30 or so Noble Guards fell down, but this didn’t stop the momentum the charging enemy had, the horses smashed into the wooden hedgehogs felling the front rank, but also removing the obstacles, the knights fell down into the trenches with the toppling horses, crushing the halberdiers in there.

The remaining Noble Guard got off their horses and rushed into the trenches. Jacques ordered a unit of his knights to dismount and support. Cavalry from all down the line was dismounting and charging into the trenches, although a lot of them suffered from the caltrops.

The muskets and crossbowmen standing 20 meters away from the trenches were firing over at the mass of enemy that was charging over. They were doing a lot more damage to the medium and light troops, not only did they have little to no enchanted armour, but they also weren’t being warded by the wizards compared to the knights and guards.

Fred was getting some shots off with his musket too. He had the cannons switch targets to the less protected, he was hoping to just do as much damage as possible.

The wizards were trying to fight back against the enemy wizards as bolts of arcane energy whizzed over the heads of the enemy into areas of strategic importance. Before Fred noticed he had lost 5 cannons to the bombardment of the wizards.

“Wizards, protect the cannons, cannons aim at the enemy wizards.” However, this command was a little difficult, the enemy wizards had learned from last time, they were spread out behind their infantry ranks, making it harder for the cannons to get good shots off.

They had to start drawing reserves from down the trench lines to reinforce the fighting. A lot of halberdiers had to resort to their secondary weapons, short swords, maces, and axes, to fight in the trench system. Dead bodies were piling up everywhere.

“Cannons, forget about the wizards, focus on the light and medium troops,” Fred saw that the enemy infantry was quickly catching up to the fight.

The enemy managed to grab a 20-meter portion of the trench, kicking out the resistance, “Give me that,” seeing this Fred grabbed a keg of gun powder and threw it in the trench, two more people copied Fred before a wizard was signalled to cast magic down there.

A huge inferno sprang up from the trench, with cries of agony being heard all around.

___

This fighting started in the early afternoon, and lasted till late evening, both sides were bruised and battered, and finally, the enemy called a retreat, this was the most devastating moment of the war for Fred, late into the night, they had set up cremation pyres for the dead.

“What does the report say,” Mendes asked,

“The report states that we have suffered 1100 casualties, mostly Frontline infantry, we have lost 5 cannons, 30 wizards, 120 knights a good portion of our cavalry traps is destroyed, one of the trenches has had its walls collapsed due to fire damage to the wooden structures,” George reported.

“How about the enemy losses?” Fred asked.

“It looks like 2300 dead, 500 captured, we don’t know how many were injured.” George continued.

“How much damage did we do to their shields?” Fred asked the wizard.

“We destroyed 5 towers, each tower could cost up to, 100 bars of gold, equivalent to a large merchant town’s yearly revenue,” the wizard stated. “This would put them back by 2-3 years for the Duchy as a whole.”

“What is the best course of action, try and destroy more towers or continue to bombard them?” Mendes asked.

“Well, we might be able to knock two more down, but it would cause the enemy to sally out again, if that’s what you want, alternatively, they will burn more crystals to cover the area if we just bombard this area.” The Wizard answered

“We will do that, continue bombarding once every 30 minutes, during the daytime,” Fred said.

“How long would this last?” Henry asked.

“It could take a while, so we better get comfortable.” Fred left the tent to rest.

Henry and Mendes followed him out, “Are these tactics that have been used in your previous world?” Henry asked.

“Yeah, it was a common tactic using these weapons in my previous world.”

“How effective were they, like how long would it take?” Mendes asked this time.

“Well, I remember reading one siege lasting 22 years, but hopefully this won’t last that long.”

“22 Years!” Henry exclaimed.

“Relax, the defenders were one of the richest merchant republics and had naval supremacy to resupply the city.” Fred calmed them down, “on average, it may last, at most, three or four months if they have stored enough supplies,”

“that’s still a long time,” Henry let out a breath of relief from the 22 years but was still shocked.

___

They continued the bombardment for over two weeks.

Fred got an idea “Why don’t we get the navy to try and bombard the port, we may be able to knock out another tower or two?” he suggested to the wizard.

“I haven’t seen your ships, but it may be possible based on what I have heard about them.”

Fred sent a letter down to Brillante, and within four days, the navy came round the cape and into the mouth of the river, giving a bombardment into the shielded port, they couldn’t sync the cannons well, but the bombardment of a large volume of cannon shots for over 3 hours caused 6 towers to smoke.

The ships couldn’t destroy the towers as they couldn’t deliver a sudden shock to the spell matrices. However, it was enough to put a strain on the entire shield system.

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In these last 4 days, they noticed more and more cannonballs were getting through the shielding from the trench line in the north. This was starting to take a toll on the walls, causing casualties amongst the defenders.

The trench network was starting to get in range of the enemy wizards, but with the cannons biting back, the construction wasn’t as hindered. This continued until the end of April, the shields were still up, and the cannons were only doing so much damage to the walls, which was being filled in by the enemy.

“We need to force the enemy out and cause mass casualties on them,” Jacques said.

“We can slow down the cannon rounds, we would be running out in another 2 months anyway,” Fred suggested.

“What do you mean?” Jacques asked.

“We are using the cannonballs faster than they are being made, it is also starting to cause financial difficulties,” Fred explained.

“Then what do we do?” Jacques asked again.

“We change the fire pattern to equal the procurement rate and save the rest into storage, we do this for a week and then reduce it again, this will hopefully trick the enemy into charging at us,” Fred said.

“Will that work?” Jean asked this time.

“It should, but it means we must prepare for a sally,”

“Any plans for that?” Jacques asked.

“We start slowly replacing soldiers in the forward trenches with Helmeted Scarecrows and fill the trenches with explosives. Another 30 cannons are on their way over from Bristol, we would have to set up their position at night or something and disguise them.” Fred went into detail.

___

Over the week the enemy commander noticed the drop in the rate of bombardment, his troops were restless and tired from the long siege. “This is it, men, they are running out of ammo, this is our time.”

“You sure this isn’t a trap,” Derek commented.

“Just cause you would fall for a trap, doesn’t mean the rest of us are.” Ian’s brother said mockingly, “you couldn’t even perform properly as a tool,”

Derek gritted his teeth, he knew that if this failed, he would be used as a scapegoat, to appease the king. And now, if they won, he would most likely be killed off so the duke can inherit the title.

“Enough, prepare the men, we will sally in a few days’ time, they might be baiting us, let’s see what show they try to pull off.” The commander said.

Over the few days, the cannons reduced the fire rate, even more, now the commander was confident and ordered the sally, putting Ian’s brother in charge.

Derek watched from the walls as the men stormed out and towards the enemy. He didn’t know what he wanted to see happen now, he was in a gloomy position.

The troops continued to charge, the cannons didn’t switch targets towards the sallying group, another round went into the walls, causing Derek to feel the tremors.

It was only when the front ranks dived into the early trenches that the cannons stopped targeting the walls and was repositioned. However, Derek didn’t hear any fighting from the trenches,

Then the cannons started firing into the huge mass of soldiers, and then more cannons started revealing themselves,

“Damn it, they were tricking us!” The commander shouted out in anger. He was standing close to Derek and the rest of the commanders on top of the walls.

This made even more of the troops rush into the trenches to find cover, ignoring the warnings from the people inside, who discovered the scarecrows.

They started making their way down the zigzag trenches towards the enemy lines while cannon fire and witch fire streamed overhead.

It was at this moment, when a Normandy wizard, who had managed to orient himself in the trench and cast a spell that the whole network of trenches that they had seized, suddenly ruptured into a blazing inferno

Trench system after trench system started going alight, there were 8 trench systems that encroached onto the enemy city surrounding it in a semi-circle, but the enemy only charged 4 of them.

“Shit! Shit! Shit! call the retreat,” the commander called out from atop the wall. With this, the horns started blaring. The troops started rushing back to the city, being chased by cannonballs, musket rounds, witch fires and crossbow bolts.

It was quite a devastating loss, except for right at the edges of the front lines, the enemy didn’t seem to lose that many casualties.

___

A few days later in the command room of the castle, “Damn it, we are running out of options,” the commander slammed the table. Ian’s brother was dead. After the sally, the cannon rounds returned to their peak, with the extra cannons joining in.

It was at this time that a ship from the Normandy mainland managed to sail to Ludnus, Fred still hadn’t managed to gain naval supremacy yet, but at this rate, it wouldn’t be long till then. Although Fred had made a grave error, the ships he had knocked out were much easier to repair than he thought, as well it was much easier to build.

Fred had gone off his old-world statistics, he hadn’t put into consideration the skills people got in this world or their own technological improvements.

However, the ship had brought some shocking news to the commander.

“There are rumours that the king is returning.” The commander told the staff, “The duke wants us to grab as many cities back before he returns, as that would signify the end of hostilities.”

“What do we do?” another commander asked.

“We will split into two armies; one will go after the port towns and the other after the river towns.”

“What about Ludnus?” the other commander asked again.

“We will leave this for Derek and his men, organise the troops we leave in a week, we cant alert the enemy beforehand.”

Derek knew what the commander was doing. The war was lost, they were just clearing up, using Derek as the sacrifice.

In the evening Derek and Corinth were having a secret meeting, Derek had managed to position his troops so that they wouldn’t be called in a sally, meaning most of them were standing. Derek had a lot of them hide in houses to act as civilians to reduce body counts.

“You know what this means right,” Corinth stated it was more of a rhetorical question.

“Yes, I know, but what do I do?” Derek whispered.

“Surrender the city as soon as they leave,” Corinth stated,

“What do you mean?” Derek asked in shock.

“Remember, we have been collecting evidence of the duke’s plans since the start, we can offer information and the city, in exchange, ask for a position in his retinue,” Corinth stated.

Derek was shocked. “What do you mean by that?”

“You have a lot of value, I’ve heard rumours that the Aquitaine duchies are trying to get an arranged marriage with Fred and Maine’s daughter, as well as marrying into the son, they have claims on parts of Normandy, and you have claims on the other side, Fred can use that to ‘help his retinue’ reclaim his rightful lands,” Corinth stated.

“But the duke would be under the king?” Derek countered.

“Not with the evidence we have, it includes information about his desires for independence,” Corinth stated.

“But they are leaving in 5 days.” Derek conjectured,

“Let me go and talk to Fred tonight, allow me to negotiate on your behalf.” Corinth pleaded. He knew this was a big decision to make for Derek.

“Fine, I trust you Corinth,” Derek agreed.

Corinth was grateful, he loved Derek as a brother, and didn’t want to see him treated this way by the family.

___

Fred was in the meeting tent with the command when a soldier communicated for entry.

“Come in.”

“Sire, we have a guest, from Ludnus.” The soldier stated.

“Are they surrendering?” Jacques asked as he turned from the soldier to Fred.

“No, not this time a night, this is going to be interesting,” Fred stated, then looked to the soldier, “Bring him in.”

“Yes, sire,” the Soldier lifted the tent flap to allow the guest entry.

“Good evening, young master Frederick.” The guest greeted.

“Corinth, right? Advisor to Derek, and would be vice-commander if a certain cousin wasn’t in the way.” Fred stated, he had been doing research into his enemy since the beginning of the war.

The others in the room suddenly got interested.

“That’s quite a hypothesis to make, young master Frederick,” Corinth said, as with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“Let’s make another one, Derek is an unwilling tool for the duke’s independence plan, if he wins, the duke finds a way to take the title, if he loses, he’s just a rogue family member, that’s being disowned,” Fred stated. “This makes betrayal the only survivable avenue for him, something he had planned since before the siege of Bristol.”

“Betrayal is not a word my lord finds honourable,” Corinth said, this may be more difficult, he thought, would a lord take on a servant on who has a history of betrayal.

“No, no, I totally agree, knowing what I know, I am willing to throw the accusation of betrayal onto the dukes head,” Fred threw out an olive branch. “So, why do you seek my audience?”