The enemy abandoned fifty or sixty corpses and fled back. They caused three deaths and eight injuries to the defenders on the city wall, and then the first tentative attack ended like this. What surprised Claude and others was that the enemy did not launch a second attack throughout the afternoon. This was a bit too weird.
Claude looked at the enemy's camp in the distance with a monocular, and saw that there was dust flying there. From time to time, soldiers sent in felled trees, which seemed to be making some large siege equipment.
Major Skerry looked at the seven or eight wooden carts arranged in a mess in front of the ditch below the castle and asked: "Are these wooden carts just left there?"
Diavid, who was next to him, said: "Sir, I have asked two soldiers to go down from the side door to the trench to pour kerosene on these wooden carts. They can be lit at night to provide lighting to prevent enemy sneak attacks."
This is a good idea. Night is a good opportunity for attackers to take advantage of. Taking advantage of the darkness to obscure the defender's vision, launching a surprise attack before reaching the enemy's position is a very common method in this era to capture the enemy's defensive position. However, the First Ranger Battalion is now stationed in a strong and tall castle, not the defensive positions arranged in the mountains. For the attacking enemy, how to get on the city wall is the biggest problem.
At night, the enemy's wooden carts lined up in front of the trench were lit as fires for lighting. This could effectively prevent the enemy from using the darkness to reach under the city wall, or use gunpowder barrels to blow up two gates to open a passage into the castle. However, the front gate of Count Crelaus's castle, in addition to the two iron-covered gates outside, there is an iron fence hanging door as thick as a child's arm separated by two meters, which is lowered from the city wall. Even if the enemy blows up the two outer gates, they will still be blocked in the city gate by this iron fence gate, and then become a target for the defenders.
Generally speaking, the enemy would not attack those two gates. After all, the original owner of the castle, Count Loycade Barclaus, was in the enemy's camp. He would not fail to tell the enemy that they were attacking. What should you pay attention to? The two gates look fragile, but they are actually traps. The result of attacking from the gates is to be blocked in the door opening and then be shot one by one by the guards on the wall behind.
"Well done." Major Skerry nodded, praised, and then looked at the scattered corpses on the ground outside, and asked: "Why didn't the enemy launch an attack, and no one came to collect the corpses..."
Captain Heimkling, the captain of the Second Battalion standing nearby, replied: "Sir, depending on the situation, it is impossible for the enemy to continue attacking. The first exploratory attack just now did not force us to use artillery, but it killed so many people." , this has made the enemy realize that our garrison troops are not easy to deal with. If I were the attacking party, it would be impossible for me to continue to let the soldiers approach the castle without the assistance of complete and complete siege equipment. So as not to cause too many unnecessary casualties to his men... "
Although Captain Hemklin performed poorly in the ambush of the principality's scouts, causing his group to lose nearly a squadron, Claude ridiculed him as a wooden head. But after all, after more than ten years in the army, it is not easy for anyone to climb to the rank of captain. He is very familiar with the methods of defensive position defense and position attack, and he gave a perfect answer.
After a while, I saw a squadron of enemies pulling several large trucks transporting supplies with empty hands and white flags. They were collecting corpses. They carried the corpses on the ground to large carts, and when the cart was full, they pulled them back. The soldiers on the city wall watched the enemy collect the corpses. When they wanted to pull back the seven or eight wooden carts, they fired a few shots in the open space at their feet. This meant that the enemy's corpse collection team was not allowed to collect the corpses. The row of cars was also pulled back.
At five or six o'clock in the evening, the soldiers on the city wall took two bows and used rockets to light the four wooden carts in front of the trench below the castle. The wooden carts that had been poured with kerosene ignited thick smoke and illuminated the A large area around the place made "crackling" sounds from time to time. There are still four wooden carts that can be set on fire in the middle of the night, just in time to replace the four that have been almost burned.
Claude stayed up most of the night and found that the enemy had no plans to attack by surprise, so he found a fur blanket, wrapped himself up, found an open space in the defense tower on the city wall, and fell asleep. After sleeping for two hours, he was woken up by the patrolling soldiers. This was Claude's order. He must be woken up at five o'clock, because this is the time when the night watchman is the most tired and sleepy. is also the favorite time for attacking enemies to launch surprise attacks.
It's November and the weather has started to get cold. The sky was still very dark, and even the flames of the four burning wooden carts under the castle only illuminated the surrounding five or six meters. Claude took a deep breath, took a few mouthfuls of cool air, and rubbed his face to wake himself up. Walk to the top of the gate, lean against the wall and listen to the goings on around you.
There were no suspicious sounds, just the wind, the sound of the wooden trains burning below, and occasionally the murmur and teeth grinding of a sleeping soldier in the castle. It seems that it is impossible for the enemy to launch a surprise attack today, because after a while the sky will begin to light up, and the soldiers on the city wall can easily see every move of the enemy in the distance.
In the morning there was still no sign of the enemy attacking. Major Skerry decided to send a falcon message to report the situation here to the frontline headquarters. What surprised him was that the frontline headquarters had not sent a message from the Falcon Eagle in the past two days, and he did not know what had happened.
The falcon that delivers letters is a specialty of the Kingdom of Overas and is said to have a history of nearly a thousand years. In the earliest days, the magician selected countless species of birds in order to send letters quickly. After comparison, he chose a mountain harrier unique to the eastern part of the continent. After more than ten generations of breeding, a harrier was finally produced that is comparable to a homing pigeon. , the letter delivery is extremely accurate. After the founding of the Kingdom of Overas, a magic manual on how to cultivate this kind of falcon was obtained by accident. Since then, this kind of falcon that can deliver messages has become one of the highest-level secrets of the kingdom.
However, the situation of this falcon that was about to set off seemed to be a bit wrong. Instead of holding its head high and its chest full of desire to spread its wings as usual, it instead stayed in the cage like a sick chicken, as if it didn't want to get out. After repeated inspections, the signal soldier found nothing unusual and thought that the falcon might be acting like this because of the cold weather.
Major Skerry handed the small silver tube containing his secret message to the signal soldier. The signal soldier skillfully tied the small silver tube to the falcon's feet. After feeding the falcon some fresh beef strips, he threw the falcon into the air. It’s about taking it on the road. Unexpectedly, the falcon did not spread its wings and fly high. Instead, it flew close to the ground and flew into the distance.
The people on the city wall saw dark lines on their faces, wondering what was wrong with the falcon. At this time, a soldier suddenly exclaimed: "That, that is the prairie golden eagle!"
Everyone looked up and discovered that there were two falcons circling in the sky above their heads. The figures were several times larger than the falcons that delivered the message. The signal soldier suddenly came to his senses and shouted: "No, my Harrier..."
A prairie golden eagle seemed to pause in the air for a moment, but soon spread its wings and flew down from the sky. The direction it flew towards was exactly the direction in which the harrier that delivered the message was scurrying close to the ground. Obviously, this A golden eagle spotted the falcon.
Several soldiers raised their muskets, but quickly put them down. The range was not enough and it was impossible to hit the two golden eagles. Now everyone on the city wall understood why the falcon that delivered the message was unwilling to come out. That was because it had a premonition of where its natural enemies were.
The fallen golden eagle jumped up quickly. The attack just now did not catch the prey, and another golden eagle hovering in the sky also quickly jumped down from the sky. The two golden eagles launched an attack on the falcon eagle at the same time. pursuit.
Mark Qi stared at the two golden eagles chasing the falcons and wondered: "Where did these two big birds come from? We have never found golden eagles in the sky before?"
Major Principal Skerry sighed: "I understand why we haven't received the carrier pigeon communication from Squirrel Village and the harrier communication from the frontline headquarters in the past two days. With these two birds here, we can't even think about contacting the outside world. "
The two prairie golden eagles in the distance should have hunted the falcon that sent the message. But what surprised everyone was that the two prairie golden eagles did not eat on the spot. Instead, one golden eagle grabbed the falcon with one talon. corpse, and then the two golden eagles flew towards the enemy's camp and landed slowly. There was no need to guess where the two prairie golden eagles came from. Everyone immediately understood that these two prairie golden eagles should be the pets of a certain territorial noble, and were now being used to cut off communications between the defenders in the castle and the outside world.
"Sir, what was written in your secret letter?" Captain Hemkling suddenly remembered something and hurriedly asked Major Skerry. Seeing that he didn't understand, he pointed to the enemy camp where the two prairie golden eagles landed. .
Only then did Major Skerry realize that he had written a secret letter to report the situation here to the frontline headquarters, but now the falcon that delivered the letter was hunted by a golden eagle, and the secret letter fell into the hands of the enemy. Captain Hemkling was anxious because he was worried that Major Skerry would reveal the situation at the castle in a secret letter, and the enemy would seize the opportunity to attack the castle.
"It's nothing. It mainly talks about the enemy's strength surrounding us, and the confidence that we can hold on for three months. We hope to send reinforcements as soon as possible and cooperate with us internally and externally to eliminate the enemy..." Major Skerry frowned and recalled the secret he had written. letter, wondering whether there was any possibility of leaking information about the castle's defense to the enemy.
It shouldn't be a big deal. Maybe the enemy will be discouraged after seeing the secret letter stating that the defenders are confident of holding on to the castle for three months. Because it is already November, and in three months we will have January and February, the coldest days of the entire winter. The defense in the castle is okay, at least there are walls to block the wind. But in the wilderness outside, it was simply torture. It was hard to believe that the soldiers and the pampered territorial nobles could persist in fighting in the ice and snow...
"We have to find a way to get rid of those two beasts, otherwise we won't be able to pass on the intelligence here to the higher authorities." Major Skerry said, staring at the two prairie golden eagles that took off again in the enemy camp in the distance. Although the harriers that sent letters are gone, there are still about a dozen carrier pigeons that communicate. But as long as the two prairie golden eagles are in the sky, the carrier pigeons will not be able to fly. If they are thrown out, they will only fall to the ground. They are dead. Neither will spread their wings.
"We have no way to deal with these two beasts. They have been tamed and will not come close to our castle at all. The range of the musket is not enough to hit them unless we can lure the two prairie golden eagles to within a hundred meters of the castle. . Otherwise, we can only watch them hovering in the sky." Captain Hemkling said.
"What do you think these territorial nobles do for taming these prairie golden eagles?" Claude asked from the side.
"This is very simple. One is for showing off, and the other is for hunting. The nomadic tribes on the grassland have always had the traditional custom of domesticating prairie golden eagles to help them hunt. When hunting on the grassland, a prairie golden eagle is even more useful than a hunting dog. It can help its owner hunt nimble little animals such as hares and otters. It is said that the Grand Duke of Karnus raised a pair of very large prairie golden eagles, which can lift a hundred-jin sheep into the air... "This is the fourth brigade. The captain of the battalion, Captain Cold Walker, also ran to the city wall to watch the fun.
Claude snapped his fingers: "Since those territorial nobles tame prairie golden eagles for hunting, I think I can lure them down."
"What can we do?" Major Skerry asked impatiently. He hated the two prairie golden eagles that were always circling in the sky.
"When I was young, I hunted in the mountains and forests, and I read a lot about hunting. I remember a travel diary that said that in order to catch big birds like wild geese and swans, hunters would lay fishing nets on the ground, and then pour fish and shrimp on top. Waiting for the sky When the birds flock down to eat fish and shrimp, they rush out and beat gongs and drums. The panicked birds will easily sink their paws into the mesh of the fishing net, so that the hunter can catch many big birds alive without any effort. .
I remember we brought back two fishing nets when we came back from Randers Castle, right? That was what we originally used for fishing in the big river bend. Maybe we can also use fishing nets to deal with these two beasts in the sky. Of course, I don't mean to spread the fishing nets on the ground. That would be of no use to the two golden eagles. They would not be able to fall into the castle. "
Claude pointed to the rooftop of the main castle in the central area: "I remember that the platform above is very big. We hung the fishing nets in the air. There were more than a hundred sheep in the garden. We put the lambs on the platform. Just keep them under the fishing net. If the two prairie golden eagles in the sky find that there is no one on the platform and there are only lambs, they will not be able to bear their hunting nature and will probably pounce down to hunt those lambs. As long as they touch the fishing net , at least you can be entangled for a while, which is enough time for the soldiers on the city wall to shoot several times."
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