Traveling through The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

"Are you sure she was taken away?"

Lai Mei lowered her head in frustration, but Aigis said it was true.

"Aigis saw it. Helgi and the others were tied up and taken away by the enemy."

I felt a little relieved.

Helgi's letter said that she, Leimei and Agis were in the same scout team. When I saw that only two of them came back, I realized that something must have happened to this girl. In addition, Leimei apologized as soon as we met, which frightened me so much that I almost fainted on the spot. Since she was only captured, then things might not be irreversible.

I pushed the glass toward Lydia.

"Drink it, warm yourself, and then tell me the whole story."

Donna came out. The elderly were light sleepers, but the noise we made completely ruined their sleep. Seeing the two people in such a mess, she hurried back to the inner room and called the two poor maids who had just slept in their clothes. The three ladies were busy changing bandages, boiling water and washing. For a while, only Angie was still sleeping soundly.

The alcohol and warm water gave Lai Mei's pale face a sickly red blush. I reached out and touched her forehead, and it was indeed very hot. But she still pulled herself together and told me about the situation at the front.

The Imperial camp is really serious this time. After summarizing the information gathered from all sides, Dad estimates that the other side may have nearly a thousand combat personnel alone, and an unknown number of civilian laborers and servants who were captured.

On the other hand, the Reach tribe left less than 200 people to guard the castle, including scouts. Dad's Falkreath Third Legion has been expanded several times, and it is no longer the original size of 30 people. In addition to the Reach Guard, which has also increased in number, and 70 conscripted militiamen, Baron Helgen has gathered more than 200 warriors. Tagel brought support from the First Legion and 100 conscripts, with a slightly smaller number of about 160. This team uses the sophisticated equipment seized from the Lucius Legion, and its combat effectiveness is not weak.

The Imperial Army was divided into two parts, like a boxer's clenched fists. The Western Army surrounded the Sunshine Garden Fortress but did not attack it, just like a right fist defending, while the Eastern Army approached Granite Village, like a left fist thrusting forward. As a result, the opponent's ordinary left straight punch almost pierced through our supply line. Fortunately, Tager arrived in time and blocked the hole.

Dad and Tager were guarding two canyons respectively, supporting each other. Although the total strength of the Empire's Eastern Army was superior, no matter who they attacked, they would inevitably expose their flanks to the other person. Mountain warfare was a subject that our army was good at, and the two sides were in a standoff for a while. The left fist was unexpectedly successful, but it was difficult to advance any further. The boxer's right fist, which had been accumulating power, suddenly blasted out and hit heavily on——

On an iron plate.

The only weapon worth mentioning among the Reachmen was the longbow, which was generally over 1.5 meters long, and some of the warriors could even reach 2 meters. Among the equipment Lund had obtained, there were exactly 500 armor-piercing arrows. The hardest bows were matched with the sharpest arrows. After a round of shooting, the vanguard of the Imperial Legion fell down in large numbers, and the high morale was stagnant. However, this was just an appetizer. For more than half a month afterwards, the enemy took advantage of the numerical advantage and harassed them day and night.

Moira was not worried. She had the city walls to rely on. She just needed to allocate the manpower properly. Since the castle was under siege and the scouts were no longer out, the matriarch had more soldiers available. Helgi was given special care and was responsible for looking out in the inner city. The terrain in front of the castle was narrow, which was not conducive to the deployment of a large army. Even if the enemy had three times the manpower, they could not gain any advantage.

The Sunshine Garden Fortress is quite large. The main gate of the castle faces west, and outside the gate are three wooden fences and stables. Entering the main gate is the outer city. The 13-meter-high wall surrounds a courtyard the size of a football field. There are some low sheds around it. They were originally servants' residences, but now they have become lounges and warehouses. On the eastern side of the courtyard, two walls separate the inner and outer cities. The inner city is not only slightly larger than the outer city, but also slightly higher in terrain, and the wall is nearly 20 meters. In addition, there are three towers. Helgi is in the tallest one, which is also the residence of the female leader.

It was already dusk and early in the month, and the situation on both sides was much worse. The imperial army's tents could not effectively resist the cold wind, but they could cut down trees to make fires for warmth. Although the castle defenders had sturdy houses, they only had a limited supply of firewood, and it was common for them to be woken up by the cold in the middle of the night.

Aigis was assigned to guard at night because of the tiger man's innate ability. The little cat girl had already grown into a thick winter coat, and even in the cold night, she only needed to cover herself with a large cloak. But it snowed that day, and the snowflakes fell one after another, and the sky and the earth were covered with white. This was a beautiful scene that never appeared in her hometown of Elsweyr.

Aigis rolled around on the top of the tower excitedly, then opened her fluffy paws to catch the crystal clear snowflakes, closed her eyes, and quietly felt the coolness seeping into her palms. After opening her pair of green cat eyes, she discovered a whole new world. One step, two steps, three steps... Aigis left footprints one by one, each one was so cute. With a flick of her fluffy tail, the two rows of footprints were swept away.

The snow was gently picked up and rolled into a round ball, which flew across the night sky and into the distance with the meow of the little cat. Agis's eyes followed the white snowball, passing through the white mountains, white houses, white city walls and white wooden fences...

She rubbed her eyes vigorously and finally made sure that she was not hallucinating.

"Helgi! Lydia! Get up and look! The house has been blown away!"

……

Fifteen minutes later, Aigis folded her ears, grabbed the tip of her tail, and hid in the shadows. Behind her was a pile of wood with black smoke, and in front of her were Moira and Lydia with solemn faces.

The little cat girl couldn't remember how many times she had lit warning beacons to frustrate the enemy's sneak attacks. However, that night, she was so focused on enjoying the snow feast given by God that she didn't notice that the flint and firewood had been soaked by the snow. When she learned from the knowledgeable Lydia that the squirming houses were a siege weapon called a battering ram, she found that she couldn't light a fire no matter what.

In the end, it was Helgi who exhausted all his magic power and used the fire tongue technique to burn the wood.

When the female leader heard that the enemy had come up with a new trick, she hurriedly put on some clothes and went up to the tower to listen to Lydia introduce the characteristics of the battering ram.

Castles are the pinnacle of defensive power. For thousands of years, countless military strategists have racked their brains to find ways to conquer them, the most famous of which is a series of siege engines. In Tamriel, the most common are four types.

One is the ladder. Many people even disdain to call it a tool because of its simple structure and inability to enhance the soldiers' attack or defense capabilities. It simply provides a way to climb to the top of the city wall. The accompanying attack method was called "ant attachment" or "moth attachment" in ancient China. It was rough and direct, but if it encountered stubborn resistance, it would often result in huge casualties. Therefore, only when the besiegers had an absolute advantage would they arrange a large number of warriors to carry the ladders and launch a general attack to capture the city wall.

Now that the morale of the Reachmen is high and there are plenty of arrows in the castle, the Imperial Legion naturally dares not charge rashly at this time.

To suppress the archers, you need to find a way to occupy the commanding heights. If the city wall is the commanding height, then create a higher commanding height than the city wall. According to this idea, people invented the siege tower. Generally speaking, you can pile up earth to form a mountain, or you can build a wooden platform. The former is strong and not afraid of fire attacks, while the latter can be equipped with wheels. In addition to being a shooting platform, the wooden siege tower is also equipped with a drawbridge, which can be placed on the city wall once it is close to provide a channel for infantry to assault.

However, the Sunshine Garden Fortress is located on the top of the mountain. Considering the slope, the Imperial Legion needs a 20-meter-high siege tower to suppress the city wall. It is difficult to build such a high platform halfway up the mountain, and a 20-meter-high wooden siege tower must be very heavy. It is a pipe dream to push it over the mountain road to get close to the city wall.

Another thing that is also limited by the terrain is the trebuchet. In the game, Ulfric used this thing to attack Whiterun. However, the narrow mountain road can hardly accommodate three trebuchets deployed side by side, and throwing stones from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain will not have an ideal attack effect.

Ultimately, the Imperial Legion chose the battering ram.

The appearance of this siege machine really looks like a wooden house. It was a snowy night, so it was no wonder that Agis, who had never seen the world, made a mistake. The advantage of the Reachmen was their bows and arrows, and the ram with a gable roof could defend against the rain of arrows. The supporting pillars inside the ram were also solid logs, and they would not collapse even if hit by stones. The sturdy battering ram hung on the frame could easily smash the thin wooden fence, and the heavy city gate might not be able to withstand a few more hits.

Before the beacon fire gave a warning, the sentries in the outer city had already noticed the situation and started shooting. The arrows hit the top of the battering ram, making a dull thud.

"They must have covered the top of the ram with cowhide or something like that, which makes it difficult for arrows to penetrate it."

Moira looked calm and composed. The arrows she shot in the snow were weak and powerless, which was not surprising. The wise matriarch was waiting for those strange houses to move closer, so that she could have a chance to show her backup plan.

The battering ram was only thirty meters away from the outermost wooden fence.

With a loud bang, a red light appeared on the top of the city wall, and a fireball the size of a human head whizzed out.

Magic is Moira's trump card.

It is not easy to train a mage in Skyrim.

First of all, people who study magic must have a certain talent. Secondly, there must be a mentor as a guide. There are strict requirements for the pronunciation of spells and the gestures when casting spells. It is very dangerous to rely on blind guessing. If you make a mistake, the failure of the spell is the best result. There are many people who are attacked by magic and their bodies are gone. In the game, the teacher of Winterhold College once mentioned that several students were missing, but in fact the Dragonborn could only find their bodies. There are also four students sealed by the demons, and the fortune teller Duran who has become indescribable. The risks of learning magic can be seen.

Finally, and most importantly, learning magic is very expensive. It may not be obvious when you first start, but as you study more, magic learning inevitably involves experimental equipment and objects, and purchasing these things requires considerable financial resources. This is also the reason why many mages choose to be attached to a lord and become court mages: they provide services and advice to the lord, and the lord provides financial support for their research.

Also, as far as magic is concerned, there are two differences between the other world I'm in and the game.

First, the effect of the spell is not stable. I discovered very early that the duration of the fire element summoned by myself and Helgi is different, but the specific reason is still unclear. According to Yilandul, the caster's own magical attainments, the physical and mental state when casting, the accuracy of the spell and gestures, etc., may affect the final casting effect. Even if the same wizard casts the same spell, it is not that there will be different results, but the skilled caster's performance is more stable.

Second, in the game, any magic a player uses will improve their proficiency in that magic. A dragonborn can become a master of destruction magic by repeatedly using the lowest level of flames, but this is not possible in the other world. The reason is not difficult to understand: even if a person is proficient in arithmetic operations, it will not help him learn quadratic equations, let alone calculus. And a person who only knows arithmetic operations is obviously not a mathematician.

All of the above makes mages - especially high-level mages - extremely rare.

All of General Tullius's battle wizards were buried in Helgen. It is true that there are many powerful people in Skyrim, but most of them are concentrated in the College of Winterhold or the lord's court. Even if there are some exceptions, they are either idle people like Falion and Ilandur, or dark wizards who study evil spells, and they are not recruited by the Imperial Legion.

As a crow hag, Moira's magic skills were not low. She had three apprentices under her, and she had picked a few good talents since she took over the tribe. If Annis and Helgi were included, there were eleven mages. The female chief sat in the center, Helgi was in charge of the lookout, and the other nine worked in three shifts to ensure that there were always three mages on the wall.

The previous offensive had been limited in strength, with the mage mainly responsible for command and dispatch, but now he finally gets the chance to take action.

The first round of three fireballs hit the roof of the ram, but were quickly extinguished by the snow, leaving only a circular black mark. The enemy did not even slow down, still approaching the wooden fence. The wall fell into silence, and it was obvious that the mages were not satisfied with their results. Not long after, a wave of arrows was fired. At this distance, the archers could choose to shoot straight to gain greater power. Many arrows were nailed into the roof of the ram, but it was still not enough to cause damage to the soldiers inside.

Moira's face was gloomy, and she raised the magic light staff beside her. It was a signal flare used to gather all the defenders.

However, before the matriarch issued the order to assemble, the second round of magic attacks began. Three fireballs were shot from different directions, aiming at the front wheels on both sides of the ram and the right front pillar. Although the fireball on the left hit the ground, the ram in the front was still ignited. Seeing that the first attack was effective, the mages did not hesitate to cast magic, and flames shot up in front of the castle.

The imperial soldiers fled from the burning battering ram, but the raging fire left them nowhere to hide. The captivating sound of bowstrings rang out, but was quickly drowned out by screams.

"Ah!"

The three battering rams that came to attack were all burned. The Crow Ghost gave a cold laugh, turned around and was about to leave, but was stopped by Lai Mei.

At some point, the snow stopped.

In the dim morning light, more than a dozen battering rams were lined up in an orderly formation and moved forward one after another.