Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 283 Siege Tower

The next two days were still peaceful, except that the enemy camp looked like a big construction site, very busy, and many of the trees cut down were transported to the camp every day. Claude estimated that the enemy must be building a large quantity of siege equipment, believing that when they attack again, it will be like a wave of shock, wave after wave, and it will not be that easy to survive this battle.

Claude's suggestion for those two grassland goldsculptures circling over the castle every day has been fulfilled, and a tight fishing net hangs over the roof, with more than a dozen lambs underneath, and a flock of chicken ducks. These were originally raised in the backyard garden and are now used as bait to lure those two prairie golden sculptures.

Little lambs and chicken ducks who have just moved are very unfit for life on the roof. After all, there are two natural enemies on the top of their heads. The first day Cersei shuddered in the corner, and the next day was better, occasionally starting to move a few times on the roof. Probably because those two prairie golden sculptures never meant to come down, or because the covered net on the roof gave these lambs and chickens a false sense of security, by evening the chickens and lambs started to flourish, and they also had an appetite to eat the hay feed that was thrown on the ground.

The golden carvings of the two grasslands above the head, obviously attracted the attention of the prey on the roof, have been circling over the roof, only in a very high position and with great caution, not easily pounding down. Major Skerry picked a small group of well-fired soldiers and ambushed them on the surrounding walls, targeting the two grassland gold sculptures above.

But before those two meadow gold carvings fell into the trap, the enemy launched an attack.

“What's that?” The soldiers stationed on the city wall defensive tower sounded the iron plate in panic, a loud bang indicating that the situation was urgent and that the enemy was about to attack the castle.

“The gods of war have built three towers…” Captain Haemklin, captain of the second battalion, opened his mouth in amazement. It's not just him. Everyone who sees what the enemy is launching on the walls has the feeling of staring at ghosts.

You can see three huge things moving very slowly from afar across a ruined village. Claude raised a single telescope, and the real faces of those three giant towers appeared in the frame. It's more like a tower with three bundles of logs. The bottom part is the biggest, compared to the top dozen pullers and herd drivers, Claude estimates that the bottom part is about five or six meters wide, four or five meters high, the middle part is about three meters wide, three or four meters high, and the top part is more than two meters wide and two meters high...

There is a row of solid wooden wheels on both sides of the bottom, and even with a dozen bulls towing ahead, the speed is still very slow, mainly because the outside of this so-called siege tower is all a tightly arranged log, which looks very heavy.

“Artillery ready, siege tower ahead of target, fire!” Major Skerry has been unable to consult others and has directly ordered light infantry artillery placed in the walls of the city and in the defensive tower to fire at the huge, frontier. Between two and three hundred meters apart, light infantry artillery fires the most powerful range of live ammunition.

The rumbling gunfire is connected, and the city is brimming with smoke.

Claude had to find an empty space that wasn't covered by smoke and keep looking at the tower in the front with a single telescope. The first round of twelve light infantry artillery shells hit only seven or eight targets, and the giant siege tower stopped moving forward. Unfortunately, this is not a siege tower destroyed by artillery fire. Claude clearly saw that the live bullet that hit the siege tower was only a slight blow to the body of the tower and then took away a piece of bark where the logs were hit, leaving only a few little white dots on those logs covered with wet mud...

The reason why the tower stopped moving forward was simple: one of the dozen bulls towed in front had been hit by shells, causing panic among the herds. Several bull chasers were unloading the bull from the tow rope, and pulling the horse to pull the bull to the empty space next to it in case it was blocked from the way forward.

Twelve light infantry artillery guns on the walls fired three rounds before having to stop. No way, the smoke covered the entire city wall, no one could see the target to be targeted, had to stop firing first and wait for the wind to take the smoke away. Only after the smoke dispersed did the people on the walls discover that the tower at the far front looked intact, apart from dozens of little white dots on the log in the front row.

It's useless, although light infantry artillery can hit six or seven hundred meters away, but only a solid shell as big as a fist can weigh only three to five kilograms. It's like scratching itch on a tower so huge, it's useless at all...

“Shoot the cattle in front of you, keep this tower away from the walls!” Claude screamed, letting those light infantry artillery continue to target the herd in front of the tower. If these three towers cannot be destroyed, keep them away from the walls.

The artillery on the city wall sounded again, just one round, and more than a dozen bulls dragged in front of the tower fell by half, and the remaining bulls were scared to run around. The soldiers who had driven the bulls were also killed and wounded in this round of shelling, and the remaining few hurried down to the ground, climbing behind several broken walls with rolling belts.

The artillery fired two more rounds before stopping. There was no longer a bull in the tower in front that could be towed. Either it was killed or the tow rope was torn off.

Major Scully was satisfied with Claude's instructions just now that the siege tower was not close to the wall, which posed no threat to the castle: "Okay, stop the shelling and be on alert. If the enemy still wants to move the Siege Tower, shell the towed cattle..."

Just not finished, but listened to a gunshot, a sharp whistle coming from afar, a shell ran over the front wall, smashed against the back wall of the castle, and collapsed two outer bricks.

Turning around, he saw a white smog on the second floor of the giant tower in the distance. The enemy dared to move the light infantry artillery to the middle floor of the tower and started shelling the castle with a cannon window.

“Cover up, watch out for enemy fire!” Captain Hemklin roared and bent over and hid his body behind the wall. The soldiers standing on the walls of the city were emptied, and no one dared to reveal their bodies and hid.

The enemy's three attack towers began shelling the castle, but it was useless. They were also light infantry artillery. At most, the projectiles fired could leave a small pit on the wall, and one attack tower had two artillery shells above it. Five or six rounds of bombardment were found to be ineffective and the shelling ceased naturally.

Next, the enemy drove a group of bulls forward to tow the tower, and they were dispersed by artillery shells on the walls.

Big Gummy smashed his mouth envious: “They can have a lot of beef at noon...”

The enemy tested twice a morning in a row, but the interception of shelling also prevented cattle from being driven forward to tow the attack tower. Even though they later pushed several wooden platoons in front of them, the artillery on the walls of the city was high enough to bombard the herd without effort. The mornings came to a standstill, and the three enemy siege towers were stuck in the streets entering the village, incapable of entering.

Around 2 p.m., the Eskirin Infantry Regiment launched a massive offensive, launched a battalion of troops and launched more than forty newly constructed wooden platoons, arranged in several platoons 100 metres of open space between the village and the castle. As many as fifteen or six wooden platoons are arranged in front of trenches, almost fifty metres of walls in front of the front gate are included in their effective range. And this time they pushed to the front of the wooden platoon with a roof, effectively protecting soldiers hiding behind the wooden platoon from firing at the city walls.

While the enemy was attacking, the enemy in the village drove the herd to tow the tower in front of it. Obviously, they launched this massive attack in an attempt to disperse the firepower on the walls of the city, as well as the use of wooden platoons close to the walls to cover soldiers firing at the city, with the aim of suppressing the firepower on the walls and eliminating artillery crews.

Captain Hemklin is an officer who is accustomed to such regular guarding and offensive manoeuvres. He commands in an orderly manner and does not panic. First, four light infantry artillery guns, placed on the left and right sides of the defensive tower, were ordered to continue bombarding cattle in the village, and the enemy was categorically prevented from moving the tower. Six of the eight artillery cannons placed on the walls were then ordered to fire solid shells, bombing the wooden platoon in front of the castle, and even if it was not possible to smash the log plates used as shields, bombing the top shelves.

The last two light infantry artillery guns carry out cross side strikes with shotguns, one left and one right, which is a nightmare for enemies who use wooden platoons as cover to shoot at the head of the city. They can protect the front and the top, but not the side. Each shotgun launch inflicts a lot of damage on enemies who attack below the castle...

Soldiers from the second battalion rarely had a chance to fire, most of them waiting for orders behind the wall stamps. It's not that they don't want to shoot, it's that the smoke on the city's head is connected, and they can't see anything. The same goes for the enemy, shooting up with his eyes closed, which is bullshit about exactly what the aim is. Twelve artillery guns fired constantly, and the smoke was so thick as fog, that even those artillery units were merely under the impression to shell the enemy's wooden platoon.

Essentially after six rounds of artillery shelling, Captain Hemklin would order them to cease firing. The first is to let the cannon tube cool down, and the second is to wait for the wind to blow off the city's nitrous smoke to make a good observation. In the meantime, let the soldiers hide behind the walls for precise shooting to suppress the enemy and familiarize themselves with this mode of defensive action.

Because the four artillery cannons in the defensive towers on the left and right sides had been suppressing the enemies of the village, preventing them from towing the towers with cattle, the enemy finally abandoned the intention and instead bombarded the walls with artillery cannons from the towers. And the four guns in the defensive tower don't have to be fired against the siege tower, either. You can only lower the cannon to bomb the wooden trailer in the open space in front of the castle, while keeping an eye on the movement in the village. As long as the enemy intends to drive the herd away, immediately drop the runway and re-bombard the village...

All in all, one afternoon's offense and defense were very lively, but the cannons were singing the drama. At night, the enemy left more than a hundred bodies behind to evacuate, and more than twenty wooden platoons were blown up in the open space in front of the castle. On the other hand, the second largest group on the wall also sustained more than 20 casualties, most of them being hit behind wooden platoons by enemies approaching the wall, with large numbers of artillery crews who were vulnerable to enemy fire from exposure.

The worst case scenario was a light infantry artillery laid on the city wall, where six enemy artillery shells fired more than a dozen rounds for over an hour, mostly emptied or bombarded the city wall. One fist-sized solid bullet struck the light infantry cannon during the last two or three rounds of shelling, hitting the barrel and injuring two crew members. For the Ranger Battalion, this was the biggest loss of the battle, with the destruction of a cannon.

If, in terms of casualties, this battalion of combat marchers should have won a great victory, as evidenced by the more than 100 bodies abandoned by the enemy, it would still have been killed in the war, not counting those who fled back, and the estimated casualty ratio should be around 1 to 10. But when the sky darkened and the night fell, the commanders of the first battalion of the Rangers mostly looked less beautiful. This evening, the enemy will surely use the dark cover to move the three towers forward.

Two or three hundred metres apart, the six artillery cannons on the three enemy towers have posed a great threat to the defense of the city walls. If the enemy's three towers were moved to a distance of 70 to 80 metres, it would be devastating and lethal to the guards on the wall of the front gate, not to mention shotguns alone.

Once there are no guarded soldiers on the front wall, the enemy will have every opportunity to launch an attack on the city. If the front wall is occupied by the enemy's offensive forces, the enemy can exploit the strength to open the gate and enter the castle, or continue to attack along the wall, making it difficult for a barracks of guerrillas to hold the castle under a split strike.

For the Ranger Battalion, the biggest threat was the three giant siege towers, which were overwhelmed by artillery shelling by their own light infantry artillery. Enemy artillery is placed in the middle of the Siege Tower, first levelling the upper and lower strength of the guards on the city walls, and the cover of the Siege Tower logs cannot be destroyed. Instead, they pose a great threat to the artillery and guard soldiers placed on the walls of a guerrilla battalion, as evidenced by the guns that were destroyed today.

There was a divergence of views, and it was proposed that logs should also be set up on the walls to cover soldiers and artillery, the problem being that not so much wood could be collected in the castle. So someone wanted to send soldiers out at night to collect logs from the wooden platoons that had been destroyed in the afternoon, but Major Scully feared that the enemy would find it possible to launch a night raid, causing his side to lose sight of each other, and finally he looked at Claude.

Claude sighed: "Some soldiers went out through the side doors at night, picked up the wooden trailers in front of the city walls along the trenches, pulled them up from under the city walls with rope, and didn't have to open the front door. The other was to send some men, led by me, into the village to see if there was a chance to burn those three towers. ”