“okay. Right now, the Empire is fighting a war of attrition on all fronts… If the current trend is prolonged, it will collapse like a dam with a hole.”

“yes. That is why it is impossible to build a causeway.”

The empire will fall before the causeway is built.

“From the point where the tide ends, we can attack the causeway at any time. I will give you the tidal flats, but I will not give you an inch after that. Don’t worry, commissioners.”

The distance between the land and the island was considerable.

Even if 200m of tidal flats are passed, there is an interval of more than 1km.

‘How can an empire without ships cross this distance?’

Enrico looked at the map and smiled.

And two weeks later, when the tidal flats were filled up, the Republic moved.

###

“Shoot!”

A causeway 120 m wide and 200 m long.

When the end of the causeway reached the sea so deep that ships could pass even at low tide, the Republic attacked with about 80 warships.

Most of the warships were sailboats, and they fired arrows with soldiers armed with longbows and crossbows on the deck.

Shush shush!

“Pee-pi-hat!”

“aaagh!”

A rain of arrows hit the workers carrying dirt and gravel.

The workers screamed and hurriedly hid behind the arrows. The arrow shields made by the imperial army were large iron shields obliquely embedded at both ends of the causeway.

“You’re doing something stupid.”

Enrico snorted as he saw the worker hiding behind the arrow. At his beckoning, 14 galleys moved.

The galleys were paired horizontally in pairs, with wide planks on top, and large ballistas or catapults mounted on top of the planks.

Tung!

The ballista fired an arrow larger than the spear.

“Hee!”

Ballista’s arrow pierced the arrow block. It didn’t penetrate completely, but it was enough to skewer several workers hiding behind.

When a worker saw that three of his comrades were instantly killed by a single shot, he stepped back in surprise and died when a blind arrow pierced his throat.

Enrico smiled at the sight.

“The ballista is fine, but the catapult isn’t very effective.”

The stones thrown by the catapult hit the causeway floor and broke. Debris bounced around and impaled workers, causing loss of life, but did not damage the causeway itself.

“It’s rather like giving them materials to throw into the sea.”

“Right. Bite the catapult! Tell them to only target the workers with the ballista!”

Enrico took the lead and shot the workers intensively.

“Don’t shoot!”

“I am a citizen too!”

The workers screamed in tears, but to no avail.

“citizen? You traitors!”

“Show no mercy to the traitors of the Republic!”

The cry of the worker only angered the soldiers, who were made up of citizens of the Republic. He fired his arrows with passion to punish those who dared to betray the Republic.

“Kill them all! Show the power of the Republic!”

The imperial army withdrew leaving only their people behind.

What will a normal soldier do if he remains? You can’t get arrows in place of the workers, you can’t get on a warship, and you can’t handle a bow properly.

The imperial army, which had too much of a gap between individuals, withdrew, and only their subordinates remained and responded by shooting arrows at them or, conversely, shooting arrows at sailboats to inflict damage.

However, the damage they inflicted on the Republic was only a speck of the Republic’s mobilized power.

“It’s easy.”

Enrico smiled lightly.

Although it did not cause direct damage to the Imperial Army, the construction was stopped because the workers were scared. Since the original purpose was to block the construction of the causeway, it was a strategic goal.

“Even if it takes time like now, it is our victory. If you accumulate damage on other fronts while the power of the Imperial Army is tied up, the Empire will collapse.”

When the Empire collapses, the competition will begin.

Who takes over how much land first?

The Republic, with its small army, felt sorry for that.

It was a good thing for the Republic that the Empire had long remained a stable human supply like Germania and Wallochia.

“There is no difference. Isn’t that what they wanted?”

At the adjutant’s words, Enrico licked his lips and shook his head.

Yes. This war was brought on by a foolish empire.

The Republic was in a position to condemn the arrogance of the Empire.

“continue-“

It was the moment when I was about to shout, keep on driving.

pop!

An explosion was heard.

“hmm?”

Who used magic?

There were a few wizards on board the fleet, but none of them would have caused such a big explosion.

Enrico examined the causeway questioning himself.

If there had been an explosion, there should have been a trace, but there was none.

“Didn’t you just hear an explosion?”

Wondering if he had heard hallucinations, he asked his adjutant.

“yes. I heard—”

pop! Perbung! pop! pop!

A series of explosions.

Enrico looked at the fleet with goosebumps.

A galley carrying a ballista was running aground.

One of the two boats connected by a plank had a hole drilled in its side.

As the sea water filled the hole, the hull tilted sharply.

“Oh, no… is this…?”

The direction the explosion was heard was on the Empire side?

Why did the damage come from an ally?

‘Are you an imperial wizard?’

The adjutant shook him as he stood in confusion.

“There! Try the smoke on Tosan!”

The adjutant gestured violently and pointed to Tosan.

A cloud of gray smoke hung over the earth.

pop!

Just as Enrico and his lieutenant were looking at Tosan together, sparks flew from the smoke and projectiles were fired at them.

thud!

The flagship with Enrico on board shook.

A round black lump of iron was embedded in the flagship’s deck.

An iron ball the size of a human head.

From noble mtl dot com

That must have been the one that pierced the side of the galley.

Enrico hurriedly turned his gaze back to Tosan.

pop! pop! Perbung!

Explosions continued from the four tosans.

“What is this…?”

The projectiles fired at Tosan all headed for the flagship.

However, it failed to hit the flagship and fell around.

Enrico shouted when he saw the spray the projectile created.

“Back off! Back off! Get back to the distance that the flying thing can’t reach!”

The flagship turned its bow and hoisted a signal to signal the retreat.

After confirming the signal, the fleet stopped attacking and followed the flagship.

The Republic’s first containment ended in failure like that.

###

As soon as Enrico disembarked from the berth, he called the committee urgently.

The council gaped in amazement when they heard that he had failed to stop the causeway and that the fleet had been damaged by new Imperial weapons.

“How can you have such a weapon? I have never heard of a Dwarf who has no one to follow in terms of skill, but uses such a weapon.”

“But it is true. The flagship suffered damage from that weapon.”

The new weapon was a siege cannon.

It was used once as a demonstration while the Imperial Army occupied the fortress, but information was not passed on to the Republic because all witnesses were captured.

Among the commissioners, the High Commissioner sought help from Naga and was able to get information about the cannon belatedly.

“It’s a weapon I’ve used in Germania.”

The committee read the report handed over by the priest.

According to the report, while Edar conquered Germania, he used bronze weapons and cannons that fired projectiles three times, but they were insufficient in many ways.

If you dare to use it, it is evaluated that it can be used for siege warfare or for causing fear in enemies who are new to the weapon.

“It is completely different from what is in this report.”

Enrico raised his voice and argued.

“The weapons that attacked our fleet were quite accurate and destructive. The side of the galley was pierced and it was about to sink.”

“Ummm… but the damage wasn’t that great for something like that, right?”

Objectively, the damage caused by the cannons was small.

One galley was sunk due to a breach in the side, the loss of another galley and catapult to which it was tied, and the extent of damage to the flagship’s deck.

Enrico shook his head.

“The reason the damage was low was because the battle was short. The lack of a few cannons is also a reason. If the battle drags on for a long time and the cannon continues to increase… you will have to endure massive damage.”

“That much?”

The old commissioner looked at the report again and frowned.

“yes. This weapon must be disposed of in order to stop the causeway construction. Otherwise, I will tell you emphatically that you will never be able to stop it.”

“…”

Members were silent.

I thought it would be an easy fight, but I got caught on a reef.

And that too on a reef that will sink everything they have and remain.

The relaxed and friendly atmosphere that had been seen before has disappeared.

“What if we send an operation unit? Can you break that cannon?”

“The odds are… low. The Empire is unmatched on land and knows for sure that we will aim for our cannons. You should be well prepared.”

But the problem was that there was no other way.

He said that the possibility was small, but Enrico, who did not say that it was impossible, sent a small number of hybrids to the land under cover of night.

The hybrids belonging to the Duke’s unit were close to subspecies, so they had gills so they could breathe underwater.

Therefore, without the need to mobilize a boat, they approached the shore undetected. as far as the coast.

Denggung!

As Enrico feared, the Imperial Army knew that the Republic would target the coastal batteries.

He placed his subordinates in preparation for the duke, and dealt with the duke’s troops the moment they stepped on the ground.

They couldn’t even scream. Even if they had almost completed their transformation into subspecies, the people they had to deal with were overwhelmingly strong, from Calliope to Gerhard.

“Fish!”

When morning came, Gehard raised his operative’s head and shouted at the approaching ship to check the situation of the shore batteries.

“Are these the ones you’re waiting for!”

hook!

Gerhard threw the head of the hybrid with all his might.

The neck fell right on the deck.

“We will conquer you! That is what His Majesty commanded us to do! Know the futility of your resistance and spend the rest of your lives trembling in fear!”

The failure of the dukes was soon reported to the committee.

“Damn it!”

The old commissioner hit the table hard.

“What was the next best thing? The work of dismantling the causeway underwater.”

“There is no progress as expected. The amount of workmen accumulates more than the amount we disassemble. The reason why the width is so wide seems to have taken these things into account.”

Few citizens have mutated enough to grow gills.

Even with all of them trying to dismantle the causeway in the water, the Empire was lined with workers lined up 120m wide and poured with all sorts of materials, including dirt and gravel.

Even construction didn’t have time to rest. Since the number of mobilized workers reached tens of thousands, they filled the sea without rest through shifts even at dawn.

“As the depth of the water deepens, the construction is gradually slowing down. But at this rate, Tishreddon will be connected to the land within a month, or two at the latest.”

Members took a deep breath.

It was because of the goose bumps all over her body for an instant.

The worst situation that I could not even imagine was approaching.

“One year… if you can hold out for one year…”

One of the members muttered.

But Enrico said inwardly that it was useless.

‘Even if you endure for a year or several years, the empire will not collapse. Because our fleet, which should have reduced the power of the empire, returned to protect Tishreddon.’

The Republic’s basic strategy, marching by sea, was a scorched-earth tactic that undermined the Empire’s ability to fight. But what if the fleet that needs to do this is mobilized to protect Tishreddon?

Of course, the Empire’s ability to conduct battles is fully preserved, and the Republic is knocked out as a defender instead of unilaterally knocking on the Empire.

“It can’t go on like this. We have to endure the damage and keep it in check.”

The commissioners looked at Enrico.

“What about the cannon?”

“Cannons don’t have very high accuracy. It is not easy to hit a ship moving on the sea. If the number of cannons increases, the more they fire, the more they get hit, but the empire still doesn’t have enough cannons. If we endure the damage and go out in a war of attrition, the empire will suffer formidable damage.”

Even if marching by sea is impossible, the Empire’s strength must be reduced.

You have to cut the power and cause the wires to collapse.

“…”

In a somber mood, the committee adopted Enrico’s plan.

Because the method for the Republic to win was decided from the beginning.

‘Wait time. It causes a war of attrition so that the power that should go to the other front has no choice but to be put into Tishredon, and if one of the three fronts is pierced for time, you win.’

As soon as the plan was decided, the Republic made a desperate move.

“Aim for the worker as much as possible!”

Ignoring the coastal artillery, approaching the causeway and shooting arrows, landing cavalry from the rear to attack the material supply unit, or trying to infiltrate inland to capture the artillery…

The Republic took every means it could.

However, all of these numbers have failed.

“Neither Germania nor Wallochia have this ability…”

The committee lamented.

The Empire overwhelms the war of attrition waged by the Republic, unbefitting a country fighting local wars on three sides: north, west, and south.

Even if four digits of workers died in one day, they would be recruited the next day, and even if they robbed the supply unit, there was no shortage of materials, and the number of cannons continued to increase.

Because of the reorganization of the administrative system, officials dispatched to various parts of the empire were showing ignorant efficiency by scraping the capabilities of their respective areas to the bottom.

Uprisings and civil wars, even with a significant number of feudal lords remaining, the empire’s power was higher than when Germania and Wallochia were running smoothly.

“It is too wasted. Lumber is low!”

In the end, the thing I feared came.

The Republic, which prided itself on being on par with the two kingdoms in terms of wealth, showed the bottom of its capabilities before the Empire, which was fighting three enemies.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a ferry, so make a boat that can carry soldiers! Anyway, the empire can’t come to the naval battle! We just need to be able to attack from a distance!”

To cover the consumption, the Republic built a transport ship that was no different from a ferry and sent soldiers aboard.

pop! Perbung!

As the height of the ship decreased, a new problem arose.

Cannons, called field guns by the Empire, were deployed not on land but on causeways to hunt down Republic soldiers aboard ferryboats.

Coastal guns for large ships, and field guns for small ships.

However, the unbearable consumption was not the worst.

“Even though I stopped it so much, only half of it…”

The distance between the island and the mainland was less than half.

Less than half the distance left also meant that the walls reached the effective range of the siege guns.

pop! pop! Perbung!

The Imperials deployed coastal artillery at the end of the causeway.

The coastal artillery returned to its original role as a siege gun and battered the walls of Tisyreddon.

“Kyaaah!”

“How Tishreddon!”

“oh my god···.”

Now every citizen of Tisyreddon has realized the reality.

The Republic is in a desperate situation, and the enemy is right in front of us.

“…”

The commissioners climbed on top of the ramparts and looked down at the causeway. Even as they looked down, the Republic’s navy fired arrows from near the causeway in an attempt to contain them.

However, the construction proceeded in spite of the checks.

The distance between the causeway and Tishreddon is only about 200m.

“Let’s ask the elders for help.”

“I boasted that I would never lose to my mother, but now that I’ve come back, what kind of face do you have?”

“Now is not the time to save face!”

The time when the committee members raised their voices and quarreled.

Goosebumps broke out all over his body and he shuddered.

I turned my head away, forgetting the act of building blood and arguing.

As the navy fled, a man stood at the end of the causeway.

“The author…”

Members averted their heads or raised their hands.

Because there was a light that I dared not look straight at him.

They instinctively crouched and watched him cautiously.

No one had ever seen him in person before, but they knew his identity. At least there was no one on the wall who did not know that he was Edar, the emperor of the human empire.

In the midst of the growing halo of light, the emperor spoke quietly, but in a way that everyone could hear.

“Surrender. A tribe that is neither human nor naga.”

Hybrid Wars (7)

###

I stood at the end of the causeway and looked over the walls of Tisyreddon.

There were several human, hybrid and heterogeneous races on the wall.

Elves, Dwarves, and Lizardmen were few and far between.

‘Human hunter.’

It was not a representative system or an army sent by the nation of that race to confront me. It should be seen as an individual hunter or militia.

The proof is that the representative garrison on the southern border does not show any activity other than checks.

The alien races in Tishreddon were the ones the Republic mobilized to defend the hunters that had been thrown onto the Imperial shores.

‘Looks like Vlad is holding up well.’

Tishreddon is the birthplace of a subspecies that the naga regard as kin. However, seeing that he did not provide much help, it seemed that Vlad’s Mycenae Empire was struggling against the representative system.

The reason I said that the capture of Tisyreddon would take half a year was because I was assuming naga support, which would take less than five months under the circumstances.

“Surrender. A tribe that is neither human nor naga.”

I raised the light of the soul.

The light healed the wounds of the workers and made enemies looking down on me cringe.

In particular, since the different races are sensitive to magical power and have high levels, I was able to see the quality of my soul more clearly than others, so the reaction was fierce.

“The rumors, were they true?”

“How can a human being have the same power as a mother…”

The missionary work of the Congregational Church showed results.

Actions that would have caused excruciating headaches in the past.

But now it was just a little dizzy.

“The mother you are waiting for does not come. For fear of helping you and turning my wrath on you. I will not help you because I am afraid.”

If you wanted to help, you would have helped.

What is the reason to help now that the capital is about to fall?

“I know. That your mother didn’t want this war in the first place. But you went to war because of your pride and in the vain belief that you could defeat me.”

Why did the Republic not declare war on the Empire right after the two kingdoms were conquered in the first place?

Because I made a threat in the representative system.

Naga must have been blocking the Republic’s sudden action out of fear that they might become a target.

“More than half a year has passed since I wore the imperial crown. Did you think that during that time, the empire would have been reduced in strength fighting against enemies on three sides?”

The Republic’s judgment was based on common sense.

Since they did not know the internal situation of the empire, they must have grasped the empire based on the capabilities of the days when the kingdoms of Germania and Wallochia existed.

The capacity of the two kingdoms was at a level where it was impossible to continue internal affairs while dealing with wars of attrition from three sides.

Didn’t he even go through the chaos of the Wolf Cult uprising and the Wallochian civil war? It was common sense to judge that national power had been greatly reduced and reached its limit, rather than restored.

“If the Empire was such a weak entity, why would the representative system leave me alone until now? Why are you looking at me instead of helping you right away?”

However, my ability is beyond common sense.

There was a family, and there was a gunpowder weapon.

The reorganization of the administrative system based on subordinates reduced inefficiency within the system by dismantling the feudal system and raised the potential capacity of the empire.

That’s why it was possible to develop Olymus and fortify the southern part while engaging in local wars on three sides.

“Your destiny was decided at the point when you arrogantly decided to go to war with the Empire. You cannot defeat the Empire and the name of the Cesena Republic will disappear from history.”

Here, the gunpowder weapons made them equal except for the high level, and were enough to defeat the Republic’s navy when constructing the causeway.

The number of cannons produced in the last few months was small.

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