Chapter 105: Night Attack

Marching in the dark. ()

The soldiers crossed the groves and bushes to make a final rally at an ancient city wall that had been reduced to ruins.

From a distance, there were bonfires burning quietly on both sides of the river, and the soldiers on the towers were already faintly visible. Lagrange revealed that some of the city's sentinels had been bribed to set fire to several of the city's main roads at night to guide the army to the defenders' camps.

There's nothing wrong with a night raid, but it's unnecessary and dishonorable to sign a contract before a night raid.

The soldiers had stones in their mouths, a method they learned when fighting the Kujits, so that they could not speak during the march. A dull and tense atmosphere came from behind him, and everyone was waiting for the order.

The flags were rolled up, the owners of the horses were trying to pacify their mounts, and the servants, led by some soldiers, distributed their weapons to everyone.

The sky was overcast, and the moon was sneaking behind the clouds, revealing a large patch of dim light.

The soldiers are already in place.

The crossbowmen had already stepped on their crossbow machines and placed their bolts on top of the crossbow slots;

The spearmen pointed their weapons straight at the sky, and the soldiers in the first rows pointed their spears diagonally at the walls, ready to charge at any moment;

Behind the spearmen are light infantry armed with daggers and sabers, who will be the main force of the night.

The moon began to leap out of the clouds.

Gradually, the moonlight covered the land.

At this time, if one of the defending soldiers looked up at the ruins a few miles outside the city, he could see that a large shadow had not dissipated with the appearance of the moonlight--- it was more than 2,000 soldiers who had been prepared.

Father wondered if the people of Uxhall had not placed scouts here, and if one of the scouts could detect these invading enemies half an hour earlier, the defense of Uxhall would have been multiplied in an instant.

In the moonlight, my father heard that some of the soldiers around him had disobeyed the order, spit out the stones from their mouths, and began to chant words and pray. The father did not reprimand the soldiers like a stern inspector, and at this time the father did not know what kind of psychology he was in, and he was unwilling to interfere with the behavior of the soldiers.

With the appearance of the moonlight, the people in the city also seemed to react. Flames began to rise in several places, the light of which was not clear at first, and what appeared to be just some distant campfires shaking. But soon those shining lights turned scarlet, and for the besiegers, the signal was strong enough.

The moon jumped completely out of the clouds.

The moonlight shone all over the earth, and the edge of the clouds swept down the magnificent shadow of the moonlight, and the heaven and earth seemed to suddenly become a holy temple.

Just as the moonlight was shining, thirty-two trumpets sounded at the same time.

The muffled sound of a horn spread across the battlefield, and the sound of the moonlight reached the ears of every soldier.

It took only a few seconds for the shouts to go from the deepest to the loudest. Then like a black tide, soldiers rushed to Uxhall from above the entire front.

The earth began to tremble, and the soldiers spat out the final stones, raised their weapons, and began to pour towards the gates of Uxhall.

A servant brought a horse to his father, who stepped on the horse and looked at the soldiers who had rushed ahead. Men were constantly grazing their father's legs and rushing to the front, and the soldiers' helmets glowed bleakly in the moonlight.

Uxhall was quiet and terrible, and a strong ominous overhead hung over his father's heart, and Uxhall was like a huge tomb without the slightest sound. At this time, even if the castle tower of Uxhall was covered with soldiers in lotus halberd armor, my father would feel better. A city at war seems so peaceful, but it is not necessarily a good thing.

But before my father's worries could dissipate in my heart, cheers were heard from the city gates.

It turned out that someone from the city had already come to answer and open the gates. The Uxhall people above the tower finally began to scream and light the siren fireworks, but the men were soon overwhelmed by the soldiers who rushed up. The towers had been occupied by groups of soldiers who were advancing along the city walls towards several observation towers, to occupy these high points, and then to provide information on the city to their comrades.

The horses in front of the tower and the ditch filled with water had been filled in, and the soldiers rushed along the gate in a crowded but orderly manner.

Countless sounds came from within the city, and they reverberated with a rumbling. The soldiers are trying to create an atmosphere of chaos and terror.

In just over twenty minutes, several squadrons of soldiers had already poured into the city of Uxhall.

For the first time in years, this ancient city was woken up in its sleep. In the past, the loudest noises of Uxhall's nights might have been the sounds of a rushing workshop or the debauchery of a drunken man. But now, the whole city is in a mess with thousands of people.

When the father arrived, the soldiers got out of the way. My father followed a group of light cavalry through the thick gates and into Uxhall.

After entering Uxhall, my father's first feeling was cramped: the streets of Uxhall were less than two-thirds the width of Suno. The houses are so high that when people look up from the street, they can only see the severed sky. At this time, the bleak moonlight shone down from the eaves on both sides of the street, and the soldiers poured along the already firelit streets towards the city.

Father stopped a non-commissioned officer coming from the front.

"Knight," called the father, "where are the soldiers assembled?" ”

"Who are you?"

"I'm Inspector Arcadio" Father tugged at his reins impatiently, and today his father's mount was also a little abnormal, constantly trying to turn around.

"Sir," the knight looked carefully at his father's coat of arms and armor, then bowed his head apologetically, "We were going to assemble in a square and let us storm the inner city. But now that the square was full of wagons loaded with grain, we had no choice but to move on. The generals have already ordered an attack on the inner city in one go. ”

"Attacking without regrouping? Which bastard gave the order? ”

"Sir. That's why I'm going out of town to report to General Stellant. On top of a field of alfalfa beneath the city walls at the eastern end of the city, you can regroup. If we had taken it first, we would have prevented the soldiers from being too scattered in the city. ”

The knight probably received his life in a hurry, and he hurried out of the city without waiting for his father to allow him to leave.

The soldiers were still rushing towards the city in high spirits, and the crowd seemed almost impossible to reverse. The fanatical soldiers' contempt for the Westerners had reached its peak, and they did not care about their fatigue or the enemy's superiority in defending the city, only that the Western army was mostly a group of stragglers who had escaped from the battle and fought on their own.

Now, the soldiers were swarming towards the city in high spirits, and the men were neighing.

Every soldier knows that killing an enemy soldier on the battlefield will give him six acres of ripe fields; If you can capture an enemy non-commissioned officer, you will get an additional four acres of land and four ploughing oxen; If a soldier is able to kill a low-ranking officer of the enemy army, the Empire will find a wife or assign a slave to the soldier.

This system of rewards, full of temptations, made the soldiers each eager to fight, and before developing a passion for their fellow man, the soldiers first developed a thirst for battle.

Although this incentive was effective, it was not appreciated by the father. My father knew that the ancient Zen masters had a much more sophisticated way to maintain morale, and that was discipline and national enthusiasm.

In particular, if a soldier has been nurtured by this enthusiasm since childhood, as long as he provokes it slightly, the soldier will not hesitate to go to the soup. But the reality is that the cost of sustaining this enthusiasm is too great, not only in terms of good treatment, but also in terms of an enlightened culture and constant propaganda, which will not be possible in the short term.

But for now, it seems that it has been a successful practice to encourage soldiers to fight indiscriminately. Unlike the rest of the nations, in the armies of Frost Castle, there was never a situation where the nobles were the first to divide the spoils. All the distribution of the spoils of war is directly linked to the merits of the war, and even the younger brother of Emperor Fiderick cannot be rewarded if he cannot command a battle well; If a slave who has no freedom kills an enemy soldier, he will be freed immediately--- and his master's loss will be compensated by Emperor Frederick's treasurer. Due to the constant wars between the Salanders, the Vicchians, and the Kujits, Emperor Fiderick was always able to obtain a steady stream of slaves, and although Eastern and Western Svadia did not allow the Swadians and Rhodoks to be sold as slaves, people did not refuse to use slaves of other peoples.

The more fanatical the soldiers, the more anxious the father became.

Yu and Colin rode up, and most of his father's soldiers remained outside the city, bringing only a few men who were proficient in horsemanship into the city.

"My lord, what's wrong?" Collin rode over, "A knight says he sees you. ”

"Well, he's just gone. It's a little weird here, so I'll check it out. The man said that there was a staging ground in the east of the city. ”

Several horsemen immediately responded, and Colin and Yudu pulled down their masks and followed their father after the soldiers in front.

Under an arcade of stone aqueducts raised above the roof, the father parted from the main force and folded to the east.

Only a squad of infantry was kicking open the doors along the street, checking for residents who might be hiding inside. However, it seemed that most of the inhabitants had evacuated their homes, and my father knew that there were a large number of inhabitants gathered on several small river islands north of the city, who were waiting for the war to pass before returning home.

"Soldier, what did you find?" The father stopped to ask a soldier who had just come out of the room, who had a bundle of cashmere cloth and a mention of black jerky under his arm.

"My lord, nothing. The cowards of Uxhall are gone," the soldier was pleased with his booty, "and it's bad luck that the men are gone, and there aren't a single wives." ”

"Didn't you find any soldiers when you entered the city?"

"No, my squad is responsible for guarding the streets on both sides. I don't know what the situation is further into the city. But "My lord, it's a little strange." ”

"What's wrong?"

"Every house is full of firewood, and the people of Uxhall are so well prepared for the winter."

"Firewood" Father suddenly tightened the reins, and the horse under his crotch was foaming, "How much firewood?" ”

"I don't know", "It's everywhere", "It's everywhere."

The father looked back at Yu and Colin, who had lifted their masks and showed frightened expressions, indicating that they were aware of the crisis.

At this moment, there was a shout in the direction of the city gate, and there seemed to be some confusion.

If a bird could fly over the city of Uxhall at this time, it would be able to see more than forty places on fire at the same time.

Cities full of firewood, cities with dense buildings, cities with narrow streets.

In the dry night, it burned.