Section 4 Expedition

Above the city wall in the distance, a wolf smoke symbolizing an alarm was rising high. After the initial panic passed, the mercenaries finally made the right choice. They finally deserved their employment.

A ranger rushed towards Thomas who was commanding the army on the shore. Several knights came forward. But this time the defense was unnecessary. The ranger was a messenger. He rolled off his saddle and rushed to Thomas panting.

"General Thomas, the enemy closed the city gate in time. Lord Ryan's raid failed."

"It's okay, tell him not to attack forcefully, just monitor the enemy's movements. I will go to meet him before dark." Thomas waved.

On the shallows ahead, the commanders were scattered everywhere, allowing militia and sailors to unload the cargo from the fleet one by one.

"Don't hurry the horses! We won't use them for the time being! Let the siege tower be unloaded quickly!"

The officers tried their best to command the fleet. Clusters of militia and sailors stood in the river, pulling huge parts of war equipment ashore.

The weather in early winter is not "extremely cold", but if you stand naked in the river, human hands and feet will soon be frozen and lose their feelings, and the skin will turn blue.

Several bonfires were lit on the shore to keep people warm.

On the entire beachfront, many armored knights occupied a small piece of high ground and carefully reconnaissed the actions of the surrounding enemies. According to the information, only one thousand mercenaries stationed nearby, and all the mercenaries had been retracted into the castle. However, Thomas still arranged a large group of cavalry to be responsible for defense. Because once they were attacked by the enemy during the landing process, they would inevitably have catastrophic consequences.

This detachable siege tower is dismantled into dozens of parts, and the parts are just the size of it can be loaded with a carriage. When assembling, it only takes a dozen people to assemble it in one night. And ordinary siege towers, in a timely manner, require hundreds of people to fully build it in a mountainous area where materials are available everywhere, and it takes more than half a month to fully build it.

Just as these work continued, another horse galloped quickly.

"Report to General Thomas. Lord Ryan asked me to tell you that the enemies in the city were much more than expected. Maybe they received temporary reinforcements. According to his judgment, there were more than six teams of mercenaries, at least two thousand."

After the Paro people betrayed the faith of the God of Nature, they could no longer receive external support from Stigia. However, with the support of the True God Church, the mercenary teams of the seven central countries flocked in groups of Paro, forming an extremely considerable part of Paro's military power.

However, the Paro people also knew very well that mercenaries were naturally good in terms of combat effectiveness, but they were not satisfied with military discipline, and loyalty could not be guaranteed. Therefore, they used mercenaries to consolidate and occupy some relatively minor positions. The real suppression of rebellions and important towns still depend on their own troops.

After hearing the number of enemies, the expressions of several officers around Thomas changed. One thousand people could not carefully defend Drek City, but two thousand people were another matter.

"Don't worry." Thomas looked calm. "If they were temporary reinforcements, they would definitely cooperate badly. This would allow us to eliminate more enemies in one fell swoop."

At this time, almost all the parts of the siege tower were sent to the shore. Now another fleet of ships stepped forward and began to unload teams of war horses.

The Holy Grail Knights escorted the three female prophets to the shore. As they passed by, Ashrufate suddenly felt that one of the three female prophets looked familiar. Then he remembered that when he was in the Holy Mountain, it was the way led by this female prophet.

The garrison in Derek did not do any ignorant harassment. In the afternoon, all of St. Gene's expeditionary forces had arrived at the city of Derek and established a simple camp.

In order to confuse the enemy, Thomas ordered a rest before darkness and could only assemble the siege tower after darkness.

Ashu Rufate lifted the curtain and walked into Thomas' tent.

"General Thomas, the situation was worse than expected. According to the locals we found, the enemy defenders are now close to three thousand..." Ashu Rufate suddenly realized that it was not only Thomas, Ryan, William Daly and Leo in the tent.

"Stay calm, Ashu Rufate, calm! When you hear the bad news, if you calm down, your subordinates will only shake. If you shake, your subordinates will be frightened. If you panic, your subordinates will collapse." Although Thomas said so, there was no real dissatisfaction on his face.

"Why are there so many defenders here?"

"It was completely accidental, because a group of enemies happened to be mobilized by, and happened to have just entered Derek City for a temporary rest. Those were also mercenaries. So they now have six mercenaries."

"It's really not good news!" Thomas was not panicked at all. "However, the fleet is still waiting for us. If it really doesn't work, we can just get on the ship and retreat."

"They don't have magicians," Leo explained to Ashurufat. "Just now, news came from the prophets. These mercenary teams were temporarily pieced together, and there were no magicians to accompany them. And they did not bring other cannons. Apart from the three cannons fixed on the top of the city, nothing could threaten our siege tower."

"This is a good opportunity, Ryan, Leo, Exurfate, just let you get in touch with what a great impact magic has on war." Thomas replied. "If I had to exchange, I would like to trade five hundred knights for the power of a prophet."

"However, you must remember that no matter how good the magic is, it cannot replace the role of courage. On the battlefield, the role of courage cannot be underestimated! When two armies meet, the brave will win!"

At dawn, under the cold wind of early winter, the flying snake flags under the city flies. A heavy breath is condensed in the air, pressing on the hearts of every defender.

This was an enemy that was completely unexpected. This flying snake flag was once a nightmare for the Paro people. Everyone Paro officers knew the war decades ago, the terrible enemy with incomparable courage and profound strategy. And now, this nightmare has awakened again - Thomas's previous process of annihilation of the Greyhound Knights has long been well known.

I don't know how many people were cursing this old and immortal old guy to die sooner. But the problem is that Thomas not only did not die, but the divine weapon suddenly appeared under the city like a sky. The facts seem to prove that this is definitely not an ordinary enemy. Just under the city and in the sight of the defenders, three tall siege towers were standing on the earth. Everyone knew that the enemy had just arrived yesterday and did not carry any siege equipment.

An envoy holding a flag rushed from the enemy's position and carried out a routine persuasion to surrender. The envoy promised the defenders to leave freely after they put down their weapons. However, after an officer shot a crossbow and arrow in front of the envoy's horse, the envoy left.

"Prepare the cannon, aim at the siege tower, don't worry about other enemies!" The officer was carefully commanding the city, three siege towers, three! As long as these siege equipment can be destroyed...

"What do you think, Miss Fei'er?" Thomas asked the prophets around him.

"It's just a group of casual and stupid enemies." The female prophet named Fei'er replied. She was the one who greeted Ashrufate and the leader of the three female prophets who accompanied the army this time. "They have cannons, but they don't seem to know how to use cannons correctly. I saw that in order to fire cannons more quickly and easily, those gunners actually placed powder barrels next to the cannons. After all, mercenaries are mercenaries. It seems that there are no real experts who graduated from the Firearms Academy."

"They cannot counter our magic without magicians." Another female prophet replied. "Luckily, today the wind of flames is roaring."

"Well, it looks like they want to fight, tell the soldiers, push the siege tower to the edge of the cannon range." Thomas ordered.

"Leo, lead the archers and are ready to attack at any time and suppress the defenders of the city walls. William Daly, you go and lead the militia and use the long ladder to carry out restraining attacks on the city head! Ryan, lead the knights of the assault troops to walk into the siege tower. Ashurufate, lead the cavalry to stand by! Once the city gate is opened, the entire army will break in."

The siege tower advanced for a short distance and stayed at the limit of the cannon range. The gunners at the city head did not fire the cannon. The city head had a good vision and could clearly see the rapid mobilization of the enemies under the city.

Almost no one cares about the militia who carry long ladders to charge. Fools know that these are just auxiliary forces, and the real main force is the three siege towers. The precious shells must be concentrated on these siege towers. Once the siege tower is placed on the wall, it means that the rest is only a matter of time. And a small issue in time.

Under the city, the archers carried the shields and began to approach the city walls one by one. The defenders at the city head fired with muskets and crossbows. But under the cover of the shields, the archers only paid a small casualty and were close to their own range.

"Ladies, start the attack with magic! Find a way to get rid of the cannon."

Bands of flames fell from the sky and bombarded the city. With a creepy loud noise, the entire earth seemed to be vibrating. Many things on the city were flying high, cannons, human bodies, weapons and some debris flew around like fireworks. The defenders who were slightly beside the side were blown down in groups. The blast caused by these gunpowder was enough to blow the eardrums. The defense power of the entire city almost collapsed. No one even continued to shoot at the archers.

"Order the trumpet to blow, and the whole army will attack!"

...

The siege battle under Derek is generally considered a battle without any suspense. One side is carefully selected elites and has high morale. The other side is temporarily pieced together by multiple armies that are not subordinate to each other, and they are all mercenaries with low fighting will. One side has powerful magic help and sufficient siege equipment, and the other side has no heavy weapons except three cannons. Even those cannons were destroyed by wrong operations at the moment of war.

When Saint Gene's army completely controlled the walls through the siege tower, and when the powerful Holy Grail knights rushed into the city gate, all resistance seemed meaningless. In order to avoid a larger massacre, the mercenaries surrendered in groups. At noon that day, Thomas's flying snake flag flew at the top of the city of Derek.

Of course, this victory not only brought glory and glory, but also allowed the expeditionary army to truly enter a crisis situation. If they failed to break the city, they could leave by boat, but if they won, they had to stay and face the real challenge...

——Excerpt from "History of the Stigia War"
Chapter completed!