Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord
Chapter 198: The Holy Guard’s First Battle

『Explain in detail.』

『Alright, Lord. This time, the enemies we encountered came from the southern part of the island. There aren’t many shallows in the south. The enemies arrived in two waves, one consisted entirely of murlocs, while the other included several sea urchin… arm monsters.』

『How many are there?』

『They’re still landing gradually. The murlocs have already assembled, about thirty in total. On the other side, there are more, fifty murlocs and five arm monsters.』

『Have you gathered your men?』

『More or less. I have three patrol squads here, which should be enough to deal with these monsters. I plan to drive off the murlocs first before handling the other side.』

Hughes lightly tapped his fingers on the table a few times before suddenly saying, "Call Alexei over. Sound the alarm and have the Holy Guard assemble."

"Understood, young master."

Connor immediately took people to fetch him. Alexei was currently in the church, making it easy to locate him.

『Ash, don’t rush this battle. Let the Holy Guard join in and try it out. Alexei has complained to me about this many times.』

In previous battles, Hughes had not deployed the Holy Guard.

First, they had only recently been recruited and were not yet accustomed to the battlefield. Their rifled muskets had only just been issued.

Second, Hughes was still uncertain about the changes happening in the sea. He wasn’t sure if the monsters would show any unexpected variations.

If he sent the new troops in now and trouble arose, they might not be able to handle it.

But now, even though it was unclear what had happened to Castel, the enemy had undoubtedly been weakened. If he didn’t deploy the new troops now, then when?

The Holy Guard assembled quickly. Alexei personally led the troops toward the southern beach, while Hughes and Chloe followed at a distance. Two Sirens accompanied Hughes to ensure their safety.

Theoretically, these two Sirens alone could slaughter that small squad of murlocs. Hughes had been quite cautious in preparing for this battle.

The Holy Guard currently had a total of around 110 men. This time, 80 were deployed, with the remaining ones assigned to patrol and guard duties. Nearly everyone who could be mobilized had been brought in.

They carried neatly arranged rifled muskets. Although production of brass cartridges for fixed ammunition had begun, capacity was still limited.

Castel’s primary production output was still dedicated to the ironworks.

The construction of the central furnace and the Castel Cathedral had nearly drained Hughes’ entire fortune.

His main cathedral was a proper steel-reinforced concrete structure, not just a simple stone shell.

The construction of a single cathedral had consumed all his stockpiles, yet his plan was to build fortresses across the entire island.

Fortunately, industrial production capacity was increasing at a speed beyond imagination.

Both steel mills had already begun rotating shifts, producing steel day and night. Meanwhile, Hughes had already designated locations for the third and fourth ironworks.

For now, the Holy Guard had to make do with their rifled muskets. Even though these weapons were outdated the moment they were issued, they still had the ability to precisely aim. That alone was enough to leave Alexei in shock.

The Northlander commander was currently directing his soldiers into formation, his gaze frequently falling on the brand-new rifles.

Hughes had developed these in the laboratory long ago, but they had never been officially issued due to problems with smokeless powder. Alexei had secretly tested them with black powder before, but the results had been mediocre.

Black powder burned slowly, reducing both the bullet’s velocity and power.

This prevented the rifled musket from fully utilizing its accuracy and even sacrificed some rate of fire.

However, a few days ago, Hughes provided him with a new batch of smokeless powder.

Alexei had spent an entire day at the shooting range, testing it in silence.

He felt as if his entire worldview had been overturned.

To Alexei, muskets had always been a kind of pseudo-melee weapon. In theory, they had decent range, but at even slightly longer distances, they became completely inaccurate.

If someone aimed at you from 200 meters away and fired, you wouldn’t even need to worry, you could let them shoot all day, and they might still miss.

The true use of muskets was in volleys at close range, around a few dozen meters.

As long as there were enough soldiers firing, the scattered bullets would form a web of fire, cutting down charging enemies.

Almost no armor could withstand musket fire. The Empire had only suffered setbacks against the heavy iceplate armor of the Northlanders, but that kind of thick iron shell could only be worn by the strongest warriors.

Even then, just turning their heads was a struggle, so such armor was never widely used on the battlefield.

Because of this, Alexei had always considered muskets to be uncontrollable close-combat weapons.

That belief was completely shattered when he encountered rifled muskets.

The moment he landed a hit on a coyote at 300 meters, all explanations became unnecessary.

He stared blankly at the weapon in his hands, his mind completely empty. He couldn’t even remember how he had walked back from the shooting range.

Chloe, as an Extraordinary, could use a specially tuned rifled musket to consistently hit enemies from 500 meters away.

Ordinary soldiers, after proper training, could achieve decent accuracy within 200 meters. If firing in volleys with dedicated spotters, their effective range could be even greater.

This range surpassed all existing human weapons. Whether it was massive ballistae or trebuchets requiring dozens of men to operate, none could reach this distance. Yet, the small metal rod in his hands had done it.

And this was only its effective range. The rifled musket’s maximum range was around 1,000 meters.

At that distance, a person was no bigger than a mosquito, exceeding the reach of any contemporary weapon by at least twice.

Alexei couldn’t imagine what future battles would look like.

The network path system in southern Castel wasn’t particularly developed, but there were still several routes near the coastline.

The soldiers traveled quickly by horse-drawn carriages, reaching the network path’s exit in no time. It wasn’t far from the coast.

Soon, the soldiers arrived at their designated positions, approximately 600 meters from the murlocs.

The murlocs had already assembled on the shore but had yet to spread out into formation, instead clustering in a chaotic mass.

Alexei glanced at the distance and swallowed hard. In the past, this would have been an absolutely safe range.

Arrows would have had almost no lethality at this distance, and as long as there were no charging cavalry, soldiers could have leisurely organized their formation.

But now, this was the normal engagement range.

At Alexei’s command, the soldiers formed a thin battle line, classic line infantry tactics. During the age of mass musket fire, soldiers stood in ranks and advanced to the beat of drums.

The most important factors were marching pace and rhythm. Aiming? That was pointless. As long as they didn’t hold their guns backward, they were fine.

But Alexei did not order the drummers to beat their drums. Instead, he squinted at the distant murlocs, hesitated for a moment, and instructed his soldiers to take aim directly.

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