The Tunnel

The massive casualties, especially among the Mamluks, finally forced Saladin to halt his attacks. Even Saladin's counterweight trebuchets had nearly fallen apart from days of intense use.

On the fourth and fifth days, both sides busied themselves in a tense calm. Saladin sent out a group of soldiers under a white flag, and Norn dispatched a crew of workers wearing makeshift masks. Each side collected their own dead, then burned and buried them.

Hamo stood on the battlements, watching the thick smoke rise from the distant funeral pyres. A sense of sorrow welled up inside him. He made the sign of the cross and turned to Norn, asking, "Milord Norn, is this truly the right thing to do?"

Norn knew the Church opposed cremation, believing that on the Day of Judgment, all the dead would rise in the form they had when they died. And since the Son of God was buried after His crucifixion—well, if the big boss was buried, who were they to cremate? With these two reasons combined, the Church definitely encouraged burial, and in some regions, cremation was even declared illegal by the lords.

But if Norn buried all these bodies and a plague broke out, they'd all be doomed.

Seeing the clearly demoralized soldiers, Norn had to comfort them, saying, "They are warriors who fought for the Lord. The Lord will forgive them."

"Really?" Hamo asked, half-convinced.

"The Lord surely will," Norn nodded firmly, then added, "And if He doesn't, then He's not the Lord we worship, and we have no reason to worry."

As the black smoke curled upward, Norn made the sign of the cross, praying that these brave souls would find their way to heaven.

On the sixth day, the Saracens, after a period of rest, launched their attack once more.

Norn stayed hidden in the castle tower, watching the Saracen soldiers below who shouted loudly but stayed well out of range. He wondered what they were up to.

The Saracens seemed wary, each holding a large shield and staying more than ten meters away from the wall, out of reach of Norn's hot sand.

"Are they trying to maintain pressure and wear us out?" Norn speculated. "If that's the case, I've got plenty of manpower to spare; it won't work."

After all, Otto still had over 300 soldiers and more than 500 workers, enough to rotate and rest.

"What on earth are they planning?"

At the base of the outer wall, a team of miners were taking turns sending the excavated soil out. They had set up camp there the afternoon of the second day and had been working around the clock, digging tunnels beneath the inner wall.

"Hurry up! Sultan didn't hire you to loaf around," the overseer cracked his long whip in the air, and the miners quickened their pace.

The overseer looked down with satisfaction. A tunnel 2.5 meters wide and about 30 meters long had taken shape. A cavity had been dug under the inner wall, now supported only by a few wooden beams and planks. Once the miners removed the last of the loose soil, they could ignite the tunnel, and the wall would collapse.

As the last bag of soil was carried out, the deepest part of the tunnel was filled with flammable material.

The miner foreman timidly approached the overseer, bowing deeply. "Sir, it's done."

"What are you waiting for? Sultan is eager to see that wall come down!" The overseer brandished his whip, making the foreman retreat in fear.

"Yes, sir, we'll do it right away."

The foreman tossed a torch into the deepest part of the tunnel and immediately turned to flee. A burst of flame erupted behind him, and the intense heat made his escape even more frantic.

Finally, the foreman, now covered in soot, coughed his way out, followed by billowing black smoke from the tunnel.

Norn, standing in the tower, watched the smoke curiously.

"Is Saladin burning more bodies? Didn't he just do that yesterday?" Norn was lost in thought when he felt a vibration beneath his feet.

"Earthquake!" Norn's eyes widened in alarm. "Retreat! Retreat!" Poor little Norn, limping but still sprinting as fast as he could.

Norn wasn't the only one who felt the vibration. Everyone in the tower, forgetting all about defense, scrambled out in a panic.

The frightened crowd didn't stop running until they reached the edge of the main tower.

After a while, Norn realized it wasn't an earthquake; it was just the foundation of the tower heaving.

Connecting the dots with the earlier smoke, Norn's eyes widened in realization. He finally understood what Saladin was up to: he wanted to tunnel beneath and collapse the wall!

Norn knew that if the wall fell, he'd be facing a flood of Saracens through the breach. Even with the advantage of terrain, he'd be overwhelmed by sheer numbers within a day at most.

"Damn it!" The same expletive was shouted by the overseer outside the city walls: "Why didn't the wall collapse?!"

In front of him were the terrified miners, cowering like quails.

"You've betrayed Sultan's trust!" The furious overseer raised his whip high, and the miners shrank back, silently praying for a lighter blow.

"Wait!" Saladin's timely command stopped the enraged overseer.

Unlike the furious overseer, Saladin wore a pleasant expression, and his attendant even handed a large sack of coins to the miners.

"For your hard work, Sultan Saladin rewards you with 200 silver dinars."

The miner foreman, who had just been trembling in fear, looked at the bag of coins in disbelief and quickly knelt down, apologizing profusely.

Saladin, with a gentle smile, helped the foreman to his feet and inquired why the wall hadn't collapsed today.

The foreman thought for a moment, then hesitantly said, "Perhaps we didn't dig enough under the wall, and the connected sections of the wall are temporarily holding it up."

Hearing this, Saladin laughed and said, "I believe, as a skilled miner, you surely have a solution, don't you?"

The foreman, an ordinary man who rarely even saw a lord, let alone a Sultan, was overwhelmed by the praise from Saladin.

"I'll immediately organize people to put out the fire and dig and widen the tunnel overnight," the foreman promised, thumping his chest. "By tomorrow morning, if that section of the wall hasn't collapsed, I'll volunteer to die in the tunnel."

"Then I'll leave it to you! Once it's done, you and your men will each receive another five silver dinars as a reward," Saladin, seeing the excited foreman, decided to give them a bit more encouragement.

"This time, we won't disappoint Sultan!" The foreman, feeling a sense of loyalty and duty, immediately turned to arrange for the fire to be extinguished.

As he turned away, Saladin's previously gentle face turned cold and stern. The army's losses over the past few days and the approaching reinforcements had made him somewhat pessimistic, but today's tremor had given him a glimmer of hope for victory.

"Tomorrow! I will reduce this castle to ashes once and for all."