Chapter 1475: Chapter 36: Siege (6)
[Magit Island]
[Mont Blanc County Infantry’s Temporary Ferry]
Gunfire erupted in the darkness before dawn, and a soldier unloading goods from the ferry raft fell into knee-deep river water in response.
The sergeant guarding the ferry immediately extinguished the torch and called his men to battle.
However, the anticipated shouts of battle never rang out, as the noise of his men moving through the water and grabbing weapons drowned out everything.
Soon, Mont Blanc County soldiers were positioned behind cover, yet the sharp chirping of insects around the temporary ferry was the only sound heard, causing irritation.
Above, the dim stars vanished into the night sky. Before dawn, Magit Island was darker than any other time that night.
“Did the sentinel fire by mistake?” one soldier crouched behind the raft couldn’t help but complain.
“Bang!”
Immediately, there was another gunshot.
But this one hit the water, with a splash, and no follow-up.
This time, the sergeant looked carefully—the shot was fired from the upstream thicket, and the muzzle flash briefly revealed two figures hidden in the trees.
“Just two scoundrels!” The sergeant leaped from cover, saber in hand, charging towards the enemy’s position.
The other soldiers followed suit.
But they didn’t catch the tail of the enemy, only finding the sentinel’s corpse.
The young sentinel lay face down in the thicket, a hole stabbed in his back, and still-warm blood pooled beneath him.
Veteran soldiers of Mont Blanc County silently gathered around the sentinel, none willing to wake him.
Because the sentinel was young, with good eyesight and ears not yet deafened by gunfire, he was chosen to keep watch.
But his useful eyes and ears couldn’t save him, and no one knew how he died, perhaps just losing focus or making a mistake.
Making mistakes on the battlefield isn’t such a big deal, everyone makes them, but sometimes people don’t get a second chance.
“Why did you all come out?” The sergeant suddenly sensed something wrong. “Get back quickly!”
Soldiers hurried back to the temporary ferry.
Fortunately, the United Provincials also made a mistake, missing the opportunity for a ferry attack.
Half a mile away on the West Bank, lights flickered urgently—Captain Woods Frank was eager to know what was happening on the island.
“Send news to the captain,” The sergeant waved his hand, suddenly feeling exhausted, “It’s fine… double the sentinels before dawn.”
—————–
[Magit Island]
[Bishop’s Castle]
Lieutenant Alanni Arthur was leading his men, racing against time to consolidate his position on the island.
He had already learned from prisoners how the United Provincials referred to this position—the Bishop’s Castle.
He also learned from prisoners that there was another fortified camp on the island—the Domoncos Monastery.
And he was certain that reinforcements sent from Kingsfort by the United Provincials had landed on Magit Island.
The rhythmic sound of paddles could no longer be heard, only the white noise of the river flowing.
The irritating signal light on the southern tower also stopped flickering, plunging Domoncos Monastery into darkness.
Alanni speculated that United Provincial reinforcements were likely landing at mid-point on Riverheart Island, then merging with enemy troops stationed at the monastery—as besides the monastery’s signal light, someone had lit fires on the East Bank of River Shijian, likely signaling waterborne reinforcements.
This rendered Alanni’s preparations for beach defense ineffective.
Clearly, the battle on Magit Island was far from over.
So Alanni must take over the United Provincials’ tasks and continue to strengthen the defenses of Bishop’s Castle.
Fortunately, tools were readily available, and manpower was too.
Apart from Lieutenant Alanni’s troops, Bishop’s Castle housed nearly a hundred laborers stranded on the island.
Most of these laborers came from the Kingsfort and surrounding city’s slums, the worst victims of the Kingdom of Galloping Horses’ current precious metal shortage crisis.
Due to a significant decrease in the circulation of gold and silver in the market, commercial activities within Paratu have come to a near halt. The amount of food that can be exchanged per unit weight of gold and silver is increasing, yet the urban poor, whose lives depend on their work, can only watch helplessly as their children starve.
Thus, the United Provincials managed to recruit a large crowd of workers from Kingsfort and surrounding towns at very low prices.
Fearing revolts from the hungry poor, many autonomous city governments even proactively assisted the United Provincials in recruiting able-bodied young men from the unemployed poor, covering wages, merely hoping to quickly send away these “unstable factors.”
This is precisely the main reason why the United Provincials could advance their engineering works so swiftly.
After “rescuing” the laborers conscripted by the United Provincials, Alanni immediately gathered everyone for a speech.
He explained the righteousness, trying to make the workers understand that —— the United Provincials are a group of invaders, and the government of Maplestone City is the legitimate successor of the First Republic.
However, the workers’ response was lukewarm.
Many of them weren’t even “Paratu People,” but Protestant refugees from the Empire, who, in terms of faith, actually resonated more with the United Provincials.
As for the remaining Paratu People forced to the cities for a living after losing their lands, they were under the impression that the Blue Rose was returning. They held no affection for either the Blue Rose or the Red Rose.
However, this issue wasn’t difficult to resolve.
Lieutenant Alanni Arthur immediately switched tactics and enticed them with benefits.
Upon receiving a guarantee of non-compulsory combat and a promise of triple wages, the laborers recruited by the United Provinces Army readily worked overtime for the Paratu soldiers without any psychological burden.
Time was too short to work on the trenches, even if everyone present had four arms, it was impossible to dig the trenches to an impassable depth before dawn.
So strengthening the defenses of Bishop’s Castle could only focus on reinforcing the walls.
Whether it was sheepskin bags or burlap sacks, any container found in Bishop’s Castle was filled with dirt and piled onto the existing fortress walls to heighten the structure.
Even furniture, beds, and the laborers’ straw mats were sent to the fortress walls:
Tables and beds were disassembled into stakes and planks, hammered into the walltops as frameworks;
Then, like nailing a fence, straw mats were fixed onto the frameworks, thus constructing a simple barricade;
The previous steps were repeated, and soil was filled between the two barricades, eventually forming a makeshift parapet.
To avoid attracting enemy cannon fire, Alanni forbade lighting any lamps within the fortress, and the reinforcement of the walls had to be conducted in the dark.
Alanni’s subordinates silently obeyed the order, but the laborers complained incessantly.
Inside the fortress walls, the sounds of shovels and spades clashing with the laborers’ curses resounded continuously.
Yet the lieutenant continued to strictly control the lighting.
“Sir, how about,” the head sergeant, unable to hold back any longer, felt his way along the wall to the lieutenant carrying dirt bags atop the battery, advised, “lighting a few fires, it’s too dark, work is really inconvenient.”
“Do you see that place?” Alanni wiped off some sweat, casually pointing in the darkness.
“Uh… I see nothing.”
“Right, I can’t see anything either, because they didn’t light any fires. They can’t see us because we didn’t light any fires,” Alanni descended the wall, picked up another dirt bag, and breathlessly explained, “That’s the artillery for the United Provincials right next to the Water Gate. That artillery can completely reach here, and as soon as we show any light, the shells from the United Provincials will come flying.”
The head sergeant hesitated.
“I know what you want to say,” Alanni hauled a dirt bag and headed back up the wall, “You want to say, we’re surrounded by walls, the shells from the United Provincials won’t easily reach us.”
“Indeed, you are a learned man,” the head sergeant, already showing some gray at the temples, complimented the lieutenant younger than his own son.
Alanni chuckled in the dark, “But the United Provincials don’t need to hit people directly. If a shell lands inside Bishop’s Castle, the workers currently laboring will scatter in all directions… so, this is our last chance to reinforce the city defenses. At dawn, the cannons of the United Provincials will roar.”
“And the shells will fly over from behind, with the United Provincials attacking from the front,” he pointed towards the north and south respectively, saying gloomily, “this battle will be hard-fought.”
The head sergeant snorted, “When they come, we kill. Is there really a difficulty?”
With that, the head sergeant saluted in the dark and walked off along the wall.
Alanni suddenly realized that abandoning thought might be a way to live grandly. He spat and continued hauling dirt bags.
Moments later, Lieutenant Alanni Arthur received dire news that forced him to think.
“Sir,” the sergeant responsible for tallying supplies within the fortress breathlessly reported, “there’s something off, the food at the artillery, at most, is enough for one day…”
“How is that possible?” Alanni frowned, “Don’t the United Provincials intend to hold Bishop’s Castle? Did they bury the warehouses?”
“That’s what I thought too,” the sergeant, sweating nervously, said, “I turned over all the ground, and there’s nothing! The workers also said they have never seen any secret passage. They said the bread they eat was all baked and sent over from the nun monastery.”
Alanni suddenly thought of a terrifying possibility. Grabbing the sergeant’s shoulder, his face turned ashen, he said: “Go to the ferry! Tell Captain Woods… not to send any more reinforcements over…”