[Jiāng'àn Battery/Knight's Castle]
The smoke screen finally cleared, and disappearing with the smoke were the figures of the Rebels.
Inside Knight's Castle, the still-frightened United Provinces Soldiers gripped their weapons tightly, not daring to make a sound as they guarded the shooting positions, peering out into the world beyond the embrasures.
They used all their strength to widen their eyes, as if doing so would allow them to see through the night of Paratu.
However, all efforts were futile; the darkness around the fortress was bottomless and insurmountable.
No time to catch a breath; after the Rebels retreated, the commander of Knight's Castle, Daili Brand, immediately began to tally the casualties and inventory the ammunition.
The self-proclaimed residents in the center of Two Mountains Narrow Land, the United Provincials, always uttered the word "Borderlanders" with disdain when referring to the Paratu People.
Just now, the soldiers inside Knight's Castle truly experienced the ferocity of the "Borderlanders."
The four-meter-wide trench was not wide enough for the Paratu People, as the Rebels placed long ladders over it and charged directly.
If not for the limited weight capacity of the ladders, the Rebels' cavalry might have stormed into Knight's Castle.
Daili Brand felt lucky: the majority of the Rebels carried not ladders but some sort of log-like objects;
most of the Rebels did not engage in close combat but relied on the cover built with "logs" to continuously shoot at Knight's Castle.
The "castle assault" behavior of the Rebels didn't seem like a premeditated tactic, but more like individual acts of bravery.
When the cannons on the side bastion began to roar, the Rebels firing across the trench quickly withdrew, disappearing into the night.
Ultimately, Captain Daili Brand's troops, using their numerical superiority, encircled and killed the few Rebels who charged into the fortress and pushed the long ladders down the trench, temporarily holding off Knight's Castle.
Despite this, the inside of the fortress remained filled with wails.
The lightly wounded shouted, the severely injured rolled on the ground, and the new recruits, seeing so much blood for the first time, were dazed and at a loss.
Like his subordinates, Daili Brand also experienced combat for the first time. As the tension relaxed, he too felt a wave of fear.
However, the training and education Captain Brand had received since childhood eventually proved effective.
Daili Brand quickly got back to business, organizing the evacuation of the wounded while dispatching messengers to the command center again.
But this time, it was not to ask for aid, but to report the situation.
Having regained his ability to think, Captain Brand also vaguely sensed that the enemy's assault on Knight's Castle seemed much like a feint attack.
Because the Rebels didn't commit enough troops, their attitude was not resolute, and they had little willingness to endure casualties; as soon as the cannon on the triangular bastion turned, the Rebels immediately chose to retreat, not giving the defenders' artillery a chance to exert its power.
At this point, Captain Daili Brand deeply regretted.
Earlier, because the noise of the Rebels' charge was too terrifying, in his panic, he ordered all three signal rockets from the launch frame to be fired.
Knight's Castle only had three signal rockets in total, and such expensive alchemical products like signal rockets are always allocated "per piece," one can only get another after using one.
So now, Captain Brand had no usable signal rockets left.
If the Rebels' attack tonight was not a feint, then Daili Brand needed to find other means of illumination to cope with the Rebels' next round of assault.
If tonight's Rebel attack was indeed a feint, then Captain Brand would face a more severe test — he would have to submit a report explaining why he used up three precious signal rockets in one go.
After weighing all considerations, Daili Brand decided to take a risk.
He ordered the drawbridge facing Ashen Stream River on the fortress wall to be lowered, selected a squad of brave and reliable soldiers, and set out, carrying axes, lamp oil, and fire starters, quietly sneaking out of Knight's Castle from the "back side" in the direction of the Rebels' attack.
...
Due to construction time constraints, Knight's Castle was not large, even squeezing in a Hundred-Men Squad was tight.
In appearance, it was roughly square, with bastions at each corner of the main structure, and additional triangular bastions built in the west and south directions.
As for the north and west, these sides faced Ashen Stream River and Kingsfort, hence no time was wasted on the triangular bastions.
The junction of water and soil is the easiest to break through — the United Provincials knew this all too well, hence Knight's Castle was situated on the riverbank.
...
After crossing to the other side of the trench, Daili Brand didn't rush to light up, but carefully moved southwest along the path of the dead, where the Rebels launched their attack.
Just turning at the northwest corner, after a few steps, Brand's boots touched something soft yet hard.
Under the faint starlight, Daili Brand was startled to find that beneath his feet was a headless corpse.
The clothes on the corpse clearly weren't those of a soldier, from which Brand guessed the person's identity almost accurately.
Daili Brand took off his helmet, gazing at the miserable death of his former lieutenant schoolmate silently for a long time.
"Be careful," he put his helmet back on and passed the word back, "Don't step on Lieutenant Marlo."
A soft rustling sound emerged from behind as soldiers whispered the order down the line.
However, the path was too narrow for concealment, only allowing one person to pass at a time, two people must pass sideways, making it impossible not to step on Chris Marlow's remains.