Chapter 1530: Ancient Scaling Ladders

Sashaer looked at the Military Department Minister, his ears filled with deafening sounds.

The Military Department Minister gave him a cold look, ignored him further, and went down to direct the defense of the city.

Only Sashaer was left standing there, stunned and at a loss.

The Military Department Minister looked at the Nashadier troops setting up Scaling Ladders to storm the city wall below and ordered in a deep voice: "Attack the Scaling Ladders! Do not let the enemy troops climb onto the city wall under any circumstances!"

Now that the frontline artillery batteries had been overwhelmed by the Nashadier troops, the most effective line of defense for sniping at the Nashadier troops had been breached.

However, the Nashadier troops had no way to break through the city.

The sturdiness of this city wall at the time of its construction was simply terrifying; Siege Cannons and the like had no way to cause any damage to this wall at all.

To break through such a city wall, the Nashadier troops had only one option: scale the wall!

Risking massive casualties to forcibly scale the wall was the simplest and currently most effective Method.

Although the French Army currently had less manpower than the Nashadier troops, they had an absolute advantage when defending the city.

They were positioned high above, holding an absolute advantage.

Unless the Nashadier troops climbed onto the city wall, the only things that could pose a threat were Crossbowmen, Musket Teams, and Artillery.

Although Crossbowmen and Musket Teams could pose a threat, facing such a high city wall, they had great obstacles when firing from below, making it very difficult to hit their targets.

As for the Artillery, their Cannonballs had a wide range of effect and could threaten them, but they would also accidentally injure soldiers currently scaling the wall, which would be more trouble than it was worth.

Before the wall-scaling had even begun, Nashadier looked at the well-prepared soldiers on the French city wall and immediately ordered: "Before scaling the wall, use the Longyan Cannons to clear a path."

"Maximize the depletion of their forces."

"Yes!"

The Nashadier troops retreated a certain distance, and under the confident gaze of the French Military Department Minister, he saw bowl-sized Longyan Cannonballs falling from the sky.

He was slightly stunned, then immediately understood.

Nashadier wanted to use Artillery to deplete them before proceeding to storm the city.

"Get down, get down!"

Boom!

The Longyan Cannonballs exploded above the city wall, and many French Soldiers did not have time to react, suffering instant casualties.

After a wave of shelling.

The Military Department Minister climbed up from the dust and looked at the ground, where French Soldiers and some broken defensive equipment were scattered; a hint of coldness flashed in his eyes.

He looked into the distance, eyes narrowed slightly, and muttered to himself: "He really is a terrifying opponent."

After the Longyan Army's shelling, there was a five-minute vacuum period.

Taking advantage of this time, the Military Department Minister immediately issued orders to prepare for the enemy's second round of shelling.

But just at this moment, the Nashadier troops set up the Scaling Ladders, and the wall-scaling began.

Countless Scaling Ladders were pushed toward the city wall; there were bamboo ladders and high-platform ladders built from solid wood, approaching the wall.

The Nashadier troops fiercely began to scale the wall.

The Military Department Minister's reaction was also swift; he immediately organized the remaining French troops who had survived the shelling.

Rolling stones and thunder-logs were thrown down one after another.

Pots of boiling oil were poured down toward the base of the wall.

Countless Nashadier soldiers were either crushed or burned by the Siege Engines falling from the sky.

Some even fell from the bamboo ladders along with their own troops.

The Military Department Minister did not take these to heart; even if these troops managed to climb up, it would only be one person, who would soon be finished off and thrown down as a Siege Engine.

What the Military Department Minister was truly worried about were the rapidly moving Scaling Ladders in the distance.

They were called Scaling Ladders, but they were actually high platforms built of wood.

They could carry a large number of soldiers and scale the wall in an instant!

A single soldier was easy to eliminate, but if it were dozens of soldiers.

Forming a force, it would be very difficult to eliminate them on the not-so-spacious city wall.

Moreover, this

type of Scaling Ladder was difficult to destroy with rolling stones and thunder-logs; as long as it existed, it could provide a relatively safe way for the troops below to scale the wall.

How terrifying it would be to have a Scaling Ladder that was relatively safe and easy to climb.

The Military Department Minister ordered in a deep voice: "Crossbowmen, use fire to attack the Scaling Ladders! Artillery, prepare to aim the Cannons at those Scaling Ladders!"

"Yes!"

The French Crossbowmen tied cotton and linen cloth soaked in hot oil to their arrows, lit them, and fired them all at once.

Suddenly, a sea of fire fell from the sky.

Countless Nashadier Scaling Ladders in motion were engulfed by the sea of fire and stained with sparks, but they did not burn rapidly.

Very quickly, the Scaling Ladders charged out of the sea of fire.

But countless Nashadier soldiers died within the sea of fire.

Nashadier saw this scene, his expression shifted slightly, but he said nothing more.

He turned his gaze toward the base of the city wall again, as if confirming something.

Seeing the dust rising under the French Port city wall, his tense expression relaxed.

His ultimate goal was never to rely on Scaling Ladders to storm the city.

Although using Scaling Ladders to break through a city was feasible, the modern era was not ancient times; after experiencing the Industrial Revolution, the once-indestructible Scaling Ladders were no longer the ultimate weapon for sieges.

It was now too simple to destroy Scaling Ladders.

Nashadier heard a boom!

The French Cannons fired a bowl-sized Cannonball, which slammed into the Scaling Ladder that had charged out of the sea of fire.

Bang!

The Scaling Ladder, having taken a solid hit from a cannonball, collapsed with a boom!

The Scaling Ladder, which looked powerful and indestructible, was completely destroyed by the enemy army with just a single cannonball.

Seeing this scene, Nashadier sighed; ancient siege weapons have now been eliminated batch after batch due to technological revolutions.

However, these Scaling Ladders had already completed the task of drawing the opponent's fire.

The Scaling Ladder was destroyed, but there was not a hint of joy on the Military Department Minister's face.

When the crossbowmen and Artillery were attacking the Scaling Ladders just now, many of Nashadier's troops charged onto the city wall, and their Sword and Shield Soldiers caused them no small amount of obstruction.

Although these soldiers had already been wiped out.

It made their already dwindling troop numbers go from bad to worse.

At this moment, the Military Department Minister felt a slight vibration coming from beneath the wall and frowned slightly.

Looking down at the city, at the position of the city gate, Nashadier's troops were currently crowding around a battering ram, with half of the rear section of the ram exposed.

They were currently ramming it frantically.

But the city gate of French Port remained unmoved.

It was difficult to break through.

Seeing this scene, the Military Department Minister gave a cold smile; when they built this city wall, they had already considered these issues.

The city wall was certainly sturdy and incomparable, but there were also weak points, such as the city gate.

The Sluice Gate they had adopted back then was cast entirely from steel weighing three thousand jin, rising and falling as a whole.

Opening the gate once required ten strong men to pull on iron chains as thick as a bowl to lift the door and secure it to the locking pins.

For Nashadier's troops to want to use a battering ram to break open the gate was simply laughable.

At this time, the Artillery on the city wall aimed their muzzles at the city gate, but the Military Department Minister said coldly.

"Ignore the Nashadier troops attacking the gate; that place will absolutely not be breached."

"Focus the attack on the Scaling Ladders and the soldiers climbing the city wall."

"Utilize the horse-face bastions to surround and attack them from three sides!"

"Yes!"