Listening to the discussions around him, Huggins tightly grasped the stone stacks of the fortress wall with both hands and said nothing.
Dark clouds blocked the light, and strong winds stirred up dust. On the plain less than three kilometers away from the fortress gate, densely packed barbarian soldiers and the Silver Ring Alliance Army seemed to be covering the earth like a dark carpet, with no end visible at a glance.
On the city wall, Huggins and several commanders of the Muxi Knights stood on the top of the city tower with the best view, observing every move on the battlefield.
The longbow regiment and the crossbowmen squatted behind the wall, taking out the arrows soaked in horse dung one by one and placing them neatly; the heavy infantry regiment finally confirmed the reliability of the equipment and hammered the rivets of the shield handle firmly.
, checking the hooks at the joints of the armor, and repeatedly rubbing the handles of swords, flails and other weapons with lime; the knights rested at the city gate, put on half-duplex blindfolds on the alien war horses, and put on their mount armor.
The Successor scout team responsible for detecting the enemy's situation returned. Three people went out, but only one person came back. Moreover, this survivor lost his left eye and was covered in blood.
"Sir, I'm back..."
The miserable situation of the scouts made Huggins frown in surprise: "What's going on? You were discovered by the enemy?!"
The scout captain, who lost one eye, relied on the support of his companions to avoid falling. He said feebly: "We were not discovered when we were outside the enemy camp. We passed through the front line of defense and approached the central army.
, suddenly heard the howling of wolves. The next second, bows and arrows covered the place where we were. The enemy saw through our mimicry and chased us for six kilometers. I was the only one who came back alive."
Huggins looked solemn and asked again: "Tell me all the information you have discovered."
The scout said intermittently: "There are about 5,000 enemy troops in total. In addition to the Northern and Southern Legions of Silver Ring, there are also 26 barbarian tribes... I heard the enemies repeatedly mention their commander, a strange name - Kulan
The vicious dog. Apart from this, we have not found any more information...
Huggins nodded and said to the monk accompanying the army behind him: "Take him down for treatment."
Watching the scouts leave the city wall with the support of the monks, Huggins looked at the blood stains left on the ground, thought carefully for a while, and then turned his attention to the enemy camp in the distance again.
A wing commander walked up to him and reminded: "The original intelligence said there were 3,200 enemy troops, but now it has become 5,000. The ratio between the number of enemy and our soldiers has become 3:1, which is not a good thing."
"Couran's Hound, have you heard of this man?"
Huggins' sudden question stunned the wing commander, who shook his head and replied: "I was under Cumberland's men and fought with the barbarians in the north for six years. Cumberland's vicious dog? I've never heard of it.
This man may be the crown prince from the barbarian kingdom who came to the battlefield to gild the battlefield, but in the final analysis he is just a nobody."
Huggins, who had been away from the northern battlefield for a long time, naturally found it hard to refute what he said. He was just about to persuade the other party to be careful when a warning shout came from the watchtower, attracting his attention.
"The enemy is approaching!"
Huggins withdrew his gaze and looked towards the enemy formation in the distance.
The front line of the enemy legion, about 400 people, adopted a loose formation, raised their shields and weapons, formed a long formation, and slowly marched towards Beishi Fortress.
Huggins put his finger in his mouth and dipped it in his mouth, then raised it above his head. The wind pressure flowing in the air made him nod.
The commander of the wing looked at him and said: "North wind, coupled with this wind speed, our arrows will shoot farther due to the wind and have stronger penetration! The enemy is just a group of uncivilized barbarians.
I don’t even understand the simple truth of observing the wind direction on the battlefield.”
Huggins looked at the distance between the enemy soldiers in the front line, used the power of the honeycomb, and ordered to the commander of the wing behind the city wall: "The Longbow Regiment canceled the lob shot and adopted flat fire. The Successor sniper crossbowmen can lock freely.
Enemy commander, abandon the outer attack line and move the enemy to the middle attack line. Pay attention to the hit rate, save ammunition, and wait for my orders!"
As the enemy's front line gradually approached, Huggins felt more and more uneasy.
The enemy's actions completely violated the basic tactics of the siege party.
Common siege troops are generally divided into several batches, with heavy infantry covering the front row, light infantry setting up ladders and climbing ropes, and crossbowmen shooting and covering the rear row. However, the enemy's front row of 400 people has since left the formation.
After that, the Chinese army never had any reinforcements to follow up, and it was completely alone.
When the enemy got closer, Huggins finally saw the enemy's true appearance.
What kind of army is this? It's just a group of villagers wearing simple leather armor, holding wooden shields and rusty swords!
An old man with white hair and beard who can't even walk unsteadily, a naked woman with nothing but despair in her eyes, and even some half-year-old children who are ignorant and afraid to move forward.
"These people in front are civilians from the Holy Guard City, and those behind them are the barbarian war supervisors... I finally understand where those extra soldiers from the enemy came from!" A captain stood next to Huggins.
He said dumbfounded.
Someone loudly cursed: "Treat civilians as human shields! These devils are worse than beasts! Heavenly Father, send down the Holy Judgment!"
At this moment, the sentry on the watchtower loudly reminded: "The enemy has entered the middle circle attack line!"
Huggins was stunned. A pair of eyes under his steel helmet stared at the enemy troops that were getting closer and closer, but the order to attack was delayed.
"Sir, open the city gate and let our knights attack! As long as we eliminate those supervising teams, we can rescue these civilians!"
"Look at the enemy cavalry in the distance. As long as we dare to open the city gate, they will swarm up and attack the fortress in the chaos!"
"We can only defeat the enemy's war patrol team and then disperse these civilians, so that there will be enough time to close the city gate!"
"Stop joking! During the melee, these civilians must be thinking about entering the fortress. How will they be dispersed then?!"
When everyone in the Muxi Knights was arguing, Huggins found the captain of the successor sniper crossbowmen and asked him: "If you only snipe the barbarian supervisory team without harming the civilians, can you do it?"
"
The latter shook his head: "It's hard to distinguish. If we really do it, there will definitely be accidental injuries."
While Huggins was still weighing, the sentry shouted again: "The enemy has entered the inner circle attack line!"
There was no time to hesitate anymore. The wall-breaking hammer carried by the enemy was soon approaching the city gate. Huggins ordered the Successor sniper crossbowman: "Attack!"
The sniper crossbowmen set up long crossbows on the city wall, and the iron crossbow bolts penetrated the attackers in the enemy's front line. One enemy after another fell under the city wall. The civilians began to want to escape, and the supervising team
He jumped out and yelled loudly while wielding his ax to maintain the battle line. Little did he know that this move made him a target.
Soon, after all the casualties in the enemy's front line, the remaining civilians dropped their weapons and fled into the distance around the walls of the fortress.
At this time, Huggins finally breathed a sigh of relief. His nose smelled the lingering smell of blood at the foot of the city wall, but he was thinking about a question in his mind.
Why did the enemy send these 400 men to the front line when the north wind blew? Such a small force could not pose any threat to the fortress. The only thing they could do was to die.
Isn't this strange?
While he was still thinking hard, there was a new movement in the enemy formation.
"The enemy has retreated!"
What?!
Hearing the shouts of the lookout soldiers, the first thing Huggins did was doubt his own ears. He hurried to the edge of the city wall and looked outside, and saw a scene that he couldn't understand.
It was not luring the enemy or escaping. The enemy was indeed retreating to the rear in an orderly manner.
However, even though they were retreating, the enemy chose to leave lightly, leaving the camp where it was, and the supplies, tents, and fortifications were all untouched.
Things are getting weirder and weirder.
Huggins clearly understood that something was wrong here, but no matter where the problem lay, no matter how hard he thought about it, he was still at a loss.
The enemy retreated very quickly. In the blink of an eye, except for a dozen soldiers who were left behind, the most conspicuous thing in the enemy camp was a row of huge iron cages covered by canvas.
Huggins found the successor scout with eagle eyes and asked loudly: "Tell me, what is going on there?!"
The scout tried his best to look far away, and while looking at the enemy camp, he said: "Those who stayed did not look like barbarians and Yinhuan soldiers. They had no armor or weapons, and their clothes were shabby, but they looked a bit like
The prisoners...huh? Wait, they seem to have walked to the door of those cages."
Huggins, who looked anxious, urged: "What's next?"
"Heavenly Father!"
The greatly frightened scout fell to the ground, pointed at the enemy camp in the distance, and said incoherently: "Monster! The monster is eating people!"
Huggins grabbed the scout's collar and shouted: "What on earth is going on?!"
"Those people opened the iron cage, and many terrible monsters came out of it! In an instant, they tore those people into pieces and swallowed them!" The pale-faced scout slowly looked away from Huggins' face.
Moving away, his lips trembled and his teeth chattered: "Look...look...those monsters have finished eating people and are looking towards us! They are coming!"
Huggins let go of the scout and let him fall to the ground. He could already see the monsters approaching quickly in the distance without the other person opening his mouth.
A five-meter-long strange bird with bat-like wings; a crocodile with double horns on its head and steel armor exuding poisonous gas; a giant wolf covered in bone spurs that can easily smash rocks.
Attack in the north wind, send troops to die, smell the blood of the dead, temporarily retreat the barbarian army, leaving behind strange iron cages, and finally release these bloodthirsty and man-eating monsters.
I see.
Huggins drew the sword from his waist, his voice filled with unprecedented anxiety and fear.