Section 4 Expedition

In the distance, above the city, wolf smoke, a symbol of the alarm, was rising high. After the initial panic had passed, the mercenaries had finally made the right choice. It's finally worth their mercenary money.

A ranger sped up and charged at Thomas, who was directing the landing of his troops on the shore. Several knights came up to meet him. But this time the defense was redundant, and the Ranger was a herald, who rolled his saddle and dismounted, and rushed to Thomas out of breath.

"General Thomas, the enemy closed the gates in time. Lord Ryan's raid failed. ”

"It's okay, so he doesn't have to attack, just monitor the enemy's movements. I'll go and meet him before dark. Thomas waved his hand.

In the shallows ahead, the commanding knights were scattered around, and the militiamen and sailors unloaded the cargo of the fleet in batches.

"Don't rush the horses! We won't need them for the time being! Let the siege towers be unloaded quickly!"

The officers tried their best to command the fleet. Hordes of militiamen and sailors stood in the river, pulling ashore huge parts of war equipment.

The weather in early winter is not "particularly cold", but if you stand barefoot in the river, your hands and feet will quickly freeze and lose your senses, and your skin will turn blue.

Several bonfires were lit on the shore for people to come ashore to keep warm.

Along the perimeter of the beachhead, a large number of knights in armor occupied a small area of high ground, carefully scouting the movements of the enemy around them. According to the intelligence, there are only about 1,000 mercenaries stationed nearby, and all of them have retreated back into the castle. However, Thomas still arranged for a large group of cavalry to be responsible for the defense. Because in the event of a surprise attack by the enemy on the way ashore, it will inevitably have catastrophic consequences.

The detachable siege tower was broken down into dozens of parts, just the size of a horse-drawn wagon. When it comes to assembling, it only takes a dozen or so people one night to assemble. And the ordinary siege tower, in the mountainous area where materials are widely available in time, will require hundreds of people to work hard for more than half a month to be fully completed.

While the work was continuing, another horse came galloping in.

"Report to General Thomas. Lord Ryan asked me to tell you that there are more enemies in the city than expected. It may be that they received temporary reinforcements. According to his judgment, there were more than six mercenary teams, at least two thousand people. ”

After the Paros betrayed their belief in the gods of nature, they were no longer able to get outside support from Stygia. However, with the unsparing support of the True God Church, the mercenary teams of the Central Seven Kingdoms poured into Paro in droves, forming an extremely considerable part of Paro's military strength.

However, the Paro people also know very well that mercenaries are naturally good in terms of combat effectiveness, but they dare not compliment them in terms of military discipline, and loyalty cannot be guaranteed. So they dispersed their mercenaries to consolidate and occupy some of the more minor positions. The real counterinsurgency and important towns still rely on the country's army.

After hearing the number of enemies, the expressions of several officers around Thomas could not help but change. A thousand men can't defend Drake City thoroughly, but two thousand is a different story.

"Don't worry. Thomas looked calm. "If they were temporary reinforcements, they would have worked badly with each other. This will allow us to destroy more enemies in one fell swoop. ”

By this time, almost all the parts of the siege tower had been sent ashore. Now another fleet of ships approached and began to unload the horses.

The Knights of the Holy Grail escorted the three prophetesses to the shore. As they passed, Ashruphat suddenly felt familiar to one of the three prophetesses. Then he remembered that when he was on the Holy Mountain, it was this prophetess who led the way.

The garrison of Drake City did not do any uninteresting harassment. By the afternoon of that day, St. Jean's expeditionary force had all arrived at the foot of Drake City and set up a simple camp.

In order to confuse the enemy, Thomas ordered him to rest before dark, and after dark to assemble the siege tower.

Ashrufat lifted the curtain and walked into Thomas's tent.

"General Thomas, the situation is worse than expected, according to the locals we found, the enemy defenders are now approaching three thousand......" Ashrufar suddenly realized that Thomas was not the only one in the tent. Ryan, William Daly, and Leo are all here.

"Calm down, Ashrufat, calm down! If you are calm when you get bad news, your men will only waver. If you waver, your subordinates will be terrified. If you panic, your subordinates will collapse. Thomas said this, but there was no real displeasure on his face.

"Why are there so many defenders here?"

"It was completely accidental, because a group of enemies happened to be passing by, and it happened that they had just entered Drake City to rest for a while. Those are also mercenaries. So they now have a total of six mercenary units. ”

"Not good news!" Thomas was not at all alarmed. "However, the fleet is still waiting for us, it really can't be done, we can just get on the ship and retreat. ”

"They don't have magicians. Leo explained to Ashrufat. "The prophetesses have just heard the news. These teams of mercenaries were put together on an improvised basis, and there were no mages with them. And they didn't bring other cannons either. Except for the three cannons fixed at the head of the city, nothing threatens our siege towers. ”

"This is a good opportunity, Ryan, Leo, and Ashrufat, to get you into the hands of how much magic can affect warfare. Thomas replied. "If I had to be exchanged, I would trade five hundred knights for the power of a prophetess. ”

"Remember, though, that no amount of magic may be a substitute for courage. On the battlefield, the role of courage cannot be underestimated! When the two armies meet, the brave wins!"

At dawn, under the cold wind of early winter, the flying snake banner under the city flutters. There was a heavy aura in the air that weighed on the hearts of every defender.

This is a completely unanticipated enemy. This flying snake banner was once a lingering nightmare for the Paro people, and every officer in Paro knew about the great battle of decades ago, the formidable enemy with great courage and deep strategy. And now, the nightmare has awakened once again - Thomas has long been known for his previous annihilation of the Greyhound Knights.

I don't know how many people are cursing this immortal old guy to die early. But the problem is that Thomas not only did not die, but suddenly appeared under the city like a divine soldier. The facts seem to prove that this is no ordinary enemy. Just below the city, in the sight of the defenders, three tall siege towers stood above the ground. Everyone knew that the enemy had just arrived yesterday and had not brought any siege equipment.

A banner bearer galloped from the enemy position to make a routine persuasion to surrender. The messenger promised the defenders that they would be free to leave after laying down their arms. However, after an officer shot a crossbow in front of the messenger's horse, the messenger left.

"Prepare the artillery, aim at the siege towers, and leave the other enemies alone!" the officer under the careful command of the head of the city, three siege towers, three! as long as these siege engines can be broken......

"What do you think, Miss Phil?" Thomas asked the prophetesses beside him.

"Just a bunch of loose and stupid enemies. The prophetess named Phil replied. She was the one who had greeted Ashruphat in the first place, and was the leader of the three prophetesses who had accompanied the army this time. "They have cannons, but they don't seem to know how to use them properly. I saw that the gunners actually put the powder keg next to the cannon in order to fire the cannon more quickly and conveniently. Mercenaries are mercenaries after all. It looks like there are no real specialists among them who graduated from the firearms academy. ”

"Without magicians, they can't counter our magic. Another prophetess replied. "Luckily, the winds of fire are roaring today. ”

"Well, it looks like they want to fight, tell the soldiers, push the siege towers to the edge of the cannon's range. Thomas ordered.

"Leo, lead the archers, ready to strike at any time and suppress the defenders of the walls. William Daley, you go and lead the militia and use the long ladder to carry out a diversionary attack on the head of the city!Lane, the knights who led the assault force, walked into the siege tower. Ashrufat, lead the cavalry to stand by! As soon as the gates are opened, the whole army will break in. ”

The siege tower advanced a short distance, staying at the limit of the cannon's range. The gunners at the head of the city did not open fire. The view from the head of the city is good, and you can clearly see the rapid movement of the enemy below the city.

Almost no one cared about the militiamen who carried long ladders ready to charge. Fools know that these are just auxiliaries, and the real main force is the three siege towers. Valuable shells had to be concentrated on these siege towers. Once you have the siege towers against the walls, it means that the rest is only a matter of time. And it's a minor issue in terms of timing.

Under the city, the archers carried shields, and one by one began to approach the walls. The defenders of the city opened fire with muskets and crossbows. But under the cover of the shield, the archers approached their range with only a small number of casualties.

"Ladies, start attacking with magic! ”

Beams of flame fell from the sky and bombarded the city. With a terrifying loud bang, the whole earth seemed to shake. Many things flew high above the city, and cannons, human bodies, weapons, and other miscellaneous items flew in all directions like fireworks. The defenders who moved a little closer to the side were blown down in droves. The explosion caused by the gunpowder was enough to blow through a person's eardrum. The defenses of the entire castle almost collapsed. No one even continued to shoot at the archers.

"Give the order to blow the trumpet and attack with the whole army!"

......

Regarding the siege under Drake, it is generally considered to be a battle without suspense. On the one hand, it is a carefully selected elite with high morale. On the other side, a number of armies that are not subordinate to each other are improvised and are all mercenaries with a low will to fight. One side has great magical help and ample siege equipment, while the other side has no heavy weapons other than three cannons. Even those cannons were cut off by the wrong operation at the moment of the battle.

When St. Jean's army took full control of the walls through the siege towers, and when the mighty Grail Knights stormed the gates, all resistance seemed meaningless. In order to avoid an even greater massacre, the mercenaries surrendered in droves. At noon that day, Thomas's Serpent banner flew at the head of Drake City.

Of course, this victory brought not so much glory and glory as a real crisis for the expeditionary force. If they hadn't breached the city, they could have left by boat, but if they had won, they would have to stop and face the real challenge......

—Excerpt from "History of the Styghian Wars"