CHAPTER 21
The symbol of the Diamond Legion was a simple yet strange nine-sided diamond. After Da Vinci designed it, the generals, large and small, didn’t quite understand it, but they still gave their approval and support. At least it was better than the toads and rams on some other military flags.
As the army and Luka City began to get used to each other’s presence, news finally came in fast through a messenger— they had spotted small dots on the horizon along the coast, clearly a fleet coming from the west.
The French were coming!
When Hedy heard the news, although she felt some anxiety and unease, she quickly arranged for everyone to prepare according to the first plan they had agreed upon.
Over the past two months, they had spent a lot of time reinforcing the city walls and fortresses, even designing lighthouse-like signal transmission devices along the coastline.
Luka City was the first line of defense for Florence.
No matter the situation down south in Rome— many things couldn't be read in the newspapers— at least in the northwest, they had to prepare for battle at a faster pace.
In addition to the able-bodied men who volunteered from within Luka City, Florence had sent two thousand reinforcements. When counted carefully, the Diamond Legion was nearly ten thousand strong.
Hedy instructed her second attendant to convey the orders, and soon the city was filled with the sound of bells signifying assembly and alert. The sound was deep and resonant, with a rolling, wave-like echo as if a flock of ravens was circling above the city.
The war was really about to begin.
She sat in the lord’s seat, gathering all her mental energy to deal with the various tasks at hand.
Earlier, when accompanying Da Vinci and Lorenzo to the east to conquer the territories of the Roman Papacy, she had mostly served as a medic and support officer in the rear. Even doing this had earned the respect of many corrupt and arrogant men.
During that time, she also took advantage of the opportunity to observe how people in this era waged war and confronted each other— rigid, stiff, and unchanged.
Hedy had once been full of doubts about these matters and, for a long time, could not understand them.
Whether it was the war against a particular country or the arrival of foreign reinforcements, people seemed to act as if they had no thoughts at all, mechanically and rigidly attacking and defending cities.
— In an assault, it was all about setting up ladders, using catapults to break down defenses, or launching various projectiles, arrows, and cannons. The focus was on breaking the city gates’ defenses to lead the army into the city and take full control of it.
On the defending side, it often seemed that all they knew to do was shoot from the city walls or pour oil, and even the processing of battle reports was slow, like a group of old men fighting a war.
After observing for a long time, Hedy gradually realized something. The biggest gap between herself and these medieval warriors and commanders wasn’t their level of education, but the amount of information they could receive.
This seemingly invisible, yet extremely lethal, point was the key.
As a modern person, she had grown up with radios and black-and-white televisions in the 20th century, and the development of newspapers and magazines was something ancient people could never have imagined.
Messages from Britain, the United States, and Germany could be quickly communicated via radio, and even ordinary civilians who didn’t participate in wars were exposed to vast amounts of information every day.
Much of this information had been accumulated over thousands of years.
From the vocabulary of modern English and Latin to the knowledge of chemistry, physics, and medicine, the valuable knowledge she possessed was far more precious than the gold and jewels sewn into the maid's skirt.
Napoleon’s flexible strategies, the careful thinking behind the Normandy landing—she had unknowingly absorbed so much knowledge. Now, returning to five hundred years ago, many things had returned to a state of chaos and silence.
But as long as Hedy remained clear-headed and cautious, these memories in her mind could have the effect of reversing history.
— How terrifying.
The French army did not rashly come to harass; their fleet had been traveling at sea for a long time and was somewhat scattered.
In theory, after gathering, they should have begun preparations for an offensive, including setting up camps, assembling catapults, and taking inventory of their forces.
However, when the two fleets reached the bay outside Luka City, they quickly realized something was wrong.
— There wasn’t a single tree in sight.
What was left for them were only bare stumps and sharp, useless rocks.
The lord of Luka City had long instructed her thousand mercenaries to cut down every tree in the vicinity that could be used for building materials or fuel, leaving even the dead branches and bushes behind.
When the French army arrived, it was clear they couldn't find anything to help them build their camps. They had been mobilized by Duke Bourbon, with nearly 30,000 men in total, but only about 5,000 had managed to land so far. The rest would likely take another three or four days to arrive.
These 5,000 men couldn’t just sleep on the beach. After some thought, the old general decided to have them camp a mile or so from the castle.
However, as the troops began to move forward, a laugh echoed from the distant mountains, where people lay hidden in the wild grass.
"Boom—Crack!"
"Boom—Bang! Bang! Bang!"
As a horse or some unlucky soul stepped onto the designated spot, the ground began to erupt in a series of violent explosions. Even the huge rocks were instantly lifted by the shockwave, thrown into the air like cannonballs, and crashed back down with a heavy thud!
Countless dirt and debris exploded into the air like a crazed wave, as though some invisible monster was roaring and thrashing its tail.
"Help—!"
"What is this thing?!"
"Retreat! Retreat!"
"No retreat! Keep moving forward!"
The commanders' voices were drowned out by the deafening explosions. The soldiers, who had once stood in formation, now scattered in chaos, either fleeing or advancing on their own accord. The few groups of soldiers became nothing more than a pile of sand scattered across the battlefield.
The sounds of screaming, crying, and wailing mixed together, with some soldiers clutching severed limbs or broken bones as they attempted to crawl toward the ships.
What was even more terrifying was that they had no idea where the next landmine might be.
Some were caught in the act of retreating, stepping on another mine, and both their horses and themselves were sent flying into the air, their heads shattered into pieces.
Others tried to run forward, but stepped on the detonators, and their screams never had a chance to escape before they were consumed by the explosion, vanishing into the dust.
The explosions were like fireworks on New Year's Eve, one after another. The scorching heat waves could burn the skin.
As the vanguard suffered heavy losses, the remaining ships arrived one by one, but they were clearly hesitant.
They didn’t understand why such fierce fighting was taking place by the sea, nor why there were so many terrifying explosions.
Even if the sea winds were strong, they could still hear the sounds clearly from a distance—it was like something out of a nightmare.
Hedy stood atop a tall hill, with Luris and Leonardo by her side.
"Sixty-five," the man said, holding a sheet of paper and marking an "X" on a red dot on the ground.
Hedy looked down at the panicked soldiers fleeing below, rubbing her brow. "What if they all get scared and run back? Then we won’t need to fight at all."
"Not necessarily." Luris said arrogantly, watching the retreating French soldiers. "They’re full of ambition, thinking they can march all the way to Rome."
"Speaking of which," she turned to Hedy, her tone laced with suspicion. "Do you think this declaration of war was the idea of Duke Bourbon and his wife, or was it the little king’s doing?"
Hedy shrugged and then, from a distance, came another dull explosion.
"Sixty-four." Leonardo shook his pen and made another mark.
"I don’t even know what the little king looks like," she said with genuine nostalgia for the days of television and magazines, her tone softening. "I just hope he’s an only son, spoiled by his father."
Leonardo’s mines had been designed and even tested before he met Hedy.
In an era with such a lack of knowledge and information, people lived their lives as if they were worms—busy and numb—but Leonardo seemed to be curious about everything.
When Hedy first found the design of a flying machine in his blueprints, the description of the mine wasn’t far from it. He had a novel understanding of both the flying machine and the internal workings of the mine.
Though Hedy had no idea what the correct way to make a mine was, his trial-and-error approach had produced some impressive results.
The difference was, if he hadn’t met Hedy, his creative ideas might have never earned the approval or promotion of the lords.
After the formula for black powder was perfected to its golden ratio, many of the weapons were upgraded and strengthened.
At least for now, just the mines buried in advance on the beach were enough to keep the French army occupied for two to three days.
Some had already tried to ride horses into the sea.
For three whole days, the thunderous sounds of explosions rang across the coastline, as if the spring of May were being struck by the fury of a summer storm.
The French ships were lined up in a long formation near the bay, with some even turning around and retreating.
They were completely stunned—