Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 554 Siege (Part Six)

Margit Island
[The temporary crossing point for infantry in Baishan County]
Gunfire erupted in the darkness of dawn, and a soldier unloading cargo from a ferry raft fell to the ground in knee-deep water.

The soldiers guarding the ferry immediately extinguished their torches and called for their men to engage in battle.

However, the shouts of battle he had anticipated did not sound; the noise of his own men running through the water and grabbing weapons drowned out everything else.

Soon, the soldiers of Baishan County were in position behind their bunkers, but the only sound around the temporary ferry crossing was the shrill chirping of insects, which was very annoying.

The already dim stars overhead had now disappeared into the night sky. Margit Island before dawn was darker than at any other time that night.

"Did the sentry accidentally fire?" a soldier crouching behind the raft couldn't help but complain.

"boom!"

Another shot rang out immediately.

However, the shot hit the water, and with a splash, that was the end of it.

This time, the soldier observed carefully—the sniper shot came from the bushes upstream, and the muzzle flash briefly illuminated two figures hidden in the bushes.

"There are only two mud bastards!" The soldier leaped out of his cover, grabbed his saber, and ran toward the enemy's position.

The other soldiers followed suit and rushed forward.

But they didn't catch the enemy; they only found the sentry's body.

The young sentry lay face down in the bushes, a hole pierced in his back, and still-warm blood pooled in a small puddle beneath him.

The veterans of Baishan County silently surrounded the sentry, none of them having the heart to wake him.

The sentry was chosen for his sentry post because he was young, had good eyesight, and hadn't yet been deafened by the sound of gunfire.

But his sharp eyes and ears couldn't save the sentry. No one knows how he died; perhaps he just lost focus or made a mistake.

Making mistakes on the battlefield is not a big deal. Everyone makes mistakes. It's just that sometimes people don't get a second chance to make the same mistake.

"What are you all doing out here?" The sergeant sensed something was wrong. "Go back now!"

The soldiers hurriedly returned to the temporary ferry crossing.

Fortunately, the United Provinces also made a mistake by failing to seize a good opportunity to attack the ferry crossing.

Half a mile away on the west bank, lights flickered rapidly—Captain Woods Frank was desperate to know what was happening on the island.

"Send a message to the captain," the sergeant waved his hand, suddenly feeling a little tired. "It's nothing... Double the sentries before dawn."
-
Margit Island
[Bishop's Castle]
Lieutenant Alani Arthur is leading his men, racing against time to consolidate their position on the island.

He had learned from the prisoners how the people of the United Provinces called the fortress – Bishop's Castle.

He also learned from the prisoners that the United Provinces had another fortified camp on the island—the Domencos Monastery.

And he was certain that the reinforcements sent by the United Provinces from Kingsburg had already landed on Magitek Island.

The rhythmic sound of paddling has disappeared; now all that can be heard is the white noise of the flowing river.

The annoying signal light on the south tower stopped flashing, and the Domencos Monastery was plunged into darkness.

Alani guessed that the United Provinces' reinforcements most likely landed in the middle of the river island and then joined up with the enemy troops stationed at the monastery—because in addition to the monastery's signal lights, someone had lit a bonfire on the east bank of the Ten Arrows River, which should have been the city's garrison guiding the reinforcements on the water.

This rendered all of Alani's preparations for dealing with the enemy's beach assault ineffective.

Clearly, the battle on Margit Island is far from over.

Therefore, Alani had to take over the work of the United Provinces and continue to strengthen the defenses of the Bishop's Castle.

Fortunately, the tools and manpower were readily available.

Besides Lieutenant Alani's men, there were nearly a hundred laborers stranded on the island in the bishop's castle.

Most of these laborers come from the slums of Kingsburg and the surrounding towns, and they are the biggest victims of the current precious metal shortage crisis in the Land of Galloping Horses.

With the drastic reduction in the amount of gold and silver circulating in the market, commercial activities in Paratu have come to a near standstill. The amount of food that can be exchanged for a unit weight of gold and silver is increasing, but the poor in the city who have to work to make ends meet can only watch helplessly as their children starve to death.

Therefore, the people of the United Provinces recruited a large number of workers from Kingsburg and the surrounding towns at very low prices.

Fearing uprisings by starving poor people, many municipal governments even proactively helped the United Provinces recruit able-bodied men from the unemployed and poor, and advanced their wages, all in an effort to get rid of these "destabilizing factors" as quickly as possible. This was the main reason why the United Provinces were able to advance the project so rapidly.

After “rescuing” the militia conscripted by the United Provinces, Alani immediately called everyone together for a speech.

He tried to persuade the workers that the United Provinces were invaders and that the Maplestone City government was the rightful successor to the First Republic.

However, the workers reacted indifferently.

Many of them were not even "Palatu," but Protestants who had fled from the Empire. In terms of faith, they actually resonated more with the people of the United Provinces.

As for the remaining Paratians who were forced to make a living in the city because they had lost their land, they still thought that the Blue Rose had returned. They had no goodwill towards either the Blue Rose or the Red Rose.

However, this problem is not difficult to solve.

Lieutenant Alani Arthur immediately changed his story, resorting to enticing them with benefits.

After receiving assurances that they would not be forced to participate in the war and a promise of triple pay, the laborers recruited by the United Provinces soldiers turned to working night shifts for the Paratul soldiers without any psychological burden.

There was no time left to work on the trenches. Even if everyone present had four arms, it would be impossible to dig the trenches to an insurmountable depth before dawn.

Therefore, the only way to strengthen the defenses of the bishop's castle is to work on the walls.

Whether it was a sheepskin bag or a burlap sack, any container that could be found in the bishop's castle was stuffed with mud and piled up on the existing castle walls to raise them.

Even tables, chairs, beds, and the laborers' straw mats were sent to the fortress walls:
The tables, chairs, and beds were dismantled and replaced with wooden stakes and planks, which were then hammered into the wall to form a frame.

Then, like nailing a fence, the straw mats were fixed to the frame, thus constructing a simple fence.

Repeat the previous steps, then fill the space between the two fences with soil to create a simple breast wall.

To avoid attracting enemy artillery fire, Alani forbade any lights to be lit inside the fortress, forcing the reinforcement of the walls to be carried out in complete darkness.

Alani's men silently obeyed the orders, but the laborers complained bitterly.

Inside the fortress walls, the sounds of shovels being wielded and the curses of the laborers rose and fell.

However, the lieutenant still strictly controlled the lighting.

“Sir,” the chief sergeant couldn’t contain himself any longer and found the lieutenant carrying sacks of earth on the gun emplacement by feeling his way along the wall, and advised, “Why don’t we light a few fires? It’s too dark, and it’s really inconvenient to work.”

"Do you see that place?" Alani wiped his sweat and casually pointed in the darkness.

"Uh... I didn't see anything."

“Yes, I can’t see anything either, because they haven’t lit a fire. They can’t see us either, because we haven’t lit a fire either,” Arani explained breathlessly as he walked down the wall, picked up another mound of earth, and continued, “That’s the United Provinces’ gun emplacement, right next to the water gate. Their cannons could hit us right here. If we had even a little light here, the United Provinces’ shells would be flying over immediately.”

The chief sergeant hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

“I know what you’re trying to say,” Alani said, carrying a mound of earth and walking back towards the fortress wall. “You’re trying to say that we’re surrounded by walls, and it won’t be easy for the United Provinces’ shells to hit us.”

"You are indeed a learned man," the chief sergeant, whose temples were already streaked with gray, complimented the lieutenant, who was younger than his son.

Alani chuckled in the darkness. “But the United Provinces don’t even need to hit anyone. As soon as the shells land in the bishop’s castle, all the people working here will scatter… So now is our last chance to reinforce the city’s defenses. At daybreak, the United Provinces’ cannons will fire.”

"And the shells are coming from behind, while the United Provinces are attacking from the front," he said quietly, pointing to the north and south respectively. "This battle will be very difficult."

The chief sergeant scoffed, "They come, we kill them. What's so difficult about that?"

After saying this, the chief sergeant saluted in the darkness and then walked away, leaning against the wall.

Alani suddenly felt that giving up thinking was a kind of open-minded way of living. He spat and continued carrying the mud bags.

Moments later, Lieutenant Alani Arthur received bad news that forced him to think.

"Sir," the sergeant in charge of inventorying the supplies in the fort reported breathlessly, "something's not right. The food in the fort, at most, is only enough for us to eat for one day..."

“How could that be?” Allani frowned. “Don’t the people of the United Provinces want to defend the bishop’s castle? Did they bury the warehouses?”

“That’s what I thought too,” the sergeant said anxiously, sweating profusely. “I’ve searched the entire ground, but there’s nothing! The laborers also said they haven’t seen the secret passage. They said the bread they eat is baked at the convent and delivered to them.”

A terrifying possibility suddenly occurred to Alanie. He grabbed the sergeant's shoulder, his face turning ashen, and said, "To the ferry! Tell Captain Woods... not to send any more reinforcements..."

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