Translator: Cinder Translations
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The survey team from Weis Academy joined the First and Third Regiments as they moved south, setting up camp at Bailan Fortress on June 10.
To apply pressure on the Kent family as quickly as possible, the Alden army's artillery soon began its bombardment.
The artillery units from both regiments, along with an independent artillery battalion, lined up over 20 cannons and unleashed their firepower on Bailan Fortress.
Sir Valentine, the leader of the Kent family's knights responsible for defending Bailan Fortress, had received news of the Alden army's southern advance early on. He immediately sent a fast horse to Sente to report, and until the Duke responded, he had to hold Bailan Fortress at all costs.
After the First Battle of Biddeburg, the Alden army did not disband as expected. Instead, they quickly occupied the northern part of Emden, shocking the upper echelons of the Kent Duke's faction.
Fortunately, the heavily fortified Bailan Fortress thwarted their attempt to capture all of Emden, allowing the Duke to breathe a sigh of relief. Losing the Kent family's ancestral home would have been an ultimate humiliation—having already lost half of it was quite shameful enough.
Later, even though Alden experienced internal turmoil, the Alden army stationed in Emden did not withdraw. The high-ranking officials in Sente reassessed Alden's strength, realizing that apart from the over a thousand troops in Emden, the Grayman family still had considerable reserves in the territory.
TL Note: Anti-Kent Alliance & Anti-Usurper Coalition maybe used interchangeably.
In May, when the "Anti-Usurper Coalition" regrouped, it was noted that the Grayman family was absent. The lords in Sente inferred that Grayman's remaining forces, due to the previous upheaval, were reluctant to act, and the troops in Emden were not moved.
In theory, the Kent family's spies had only stirred up a minor riot, quickly quelled. How could this hold up Alden's remaining forces?
In fact, the spies did not need to organize multiple subsequent riots at great risk. They simply exploited the impact of the initial riot.
Rumors, somewhat embellished based on facts, spread through streets, alleys, taverns, and teahouses, growing more exaggerated with each telling.
Alden Town, guided by the principle of "nipping danger in the bud," swiftly began investigations and organized troops for martial law. Until the truth was uncovered, how could they discern what was real?
After observing for over half a month and confirming no significant movement from Alden's forces, the Duke's residence formulated a plan: After the southern mercenaries arrived, they would strike down Earl Parker and other lords before Grayman could intervene, and then address Grayman's forces.
However, the Duke's residence was shocked to find that Grayman's trump cards were even more numerous than anticipated. Within a month of being bogged down, Grayman managed to strike back—landing at Fishtail Town upstream on the Weis River.
Currently, Sir Valentine was preoccupied with holding Bailan Fortress. This was the ancestral home of the Duke's family, and if it fell into enemy hands, he would have no face to meet the Duke, even if the Duke did not blame him—death would be the only way to atone.
Sir Valentine had participated in the First Battle of Biddeburg and had been deeply impressed by the Alden army's firepower.
When he was first assigned to guard Bailan Fortress, he had attempted to organize troops to subdue the northern part of Emden but had quickly retreated under the power of their thunder hammers and crossbows.
Sir Valentine always believed he had lost due to the formidable power of the thunder hammers and crossbows—even though Alden's crossbows had only fired a round before charging in with bayonets for close combat.
Since then, the knight had resolved to remain in Bailan Fortress, making no moves as long as Alden did not initiate conflict. With his current force of less than two thousand men, he had no choice but to avoid making mistakes rather than seeking achievements.
However, Sir Valentine was confident in defending Bailan Fortress. As the castle where generations of the Kent family had resided, its defensive capabilities were among the best in the NorthWeistern Bay.
Expanded by successive family heads, the castle's outer wall rose to 12 meters high with a top width of 10 meters. Unlike other walls, which were merely covered in bricks with earthen filling inside, Bailan Fortress's walls were entirely made of massive stones.
Surrounding the castle was a wide moat, with several deep ditches dug outside it.
Alden's army had previously attempted to attack Bailan Fortress, but the moat and ditches prevented the use of mortars. They had to rely on 6-pound and 12-pound cannons, achieving limited results.
And now, they were back again.
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Nick and his classmates had created a rangefinding instrument and were experimenting with it on the artillery positions.
The device featured a horizontal beam supported on the ground, adjustable in height, with a thin "arm" extending horizontally from each end. Viewed from above, one arm was fixed perpendicular to the beam, while the other could rotate left and right around the beam's endpoint.
"Two points and a line, two points and a line…"
The artillerymen first used the fixed arm on the left to aim at the distant gate of Bailan Fortress. When the front and rear ends of the fixed arm aligned with the gate, the aiming was considered complete.
"Two points and a line…"
Chanting, the artillerymen moved to the right side of the beam, gently adjusting the rotating arm to align its front and rear ends with the gate.
The beam was one meter long, known as the "baseline." Theoretically, by measuring the angle between the rotating arm and the beam, the straight-line distance from the fixed arm to the target could be determined.
However, reality showed a small discrepancy from theory.
Near targets were manageable, but as the target distance increased, moving one meter left or right along the baseline made the angle changes too minute to discern with the naked eye.
"Excuse me, sir, but this device of yours…"
The artillerymen involved in the testing smiled wryly, hesitating to speak further.
Nick scratched his head, also smiling awkwardly. After careful calculation, the tangent of an 89-degree angle is approximately 57.28996. With a one-meter baseline, it could only measure about 57 meters. The tangent of 1000 corresponds to an angle of 89 degrees, 56 minutes, and 34 seconds. The angle change from 57 meters to 1000 meters was so subtle that the naked eye and the crude rotating arm couldn't handle it.
It truly exemplified Earl Grayman's lesson—"A tiny error can lead to great deviations."
Joyce, standing behind him, patted Nick's shoulder: "Don't be discouraged. This rangefinding method is theoretically sound. I believe it can be improved with some technical adjustments."
Having recently brushed up on trigonometric functions during the march, Joyce was confident in Nick's method.
Nick turned and said, "Thank you, Mr. Joyce. At this stage, we might increase the baseline length to improve accuracy. One meter is too short. If we extend it to 15 meters, it should be sufficient for the current effective range of the cannons."
Joyce shook his head: "15 meters? Are you sure? Constructing such a long beam would be very inconvenient."
"We can split the rangefinder into two parts and ensure they are aligned using the two-point method."
"Oh? Let's give it a try!"
(End of the Chapter)
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