Chapter 37

Gerald eyed Edgar and the latter didn't seem to have lost any of his fervor.

Edgar hadn't been wearing a visible smile along the march, but Gerald had seen happiness apparent on the sellsword's face. He wondered what made him so eager for battle. He was likely to lose many men from his band. When Gerald had pondered over their agreement for a while, he'd found it odd. The gains Edgar would earn from the assault were many, but he would also lose a lot being the vanguard of the attack. It almost seemed like he was sacrificing his men for these gains, which wasn't common among his kind. The mercenaries trusted their captain because he wouldn't get them killed, after all.

Even when mercenary bands were thrown to the frontlines of battles by nobles, the mercenaries would never fight on their own. They would deviously avoid bloodshed until the noble pushed his men forward. Gerald would have expected Edgar to do everything to avoid being the vanguard of a siege assault on his own.

Gerald rid himself of the unneeded thoughts and rode back after meeting Luwin's rider, quickly returning to the ranks of his men.

He signaled for Robard. "Command the cavalry to surround the fortress on a wider range and look out for enemies hidden outside. We don't want to be attacked from behind in the middle of the assault. I also don't want anyone escaping from that fortress." The lands around the fortress were mostly flat save a few small hills around. It was hard for an enemy force to hide out there and ambush them, unless they were mounted and hiding very far away. Gerald chose to be cautious though.

"Yes, my lord," Robard saluted and rode away.

Edgar had already ridden away and begun arranging the ranks of his men for the assault.

Gerald eyed the walls. They weren't very thick. About three men could stand behind each other on top of the wall without falling off, assuming that they would have some distance between each other. There were some uneven parapets for the archers. Gerald spotted some of those archers carrying longbows, but most just carried regular bows.

Soon, Edgar's men were holding their shields and ready to move. Gerald signaled for his longbow archers to get ready.

The mantlets were brought down from the carriages. They were like small walls made of wood. And they had two small wheels like the ones the battering rams stood on. The mantlets also had long lever-like handles extending from the back. They could be used to push the mantlets forward while hiding behind their cover. The handle could be left on the ground and it would support the mantlet and keep it standing. There were also small openings in the mantlets for archers to use while standing behind them.

Ladders were brought down from the carriages as well. And Gerald's men delivered them to Edgar and his band.

The mercenaries were split into two square formations on foot. Each formation took four ladders. They placed the ladders between themselves so that the each ladder would have one end pointing to the front of the formation and the other end pointing to the back. The first eight ranks of each formation had some men supporting a ladder with one hand and holding their shield with the other.

Soon, their front ranks raised their rectangular shields in front of them. Some of the shields were wooden and plated with iron, while others were made of thick wood wrapped in leather. But all the shields were of similar shape. They were rectangular, not large enough to be tower shields but large enough to cover most of a man's body.

The rest of the ranks soon raised their shields above their heads, covering each other. Gerald could hardly see the ladders or the men anymore from his horse. He could only see the backs of the men in the last few ranks.

The two square formations began marching slowly towards the fortress. Edgar was among his men in one of the two formations. Gerald had last spotted him among the men of the square formation on the left. The mercenary captain had been wearing a helm and an iron breastplate. He'd disappeared from Gerald's vision after the shields had been raised.

Gerald saw Ard's cavalry spreading to the sides and moving to loosely surround the fortress from the distance. It seemed that Robard had delivered his commands already.

He eyed his army. In front of him, his 500 archers were split into five formations standing side by side. Each formation had five ranks of men carrying longbows.

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Behind him, the infantry was split into seven square formations, each having 500 infantrymen. There were 200 infantrymen in reserve, standing ahead of the other square formations. Farther behind stood 300 crossbowmen in loose ranks.

Gerald looked ahead again. Edgar's two formations had begun stepping into the enemy archers' range.

He saw subtle movement on the walls, and then a volley was loose. The volley wasn't very dense, as only the archers with longbows loosed their arrows. A few arrows soon descended upon the two formations, but they were all blocked or deflected by the shields. The two formations keep pushing forward, unperturbed.

Another volley was loosed on the two formations by the longbow archers on the walls again, but it achieved nothing more than the first. The two squares of mercenaries continued on their slow march and soon arrived within the regular bowmen's range.

That was when a dense volley was finally loosed from the walls. Gerald heard a few yells of pain from the two formations. He guessed that a few arrows had passed through the gaps between their shields. However, the mercenaries didn't leave any fallen in their tracks.

"Just some wounds, I suppose," Gerald muttered. The mercenaries were getting closer to the walls, step by step. Gerald's head knight soon returned to his side. "They will have to break formation soon. Let the archers advance," Gerald said.

"Yes, my lord," Robard said. Then he yelled, "archers!" and waved his hand forward.

"For—ward!" the commander of the archers roared. The five formations moved in a rapid advance. They kept their formation, but advanced much faster than the two mercenary formations had.

Gerald's archers kept moving forward until they were well within the range of the enemies' longbows. The enemy archers noticed and some arrows began descending upon his archers. A few of them fell, wounded. Fewer died. There were only so many longbows on the walls. Only half of them were loosing their arrows towards his archers now.

The five longbow archer formations soon came to a stop and fluidly nocked, pulled, then loosed. Their arrows drew a curve in the sky then landed on the walls. A great many of them just hit the walls and fell off, while others fell inside the fortress. Some of the arrows hit the archers on the walls, attracting even more attention towards the five formations.

Soon, all the longbows on the walls were loosing volleys on Gerald's archers. The regular bowmen were still focused on Edgar and his band who were only a few dozen yards away from the walls.

The fallen archers on top of the walls were quickly replaced by others. That was one of the reasons Gerald had chosen to attack them from only one side. He didn't want to let his enemies use the advantage of the walls on four fronts. Luwin's 2500 men could easily man four thin walls.

Attacking the four walls would have eased the climb of Gerald's men, since they would receive less pressure. But his men weren't the ones attacking first, so he didn't mind letting Edgar pay the expense of the single-wall assault.

Gerald's archers quickly adapted, and their longbows were raining arrows on the fortress's walls continuously. Most of the time the archers on top of those walls were too busy hiding to loose their arrows on Edgar's formations.

The 200-man reserve of the infantry was responsible for carrying back any wounded from the archer formations. The infantrymen covered their heads with their heater shields and ran into the archers' formations, quickly carrying back any fallen ones who might or might not be alive.

Gerald saw that the two mercenary formations were drawing closer to the walls. They split up and each one headed to either side of the fortress's gate. As soon as they arrived at the walls, each formation broke up. The men of each formation were either fixing the ladders on the walls, or sticking to the walls with shields covering their heads. Very few arrows were descending on them as Gerald's men were keeping the archers at bay, but many rocks were being thrown from above.

"Edgar's men will soon climb up," Gerald said. "Let the rams begin moving."

Robard nodded and waved his hand towards the back. "The rams!"

"The rams!" the voice echoed among the captains of Ard's army. Then Gerald saw the three battering rams being pulled to the front by horses. They stopped when they were ahead of Gerald and his head knight.

Each battering ram was a moving shed carrying a large log with a metal head at the front. Several infantrymen ran to one of the battering rams and manned it. They took cover under the shed and began pushing forward. Only one ram was needed for the gate. The other two were possible replacements. Those two were also manned, but they advanced slower than the first one.

At the same time, a few dozen crossbowmen ran to the front and manned several mantlets. Each mantlet had eight crossbowmen holding its back handle and pushing it forward. The wheels moved and ten mantlets began moving forward, faster than the rams.

Gerald gazed at the walls again. The ladders were firmly set, and some of the mercenaries were already climbing up with their shields above their heads. The first mercenary to reach the top of the wall was hammered down by one of the defenders. He fell all the way to the ground and Gerald didn't see the slightest movement from him after that.

The mercenaries didn't stop though. More and more of them were climbing the ladders. He saw some of the ones on the ground carrying crossbows and aiming their bolts towards the enemies on the walls.

Edgar's band slowly but truly began gaining some footing on the wall. Gerald saw one of the band's mercenaries beaten off a ladder, only for the one behind him to jump at the opportunity and bury his axe in the defender's head. The mercenary then slashed at another defender who evaded by stepping back. The attacker quickly took the chance and stepped onto the wall, followed by another of his band. Soon, that part of the wall had a few mercenaries holding their own and trying to push forward against the defenders.