Unknown Knight

Seeing that the siege tower was approaching the city wall, a horn sounded, and the circular cavalry formation in front of the city wall withdrew one by one from the attack range of the bows and crossbows on the city wall.

These were elite Khergit warriors skilled in archery and horsemanship, who could decide the outcome of a field battle. It was a pity to see them being wasted under the city walls. The previous exchange of fire had already cost them thirty or forty cavalrymen, which made Saiga Khan very distressed. Seeing that his goal had been achieved, he hurriedly blew the horn and recalled them.

Seeing that the siege tower was still fifty or sixty meters away from the city wall, Resarit stopped the archers under the wall, and then directed the crossbowmen on the wall to launch a concentrated fire attack. This was the result of the Military Research Institute's previous research on the Kugits.

Specifically, the territory's specially made hard bows and strong crossbows are used to concentrate attacks on enemy soldiers who are holding shields in formation. When the shield bearers cannot hold on to their shields and the shields fall out of their hands, or even shields of poor quality are directly shattered, gaps appear in the shield formation.

At this time, the sharpshooters who are waiting on the side with crossbows or bows drawn will take action, taking the opportunity to accurately attack the unprotected enemies in the gaps, tearing the shield formation like tearing a wound. If the enemy is of poor quality and reacts slowly, our archers can attack fiercely and quickly, and it will be easy to break the entire shield formation.

The Khergits were not good at using shields. The shields used by the Khergits protecting the siege towers below were rarely sturdy iron shields, or broad shields with large surfaces and thick walls like the Rhodok. Most of them were leather-covered wooden shields.

This type of shield is okay for defending against sporadic arrows and is usually issued to cavalry, but it has almost no defense against concentrated fire from bows and crossbows. Every arrow will penetrate the shield and even hit the arm of the shield bearer.

Once the shield bearer cannot bear the pain and retracts the shield, or the shield is knocked away and shattered, it will be the beginning of a nightmare for the entire formation. Arrows will accurately shoot into the gap and knock down people in the shield formation in large numbers.

This attack strategy against the Kugit siege shield formation was very effective, causing the shield formation protected by the six siege towers to be frequently pierced and defeated, and the laborers pushing the towers from behind were also shot dead or injured in large numbers.

The moving speed of the siege towers was greatly slowed down. The six siege towers that were originally arranged in a parallel row were also staggered. The front tower and the back tower were no less than ten meters apart.

That was because a large number of tower-pushing laborers were shot and killed when their shield formation was defeated. The dense arrows hindered the replenishment of personnel.

In view of this characteristic, Resarit also took special care of the high siege towers that protruded forward, causing the front tower to quickly stop advancing due to heavy casualties.

When the other siege towers saw this, they dared not move forward anymore, so that the six towers competed with each other to see who was slower, causing the overall speed of progress to become slower and slower.

This slow hesitation caused greater losses to the shield formation protecting the siege tower. The area behind the tower was filled with corpses of people killed by arrows and wounded soldiers who were still alive and rolling on the ground wailing.

Before they even got close to the city wall, they had suffered at least two to three hundred casualties, which made Saiga Khan, who prided himself on being calm, eyelids twitch. The Nayan nobles beside him were also furious, jumping high and cursing.

"Have the archers dismount and step forward to provide cover with bows and arrows."

Seeing the losses mounting, Saiga Khan did not care about his elite horse archers and asked them to act as archers to provide cover.

With the cover of the horse archers with fierce archery skills, the speed of the siege tower increased a lot. Resarit did not want to be sluggish, and asked the archers who stopped shooting under the city to adjust their angles and launch projectile counterattacks.

Although this kind of blind shooting has a very low hit rate and seriously wastes arrows, it is still very lethal to archers with thin armor. Even if only one out of thirty or fifty arrows hits the target, it is a big gain for our side.

The noose crossbow on the stone tower finally came into play and hit two siege towers respectively. Just as the soldiers were about to pull the capstan, a hole suddenly opened above the iron plate that had hit the crossbow, large enough for one person to stick his body out. A Kugit man risked his life to lean out and chopped the noose on the crossbow with the scimitar in his hand.

Seeing this, Resarit ordered his crossbowmen to shoot the Kugit who was cutting the noose, but it was too late. Although he finally killed the Kugit, the noose broke.

The other Kugit who cut the noose on the crossbow was more agile. He cut the noose before the crossbowman could react, and then quickly retreated into the siege tower covered with iron plates.

"It seems the enemy is well prepared!"

Seeing that the capstan crossbow did not work, Aix thought to himself that he suddenly thought of the flaming oil he had temporarily developed during the attack and defense of Shules. The Kugits also suffered a loss once, so maybe they also have a countermeasure.

Thinking of this, he looked uneasily at the foot of the city wall. There, five large pots of kerosene were bubbling with black smoke, and specially selected throwers with strong arms were busy, carefully filling special pottery jars with boiling kerosene.

Worried, Aix called Bandak over again and whispered something to him, and Bandak hurried down the city wall.

The capstan crossbow here once again shot the crossbow onto the siege tower. This time, the Resarit who had prepared in advance would not allow the Khugits to stick their heads out. More than a dozen sharpshooters were specifically staring at the hole in the iron plate. This time, the Khugits stuck their heads out of the hole with their iron shields raised, but were attacked by arrows shot from two angles. They were hit without being able to defend themselves, and then fell off the tower and died.

Seeing this, the soldiers pulled the winch desperately. After a series of creaking and friction sounds, the siege tower began to tilt and then collapsed. Not only the Kugits in the tower suffered, but also a dozen Kugits below who had nowhere to hide and were smashed to pieces.

However, the other siege tower that was hit by the crossbow encountered another accident. Two holes suddenly opened up at the same time at the top and bottom where the crossbow hit. Two Kugits, without raising their shields, quickly leaned out of the hole and chopped the noose on the crossbow.

Although one person was shot dead and another was injured in the end, the noose on the tower was cut again.

"It seems that there is a capable person on this siege tower!"

Aix thought to himself, and hurriedly called Resarit to send several teams of the most elite combined array soldiers to keep a close eye on this siege tower. The distance from the siege tower to the lowering of the bridge deck was less than two meters.

At a command, dozens of strong-armed throwers wearing thick plate armor and iron helmets climbed up the city wall carrying pottery jars filled with hot flaming oil.

"Hoo, hoo, hoo" dozens of pottery jars were thrown out, followed by "clang, clang" sounds. The pottery jars were accurately thrown onto the remaining five siege towers.

These throwers were carefully selected, and Resarit even trained them in throwing. Their accuracy was definitely impeccable. One of them even threw a clay pot into an open hole, and the pot broke with a sound. Before the rockets were even fired, wailing sounds were heard from the siege tower.