Chapter 44: A Preliminary Look
The leader of the Randall mercenary group turned his head and looked back at the coalition camp, and saw a group of hundreds of cavalry hanging behind his mercenaries, following not far away.
In this regard, the commander of Randall had no choice but to bow his head and accept his fate, and led his 600 mercenaries and more than 1,000 newly recruited peasants to recruit militia to attack the huge wooden fort 500 meters away, for fear that the cavalry acting as a military law team in the rear would attack them.
But even so, Captain Randall only drove the more than 1,000 conscripted peasants forward, while the mercenaries with better equipment and combat effectiveness hid behind these cannon fodder, ready to run away when the wind was not right.
When Commander Randall saw that the cavalry behind him did not take action against their approach, he understood that Mayor Scott did not value these temporarily recruited peasants, and immediately ordered his mercenaries to speed up the march.
The peasant conscripts in front were also very angry about this, they were not only pulled by the rebels of Alenzon City, but also used as cannon fodder by these mercenaries, and immediately dozens of Diao people were connected in tandem to prepare for the attack, but unfortunately there were only dung forks in their hands, and the peasant soldiers in rag clothes could not fight against the heavily armed mercenaries with their sparse numbers.
In a short time, dozens of serf conscripts who tried to rebel were beheaded by the mercenaries and thrown into the crowd in front of them, causing a small chaos.
These serf conscripts, who had not participated in the rebellion, had long since become numb to this, and during the reign of the Alençon rebels they had been subjected to more severe oppression than before, and every day people starved to death in the estates, and now they were driven to attack the castle, and in the face of the swords and guns behind them, the serfs, who had no way out and no hope, had long since succumbed to their miserable fate.
On the high tower of the wooden fort on the heights of Lucun, William looked at the approaching serf soldiers and was silent, although he was a little unbearable in his heart, he still made up his mind and said: "Sir Hubert, this wave of attacks by the enemy is going to use these serf cannon fodder to test us, but we can't let them discover our true strength." ”
"You're right, Your Highness William, I've ordered some of the soldiers to hide behind the walls of the city to show as little as possible that we're lacking in troops." Sir Hubert nodded.
As Sir Hubert had arranged, there were really not many soldiers to be seen on the walls of the wooden fort, and there were only a few soldiers guarding them every ten meters, and there were not even a few soldiers on the top of the towers beside the walls.
In fact, they were all hidden under the walls or inside the towers, all holding their weapons tightly and waiting for the officers to give the order to go up to the walls to meet the enemy.
The scattered serf conscripts soon came to the front of the long four-meter trench, and they did not dare to continue to advance when they saw the dense wooden spear stakes in the trench.
"What's the matter, why didn't these serfs move?" Commander Randall shouted angrily when he saw that the conscription team in front of him had stopped.
"Commander Randall, a four-meter-wide trench appeared in front of you, and it was full of sharp wooden guns, and the peasants did not dare to move on."
"Humph! Attack, attack, the mercenaries use your weapons to force them on, and I'll see if it's me with our swords and guns or William's wooden guns with the sharpness. Captain Randall looked even more angry, and ordered with a wave of his big hand.
"Yes..."
All the mercenaries agreed, pointing their swords and guns at the backs of these peasant soldiers, and slowly approached forward.
All of a sudden, the screams of the peasant soldiers were heard incessantly, and under the threat of death, they had to go into the trenches with their heads shut, and many serfs were pierced by sharp wooden spears and closed their eyes forever.
After paying hundreds of casualties, more than 600 serf conscripts were driven to the foot of the walls of the wooden fort, while the mercenaries behind them were able to walk through the trench unscathed through the corpses of the serf conscripts.
Faced with the approach of the enemy, Sir Hubert decisively ordered the soldiers on the walls and towers to attack, and the throwing weapons such as sharpened wooden throwing spears and stones taken on the spot were thrown by the soldiers guarding the city one after another.
Although the wooden throwing spears and stones that were thrown were not dense, there were hundreds of throwing guns and dozens of stones.
All of a sudden, the serf conscripts suffered heavy casualties, and in just a quarter of an hour, they lost nearly two hundred serf conscripts, and only the remaining more than four hundred people were already in chaos, no matter how the mercenaries behind them drove them away.
"Captain Randall, if you just consume all the serf conscripts here, Mayor Scott won't blame you." A mercenary general seemed a little unbearable, turned around, and said to Captain Randall.
"Don't worry, our mayor only cares about merchants, nobles and townspeople, and he doesn't care about these lowly serfs at all, as long as he sends a team of soldiers, he can catch a thousand serfs from the nearby manor at any time." Commander Randall waved his hand indifferently and said, "Attack, continue to attack." ”
Soon, under Randall's orders, the scattered serfs were blocked back and continued to climb the city walls under the pressure of knives and guns.
In less than half an hour, the remaining more than 400 serf conscripts were either killed by the wooden spears and stones thrown from the castle, or died under the swords and guns of the mercenaries behind them, and the serfs who were still standing at the moment were only about 60 people.
"Retreat, retreat, mercenaries." When Commander Randall saw that the soldiers in the castle were targeting them, he decisively ordered.
The mercenaries were also like Meng Dahao, and they all turned around and rushed down the original road.
When Randall led the mercenaries back to the camp, he counted the number of mercenaries and was surprised to find that more than 600 mercenaries had only killed and wounded.
After settling his own mercenaries, Randall took a few of his cronies to the Central Tent to report the battle to Mayor Scott.
On the main tower in the center of the castle, William withdrew his gaze from the battlefield, turned around, and said to Osborne's butler, "Alas... It's so miserable, these grandchildren are simply not human. ”
"Your Highness William, please don't be sad, as long as we can win the war, we can save them from the Alençon rebels." Osborne's butler also looked like a relative, and comforted him in a low voice.
"Hmm... Osborne steward, I know how to do it. William's gaze became more and more determined, and he looked at Steward Osborne and said, "Steward Osborne, send our conscripts to clear the battlefield, clean up all the corpses in the trenches and under the wooden fort, and burn them on the spot." Otherwise, the enemy will continue to attack the wooden fort with their corpses. ”
"My lord, I obey your orders, Master William." With that, Steward Osborne bowed to William and went downstairs.
"Scott, Jonathan, don't get caught. I want you to pay for this blood debt today with untold pain and death. William turned around, looked at the battlefield where the serfs were killed, and clenched his fists and muttered to himself.