Marshal Alexei still had doubts about the tactics of massively concentrating artillery to suppress enemy positions.
According to his experience, if the enemy digs fortifications in advance and hides in trenches or deep pits to avoid shelling, then the lethality of artillery fire to enemy personnel is far less effective than it seems on the surface.
But he also admits that, at least at the level of destroying enemy surface fortifications, his own artillery has done its job perfectly, and it doesn't make much sense to continue pouring shells, it's just a waste of ammunition.
In such a state of mind, coupled with the general eagerness of the young generals for battle, Marshal Alexei decided to take a slight risk and ordered the 2nd and 3rd Divisions of the Shooting Corps to attack the enemy's positions from the southeast and northeast directions, forming a pincer offensive, with the 1st Division of the Shooting Corps and the 2nd Brigade of the Independent Armored Knights as reserves, ready for reinforcements at any time.
The luck of the 2nd Ivan Division and the 3rd Alexander Division of the Shooting Corps was not as good as that of the 1st Division, Viglaf, and when they went south, they failed to grab the vanguard and could only chase after the ass of the 1st Division and eat ashes, and the undead strongholds along the way were swept away by the 1st Division, leaving them with no opponents worth mentioning.
Although they suffered several attacks during the march, they were all easily managed without any danger, and now they finally have the opportunity to show their strength on the frontal battlefield, and everyone from the division commander to the private can't wait to show their skills.
The two armies initially advanced smoothly, encountering little decent resistance before running through the scorched earth of the craters and approaching the walls of the Dusk Bastion.
At this moment, the cannons on the walls of the fortress, which had been silent for a long time, seemed to suddenly wake up and opened heavy fire on the officers and soldiers of the Far East who were being attacked from both sides The magic crystal cannon erected on the wall of the fortress at dusk was huge, 1 caliber equivalent to the main cannon of a battleship, and the bombshell that burst out smashed on the ground and exploded into a large fireball, which quickly spread to a radius of 40 feet around, and the officers and soldiers of the Far East in the middle were either killed or injured.
The attack from the city defense battery was not accidental, Ivan and Alexander's troops had already launched a scattered line in advance, not to mention the ferocious artillery fire on the city, in fact, the real casualties were not much.
However, to the surprise of the Far Eastern generals, the shells fired by the city defense artillery were also infused with a high concentration of negative energy, and the shell explosion area was transformed into a desecration place, and the nearby Far Eastern soldiers who died were polluted by negative energy, and were transformed into zombies in an instant, struggling to get up, picking up weapons and turning around to attack their former comrades.
These undead creatures transformed by the "Cannon of the Dead City" still remember how to use their weapons in life, and the "Wind Spear" in their hands is obviously more lethal than the sword.
This wave of counterattacks came suddenly, which caught the comrades next to him by surprise and fell under the guns of the zombies.
After a brief encounter, the casualty toll was even greater than the damage caused by the city's defense artillery.
Faced with an unexpected situation, Ivan and Alexander had to suspend the offensive and ordered their troops to withdraw out of the range of the city's defense artillery and move to the defense on the spot.
At the same time, the chaplain regiment was ordered to move forward to disperse the undead soldiers who had defected with guns, so that their souls could rest in peace.
The military priest also has another important mission, which is to use his wand to perform 2 rings of "consecration" to purify those negative energy-rich craters in time to prevent corpses from turning into zombies.
On the towering head of the fortress at dusk, Clotz, wearing a cloak, stood between two city defense batteries, as if he had regained some of the demeanor of a general who commanded thousands of troops and horses before his death, seized the opportunity of the frustration of the attack of the Far Eastern troops, and decisively ordered a round of counter-charge.
Broken limbs were everywhere on the crater-strewn battlefield, and at first glance it looked as if the defenders had been shattered by the artillery of the Koras.
However, when Klautz's order was delivered, many craters appeared on the devastated position, as if by magic, and a large group of undead crawled out of the pre-dug bomb shelters, and under the control of the necromancer and the priest Naraku, they quickly assembled into an army of undead, with sensitive ghouls and highly contagious creeping derivatives as the main force, and launched a counter-charge under the cover of the "dead city cannon" in the rear.
Marshal Alexey judged the situation and calmly issued several orders: the 2nd and 3rd Divisions of the Shooting Corps held their positions; The Armoured Knights Brigade moved forward to support Ivan's division, while Viglav's division covered Alexander's division from the other direction; The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fleets of the Air Force were dispatched en masse to bomb the fortified batteries The first three orders were all contingency plans made at the beginning of the battle, and the same orders would be issued by other generals in the position of Marshal Alexei, but the last command was a camera decision made by His Excellency the Marshal through careful observation.
On the battlefield outside the Dusk Fortress, although a large number of undead soldiers lurked in the pits to avoid artillery bombardment, and now suddenly broke out of the bunkers, causing a certain degree of interference to the attacking troops, but on the whole, they could not shake the positions of the Far Eastern Army, and even if they did not send reserves, the Ivan and Alexander divisions could defeat them.
Comparatively speaking, the "Dead City Cannon" erected on the head of the Dusk Fortress City is more threatening to the attacker, not only has a long range and great power, but also attaches a necromantic magic effect, which can transform the corpses around the crater into undead creatures, and the psychological deterrence caused to one's own young officers and soldiers is even more than the actual lethality.
The "cannon of the dead city" is high at the head of the city, and the artillery of the Far East is too far away to directly bombard the battery, and if the artillery position is too close to the fortress at dusk, it will fall into the range of the "cannon of the dead city" and suffer from it.
Marshal Alexei had considered sending airship troops to bombard the enemy's city defense artillery long before launching the ground offensive, but unfortunately the dusk fortress was protected by a misty lock, and the bombs dropped by the air force would be blocked by the force field barrier, which could not cause effective damage to the city defense battery, and the aerial bombs infused with "dissociation" and specially used to destroy the force field barrier had not yet been delivered to the front line, so the plan to temporarily shelve the air attack.
Now the situation on the battlefield has changed.
In order to prevent the 2nd and 3rd Divisions of the Far Eastern Shooting Corps from seizing positions outside the city, Krautz had to order the city defense artillery to open fire.
Due to the fact that the fort was shrouded in a puzzle, Klautz had to temporarily close the force field barrier before the cannon was fired, otherwise the moment the cannon was ejected, it would be blocked by the force field wall, and it would bounce back and hurt himself.
Marshal Alexey noticed through the telescope that at the same time as the cannon sounded, the translucent force field shield around the perimeter of the twilight fortress quietly disappeared, and realizing that the opportunity was rare, he immediately instructed the commander of the air force, General Zecil: While Klautz put away the fortress shield, he immediately launched an air attack on the city defense battery: