Chapter 156: The Defense of Brandenburg — Fire

Hearing George’s explanation, Knight Val seemed to think of something too, but after lowering his head and thinking for a while, he spoke up: “Support from other countries? Tell me your reasons!”

“First of all, there is a big problem with the numbers. The route for the Grassland Barbarians’ southern invasion isn’t just this one, right? In past records, the number of invaders was basically not much different each time, was it?” George did not give a direct answer but instead asked two questions.

“Now that you mention it, it seems true. Every time the number of invaders is around 20,000; there has never been a case exceeding 30,000, right!” Knight Ahuatan said, turning his gaze to Knight Val and asking: “I can estimate this much; at least I haven’t seen it myself. Isolde, have you ever experienced an invasion with over 30,000 people?”

“I haven’t either, but maybe it happened in the past! According to the records in the National Archives, the largest Barbarian invasion in the past should have been less than half of the current number. I think the descriptions there shouldn’t have any major issues.” Knight Val’s words made him sound more like a scholar.

“Given the Barbarians’ situation, they would choose to group together to plunder the nearest country. In the past, because their plundering of our Duchy of Nohan never succeeded, the number of invaders dropped. But even at the very most, the warriors available to the Barbarians in this region are unlikely to exceed the historical record. Unless they send men, women, and the elderly all to the battlefield. In fact, that is impossible, so tribes from other regions must have joined in.” Seeming to have voiced his guess, George immediately began further analysis, “So what makes those tribes go out of their way to come here, targeting our fortress that has never been conquered? This involves not just the transfer of troops, but also a series of issues like logistics and the safety of stay-behind personnel. It can’t be that these guys who have never had contact with us just don’t like us, right!”

“The Kingdom of Lucia is also troubled by Barbarian invasions. Moreover, the border between the Kingdom of Lucia and the Grassland Barbarians is quite long. Within that range, gathering so many Barbarians is not a very difficult thing.” Knight Val immediately spoke out the next part of George’s train of thought.

“I seem to have heard people say before that there are quite a few Barbarians in the Kingdom of Lucia who defected during the Old Empire era. Looking at it this way, could they be opening a second front here!” Knight Ahuatan’s imagination was truly rich!

Knight Val refuted this speculation quite rationally: “Those Barbarians from the Old Empire era have lived in the Kingdom of Lucia for over three hundred years. They have long been completely integrated into the local ordinary population. Even the local Lords probably couldn’t distinguish whether their ancestors were Barbarians without investigating! How could people like them join the real Barbarian army?”

“However, in the past few years, it is not unheard of for small tribes on the grassland who couldn’t survive due to inter-tribal annexation to defect to Lucia. Although these people are far from enough to form a large army, they can be used to connect with and bribe the large and medium-sized tribes on the grassland.” Knight Val’s next words further confirmed George’s previous guess.

George pointed to the trench behind the enemy’s wooden shields and said: “If that is really the case, then the source of that Greek Fire can be confirmed. This item has always been a contraband forbidden to be sold to the Grassland Barbarians by civilized society. Even if there are smugglers who sell it at the risk of losing their heads for profit, the quantity would absolutely not reach the level where they can use it to make defensive trenches.”

“Speaking of which, I should go check if there is enough leather. If there is a problem with this, I need to discuss it with Baron Garfield immediately. It hasn’t been used for so many years, although it is required to be fully equipped, it really makes one worry!” Knight Ahuatan suddenly thought of something, and as he spoke, he quickly turned and left.

The leather Knight Ahuatan mentioned was a type that had only undergone preliminary hair removal and tanning. Basically, no one used it to make clothes, and it couldn’t even be used to repair leather armor.

Its real use, besides being the covering for shields, was to be nailed onto wooden Watchtowers. If seaweed was stuffed into this leather and then wetted, it would not only strengthen the Watchtower’s resistance to blows but also make the enemy’s fire attacks less likely to succeed.

However, in past Barbarian invasions, due to the lack of items like Greek Fire, ordinary flaming arrows could not successfully ignite those Watchtowers, so this material had always been left unused.

And if an item is not used for a long time, its state of preservation becomes very questionable—both in terms of quantity and quality. For example, the granaries of Tianchao before the transmigration often had such problems, and this issue was never well solved throughout the dynasties.

Especially later when productivity increased and grain harvests were bountiful year after year. Even if disasters occurred, it wouldn’t affect the whole situation. Just before George transmigrated, there were still places that burned down granaries to cope with national audits and inspections!

That was why Knight Ahuatan, who was experienced in battle, immediately considered this issue. At a time like this, any chip that increases one’s own chances of winning must be carefully secured. His hasty departure showed that the problem involved was probably not small. This was not just about shady dealings in the warehouse, but also about the possible impact on the battle situation.

After watching Knight Ahuatan leave, Knight Val looked at the enemies outside the city wall and said with some self-mockery: “Regarding the topic we just discussed, I need to discuss it with the other Knights before making a final decision. I didn’t expect to have to prepare for a Round Table Conference right after the war started; this is the first time in my career at Brandenburg!”

“There’s always a first time for everything! This is also the first time Brandenburg has been attacked by so many Barbarians!” George said, and to increase his persuasiveness, he turned to Hiren, who had been silent all along, and asked: “You think so too, right, Hiren?”

“Y-yes! The response needed for such a sudden situation is definitely different from the past!” Hiren immediately began to support Knight Val.

Knight Val turned back and patted Hiren’s head, saying: “You kid, remember to do your duty and protect George! And of course, be careful yourself.”

After saying these words, Knight Val also turned and left the city wall, leaving only the two younger ones to continue performing their duties here.

Sun Tzu said, “Surround with ten, attack with five, divide with double.” Brandenburg’s situation happened to fall into the category of being surrounded. Of course, due to environmental factors, Brandenburg would not be attacked from all sides, and even external communication and supply lines for receiving supplies were not significantly affected. But the mental pressure on the soldiers was still very great, especially facing an enemy ten times their number with a possible lack of reinforcements.

In wars with larger numbers of people, the gap in individual strength will be offset to a certain extent. Facing the over one hundred thousand Grassland Barbarians in front of him, if Knight Val wanted to charge in and out seven times or break through to kill enemy commanders, without a strong person of corresponding strength to stop him, it would not be impossible in terms of difficulty.

But if he wanted to wipe out these Barbarians completely, even using his own innate spell abilities, it would take quite a long time! Fortunately, repelling the enemy’s attack did not require slaughtering them all.

While the Barbarian laborers, under the command of professional Craftsmen, were constantly building giant counterweight Catapults out of range, the civilian laborers on the walls of Brandenburg were also building Watchtowers made of Ebony with the help of soldiers beside them. “Bang! Bang! Bang!” The collision sounds between iron hammers and wooden planks had no rhythm, and listening to them for a long time made George feel a bit annoyed.

Looking at the wooden frames rising in the distance, with Barbarians underneath using ropes and iron hoops to reinforce them. Then looking at the auxiliary defense facilities made of wooden planks and strips like sleepers right in front of him. George still felt that these things seemed a bit unreliable.

George pointed somewhat strangely at the wooden frame on the grassland that was already taking shape, and asked Hiren beside him: “Did the Barbarians use such large counterweight Catapults last year too?”

“Are you cursing me? If they really used such big guys, I wouldn’t just be lying in bed for a month this year. It’s possible I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed for most of the year.” Hiren pouted and said grumpily.

George scanned Hiren up and down a few times and said: “Indeed, even if it’s you. If you were hit by something thrown by that big guy, I’m afraid you’d be bedridden for a long time.”

“What do you mean ‘even if it’s you’? Don’t have any bad associations!” Although Hiren couldn’t exactly understand the meaning of George’s words, the tone alone seemed to have a hint of schadenfreude in it.

“Sorry, it was just a slip of the tongue.” George’s answer was clearly not very sincere. However, through such a joke, the atmosphere that had become tense due to the situation relaxed a lot. Even the soldiers nearby seemed to feel less pressure in their hearts after hearing the banter between the two.

But George himself was not that relaxed, and he lowered his head again to ponder something. ‘But according to this, those Barbarians couldn’t build such huge siege engines last year, right! You know, although the principle is similar, the changes in structure and materials after scaling up are still very huge. In terms of difficulty, although it can’t be said to increase geometrically, it is still doubled. It looks like it was aided by the Kingdom of Lucia again! I said those Craftsmen commanding below don’t look much like the others around them. Let’s see if we can catch them red-handed this time! This kind of behavior, which clearly violates the tacit understanding between the nations of the Continent, must at least bite a piece of flesh off the other side!’

Another day of pure standoff. Except for the Wyverns screaming shrilly in the sky from morning to night, the other side did not seem to make any siege moves.

And Brandenburg did not launch an active attack to destroy or harass the construction of the enemy’s siege engines. After all, compared to the past, the enemy had also established relatively complete positions to defend against cavalry charges. It seemed that they had received guidance from specialists in this regard, otherwise such big changes would not have appeared.

This kind of change could only be organized and realized by countries and armies truly familiar with siege warfare. Relying solely on the Barbarians, it wouldn’t be that easy. Of course, the most important thing was that the difference in numbers between the two sides was so large that the commanders in the city dared not risk their subordinates’ lives.

Yesterday’s wave of Stone Shots destroyed all the many small and medium-sized siege engines the Barbarians had prepared in advance. It seemed that the other side did not know that Brandenburg had small Catapults set up on high towers and rock walls. Otherwise, how could they make such a low-level and stupid mistake? You know, there are not many trees on this grassland, so replenishing these engines would be quite a troublesome task.

From George’s subsequent observations, these engines had been placed there for some years. It was pathetic for those Barbarians when thinking about it; in so many years of fighting, they hadn’t even forced the Brandenburg garrison to use these engines. No wonder the Duchy felt safe turning this place into an important training ground for the next generation.

The night had quieted down. Except for the meeting room in the fortress which was still noisy, everything was silent. People could even clearly hear the sound of water drops falling sadly from withered branches into the pool water. The Barbarians in the distance didn’t seem to be working overtime with torches either.

However, before the sun rose to its highest point the next day, those Barbarians had also completed their preparations. And the Watchtowers on the walls and towers of Brandenburg had also been built.

The only problem was that the quantity of reinforced leather for fire prevention seemed somewhat insufficient. Wet straw mats were used as substitutes in some less critical areas. This made quite a few people look unhappy, especially Baron Garfield, who was in charge of this aspect.

In fact, the defending soldiers were not very afraid of those devices, because Brandenburg’s main wall was not only extremely high but also amazingly thick. Whether in terms of craftsmanship or material, it could be said to be the peak of the Prime Material Plane at that time. Even now, there are still not many fortresses that can match it.

But those Catapults did not waste their ammunition on the indestructible city walls. The one planning this siege was not those original Barbarian bumpkins, but a think tank from another country with cunning wisdom, power, and mind.

After the giant Catapults were set up, under the enemy’s shouts and the operation of ropes and pulleys, countless ammunition was thrown into the extremely high sky. This ammunition crossed the city wall and fell into the first city like a deadly rainstorm. Many ammunition, using unique technology, caused the Greek Fire wrapped inside to explode into a ball of flame in mid-air and scatter towards the ground.

Very quickly, the city fell into a sea of fire, but the commanders did not send out all their spare manpower to extinguish the flames popping up everywhere. Because he knew there would be a second wave of attacks next. That was specially prepared for the civilian laborers going to fight the fire.

Sure enough, not long after, a second wave of less dangerous rain of ammunition fell. These things landed on the streets behind the city gates and on roofs everywhere. These round Stone Shots smashed through the roofs, allowing those flames that could have burned themselves out due to effective fire prevention measures to find new combustibles. For a time, the fire blazed up.

However, matching this, Brandenburg’s counterattack also began. Only small Catapults and Ballistas could be installed on the high towers; counterweight Catapults like those could not be used. Because the vibration generated during firing would affect the stability of the high tower itself. And on the two not very open roads in the city, there was not enough space to build giant Catapults equal to the enemy’s number.

But if machinery didn’t work, there was still manpower; in this world, individual strength sometimes really had amazing effects. Only flashes of black light were seen in several arrow towers on the city wall. Immediately after, those giant Catapults of the Barbarians began to disintegrate one after another. However, later, it was unknown what effective response the other side made, but they saved the last three Catapults.

Taking advantage of this window of time, the city began to organize civilian laborers to fight the fire. However, while fighting the fire, they also discovered another type of ammunition from the enemy’s second throw. Looking at the things in front of them, the laborers couldn’t help but scream or vomit. The weapons the enemy shot into the city this time were the heads of those patrol soldiers who died on the grassland and the Caravans they plundered.

Seeing this situation, even the strongest people were moved by the sight. Some heads were too damaged to recognize, but others, even with terrifying wounds, were still recognizable. From the expressions on these heads, everyone had endured extreme pain before death. But the garrison in the city still found a few people they used to know among them, those warriors who once walked with their heads high and trained and lived with them. As for the others, they didn’t seem to be able to recognize them clearly; after all, there were too many passing Caravans. However, the actions of those Barbarians did not bring fear and despair, but instead ignited the flame of revenge in the hearts of the garrison.

Far from the battlefield, more troops and weapons were transported to the Barbarian camp via sleds and Wagons throughout the day. Finally, the attack was launched shortly after noon. The vanguard troops passed through the deliberately left passages between the flame trenches and rushed towards the city wall.