The enemy left behind 50 to 60 corpses and fled. They caused 3 deaths and 8 injuries to the defenders on the city wall. Then, the first tentative attack ended just like that.
What puzzled Claude and the others was that the enemy didn't launch a second attack for the rest of the afternoon. That was a little too strange.
Claude used his binoculars to look at the enemy camp in the distance and saw dust flying everywhere. From time to time, soldiers would cut down trees and send them in. They seemed to be building some sort of large siege machine.
Major Skree looked at the seven or eight wooden carts that were arranged messily in front of the trench below the castle and asked, "These wooden carts are just left there like that?"
"Sir, I've already sent two soldiers into the trench from the side entrance to pour oil on the wooden carts. They'll be lit at night to prevent ambushes." Dyavid said from the side.
This was a good idea. For the attackers, the night was a good time to make use of. Using the darkness to obscure the defenders' vision, they could sneak up to the enemy's position and launch a surprise attack. This was a very common method to capture the enemy's defensive position in this era.
However, 1st Ranger Tribe was currently guarding a sturdy castle instead of a fortified camp set up in the wilderness. Scaling the walls was the biggest problem for the invaders.
At night, the wooden carts arranged by the enemy in front of the trench would be lit up. This would effectively prevent the enemy from using the darkness to reach the bottom of the wall, or using the gunpowder barrels to blow up the two doors to open a path into the castle.
However, in addition to the two iron gates on the outside, there was also an iron fence hanging gate as thick as a child's arm that was lowered from the city wall two meters away from the front gate of Count Krylaus' castle.
Even if the enemy blew up the two outer gates, they would still be blocked by the iron fence and become targets for the guards.
Generally speaking, the enemy would not target the two gates. After all, the original owner of the castle, Count Leucaid Ba Krylaus, was in the enemy's camp. He would not fail to tell the enemy where to pay attention to during an attack. The two gates seemed weak, but they were actually a trap. Attacking from the gates would only result in being blocked in the doorway, and then being shot down by the defenders on the walls behind.
"Well done."
Skree nodded and praised. He looked at the corpses strewn all over the ground and asked, "Why aren't the enemy attacking anymore? They didn't even send someone to collect the corpses."
Captain Hemklin of 2nd Band replied, "Sir, it looks like the enemy won't be attacking anymore.
The first probing attack didn't force us to use the cannons and we lost so many men. That's enough to make the enemy realize that we're not easy to deal with.
"If I were the attacker, I wouldn't be able to let my men get close to the castle without the help of siege weapons. I don't want them to suffer unnecessary casualties."
Though Captain Hemklin's performance in the ambush against the Canas cavalry wasn't great and caused his brigade to lose nearly a platoon, he was mocked by Claude for being a blockhead.
He was ridiculed by Claude for being a blockhead, but he had been in the army for more than a decade and being able to climb to the rank of captain wasn't a simple feat. He was very familiar with defensive and offensive tactics and gave a perfect answer.
A while later, a platoon of the enemy came over empty-handed with a few carts carrying supplies. They were there to collect the corpses.
They moved the corpses on the ground onto the carts and pulled them back as soon as they were full.
The soldiers on the city wall watched as the enemy collected the corpses. However, when they wanted to pull the seven or eight wooden carts back, they fired a few shots at the empty space at their feet. This meant that the enemy's corpse collection team was not allowed to pull the wooden carts back.
At five or six o 'clock in the evening, the soldiers on the city wall took out two bows and used fire arrows to ignite the four wooden carts in front of the trench below the castle. The wooden carts that had been splashed with kerosene ignited thick smoke, illuminating a large area around it. From time to time, crackling sounds could be heard.
The remaining four carts could be set aside for later in the night to replace the four that were almost burnt to the ground.
Claude stayed up for most of the night and found that the enemy didn't seem to have any intention of launching a sneak attack. He wrapped himself in a fur blanket and found an empty spot in the defense tower on the walls to sleep.
After sleeping for two hours, he was woken up by the patrolling soldiers. Claude had instructed them to wake him up at five o 'clock. That was when the night watchmen were at their most fatigued. It was also the time when the enemy liked to launch a sneak attack.
It was already November and the weather was starting to get cold.
The sky was still dark and even the light from the four burning carts only illuminated an area of five to six meters around them.
Claude took a few deep breaths of the cool air and rubbed his face to wake himself up.
He walked to the top of the gate and leaned against the battlement to listen to the surroundings.
There weren't any suspicious sounds, only the sound of the wind and the burning carts. Occasionally, he could hear the mutterings of the sleeping soldiers.
It seemed that the enemy wouldn't launch a sneak attack today. The sky would begin to brighten soon and the soldiers on the walls would be able to see the enemy's every move.
There were still no signs of an attack in the morning.
Major Skri decided to send a messenger hawk to report the situation to frontline command.
What puzzled him was that frontline command hadn't sent any messenger hawks in the past two days. He didn't know what had happened.
Messenger hawks were a specialty of Aueras and were said to have a history of close to a thousand years.
At the very beginning, the magi chose countless types of birds to send letters quickly. After some comparison, they chose a type of mountain hawk unique to the eastern part of the continent. After more than ten generations of breeding, they finally produced a messenger hawk that was comparable to a carrier pigeon and could deliver letters with great accuracy.
After Aueras was founded, they accidentally obtained a magic manual on how to breed such hawks. From then on, the messenger hawk became one of the kingdom's top secrets.
However, the messenger hawk that was about to set off didn't seem to be doing well. It wasn't holding its head high like it usually did, filled with the desire to spread its wings and soar into the sky. Instead, it shrunk its head and stayed in its cage like a sick chicken, as if it didn't want to go out.
The signalman checked it again and found nothing out of the ordinary. He thought that the messenger hawk was acting this way because of the cold weather.
Major Skri handed the small silver tube containing his secret report letter to the signalman. The signalman skillfully tied the small silver tube to the Sparrow Hawk's leg. After feeding the Sparrow Hawk some fresh beef strips, he threw the Sparrow Hawk into the air, sending it on its way.
Unexpectedly, the hawk didn't spread its wings and soar into the sky. Instead, it flew close to the ground and into the distance.
The people on the walls were speechless. They didn't know what was wrong with the hawk.
All of a sudden, a soldier cried out, "T-That's a prairie hawk!"
Everyone looked up and saw two falcons circling in the sky above their heads. Their silhouettes were several times larger than the messenger sparrowhawk.
The signalman suddenly snapped out of his daze and shouted, "Oh no, my hawk …"
A prairie golden eagle seemed to pause in the air for a moment, but soon spread its wings and swooped down from the sky. The direction it swooped down was exactly the direction where the messenger hawk was hurriedly flying close to the ground. Obviously, this golden eagle had found the messenger hawk.
A few soldiers raised their muskets, but they quickly lowered them. They didn't have enough range to hit the two hawks.
Everyone on the walls now understood why the messenger hawk didn't want to come out. It had a premonition of where its natural predator was.
The golden hawk that swooped down hurriedly flew back up. It didn't manage to catch its prey. The other golden hawk circling in the sky also swooped down from the sky. The two hawks chased after the messenger hawk at the same time.
Ma Keqi stared at the two golden hawks chasing the messenger hawk and wondered, "Where did these two big birds come from? We haven't seen golden hawks in the sky before."
Major Skri sighed, "I finally understand why we haven't received any messenger pigeons from Squirrel Village and the messenger hawk from the front line command for the past two days. With these two birds here, we won't be able to contact the outside world."
The two prairie golden eagles in the distance should have hunted the messenger harrier, but to everyone's surprise, the two prairie golden eagles did not eat on the spot. Instead, one golden eagle grabbed the body of the messenger harrier with one claw, and then the two golden eagles flew to the enemy's camp and slowly landed.
There was no need to guess where these two prairie golden hawks came from. Everyone immediately understood that these two prairie golden hawks should be the pets of some territorial nobles. Now they were used to cut off the communication between the defenders in the castle and the outside world.
"Sir, what was written in the secret letter?"
Captain Hemklin suddenly thought of something and hurriedly asked Major Skri. Seeing that Major Skri still didn't understand, he pointed to the enemy's camp where the two prairie golden hawks had landed.
Major Skri finally understood. He had written a secret letter to report the situation here to the front line command, but now that the messenger hawk had been killed by the golden hawks, the secret letter had fallen into the hands of the enemy.
Captain Hemklin was worried that Major Skri would reveal the situation here in the secret letter, and the enemy would seize the opportunity to attack the castle.
"Nothing much. It mainly talked about the strength of the enemy besieging us and the confidence that they could hold on for three months. They also hoped that they would send reinforcements as soon as possible and cooperate with us to destroy the enemy …" Major Skri frowned as he recalled the secret letter he had written, wondering if there was any possibility of revealing information about the castle's defense to the enemy.
It shouldn't be a big deal. Maybe the enemy would be discouraged when they read the secret letter that the defenders were confident that they could hold on for three months.
It was already November, and three months later it would be January and February, the coldest days of the entire winter.
It was still fine in the castle since there were walls to block the wind.
But outside in the wilderness, it was practically torture. It was hard to believe that the soldiers and the pampered nobles would be able to persevere in the cold.
"We have to think of a way to get rid of those two beasts. Otherwise, we won't be able to report this to the higher-ups," Major Skri said as he stared at the two golden hawks that had taken flight again.
Even though the messenger hawk was gone, there were still about ten messenger pigeons. But as long as the two golden hawks were in the sky, the pigeons wouldn't be able to fly. They would only fall to the ground if they were thrown out. They wouldn't spread their wings even if they died.
"We can't deal with those two beasts. They've been tamed and won't come near our castle at all.
Our muskets don't have enough range to hit them unless we can lure them to within a hundred meters of the castle.
Otherwise, we'll only be able to watch them circle in the sky, "Captain Hemklin said.
"What do you think the nobles of the fief keep the golden eagles for?" Claude asked.
"It's simple. One is to show off, and the other is to hunt.
The nomadic tribes of the plains have a tradition of taming golden hawks to help them hunt.
When hunting on the grassland, a prairie golden eagle was even more useful than a hound. It could help its master hunt small animals such as hares and otters.
It's said that Grand Duke Canas has a pair of huge prairie golden eagles that can carry a hundred-pound sheep into the air … "Captain Kurdwick of the 4th Brigade had also come to the top of the wall to watch the show.
Claude snapped his fingers. "Since the nobles tamed the golden hawks for hunting, I think I have a way to lure them down."
"What is it?"
Major Skri asked impatiently. He had a deep hatred for the two Prairie Golden Eagles that had been circling in the sky all this time.
"When I was young, I used to hunt in the mountains and read many books about it.
I remember one of them saying that in order to catch big birds like geese and swans, hunters would lay a fishing net on the ground and cover it with fish and prawns.
When the birds in the sky came down to eat the fish and shrimps, the hunters would rush out and beat the drums and gongs. The panicked birds would easily sink their claws into the mesh of the nets, and the hunters would be able to catch many big birds alive without much effort.
I remember we brought back two nets when we retreated from Landers Castle, didn't we?
Those were the ones we used to catch fish in the river.
Perhaps we can use the nets to deal with the two beasts in the sky.
Of course, I don't mean to lay the nets on the ground. That's useless against the golden hawks. They won't fall into the castle. "
Claude pointed at the roof of the central castle. "I remember that the platform up there is quite big. Let's hang the nets in the air. Aren't there more than a hundred sheep in the garden? Let's put the lambs on the platform and let them graze under the nets.
If the two golden hawks in the sky find no one on the platform and there are only lambs, they won't be able to resist their hunting instincts and might swoop down to hunt the lambs.
As long as they touch the nets, they'll be entangled for a while. That's enough time for the soldiers on the walls to shoot them a few times. "
。
m.