Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 284 Battle on the Wall

Major Scully's face was ugly, and it wasn't just Claude who failed last night's raid on those three giant towers, most importantly because the night had become an enemy. Not only did they ambush the team that was going to attack them, but they also sent a large group of men to try to attack the castle. Finally, the two sides fought in the open space in front of the castle for most of the night, causing more than 30 casualties to the first battalion of the Rangers.

The only good news is that last night a Ranger Battalion dispatched a large number of people and horses to collect a lot of logs from the chopped wooden platoon, and even pulled several intact wooden platoons onto the city head, which looked like enough logs to build a platoon on the city wall for cover. Fortunately, last night's operation followed Claude's advice, not opening the door to move the wood, but using rope to pull it up from the walls of the city. Otherwise, the enemy brigade would easily get mixed up in the castle, and that would have been worse.

The bad news is that the enemy's three giant siege towers were closer to the castle and were stuck at the end of the village during the day, when it was discovered that the enemy had moved the three siege towers to the village. In other words, if you go another 30 meters, the artillery on the enemy's three towers will be able to fire a shotgun covering the front gate, guard soldiers on the wall. Major Skerry decided that logs must be plated in the city during the day to give the soldiers a place to hide.

It was unexpected that the Principality of Eskilin would have destroyed its enemies and formed such an elite infantry regiment, although the attack and defense battles of the last few days had also killed and injured more than 300 enemies, more than one battalion. For a regiment's strength, however, this casualty is only one sixteenth of its total strength and is far from the critical mass of its casualties. Now those three siege towers are approaching the castle again. For the ranks and soldiers of the 1st Battalion of Rangers, the next days of defending the castle will be a tough test...

Last night it was Claude who took the first squadron of Diavid to raid those three towers. If Claude didn't acutely notice that there were many people breathing in the ruins of the village after touching the village and hurriedly led the squadron back, maybe one of them would have crashed into the trap and been surrounded by the enemy. Forgive me, the Diavid squadron was still bitten by enemy ambushes before retreating into the trenches to discover that a small squadron had been lost.

But, fortunately, Claude, they came back, and they ran into the enemy squad, and they touched the castle, and they fired a warning shot. The fourth battalion gathering wood under the city wall found itself almost wrapped in dumplings by the enemy, so everyone fell down and opened fire. The soldiers on the city wall threw a burning torch lighting down the city and fired in the direction of the enemy, so that for half the night, the enemy left more than 50 bodies behind and retreated.

Claude and McJackie, and Diaveed, were all right, but the big guy Gemmy got shot in the left arm and took a chunk of meat. That's pretty lucky, because if the gun smashes the bone and gets stuck in the joints, maybe the big Gummy has to lose half his arm. Physicians at wound camps like that usually recommend amputations, rather than waiting for the skin to grow back, as it is now, just wrapped in medicine and drugged with cures.

After spending half a day on the walls in the morning, you finally understand how the enemy moved those three towers from the end of the village to the village. Instead of using cattle to tow the tower, the enemy added several pushers and crosswoods on both sides and back of the tower, and then forced the soldiers to push forward behind and on both sides of the tower, a point where the tower was moved to the entrance of the village. Due to the cover of the Siege Tower and the wooden platoons on both sides, the soldiers who worked hard to push the Siege Tower were not afraid to be shelled by the artillery in the castle...

Perhaps it was last night that was too lively and too tiring, so it was quiet on both sides this morning and only after 3 or 4 pm did the enemy show up in the village. First, more than two dozen wooden platoons were pushed, arranged 70 to 80 meters from the castle as a cover-up, and then, under the command of several officers, they were ready to continue pushing the tower in front of them.

The second battalion of soldiers guarded by the castle naturally began shelling, 11 light infantry artillery fires were fully opened, five wooden platoons were bombarded and six concentrated fire on the tower in front of it. When the enemy soldiers opened fire on the castle, they all scattered behind the broken walls of the village, and six artillery guns from three attacking towers countered the castle.

About 20 minutes later, the shelling stopped. The wooden platoons lined up in the open space were destroyed by seven or eight cars, but still had little effect on the three giant towers, leaving a bigger white spot on the logs outside than yesterday. And the same goes for the enemy: the six guns mounted in the siege tower destroyed only two logs on the city wall covering the crew, and posed little threat to the soldiers on the city wall.

The enemy was pulling down those broken wooden platoons, pushing them back to replace the wooden platoons, at a distance of 70 to 80 meters, within the effective range of the precise targeting of the Obash III firearms, some soldiers from the second battalion hiding behind the log platoon of the city wall began shooting, several enemies in the process of cleaning the wooden platoons fell on the ground, and soon a large number of enemies relied on the cover of the wooden platoon to fire on the city wall.

Although the range of the enemy's firearms was less than that of the Obash III, that distance was still within the effective range of their firearms, and countless guns slammed logs on the walls of the city, injuring even several soldiers. But the shootout ended soon after those broken wooden platoons were replaced with new ones...

Major Claude and Major Scully, among others, looked at the two rows of logs destroyed by the artillery and built a very simple row of logs on the city walls for cover. The rows of upright logs in the front and the two upward and downward bars in the back, and then made two triangular logs to the left and right to support the two upward and downward bars. The two logs destroyed by enemy shelling were several logs that were struck in the middle in a row, because behind them was a hollow force that could not withstand the impact of solid shells on the logs, so they were broken and expanded into a large hole.

The enemy's siege tower is still at the entrance of the village, close to 100 metres away, and six artillery launches destroyed two logs. It is conceivable that, if the three towers of attack of the enemy are arranged the day after tomorrow, a fierce fire will destroy all the logs erected on the city wall. The end result is, as before, to cover the front wall with shotguns, forcing the soldiers not to hold on to the wall, while the enemy seizes the city wall and opens the front gate, allowing the follow-on forces to enter the castle...

“I think I might have a way of avoiding the destruction of these logs.” Claude said his proposal was very simple, which was to load the empty food sacks in the warehouse with dirt and pile them up behind these logs. That way, even if the enemy shelling destroyed the logs, a sack full of dirt could still serve as a cover and cover for the guard soldiers.

“If that's the case, do it now. Captain Cordwalker, we'll leave this to your fourth battalion.” Major Skerry did not hesitate to adopt Claude's suggestion. It's just that the defenses on the walls, though guaranteed, are still very worrisome in his eyes.

“We have to find a way to get rid of these three towers.” Claude knew what Major Scully was worried about, thinking that the first Battalion of Rangers could hold this sturdy Castle of Count Clellaus, and he didn't expect the enemy to come not only elite, but also make such three big guys. Major Skerry had to worry about being able to hold on to this battalion when the force prevailed and the firepower and quality of the soldiers were not lost to the first battalion of the Rangers...

“How?” Major Skerry laughed bitterly: “Neither are the enemies fools, they know very well that the key to breaking through the castle we guard lies in their three towers, which must be tightly guarded. There is also a good chance of setting a trap and luring me to go out and destroy the three towers, preparing to ambush us just like last night. In fact, we must be very happy to raid the enemies of these three towers, because they can effectively use them to destroy our vitality, like putting a delicious piece of cheese on a mouse trap to attract rats.

The enemy already knows our defensive strength in the castle, and they are an infantry regiment, plus three light cavalry battalions watching us in the other three directions, enough to overwhelm us. And we were trapped in the castle, and because of those two animals in the sky, we lost contact with the outside world. For us, all we can do now is stick to it and wait until the first snowfall in December, perhaps the enemy will voluntarily withdraw because of the cold. ”

Referring to the three towers of the enemy at the mouth of the village, Major Skerry's face was bitter: “I have been certain over the past few days that the enemy commander is a very experienced veteran of the battlefield, and he understands very well what is at stake in this battle. Nearly a week after their arrival, he launched only two attacks, with more than four hundred casualties, which are insignificant to their strength, and on the contrary, we exposed all the fire and defensive arrangements on the walls.

The enemy commander knew exactly what we were expecting, but he was not in a hurry to succeed, commanding the troops to launch a wave after wave of attacks on us. Instead, he patiently allowed the soldiers to spend three days building these three towers. That means he's confident that when the siege tower is in place, he'll take over the castle we're guarding. Anyway, as soon as those three towers are in place, our defensive advantage on the walls will be offset.

I suspect that the enemy's idea is to spend it with us. The three attack towers can suppress the defensive fire on our walls by lining them up in front of the walls, while allowing their soldiers to attack the walls, and we have to spend it with them. The enemy pays the casualties of a battalion, so long as it can take over this wall at the front gate, it is a very worthwhile victory for them. ”

If the walls of the front gate are captured by the enemy, and even if the enemy pays for the casualties of a battalion, one battalion of Rangers will surely pay a great deal of casualties, and then the rest of the castle will not be used to defend itself. Any influx of enemies inside the castle would mean the total destruction of a Ranger Battalion.

Claude stared at the three siege towers at the entrance of the village and was speechless for a long time.

As Major Skerry said, the enemy used the night to position those three towers. Over the next four days, fire suppression on the walls was accompanied by a series of attacks on the castle on a large squad, which did not even give up the first two days or even the evening. Several of them attacked the city and drove the enemy down by physical combat, causing heavy casualties for a battalion of guerrillas guarding the castle.

“How many enemies have died in the last few days?” Major Skerry was also wounded and hung. He also now heads the third battalion and heads the third battalion. Captain Heikem, the original captain of the battalion, had long since been sent to the rear for injuries sustained in carrying out the ambush of enemy surveillance operations.

“Seven or eight hundred, I presume?” Captain Cordwalker replied.

Now the 1st Battalion of the Rangers is quite complete, as is Claude's 1st Battalion. During these four days of defense, the 2nd 3rd 4th Battalion lost a lot of money, the 2nd Battalion was almost maimed, and Captain Haemklin, the captain of the battalion, was severely wounded entering a treatment facility in the rear of the castle. The third and fourth battalions are good, with more than two and a half squadrons each.

“How many more guns do we have?” Major Skerry asked again.

“There are seven more doors.” This Claude is clear. In the past few days, the artillery on the walls of the city lost a lot. The artillery units on the three enemy attack towers were all very experienced old gunmen. When they discovered the location of the artillery on the walls, they assembled six artillery on the three attack towers and concentrated their bombardment of the area where the artillery on the walls was located. Three artillery guns were destroyed the previous two days when they were not ready.

“Yesterday afternoon was damaged by an enemy climbing to the city, and now there are three artillery guns on the city wall, in addition to the four artillery guns placed in the defensive towers on both sides. The crew had already gained experience, shooting one gun and going somewhere else, and last night the enemy tried to climb the city while the three guns made great efforts, firing shotguns to kill and injure the enemy severely, eventually returning without success, leaving more than 80 bodies behind.” Claude explained.

The enemy raided the city walls by climbing stairs during the day, essentially when smoke was used to diffuse distant sights among the city's soldiers. Without the smoke, they hide behind the wooden trailer with cold guns. At night, the darkness is used to sneak up on the walls of the city. For the enemy, they are strong enough to attack at the size of a brigade, with more than sixteen brigades of a regiment, each rotating for one day, while soldiers defended by a barracks of guerrillas cannot be replaced like the enemy, which is the main reason why they were climbed on the wall several times yesterday by the enemy.

“Fortunately, Claude, you came up with an idea to stack these dusty sacks in the city and reinforce the log plates, otherwise we wouldn't be able to hide ourselves. But why did the enemy stop today?” Major Skerry looked at the enemy's three towers with dismay.

“I think the casualties are too large, and the enemy has lost 700 or 800 people over the past four days, plus more than 1,000 casualties, which I estimate is already a quarter of their strength. And the walls are still in our guards, so they have to stop the offensive and soothe the soldiers, otherwise no one will be willing to continue the offensive.” Claude guessed.