Chapter 159: The Defense of Brandenburg — Dragon’s Dread

Strangely enough, regarding this fire, apart from the initial commotion in the Barbarian camp, there was no other reaction. They just watched as the wooden bridge previously built to transport the Siege Towers was burned to the ground.

Although it could be repaired relatively quickly for future attacks, it would still cost a lot of manpower. However, it seemed that the enemy did not care much about this; in this regard, it aligned with the idea that they intended to consume their population.

Taking advantage of the enemy’s failure to launch an attack, the group from Bolerum Territory hurriedly settled their lunch. It was the same salted pork and radish soup paired with Black Bread. Whenever this happened, George began to regret not promoting the production of dried peas earlier. Although for making soup, they were far inferior to fresh peas, at least having one more flavor was good. For George, the greatest suffering at present was the food.

“For this battle, I’m afraid we need to be prepared for a protracted war,” Knight Val suddenly said while eating breakfast.

“A protracted war?” Hiren immediately put down the spoon in his hand and asked this question.

‘It looks like I’ll have to endure this kind of food for quite a long time. Those damn Barbarians, and the guys providing them support. I will definitely settle this score with you properly in the future.’ This thought suddenly popped into George’s mind.

After swallowing the Black Bread in his mouth, Knight Val said, “I discovered a large number of transport teams behind the Barbarian camp. This has never happened before. So this battle is very different from the past; the enemy will not retreat due to a lack of supplies.”

“In past battles, truly intense ones rarely lasted more than half a month. Outside of that half-month, it was basically time for those Barbarians to prepare or retreat gradually. But this time, it’s really going to be tough. I don’t know how long the war will last!” Knight Ahuatan’s expression also became unprecedentedly serious.

Including Ben and Green who came to find George, the atmosphere in the entire restaurant stagnated. Green even accidentally dropped his spoon on the ground, making a “clatter” sound. Only George was not affected and continued to battle his breakfast.

“At most, it will only be a month! With such a large number of people, just eating is a serious problem. In the past, the longest true siege battles only lasted about fifteen days. That is to say, those grassland tribes can sustain themselves for at most this long.” After discovering the oppressive atmosphere, George immediately made a judgment favorable to their side, then seemed to think of something and continued, “No, it should be even less. The consumption of those tribes traveling far for the expedition must also be calculated. That is to say, relying solely on themselves, this battle will end in about ten days at most. Otherwise, if they fail, the winter rations for their respective tribes will become a major problem.”

“Wasn’t it a month? How did it become fifteen days later? You’re saying it so messily, I can’t quite understand!” Hiren immediately complained.

“Mr. Val, you discovered a large transport team, right!” George turned his gaze to Knight Val.

“Yes, a large number of sleds, carts, and Wagons. Every day, they continuously transport supplies to the Barbarian camp. Moreover, in the upcoming battle, we will likely face not only Barbarians. In my previous reconnaissance, I seemed to see Ogres and Thunder Lizards. It’s really a headache! This battle looks like it will be unimaginably intense.” While answering George’s question, Knight Val also seemed to take the opportunity to reveal more information and even complained a little.

“Since this is a common method of transport, the corresponding losses are also quite large. These supplies were likely provided by the Kingdom of Lucia, but even on the flat and unobstructed prairie, the price paid to transport so many supplies is not small.” Saying this, George raised a second question, “Then how far is the nearest city of the Kingdom of Lucia from here?”

Knight Val immediately grasped the key point of George’s inquiry: “If traveling through the grassland, it’s about a 20-day journey! If it were spring or summer, the animals pulling the carts could graze on the spot. But at this time, they have to carry their own fodder.”

“In this case, the loss of these supplies during transport must be more than one-tenth. If there are any accidents on the way, or if the transporters embezzle a little, it’s possible for the loss to double. You know, supplying these more than 100,000 Barbarians is not an easy task. Just the rations alone cannot be scraped together by the granaries of a single county or Count’s territory. This is a huge project, taking a lot of time, not to mention that the nobles and bureaucrats involved will definitely skim off some profit. So this aid definitely won’t last long, otherwise the Kingdom of Lucia will be dragged down itself.” George began to explain his point of view to everyone.

In the Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian once quoted a proverb: “Do not sell firewood within a hundred li, do not sell grain within a thousand li.” The meaning is roughly that one does not transport firewood beyond a hundred li, and does not transport grain beyond a thousand li. This considers the issue of transport costs.

Firewood is a low-value commodity; if transported beyond a hundred li, the transport cost is high, and it cannot be sold for a good price. Grain has a higher value than firewood, but if transported a thousand li away, the cost is high. Because the huge cost of transport would offset the commercial profit brought by the regional price difference of the goods.

This reflects the influence of transportation conditions on commerce and tells sellers to pay attention to the transport costs of goods to avoid losing money. Of course, the development of modern transportation before George traveled had gradually reduced the impact of transport costs on commerce. But in this current time and space, there were no such convenient conditions, plus being on the grassland without any formed roads, applying it here should be quite similar.

“George’s explanation should be correct; I know the situation in the Kingdom of Lucia quite well. The temperature in most parts of their region is relatively low, so the grain yield per unit area is not as good as our Nohan. In fact, if they really need to supply so much fodder for the Barbarians, they can only transport it from the warmer South. It is indeed impossible to maintain for too long, unless they completely give up any possible offensive preparations for their own army.” Knight Val gave a conclusive answer to George’s explanation.

“That means we just need to hold out for a month at most, right?” Knight Ahuatan remained relatively optimistic.

But even so, everyone’s faces were still not very good. Don’t think that continuous high-intensity combat for a month is an easy thing. In fact, conducting high-intensity combat for a long time on the same battlefield is a quite rare situation. This could already be considered a campaign; famous siege battles, for example, were mostly fought intermittently, with most of the time spent in a stalemate. And more often, it was mobile warfare conducted with repeated back-and-forth in a larger strategic depth. Such a long battle to guard a pass was absolutely rare in the cold weapon era.

Seeing that the young people looked so lifeless, Knight Ahuatan quickly said, “No matter what, since those Barbarians have come, we always have to face them, right? I don’t believe that if those Barbarians can hold on, the warriors of our Duchy of Nohan cannot hold on.”

“I was thinking, if these Barbarians fail and return this time. No, they are bound to fail and return. Then wouldn’t all this aid from the Kingdom of Lucia be wasted?” Ben, who hadn’t said much, suddenly said this, immediately attracting everyone’s attention.

“It won’t be wasted. If such a big battle is really fought. Regardless of the result, these Barbarians basically won’t be able to invade the south next year. For the Kingdom of Lucia, it means completely freeing up a hand. They can really do a lot of things.” George said and sighed: “Sigh! In short, it’s the prepared against the unprepared; in this game of chess, the Kingdom of Lucia has clearly taken the initiative. I just don’t know if war will also break out in the east now.”

“For the time being, there probably won’t be any problems. Although the Kingdom of Lucia has been moving a lot of troops at the border with our country recently, they are still exercising restraint. Moreover, after I passed your thoughts back to Karada, all border guard forces have been strengthened. Even if they have any plans, they will have to weigh them. So as long as we hold out here, the other side probably won’t take the risk.” Knight Val’s words temporarily gave everyone present a reassurance. At the same time, it added a heavy burden. Although the strength of these young people like George was not enough to influence the outcome of the battle, as long as they made an effort, it would affect the balance of victory and defeat more or less.

“Forget it, let’s not discuss this here. Can’t you see George is almost finished eating? Let’s finish up quickly and return to our posts!” Hiren, who had a headache from listening, quickly suggested. If it were usual times, few people would agree, but now everyone tacitly agreed.

The enemy’s offensive started around eight o’clock and never ceased. War Drums thundered, and tens of thousands of enemies swarmed from the north. Huge beasts also appeared in the battle formation. Accompanied by somewhat eerie horn sounds, some strange-looking people dragged these fierce beasts, which were disproportionate to their own size, while whipping them. Bodies as huge as houses dragged massive Siege Towers and weapons towards the main gate. Dark grey backs and tails with blue-black stripes, plus bone plates on their backs similar to a Stegosaurus—these should be the Thunder Lizards Knight Val mentioned.

After those Barbarians carrying Siege Ladders approached, the defenders, including George, welcomed them with waves of arrow rain. However, their commander did not care about their performance or the potential casualties; the use of these troops seemed to be merely to test the enemy’s defense intensity and keep the defenders of Brandenburg running around.

Immediately after, the Barbarian archers who hadn’t played much of a role last night also began to suppress the defenders with their bows. Although these arrows from the Barbarians would not cause heavy casualties, they clearly affected the rate and density of the defenders’ arrow fire. But as the side occupying the terrain advantage, the arrow rain shot by George and the others could still be considered intense.

But even under such a fierce offensive from the crossbowmen on the city wall, the Barbarians charged as if they ignored them. However, in fact, the arrow rain shot from within the city walls was indeed not enough to defeat them. Even in this well-lit morning, Nohan’s proud professional soldiers were unable to cause much damage to the enemy due to the disparity in numbers and concerns about supplies.

After determining the firepower intensity and layout in the city, the general hidden behind the scenes instructed the entire army to launch an attack. Those huge Siege Towers, which were obviously not something the Barbarians could build, were pulled close by Thunder Lizards and then separated, being slowly pushed towards the city wall by the Barbarians using manpower. And those wooden bridges that had been burned down were also repaired by the Barbarians during the previous engagement.

“Get the fork poles!” With George’s command, the soldiers of Bolerum Territory, who had been prepared, struck the Siege Ladders with simple fork poles in their hands. If they used their strength to push forward, the string of Barbarians climbing halfway up in the air would fall backward and experience a bit of free fall.

George also picked up a fork pole, weighed it in his hand, and thought, ‘I didn’t expect such a simple tool to have such a good effect against Siege Ladders! Speaking of which, these Siege Ladders without even hooks installed, could they also be provided to the Barbarians by the Kingdom of Lucia? If that’s really the case, isn’t this just screwing over their teammates? Oh! I seem to be overthinking it. Perhaps the Kingdom of Lucia didn’t treat those Barbarians as teammates at all.’

Soon, the first wave of attacks was like waves crashing against a huge reef. It looked magnificent, but the effect! was definitely not optimistic. The enemy commander was not discouraged; he prepared to throw his most elite troops at the main gate. The main gate was made of steel and was indeed difficult to break under the guard of high towers and powerful firepower. However, compared to the surrounding indestructible city walls, this was the weakest point of the overall defense.

When the horn sounded again, a group of shouting humans rushed out. They held high giant shields like a roof to block attacks from above.

But from the side where George was, it could be seen that these people were at least a cut above the other Barbarians in terms of equipment. The entire team was like a dazzling river made of gold, silver, and steel, surging mightily towards the Castle gate.

In the formation was a thick and long battering ram pole. Behind them was a swarm of Barbarian crossbowmen, trying their best to suppress the defenders on the city wall; they just charged to the front of the gate. With the cooperation of many pairs of strong arms, the ram pole was placed directly on the Drawbridge. Regardless of people being smashed to death by huge stones dropped by the defenders, or people being burned by dropped lime and boiling excrement, there were still people climbing up the ram pole to chop the Iron Chains of the Drawbridge.

The sound of drums got louder and louder, the whistling got fiercer and fiercer. Huge Siege Towers and Catapults kept approaching. In this formation, there was an amazingly huge battering ram. Its length was like a fallen century-old oak tree, swinging by thick iron chains. The Blacksmiths should have worked hard for a long time to cast this terrifying weapon. Its tip was cast in the shape of an armor-piercing shell. The A-shaped protective frame had steel as its bones and Teak as its planks, plus thick beast hides draped on the outside, which could effectively defend against various weapon attacks. Giant beasts dragged it, surrounded by many Barbarians, and Ogres from unknown places were responsible for the operation of the entire device.

At this time, the Catapults of Brandenburg once again displayed their due strength. Under the strike of stone blocks like raindrops, a large number of the enemy’s Catapults were damaged, and personnel fell in patches like dominoes being triggered. Even those elite troops with different styles could not be spared.

But just then, “Bang—Bang! Bang! Bang!” several loud noises came from the city wall. George turned his head to look, and not far away, the top of a Watchtower was completely smashed. The culprit seemed to be a few Stone Shots the size of human heads. And the guards there were mostly injured due to this accident. Among them, those who were directly hit by the Stone Shots had already lost the chance of rescue.

Following closely was a deadly sound filling the air; every miserable scream made it harder to bear. At the same time, George also felt an inexplicable weight on his body. The ordinary guards beside him were trembling all over, and a few individuals couldn’t even hold their weapons steadily.

“Is this Dragon’s Dread?” Hiren beside him said with a frown.

The White Dragons that had finished throwing Stone Shots circled in the air like vultures waiting to eat corpses. They deliberately stayed outside the range of Human archery but never left. Their agile figures made it difficult for devices like Ballistas to aim; no, they were hiding in the blind spots of those device attacks.

They used their intimidating Evil supernatural aura to constantly harass the defenders of Brandenburg. If no solution was found, in the end, when these black shadows swept across the sky, even the most determined warriors would lie prone on the ground, unable to move. Or else, they would stand stiffly, letting weapons fall from weak hands, thoughts in their brains completely covered by darkness, no longer wanting to resist, leaving only hiding, fleeing, and death. Even now, it had already seriously affected the defenders’ combat.

Just at this moment, a platinum spirit flame appeared, as if the divine power of justice had descended into the world. The Heavenly Realm’s holy characteristic was majestically displayed on it. Its fur reflected a metallic luster, and its four hooves were like cast silver, with ancient patterns appearing on them; its eyes were full of Morning Glow. Shining brightly! Its flying green mane was like the scorching sun in the sky, dazzling to the eyes. Like a holy statue of a giant beast cast from metal, standing majestically in the flames with various holy symbols.