Ch.689Gate Breakthrough

As Ludwig stared at Orhan, who had issued attack orders and resumed fierce combat with the three heroes, he bit his lip in frustration.

With his attempt to deceive Orhan into retreating or buying time having failed, his only remaining option was all-out war.

Not only were his chances of victory slim, but even if he somehow managed to win by some miracle, they would clearly suffer severe casualties.

‘Damn it, everything’s gone completely wrong…’

Ludwig brought his trembling fingertips to his mouth, only then realizing that the Mana Herb between his fingers had been crushed like a piece of paper.

He stomped on the crumpled herb, extinguishing it just as his expression had crumpled, then turned to look at his adjutants who were waiting for his orders.

Eyes trembling with anxiety and frustration. The fear of death hung heavily in the silent command post.

Ludwig forced himself to compose his expression as he addressed his adjutants. Though the situation before him was utterly bleak, he couldn’t simply give up and collapse.

“…How many residents remain?”

“About 40 percent, sir. We halted evacuation operations immediately after observing the Ka’har legion…”

One of the adjutants answered reflexively.

Upon arriving in this city, the Imperial Army had informed the residents that the Kingdom of Dane had abandoned their protection. After persuading the desperate citizens, they incorporated them all as Imperial citizens and evacuated them to the next city.

They couldn’t leave behind those who had abandoned their kingdom for the Empire in a city that would soon become a battlefield, and since there were barely any combat-capable personnel among the residents, leaving them would only waste resources.

About 60 percent of the residents had been evacuated. Due to the Ka’har’s rapid advance, they couldn’t evacuate everyone.

If they sent residents outside the walls while the enemy was watching, they would be mercilessly slaughtered.

“Issue weapons to them. Better to give them spears than have them resist with kitchen knives and pitchforks.”

“What about deploying the residents on the walls? Even if they’re just elderly, women, and children, there are still over ten thousand of them…”

“Pointless. It would only lower the soldiers’ morale.”

Ludwig shook his head. Giving spears to the elderly, children, and women and sending them to the front lines would be futile—they couldn’t fight properly.

Even ten of them together couldn’t kill a single Ka’har soldier. Deploying them on the walls wouldn’t help; they would only be slaughtered while screaming and wailing, or flee and damage the Imperial Army’s morale.

Ludwig ordered weapons to be distributed not to use them as troops, but so they could offer some resistance during the Ka’har’s inevitable plundering after the Imperial Army’s defeat.

Once battle began, even if the residents surrendered without resistance, the Ka’har would not accept their surrender.

“After distributing weapons to the residents, burn all supplies in the storehouses except for two days’ worth.”

Ludwig’s second order was to burn most of the food they had gathered in the warehouses. This too was in preparation for their defeat.

In a normal siege, they would gather as many supplies as possible to withstand the offensive and buy time, but their current situation was far from a normal siege.

Orhan had declared he would capture the city within two hours, and his forces were charging at full speed to make the Kagan’s declaration a reality.

Cavalry charging toward city walls—just a few years ago, this would have been considered a suicidal tactic.

The orthodox approach to capturing a fortress was to completely surround the walls and wait for the defenders’ supplies to be exhausted.

But that was already an outdated strategy.

In an era where many individuals could leap over walls and destroy gates single-handedly, the concept of a fortress was no longer an impregnable barrier requiring months to conquer, but merely a troublesome obstacle.

Orhan’s mention of two hours meant he was confident he could capture this fortress in even less time.

That’s why Ludwig ordered most of the food supplies to be burned. If they were defeated, those supplies would fall into enemy hands and sustain them.

He left two days’ worth of provisions just in case, but even those would be burned the moment defeat became certain.

If by some miracle they were victorious, they would have to survive on those two days’ worth of supplies until reinforcements arrived from another city.

As the adjutants who received his orders rushed out, Ludwig turned back to the window.

Toward the Ka’har siege forces charging toward the walls in a cloud of dust.

======[ Aishan ]======

“Increase speed! Isn’t the Kagan waiting for us?”

Hatan, the warrior chief leading the siege unit, shouted loudly as he deflected the incoming rain of arrows.

“Ooooooh!”

Responding to their commander’s battle cry, the warriors whipped their reins and spurred their horses, charging even faster. They raised shields that had been attached to their saddles to block arrows, sometimes deflecting them with spears and swords.

Some even managed to shoot arrows back at the archers on the walls while maneuvering their horses to avoid the rain of arrows.

“Aaaagh!”

Imperial soldiers fell with screams as they were picked off by the mounted archers.

The Ka’har’s short bows were small enough to be easily handled on horseback, yet possessed power exceeding the Empire’s longbows.

Even arrows shot at an angle could easily penetrate the armor worn by Imperial soldiers as if it were paper.

“Don’t expose yourself beyond the shield! Take cover!”

Knights who deflected the Ka’har arrows with swords and shields shouted orders, pointing to large shields that had been set up in advance.

“Hurry, take cover! Arrows incoming!”

The soldiers hurriedly hid behind the shields while nocking new arrows to their bowstrings. Occasionally arrows would penetrate the shields, but having lost momentum in doing so, they could then be stopped by the soldiers’ armor.

“These savage bastards—! Kuhek…!”

Of course, when shooting arrows, they inevitably had to expose their upper bodies, making them vulnerable to targeted shots that couldn’t be blocked.

—-

Even the Ka’har weren’t without casualties.

Though they had the skill to block or deflect arrows aimed at them, they couldn’t pass through the rain of arrows that darkened the sky without suffering any damage.

Since they couldn’t commit their elite heavy cavalry to such a reckless strategy as charging cavalry toward city walls, most of the horsemen in the siege unit were light cavalry without heavy armor or horse armor.

Unlike the Black King who could catch incoming arrows with his teeth and deflect them with his hooves, ordinary horses couldn’t withstand a rain of arrows without barding.

“Kughk…!”

“Hihihihing!”

Steppe warriors whose vital points were pierced by stray arrows went limp with death cries, and horses with arrows embedded in their heads and chests lost strength and tumbled, throwing their riders to the ground.

Even for Ka’har soldiers with their unrivaled horsemanship, there was no solution when the horse itself died and collapsed.

Even if they quickly abandoned their horses and jumped, they would fall upon landing, unable to overcome momentum, and be trampled by the hooves of other cavalry.

The best response available to them was simply to spread out as much as possible to minimize casualties.

“Keep riding! We’re almost at the walls!”

Warrior Chief Hatan encouraged his subordinates as he charged ahead, toward the city gate that was drawing ever closer.

Unlike the Wall of Berengaria, the city walls were low enough for warriors to leap over in a single bound, but while that might be possible for warriors, it was impossible for their war horses to jump across the moat and over the walls.

So the only way for the cavalry following him to enter the city was to break through the firmly closed gates.

‘I’ll break it!’

Hatan raised his crescent blade high, infusing it with his soul.

“I’ll open the path! Don’t stop, follow me!”

His spirit technique, the power of Cheonchu, dwelled within the blade.

This cutting technique amplified the weight of his weapon infinitely to deliver a strike of overwhelming power.

To Hatan, who manifested the spirit technique, the weight felt no different than usual, but the force contained in the swinging crescent blade was dozens of times that of a normal strike.

“Kaaaaaaap!”

Finally reaching the gate, Hatan roared fiercely as he swung down with both arms. The hero’s blade carried the force of a thousand pounds as it descended.

– KWAAAANG!

Like it had been hit directly by a dwarven siege cannon, the steel bar was torn away with a thunderous boom, and the entire gate, several meters high, exploded into fragments.

The broken wooden pieces shot like javelins into the interior of the fortress, crushing the Imperial soldiers who had been stationed there.

“Kuaaaagh!”

“The gate has been breached!”

With only debris remaining where the gate had been, Hatan leapt lightly over the low rubble and proclaimed triumphantly:

“Kill every Imperial you see! Carve our name, our terror, clearly into the hearts of these Imperial bastards!”

“Long live Aishaaaaan!”

“The Champion of the Red Banner Army, Giahun, is here!”

Following Warrior Chief Hatan, the Ka’har champions, warriors, and cavalry began pouring through the gate into the city.