Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 167: Seizing the City Wall
After the battle plan was arranged, almost everyone received their tasks, with only one exception.

Jeanne obviously disagreed with Orville's arrangement: "I also want to lead troops to fight. Give me an army. I have the ability to fight."

Orville shook his head and said to her, "General Reserve, don't move. Just wait quietly for the situation to change before taking action. Don't rush into it. Plans can never keep up with changes. Sometimes you have to do things that don't require plans."

Jeanne pouted slightly, obviously dissatisfied with this explanation, but she would not lose her temper with Orville, so she just turned around and left silently.

Orville looked at the other person's back as he left, but he didn't have any special feelings. He didn't let the other person go up in the first batch just because he was afraid that the other person would win the jackpot and die.

There are two gifted people in Winchester City. It is unknown what tactics the other side will choose. They may act alone to delay the two attacking armies that want to attack the city, or they may form a group of two to carry out a decapitation operation and choose to kill the gifted people on Orville's side one by one.

Although Jeanne has some enhancements in physical fitness and combat power, the main direction of enhancement seems to be boosting morale and perspective. Measured by the standards of a gifted person, her combat power is very average, at a lower-middle level, and she probably can't even beat Astolfo.

The remaining gifted people, including Boudica, are all relatively strong. Even if they are outnumbered one by two for a short period of time, they can escape unscathed if they have friendly forces to cover them. Maybe Gildreth can't do that, but to be honest, Orville doesn't particularly care about the other party's life or death. After all, in history, the future will be a pedophile and a murderer, which has nothing to do with Orville. It is also human nature that Orville doesn't want to protect such a person.

If he let her go up, Orville was really afraid that Jeanna would die. That would be a huge loss, so it was better to be cautious.

…………

After all the preliminary preparations were completed, Orville was ready to order the soldiers to launch a general attack.

The massive offensive began at dawn. The feint attack troops and the main forces attacking the seven gaps gathered together and launched an unprecedented large-scale attack on the city.

The number of defenders and residents in the city was not as large as Orville had estimated. The usual small-scale offensives against one or two passes could certainly be stopped without any problem, but they did not expect that Orville would order a general offensive today, so they were caught off guard.

It took time to wake up the sleeping soldiers and residents and prepare them mentally to arm themselves, but the Romans did not give them enough time.

A large number of troops rushed to the weak links of the city like a tide. The defenders in the city soon became overwhelmed and made mistakes in a hurry and relaxed some parts of the defense. The first place to be breached was not Cuchulainn, Rollo or Belisarius, who Orwell was optimistic about, but Stilicho, who was somewhat neglected by Orwell.

He and his soldiers climbed up the gap, and he himself took the lead and chopped down the few defenders blocking the city wall like chopping melons and vegetables, becoming the first soldier to break through the Wessex defense.

After taking control of this short section of the city wall, he immediately ordered the flag-bearing soldier to go to the wall and wave the flag and report the situation on the front line of the battlefield to Orville, who was sitting firmly in the center of the army.

Information communication in ancient wars was extremely difficult, which is why so many generals chose to personally lead their troops to the forefront of the battlefield, because only in this way could they respond as quickly as possible.

Orville had been observing the situation from a small mound outside the city, so he reacted quickly and ordered the first reserve to cooperate with Stilicho's actions. Soldiers rushed to the battlefield with ladders and quickly climbed the wall by attaching ladders to the wall, thus quickly transporting troops to the controlled wall.

Stilicho did not stay where he was. After making sure he could stand firmly on a small section of the city wall, he raised his arms and shouted.

"Men! Warriors! Follow me and charge down to seize the city gate. Today is the day to achieve success and win honor!!"

The soldiers were in high spirits and shouted in unison. Then Stilicho led his powerful army into the city from the city wall, preparing to rush all the way along the wall to the city gate and cooperate with the friendly forces attacking the city gate to seize the gate.

Stilicho was the first to achieve results, and the others were unwilling to lag behind. The number of troops attacking the city walls had exceeded the critical point that the Wessex defenders could cope with, so more and more troops broke through the defense network and entered the city.

Faced with such a situation, the commander of Wessex had to divide his already valuable troops to deal with these people. After part of the troops guarding the city wall were divided, it became easier to attack the city wall.

This is a vicious cycle. Seeing the intact defense line of the city wall being cut into pieces and in ruins, it is optimistically estimated that the enemy will not be able to hold on for too long.

There are three important people around Orville now: Astolfo, who is being closely guarded by the guards, is watching the battle situation with a frown on his brow; Procopius, who is responsible for writing historical war reports, is writing furiously on a wax board; and Jeanne Dacre, who is nominally the captain of the reserve team, is trying to persuade Orville.

"I hope you can let me participate in the battle. On the one hand, you really need more forces now, and on the other hand, I have an obligation to prevent potential atrocities by your army."

Orville rejected him again: "It's not the right time yet. You need to wait for the other party's gifted person to show up. As for the latter matter, the army that is so angry about killing may not even listen to me. How many people do you think will listen to you except those Gauls?

My order is to capture the city walls, not to involve street fighting. I have tried to minimize possible bloodshed. I cannot control other things. Pay attention to my words. I cannot, not do not want to. If you have too many thoughts when marching and fighting, the result is irresponsible to your soldiers. "

Orville has always been very tolerant of Jeanne because she is a reasonable idealist who can communicate. She knows how much responsibility and pressure Orville has, so she will not be too harsh on him.

He was honest with Jeanne and told her the truth. Because of this, Jeanne knew that he had done his best and could not force her to do anything. This is when idealists feel the most powerless.

She sighed heavily and said in a muffled voice, "Okay, I understand. Tell me when there is a mission. May your God and my God bless us all."

Orville nodded slightly, then focused his attention on observing the battle situation on the front line. A large number of light cavalrymen kept traveling back and forth between Orville's headquarters and the war front, delivering intelligence to him.

(End of this chapter)