touchnovel Chapter 48: Equipment
Chapter 48: Equipment
It was late at night, and there was no moon over the desolate plain.
The goblin army's campfires were smothered to the lowest setting, and from a distance, only a few clusters of dark red lights flickered in the night wind.
The square formation outside the north wall had not withdrawn, but the drumming had stopped, replaced by a more unsettling silence.
Ron stood in front of the north wall crenellations, while inside the watchtower, Shanlier lay on a small platform, holding a thin ceramic tube in his hand—the sound transmission tube of the listening urn.
The other end of the ceramic tube was buried at the bottom of the moat outside the north wall. The ceramic pot buried in the rammed earth could detect any footstep vibrations exceeding a certain weight from dozens of steps away.
As soon as night fell, Ron arranged for people to take turns monitoring the listening urn.
Sanlir listened intently. He had rested for a while, so he was in good spirits. He suddenly opened his eyes wide and subconsciously brought his ears closer.
Then, he suddenly stood up and shouted, "My lord, just as you predicted, the goblins have arrived."
Fanta placed his hand on the hilt of the sword.
Old Hall stood in the shadows of the enemy tower, a faint magical light emanating from his palm.
Three rows of militiamen squatted behind the crenellations of the north wall, their bone bows nocked and arrows pointing downwards, and not a single one of them made a sound.
At the trebuchet position, Duolong had already twirled the fuse of the flint shot between his fingertips. Next to him squatted a militiaman holding a torch, which was covered by a sheet metal cover, leaving only a narrow gap through which a dark red light shone.
The footsteps grew closer.
It was not a chaotic charge, but a deliberately suppressed, slow, and organized movement.
Dodok sent his elite troops up—not cannon fodder, but regular tribal warriors, at the very least high goblins, and two goblin heroes leading the charge, with the majority being goblin elites.
Under the cover of night, they crept up to the base of the city wall, intending to use ladders to scale the wall and catch the enemy off guard.
Ron laughed and said, "Don't rush. We'll wait for them to get on the city walls, then wipe them out."
Old Hall nodded.
As they slowly crept in, the elite troops on the other city walls of the territory also rushed over using the smooth horse trails along the walls.
Only the south city wall was too far away, so only Leonardo da Vinci and six official knights came.
Now, all of Ashwood's elite troops are on the North City Wall. Most importantly, Ron has taken advantage of the spare time these past few days to make several more sets of full-body wooden scale armor.
Because the size and specifications of the armor plates were pre-made by the elders and children in the territory, Ron saved a lot of magic and time, greatly shortening the production time of the wooden scale armor. However, because it was changed to heavy wooden scale armor, the actual time consumed was not much less than that of making a single set of armor.
Therefore, he only gained four more sets of heavy wooden scale armor, which were worn by Da Vinci, Thun, Dorron, and Dorron respectively.
Dorren was one of Ron's early loyal followers, and his loyalty was beyond question. As for Fanta and Hilden, they both had heavy knight armor, so they naturally wouldn't be interested in this kind of heavy wooden scale armor.
Just as the goblin siege ladders reached the city wall, shouts suddenly came from the wall.
"Enemy attack!"
Upon hearing this, the goblin heroes below the city did not retreat but advanced, for they had already reached the city walls.
"Quickly climb the ladder and rush up the city wall!"
After a few more seconds, several torches were lowered from the city wall, illuminating the area where the steps to the city walls were ascended.
This is the breakthrough direction that Dodok carefully planned. There are the fewest garrison troops and patrolling soldiers here, making it the easiest place to break through.
This is a good spot that the black-robed mage scouted for them using Eagle Eye.
Similarly, this is an area that Ron has carefully designed.
Located between two sections of the city wall, there is only a two-meter-wide path, which is not wide enough for many people to stand. The watchtowers on the city wall are equipped with crossbows of eight oxen. Once the goblins fill the city wall, one arrow will kill them like skewers, one arrow for each goblin.
The goblin hero easily climbed the city wall, and he easily deflected the few arrows that were shot at him.
"The defenses here are indeed weak, hurry up!" the Goblin Hero shouted.
Despite the arrows that kept shooting down the goblins climbing the ladders from both sides of the city wall, more and more goblins were climbing the wall. Even though goblins were being shot down, it was not enough to stop their overwhelming attack.
When dozens of goblins appeared on the city wall, the goblin hero roared and led his men to charge towards the wall.
Thun crouched in the watchtower of the city wall, aiming the crossbow at the goblin hero who was directing operations on the wall. He waited a few moments, until the enemy turned around, revealing an opening on his side, and then pulled the trigger.
A meter-long crossbow bolt pierced the goblin hero's chest, pinning him to the city wall.
Another goblin hero tried to come to the rescue but was stopped by Fanta. He took a blow from Fanta, and his shoulder armor was only dented, but Fanta killed him with a single sword strike to the throat.
The city walls were ablaze with fire, and shouts of battle echoed continuously.
On the city wall, the heavily armored wooden scale armor gleamed with a deep brown luster in the firelight.
Da Vinci and Fanta, relying on their strong armor, withstood several attacks and pressed upwards, their embroidered spring knives slicing arcs of light across the narrow city wall.
A giant goblin's stone hammer struck Leonardo da Vinci's shoulder armor, cracking the plate but not shattering it.
Leonardo da Vinci swung his knife and stabbed the man through the stomach.
"This heavy wooden scale armor is really good at defense."
The battle on the city wall was contained by Ron, who used his superior equipment to overwhelm the goblins in the middle of the wall. The goblins could only be forced to retreat passively. As they became denser, the Eight-Bull Crossbow was fired from time to time, and the goblins on the city wall fell in droves.
Dodo's 500 elite troops were slaughtered just like that, and he still thought their tactics had succeeded.
"Attack! Attack with all your might!"
The once silent three-sided camp was once again ablaze with fire, and the goblins attacked the three walls simultaneously.
This time, however, they didn't have a supervisory team. Apart from the goblins on the north wall launching a full-scale attack, the goblins on the other two walls were just going through the motions. Therefore, even without the elite troops on the walls, the impact was not significant.
Dodok led his army to attack.
After receiving Ron's order, Doron brought the fuse between his fingers close to the narrow slit of the torch cover, and the sparks from the ignited fuse drew a very short arc in the darkness.
The four catapults roared deafeningly at the same time.
The flint and steel pellets exploded above the city wall, and burning brick fragments, trailing fiery tails, crashed into the night, exploding into dozens of bright flames in mid-air.
The flames hovered briefly in the air before falling like a meteor shower.
The darkness was torn apart, and dozens of siege ladders moving toward the city wall were illuminated in the open space two hundred to one hundred paces outside the north wall. The goblins on the ladders were still in their climbing postures, their gray-green skin pale as bones in the firelight.
The entire battlefield froze for about half a breath.
Then panic exploded like a powder keg.
Goblins had never seen a rain of fire explode in the night sky.
Flint fragments fell into the grass, igniting dozens of small flames.
Upon landing on the ladder, the dry wooden ladder instantly burst into flames.
The impact landed on the goblin, and the stench of burning leather armor and fur mingled with screams as it exploded.
Some goblins threw down their weapons, knelt on the ground, and howled at the sky; some goblins turned and ran, knocking over their companions behind them; some goblins curled up on the spot, burying their heads in their knees and trembling.
They weren't running away; they were defeated on a spiritual level, believing that the gods were angry.
"Fire the arrows," Ron said.
Dodok's lips twitched as he watched the flint shot explode, but he quickly resumed his sinister grin.
"The fiercer their counterattack, the more afraid they are! Keep charging!"
Little did he know, this was just the beginning of a nightmare.