The Attack on Five Goats City
Translator: Cinder Translations
...
Despite Giles returning to Five Goats City at his fastest speed and immediately quelling Earl Wenley's rebellion, he still had little time to prepare for the onslaught of the royal army.
After crossing the Eagle's Beak Pass through the mountainous region known as the Devil's Belly, the road to the south became very flat. Although the dense river network in the southern territory might cause some trouble for the march, the lack of major rivers that could serve as natural barriers allowed the royal army to advance rapidly.
Giles knew that relying on Minos could not delay the royal army for long. The enemy would surely spread the news of his abandoning his troops and fleeing. The traitor Wenley was right; many of his vassals would believe he had lost his honor and was no longer fit to rule the southern territory.
In recent days, Giles had been frantically assembling a new army. He sent officials to conscript all the young men from Five Goats City and nearby villages, emptied the armory to distribute weapons to the conscripted soldiers, and ordered them to man the city walls for defense.
In addition to the young men, Giles also confiscated all the nearby grain, transporting what he could into Five Goats City and burning or destroying the rest.
However, he left behind a large number of the elderly, weak, women, and children. If the royal army allowed them to starve, they would bear a moral responsibility.
Giles aimed for a scorched-earth strategy. An army is not a self-sufficient organization; it requires the requisition or purchase of local manpower and resources wherever it goes. By clearing out both people and supplies, Giles wanted to see how the royal army would cope.
A few days later, the royal army finally arrived at the walls of Five Goats City.
For centuries, this place had been under the rule of the Giles family, and the royal power from the fertile plains had never penetrated so deeply before.
They were the first royal army to reach this far, and every soldier, from top to bottom, was filled with pride.
However, the royal army soon noticed something unusual around Five Goats City. After sending scouts to investigate the surrounding villages, everyone cursed Giles in anger.
Undoubtedly, the Greedy Wolf Duke had dug a deep pit for them, and the royal army could not afford to give up halfway.
"We must resolve this quickly. Only with the grain inside the city can we feed the surrounding residents, or else a terrible famine might occur!" Harrison declared at the high-ranking officers' meeting.
But many were not optimistic. As the stronghold of the Giles family, Five Goats City, which had been fortified for generations, was a sturdy fortress that had withstood numerous wars. No army had ever managed to breach it from the outside.
However, Harrison was confident. "I have received confirmed news that sixteen siege cannons have been unloaded at the port and will soon be transported here. We can then concentrate our fire on one point to bring down the wall quickly."
King Rodney XVII wanted to rely on his own strength to eliminate Giles, so he rejected Paul's proposal to send marines to attack the port in coordination with the royal army. He only requested the Alden army to use their naval advantage to transport supplies for the southbound royal army.
These sixteen siege cannons were part of the supplies.
"Oh, excellent!"
"It's said they can fire twenty-four-pound cannonballs."
Everyone at the meeting became excited, and the previously gloomy atmosphere was swept away.
The attack on Five Goats City began soon after.
The cast-iron cannon barrels gleamed blue in the morning mist. The sixteen 24-pound siege cannons were lined up along the newly built earthen embankment, their muzzles uniformly raised to a 15-degree angle.
Behind each cannon were two barrels of wet sandbags to protect against enemy arrow attacks. The artillery sergeant cleaned the barrel with a long-handled brush, while another soldier gripped the ramrod, pushing a greased linen powder bag deep into the three-meter-long barrel. The dull thud of the ramrod against the powder bag startled the crows on the city walls.
"Loaded!" Hoarse commands rang out one after another. The gunners pierced the oiled paper at the end of the powder bags with iron awls and carefully inserted the ignition tubes into the touchholes. Observers climbed onto the lookout frames, their brass telescopes glinting in the morning sun.
"Ready—" The artillery commander suddenly waved his yellow flag, and sixteen torches almost simultaneously approached the touchholes. The ignition powder hissed into the barrels, and as orange flames shot from the muzzles, the ground trembled amidst the sulfurous white smoke.
The first cannonball flew for a full three seconds before a pile of rubble exploded from the stone battlements 800 yards away. Amidst the bluish-gray dust, a bloodied broken spear flew out.
The defenders on the walls used every means at their disposal to retaliate, including ballistae, catapults, and longbows, but their efforts were largely ineffective.
The second round of cannon fire followed closely. This time, three cannonballs simultaneously hit the base of a corner tower, and the iron-clad oak gate groaned under the shockwave.
Through the gaps in the smoke, defenders could be seen pouring water from buckets onto the walls—while the siege cannons roared, other cannons were not idle, firing red-hot incendiary rounds that ignited flammable materials on the walls.
"Switch to chain shot! Cut down their parapets!" an artillery captain shouted, his throat sore. The loaders immediately switched to the half-round projectiles connected by chains, which became deadly spinning wheels in flight.
With another deafening roar, the parapets at the top of the wall were sliced cleanly as if by a giant scythe. Soldiers operating the catapults fell, along with rubble, from the twenty-meter-high walls.
After six rounds of rapid fire, the cannon barrels were hot enough to fry eggs. The gunners wrapped vinegar-soaked felt around the ramrods to clean the barrels, the acrid steam mixing with gunpowder residue burning everyone's nostrils. Then the observer blew a copper whistle—a web of cracks had appeared on the second floor of the southwest corner tower, spreading upward along the mortar joints.
"Switch to solid shot! Concentrate fire five feet below the cracks!" This time, the loaders inserted heavy cannonballs marked with red lime.
When the smoke from the eighth round of cannon fire cleared, the inner oak framework of the wall was exposed, the broken wood splinters sticking out like pale bone spurs.
The defenders clearly realized the danger and tried to repair the walls, but it was no use. The 24-pound cannonballs continued to penetrate the wall's wounds.
During the thirteenth volley, a three-meter-wide section of the wall suddenly bulged outward, the iron clamps between the stones snapping with a sound that even drowned out the cannon fire.
"Last three shots!" The artillery commander pointed his sword at the teetering wall. The gunners, ignoring the risk of burns, adjusted the gun carriages by hand, and three cannonballs roared out in a triangular formation.
The moment the first shot hit the wall, the entire section slowly collapsed like a giant beast losing its skeleton. The flying rubble traced countless parabolas in the air, and the moat's surface was pocked with dense water columns.
As the dust settled, the once towering corner tower was reduced to a pile of jagged ruins, the collapsed slope forming a natural assault path.
Amid the sizzling of cooling cannon barrels, the drums of the assault team began to sound from the rear. A large number of soldiers, weapons in hand, prepared to charge through the newly opened breach into the city.
On the remaining battlements, a half-burnt flag lay amidst the smoking rubble. The defenders' longbowmen continued to retaliate, their arrows whistling through the air, but they could no longer hold back the tide of bayonets about to surge through the breach in the wall.
(End of the Chapter)
---
📖Read (FF) on Pa.treon@CinderTL - c873. [+0]
🔑Early Access at $5.
✍Translated (5) Series, (3K+) Chapters, (4.2M+) Words.
💥Flat 30% Discount on All Tiers Available Till 26th July, Use Code 3KCHAPTERS to Avail.