Chapter Ninety-Three Rye Pancakes

"Narita Kai is the first among you, so who is the second?" Qin Mo's words ignited the entire audience, and all the Japanese dwarfs knelt on the ground to swear an oath to defend the dignity of the Crown Prince to the death.

"The Mystic Realm... that's the Mystic Realm... if I could reach the Mystic Realm, I could sit across from Miyamoto Musashi, drinking tea and chatting happily..." All the Japanese people were fantasizing about becoming one of the Mystic Realms.

On the fifth day of the second month, the orcish allied forces began a probing attack on the city. The Rakshasa pushed their log siege ladders toward the city walls, but the walls of the city were too high; the ladders they had made simply couldn't reach the battlements. Against the Great Xia people, who were masters of city defense, attacking the city with simple siege equipment was tantamount to suicide, unless the orcs were willing to sacrifice their entire tribe and use their strongest warriors to open a breach.

Qin Mo, as part of the reserve team, did not receive orders to attack, but that did not prevent him from observing and learning through binoculars from a high vantage point. The Rakshasa, mixed with a small number of orcs, surged forward like waves, one higher than the next, leaving piles of corpses beneath the city walls.

"Uncle Wu, how many people will die before they change their strategy when they keep charging in like this?" Qin Mo looked at the city. The entire Rakshasa army was frantically throwing their lives away, without even a decent chance to scale the city walls. They were still charging in relentlessly.

“Once they have enough food, they will start to think about tactics and strategies. Right now, we must kill as many people as possible, otherwise, if internal riots are caused by hunger, it will be impossible to control.”

Wu Shengze's words left Qin Mo feeling helpless. As long as there wasn't enough food in winter, they would come to Da Xia, break through the border and plunder. Even if they couldn't break through, it didn't matter, since the old and weak had all died and the remaining food would be enough.

By evening, the "observers" Qin Mo had sent out had brought back the latest news. The Great Xia army on the city wall was relatively stable, giving the Rakshasa people basically no opportunity to take advantage of the situation. After all, the orcs mixed in were not putting in much effort, and were more focused on performing their duties as supervisors.

Joseph took the hard, dark bread from the captain's hand; it was his entire ration for the day. Those around him looked at him with envy. "To receive rations three times in a row, he's quite the lucky fellow."

Joseph forcefully broke the bread into small pieces, chewing each piece carefully before swallowing. This way, he could get the maximum nutrition and strength, as he needed more power to cope with the upcoming battle. Only those involved in the siege received rations; the rest shared a single piece of bread.

"Joseph, be careful, you must survive." Joseph's younger brother, Yakov, murmured to him, swallowing hard. He was still just a boy, his youthful innocence not yet fully faded.

"Nobody knows if we'll survive. The Great Xia people on the city walls are too strong. They have armor, catapults, huge ballistae, and terrifying... monks." Joseph gave two pieces of bread to Yakov. His younger brother was still too young and growing; it would be cruel to torture for three people to share a single bread.

“No, Joseph, I won’t eat. You’ll have strength if you eat. This is the third time already. As long as we come back, we’ll have food. I’ll eat then.” Yakov stuffed a piece of bread back into his brother’s hand, turned and ran away. Tears were already in his eyes, and hunger was burning like fire in his stomach.

Joseph silently ate all the bread. He was not moved to tears by his brother's actions. Since the two brothers had become each other's only support, he had not shed a single tear.

If they can survive three consecutive sieges, they will receive rations each time. Then the two brothers can share a portion of the rations and survive the hardship without having to suffer from hunger while attacking that damned trading city.

The piercing sound of the bugle rang out, like the whisper of death, urging Joseph to leave the camp and stand in the ranks of the attacking force. There were many unfamiliar faces around him. Too many comrades had died in the past three years. Joseph did not know how long his legion would have to attack the city before being rotated out. Would they be wiped out?

The war drums sounded, and the attacking force began to move. At the front were heavy siege ladders, apparently plagiarized from the "cloud ladders" of the Great Xia Dynasty. The wooden wheels creaked and groaned as the Russians pushed them towards the city wall. Now, many long wooden ladders had appeared at the front, carried by the Russians to provide cover for the siege ladders. Once these makeshift ladders were placed on the wall, the Great Xia forces would have to divide their troops to deal with them, making it easier for the heavy siege ladders to scale the walls.

Joseph cursed inwardly, "Even if these ladders are used to climb the city walls, who can actually get up there? Do they think the Xia soldiers are just for show?" He didn't understand these feints and deceptions; he only knew that using these ladders to attack a city would only lead to faster deaths.

Real siege ladders were stepped machines with hooks, wheels, and protective plates at the bottom to prevent the people pushing the ladder from being shot. Once they reached the top of the city wall, the warriors behind them would swarm up the stepped planks, giving them a chance to advance. Those fools who slowly climbed up ordinary wooden ladders were destined to be stabbed to death by the Xia warriors. Did they think they had the same full-body iron armor as the Xia soldiers?

But the nobles were pushing too hard, they wouldn't stop for a moment. There simply weren't enough siege ladders; even Yakov was sent to help build them. Joseph couldn't understand why the nobles wouldn't give them some time. If all the commoners died, who would they serve as nobles for?

The Great Xia Rao's catapults roared, hurling large stones at the siege ladders ahead. If a stone missed, it would leave a trail of blood as it hurtled through the crowd. Soon, siege ladders were struck, shattering into pieces of wood.

Joseph, carrying his birchwood shield, kept his distance from the siege ladder. While hiding behind it might seem safer, avoiding the Xia archers, Joseph had seen too many siege ladders and siege engines destroyed by catapults. Hiding behind those siege machines was the most foolish thing to do. The Xia would prioritize attacking the soldiers around the siege ladder. Only when one was close enough to the city wall, out of range of the catapults, was it temporarily safe behind the siege ladder, assuming the city walls didn't use fire attacks.

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