vstars Chapter 224: Burning the City
Chapter 224: Burning the City
"ignition!"
Following the orders of the artillery officers, the artillerymen lit the fuses of the shells, and then thirty long-barreled cannons fired at the same time. The huge sound produced made the ears of the people around buzz.
After the smoke cleared, dozens of gun pits were filled on the opposite wall, but this was like scratching an itch for Saint-Remy, which had the strongest wall in southern Midland. Prior to this, the Black Watch artillerymen had already carried out three rounds of bombardment on the wall. However, because the previous bishops had invested a lot of money in city construction, the wall here was not only taller and thicker than other places, but also made of hard stone.
After looking at the effect of the bombardment through a telescope, Pa Ying shook his head and sighed:
"It looks like we'll have to keep bombarding for a while longer."
Charlie beside him was not so pessimistic. He said proudly:
"Don't worry about that. Blackwatch is well-off enough. We can get as many shells as you want. If you don't have enough, we can go back to the headquarters to get more."
Since John had temporarily assigned him the task of pursuing the apostles, Charles stopped his mercenary business without saying a word. Amid the dissatisfaction of many nobles, he immediately led his troops south to join Payen. He had great confidence in this battle. After all, he had wiped out tens of thousands of natives before, and now it was just a matter of killing a rat. What was so difficult about that?
According to their original plan, after destroying the city wall, thirty Greek artillery vehicles would approach the opposite city under the escort of soldiers, and burn some buildings by spraying flames. After the flames spread throughout the city and burned the place and the rats to ashes, the soldiers would set out into the city to find the entrance to the cult's lair.
The bombardment lasted from sunrise until noon. After the unremitting efforts of the artillerymen, the stones on the city wall were knocked down bit by bit. Until the last bombardment, the city wall was ultimately unable to withstand the artillery advantage of the mercenaries. With a loud bang, the city wall on the left side of the city gate collapsed in an instant. Another round of bombardment followed, and the city wall on the right side also shook. Obviously, one more round would be enough to completely solve this tough problem.
"I told you, there is no wall in this world that we cannot break. Black Watch's siege capability is second to none compared to the army of any other country in the world." Charlie, who had just finished lunch, said proudly to Payen next to him after observing the results of the opposite side through a telescope.
But at this moment, Paying felt a little strange. According to the previous attack of the apostles, they had already hit their lair. How could the opponent have no reaction at all?
After the right wall collapsed, Charles felt the time had come and ordered the entire army:
"The whole army marches forward, with the artillery in front, the infantry in the rear, and the cavalry on both wings as guards!"
Under Charles's command, military flags waved in the sky, and mercenaries gathered under different flags to the sound of trumpets, advancing towards Saint-Remy in the distance where there were no city walls to block their way.
Just when they were less than a hundred meters away from Saint-Remy and could clearly see the buildings inside, countless rats suddenly jumped out from the darkness of the abandoned building opposite. Some of these rats were as big as wolves, while others were smaller than the palm of a hand, but they all rushed towards the mercenaries on the opposite side like crazy.
"Everyone stop! Artillery carts fire! Spearmen step forward!" Seeing this, Charles did not dare to delay and immediately issued a defensive order. Fortunately, the artillerymen had filled the Greek artillery carts with kerosene before setting off. After pointing the muzzles at the opposite side and igniting them, flames shot towards the rat tide on the opposite side like waves.
But even so, some rats still managed to escape the flames and quickly ran to the front of the artillery carts on the opposite side. Seeing this, the artillerymen had no choice but to abandon the artillery carts and retreat to the infantry in the rear, while the soldiers, holding spears, swords and shields, began to hack and kill these rampaging rats.
Although a group of rats had been killed, without the suppression of the artillery vehicles, the vacancies were quickly filled by endless rats, and the pressure faced by the soldiers became increasingly greater.
"what!!!"
At this moment, some soldiers suddenly felt a sharp pain and something was crawling on their bodies. When they looked down, they found that some small rats had crawled into the soldiers' clothes while they were fighting with the big rats, and began to bite their flesh and blood on their bodies and limbs. The teeth of these rats were so sharp that they felt like they were wounded by swords.
"Quick, replace the people! The rest of you hold on!" Seeing this, the officer knew that they could not let the others hold on, so he could only drag these soldiers away and order the soldiers in the rear to hold on. However, with every attack of the rat swarm, the infantrymen suffered injuries all the time.
Although the cavalry on both sides wanted to help, they were powerless because facing such a large number of mice, any horse that entered would eventually be eaten by the mice and turned into a pile of bones.
"We have to think of a solution, otherwise we can only retreat first." Looking at the miserable condition of his soldiers, Charlie regretted letting his soldiers rush in so early. What he needed to solve now was how to get the soldiers away from the gnawing of these rats, otherwise he would lose almost half of them before they even enter the city.
"You don't have to worry about that." At this time, Captain Paying stood up and said to Charlie:
"I learned some lessons from fighting those rats before. You can use kerosene to deal with them. Let the mercenaries behind you make way for my people. You will know how to solve the problem soon."
Seeing this, Charles had no choice but to agree to Payen's request. After the order was given, the Crusaders holding special kerosene bottles quickly arrived at the front line. When they saw the tragic situation on the front line, they lit the fuse of the kerosene bottle in their hands and then quickly threw the kerosene bottle away.
As waves of flames emerged from the rat tide, the rats' offensive began to gradually weaken, and the infantry began to use shields and spears to gradually advance in the direction of Saint-Remy. With every step forward, the soldiers would see more and more rats that had been burnt to charcoal, as well as a wall of fire that had formed a whole. Countless rats screamed and struggled in the flames until they were no longer alive.
As the soldiers in the rear continued to throw bottles of kerosene, although they could not move forward any further, the rats could not get any closer to the mercenaries. After clearing out the two remaining rats, the artillerymen regained control of the Greek artillery carts. As fire snakes crossed the broken walls of the city wall, fire gradually started on the buildings of Saint-Remy.
As there were wooden buildings all around, the flames quickly spread to the surroundings. When one looked through a telescope, the entire city had turned into a sea of fire, and one could vaguely see some rats fleeing hastily from the burning buildings.
"it is good!"
Charles was very pleased with the result, so he ordered:
"All troops retreat to the camp, and once the flames are out, we will enter the city and kill the cultist!"