Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

The Revodan troops sent to "quell the chaos" found themselves in a dilemma.

Major Ronald, Apel, and all the Revodan officers still subconsciously regarded Winters as a "bandit."

Since ancient times, it has always been the officials who suppressed the bandits; when have bandits ever dared to suppress the officials?

"No matter the situation in Revodan, it's too late for us to go back to support now," Major Ronald clenched the hilt of his sword, his eyes full of bloodshot veins, "This diversionary tactic by Montaigne couldn't have been devised in just a day or two... we underestimated him!"

The Centurions were equally dumbfounded.

"So what if it's a diversionary tactic?" Captain Apel tried to downplay the situation as lightly as possible, "With just that small number of men, can they actually occupy Revodan? At most, they'll just steal some things."

"Don't make excuses for me, I lost this battle with one wrong move," Ronald looked towards Wolf Town, gritting his teeth, "but there's still a chance. Apel?"

"Yes!"

"Montaigne is in Wolf Town, are you sure?"

"Yes, I saw it with my own eyes."

"Chellini, Mason, and Bard?"

"They are there, too."

"Search! Search thoroughly for me, find every footprint!" Ronald clenched his fists, resolute in his command, "Capture them, and even if Revodan is razed to the ground, we can still consider it a win. If we let them escape, then this battle is an utter and complete loss!"

"Yes!" all the Centurions responded in unison.

"The news about Revodan must be kept strictly confidential, not a single word can be leaked!"

"Yes!"

The two battalions brought by Ronald were expanded from Revodan's city guard; the families of the core soldiers were all in Revodan.

Upon hearing about the sneak attack on Revodan, what would they feel?

Ronald didn't plan to guess, because he chose not to let the soldiers know the news straightforwardly.

"Lieutenant Istvan!"

"Present."

"Take all the cavalry with you! Return to Revodan immediately! First, to ascertain the city's situation; second, to intercept all messengers!"

"Yes!"

The cavalry under Ronald's command consisted of only twelve mounted couriers.

"As for Revodan..." Ronald let out a long sigh, "they can only rely on themselves now."

...

Wolf Town had turned into a sea of fire.

The Revodan soldiers set fires wantonly. The order had been given: anything and everything in sight was to be burned.

Wolf Town itself wasn't large, just a few wooden houses by the roadside and one barracks.

Anything that could be taken away had already been removed.

But even just these simple wooden homes had taken many people and much sweat to build.

And now, they were burning fiercely.

Two Revodan soldiers, one tall and one short, with torches in hand, set fires along the way.

"There's a house by the river!" said the tall soldier.

"Let's check it out," replied the short soldier.

By the river was a makeshift wooden shed, not looking like a dwelling for people, and inside were some oddly shaped items.

"What is this place?" asked the tall soldier.

"Here? It's for sawing wood," the short soldier observed the sawdust underfoot, "Seems to be water-powered. But the saw blade and connecting rods aren't here."

"How do you know this?" asked the tall soldier.

"I was a carpenter," the short soldier replied, "I used to be."

He walked to the wall and opened a wooden sluice.

"Gurgle, gurgle...whoosh, whoosh..."

Sounds likerushing water pounding on large boulders came from outside the shed.

Underneath the floorboards, a tooth-aching "creak, creak" echoed as well.

A wooden shaft on the wall spun rapidly, trying to drive connecting rods and saw blades that were no longer there.

A waterwheel by the river began to turn slowly, supplying water to the reservoir.

Despite no one laboring, the sawmill came to life.

The simplicity yet cleverness of these devices made it clear to anyone just by seeing how much effort the designers and builders had poured into them.

"What should we do?" the tall soldier swallowed hard.

Without any expression, the short soldier threw the torch into the sawdust, "Burn it."

The sawdust caught fire immediately and the flames spread rapidly, quickly engulfing the water-powered sawmill.

When the flames died down, there would be nothing left.

At the intersection of two roads in the town center, a Revodan soldier tumbled towards the other soldiers, shouting in terror, "This is terrible! We burned the wrong place! This is a church!"

The other soldiers turned to look at the wooden building ablaze with fire on the side of the road.

It was simple, with a roof and four walls. Some church characteristics such as the holy emblems could still be made out.

"It really is a church!" another soldier's knees were shaking.

But the fire had already started.

"No matter, it isn't one now," said a soldier, patting the trembling soldier on the shoulder, "Once it's burned down, it ceases to be."

The soldiers were setting fires, while Major Ronald kept asking Captain Apel for confirmation, "Montaigne, Chellini, Mason, and that one called Bard—are all of them in Wolf Town? Can you be sure?"

"I can be certain. I specifically asked Winters to call the other three out to meet me," Apel had answered this question three times already.

"That's not right!" Major Ronald's brows furrowed deeply, "If all four officers stayed in Wolf Town as a decoy, then who led the troops to sneak attack Revodan?"

...

Who led the troops to sneak attack Revodan?

Of course, it was the mysterious masked man A and mysterious masked man B, along with Pierre Mitchell.

Among them, the mysterious masked man A [Tang Juan] had just led his troops to blow open Revodan's gate.

Revodan originally didn't have walls; the hastily built earthen fortifications were quite low, not even reaching two and a half meters.

The gate was not a vertical lift gate, just a regular wooden door.

The attacking soldiers jammed several small bell-shaped objects against the door hinges and bolts, holding them tightly in place, then lit the fuse on the gunpowder twists.