Chapter 80: The Siege

Father stared at the burning gates. ()

Lagrange had climbed the ladder up the city wall two hours earlier, where Lagrange waved his battle flag, and all the soldiers of the castle above and below the tower cheered, and the gloomy battlefield showed some vitality.

Beneath the city, there were more than 1,400 disarmed surrendered defenders, who soon fell to their knees and begged for mercy under the neat onslaught of armored cavalry.

The remaining 3,000 or so defenders under the command of their general had moved west of the city, and the scouts reported that those soldiers had poured into the fortress of St. Ruzgodhard. The fort had always been used as a last resort to defend the city of Deherim, and it was not for nothing that some people called it the Rooftop Fortress because it was backed by a cliff and jutted out from the high ground.

Less than 2,000 soldiers are still holding out in the city.

After the first day of fighting, more than 5,000 defenders were routed and the city of Dehrim was abandoned. Before the soldiers of the city could leave the city to make peace with the large army, they were surrounded in the city. After more than ten hours of fighting--- the defenders were mostly in a rout, and finally lost confidence at the end. They scattered in a hurry, and if it weren't for the defenders' judges, who had killed some of the rebels, the defenders would probably not have been able to move into the fortress of St. Ruz Godda.

In fact, the defenders had enough time to assemble and return to the city of Dehrim. But by that time the morale of the soldiers had been exhausted, and the dark plains made them feel that any march that might approach the soldiers of the Frost Fort was dangerous. They didn't even dare to muster the courage to break up the small force of Frost Fort that was spying on Dehrem. The light reflected from the torches and armor in the darkness made the soldiers tremble.

The stars were shining, the moonlight was dim, and the commander of the defenders had no choice but to lead the army to the road to the fortress.

Shameful failure is no longer the first thing to be considered, the first thing to worry about now is the question of survival.

Dimitri's men began to escort the captives to the camp, their hands chained behind their backs, and several of the soldiers guarding them beat them wantonly with short clubs and leather whip handles as they passed. The soldiers of Frost Castle were very disgusted with these Westerners, and although Fredret had been explaining to the soldiers that only those who followed Harlaus in his misdeeds were public enemies, the soldiers of Frost Castle couldn't help but attribute their disgust to somewhere.

This made Fidrik's courtiers very worried, and this situation might be suppressed now, but if this division was maintained for a long time, it was likely that the soldiers of Frost Fort would no longer regard soldiers elsewhere in the empire as 'their own'. Just like the Rhodoks, after decades of partition, with the exception of a few outliers, there are hardly any Rhodoks who consider themselves South Svadians.

Fortunately, Federderick's confidence was strong, and his promise to bring the soldiers home was about to be fulfilled. After that, it was Fieder's turn to ask the soldiers to support him home, and Fiderick's end point would be Paravon, where he could officially restore the honor of the royal family.

The royal nobility of the Frederick family was originally the richest and most powerful people in the empire, and after Fiderick was declared treason by Harlaus, those nobles were deprived of their official positions, subsidies, and even fiefs. Haraus plundered a large amount of land and property, and in doing so, he co-opted many of the lowly members of the royal family, who had no permanent place to live and became ministers of the Empire, who were loyal to Haraus, and who were thinking about destroying Fidred day and night.

Haraus traveled south to sign a contract with Rhodok in the hope that he would remain neutral while he went north. Haraus hoped to use his superior forces to attack Fiderick after consolidating his diplomacy. But Haraus probably didn't expect the siege of Dehrim and the crushing of the main force of the defenders so quickly.

From the time Harauth was officially proclaimed emperor, he set about fortifying the walls of Suno, and it seemed that he foresaw that it would be a matter of time before Suno's siege would be besieged. Ironically, if he had spent the manpower and money he had spent on building the walls of Suno, training new recruits and buying equipment, the number of soldiers in Dehrim would have made Fidré afraid to go south.

Dehrim.

At this time, the soldiers in Dehrim were far outnumbered by the besieging troops, and they had been waiting peacefully for the return of the troops outside the city. As a result, after the crushing defeat of the troops out of the city, the commander of the garrison estimated that his army was not strong enough to defend the long walls of Dehrim, and the inhabitants of the city would not do their best to help them resist, so the remnants of the defenders had given the order to abandon Dehrim.

Several heralds sent orders for the soldiers in the city to burn the food and all other supplies for the enemy, and then abandon the city for the fortress of St. Ruzgoda.

The order was not carried out, and the male inhabitants of the city who had been drafted first rejected the orders of their commanders, who suggested that the food be distributed to the hungry inhabitants, so that the impression of the defenders could be improved, and the good impression of the inhabitants of the city would be lost if the soldiers of Fiderick were to take it away in the future. This was a good suggestion, but the general of the city refused the request, and he faithfully sent his own soldiers to begin burning down several granaries.

Some of the mercenary soldiers in Decherim were even more skeptical, and they were very dissatisfied with the plan to escape to the fortress of St. Ruzgoda. They knew that in peacetime, the soldiers of the Western Army might consider giving them the same treatment, but at such a time, if there was any supply to be reduced, they would definitely start with mercenaries.

Some of the mercenary soldiers had laid down their weapons and sat quietly in their barracks, deaf to the rallying horns. They sealed the gates of their camp and turned a blind eye to the heralds who came to urge them to get on the way. Urging them to be in a hurry, they demanded a three-month commission advance, otherwise they would quit the army. The heralds scolded the thousand or so mercenary spearmen and crossbowmen, but when they saw the mercenaries with a fierce look on their faces, they walked away with amusement.

The mercenaries responded flexibly when the catastrophe came: they gave up their resistance and waited to surrender to the first Frost Fort soldiers they encountered. The mercenary officers will present their swords and banners to the officers of the Frost Castle.

If the people at Frost Castle can afford to pay the commission, the mercenaries will happily join the new employer. The reputation of these mercenaries is not as good as that of the wandering Mamluks who have become mercenaries, or even the spearmen of the Oasis of Barryya. However, these people have an advantage, that is, as long as they have money, they will appear in large numbers, and they will fight with the wind with great ferocity, but once there is a difficult situation, then they can not count on it.

The northern end of the wall, which had been heavily threatened by the Frost Castle, had given up its resistance, and the defenders there scattered in a hurry, only to set up some horses under the city and run into the city.

Seeing the defenders on the city wall fleeing, the soldiers of the Frost Fort let out a burst of boos, and the shield formation prepared by the soldiers to defend against arrows and flying stones was no longer needed. The soldiers began to instruct the craftsmen to set up a wooden ladder to climb the city walls.

Dimitri came to his father's side, "You really don't want to go up?" ”

"Well, that ladder is fine, I think it's better to guard the city gate under the city. You know the "that", those remnants of the army could threaten us here"

The reason for his father's mess made Dimitri a little puzzled: "Those people dare to come back" "Uh" "You can take it." But you don't have to wait for the gates to burn out before you go in. Our servants were clearing the debris behind the city gates, where the western army was piled with large stones and beams, and it was not a matter of a day or two to wait for them to burn out. I'll be waiting for you in the city. ”

After saying that, Dimitri took a few of his own soldiers to climb the city wall from a cloud ladder, and as Dimitri's flame battle flag fluttered, the cheers inside and outside the city wall rang out again.

By this time, Wright had already led his cavalry to the bottom of the cliff of St. Ruzgoda to stand by, and since night, Wright and several other cavalry generals have been constantly monitoring the remnants of the defenders. Because of the large number of remnants, Wright feared that a rash attack would provoke them into a battle of trapped beasts and cause unnecessary losses, so the cavalry unhurriedly forced those men into the fortress of St. Luzgodhard, as if they were putting rats in cages.

For the encirclement in this terrain, the cavalry was satisfied. The only food route on the cliff was a rugged path leading down the mountain, and there should have been food in the fortress, but the squeezing of more than 3,000 troops into it would be a disaster anyway. All you need to do is set up an ambush at the bottom of the mountain and wait for the defenders to starve to death or blindly descend the mountain to find death.

It may not be a wise move for the defending generals to storm the fortress of St. Ruzgodhard, as the number of soldiers rushing back to Dehrem or moving towards the edge of the high ground would be a headache for Frost Fortress. But they chose to rush to a cage-like fortress, and now is really an opportunity to make a difference.

There are still thousands of recruits in the Frost Castle who are worried about the lack of weapons and equipment, and the group of soldiers on the hill seems to be ready to support His Majesty Fidellie.

From time to time, there was a commotion on the mountain, and dozens of troops began to flee down the mountain to surrender. The defenders on the hill immediately arranged for crossbowmen to climb several guard towers and concentrate on the soldiers who dared to flee. By the time the crossbowmen had stabilized the morale of the army, more than 300 people had fled down the mountain.

The soldiers were immediately stripped of their weapons and armor, leaving only cotton armor. The jury is still out on what to do with these people. There were already more than 2,000 prisoners in the hands of the Frost Castle, and if this continued, it would be necessary to dismiss a group of people or absorb them into their own army.

Emperor Fiderick has already set off for the south, so wait for the emperor to tell him in person.

For this expedition, the emperor's goal was clear: to take the city of Dehrim and recover the eastern part of the empire--- which accounted for one-third of the empire's land area and one-fifth of the population.

Once he had Dehrim, Prince Frederick would be able to overlook the vast Sunno Plains from the heights.

It is known that after crossing the Suno Plain, Parabon is not far away.

And His Majesty Fiderick's crown is there.