Edward was not the only one who knew the advantage of longbowmen.
Although the mountain people of Avenella are good at using bows and arrows, this has never been their exclusive weapon. If the archers were not really weak when facing the heavily armored noble cavalry, they could only deal with the light armored infantry and unarmored militia who lacked defense. His status would not be so low.
But no matter what, before the emergence of more advanced and effective armor such as plate armor, bows and arrows once occupied an extremely important position. Even the Steen pirates, who are world-famous for their Danlasso battle axes, actually had archers who used advanced bows and arrows among small raiding groups hundreds of years ago. Although the purpose is basically to shoot people trying to escape, this weapon that can attack from a distance is just like any other weapon - they only complement each other, and there is no absolute stronger than others.
And when it comes to the Maximilian nobles - or the former Maximilian nobles - who are still making great achievements in military castle construction and knight troop commanding although they are now in decline, their various rigorous thinking This way of thinking is naturally reflected in every detail of this Maami-style building.
Inside the thick city wall, there are vertical narrow slits about one and a half widths of an adult's fist and one person's height. This gap was deliberately left during the construction of the city wall to protect the archers. From the outside, to the attacker, it is just a narrow gap that is difficult to hit the enemy in. But inside, it is a figure-eight shape with a narrow mouth outwards. The end is naturally this narrow gap. Archers can move left and right inside the castle to aim. Shoot enemies while being effectively defended by the thick walls.
Compared with the Gothic-style spire tower with a square shooting port and the Baroque-style battlement steps, this design inside the city wall, which is protected by thick stones on the front, sides and top, is more reliable - and the inheritance In addition to the Mami people who have always been good at all-round defense, Wolfsburg is certainly not limited to this kind of counterattack.
The design of narrow arrow slits is indeed very defensive, but in order to avoid too many openings causing too many vulnerable points and insufficient support, which will lead to insufficient defense of the city wall itself against siege weapons, this design is destined not to be too dense and numerous. The result of this is naturally that the archers cannot throw enough arrows in a dense battle array. Scattered arrows can only effectively preserve their strength when facing small legions. However, when encountering such an astonishing number of people as now, When there are many levels of enemies, they must make another choice——
"Bah!" The half-open wooden door of the dark warehouse was pushed open. "Alan—where are the supply arrows!" The sergeant wearing a steel helmet shouted loudly. The young man he called Alan was A typical Avenella mountain man, with a slender body, messy hair and patched clothing mixed with leather and linen, he happened to be holding a large bundle of black iron arrowheads from inside the warehouse and pointed towards this Bian ran over, and the oil used to maintain the arrows gave off an unpleasant smell, and the dust adsorbed on the surface made the young man's clothes and skin black and stained.
"Found it, sergeant." He shouted. The nobles of Wolfsburg did not know Avenela, and it was obviously not appropriate for them, the illiterate and uncultured archers, to learn Sivalier. It can be done in a day or two, so the commanding job naturally falls on the sergeants who also understand the Avenella dialect. Not having a common language caused some pressure. Fortunately, this castle was designed for war. At this moment, all they needed to do was to stick to their posts as planned.
"Is that it?" Alan nodded, and the sergeant turned his head and shouted to the nobles outside in Shivalian: "Sir, the second warehouse is finished." He said this, wearing bright clothes outside. The knight in plate armor nodded and ran towards the center of the castle where the count was, while the sergeant patted Alan on the shoulder: "Quick, go up the stairs."
After he said this, he went down the stairs and ran in the other direction. The young Avenella mountain man was stunned for a while, then turned around and hurriedly ran from the other direction towards the stairs leading to the top of the city wall.
"Da da da da da -" "Be careful, Alan!" Someone shouted the moment he climbed onto the city wall. Alan stumbled and dodged an arrow that was shot up. He held a large ball in his arms. The bundle of about seventy or eighty arrows almost fell. He hurriedly stood up and was about to say thank you to his companions in front with his simple smile unique to mountain people——
"Seize--" The arrow shot diagonally up from the bottom of the city wall and should have been shot into the sky from the gap in the battlements hit the standing Alan below the eye socket and pierced straight into his skull. The young man was almost hit by the arrow. He died in an instant, the bundle of arrows in his hand scattered everywhere, and another archer who was half-bent and hiding behind the battlement ran over and tried to catch him, but in the end he was a step too slow. He fell to one side and fell straight down from the top of the ten-meter-high city wall - but he was still lucky. Compared with the soldiers on both sides who were shot in other parts by arrows and were worse than death, Alan's pain was short-lived.
Short-lived and small.
Like flying insects that can only survive one summer.
"One! Two! Three - get up!" Standing behind a huge shield made of logs and wooden stakes, the sergeant wearing old armor shouted loudly. The four or five people in the front row put their hands on the horizontal wooden stakes. Their veins popped out and they all lifted the heavy shield off the ground. Then they quickly ran forward for a few steps and put it down again. The back was protected by the tilted shield. Arrays of archers and melee fighters followed.
"Boom - seize, seize seize seize!" After the arrows broke through the air, the sound of the arrows piercing deeply into the wooden piles was heard one after another, although everyone was stunned because these arrows were obviously aimed at them. Feeling panicked, they still quickly seized this opportunity: "The distance is up, the distance is up, counterattack, counterattack!" The sergeant shouted loudly, and a dozen archers hiding behind the giant shield took a few steps back and then headed towards Then he pulled the bow string to the side of his ears and threw it out from above the giant shield at an angle. This was what mature archers did. "Wait, don't go that way!" But those inexperienced young people were prompted by nervousness. Choosing the shortest route, trying to poke their head, shoot an arrow and then hide back, the sergeant who loudly stopped them felt extremely regretful.
"Ahhh——" Several young archers who ran out from both sides of the giant shield or leaned out were shot into hedgehogs in an instant. There were sporadic insertions on the earthy ground of the open space more than a hundred meters below the castle. There were many black arrows that missed the target, and more of them were densely covered with the surface of the giant shield, which added to the burden on those who carried the shield in front to cover the advancement of their comrades. They felt that their arms were burning due to excessive exertion. It hurt. The distance of several tens of meters since entering the opponent's range seemed to take a lifetime. They were driven by fatigue and tension. They gritted their teeth and raised their giant shields again with red faces, but it was also in At this time, a far more violent sound than before appeared in the air: "Woooo-".
"Ballista, retreat -" the sergeant shouted loudly, but before he could finish his words, a huge impact came on the giant shield. One of the people who was carrying the giant shield with a red face was directly passed through on the spot. A huge spear-like half of a giant arrow was pierced, and this was not the end. The upper part of the giant shield was already pierced with a lot of arrows. It was originally damaged due to the weight of the huge arrow after it hit the left side. The reason began to tilt uncontrollably to the left.
"Hold on! Hold on!" Once the giant shield fell and they lost their defense, they could only become victims. The sergeant shouted twice and then ran over to help support him. He relied on his plate armor to stand on the ground. The exposed position on the left side was desperately supported, but the elite class wearing bright armor was the target of the key attack, so the arrows continuously hit the armor on the side of the sergeant, and the first few were successfully blocked, leaving only dents. It was bounced away, but one pierced through the weak point of the armpit exposed by raising his hand. It penetrated the cotton armor inside and penetrated straight into the muscle.
"Yeah!" The sergeant groaned but still managed to hold on. Everyone worked together to lift the giant shield back, but it was at this time that two more arrows flew one after another, one of which was just put down by the sergeant. When it hit his arm, it rubbed the top of the smooth shoulder armor and then stabbed straight into the left side of his neck.
"Ahem -" After covering his hands subconsciously, the sergeant lost consciousness and fell to the ground. "Sergeant!" The archers next to them shouted loudly. They were a little at a loss as they lost their command, but then the same strong voice sounded again - this time it was even more intense.
"Boohoo-boom!!"
"Kacha——" The long iron nails used to fix the giant log shield broke apart in the huge impact. Even the giant log shield couldn't resist the attack launched by the heavy bed crossbow. It was already scarred and fell apart in an instant. , and the more than twenty people exposed to the firepower of the archers only had time to shoot a few arrows in a hurry before they fell to the ground, becoming another number on top of the rapidly increasing number of casualties.
"Get ready - get up!" More log shields at the rear were lifted up, and when the arrow rain offensive on top of the castle began to weaken, some people in the small town further back had already fled. On the top of a three-story hotel, Grand Duke Leski glanced at Edward, and then gave the order decisively.
"Go tell Sir Charles that it's time for the siege troops to set off -" he said to the Luoan messenger next to him, while leading a cavalry detachment and fully armed foot knights to cover the troops holding shields and using siege rams. The middle-aged infantryman nodded, put on the visor and fastened the buckle, then pulled out the long sword from his waist: "Follow me! Prepare the trebuchet - release!"
"Boom!" The big ax cut the tight hemp rope.
"Bang - Boo hoo - Boom -" The load below was thrown in the other direction, and the end of the long trebuchet threw irregularly shaped stones far away towards the castle.
"The enemy cavalry appears!" Seeing that all the arrows were used up and the opponent had already attacked some of the parts in front of them, Dawolfberg finally sent out its own cavalry. The Earl's family started charging as soon as they appeared in the direction of the city gate. The knights and sergeants held long swords and turned back to kill the infantry and archers hiding behind the giant shield. The militiamen in light armor fled in panic. However, humans could not outrun the horses, and they were killed unilaterally one after another. After killing more than a hundred people, the cavalry team headed towards Charles and the others who had just appeared.
"Long live the king, long live the count!" The leading knight raised his sword and shouted, echoing in the surroundings. Charles turned back to the knights behind him who were also Avenella nobles and said: "For the future of Avenella."
"Kill——" "Kill!!"
"Bang——!!" The earth-shattering heavy cavalry collided fiercely. The cavalry team under the Earl's command with an overwhelming numerical disadvantage fell apart and fought for the infantry and dismounted knights. Having lost time and space, Charles led the cavalry under his command and once again distanced themselves in the other direction, intending to fight back. The noble knight of Avenella, who commanded the foot knights and battering ram detachment, was the son of the city lord, Charles, who was the same age as Edward. This young knight of Wawasica seized the opportunity created by his father and led the way to raise the shield. The detachment with heads like turtles quickly approached the gate of Wolf Castle.
"Get ready -" Charlie commanded loudly in Avenela, but at the next moment he noticed the sound of some kind of liquid and suddenly shouted: "Drop the shield, everyone spread out, spread out!" He Shouting like this, the troops, who had been trained for a long time as an elite squad, decisively abandoned the battering ram they had finally built and ran towards both sides of the city gate.
"Explode--" A sizzling sound like an oil pan exploding came from overhead. High-temperature black oil was poured out of the suddenly opened gap above the city gate. Several people stood too close to the city gate and too far forward. The walking knights were poured down from the top of their heads, and their exposed skin instantly turned red. The high-temperature liquid seeping from the gaps in the armor overcame this layer of physical defense and caused them to fall to the ground.
"Pa—" A torch was thrown down and landed on the battering ram made of black oil-covered logs.
"Run back!" Seeing that the siege weapons had begun to burn, Charlie, who understood that the task could not be completed, neatly ordered the surviving companions to evacuate in the other direction. The burning wooden siege hammer was an important but fragile pendulum. The structure was quickly burned to the ground, and the Count's soldiers, who were at the top to prevent the fire from damaging the gate itself, quickly poured large amounts of water down through the opening.
The sound of "sssssssssssssss" sounded behind Charlie and the others, accompanied by a stream of white translucent water vapor. The battering ram was damaged and the limestone projected by the trebuchet could only cause some cracks and peeling on the surface of the thick city wall before it fell apart - the Mamie-style castle was as difficult to capture as it looked. Although it had been expected, it took three days to After days and days still unable to cause any substantial damage, Edward in the distance couldn't help but frowned.
If we continue to attack according to the current method, we may not be able to capture it in two months. With the sufficient water source of the Galil River and the food that has been stockpiled for the besieged city, even arrows and heavy crossbows After the cannon crossbow is exhausted, they can just huddle in there for several months.
——Time is Count Dawulfberg’s companion, not theirs. Edward thought this, and then turned his head to look at the empty seat next to Archduke Lekis.
Our wise man is not here. Edward has not seen him for four days. Henry led a large group of men, and while launching a frontal attack, he was executing a plan that would end it all faster.
Everything on the surface is just a cover-up.
Even it is already extremely bloody and cruel.
"There are still three days." Edward looked at the black spots starting to run back in the distance and silently clenched his fists. (To be continued.)
