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墨書 Inktalez
As the two princes embraced on the city wall, the soldiers of the Northern Bear Empire were almost entirely driven off the walls, leaving behind four Advanced Knights, all of whom were killed by Iron Bull and Copper Bull. The most unfortunate of these Advanced Knights was struck off the wall by Iron Bull's massive Double Hammer, falling to the ground and dying.
Seeing more and more soldiers being pushed off the wall, Feski had no choice but to abandon the final day of the siege, as he had no chance left. At the beginning, he had deployed seventy percent of his army, and nearly half of those soldiers had been lost. Now, only about twenty thousand soldiers remained capable of fighting.
Moreover, today's battle alone had resulted in nearly thirty thousand casualties, meaning that the Northern Bear Empire had suffered a heavy loss this time. With a heavy heart, Feski issued the order to retreat. Upon returning to the camp, a somber atmosphere enveloped everyone; after all, the losses in this battle were too great, with many loved ones forever lost.
Soon, the remaining commanders followed Feski back to the Central Command Tent. For a full half hour, no one spoke, all lost in thought. The blow from this defeat was too severe; victory that had seemed within reach was now lost.
Finally, Feski broke the silence: "I will report today's defeat truthfully to His Majesty. However, until His Majesty appoints a new Grand Marshal, I am still the highest commander here. I hope all of you generals can help me lift our soldiers' spirits. I do not want to see our soldiers so despondent."
Vice Marshal Kiwei then spoke up: "Everyone, let's pull ourselves together. Defeats are part of war. Our soldiers of the Northern Bear Empire will not be easily defeated. I believe in all of you."
"Rest assured, Grand Marshal. We will restore our soldiers' fighting spirit and will not give up."
In stark contrast to the silence and sorrow of the Northern Bear Empire, celebrations were underway in the Southern Tiger Empire's camp. They were not celebrating their own victory but rather rejoicing in the Northern Bear Empire's failure.
During today's battle, Marshal Willy of the Southern Tiger Empire had been watching from the sidelines. When he saw a large number of Northern Bear Empire soldiers ascend the city walls, his heart sank. He wished he could be on those walls helping the Eastern Dragon Empire soldiers defend against them. Just when he thought the city gate would be breached, Thunder Eagle Knights destroyed the battering rams, and many Northern Bear soldiers were killed on the walls. Soon after, a group of Eastern Dragon Empire soldiers drove them off.
Seeing this made Willy's heart finally settle down. He was most pleased to see that reckless assault from Northern Bear Empire soldiers causing significant casualties on their side; that was what he loved to see. Starting tomorrow for ten consecutive days would be Southern Tiger Empire's turn to attack; the more enemy soldiers depleted now meant greater opportunities for him later. After today’s battle, Northern Bear Empire’s casualties would surely be astronomical; even if he finished attacking Dragon Glory City, there would not be many soldiers left from Northern Bear Empire to wage war against Eastern Dragon Empire.
As long as he managed things well, they would soon use their large number of soldiers to take down each city of Eastern Dragon Empire one by one.
The more Willy thought about it while sitting on Mount, the happier he became; eventually, he returned to camp for a grand celebration as if they had already taken Dragon Glory City. That very night he even visited Guo Huai again to express his gratitude with generous gifts.
In fact, Willy was so focused on witnessing Northern Bear's defeat that he failed to notice that those who defeated Northern Bear's soldiers were no longer like before; their combat power was on an entirely different level. Perhaps it was because Power was so elated at seeing Northern Bear Empire's collapse that it was destined for him to end in a miserable defeat as well.
Power celebrated all night with his soldiers in camp, and by next day none of them could mobilize for action; thus Southern Tiger Empire spent its first day in this manner.
However, this provided a great opportunity for Eastern Dragon Empire's soldiers to catch their breath, especially those defending alongside Shangguan Junpeng who finally got a chance to rest.
Shangguan Junhong did not waste this day either; he ordered craftsmen from Chinese Chamber of Commerce to set up all Giant Crossbows for defense and placed numerous Catapults on the walls. Those massive trebuchets were positioned inside the walls where outsiders could not see them at all.
To ensure that both trebuchets and Catapults could be utilized to their maximum potential, Shangguan Junhong arranged for soldiers to collect Stones right from the start. Once inside the city, he began issuing orders for citizens to voluntarily go out and help transport Stones.
The citizens within Dragon Glory City were acutely aware that their country was in grave danger; thus upon receiving Shangguan Junhong's orders, nearly everyone in town participated actively in this effort.
Children could not move the large stones, so they directly collected some fist-sized stones. Although the stones were not big, placing a bunch into the catapult could definitely leave the opponent with a bruised face.
In just one day, large stones piled up around the six catapults near the city gate, and there were also piles of medium and small stones all over the city wall.
After a night of rest, the soldiers of the Eastern Dragon Empire had regained their spirits. Some lightly injured soldiers even volunteered to help defend the city. Although they struggled with swords, they could still load stones into the catapults and arrows into the giant crossbows.
These soldiers had never seen such defensive equipment before, and there were six large covered objects on the city wall that all soldiers were unaware of their purpose or appearance. They only knew that a large number of crossbow bolts were placed next to these six objects. From this, it was clear that these items were used to shoot crossbow bolts, but no one knew how to operate them.
After a day of rest, the soldiers of the Southern Tiger Empire had sobered up from their victory celebrations, but their faces still showed bright smiles. They knew that there were only about a hundred thousand soldiers left on the city wall of the Eastern Dragon Empire, many of whom were injured. As a well-spirited elite force, capturing Dragon Glory City would be very easy for them.
To overwhelm the Eastern Dragon Empire with momentum, Willy mobilized fifty thousand troops this time. Willy led all the soldiers directly to a position about four hundred meters away, where normal archery range was only about two hundred meters, making them absolutely safe there; however, this did not mean they were entirely secure.
Once all the troops were assembled, Willy sent a loud-voiced man riding a Four-Horned Goat to a safe distance of two hundred fifty meters from the city below.
"People on the wall, listen! Standing before you is the elite force of the Southern Tiger Empire. Our Marshal Willy does not wish for innocent civilians to be caught in this conflict, so we advise your troops to open the gates and surrender. Otherwise, once our army arrives, we will surely flatten your entire Eastern Dragon Empire."
Seeing no response from above after waiting for two minutes, he shouted again.
At this moment, Shangguan Junhong and Shangguan Junpeng stood at the parapet of the city tower, looking down at the soldier below. After estimating that their opponent was out of archery range, Shangguan Junpeng said to Shangguan Junhong, "Sixth Brother, what should we do? That guy is too far away for our arrows to reach. I really want to shoot his mouth shut."
Shangguan Junhong smiled slightly: "Since you are so bothered by him, I will grant your wish. Someone shoot that man's mouth shut."
After Shangguan Junhong finished speaking, someone approached from behind him. This person was a deputy commander from the Five Star Nation's Archer team who had come from Diaoyu Island. He was very skilled with his bow and arrow; especially after equipping himself with crossbow bolts, he felt even more at ease since crossbow bolts had much longer range than regular arrows.
The man bowed to both princes and then took out a crossbow bolt to aim.
Meanwhile, the soldier below continued shouting. After several calls without any response from above, he assumed that the people of the Eastern Dragon Empire were scared and became increasingly pleased with himself as he shouted louder.
He shouted while glancing back at his Grand Marshal's reaction. When he saw Willy smiling, he became even more enthusiastic and gathered his strength before shouting: "People on the wall… ah."
Just as he finished shouting, a crossbow bolt whistled through the air and shot straight into his mouth, exiting through the back and embedding itself in the ground. The man collapsed immediately.
Seeing him fall down made Shangguan Junpeng both happy and surprised; happy that that annoying fly finally shut up and surprised that such a box-like object could shoot arrows so far.
Willy was equally astonished for similar reasons. However, as Grand Marshal, he quickly regained his composure and raised his iron rod: "Southern Tiger Empire's warriors! Since Eastern Dragon Empire is so ungrateful, I will use my weapon to make them submit."
"Make them submit! Make them submit!"
"All units attack! We will take Dragon Glory City in one go." Under Willy's leadership, the entire army began to advance slowly.
Willy stopped after walking less than a hundred meters. He knew that the opponent's archers had a long range, so he wanted to maintain a certain distance: "Siege Engineers and Shield Soldiers, charge forward. Archers, advance one hundred fifty meters to provide cover."
At Willy's command, all the Siege Engineers rushed forward with shields, closely followed by the Shield Soldiers. Shangguan Junpeng immediately ordered, "All soldiers prepare Rolling Logs and Stones; do not let their men approach."
"Ballista and Catapult, give them a surprise," Shangguan Junhong said calmly.
Before Shangguan Junpeng could understand what his brother meant, the massive bolts from the ballista were shot out one after another, and the Catapult began launching small stones.
In an instant, cries of despair erupted from the Southern Tiger Empire. Each Giant Crossbow took several lives, while stones falling from above knocked many soldiers off their feet.
"What is that? Can anyone tell me?" Willy was genuinely startled by the sudden attack.
However, the other generals had never seen stones falling from the sky either, so they could only shake their heads in confusion.
But Power was certainly not intimidated by such things. He shouted loudly, "Second wave, charge! Make sure to reach the bottom as quickly as possible."
Following him, the second wave of Siege Engineers and Shield Soldiers surged forward. The Giant Crossbows defending the city took longer to load their bolts, resulting in a lower firing frequency. However, the Catapults were quick to load stones, repeatedly hurling them into the ranks of the Southern Tiger Empire.
When these Siege Engineers and Shield Soldiers were still one hundred meters away from the city wall, the Crossbowmen on the wall began to fire. Each battlement had three Crossbowmen assigned to it, and they shot their bolts at an angle since shields protected them directly in front. This angled shooting made their attacks more effective.
Under the barrage of the Crossbowmen, large numbers of Shield Soldiers and Siege Engineers fell. Many Siege Engineers who had struggled to reach the foot of the city wall sadly found that there were not enough men available to set up their ladders properly against the wall.
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