Neither Merlin Avery who left the city nor Baron Edelman Brippes who gave orders while watching the approaching barbarian army could not have imagined that the desert barbarians would abandon the ancient traditions they had always followed. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Instead of sending messengers to declare war, digging trenches and setting up camps, the barbarian army violently beat the marching drums and agitated the black crowd to approach the outer walls of Coventry. Tens of thousands of troops slowly unfolded their thick lineup in the faint morning light, as if two huge arms of steel were stretched out, trying to crush Coventry City like a walnut tucked between the door frames.

Judging from the comparison of the strength of the two sides, this is not an impossible thing.

Baron Edelman took a deep breath and watched silently as the massive siege towers slowly approached. This terrifying war machine has a strong desert barbarian flavor, wild, bulky, sturdy, and rough, completely different from the elaborate killing tools made on the Empire's side.

The siege tower was ugly, lined with dozens of large wooden wheels, each with hundreds of ropes wrapped around them. These ropes were tight, and countless barbarians pushed and pulled, almost cursing trumpets, and with amazing strength, they pushed this monster of more than forty meters towards Coventry City.

In contrast, Coventry's outer walls are majestic, but the average height is only 20 meters, and the height of the towers is only about the same as that of a siege tower. Baron Edelman felt a wave of almost fear cross his mind, the barbarian siege towers were extremely rudimentary, just a combination of several incomparably large wooden chests, but the simpler the structure, the more difficult it was to destroy.

The wooden crate on the top of the siege tower contained hundreds of barbarian archers, and with their powerful bow salvos higher than the city walls, they could completely suppress the pneumatic rifles of the city guards, only the giant ballistas and catapults could inflict some damage on these barbarian archers, but it was difficult to shake the siege tower itself.

The only weakness of the siege tower is probably its slow movement speed. Baron Edelman heard the groans of the earth under the weight of the wheels, and he frowned, drew his sword, and held it high above his head.

"Tower 3, Tower 4, ballista rockets!" The roar from the controller of the Thorn Flower Family resounded loudly, echoing over the city walls, "The target enemy is attacking the tower, test fire three shots!"

The soldiers of the city guards on the two towers immediately obeyed their orders and got busy. Several burly soldiers pushed the winch, the giant ballista that had already been wound crunched and redirected, and a small, dark-skinned, old-faced officer measured the distance slightly with his hand and muttered in a low voice.

"It's still a bit far, alas, it has to be thrown, so it's hard to keep the bolts on the surface of the siege towers...... Come on, boys, this is the direction, shake up thirteen scales, and get ready for the rocket!"

A group of soldiers carried a massive crossbow bolt thicker than an arm, three meters long, and loaded it onto the ballista with all their might. These crossbow arrows are elaborate alchemy items that are extremely expensive, and the sharp arrows are engraved with many intricate runes, each of which glows with a reddish glow.

"Ready, launch!"

Following the command of the small officer, the No. 3 watchtower on the left behind Baron Edelman was the first to test-fire, and the powerful catapult force caused the crossbow arrow to turn into a bright red light, dragging the black smoke to shoot at the siege tower thousands of kilometers away. However, the angle of the crossbow arrow seems to be a bit high, and it looks like it is about to pass over the siege tower, and the best result is to startle some barbarian warriors.

The corners of Chiyovala's mouth curved down in a fierce arc, and her tone seemed to be about to burn, "Damn it, are all the gunners of Sentry Tower 3 blind?"

"Not necessarily, Chiyovala, I think the opposite. Baron Edelman said in a calm tone, "It's too early for me to order, and apart from this angle, the range of the ballista may not be able to reach the siege tower." ”

As if to test Baron Thornflower's judgment, the crossbow arrow, which appeared to be angled, paused abruptly, and then began to dive downward, hitting the top corner of the siege tower. A crimson spark then exploded, looking pitiful from a distance of thousands of meters, but in fact it was a cloud of high-temperature fire with a radius of more than ten meters, involving at least dozens of barbarian archers.

Panicked shouts rang out. However, the barbarians are worthy of being a desert people known for their strong physique, and if they are ordinary people, there is absolutely no way to survive under the shroud of this fire cloud, but many of the barbarian archers rushed out with a fire all over their bodies. Some of the creatures rushed over their heads in a daze, falling from the forty-metre-high siege tower, screaming awe-inspiring along the way, while others rolled on the spot, extinguishing the flames, and lay on the top of the tower in charred black, their chests heaving violently from panting.

The giant ballista of Tower 4 then opened fire, but apparently the gunner was far inferior to the small officer, and the angle of fire was too high, and after the crossbow bolt flew seven or eight hundred meters, it fell headlong, only to explode a cloud of fire not far in front of the siege tower.

The cloud of fire didn't cause much trouble, the horn whined, and a group of barbarian warriors rushed forward with bags of sand and dirt to put it out, and it was extinguished in an instant.

The siege tower paused for less than ten minutes before continuing to move slowly under the tugging and pulling of countless strong arms. The two giant ballistas on the western wall continued to fire, and four catapults joined in, throwing terracotta jars filled with fierce fire oil at the siege tower.

The barbarians were well prepared, and of course the huge siege towers could not dodge crossbow arrows and terracotta jars, but they erected many wooden poles with large leather curtains on the top of the towers, each of which was coated with a fireproof agent concocted by a shaman. The fierce fire oil that flowed from the clay jar was quickly extinguished, and the fire cloud generated by the giant crossbow arrows was greatly limited, and each shot could only cause a dozen or so barbarian archers to be killed or wounded.

In this way, the siege towers braved the blows of ballistas and catapults, and moved forward unhurriedly, their massive hilly bodies blowing the breath of death and fear into the hearts of the defenders of the walls. Two ballistas and four catapults were still firing, but the damage to the siege towers was insignificant, according to the complaints of the small officer, "it was like spitting in the storm." ”

The deputy commander-in-chief of the city guards, Chiyovala, wanted to stop the seemingly useless blow, but Baron Edelman stopped him, "Although the crossbow arrows and fire oil are expensive and the results are few, they can at least soothe the mood of the warriors. Allowing this thing to approach the walls unhindered would be a devastating blow to morale. ”

The real battle will be fought when the siege towers are within 200 meters of the city walls, which is the effective range of the pneumatic rifle and the range of the barbarian bow. However, both Baron Edelman and Chiyovala made the mistake of focusing too much on the siege towers and neglecting the larger threat.

Hundreds of barbarian crudely made catapults were approaching in the shadow of the siege towers, these catapults had a range of less than three hundred meters, and their throwing arms were so rough that they were no different from logs, but they were still very powerful, and they could throw stones weighing tens of kilograms onto the city walls.

That would mean the end of the defenders of the western wall.