Berserk, Total War: Second Son of Nobles

"Artillery, unload the cannon from the vehicle." Stephen ordered the artillery, and then said to John: "We don't have enough shells at the moment, and we may not be able to effectively strike the enemy."

"It doesn't matter. Let's focus on attacking the enemy's castle gate first. When the other two troops arrive, let their artillery bombard the city." John waved his hand and continued to observe the enemy's movements through a telescope.

"After all, they are still a group of bandits. They are in such a miserable state."

Observing through the telescope, John discovered that many of the bandits were basically old farmers with weapons. They had no common sense and did not seek cover. They just crowded on the city walls, probably to make it easier for the crossbowmen to hit them.

"Stephen, order the artillery to fire at the crowded areas on the city wall now," John ordered.

"Artillery, adjust the angle to the city wall." Stephen ordered, asking the artillery to point the muzzle of the gun towards the top of the city wall.

"Fire!" As Stephen gave the order, a total of five shells were fired at the city wall. Two of them hit the middle of the wall, two hit the battlements of the wall, and only one entered from the gap between the two battlements, directly creating a bloody path. Then various mixed wails were heard on the city wall.

"my hand!"

"Get downstairs quickly!"

"Don't squeeze me!"

Amidst the cacophony of voices, the Baron shouted at the top of his voice:

"Carry the injured down, and everyone else go down the city wall." The Baron was also scared. He had never tried whether his sharp bone spurs could pierce the cannonballs, but he didn't dare to try it, so he quickly led the soldiers down the city wall.

"It seems they have learned their lesson. Order the artillery to attack the city gate." After seeing this, John had no choice but to let the artillery attack the city gate. If the city gate was destroyed, the whole castle would increase the risk of being occupied.

As one shell after another bombarded the city gate, the gate, which was already in disrepair, was riddled with craters and would soon be destroyed.

"Boss, we can't hold here any more. Let's retreat." After seeing the power of the cannons, the subordinates no longer had the courage to fight again. When they saw that the enemy was from Midland, they knew that Midland must want to recover its land. Then, they who were bullying here would definitely be regarded as traitors by them and executed.

The baron saw that his men were unwilling to fight this battle. He felt that even if he used his bone spur, it would still be over, and he might even lose his life. Forcing them would only have a counterproductive effect, so he could only say:

"Then retreat, quickly escape through the tunnel into the heart of Midland."

Outside the city, John looked through the telescope for a long time but could not find any trace of the bandits in the castle.

"What's going on with these people? Why is there no sign of anyone? Are they hiding in the castle?"

John thought about it and felt that something was not right, but he still had to wait until the city gate was blown open.

Finally, when the ammunition was almost running out, the city gate could not bear the weight and the bolt was broken by a cannon. The entire city gate was blasted open by the cannon. John looked at the city gate through a telescope, and there was no one inside.

"Take a team of cavalry and explore the way." John first ordered a team of cavalry to rush over to check, and then ordered the main force to move forward. Soon John received a message from the cavalry returning: there was no one in the entire castle.

"Oh my god, he ran away a long time ago." John thought to himself.

"Sir, we found a tunnel, which we think they used to escape." A soldier reported.

John hurried over to check and indeed found a tunnel. Judging from the direction of the tunnel, John estimated that they were most likely heading into Midland.

It seems that those Midland nobles in the rear are in big trouble.

Shortly after John occupied the castle, the other two troops also arrived. Under the artillery fire and cavalry, all the bandits fled and were unable to unite to fight. The soldiers only found groups of small minions, and the other bandit leaders had long since fled away.

However, the villagers detained by them were really miserable. Basically, each of them was as thin as a skeleton. Although they had not been much better before, there were still many skeletons with flesh and blood hanging on the trees. This was the most terrifying thing.

All the soldiers could do was to liberate the villagers, inform them that the legal ruler of the land was Governor John, and then quickly run to another place to rescue people. They basically did not suffer much loss and captured a lot of prisoners.

Faced with so many captives, John had no good solution. He could only send someone to contact Simon to transport the captives back to the territory to serve as labor. Since there was no room in the territory, they were all sent to East Balden, which was a large plain and was in need of people to farm the land.

In addition to dealing with the prisoners, John also had to think about the reconstruction of Franche-Comté. Basically all the buildings were damaged. If he repaired them after the battle, it would be too late. So John decided to fight and repair at the same time. John led the soldiers in the front, and a group of old farmers repaired the defense facilities in the back, and tried to repair them directly to the border of Yoda.

At night, the camp was covered by the light of the campfire. The soldiers went to rest early after eating, and John was still conducting a final inspection of the territory.

"There's a gap here. Hurry up and get someone to find a piece of wood to fix it."

"It's the same here. The ditch is too shallow."

Relying on the castle, John built defensive facilities within one day. Of course, it would not be enough to rely solely on the castle. He also needed to expand it outwards and build a trench on the outside.

"Sir, now everything you mentioned has been built. I have limited the number of patrol personnel to 2000, including the interior of the entire castle. There are people guarding the periphery. Why don't you go back and have a rest first?" said the knight next to him at this time.

"Ha~ Okay, let's take a look. If there's nothing else, I'll take a rest." John said. After all, there are more than 10,000 soldiers in the army, and no one should dare to come here to cause trouble.

Just as John was leading his men on patrol, suddenly a loud horn sounded outside, the sound was high-pitched but also felt suffocating.

"Hurry up and tell everyone to get up, quickly!" John heard the horn that was not from his own camp, and quickly asked the surrounding knights to inform the people in each camp to prepare for battle. He then led his men to the castle wall.

"Woooooo~"

As the army's trumpets sounded, all the soldiers immediately got up in a daze, put on their armor, picked up their weapons, and gathered at their respective units.

After John climbed up the city wall, he took out a telescope and looked towards the sound of the enemy's horn. At the end of his field of vision, he saw a troop holding torches. Almost all of them were dressed in black with various blasphemous symbols hung on their clothes. They held up various black flags, which, in addition to symbols of the devil, also had many skeletons hanging on them. The number of them was so large that John felt as if they were dug out of a grave.

"Have the artillery move the cannons to the city walls, and then have the troops take a defensive stance to block all entrances and exits, and have the ranged troops go up to the city walls."

"Wow, everyone says there are many cults in Berserk, and today I finally saw it." After John finished complaining, he quickly directed the mobilization of various troops.