Section 42: The Siege of the Castle
"Buzz~~. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info" A green-headed fly hovered and flew, it stopped at the edge of a piece of wood, the fly turned its compound eyes, and rubbed its front legs and back feathers, just as the comfortable fly was about to rest for a while, suddenly the wood under its feet shook violently, it immediately flew alertly, as the fly rose, the wood below was actually the edge of a large shield.
"Roar, roar~~~." The deafening cries of the warriors rang out, flies flew around in the thick forest of spears, and the compound eyes saw a dense array of human warriors chanting in unison.
Viewed from above, in front of the castle on the banks of the Elbe, the Bohemians lined up several large phalanxes, each with about a thousand men, their spears as dense as the trees in the forest, and their shields connected like a wall that could not be seen.
"Victory~~~." A bare-chested, burly Bohemian warrior with a scimitar in his hand, he stepped out of the front of the queue, unarmoured to swear his bravery to the defenders of the castle.
"Your Majesty, do you want to attack?" The King of Bohemia was standing on a small hill behind the queue, just in time to watch his army, when a Bohemian nobleman asked him.
"Are the ladders ready?" The King of Bohemia asked with a frown as he looked at the castle towering over the river bank in the distance.
The castles of the East Francians were built very strongly, although they could only accommodate about 100 people at most, but the towering stone walls, the staggered arrow towers, and with the help of the stonemasons' union, many traps were set up.
In order to prevent the enemy from approaching the walls soon, the Saxons also dug trenches on the periphery of the castle, with many pointed wooden stakes inserted outside the trenches, which were guarded by allied soldiers on the inside, providing additional defense for the castle.
"Enough ladders have been built yesterday, rest assured, Your Majesty." The Bohemian nobles told the king that they had plenty of manpower when all the people were soldiers, and that the soldiers' families, women and children, although they could not fight at the front, could provide logistical support.
"Okay." The King of Bohemia placed his hand on the hilt of his sword at his waist, and he slowly drew his sword and pointed in the direction of the castle, believing that he had enough strength to conquer it.
"Attack." With the order of the King of Bohemia, the earth-shattering drumming sounded in the array, and the ten large drums made of 100 sheepskins, under the beating of fifty strong warriors, conveyed the order to attack the Bohemian warriors of the whole line.
The Saxon general on the city wall heard the sound of the earth-shaking drums, and the other party did not even send a messenger to persuade him to surrender, and it seemed that he was extremely confident in his own strength, his face became solemn, and he raised his right hand to issue a defensive order to the defenders in the castle.
"What about the Count of Thuringia?" After the Saxon general had finished issuing the order, he looked around and saw that the Count of Thuringia had not appeared, so he asked the adjutant beside him.
"The Count said he was not feeling well and needed to rest." The adjutant replied helplessly.
"Really?" The Saxon general smiled bitterly, and the count seemed to be frightened, and he hid and refused to come out.
"Kill~~." At this time, the Bohemians outside the castle rushed like waves, and the Bohemian warriors at the front, usually armed only with shields and swords, shirtless, and painted with many totems with special paints, were the dead men who gave up their lives.
Behind the dead were the ordinary soldiers, dressed in armor made of animal skins and carrying hastily made ladders, following the warriors in front, and behind the ordinary soldiers were the elite soldiers who walked slowly, these elite warriors in chain mail and iron helmets, the noble warriors of Bohemia, they were the real attacking force.
"Squeak." The archers in the castle's turret drew their bowstrings, and their arrows were aimed at the Bohemians who were attacking like waves.
"Boom~~." Suddenly, the Bohemians stopped en masse while attacking some distance from the castle, an unexpected act that surprised the Saxon general and others.
"Boom~~~." At this moment, from both sides of the dense army formation of the Bohemians, two torrents appeared, and the Saxon general saw that they were the cavalry of the Bohemians, and their sudden appearance in front of the castle was very strange, so the Saxons did not react at all.
"Whoosh~~." Arrows flew like locusts over the defenders on the periphery of the castle, and the Bohemian archers swept across the front of the trench and bent their bows to shoot their arrows in.
"Ah~~." The coalition soldiers, who were caught off guard, screamed from the dense range of arrows, and the majesty of the cavalry like a torrent was earth-shattering, and it also shocked the Saxon and Thuringian infantry.
"Attack~~." As the Allied soldiers were dizzy by the arrows, the Bohemians rushed to the trench with a cry, and the shirtless dead jumped into the trench and desperately slashed the pointed stakes with their swords to open a path for their companions behind them, but the sharp stakes still cut blood on their bodies.
"Don't be stunned, the archers shoot, let the soldiers on the periphery drive the enemy out." The Saxon general was the first to react, his face flushed and he shouted loudly.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~." At the general's reminder, the soldiers woke up from a dream, and they quickly released their grips and tried to shoot the Bohemian cavalry, but the Bohemian cavalry was always out of range, and the arrows fell in front of them to no avail.
"Stupid, don't shoot those cavalrymen, shoot me the infantry that break through the perimeter of the castle." The Saxon general slapped his head angrily, he knew that the Bohemian cavalry must have known the range of the castle archers.
"Kill~~." Through the trenches and pointed wooden stakes, the coalition soldiers attacked the intruding Bohemians with shields and spears in their hands, and the two sides fought along the perimeter defenses, with the crisp sound of weapons clashing with each other, the muffled sound of arrows entering their bodies, and the lifeless corpses rolling into the trenches.
"Puff~~." Blood spurted from the neck of a Saxon soldier who had been shot in the neck by the Bohemian archers, staring blankly at the sky, and the shield in his hand fell to the ground without noticing, covering his neck with his hand in vain.
"Go die~~." The Bohemian warrior in front of him showed no mercy, raised his sword and split the Saxon soldier in two, and the colorful entrails and hot intestines flowed to the ground, and the Bohemian warrior accidentally stepped on it, slippery and almost tripping him.
"Damn it." The Bohemian warrior steadied himself, followed by an influx of companions.
"Hum~~, poof." Just as the Bohemian warrior was steady, ready to continue the attack, a short javelin was thrown from the coalition fighters, right into his chest.
"Hmm." Looking at the javelin pierced to his body, blood flowed from the mouth of the Bohemian warrior, and the companion behind him struck him, causing him to fall to the ground and roll into the trench, and below him was the Saxon soldier who had been cut in half, and the two men were like close friends, head to head, eyes staring at each other.
"Attack, attack, don't stop." The Bohemian nobles were constantly pushing people into the gap among the attacking soldiers, and if they could not open a road with the dead, they would build a road with corpses, and there were many of them anyway.
"General, they're almost about to break through the fortifications on the periphery of the castle." The adjutant looked at the influx of Bohemians and said to the Saxon general in alarm.
"Shrink your defenses and let them into the gatehouse." The Saxon general watched the fierce fighting on the periphery of the castle, the Bohemians were indeed a brave people, but the Germans were not vegetarians either.
"Woo, woo." The heralds on the watchtower puffed up their cheeks and blew their horns desperately, and as the sound of the horns spread outside the castle, the combined Saxon and Thuringian forces began to shrink their defenses, gradually withdrawing from the fortifications, as if to give everything to the Bohemians.
"Hahaha, look at these East Francians are simply vulnerable." Looking at the retreating Saxon and Thuringian soldiers, the Bohemians were demoralized, and as long as they broke through the fortifications on the perimeter, then they would continue to besiege the castle.
"Your Majesty, it looks like we're going to win." The Bohemian nobles were ecstatic, feeling that the favor of the goddess of victory had fallen on their heads.
"Roar, roar, roar, roar." The Bohemians poured into the fortifications completely, and the dense infantry lined up together, and they let out a shout from their mouths, and slowly approached the castle gatehouse, and under a fight, there were only sixty or so allied soldiers left, as if they were trembling and cowering in the castle gatehouse, completely like catching turtles in an urn.
"I think it's time to start." At this time, the Count of Thuringia, dressed in chain mail and a smock, appeared on the city walls, and he addressed the Saxon general and adjutants.
"Lord Count?" The adjutant was very surprised to see the Count of Thuringia appear, he originally thought that the Count of Thuringia must be trembling in the main tower, but he did not expect to appear here.
"Are you surprised? Ha ha. The Count of Thuringia laughed, and without further ado, he raised his hand and looked at one of the Thuringian archers in the tower, only to see that the sharpshooter nodded at the Count of Thuringia, and a soldier beside him held a torch.
"Torches?" The adjutant looked at the Thuringian soldier who was holding a torch in surprise, why he was holding a torch during the day.
"Whew." The sharpshooter lit a strip of cloth on one of the arrows and shot it towards the outlying fortifications, the arrows in a perfect arc.
"Buzz, buzz, buzz." The flaming arrow grazed a fly, scaring it into a scramble to dodge.
"Boom~~~." Suddenly, a moment later, a fire rose from below the fly, shining like the sun, and the fly desperately fanned its thin wings, hoping to avoid the flames, but the temperature was too high, and the fly's wings were on fire, and the unlucky little insect with the burning wings fell headlong.