The next two days were still peaceful, but the enemy's camp looked like a big construction site. It was very busy, and many trees were cut down and transported to the camp every day.
Claude reckoned that the enemy was definitely building a large number of siege weapons. He believed that their next attack would be like a raging wave, one wave after another. It wouldn't be easy to survive this battle.
Claude's suggestion to deal with the two golden eagles that circled above the castle every day had been carried out. A tight fishing net hung over the rooftop. Below it were a dozen lambs and a flock of chickens and ducks.
They were originally raised in the garden at the rear of the castle and were now used as bait for the two golden eagles.
The lambs and ducks that had just moved weren't used to living on the rooftop. After all, there were two natural enemies above them.
On the first day, they shivered in a corner. On the second day, they were a little better and would occasionally move around on the rooftop.
Perhaps the two prairie golden eagles didn't intend to come down, or the fishing net on the roof gave these lambs, chickens, and ducks a false sense of security, so in the evening, these chickens, ducks, and lambs began to be active and had the appetite to eat the hay thrown on the ground.
The two golden eagles above were obviously attracted by the prey on the rooftop. They kept circling above the rooftop, but they were still quite high up. They were also very cautious and didn't swoop down easily.
Skri picked a small group of soldiers with good marksmanship and set up an ambush on the surrounding walls. Their targets were the two golden eagles.
But before the two eagles fell into the trap, the enemy launched their attack.
"What's that?"
The soldiers on the defensive towers on the walls banged on the metal plates in a panic. The loud banging indicated that the enemy was about to attack the castle.
"Wargod above, they actually built three siege towers!" Captain Hemklin of the 2nd Brigade said with his mouth wide open.
He wasn't the only one. Everyone on the walls who saw what the enemy had pushed out felt as if they had seen a ghost.
Through the ruins of the village, three massive objects could be seen moving abnormally slowly in the distance.
Claude raised his binoculars and showed the true appearance of the three towers.
How should he put it? It was more like a tower-shaped building built by three bundles of logs.
The bottom section was the largest. Compared to the dozen oxen pulling the carts and the people driving them, the bottom section was about five to six meters wide and four to five meters tall. The middle section was about three meters wide and three to four meters tall, while the top section was about two meters wide and two meters tall.
On both sides of the tower were rows of solid wooden wheels. Even though there were a dozen oxen pulling the wheels, the speed was still very slow. The main reason for this was because the outside of the siege tower was made of tightly packed logs that looked very heavy.
"Prepare the cannons. The target is the siege tower at the front. Fire!"
Major Skri didn't have the time to ask for the opinions of others and directly ordered the light infantry cannons arranged in the city walls and defense towers to fire at the behemoth in front of them.
The distance of two to three hundred meters was precisely the firing range of the light infantry cannons.
The rumbling of the cannons became one, and the top of the city was filled with smoke.
Claude had no choice but to find an empty spot that wasn't covered by the smoke and continue to observe the siege tower at the front with his binoculars.
The first round of fire from the 12 light infantry cannons only hit seven or eight of their targets before the siege tower stopped moving forward.
Unfortunately, it wasn't the siege tower that was destroyed by the cannons. Claude could clearly see that the cannons that hit the siege tower only shook it slightly before taking away a piece of bark from the logs that were hit. All that was left were a few white spots on the muddy logs.
The reason why the siege towers stopped moving forward was simple. One of the dozen bulls in front of them was hit by a cannonball and fell to the ground. This caused the herd of bulls to panic. A few soldiers were pulling the bull down from the lead rope and pulling a pack horse over. They were preparing to move the bull's corpse to the side so that it would not block the path of the siege towers.
The 12 light infantry cannons on the city walls fired a total of three rounds before being forced to stop.
It couldn't be helped. The smoke covered the entire city walls and nobody could see what they were aiming at. They had no choice but to stop firing and wait for the wind to blow the smoke away.
However, after the smoke dissipated, the people on the city wall discovered that the siege tower in front of them, apart from a few dozen white dots on the logs in front of it, seemed to be in good condition.
It was useless. Although the Light Infantry Cannons could shoot up to six to seven hundred meters away, the cannonball was only the size of a fist and weighed no more than three to five kilograms. Hitting such a huge siege tower was like scratching an itch. It was completely useless … …
"Fire! Hit the oxen in front! Don't let the siege tower get close to the city walls!"
Claude yelled. He had the light infantry cannons continue firing at the oxen in front of the siege tower.
If they couldn't destroy the three siege towers, they couldn't let them get close to the city walls.
The cannons on the city walls roared once more. In just one round, more than half of the dozen oxen pulling the siege tower fell to the ground. The remaining oxen were so frightened that they ran in all directions.
As for the soldiers who were driving the bulls, one of them was killed and one was injured. The rest of them hurriedly laid on the ground and crawled behind a few broken walls.
The cannons fired another two rounds before stopping. The siege tower at the front no longer had any oxen to pull. They were either killed or ran away with their ropes broken.
Major Skri was satisfied with Claude's order. The siege tower wouldn't be a threat to the castle if it didn't get close to the city walls. "Alright, stop firing and stay alert.
If the enemy tries to move the siege tower over, fire at the oxen being pulled — "
But before he could finish speaking, he heard the sound of a cannon and a sharp whistling sound coming from afar. A cannonball swept past the front wall and smashed into the castle wall behind, causing two bricks to fall off.
He turned around and saw a cloud of white smoke rising from the second floor of the siege tower. The enemy had moved the light infantry cannons to the middle floor of the siege tower and started firing at the castle through a window.
"Take cover! Beware of the enemy's cannons!" Captain Hemklin roared as he crouched down and hid behind the battlement.
The soldiers on the city walls cleared out. None of them dared to show themselves and hid.
The enemy's three siege towers started to bombard the castle, but it was useless. They were all light infantry cannons, and the projectiles they fired could only leave small holes on the castle walls. Each siege tower had two cannons, and after five or six rounds of bombardment, they found that there was no effect, so they stopped firing.
Next, the enemy drove a herd of oxen forward to pull the siege towers forward, but they were dispersed by the cannons on the walls.
"They'll be able to eat a lot of beef for lunch now," Gume said enviously.
The enemy tried it twice in the morning, but they couldn't get the bulls to the front to pull the siege towers away because of the interception of the cannons.
Even when they pushed a few wooden carts to the front, the cannons on the walls were still able to hit the oxen effortlessly.
They were in a stalemate in the morning. The enemy's three siege towers were stuck on the street leading into the village and couldn't advance an inch.
Around two in the afternoon, the Askilinian Infantry Regiment launched a large-scale attack. They mobilized a battalion of soldiers and pushed out more than 40 newly built wooden carts. They were arranged in rows in the 100-meter open space between the village and the castle.
There were more than 15 to 16 wooden carts lined up in front of the trench. Almost the entire 50-meter wall in front of the front gate was within their effective firing range.
This time, the wooden carts they pushed to the front also had a roof. It effectively protected the soldiers behind the wooden carts from firing at the top of the wall.
While the enemy launched their attack, the enemy in the village drove the oxen to pull the siege towers at the front.
It was obvious that they launched this large-scale attack to disperse the firepower on the walls. They also used the wooden carts close to the walls to cover the soldiers firing at the top of the wall. This was to suppress the firepower on the walls and eliminate the cannons.
Today, the second brigade was in charge of defending the front gate. Captain Hemklin was very used to this kind of regular defense and offensive fighting style. His command was methodical and not flustered at all.
First, he ordered the four light infantry cannons on the two sides of the defense towers to continue to bombard the oxen in the village. He was determined to prevent the enemy from moving the siege towers.
Then, he ordered six of the eight cannons on the walls to fire solid shells at the wooden carts in front of the castle. Even if they couldn't destroy the wooden carts used as shields, they had to blast the roof off.
The last two light infantry cannons loaded canister shells from the left and right to attack from the sides. This was a nightmare for the enemy who used the wooden carts as cover to fire at the top of the wall. They could defend from the front and the top, but they couldn't defend from the sides. Every time the canister shells were fired, it caused a lot of damage to the enemy attacking from below the castle.
The soldiers of the second brigade rarely had the chance to open fire. Most of them waited behind the wall for orders.
It wasn't that they didn't want to shoot. It was just that the top of the wall was covered in smoke. It was so white that they couldn't see anything.
It was the same for the enemy. They closed their eyes and fired upwards. It was useless to aim accurately.
The twelve cannons fired continuously. The smoke was so thick that it was like a fog. Even the few cannons could only fire at the enemy's wooden carts based on their impressions.
Basically, after the cannons fired six rounds, Captain Hemklin would order them to stop firing.
The first reason was to let the cannons cool down. The second was to wait for the wind to blow away the smoke on the top of the wall so that he could observe.
At the same time, he would let the soldiers hide behind the battlements and fire accurately to suppress the enemy. He wanted to familiarize himself with this type of defense.
Because the four cannons in the defense towers on the left and right kept suppressing the enemy in the village, they didn't let them use the oxen to pull the siege towers. In the end, the enemy gave up on this idea and used the cannons in the siege towers to bombard the walls.
The four cannons in the defense towers didn't need to bombard the siege towers. No one could do anything to the other.
They could only lower the cannons to bombard the wooden carts in the open space in front of the castle. At the same time, they paid attention to the movements in the village. If the enemy planned to drive the oxen away, they would immediately turn around and bombard the village again.
All in all, the attack and defence were intense for an entire afternoon, but it was the cannons that did the talking.
Seeing that it was getting dark, the enemy left behind more than a hundred corpses and retreated. More than twenty wooden carts in the open space in front of the castle had been destroyed.
The Second Brigade on the city wall also suffered more than 20 casualties. Most of them were hit by the enemy who were hiding behind wooden carts near the city wall. Most of them were members of the artillery team. When they fired the cannons, it was easy for them to expose themselves and be shot by the enemy.
The most unlucky one was a light infantry cannon on the wall. The six cannons on the siege towers fired for more than an hour and fired more than ten rounds. Most of them either missed or hit the wall.
It just so happened that during the last two or three rounds, a fist-sized solid pellet hit the cannon and hit the barrel, injuring two members of the cannons.
For 1st Ranger Tribe, this was the biggest loss of the battle. One of their cannons had been destroyed.
Based on the number of casualties, 1st Ranger Tribe had won a great victory. The hundreds of corpses the enemy left behind were proof of that. Not counting those who escaped with injuries, the casualty ratio was around one to ten.
But as the sky darkened and night fell, the commanders of 1st Ranger Tribe didn't look too good.
Tonight, the enemy would definitely use the darkness to move the three siege towers forward.
With a distance of two to three hundred meters, the six cannons on the three siege towers posed a huge threat to the defense on the walls.
If the three siege towers were moved to a distance of seventy to eighty meters, the cannons alone would be enough to deal fatal damage to the defenders on the walls.
Once there were no more soldiers on the walls, the enemy could take the opportunity to scale the walls and attack.
If the front walls were occupied by the enemy, the enemy would be able to use their advantage in numbers to break into the castle or continue their assault along the walls. If they split up, 1st Ranger Tribe wouldn't be able to defend the castle.
The biggest threat to 1st Ranger Tribe was the three siege towers. The light infantry cannons couldn't do anything to them.
The enemy's cannons, on the other hand, were positioned in the middle of the siege towers. First, the defenders had the advantage of being on the walls. Then, with the cover of the siege towers, the cannons couldn't be destroyed.
On the contrary, they posed a great threat to the cannons and guards stationed on the walls. The cannon that was destroyed today was proof of that.
Many people suggested building wooden rafts on the walls to provide cover for the cannons and soldiers, but the castle didn't have that much wood.
So, some of them hoped to send soldiers to collect the logs from the trucks that were destroyed in the afternoon. However, Skri was worried that they would be discovered by the enemy and launch a night attack. In the end, he looked at Claude.
Claude sighed. "At night, send some soldiers out from the side gate and follow the trenches to collect the wooden rafts in front of the walls. Then, use ropes to pull them up from the bottom of the walls. There's no need to open the main gate.
The other option is to send some people. I'll lead the team and infiltrate the village to see if there's a chance to burn down the three siege towers. "