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The sudden change of the scene left Ryder, Ham, and others dumbfounded. They could not see the cannons firing in unison in the valley, only hearing the continuous booming of artillery. However, they could clearly see every move of the musketeers.

These people merely held something resembling a long stick in front of them, pressed a small trigger, and a burst of flame followed by a loud explosion erupted, causing the fierce cavalrymen to fall off their horses one by one.

“Lord Lynn, what exactly is this weapon? Is it powered by magic?” Ryder asked curiously.

“No, I would say this is the power of technology!” Lynn replied with a smile.

“Technology?” Ryder paused, his expression puzzled.

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“Exactly!” Lynn nodded. “To put it simply, whether it’s a musket or a cannon, it ultimately comes down to throwing stones with greater force!”

Ham, who was eavesdropping nearby, had a very strange expression, thinking that this mysterious gentleman must be joking. How could such a terrifying weapon be related to throwing stones?

Philip and others also had a mixed expression of laughter and helplessness, yet they could not refute Lynn’s words, for he was not wrong. The principle of a musket was indeed to use the impact force generated by fire and explosions to hurl projectiles!

“So, what do you make of it now?” Lynn asked earnestly, straightening his expression.

“The number of our musketeers is still too few. If those cavalrymen hadn’t retreated, they might indeed have charged through…” Orlando said thoughtfully.

The effective range of the flintlock musket was only about eighty to ninety meters, which for cavalrymen was merely a matter of charging through. Had it not been for the deterrence of both cannons and muskets scattering their courage, it might have resulted in significant casualties.

“The firing rate is this thing’s biggest drawback. It would be great if we could load two or even three bullets at once!” Orlando remarked wistfully.

Philip shook his head, feeling that the flintlock musket was already a near-perfect creation. If it could fire multiple shots, a skilled marksman would surely be more formidable than many Wizard Apprentices, even some first circle Wizards.

…

“Don’t panic, the followers of the Evil God won’t be rampant for long. The great Lord of the Stars is watching over us from the Divine Kingdom, and those who bravely fight and die will gain eternal glory in His Divine Kingdom…”

On the other side of the battlefield, Rickman the Duke shouted loudly, striving to maintain the order of the legion, yet his voice trembled slightly, clearly not as calm as he appeared on the surface.

At this moment, Rickman was truly stuck in a difficult situation.

Since this operation involved the throne, when he had previously assembled a large army to march south to suppress a rebellion, he had done so with the determination to spare no effort, not only bringing along a contingent of nobles’ personal troops but also a cavalry force of two thousand men.

Such a force was something overkill against a mere slave miner uprising; it was sufficient even for a campaign against another kingdom!

Who would have thought that among those ragged slaves, thousands of well-trained regular soldiers would suddenly appear, wielding strange weapons, utterly routing his cavalry, with Wizards even involved, bombarding them with magic…

The panicked cavalry, eventually managing to return to their lines, did so at the cost of nearly half their number in casualties.

Most people perished under the fire of muskets and cannons, but many also fell to the trampling and collisions that occurred as their comrades fled…

Seeing the miserable state of these people, Joyce’s forehead was covered with cold sweat, thankful that the impetuous Johnson had taken a hit for him, otherwise, he would have been the one dead on the battlefield by now.

But before Joyce could feel relieved, Rickman had already grabbed him by the collar and fiercely said, “Earl Joyce, is this the miner’s revolt you spoke of?”

With so many Wizards and an army of thousands appearing simultaneously in the earldom, mixed with those rioting miners, it was impossible for Joyce, as the lord, to be unaware!

And thinking about it now, how could some disorganized miners possibly drive Joyce, the lord, out of his own territory? It was clear that the devotees of the Evil God had provided support from behind!

All this intelligence, and Joyce had not mentioned a word; Rickman couldn’t help but suspect that the other party was a spy sent by the second prince, no wonder he sat in the capital, utterly unhurried.

The nobles present almost wished they could flay Joyce alive on the spot.

Facing the Grand Duke’s interrogation, Joyce was at a loss for words, as he genuinely knew nothing about the force behind these miners.

“Now is not the time to assign blame, Rickman. Let’s think of a way to end this battle first, and we’ll settle the accounts slowly later…” Archbishop Nord spoke gravely, his Priests erecting solid Divine Barriers behind him to block the incoming cannon fire.

But they clearly could not cover every part of the battlefield, only managing to protect a small area in the center.

The continued sound of cannon fire made Nord extremely anxious; could the Wizards’ magic be unlimited?

Rickman, irritated, pushed Joyce away, and then calmed his emotions a bit before speaking seriously, “Archbishop Nord, do you have a way to use Divine Arts to eliminate those Wizards hiding in the valley?”

This was the key to breaking the situation!

As for those holding strange weapons in the musketeer squads? After the initial shock, Rickman quickly noticed a flaw in these weapons: their range was less than a hundred meters.

Once the Cavalry squad crossed this distance, the weapons in their hands could no longer penetrate armor, and the musketeers would immediately cease fire.

And the effective firing distance of a longbow is about a hundred and thirty meters; they could completely take advantage of the longbow’s range, counterattack with arrows from a distance where their opponents couldn’t reach them.

Then the heavily armored infantry with shields would slowly advance, distracting those men, while the remaining thousand or so Cavalry, attacking from both flanks, would drive the miners together, squeezing the internal musketeer squad, disrupting their actions…

Rickman, experienced in war, was undoubtedly sharp, and after calming down, he quickly thought of a counterstrategy. But the most significant challenge was stopping these spherical projectiles that kept flying out of the valley; otherwise, their longbowmen couldn’t maintain their positions.

Nord pondered what kind of Divine Arts could travel hundreds of meters and still retain enough potency.

“We can beseech the great Lord to bring down the Judgement of Doomsday, with the eternal Purgatory Fire to incinerate everything, but… we need some time to gain the Lord’s mercy!” Nord said slowly.