Knight and Wand

Chapter 127: Battle of Longka II (Before the Battle)

"Your barking is really harsh, Lord Canis." Leon raised his head and responded loudly to the threatening words coming from more than ten meters away: "What wolf pack? I seem to have only seen a group of wild dogs without chains begging for food here.

Unfortunately, Longka doesn't have that many bones left for you to gnaw on, so you might as well come back after dinner to ask for some."

"You are such a rude and sharp-tongued fellow. Not only have you rejected my rare kindness, but you have also insulted the symbol of my noble name. I hope that when your tongue is pulled out, you will still be able to spit out such vulgar words as you do now." Canis cursed back loudly.

Leon suddenly felt regretful that Lohak was not around. They were swearing at each other from such a long distance. Although his brother was not good at speaking, he had a loud voice and was very good at yelling vulgar words. It also saved him from having to shout at the top of his lungs without a loudspeaker.

"That's wrong, Lord Canis. Farolis' courtesy is for people, not for mad dogs that invade our home for no reason."

"The Farolis family practiced witchcraft to desecrate the dead, destroyed the villages in my Wolf Territory, and even caused the deaths of knights from my family. Today I led my army to retaliate. Do you have the nerve to bite me back for no reason?" Canis shouted angrily.

"What witchcraft? Don't you dare slander someone's innocence based on your baseless accusations?"

Leon refuted calmly, and did not really want to explain the origin of the undead to the other party. Anyway, that was not the real reason for the enemy to lead the army to attack. He then started to talk trash to the other party: ". If you can start a war and invade the border based on speculation alone, the Thorn Flower Family has ten thousand excuses and blood debts to enter your doghouse."

And listening to the knight's whispered report behind him that the army was ready, Canis sneered but was not really angry.

If he was so easily angered, he would have died several times in Mamor.

The young master of the Wolf family looked at the other side of the river and saw that Knight Heinkel had finally led his troops to the other side. He turned around and looked at the leader of the Thornflower family who was holding a square flag on the opposite side.

Although the unexpected person was a younger guy than himself, from this verbal exchange, it was clear that the other party was not someone who would easily get impatient.

Moreover, the insults he gave were even more rude and vicious than his own. He could not gain any advantage with his words, nor could he anger the other party. It would be a waste of energy to continue scolding him, so Canis ended this attempt which was better than nothing.

"When General Trosa conquers Mamor County and comes to arbitrate the dispute, the Gunnar family will present evidence. Now let the sword replace the mouth. The wolf's fangs and claws will make you regret insulting Gunnar."

"If you stretch out your claws, I will chop them off. If you bar your teeth, I will break your teeth. Come on, you bastard from the Gunnar family." Leon laughed.

He didn't mind continuing to scold for a while, preferably until reinforcements arrived.

But seeing the other party turning his horse around, Leon knew that this short period of time was already the limit of his energy consumption.

The gate of the outer wall of the pass was closed again by the guards.

Pulling the reins, Leon followed the path between the wooden stakes and returned to the soldiers who had already formed a battle formation on the gentle slope.

Brian arranged the entire army into three rows. Although the number of people was limited, he tried his best to widen the front line of contact with the enemy.

Leon rode past the front row of soldiers, holding high the long-bladed lance in his hand.

At the front end of the multi-faceted cone-shaped gun body, the steel-forged gun tip reflects a dazzling cold light in the sun.

The battle is about to begin, and Leon, who has made all possible preparations, gives his soldiers a final encouragement and promise.

"Warriors of all lords! The enemy comes only to kill and plunder, and we have no choice.

For the sake of our homes, wives, children, and future, we have to break the spines of these vicious dogs here!

The enemy is numerous and we are few, but they are just a mob. Please believe in the spears and swords in your hands.

As long as you hold on until reinforcements arrive, victory will surely belong to you!

but me!

My flag will never disappear from your sight before death comes upon me!

In the name of Leon Pendragon.

I am with you!"

Old Brian stepped out of the ranks, raised his sword, and marched across the army in the opposite direction of Leon, leading everyone in chanting the battle cry: "Victory!"

The Plyton line immediately raised their spears to their commander and shouted, "Victory!"

Brian passed by Seval's center and shouted again: "Victory!"

"Victory--!!" the Selvans' voices were extremely uniform and loud.

"Victory! For your homeland!" Brian faced the Longka people and pointed his sword in the direction of the enemy's attack.

Hearing the loud encouragement from the centurion approaching them, the Lonca soldiers roared even louder than the Selvans.

The dull sound of the horn sounded deafeningly in the wilds of Longka.

Kanis's attack order was given.

At the shouts of the soldiers of the Wolf family army, several teams of three or five ran out from the four scattered conscripted soldiers in the front row.

They raised the makeshift wooden boards and shields above their heads. Some of them did not even have such basic protection, so they ran desperately with shovels towards the spiked trenches that prevented the army from approaching the wooden wall.

Although the Longka defenders inside the wooden wall pass were on high alert, they were unable to see the actions of the enemy outside.

But the archers standing high up on the arrow tower at the rear of the army had already drawn their arrows and put them on the bowstrings as they had done in training.

There was no rush to attack. The Longka archers, who had excellent eyesight, waited until they saw the enemy crossing the wall and leaving trees outside the wall with precise distance markings on them before the two archer captains gave orders to their comrades.

“——Shoot!!”

Twenty whistling arrows flew out from two arrow towers and accurately hit their respective targets.

Although their number was small, the first round of arrows still knocked down several soldiers whose legs and feet were exposed or who had no means of defense at all.

Hearing the screams behind them, those desperate men who were recruited from the ruffians and criminals quickened their pace fiercely, but without any temporary companions to coordinate with them, the inconsistent pace of their steps actually hindered them.

Several people fell while running, exposed outside the boards and shields.

The archers on the arrow tower in the distance had no mercy at all. Having long since retired from their jobs to become the lord's personal soldiers, they took turns in twos and threes, working together to shoot at the cannon fodder that had stumbled, just like they used to hunt wild beasts in the woods.

More than a dozen people fell in two rounds of arrow rain, some dead and some injured, but the Longka archers did not waste their energy and arrows to kill the wounded who had no strength to fight anymore, leaving their painful wails to echo in front of the enemy formation.

The archer array on the left wing of Wolf Leader's army naturally did not waste the opportunity.

Under the order of the knight officer, they took advantage of the gap when the Longka archers were concentrating on attacking the militia, followed the soldiers in front of them, raised the tower shield for cover, and began to move forward.

Try to bring colleagues on distant enemy towers into range as quickly as possible.

However, the captain of the arrow tower, who had been ordered to pay attention to the enemy archers, immediately stopped his men from shooting freely.

"Stop shooting and close the line!"

The Longka archers watched the enemy step into the range of another tree that symbolized the maximum range. Soon, they formed groups of five and five, raised their bows and threw arrows, hoping to kill as many Wolf Leader archers as possible before the two armies really met.

Although the arrows were fired in volleys, they still flew into the sky one after another.

A rhythmic rain of arrows fell from the sky, making a terrifying clanging sound as they fell into the Wolf Leader's archer team.

Some of them made a click sound, and the arrows pierced into the tower shield in front of the enemy.

Some were bounced away by the thick shield.

But there are still some unlucky people who couldn't dodge in time and were unfortunately hit by the arrows.

The Gunnar family's archers quickly spread out their formation in a well-trained manner.

Most of the archers crouched down and hid in the tower shields in front of them for cover, and counterattacked from both sides of the tower shields when the Longka archers shot.

However, they were suppressed and not only did they dare not aim more, but the arrows flying from low to high not only had to fight against the natural gravity, but also had to withstand the spring breeze blowing from northeast to southwest in the Longka Mountains, which resulted in most of the arrows failing to hit the target at all.

Even if one is lucky enough to reach the arrow tower, the stray arrows have already lost their accuracy and lethality. They either fall between the towers or fly aimlessly and disappear without a trace.

Riding his horse and hovering under the arrow tower, Leon looked up, listening to the continuous whizzing sound of arrows breaking through the air, his eyes catching the trajectories of those flying above his head, and his heart was at peace.

The preparations over the past few days have not been in vain.

Compared to Old Brian and Sir Redo, who had rich battlefield experience, he was able to make use of some of the advantages of the systematic education he received in his previous life.

After detailed parabolic calculations and experiments, the arrow tower that Leon set up for the archers, combined with the height of the gentle slope under their feet, not only gave his own archers the advantage of being more than eight meters above the ground.

At the same time, taking advantage of the favorable wind direction at this time, after adding and subtracting, according to tests and calculations, his archers should now have an effective killing range of about thirty meters more than the enemies outside.

The enemy must slowly and dangerously advance within 30 meters before they can start to launch effective counterattacks.

At the same time, if they want to counter the arrow tower, they have to constantly take risks and consume the arrows in their hands, as well as their own energy and physical strength.

And his archers could just shrink and hide in the fortifications and rest safely.

When the enemy's round of shooting stops, you can continue attacking and consume the enemy's manpower.

In terms of consumption, there were more arrows transported from Farolis to Longka for storage.

There is enough for the archers to shoot until they are exhausted, and I am afraid that they will not be used up even after the battle.

And how many arrows did those wolf-led archers who marched here from afar carry?
Marching, fighting, and shooting arrows at the same time, how long can they keep shooting in this battle?
Leon had no idea how well trained the enemy archers were, but all the preparations he had made were adding weight to the balance of the struggle bit by bit, accumulating advantages for his side wherever possible.

Seeing that the archers he brought with him had difficulty in firing back at the arrow tower in the distance, Canis did not want to waste his precious long-range forces on protecting those cannon fodder, so he gave an order to the side: "That's enough, let the archers withdraw and wait."

The archers, who had not advanced far, heard the command from behind and immediately dragged several injured comrades who were shot by arrows, and slowly retreated with the cover of the shield soldiers.

Canis then turned his gaze towards the right wing of the army.

From a distance, unlike the wooden wall of the trench on the north side which was protected by Longka's arrow tower, the wooden wall on the south side had no archers' defense.

The militia in charge there was already working hard to fill up the trench.

Soon, conscripts carrying fuel climbed over the earth pit and began to set fire to the wooden walls.

Hot flames rose and spread rapidly.

In a blink of an eye, it engulfed the wooden stakes near the burning point, and the fire spread slowly.

The militiamen hurriedly retreated to avoid the fire.

This is the natural disadvantage of wooden fortifications.

Even if the surface is covered with mud and plaster, this measure can only slightly slow down the burning speed.

Facing a prepared army, this wooden wall could only delay for a little time.

"Sir, there is a fire in the south. Should we order the militia on the left wing to withdraw?" Knight Yom suggested.

He looked solemnly at the trench on the outer wall of Longka. The angle there was very tricky. It was obvious that it was coordinated with the height of the wooden wall, forming a distant oblique angle with the top floor of the arrow tower on the high slope in the distance.

The archers on the arrow towers can shoot without hindrance at those who accidentally expose their bodies outside the wooden boards and shields while shoveling to fill the trenches.

People with arrows in their bodies and limbs kept falling to the ground and crying. Some of the temporary conscripts, whose morale was already low, were so scared that they hid behind their shields and stopped the filling work.

"We brought these people here just for this purpose. How long will it take to burn the southern section alone? Who knows when the reinforcements from Fort Wachter will arrive?"

Kanis then gave the order, "Have Ascofo's detachment escort the people on the left wing over there. Let's speed up the process. I want to see the entire wooden wall on fire within half a minute."

The order of the young master of the Wolf family was executed. A 50-man infantry squad of Wolfenhall, relying on armor and shields, drove away the unarmored militia in front of them and rushed towards the almost collapsed filling team in front.

At such a long distance, it is difficult for Longka archers to threaten enemies who are well-armored.

After a while, the second group of people who rushed to the trench were forced by the soldiers of the Overseer Wolfenhall to continue their work.

After all, the twenty archers on the arrow tower were unable to stop the attack of so many enemies.

As Leon and the soldiers on the battlefield inside the wall saw that the northern section of the wooden wall was also on fire, the Longka archers no longer had targets in their sight and range, so they stopped shooting and seized this precious time to rest and recover their strength.

Beyond the wall of fire.

The collapsed militia who retreated to the front line of the army were reorganized by the officers of the Wolf family and forcibly incorporated into other intact militia units in the front row.

But it is hard to say how much courage these people who fled back after hearing the screams still have to fight.

Right before their eyes, some of the conscripted soldiers who were shot but not killed were still crying and screaming in pain, some were limping back to the army, and some had lost the ability to stand up and had to desperately crawl on the mud, leaving bloody marks.

More than thirty conscripts were killed or wounded simply in the effort to burn down the outer walls of Lonka.

The original four cannon fodder teams in front of the battle line have now been reorganized into three. Sergeant Askofo brought the Wolf Fort soldiers who were originally in charge of the battle line to fill the gap on the left wing in order to maintain the morale of the remaining militiamen.

Leon was silent, looking at the blazing wall of fire in the distance.

The fire burned for more than forty minutes, and it was still not extinguished until the charred wall collapsed, revealing the troops of the Wolf Family behind it.

The real test for Lonka finally came when the first enemy troops stepped over the remains of the wooden wall rolling in the heat.

(End of this chapter)