Chapter 411: It

Wuuu wuuu wuuu!

"Kill!"

Soon, with the sound of horns, the first wave of assault began.

This first wave of twenty thousand consisted of ten thousand in the front, and five thousand on each flank!

Under the cover of five catapults, the serf soldiers quickly reached the base of the wall and began climbing ladders.

Meanwhile, the defenders above continuously dropped stones, logs, and shot arrows to block and defend.

Of course, when it comes to siege warfare, the human race is professional.

For example, their siege weapons are far superior to those of the beastfolk.

Besides simple wooden ladders, there were also mobile siege towers resembling watchtowers.

The outside of the siege towers was covered with wooden planks and wet ox hides as shields, with staircases inside.

Soldiers could safely reach a platform level with the wall inside the tower, then extend wooden bridges to leap onto the ramparts.

This not only reduced the risk of climbing but also enabled rapid deployment of large numbers of troops.

Of course, due to the beastfolk's numerical advantage on the walls, even with such formidable weapons, seizing the ramparts remained extremely difficult.

The battle had just begun; even if a soldier managed to leap onto the wall, the next moment he would be mercilessly cut down by enemy spears or greatswords.

The attack by twenty thousand lasted about an hour.

After an hour, the retreat horn sounded.

But this was not a pause in the kingdom's siege; it was the rotation of minor noble units onto the battlefield.

This was standard procedure in siege warfare.

In the age of cold weapons, sieges lasting days or weeks were short; some lasted months, even years.

Thus, to sustain such prolonged sieges, soldiers fought in rotating shifts.

Otherwise, the same group of soldiers, deprived of sleep for days and nights, would be broken even if made of iron.

Soon, the second wave of twenty thousand arrived.

Their siege tactics were hardly different from the first wave; they tangled with the beastfolk army for an hour, killed some vassal troops, suffered some casualties, then were replaced.

After they were withdrawn, the third batch of minor noble units took their place, then the fourth.

As the hour neared and it was about to be Gervas's turn, Adams suddenly appeared.

He ostensibly came to find Mil, but in truth he came for Gervas, slipping him a letter without drawing attention.

After Adams left, Gervas opened it and was startled by its contents.

In the letter, Adams warned Gervas to have his subordinates hold back during the assault.

He urged them to prioritize their own safety over bravely killing enemies.

In short, Adams wanted Gervas's men to go through the motions without real effort.

Such conduct would be unacceptable in any army.

Yet Adams made this suggestion to Gervas because his father had secretly revealed a piece of information.

That the key to this siege lay not in daylight, but in the night of this very day.

Thus, how well the minor nobles performed was irrelevant.

For truly capturing the city through direct assault would take at least four or five days, perhaps even over a week.

"Tonight?"

The information came from Adams; it was almost certainly reliable.

Moreover, Adams had carefully instructed Gervas to burn the letter immediately after reading it and not to reveal it to anyone else.

From this alone, it was clear few knew of this secret.

Only figures of high stature, like Lord Austin, had the privilege to know such things.

Immediately, Gervas summoned Lei Meng and Mil, whispering instructions to each.

Both nodded vigorously after listening.

Soon, an hour passed, and it was finally the fifth unit's turn to fight.

Lei Meng led the Storm Legion into battle as the horns sounded.

Quickly, they reached the foot of the wall.

Unlike other units, Gervas's force this time consisted entirely of crossbowmen.

Though three hundred of his men carried longswords at their waists, they did not use them; instead, they continuously drew and loosed arrows to strike enemies on the wall.

Their accuracy was certainly not as precise as that of professional archers.

But crossbows, once one understood the three-point alignment method, were dozens of times more accurate than longbows.

Moreover, the wall above was packed with enemies, so these swordsmen still inflicted considerable casualties.

"Gervas, you're brilliant!"

"Indeed! Hah! All archers—your men don't even need to scale the wall!"

"There are so many assault troops; a few more won't matter. But we lack enough archers to cover their advance!"

"So having my men support with crossbows reduces casualties—this is a win-win!"

"Absolutely a good move!" Mil and the others saw nothing wrong with Gervas's tactic.

After all, Gervas's previous headcount proved his merit.

Moreover, his men were so formidable; wasting them in such brutal siege warfare would indeed be a waste.

Of course, while Mil and the others didn't care, others certainly did.

Willard had been in a foul mood these days; after all, he had spent so much effort scheming against Gervas, only to see him escape.

Today, seeing Gervas using his swordsmen as archers, he would not let him get away with it.

"Lord Gervas, do you know you're showing cowardice?"

"I give you two choices: either order your swordsmen to scale the wall immediately, or I'll record this as a crime against you in the Register of Offenses!"

Soon, Willard approached Gervas directly.

Upon meeting him, he delivered a harsh threat without hesitation.

"Is that so? Lord Willard, what if I don't choose either?" Gervas showed no surprise at Willard's outburst.

If this opportunity arose and Willard didn't appear, that would be strange.

"Not choose? Lord Gervas, you don't get to decide. Last time, you said I was merely a battle supervisor and couldn't alter your battle order!"

"But this matter? It's exactly up to me, the battle supervisor, to decide. I'll count to ten. If you haven't chosen by then, I'll choose for you!"

Willard sneered.

If this was recorded in the Register of Offenses, Gervas's prior merits would likely be nullified.

And if Gervas didn't want that, he'd have to send his men into battle—casualties would be heavy.

So no matter what, Gervas would pay a price.

Yet unlike Willard's expectations, Gervas showed no tension or worry; he merely coldly smiled: "Is that so? Lord Willard, then try."

"You think I won't?" Willard's fury surged. "Fine! Lord Gervas, I've warned you—this is your own choice!"

Saying this, Willard wasted no time, immediately picking up his goose-quill pen to record Gervas's offense.