Berserk, Total War: Second Son of Nobles

A cannonball tore through the air and hit the city wall of Padua with a sharp whistling sound.

The roar of the cracking rocks hurt people's eardrums, and rubble and dust poured down like a rainstorm, piling up hills at the base of the city wall.

Amidst the smoke, more than 30 cannons were arranged in a fan shape on the position of Yoda's army outside the city. The black muzzles kept spewing flames, and sparks splashed on the soldiers' tense faces.

As the first Yoda army to arrive in Padua, Atton was observing the bombarded walls of Padua in the distance. His scarlet cloak was rustling in the wind, and his hand holding the monocular telescope was trembling slightly with excitement. The lens kept magnifying the craters on the walls of Padua.

"Yes, that's it! Blast them all into the sky!"

Atun shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice rising with excitement, attracting the attention of the messengers around him.

The adjutant beside him wanted to say something but stopped himself, looking at the commander's eyes revealing clear arrogance and stupidity, and finally just lowered his head and silently recorded the order.

Atton was not clear about the specific situation of the defenders in the city, but the visual impact of the shells exploding one after another in front of him made him extremely satisfied, as if the balance of victory had tilted towards Yoda's army.

On the city wall, the rebel soldiers huddled in the thick towers, nervously looking out through the narrow arrow slits.

A young artilleryman, his face filled with anxiety, paced back and forth, holding the loading rod of his cannon. The sound of falling rocks was close at hand, but he could only watch the artillery fire raging outside the city.

"Are you just going to watch the other side fight?"

He finally couldn't help but complain to the officer next to him:

"We have artillery too! Why aren't we firing back?"

The officer held down his rough hand that was about to touch the gunpowder, and said in a very low voice with unquestionable majesty:

"Look carefully! There are at least twenty cannons on the other side, and they're bombarding us like crazy. But what about us?"

He raised his hand and gestured.

"At most, there are less than ten cannons, and they're scattered on all four sides of the city wall. There are only two cannons in the section right below us! We can't suppress the enemy at all. Returning fire now is a sheer waste of ammunition. Let's wait until they run out of ammunition and start attacking. We can repel the charge with our first volley, and then let the next wave's morale collapse. Only then can we hold the city wall."

The young artilleryman gritted his teeth and punched the gun barrel with his fist, making a dull "bang" sound, but he eventually retreated behind the bunker.

The other soldiers in the tower were silently wiping their weapons, waiting for the suffocating bombardment to stop and the moment of real confrontation to come.

Time passed amid the roar of artillery fire. Atton stood on tiptoe and looked at the city wall of Padua. The originally intact battlements had been blown to pieces, and the spires of several towers were tilted and drooping like broken wings.

He waited and waited, but never heard the sound of counterattack artillery from the city.

"Hmph, the intelligence said there were artillery pieces on the other side, but I think those scouts just haven't woken up yet! They've been looking for a long time and haven't seen a single artillery piece or even a single shell!"

"Herald!"

Atton straightened up suddenly.

"Order the troops in four directions to charge together! Strive to capture them in one fell swoop!"

At this time, Aten was extremely excited. He could no longer wait to reap the fruits of victory, even though the Senate of Nobles requested that the siege be carried out only after all the troops arrived in Padua.

The long blast of a horn pierced the smoke, and the Yoda army's position instantly became boiling. The infantrymen carried ladders and pushed battering rams, advancing towards the city wall. The cavalrymen tightened their reins and formed a wedge formation on the flanks; the engineers in the front row pushed carts filled with oil-soaked straw, ready to ignite them to help burn after approaching the city wall.

The infantry crouched as they rushed toward the first trench. The ground beneath their feet had been plowed soft by artillery shells, and every step splashed mud mixed with gravel.

The leading centurion brandished his dagger and roared:

"Follow me! The first one to climb the wall will be rewarded with ten silver coins!"

Before he finished speaking, a black tube suddenly appeared on the city wall. Those were the only two cannons on this section of the wall.

"put!"

The officers' roars and the roars of the guns echoed simultaneously. Orange-red flames erupted from the two cannons, and the iron shells whistled out, carrying with them the breath of death.

One of the missiles accurately hit the ladder array at the edge of the trench, and the wooden ladders broke into several pieces instantly. The soldiers on them fell into the mud pit like cut branches; the other missile hit the group of engineers pushing the carts directly, and the oil-soaked straw exploded instantly. The flames licked the leather armor of the attackers, and screams rang out one after another.

"Continue the bombardment!"

The officer's voice was hoarse from shouting, but the artillerymen in the tower had no time to respond. More Yoda soldiers poured out from the smoke, some holding shields and advancing against the flying rubble, some trying to climb the broken battlements with grappling ropes, and some crazy soldiers rushed directly to the foundation of the city wall with burning firewood, trying to set fire to the crumbling fortifications.

In the direction of the south city wall, the muffled sound of battering rams hitting the city gate and the shouts of soldiers were intertwined.

The heavy oak hammer head was covered with iron sheets, and every impact made the wooden stakes behind the city gate creak. The rebels defending the city wrapped iron chains around the door bolts and kept throwing rolling logs and hot oil down.

A pot of boiling hot asphalt was poured into the siege team, instantly setting the clothes of three soldiers on fire. Their miserable sight of rolling on the ground made their following companions hesitate for a moment, but they were soon whipped by the supervisor and continued to move forward.

The battle at the west city wall was the most brutal. The wall here had collapsed significantly due to the previous bombardment, forming a slope-shaped gap.

The elite cavalry in Yoda's army tried to break through here. They drove their horses onto the rubble, and their horseshoes scraped dazzling sparks on the stones.

But the rebels were well prepared. Several barrels of gunpowder buried under the rubble were quietly ignited. The loud explosion overturned the war horses in the front row. The horse corpses and the cavalry's limbs flew into the air, and the smell of blood mixed with gunpowder filled the air.

"They're coming up! Get ready for a second round of shooting!"

The rebel officer shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice hoarse with fatigue.

The remaining artillerymen loaded the last shotgun shells into the gun barrels with trembling hands. According to the mysterious smuggler, it was a simple ammunition mixed with iron nails and broken lead blocks. Although it had a short range, it could cause terrible damage at close range.

On the stairs outside the tower, the infantrymen gripped their spears tightly and the archers put their arrows on the strings. Everyone understood that the moment Yoda's army actually stepped onto the city wall, the life-and-death duel would begin.

Aten stood on a small hill in the rear, watching his army surge towards Padua like a tide.

There was always a determined smile on his lips, as if he had already seen the flag of victory hoisted on the top of the city wall.

However, as the charging team gradually approached the city wall, the sudden artillery fire interrupted his fantasy.

"what happened?"

He frowned and grabbed the telescope. Through the lens, a fire flashed in the window of a tower on the south wall of Padua.

Before he could react, a shotgun blast whizzed towards him and exploded among the supervisory team on the hillside in front of him.

"Protect the general!"

The army immediately fell into chaos. Atton went down the hillside under the escort of the Blue Whale Heavy Knights. Before he could catch his breath, a burst of hurried horse hooves sounded from the direction of Yoda's base camp.

He looked back and saw a cloud of dust rising in the distance. A group of black-armored cavalrymen were rushing towards him from the direction of the pass where the baggage train was stationed in the rear.

"It's the rebel scouts! They sneaked around and attacked the granary!"

The adjutant, after talking with the cavalry, stumbled over to report, his voice trembling.

"The fire is out of control. The granary and armory are..."

Atton's face turned pale in an instant, and the orange-red flames under the distant city wall suddenly shot up several feet high, distorting Yoda's military flag.

"Withdraw! Withdraw immediately!"

Aten's roar changed tone with fear, because the rear contained all the food and supplies for the Yoda army besieging Padua. If they were all burned, the siege would not be able to continue in a short time.