Chapter 349: War Drums

Smoke filled the battlefield. The sound of battle roared on all sides.

Three thousand cavalry charged like a steel tide, sweeping aside everything in their path.

At that moment, Benjamin and the musketeers also rode out from the city. They quickly took advantage of the gap created by the cavalry charge to set up a defensive wagon formation.

Behind the wagons, the musketeers began firing at the reaver defenders to cover Lancelot’s cavalry.

As the cavalry reached the reaver artillery position, facing fifty cannons, Lancelot shouted. "Nail those cannons shut!"

On his order, several cavalrymen jumped off their horses, rushed the cannons, pulled out iron nails, and hammered them into the ignition ports with their knife hilts, rendering the cannons unusable.

Because the Brambleford army’s attack had been so sudden, the reaver cavalry at the west gate had only just realized what was happening. They quickly charged toward Lancelot.

Over ten thousand cavalry roared down on them.

"Hahaha! Come at me, you reaver dogs!" Lancelot laughed wildly.

By now, all the cavalry who had dismounted had gotten back on their horses, and Lancelot led them in a retreat.

Meanwhile, the wagon formation had been fully established. As the cavalry fell back, the wagons opened their chains, allowing the soldiers to slip back inside the defensive line.

The reaver cavalry charging after them saw only a puff of white smoke, then the sky began to spin and darken as they were struck down.

In front of the wagon fortress, the reaver cavalry lost their advantage immediately. Brambleford’s cannons and muskets tore through them relentlessly.

In just moments, the charging reavers were left in ruins.

They remembered the cannons, but when they reached their artillery position, they discovered all the ignition ports had been jammed.

"Damn it!" A barbarian commander stomped his feet. "Those Brambleford rats! Bring up the other cannons, I’ll kill them all!"

But before he finished yelling, the Brambleford musketeers emerged from behind the wagons and began firing from the front.

At the same time, the wagons were re-hitched to horses and began rolling forward, soldiers firing as they advanced.

Inside the formation, Benjamin calmly gave orders.

This was the power of the mobile wagon formation he and Simon had invented: the wagons protected the musketeers, and the musketeers protected the wagons.

"Push forward!"

Seeing the Brambleford army making their way westward, the reaver commander panicked. That direction led straight to Fern’s silver tent; if it fell, it would be a massive humiliation.

The silver tent was the symbol of the Order’s leadership, like a royal flag to the Eldorian Empire.

Under pressure from the reaver cavalry, their slave soldiers continued charging.

But the Brambleford muskets fired in wave after wave, cutting them down like wheat. The slave soldiers had no armor, no speed, and they soon began to panic. Their morale crumbled.

"Keep moving forward!" Benjamin ordered. Their goal was to pierce through the enemy’s heart and shatter their formation completely.

He saw Lancet’s signal flags; the front lines were under tremendous pressure. If they didn’t cause chaos soon, the Imperial Guards might not hold.

So he pressed the attack.

---

Reaver Silver Tent

Fern quickly received word of the Brambleford troops breaking through from the west gate.

His expression changed instantly. He had assumed the enemy would coordinate with the Imperial Guards and strike from the north. That’s why he’d stationed his strongest troops there.

Now the west gate was broken, and the Brambleford army was just about 1.5 kilometers away from his command tent, moving fast, with no one to stop them.

"You useless fools!"

He had been overseeing the northern battle lines himself, and now his main camp was exposed. If the Brambleford army seized it, they’d lose their supplies and ammunition.

Even worse, the silver tent was a sacred symbol of his power. If it fell, his hopes of becoming the next Father were finished.

Frantic, he shouted. "Clinton! Come with me; we have to stop them!"

Clinton, who had been about to reinforce the attack on the Imperial Guards, immediately turned and led 20,000 cavalry toward the Brambleford army. Meanwhile, their slave soldiers began pushing cannons toward the west.

Back in the balloon, Lancet’s blood surged at the sight.

Brambleford’s army under Benjamin was fierce, sometimes stopping to fire at approaching cavalry, sometimes advancing rapidly with infantry and wagons. They were getting closer and closer to Fern’s tent.

"Beat the war drums!" Lancet shouted.

As the two reaver cavalry regiments left the northern front, Lancet finally saw a sliver of hope for victory.

The flag signals changed.

Boom, boom, boom... War drums echoed across the battlefield.

Hearing the sound, the Imperial Guards felt their spirits rise. It meant they had the upper hand. With renewed confidence, they fought even harder.

A shield-bearer sprang into action as a reaver cavalryman charged at him, leaping straight into the rider and dragging them both to the ground.

Everywhere, soldiers of the Eldorian Empire and the reavers were locked in bloody combat.

---

West Gate

The farther Benjamin advanced, the tougher the resistance became. The reaver cavalry were charging like madmen, completely disregarding their lives.

The Brambleford army had to keep stopping, forming their wagons into defensive positions and wiping out surrounding enemies before moving again.

"General, the northern cannons are being redirected this way, and there are 20,000 reaver cavalry coming too." Reported the signal officer, who had been watching the balloon’s signals.

Benjamin nodded. He turned to Liam and said. "Let’s see whose cannons are better, ours or theirs."

"I believe in His Highness," Liam replied with a smile, and immediately ordered the cannons to face north.

As the reaver cavalry kept charging like they had nothing to lose, Benjamin ordered his troops to hold their ground.

After the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the reaver cavalry suddenly opened a path, and their cannons rolled into view.

They were aiming directly at the wagon formation.

BOOM! BOOM!

The reaver cannons opened fire, and Liam’s artillery fired back.

KA-BOOM! A cannonball hit one of the wagons, flipping it over.

But the Brambleford artillery hidden between the wagons remained untouched. The reaver cannons weren’t so lucky; fully exposed, they were sitting ducks.

"Fire!" Liam roared.

BOOM BOOM BOOM! Cannonballs rained down on the reaver artillery.

The reaver gunners, in the middle of reloading, were thrown into chaos by the bombardment.

Brambleford’s artillery crews had far more training. Their aiming tools gave them deadly accuracy.

Earlier, the reaver shots had been wild, powerful but poorly aimed.

Now under precision bombardment, they couldn’t fight back.

While the reavers struggled to reload, Brambleford’s gunners rearmed and launched another volley.

After one more barrage, the reaver artillery fell silent, unable to return fire.

Then Liam redirected his guns toward the charging reaver cavalry.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Fifty cannons fired in unison. Cannonballs tore through the enemy like skewers, slicing through cavalrymen one after another.

One shot hit the final rider so hard it launched him into the air, straight toward Fern, who had just arrived to take command.

"Prince Fern!" Clinton cried in horror.