Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 552 Siege (IV)

  [Riverside Fort/Knight's Castle]

The smoke finally dissipated, and along with it disappeared the figures of the "rebels".

Inside the Knight's Castle, the frightened soldiers of the Federation still held their weapons tightly, guarding their firing positions without daring to make a sound, and spying on the world outside the battlements.

They tried their best to open their eyes wide, as if by doing so they could see through the Plato's night.

But it was all in vain, the darkness around the fortress was bottomless and insurmountable.

Without taking a breath, after the "rebels" retreated, the commander of Knight Castle, Daly Brand, immediately began to count casualties and ammunition.

People who claim to be from the Federation living in the center of the narrow land between the two mountains always use a word with contempt when referring to the Palatine people - "border people".

And just now, the federal soldiers in the Knight's Castle experienced firsthand the ferocity of the "border people".

The four-meter-span trench was not wide enough for the Palatians, and the "rebels" set up ladders and rushed directly over.

If the ladder's load-bearing capacity was not limited, I'm afraid the "rebel" cavalry would have followed and charged into the Knight's Castle.

  Daly Brand was thankful: most of the "rebels" were not carrying ladders, but some kind of log-like object;

Most of the "rebels" did not engage in hand-to-hand combat, but instead relied on the cover built with "logs" to continue shooting at the Knight's Castle.

The rebels' "climbing the city wall" behavior did not seem like a tactic planned in advance, but more like a heroic act of individual soldiers.

After the cannons on the side walls of the fort began to roar, the rebel soldiers who were firing across the trenches also quickly retreated and disappeared into the night.

In the end, Captain Daly Brand's troops, relying on their numerical advantage, surrounded and killed the small number of "rebels" who rushed into the fort, pushed the ladders down the trenches, and temporarily defended the Knight's Fort.

Despite this, there was still wailing in the fortress.

The lightly wounded soldiers were screaming and shouting, the seriously wounded soldiers were rolling on the ground, and the new recruits who had never seen so much blood looked dazed and at a loss.

Like his subordinates, Daley Brand was also experiencing actual combat for the first time. As his tense spirit relaxed, he also felt a sense of fear.

But the training and teaching that Captain Brand received since childhood finally played a role.

Daley Brand quickly got into the situation, organizing the evacuation of the wounded while sending a messenger to the headquarters again.

But this time it was not a call for help, but an explanation of the situation.

After regaining the ability to think, Captain Brand also vaguely felt that the enemy's raid on the Knight's Castle was very much like a feint.

Because the "rebels" did not deploy enough troops, their attitude was very unresolute, and they were very unwilling to suffer casualties, as soon as the cannons on the triangular fort turned around, the rebels immediately chose to retreat, not giving the defenders' artillery a chance to exert their power.

Thinking of this, Captain Daly Brand felt very regretful.

Just now, because the noise made by the "rebels" when charging was so terrifying, he became anxious and ordered all three illumination rockets on the launch pad to be fired.

However, the Knight's Castle only had three flare rockets in total, and expensive alchemical products like flare rockets were always distributed individually, and one could only get another one after using one.

So Captain Brand now has no usable flare rockets.

If the Rebels are not making a feint tonight, then Daley Brand will need to find other lighting methods to deal with the Rebels' next round of attack.

If the "rebels" were really making a feint tonight, Captain Brand would face a more severe test - he would have to submit a report to explain why he used up three precious illuminating rockets in one go.

After careful consideration, Daley Brand decided to take a risk.

He ordered the drawbridge on the side of the fort wall facing the Ember Stream to be lowered, selected a group of reliable and brave soldiers, carried axes, lamp oil and fire, and quietly sneaked out of the Knight's Castle from the "back" of the rebels' attack direction.

……

Due to the construction period, the Knight's Castle is not very large, and it is a bit crowded to station a team of 100 people in it.

In appearance, it is roughly square, with a bastion on each of the four corners of the main structure, and a triangular bastion was added in the west and south directions.

As for the north and east sides, these two walls face the Cinders River and the Kings' Fort, so no time was wasted on the Triangle Fort.

The boundary between water and soil is the easiest to break through - the people of the Federation know this very well, so there is the Knight's Castle located on the river bank.

……

After arriving at the other side of the trench, Daly Brand did not rush to light the lamp, but instead carefully moved along the dead path toward the southwest, which was the direction from which the "rebels" launched the attack.

Just after turning the northwest corner and taking a few steps, Brand's boots hit something soft but hard.

Looking closely in the faint starlight, Daly Brand suddenly discovered that there was a headless corpse under his feet.

The clothes on the corpse were obviously not those of a soldier, so Brand guessed the other party's identity almost exactly.

Daly Brand took off his helmet and stared at his prep school classmate who died in a miserable state for a long time without saying a word.

"Be careful," he said, putting his helmet back on, and calling behind him, "Don't step on Officer Marlowe."

There was a faint rustling sound behind them, and the soldiers whispered the order.

But the hidden path was too narrow, only allowing one person to pass through. If two people crossed, they would have to walk sideways and it would be impossible not to step on Chris Marlowe's body.

"This damn dead road should be widened by another half meter," Daly Brand thought bitterly, "And this sloping embankment, can the cavalry rush directly up? How did Lieutenant Colonel Montecuccoli design it?"

Seeing the captain in a dilemma, the sergeant following Brand whispered: "Sir, how about... putting the warrant officer in the trench first? Then bury him after daybreak."

Brand made up his mind, stood up and shouted to the main fort: "Sergeant Longdley! Lower the drawbridge!"

There was a commotion behind the fortress wall, and someone timidly poked half of his head out of the shooting hole.

"What are you looking at?" Daly Brand shouted angrily, "Light the brazier! Lower the drawbridge!"

The Knight's Castle was finally lit up by fire. Previously, in order to avoid indicating targets for the enemy's guns, there was only minimal lighting inside the fortress.

After a while, a crude suspension bridge swung down from the fort wall.

Brand ordered his men to carry Chris Marlowe's body back to the Knight's Castle. After lighting the brazier, another body in the trench was revealed.

So Brand ordered his men to go down into the trench and pick up the bodies of the musketeers and Chris Marlowe's head.

Now that his whereabouts had been exposed, Daly Brand was too lazy to hide any longer. He simply lit a torch and moved openly.

Brand first climbed out of the dead path and came to the embankment.

When he got closer, he discovered that the "logs" that the "rebels" had carried to the front of the trench to serve as were not wood at all, but bundles of straw.

I guess the smoke released by the rebels before the attack was also made of wet straw.

Brand couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief—at least it wasn't alchemical smoke.

He was just wondering where the rebels got so many logs from? Were they all transported from the rear? That would be too expensive.

You know, Minister Cornelius destroyed the forests within a radius of dozens of miles. Later, the people in the province were too lazy to cut down the trees directly, so they set fire to them first, and then cut down the unburned trees after the fire was out, saving the time of cutting branches.

Minister Cornelius also sent people to burn all the easily available combustible material, wheat straw.

However, the winter wheat harvest season had just ended, and the rural areas of Palatus were covered with wheat straw. In addition, the farmers were very resistant to the behavior of the Federals, so it was normal for the "rebels" to get some wheat straw.

However, "straw can't stop lead bullets, let alone cannonballs," Daly Brand thought contemptuously, "No wonder the rebels ran away as soon as the cannons were fired."

He kicked the rebels' bunker - the rebels used straw, which saved him trouble.

Captain Brand originally thought that the rebels were carrying up logs, so he brought out axes and lamp oil.

Since it's wheat straw, it's simple.

With the torch thrown upwards, the "rebel" bunker immediately caught fire, instantly dispelling the darkness and illuminating the embankment as bright as day.

"Let's go," Captain Brand clapped his hands, "Let's go check out the sentry post."

Taking into account the possible attack direction of the enemy, when planning the hidden road, Lieutenant Colonel Montecuccoli deliberately widened the southwest corner and set up a sentry post there as the forefront of the entire defensive position.

The lieutenant colonel's judgment was very accurate. The rebels' offensive tonight was launched from the southwest.

Meanwhile, in the southwest outpost, Captain Brand saw a scene that gave him nightmares, and his good mood for burning the "rebel" bunkers disappeared in an instant.

The remains of Chris Marlowe were sad to see, but the tragic deaths of the sentinels were more than sad to see—half of the brave men specially selected by Captain Brand vomited up everything they had eaten that night.

Three sentries, all dead on the causeway.

  The "rebels"' horses were too fast, and they had no time to retreat to the main fort;

The "rebels"' swords were faster than horses, and none of the three sentinels had their bodies intact.

A sentry was almost split in half diagonally, from collarbone to waist and abdomen, with only a small piece of flesh left. All his internal organs were exposed to the air, and his slippery intestines flowed all over the ground like fat maggots.

The left arm of another sentry was missing, leaving only the shoulder. At the broken surface of the flesh, the white bone stump and pink bone marrow were clearly visible.

The sentry who lost his arm crawled for a distance in the causeway before he died. Not only his fingernails, but also his mouth was full of dirty mud. The living people present could not imagine what kind of pain would make a dying person stuff dirt into his mouth.

Daly Brand once imagined what the "Civil War" would look like in his mind - probably every Confederate soldier had imagined fulfilling Field Marshal Ned Smith's legacy and making the Union great again.

  Of course he also thought about bloodshed and sacrifice - how could there be no deaths in a war?

But it was not until this moment, when he saw the mutilated bodies of his subordinates with his own eyes, that he realized how pale his fantasy was.

Daley Brand now truly realized that war is an extremely cruel atrocity.

At the same time, he realized that the Palatine people had adapted to this cruelty earlier than the United Provincials.

The people of Palatine will never show any mercy, because for them, the civil war has already begun.

Daly Brand lowered his head and silently mourned for his dead subordinates.

But the battle will continue and he will not be able to refuse.

  He now prayed for only one thing, that when death came to him, it would be quick and good.
-

[Old Town]

[Old Castle]

The longer Jason Cornelis stayed in the old castle, the more he admired the unique vision of the ancestors of Plato.

The Old Castle - which was really the "Castle of the Kings" - was perfectly situated, high up in the sky, easy to defend and difficult to attack, like a natural artillery position.

It’s a pity that as the city grew, it was completely surrounded by residential areas and almost lost its function of resisting foreign enemies.

Fortunately, the old castle is still the highest place with the best view in the entire city, so Jason Cornelis not only set up the command post here, but also arranged an observation post on the top floor of the old Duke's Coronation Church.

At this moment, Cornelius was in the observation post.

Looking down from his position, he could see the scenery on both sides of the Ten Arrow River.

Looking west, there were some lights on the Knight's Castle, but the gunfire had stopped - Cornelius was not surprised.

The problem is that the gunfire from the south towards Margit Island has also stopped.

Moreover, the Bishop's Castle on the island was dark and dead silent.

However, on the bell tower of the monastery behind the bishop's castle, one could vaguely see someone using a red light, desperately sending a distress signal to the observation post.

Cornelius withdrew his gaze and looked at the floating bridge between the new city and the old city.

There is no permanent bridge across the Shijian River, only floating bridges.

The people of Zhuwangbao call it the Wild Goose Bridge because wild geese come in spring and leave in autumn, and the floating bridge of Zhuwangbao is only passable in spring and summer. In winter, the river begins to freeze and the bridge has to be dismantled.

At this moment, the Dayan Bridge was brightly lit and Lieutenant Colonel Lodewijk's men were boarding the ship.

But William Lodewijk's voice sounded behind Cornelius: "I don't quite understand, why me?"

"When," Cornelius asked without turning his head, "did the soldiers of the Federation start asking 'Why me' before carrying out a mission?"

"What I want to ask," Lieutenant Colonel Lodewijk said stiffly, "when did you start to trust me?"

Cornelius turned around and bowed politely: "I have always trusted you, Lieutenant Colonel Lodewijk."

William Lodewijk sneered.

"As for why I sent you to retake Margit Island, it's actually very simple," Cornelius spread his hands and admitted frankly, "Because my people can't do it."

Cornelius commented mercilessly: "No matter how good they look, new soldiers are still new soldiers. The new soldiers of the Southern Front can still play a role by guarding behind the fortress wall, firing guns and cannons. But taking the initiative to attack? The Palatine people can defeat them with a single charge."

Cornelius looked at Lodewijk: "So, your standing army is the only one that can accomplish the mission, which is why you are sent to Margit Island."

Lodewijk looked at Cornelius for a moment, said "I understand", raised his hand to salute, and turned to leave.

"Lieutenant Colonel, please stay." Cornelius called Lodewijk from behind.

Lodewijk looked back at Cornelius in confusion.

"You don't belong here," Cornelius said calmly. "You and I both know that. You are in the Castle of Kings not because you are incapable, but because you are too capable. Someone made a mess and had to send you to fill the gap. You should have had your own place in the Western Front, not in the Southern Front with a group of losers, carrying out life-threatening missions."

"What's the point of saying this now?" Lodewijk frowned.

"I want to tell you," Cornelius said calmly, "If we can survive this siege, I will make sure you regain your place in the Western Front. I have the ability to do this, you don't have to doubt it."

William Lodewijk's brows furrowed even more tightly, and he curled his lips, "General, if you have just won some respect from me, now you have wasted it."

  After saying that, Lodewijk turned around and left without saluting.
-

[Margit Island]

[Bishop's Castle]

"These bastards from the Federation," a soldier reported to the lieutenant angrily and anxiously, "nailed all the cannons while running away."

Looking at the boat coming toward him from downstream, the lieutenant said softly, "Then we will have to fight without cannons."

  [The bridge between the east and west cities of Kingshold appeared once in the previous article. At that time, it was called Crow Bridge. I mentioned Matthias Korwen’s name because Korwen is a crow.]

[However, considering the characteristics of a floating bridge, it is more appropriate to call it Dayan Bridge]

[The previous article has also been modified]