Chapter 1519: Chapter 63
After the Iron Peak County forces formally launched an offensive against Magit Island, the battle situation on the island underwent a dramatic reversal.
While attracting the entire attention of the defenders on the frontline, Tamas’s pre-deployed flank force descended downstream, landing from the back side of Magit Island. With a hidden yet fierce right hook, they captured the United Province’s main stronghold on Magit Island—Domoncos Monastery—and seized all the supplies stored by the United Province on the island.
By this point, the battle should have already ended, and what’s left would be nothing more than some sweet yet exhausting cleanup work.
However, the engagement of the United Province Navy rewrote the outcome for the defenders on Magit Island.
The warships of the United Province Navy mercilessly crushed the poor barges.
The cannons of the United Province Navy blew the New Army’s Floating Bridge to pieces and in the days that followed, they repeatedly enacted this scene.
The United Province Navy successfully thwarted every attempt by the New Army to rebuild the Floating Bridge, which made it impossible for the New Army to deploy more troops to Magit Island in mass, only able to sneakily send people over the island at night using small boats like ants moving homes.
Boats were inferior to men, and cannons were inferior to men; even the bravest and most heroic Paratu Cavalry could only watch the river and sigh.
Yet, the remnants of the defending troops on Magit Island, perhaps forced into a corner or perhaps exploding with vast wisdom and courage in a desperate situation, chose a path that surprised everyone:
Just fifteen minutes after the Iron Peak County Military eliminated the United Provincials’ lair, the United Province forces on Magit Island invaded Bishop’s Castle, captured the already dying remnants of Mont Blanc County forces, and immediately began to fortify their defenses.
At this point, the situation on Magit Island underwent a one-hundred-eighty-degree reversal.
After a night of bloody slaughter, both sides not only exchanged positions but swapped the offensive and defensive stances.
This time, it was the turn for the United Provincials to be besieged at the small cape at the northernmost point of Magit Island, fighting for their lives.
However, as things progressed to this point, some new variables emerged.
Initially, the upper echelons of the New Army generally believed that the United Provincials occupying Bishop’s Castle were merely taking a risky gamble, engaging in a struggle within their death throes.
Although the Floating Bridge has never been completed, preventing a large increase of troops to Magit Island, with the existing forces on the island, wouldn’t capturing the shaky Bishop’s Castle still be like catching it effortlessly?
However, when they really approached Bishop’s Castle, the leadership of the New Army found that the reality differed from their expectations… somewhat.
Firstly, although the troops on Magit Island don’t have to worry about food and drink after capturing the United Provincials’ logistics, it is limited only to food and drink.
The landing troops not only didn’t have cannons, but even believed that most of the battles would mainly be fought by swords, so they didn’t bring much firearms either.
And although the United Provincials on Magit Island took a straight punch and endured another hard blow, they still maintained their organizational structure with tenacity, not only bringing all the island’s cannons into Bishop’s Castle but also destroyed the gunpowder they couldn’t take away upon retreating from Domoncos Monastery.
The loud noise on the night of the battle that awakened all of Kingsfort was the final tribute of Half Domoncos Monastery before its ascent.
Secondly, when Bishop’s Castle was under the control of the New Army, it was just a lone castle, surrounded by rivers and enemies, making it unable to advance, retreat, exit, or enter, lacking food and drink, and losing control was only a matter of time.
But when Bishop’s Castle returned to United Provincial hands, the situation immediately became dramatically different.
It should be understood that in Major Monteccolli’s plans, Bishop’s Castle was not just a solitary castle; it was a key component in the major defense system protecting Kingsfort, even being the most important and lethal node.
Every wall of it underwent precise calculations before construction to ensure that when the cannons on nearby fortifications fired, the walls wouldn’t transform into a shield for the enemy.
Therefore, any soldier attacking Bishop’s Castle would not only face the castle’s own firepower but also endure flank shooting from both east and west banks.
And because the United Provincials controlled the water surface, so for the New Army, the River Shijian was an insurmountable barrier, but for the United Provincials, it was a broad avenue.
Through this water route, the United Provincials could continuously supply Bishop’s Castle.
Even on the night Domoncos Monastery fell, they sent a fully equipped Hundred-Men Squad and four cannons into Bishop’s Castle, and took away all the captives and wounded upon returning.
It could be said that this patch of land before Bishop’s Castle was from the very beginning the killing ground selected by Raymond Montecuccoli.
However, the Artillery Director never imagined that this fortress he poured the most effort into would realize its function as intended in its original design under such circumstances.
He definitely didn’t foresee that this trap he carefully prepared for the New Army would turn around and become the cage trapping himself.
The feelings in Major Monteccolli’s heart aren’t to be mentioned for the time being; meanwhile, when Tamas finished cleaning up the battlefield and turned around to start planning the siege on Bishop’s Castle, he had only one feeling—troublesome.
After repeatedly and closely observing from multiple angles, subjective intuition gradually transformed into objective judgment—Tamas had become quite sure that this unremarkable little fort was even more troublesome than Domoncos Monastery.
The fort itself is a very standard United Province-style star fortress, with no blind spots in firepower, which goes without saying.