Three days later,
The trip should have taken less than an hour on horseback, yet the large column lumbered along for over three hours before reaching the city walls. Lorist could only shake his head and smile bitterly.
Just as he had anticipated before setting out, North Wild City was fully prepared for battle. Gleaming blades and spear points lined the battlements, and the walls bristled with heads. It seemed the four great families of North Wild City had made up their minds to break with the
Lorist dispatched Pat to ride up to the city gates and deliver a final ultimatum, demanding that the four great families and the garrison of North Wild City lay down their arms, open the gates, and come out to surrender. Lorist was willing, out of respect for the nearly hundred-year-long vassal relationship between North Wild City and the Norton Family, to pardon the four families' act of rebellion — provided they submitted to the statutes and regulations he had established. He swore that not a single person would be punished.
Pat had barely ridden within range of the gates before a volley of arrows drove him back. His horse was riddled with shafts, but Pat had the wits to react quickly and retreated without a scratch.
Lorist and his men seethed with fury. This was a clear signal that the people of North Wild City didn't take the Norton Family seriously in the slightest — they wouldn't even bother parleying, choosing instead to greet an envoy with arrows. There was no graver act of defiance than this.
Suppressing his anger, Lorist rejected his subordinates' demands for an immediate assault. He ordered them to have the troops set up camp, dig fire pits, and prepare meals.
North Wild City had only two gates — one in the front and one in the rear. In principle, Lorist should have established two camps to blockade both gates. However, with barely a thousand men, splitting his forces in two would leave each group dangerously thin. So he concentrated everything at the front gate to build the camp and sent a single cavalry squad to watch the rear gate. That was enough to guard against any sally from the garrison trying to slip out and raid the camp from behind.
If the garrison had actually attempted such a raid, Lorist would have welcomed it. He was eager to crush the attackers in open battle — it would shatter North Wild City's morale, slash their defensive numbers, and make the siege that much easier. Sadly, the garrison of North Wild City proved true to their reputation as cowards hiding in their shells. They simply watched from the battlements as the besieging army busily set up camp, showing no signs whatsoever of coming out to attack.
By the time all the trivial arrangements were complete, night had already fallen. Lorist inspected the patrol routes and the sentry posts, then turned in early to conserve his strength for the siege and slaughter to come. The first day of the campaign passed just like that.
On the second morning of the march, after an early breakfast, Lorist led his forces into formation below North Wild City. The morning's plan called for Josk to lead a squad of mounted archers around the town in several sweeping passes, loosing volleys to probe the defenses and identify weak points. Once the moment was right, they would launch an all-out assault, with Lorist leading a force to seize a stretch of wall or a gate, expanding outward from that foothold as reinforcements arrived, until they had taken North Wild City by degrees.
Josk led his men on two full circuits around the town and returned having lost only four soldiers to minor wounds — excellent luck, all things considered. Upon his return, Josk reported: "No good. Once we got up close to the walls, we found the old moat had been deepened and widened. There's no way to charge the walls without filling it in first. I also fired arrows at both the front and rear gates — they've been barricaded from the inside. It looks like they're dead set on defending and have no intention of sallying out. We'll have to find a way over the walls. From those two passes, I'd estimate they have around a hundred bowmen on the battlements. All hunting bows of various types — not much of a threat to us."
Lorist was irritated. The last time he had visited North Wild City, he had noted the moat in front of the walls — it had been nothing more than a shallow ditch. He had not expected to find it deepened and widened this time around. According to Josk, it was less than a meter from the base of the wall, over two meters deep, and roughly three meters wide. Due to the terrain, it only became visible as you approached from the front; it was impossible to spot from their current position.
Lorist rode out on horseback to circle North Wild City himself. He found it strange that none of the earth excavated from the moat could be seen anywhere. But the moat was exactly as Josk had described — there would be no storming the walls until it was filled in.
He dispatched Ridy back to Maplewood Manor to have Steward Spell send over a shipment of straw bags for carrying earth and shoveling tools, while simultaneously ordering his soldiers to fell timber and construct large shield-panels to deflect arrows and covered wagons for filling the moat.
On the third day of the march, the plan was to fill in several dozen meters of the moat to the left of the gate, from which position Lorist intended to launch the main assault. Josk commanded a company of family soldiers who advanced under the cover of dozens of large shield-panels, setting them up less than fifty meters from the walls. He then ordered a small squad of longbowmen to use the panels as cover and rain arrows onto the battlements, suppressing the defenders' archers.
This squad of longbowmen were all equipped with simplified longbows. These training bows were made from a dense-grained yew wood, and the crafting process was extremely simple — a single yew trunk no thicker than a bowl could produce one longbow. You simply carved it to shape and dried it, and it was ready to use. These simplified longbows were a full foot longer than standard longbows but had an effective direct-fire range of only about seventy meters, roughly thirty meters less than the real thing, and fell short in both accuracy and draw strength. After about a hundred shots the string had to be replaced and the bow checked for warping. As training weapons they were passable, but using them now to attack defenders on the walls was, frankly, making do with whatever was on hand.
Air-dried. During the soaking and air-drying process, the wood had to be shaped and molded, then strung, trimmed, set, and polished. Finally, multiple coats of lacquer were applied and a leather grip was wrapped around the handle. A proper longbow required a year and a half to two years of crafting. Such a bow could even pose a threat to a Gold-tier knight at a direct-fire range of a hundred meters.
The design of the covered wagons was also quite simple — in fact, they were little more than several shield-panels assembled into a peaked-roof shelter shape, mounted on four wheels, with a thick layer of wet earth plastered on top to prevent fire arrows from burning them through. The soldiers pushed the wagons from inside, advancing them to the edge of the moat, then propped open the front panel so the straw bags filled with earth, passed forward from the rear, could be tossed into the ditch.
Everything had gone smoothly in the morning. Under the suppression of the longbowman squad and Josc's divine arrows, the garrison on the walls couldn't even raise their heads. They could only occasionally fire arrows down through the crenelated shooting ports in the wall, and their accuracy went without saying—it posed absolutely no threat to the attackers below. In fact, their own casualties were even higher than the attackers'. The moat had been filled nearly a quarter of the way; it should be completed quickly in the afternoon.
Lorist felt considerably more at ease. Judging by the defenders' meager counterattack force on the walls, there shouldn't be much difficulty in this siege. They might even achieve victory with minimal losses.
However, right after they finished lunch, wooden barriers were also raised on the walls of Northfield Town. The garrison behind them used the cover to launch a counterattack against the longbowmen and the soldiers filling the moat. When fire arrows proved ineffective, they resorted to throwing clay pots filled with burning oil down from the walls, ultimately setting fire to and destroying the covered wagons...
Josc unleashed a fearsome display of skill, shooting down several large wooden barriers on the wall in a row. It was a pity it was useless. He destroyed one, but more barriers were immediately erected along the battlements.
"Six longbowmen dead, twenty-one wounded. Moreover, over half of their longbows are warped and unusable. Fortunately, we prepared over a hundred extra this time, so we have replacements. Eight family soldiers filling the moat were burned to death, and twenty-six wounded were rescued. Should we continue building covered wagons?" Cedric reported the casualties from today's failed moat-filling operation to Lorist.
"Send a company of family soldiers to chop wood. Make a grand show of it so the people of Northfield Town see we are continuing to build covered wagons. Let them think our next attack can only be tomorrow, lowering their vigilance. Tonight, we make our preparations. The moment the moon in the sky is hidden by clouds, we seize the opportunity to carry sandbags close to the moat and fill it overnight," Lorist ordered.
Lorist's arrangement completely surprised the Northfield Town garrison. By the time they discovered the movement at the foot of the wall, the moat had already been filled more than halfway. Looking at the alerted defenders on the walls and the torches being thrown down ceaselessly, Lorist smiled. "Let's go, we'll head back. It's a little short, but that's fine. Tomorrow, when we attack the city, we'll just bring a few more bags of dirt and fill the rest. I hope tomorrow we can take the city in one stroke and return victorious."
The fourth day of the campaign, and it was fine weather—clear skies stretching for miles.
Lorist committed his entire force. Seven squads of family soldiers raised seven long ladders and charged toward the walls of Northfield Town.
Lorist, along with Patte and
One hundred meters, eighty meters, sixty meters—just as they were about to reach the foot of the wall, the wooden screens atop the battlements dropped in unison, revealing row upon row of archers and crossbowmen drawn up in formation, bows ready...
"Loose!" At the command from the wall, a rain of arrows poured down. The family soldiers charging at the front were smashed like waves crashing against a reef—one moment they surged forward, the next they were shattered.
Family soldiers fell one after another beneath the hail of arrows. Lorist's eyes nearly split with fury as he bellowed, "Retreat! Retreat now!"
The emerald longbow in Josk's hands let out a thunderous crack. Bolts of green lightning streaked toward the battlements, and archers and crossbowmen alike tumbled from the wall. Panic erupted along the ramparts—the formation broke apart as archers scrambled aside, and behind them, four massive black siege crossbows were revealed.
Four tremendous booms thundered out. Four enormous bolts hurtled straight toward Josk at terrifying speed...
The moment Josk saw the four siege crossbows appear on the wall, he knew he was in danger. Abandoning any thought of spurring his horse, he threw himself sideways and rolled off the saddle. With a sharp tearing sound, a massive bolt grazed past his back, ripping away a large chunk of his backplate and undergarments and leaving a deep, bloody gash. Blood erupted from the wound, and in the blink of an eye Josk was drenched red like a man made of blood.
His mount had already been torn into several pieces by three bolts. The ground was a ghastly mess of flesh and gore.
Josk rolled twice along the ground, sprang to his feet, and clenching his teeth against the searing pain in his back, drew the emerald longbow once more. With a flash of light, a green arrow struck one of the black siege crossbows on the battlements. The crossbow shattered, sending its crew of loading soldiers sprawling with broken heads and bleeding wounds. The crews of the remaining three siege crossbows took one look and hurriedly wheeled their weapons away from the wall.
After loosing that arrow, Josk collapsed, utterly spent. Lorist rushed over, hoisted him onto his back, and sprinted for the camp.
With a heavy thud, Lorist slammed his fist down in fury upon the long table hewn from a halved log, leaving a deep fist-shaped imprint on its surface.
The power of the long-range defensive counterattack had lain dormant until today, when Lorist prepared to take Northwild Town in one decisive assault. It struck without warning, catching Lorist completely off guard and causing devastating casualties.
Several sheets of animal-hide paper lay on the long table — the casualty report that Ser Kantamp had compiled. In just that quarter of an hour, nearly three hundred men had fallen: eighty-three dead and over two hundred wounded. Even Reddy had taken an arrow to the shoulder when he went up to aid the rescue. If not for the family soldiers at the forefront all wearing chainmail, the casualty count would have doubled.
Josk was not in serious danger. The crossbow bolt had grazed his back, and with the medicine applied it should have been fine — but he had stubbornly fired one last arrow to destroy a siege crossbow, and that final shot had strained the blood vessels in his back, reopening the wound. Without at least ten days of rest and recovery, there would be no healing it.
"My lord, morale in camp is terribly low. We won't be able to continue the siege tomorrow. Today really caught us by surprise — how does Northwild Town have so many crossbows and longbows? There were even four siege crossbows?" Pat said.
"Perhaps I know where these bows and crossbows came from." Patchiko said with his head lowered. "Four years ago, when the young master led the family's heavy cavalry on campaigns for the second prince, a hundred or so men from the Northwild Town garrison followed along. They were responsible for transporting logistics and supplies for the young master and the cavalry. After every battle, it was always the garrison men who swept the battlefield. When I was first captured by the young master, I also helped these garrison men clear a battlefield, and I noticed then that they paid great attention to collecting weapons and equipment — even the damaged ones were gathered together. I knew they handed in the iron armor and money, but I never imagined they had hidden away the longbows, crossbows, and even the siege crossbows — all these ranged weapons..."
"They'd been planning this painstakingly for years. Four years ago they were already preparing for rebellion at any moment. No wonder they've grown more and more dismissive of the family in recent years. Do they really think having these ranged weapons is enough to hold Northwild Town? I'll tear this cancer out root and branch." Lorist spoke through gritted teeth.
"But we can't get close to the wall!" Pat said.
"A night assault. Just let me get up there, and I'll take Northwild Town!" Lorist gazed at the distant town and declared.