The Cannon Roars

Karl had his own reasons. The main reason Konrad agreed to let his student participate in the war was Konrad's unreserved trust in his younger brother and his eagerness to help him.

Karl cherished this profound brotherly bond.

But Karl had to see further ahead; the young apprentice Konrad took along on his travels and taught him everything he knew was no ordinary person.

Lina and Morian were undoubtedly Konrad's prized students, the successors he placed great hopes on.

Their value extends far beyond their immediate combat capability on the battlefield.

Let these young people, who have not yet experienced true cruelty and have spent more time immersed in the ocean of knowledge and skills, step onto the meat grinder of Carnford and fight to the death with Sauron's experienced sorcerers who are clearly trained specifically for war.

Regardless of the final outcome of the battle, if either of them suffers any harm, even a serious injury, Karl will find it impossible to forgive himself. How will he explain this to Konrad?

The battlefield is ultimately where soldiers fulfill their duty. It is filled with the most direct violence and the most primitive killing. It is about killing opponents by any means necessary, which is completely different from the regulated battles between students in magic schools.

"Your battlefield isn't here," Karl said coldly, his gaze returning to the grey-robed mage outside the city. "Protecting yourselves is the greatest contribution you can make to Carnford right now. As for that Sauron mage... I have my own ways of dealing with him."

Without further explanation, he immediately turned to Brendan, who was waiting beside him, and said in a firm voice, "Give the order! Begin the artillery bombardment! Target: enemy archer formation. Extend your fire and disrupt their formation!"

"Yes, sir!" Brendan did not hesitate and immediately turned around, pulled out two red and yellow command flags, and waved them vigorously in the direction of the newly built gun emplacement on the high ground of the inner city, sending out a series of simple and clear flag signals.

On the towering gun emplacement, painstakingly hoisted into place by old Vali and his men working through the night using pulley systems, the precious Six-pound Cannon was already in place, its dark muzzle like a cold pupil, locked onto the densest cluster of archers in the distant Sauron Army formation.

On both sides of the gun emplacement, the carefully selected gunners were already ready, with gunpowder barrels, shells, water, and push rods all in place, their eyes fixed on the direction of the command flag.

Upon seeing Brendan's attack order, the gunner's spirits lifted, and he roared, "The lord has ordered! Target: enemy archer formation! Load!"

The well-trained gunners immediately sprang into action. One loader carefully inserted a standard propellant charge wrapped in cloth into the depths of the breech using a long-handled rod, while another assistant picked up a heavy solid cast iron shell and steadily loaded it into the muzzle.

Immediately afterwards, the third gunner picked up a long pole and forcefully pushed the shell to the position of the propellant charge, compacting it.

"Loading complete!" the assistant gunner shouted, while simultaneously piercing the propellant charge through the ignition port with an iron spike and inserting a fuse.

At the same time, the gunner, through the sights on the gun body—a metal bar with a rear sight and a front sight—squinted one eye and carefully adjusted the angle and direction of the muzzle, estimating the range and trajectory.

The gunner gave the target area one last check, then abruptly waved his hand. "Fire!"

At the gunner's command, the igniter at the breech had already prepared his torch and immediately brought the flame close to the fuse.

"Laugh!!"

The fuse burned rapidly, quickly retracting into the fuse box, and the next moment, a deafening roar suddenly erupted!

"Boom!!!"

The cannon recoiled violently, slamming heavily into the pre-set buffer on the platform behind it. A long plume of scorching flame and thick white smoke shot from the muzzle, causing the entire turret to tremble!

The gunners had long since become accustomed to turning their heads and covering their ears to avoid the enormous sound waves and shockwaves.

A heavy black iron ball, accompanied by a deathly whistling sound that tore through the air, shot out from the cannon muzzle, drawing a deadly parabola in the air, and hurtling towards the distant Sauron Army's position at a speed that was too fast for the naked eye to follow!

Many soldiers in the Sauron archer ranks were still basking in the glory of suppressing the defenders with a hail of arrows and even killing the enemy's flamingos, completely unaware of the approaching death.

An archer, who was nocking an arrow and preparing to fire it again, looked up and saw a black dot rapidly growing larger in the sky. He instinctively lowered his bow and stared blankly at the sky, unable to react for a moment as to what it was.

Seconds later, as the black dot approached with a chilling shriek, boundless fear gripped his heart! "It's a cannon..."

He wanted to scream, he wanted to run away, but it was all too late!

"Bang!!!"

The cannonball struck the ground with pinpoint accuracy! It landed right between the archer and several of his companions!

Like a boulder thrown into water, flesh and blood are incredibly fragile in the face of absolute power. The archer, along with the two people right next to him, were instantly smashed into a burst of blood mist and mangled flesh!

The ground was smashed into a shallow crater, and the splashed dirt and blood splattered all over the surrounding soldiers!

The solid shot, still possessing immense kinetic energy, bounced and tumbled forward once more. Although its speed decreased somewhat, it remained terrifying!

It was like the scythe of death, slicing a bloody path through the dense formation! Archers who couldn't dodge in time, whether they were run over directly or grazed by the edge, all suffered broken bones and shattered internal organs, screaming as they fell to the ground, either dead or maimed!

The cannonballs continued to rain down, and on the third bounce, one of them crashed into a small squad of heavily armored Sauron infantrymen waiting at the rear of the formation!

The heavy plate armor was like paper under the impact of the shell, deforming and shattering instantly. The soldiers inside suffered chest cavity collapse and died on the spot!

Finally, the shell exhausted most of its kinetic energy, tumbling and crashing into a tent storing arrows, injuring several soldiers hiding inside, before finally coming to a stop, leaving a horrifying trail of blood and a scene of utter carnage in the mud.

A single cannonball caused more than twenty casualties in the dense ranks of Sauron archers. More importantly, it instantly shattered the originally orderly formation, and panic spread like a plague!

"Artillery fire! It's their Cannon!"

"Scatter! Find cover!"

The Sauron Army tried desperately to maintain order, but faced with this invisible, unavoidable, yet terrifying attack that could tear a person apart in an instant, discipline proved powerless against the instinct for survival, and the entire archer formation descended into chaos.

On the city wall, Karl observed the chaos caused by the artillery fire through his binoculars and coldly issued the following orders. "Artillery crews, maintain intermittent fire, do not allow them to regroup. Musketeers, fire freely, focus on sniping the Sauron soldier trying to rush up the tunnel!"