thirty alchemical bombs exploded in the crowd.
A large number of soldiers were affected by the explosion and suffered heavy casualties.
There were only more than 300 rebels in the camp, and they suffered more than 100 casualties.
The violent explosion stunned the rebels instantly. There were broken arms and limbs everywhere in the village, and there were miserable cries of casualties everywhere.
Even the first squadron that attacked the stronghold and many recruits were a little dazed when they saw the enemy's miserable state.
These recruits were all serf soldiers recruited by Baron Rice and others. After being recruited by Richard, they became auxiliary soldiers and cooperated with the first squadron armor soldiers in combat.
Although he had participated in a battle, he had some combat experience and his endurance was more than that of a new recruit.
But seeing the power of the alchemy bomb for the first time, the recruits were still scared to death. Many recruits actually knelt on the ground and prayed to the gods not to rain down thunder.
Martin, the captain of the 1st Squadron, shouted and kicked and beat a new recruit up.
"Seize the time to fill the trenches and open the attack channel for the cavalry."
After hearing the squadron leader's order, the flag bearer waved the flag vigorously.
Brenner's serf army was in the second echelon, beyond the range of the archers. They saw the order flag, and the officers gave the order. The serf soldiers pushed wheelbarrows and filled the trenches with earth bags.
The surviving soldiers in the camp discovered that the enemy was filling the trenches, and spontaneously organized to fire arrows to kill the serf soldiers filling the trenches.
The archers of the first squadron also unfurled their bows and set arrows to suppress the few archers in the village.
There are many veterans in the first squadron. There are two people who are at the fourth level of archery and more than twenty people who are at the third level. Counting the officers, they have five or six enchanted bows.
The soldiers and officers in the village suffered heavy casualties, and there were only about thirty organized archers.
Shooting against the No. 1 Squadron, they soon fell into a disadvantage.
Within a few minutes, more than ten people were injured or killed. As for the sharp archers of the first squadron, only one person was killed and two were injured.
Seeing that the archers could not take advantage, they could not suppress the first squadron.
The camp's fall was imminent. With a bit of fanaticism on his face, the camp commander called the soldiers together, took out a short knife, cut the main artery on the wrist, and put their own blood into a huge magic circle.
There was a strange white crystal in the middle of the magic circle. After the crystal was dyed red with blood, it immediately burst out with dazzling light, and a plane passage leading directly to the world of the dead was immediately formed.
The cultists in the cottage used special methods to open a mysterious dimensional passage, and Richard outside had no idea about it.
Waves of mist suddenly spread in the stronghold. Seeing this scene, Richard's expression changed, and he immediately blew the retreat horn and conveyed the retreat order to the First Squadron.
Richard had seen this kind of fog in a book, called the Fog of Death.
There are a lot of mysterious forces in the fog, which will greatly consume the vitality of living creatures. Regardless of whether it is humans, animals or trees, as long as they are shrouded in fog, their vitality will be sucked out by the fog sooner or later.
Any corpse that dies in the fog will turn into a terrifying undead.
The undead are very resistant to physical attacks and require elemental and soul magic to kill the undead.
There is only one magician in the army, Richard, who cannot defeat more than a few hundred undead.
The slightly more powerful undead are a bit more difficult to deal with than third-level professionals.
Three hundred undead, even if the legendary warrior comes, the only option is to run away alone.
This kind of problem has arisen in the cottage, which is beyond Richard's control. Now he can only turn to the Church of Dawn, hoping to rely on the power of the church to kill the undead and eliminate the fog.
Fortunately, the fog did not expand quickly, and the undead were not smart and did not like to leave the environment shrouded in the fog of death, so Richard successfully led the soldiers back to Brenner County.
The official roads of the two counties have been blocked by fog. If Richard wants to enter Canyon County for support, he can only take small roads and cross the mountains.
(End of chapter)