"Take it easy. Don't think about firing a few more times. I'd rather you guys slow down and aim more carefully. I don't want any accidents to happen.
Mazik, keep an eye on them. I'll go take a look at the tower over there. "
Claude watched as the red-hot metal ball was stuffed into the muzzle of the cannon. The gunners took aim again and fired.
Green smoke billowed out of the muzzle as the shell whizzed through the air and smashed into the middle layer of the rightmost siege tower 80 meters away.
In the frame of the monocular, he could clearly see that there was an obvious vibration in the middle layer surrounded by the logs.
"Yes, let's do it like that. We don't need to fire too hard. We just need to be more accurate." Claude waved his hand excitedly.
After resting for two days, the enemy regrouped and launched another assault on the castle. The ones defending the walls were First and Fourth Brigade.
The wooden rafts that were originally built on top of the city wall had been smashed into pieces by the six cannons on the three siege towers. However, the sacks of mud piled up on top of the city wall gave the soldiers better cover. The enemy's cannons couldn't destroy these sacks, only the canister bullets could pose a threat to the exposed soldiers.
Thanks to the accurate shots of the soldiers, the enemy lost all will to fight and retreated after another 40 or so corpses.
Only the six cannons on top of the three siege towers continued to bombard the city walls in vain.
A few wounded soldiers were hurriedly sent to the infirmary by the medics. Dyavid came to Claude's side. Just as he was about to say something, the sack beside him shook and mud splattered everywhere. The two of them were covered in dirt.
Needless to say, a cannonball must have hit the sack of mud.
"Ptooey!
Ptooey! "
Dyavid spat out a few mouthfuls of mud and looked at the three siege towers in the distance. "Sir, without those three siege towers, the enemy won't be able to get close to our walls."
Claude brushed the mud off his head. "I know. I'm testing it now. Be patient.
What were our casualties just now? "
"Four of us from 1st Brigade were injured, while 2 from 4th Brigade were killed and 7 injured. They were all from the enemy's grapeshot …" Dyavid shook his head. "I told them to hide and use the gaps in the sacks to shoot, but some idiots forget. They think it's inconvenient to aim in the gaps of the sacks, so they like to set up their muskets and shoot from there.
In the end, it was too late for us to dodge the enemy's cannons … "
"But the enemy's attack today doesn't seem to be as fierce as yesterday. This time, they retreated in less than half an hour …"
"Yeah, I think so too."
Dyavid laughed. "Yesterday, the enemy didn't even manage to break through the walls. Instead, they suffered heavy casualties. Today, it looks like they're just playing around. They're not charging fiercely, and most of them are hiding behind wooden carts.
It is all your doing, sir, for your cannonade was so ingenious, unlike that old fool, Captain Hemklin, who only ordered the cannon to bombard the enemy's carts.
What's the use of blowing up those carts? The enemy can just push new ones in from the back … "
After setting up the three siege towers, the enemy pushed many wooden carts from the back, filling up the entire clearing. They then used the carts as cover to get closer to the walls when they attacked.
At first, 2nd and 3rd Brigade were tasked with defending the walls under Captain Hemklin's command.
He ordered the seven cannons on the wall to bombard the wooden rafts in the open space, which exposed the position of the cannons on the wall. Three of the six cannons on the three siege towers were knocked out by the concentrated fire of the enemy's six cannons.
At the same time, the smoke from the rapid firing of the cannons filled the entire wall, obscuring the soldiers' vision and allowing the enemy to scale the walls with ladders. The soldiers had no choice but to fight hand-to-hand in order to drive the enemy down, resulting in heavy casualties.
Fortunately, while the enemy managed to reach the walls and destroy one of the cannons, 2nd and 3rd Brigade fought back with all their might and were driven off the walls.
Due to the heavy casualties, they rested for two days and only resumed their attack yesterday.
What the enemy didn't expect was that their opponents had changed.
The ones defending the walls were 1st and 4th Brigade of Ranger Camp.
Claude didn't allow the three cannons on the walls to fire at the wooden wagons that the enemy had replaced in the past two days. Even the four cannons in the towers on the left and right weren't allowed to fire at the wagons.
He ordered the four cannons in the towers to fire at the middle layer of the rightmost siege tower. That was where two of the enemy's cannons were located. Claude believed that as long as they fired enough times, they would be able to hit the small cannons.
The three cannons on the walls were all loaded with grapeshot bullets. Their target wasn't the wooden carts or the enemy hiding behind them, but the enemy's ladders.
Only when the enemy grabbed the ladders and ran towards the walls would one of the cannons open fire. Three cannons weren't allowed to fire at the same time.
It was the same for the soldiers on the walls. Only a dozen or so veterans with better marksmanship had the right to fire at any time. The rest of the soldiers hid behind sacks and waited for orders.
They were only given the order to fire when the enemy launched a full-scale attack.
The enemy couldn't quite figure out what was going on. The attack from below the walls was extremely fierce and ferocious.
The cannons of the three siege towers and the soldiers hiding behind the wooden carts fired at the top of the walls. Smoke soon filled the entire clearing.
However, there weren't many responses from the top of the walls. Had it not been for the occasional gunshot and the smoke rising from the sacks, one would think that there was no one defending the walls.
But if they gathered their men and tried to take the ladders up to the top of the walls, there would always be a cannon blast and the soldiers near the ladders would suffer heavy casualties.
The enemy had been attacking fiercely for a whole day. When they went back to check, they found that the seemingly weak defense of the defenders had actually caused more casualties than the previous attack.
The first attack lasted for four days, and the casualties didn't exceed 200 per day. But yesterday, there were more than 400 casualties. Most importantly, they didn't manage to reach the top of the walls even with so many casualties.
The reason was that when the soldiers grabbed the ladders to reach the walls, there would always be one or two cannons firing cannons on the walls. The cannons would cover the path forward and cause heavy casualties.
Perhaps because of yesterday's lesson, none of the soldiers were willing to go near the ladders today.
A few officers at the frontline took the lead and took the ladders. They forced a dozen soldiers to get ready to attack the top of the walls. But just as they reached the bottom of the walls, before they could put the ladders up, there was a cannon blast from above and everyone fell into a pool of blood.
Then, no one was willing to take the ladders anymore.
The battle in the afternoon was very calm. The soldiers on both sides held their guns and fired at each other. There were very few casualties.
The defenders on the city walls hid behind sacks of dirt, while the attackers below hid behind wooden carts, raising their muskets and shooting at them from time to time.
The three cannons on the walls wouldn't fire unless the enemy got close. Only the four cannons in the two towers on the two sides would fire at the rightmost siege tower every ten minutes.
The cannons in the siege tower would also fire at the cannons in the two towers, leaving holes all over the surface of the towers.
It seemed that the day was over. Claude and 4th Clan's jarl, Kurdwick, watched as the last wave of enemies retreated back into the village. Just as they were about to say something, they heard a loud explosion from the battlefield. They turned around and saw the rightmost siege tower erupting with sparks and flames. The top layer was falling down and the middle layer was burning.
"We hit it!
Sir, we hit the cannon window! "Maqic rushed out of the tower excitedly and almost tripped on the steps.
It was obvious that a red-hot cannonball had hit the small cannon window of the siege tower and fell inside.
Claude had guessed that the interior of the siege tower wasn't that big. Since there were two cannons inside, were the cannonballs and gunpowder pouches piled up at the side?
Now, he had an answer to that question.
It was obvious that the red-hot shell had hit the cannon window and fallen inside, igniting the gunpowder piled up inside and causing the explosion.
Had it not been for Claude's insistence on burning the cannonball till it was red hot, the cannon window probably wouldn't have had much of an effect.
The destruction of the siege tower was like a shot of adrenaline for the crews of the four cannons. They no longer complained about Claude making them fire the red-hot cannonballs.
After all, it was very troublesome to fire them and they had to prepare for a fire. Not only did they have to wait for the cannonballs to heat up in the brazier, they also had to put a small wooden plank on top of the cannons and fire it immediately to avoid igniting the gunpowder pouches behind the plank.
Even Major Skri, who had his arm in a sling, rushed up the city wall excitedly, admiring the burning siege tower: "You guys have done a good job. Tonight, everyone will get a bottle of wine, this is what you deserve!"
The bottle of gran wine Skri mentioned was for the crews of the cannons. As for the soldiers of 1st and 4th Band, they couldn't get a bottle each. There wasn't that much gran wine in the warehouse anyway.
But a large mug of rye wine was still within their means.
The cannons cheered, but they continued to heat up the cannonballs, aim, fire, clean the cannons, reload the gunpowder pouches and stuff the planks in. Then, they waited for the cannonballs to heat up in the brazier.
"Which siege tower are we going to attack now?"
Skree was elated. What worried him the most was the three siege towers. Their height suppressed the defensive advantage of the walls, forcing 1st Ranger Tribe to pile up sacks of mud at the top of the walls to provide cover for the soldiers and shield them from the enemy's cannons.
He didn't think that one of them would be destroyed that day. If there was one, there would be a second. He believed that the remaining two wouldn't have much time to rampage.
"The one in the middle," Claude said.
The enemy still hadn't figured out why the siege tower exploded. None of the soldiers inside or the crews of the two cannons managed to escape.
The enemy didn't know that the cannonballs Claude fired were red hot. Nobody dared to stay near the siege tower for fear of being accidentally hit. So, even if some of the cannonballs hit the tower, they would quickly turn cold and go unnoticed.
The enemy thought that the soldiers in the siege tower had accidentally ignited the gunpowder and caused the explosion.
But now that the four cannons from the two towers were aimed at the siege tower in the middle, the enemy finally figured out what was going on.
Even though they were more than 80 meters away, they could still vaguely make out the curses coming from the siege tower.
One of the enemies had probably tried to grab a cannonball that had fallen to the ground beside the siege tower and got burned. That also allowed them to understand why the siege tower exploded.
Coincidentally, it was a small chance of hitting the target. After the three cannons were fired, cries of terror could be heard from the siege tower in the middle. Then, a few enemy soldiers rushed out from the bottom of the tower.
They were lucky, because there were still cries for help coming from above. Then, as if in slow motion, the layer of fire in the middle flashed and exploded. Just like the siege tower beside them, it was turned into a huge fire …
The soldiers on the walls cheered once more.
This time, the four cannons in the towers didn't need Claude's orders to fire. They automatically switched their target to the last siege tower on the left.
Even though it was already dusk and the sky was dark, the light from the two bonfires allowed them to clearly see the two cannons in the middle layer of the siege tower.
Major Skri couldn't contain his joy and laughed heartily. "They should be rewarded! Everyone in the cannons will get a rank-two merit! This is a great achievement!"
Claude said, "Sir, I think you should just give them a bottle of brandy each.
They've only managed to take down the first siege tower after firing for an entire day.
Yet, you came back and said you'd give them a bottle of brandy each. It hasn't even been half an hour and they've already taken down the second siege tower. "
Of course, Claude was just joking around. Firing fist-sized cannonballs from such a distance required a lot of luck. After all, cannons weren't guns that could aim accurately and they couldn't hit where they were pointed. The destruction of the middle siege tower was just a matter of luck.
The last siege tower on the left had stopped firing and the enemies inside could be seen running out. Some of them were even carrying barrels of gunpowder.
Claude immediately ordered the three cannons on the walls to fire in succession to cover the bottom of the siege tower so that the enemy had nowhere to run.
Unfortunately, even though the enemy left behind a few corpses, they still managed to escape under the cover of the wooden carts nearby. They even took the two light infantry cannons off the siege tower.
Mazik came out of the tower and asked Claude if he wanted to continue firing at the last siege tower.
Claude gave the order to continue firing with red-hot cannonballs.
The answer was simple. The enemy had covered the siege tower with logs and mud to prevent the cannons from firing. However, the interior of the tower was definitely made of wood. As long as they could ignite it, they wouldn't have to worry about the enemy using the siege tower again.
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m.