"Artillery is called artillery, why call it Thunder Caller? I thought they would have a flashy name like the Massacre Light Cannon~ You know, people who try too hard to show off will eventually get what's coming to them, right?" - Speaking of which, I'm still very scared of cannons.

We're at war, hmm, even though we're at war, I'm still hiding in the tent with Sasha, avoiding the early autumn chill.

Don't want to get up, don't want to work, don't want to command everyone~~~

"Honey, aren't you getting up yet?"

"I don't know who's wagging their tail and holding onto me~"

"But I'm cold..."

"Alright~ I'll lie down for a bit longer, it's only six thirty."

It took two days for the transport carriage from Night Fall Town to arrive here, but I can reach here in less than a day on a fast horse. The kingdom's army, dragging their cannons, would probably take two days to get here. However, the scouts have likely already discovered the gathering of the monster horde.

"Raul, we've found the vanguard's movements, want to take a look?"

"How far are they from us?"

"Estimated to be a day's journey."

"No need to rush, let's wait for them here~"

I'm casually spinning my finger around for the little snake to follow while answering Simmon outside the tent without any panic. The reason might be that I have a broad-mindedness. My wife snuggles up to me and quietly absorbs the warmth.

Not long after Simmon left, the noise outside became a bit noisy.

"Darling, what's happening outside?"

"Probably my sisters and the orcs arguing, right?"

"Don't they get along well?"

"It's not that great, at most they can guarantee not to fight."

"Well... let them go."

The focus of the argument between Medusa and the orcs was: the orcs think that Medusa's tail is an ominous thing, while Medusa thinks that the orcs' appearance is too ugly. If we talk about ominous, it's clearly Nephila who looks the most ominous, but surprisingly, the orcs are very respectful of Nephila, perhaps because she has shown the ability to instantly chop down four trees...-

While I was thinking, the tent started shaking. Could it be that they're starting a fight?

Uh... don't flip the tent over!

"Gah?"

The Thunderbird has arrived, and to greet us, it's holding up the tent with its beak.

"Oh!"

"Don't, don't look!"

I'm not wearing clothes, and neither is my wife, so it's instinctive shyness.

"Raul, everyone is waiting for you to dig a hole."

"I also have something to ask about the production of the new weapon."

"We still haven't decided on the deployment of our werewolf troops..."

"Gah gah~"

I understand, I should get up...

The Thunderbird has nineteen bullet wounds all over its body, it's really impressive that it managed to fly here. It seems like the kingdom wants to leave no living evidence of the Thunderbird, but it desperately escaped and then found us gathered together. Just sigh, the Thunderbird really doesn't know who it poked. Let Simmon figure out a way to give it a shock, then treat its wounds, and let's start preparing for battle.

The kingdom's strongest long-range unit is the artillery, there's no doubt about that. Perhaps magic is powerful, but when facing infantry cannons with a range of up to seven hundred meters, that little bit of casting distance for magic seems quite laughable. Concentrating forces and setting up formations for attack can indeed prevent being picked off one by one by well-trained mages, but then they have to face the powerful artillery fire, it has its pros and cons.

However, compared to them, I am still ahead by two centuries. The most effective way to resist artillery fire is by digging trenches.

So, I decided to dig a large trench that would span almost the entire southern plain.

"We workers have power, each day we work diligently..."

"Honey, stop singing..."

"Ah, I didn't expect this work to be so tiring."

"Isn't it just better to leave it to the orcs?"

"Wife, this is leading by example, only by doing so can we truly contribute to the war."

I grabbed my wife and together we dug the soil with shovels. There were also orcs, Night Fall Town residents, andwerewolves working alongside us. We dug the trench for the entire morning, and the progress was faster than expected. The werewolves and orcs were already lying in the trench, drinking, while we were still covered in dirt.

By half past noon, everyone finally gave up and handed the work over to the orcs. We each made our own fires and started cooking. Sitting across from Wolfrang, I adjusted the height of the cooking pot for porridge, and we started chatting.

"Raul, just how powerful are those cannons from that kingdom? Do we really need to hide underground?"

"Well, how should I put it... See this length?"

I gestured with my hand, indicating approximately one meter, the measurement units in this world were quite inadequate.

"And then?"

"Then, the cannonballs can travel seven hundred times this length. And the cannonball is even bigger than your fist."

"Oh my..."

"When I was in the kingdom before, I saw their cannons. They could fire three shots in a minute, very fast."

"So, how many cannons do they have?"

"I don't know, but there must be at least eighty."

"Eighty cannons aren't that many..."

Wolfrang scratched his head and started calculating.

"Alright, let me help you. How many werewolves are there?"

"Four hundred."

"And how many orc warriors are there?"

"Six hundred."

"So, you have a thousand people attacking their eighty cannons, with over ten thousand people protecting them. There will certainly be more than eighty casualties on the way. Eight hundred people could die charging in."

"So, we are destined to lose?"

"That's why we need to defend first and then attack."

Before me stood an army of less than two thousand monster humans, facing the kingdom's vanguard army of fourteen thousand, a seven-fold difference in troops. If I were to let everyone charge into the vanguard's position, I'm sure we could achieve a victory at a high cost, but what I needed was absolute victory, with minimal casualties and maximum damage.

"Wolfrang, don't worry, in just three days, I can defeat them."

I looked up at the sky, assuring him with great confidence.

"I hope so... Oh, by the way, Raul, your wife is cooking, wouldn't you like to taste it?"

"Her cooking is more like an entertainment activity. If you want to eat, I won't stop you..."

"Honey, look at this food, can we eat it?"

Sasa held a small pot with a mixture of bread, cheese, wild berries, and lean meat. This was a major improvement; initially, she could burn anything in the pot into a charred mess.

"Here, Wolfrang, give it a try."

"It looks quite delicious."

My wife watched as Wolfrang agreed to try her dark cooking and was very excited. So I said, cooking was an entertaining activity for her.

"Mmm...well...not bad."

"Alright, Wolfrang, have a smoke."

I handed him a cigarette to help alleviate the taste in his mouth.

"Honey, you should try it too~"

"Mhm, let me have a taste."

Seeing the excitement on my wife's face, I took a sip of the pudding-like food.

"How is it? It must be up to your standards now, right?"

"Compared to me...it's howitzer far we are off. As far as the military cannons can shoot, that's how much we fall short~"

"How far exactly?"

"Pretty close~"

That's right, the sound of artillery was indeed getting closer.

Before the sun set, we finished all the preparations. The north side of the arc-shaped trench was piled with earth as a cover. As long as we stayed in the trench, facing the flat-shooting infantry cannons, we shouldn't suffer much damage except for some dirt in our mouths.

A total of 370 human fighters directly participated in the Night Fall Town battle. Each of them was equipped with a rifle. The Succubi had 197 members participating, ensuring that each member had a usable gun. There were 13 Medusa fighters and 400 werewolf fighters. The orcs had 600 fighters, and the Thunder Birds were still deciding whether to participate with their entire flock.

Including myself, the coalition forces amounted to a total of 1,581 people. Tomorrow, we would face 14,000 Kingdom vanguard troops in battle.

Before going to sleep, I once again inspected all the deployments with a torch and contemplated the possible tactics of the Kingdom artillery.

The Kingdom's regular forces, one of the three elites, were known as the "Thunder Callers" by the people because their weapons made thunder-like sounds. In other words, they were artillery. I was deeply impressed by the flat-shooting infantry cannons produced by the Kingdom. The main reason was the size of the shells, which, if converted to the millimetre units commonly used nowadays, would be around 150. Thanks to the highly efficient gunpowder made from explosive stone ore, it would undoubtedly be easy to pierce several werewolves' bodies within 700 meters.

And facing a direct hit from such a cannon, the final fate of any powerful magician would be the same - their proud barrier would be pierced. It was precisely because of the power of artillery that the Magic Council had strict control over this type of weapon. For Bo Shi, the turning of each of his three trump cards required consultation with the Magic Council.

I had difficulty falling asleep at night and caressed my wife's smooth shoulder in the darkness.

Tomorrow, the real war would come, and the shells didn't discriminate. Everyone's life and death would be determined by fate.

Even if I tried to be open-minded, I would still worry about solid black shells plowing through the panicked crowd, creating a bloody alley...

Would the trenches be useful in the end? Would my planned steps go as intended?

"Sasa, kiss me."

On the night before the war broke out, my wife used her tempting body to drive away my weakness and anxiety. The intertwining of our bodies was a process that deepened our memories and also confirmed that at this moment, we were both alive.

Love in the midst of war turned out to be more precious than the stamens of saffron.

At exactly eight o'clock the next morning, our tent was once again flipped over, but this time, it was mischievous shells causing the disturbance.

My wife hastily put on a black cloak, and I grabbed my pants and snatched the binoculars from Simmon's hands. The vanguard troops weren't as gentlemanly as the 18th-century European armies; they didn't even give a final ultimatum before the first round of ranging artillery fire.

"Wife, wait for me in the trench."

"Got it."

The vanguard's flanks are the blue border defense forces, with regular army formations in the center and artillery at the rear, and not just 80 artillery pieces. Within the red and blue army formations, I also spotted a splash of brightness—the Sunset Cavalry regiment.

"Simmon, tell everyone to go to the trench, keep the cannons firing, and don't come out."

"But you be careful yourself!"

"Hmm, hurry up."

The second round of artillery fire was much more accurate than the first round, but there were no casualties. Everyone quickly crawled into the trenches, with many orcs still holding half-eaten breakfast.

"Raul, is this the human artillery?" The orc lord asked me with a shocked expression, bits of dirt still on his eyelids.

"Yeah, now do you think any warrior can withstand the cannon?"

"Nobody can withstand it! Do you know how long these cannons will keep firing for?"

"I don't know, but just make sure everyone stays inside."

"Sigh!"

The orc lord stooped down and walked away. Wolfrang's brother came running from the west.

"Raul, what kind of magic is this for the kingdom?"

"This is the cannon, not magic!"

"T-then what should we do? We can't go out at all!"

"If we can't go out, then we'll just hide here. Eat if we need to eat, smoke if we need to smoke."

"What?"

"Don't worry, they can't hurt us."

As soon as I finished speaking, a shell blasted through the mound above our heads, showering us both in dirt. I quickly helped him brush off the soil that had fallen into his hair.

"Hurry back, and if you're really scared, just lie down in the trench!"

"Oh no!"

Wolfrang's brother was both frustrated and helpless. He had originally planned to face off against the kingdom and settle things, but instead got bombarded by shell after shell. Anyone would be frustrated in his shoes.

As I listened to the deafening sound of artillery, my wife practically slithered over to me with a low-profile movement and uttered the most carefree words ever.

"Honey, the booming sounds are from the cannons, right?"

"Yeah."

"So, were you saying yesterday that the food I made was bad..."