Life After the military order is issued, without the commander's order, the rhythm of the attack cannot be stopped. This is an imperial military system. Clark stared at the front, and people kept reminding him that the follow-up phalanx could be deployed at any time.
The defenders of Maple Leaf Territory fought resolutely, and they showed no intention of retreating in the face of the overwhelming enemy.
When the archers heard the order, they fired a rain of arrows, and the main defenders on the city wall kept throwing various logs or stones down.
The auxiliary passage beside the city wall, which was originally used as an auxiliary passage for scouts to enter and exit, was now full of enemies. The small city gate was not closed. Several strong men carried out a long rolling log and let it slide down the slide, just like bowling, which could knock down a large number of imperial infantry.
The archers on the city wall each looked for their own targets and kept repeating the action of drawing the bow and shooting arrows. Danny was like a fish in water in such an environment.
This young man from the grassland has very good archery skills. Every time he draws his bow and draws an arrow, he can take down an enemy. His movements also attract the enemy's attention.
As the supervisor of the fifth attack, Bartlet also noticed the existence of this guy.
He picked up his bow and arrow, aimed at Danny's head and shot an arrow. Danny, who was counting the number of enemies he had shot, suddenly felt goosebumps all over his body. He instinctively tilted his head and an arrow flew past his ear.
Looking at the path of the arrow, Danny saw Bartlet in armor, but he did not rush for revenge but continued his mission to shoot all those who were a danger to the city wall.
Bartlet urged the army to continue the attack. Some of the city walls had been breached, and as long as they increased their efforts, they could quickly take down the watchtower.
A retreat was heard behind Danny, and everyone slowly and methodically retreated down the city wall, while the imperial soldiers who had taken down the city wall did not forget to chase after them.
A morning's attack had exhausted the surviving soldiers. In Bartlet's opinion, they should take advantage of the momentum and attack directly towards the second city wall, but Clark's order was to rest on the spot and continue in the afternoon.
He was the commander-in-chief, and he himself was just an assistant, or an assistant who made him embarrassed. After receiving the order, Bartlet began to search for some usable supplies and rescue the wounded.
Standing on the sentry tower that had just been captured, Clark looked horrified. The statistician had just brought him the casualties of the siege.
It was a little hard for him to accept that more than 5,000 people had been killed or wounded in order to capture a watchtower wall in one morning. However, even though it was hard to accept, he had to carry out the attack to the end.
The afternoon attack began after a full meal, and Bartlet was again appointed as the supervisor because he had once entered the Maple Leaf Territory.
Bartlet had naturally been in and observed the situation in Maple Leaf Territory. After seeing the situation, he felt that it was unwise to attack Maple Leaf Territory. He and his companions were still at the border. It would take about a day to get to the Duke's Castle from where he was now, because the Duke's Castle was built right in front.
In this short one-day journey, there were as many as ten watchtowers and city walls alone, and the defenses and scale of the walls became larger and larger as they went deeper into the city. Bartlet no longer had the confidence and composure he had before, only deep regret.
I shouldn't have come up with an immature plan just to show off my ability. This plan not only harmed Clark, who promoted me, but also harmed myself.
The battle for the second watchtower was even more frenzied than the first one. The defenders on the opposite side were completely willing to risk their lives. He even saw a guy in the middle of the chest jump off the wall together with an imperial soldier who had climbed up the wall.
Seeing this kind of scene made him feel cold all over. He didn't know and didn't understand what kind of spirit could make these people give up everything like this.
Bartlet naturally would not understand the madness of the Maple Leaf Territory's defenders. Anna was present in person when Luke summoned the army and gave her own speech as the young lady of the Maple Leaf Territory. She recounted the whole process of how those slaves were made homeless due to the disaster and how they regained their freedom.
Let them understand that the reason they can have a good life today is because of the existence of the territory, and if the enemies attack, then everything they have will vanish into thin air, those who need to wander will still wander, and those who need to be slaves will still be slaves.
There is no harm without comparison. People who have experienced what is a person’s legitimate rights here naturally don’t want to give up their current life. Anna also gave a huge bait.
As long as they participated in this defense war, the families of the soldiers who died in the battle can be exempted from taxes for ten years, and their children can be enrolled in the school of the territory to learn magic and martial arts for free. If the children plan to work in the territory, they will be given priority for admission.
The most important thing is that if he dies in battle, his family will receive fifty gold coins as a pension. Ana offered many conditions that civilians could not refuse. Whether it was to protect their homes or to make their families richer, these soldiers stared at the imperial soldiers viciously like rabbits with red eyes.
In the evening, the guards on the second watchtower retreated again, leaving the city wall to the imperial army. The losses in this battle were also heavy, but after the first attack, Clark was no longer so anxious.
Because he discovered a problem. Although the Maple Leaf Territory's defenders were very determined, they seemed to be seriously short of manpower. Judging from the casualties, he felt that he had seized the opportunity.
This time Clark had no mercy. He conveyed his analysis to the army and informed them that as long as they could attack, he would relax military discipline and let the army enjoy three days of victory celebration.
The subtext of this is to tell the soldiers that as long as they attack, they can do whatever they want within three days. After receiving the commander's precise analysis, the soldiers regained their morale and attacked more bravely.
The army was attacking at a speed of basically two watchtower cities a day. Bartlet was already starting to get nervous watching the army's violent attack.
He was not afraid of what these red-eyed soldiers would do once they broke into Maple Leaf Territory. What he was afraid of was that the closer the imperial army got to their target, the colder he felt in his heart. This feeling had helped him avoid many crises. For this reason, he planned to trust his feelings once again and ask Clark to let him go to guard the grain road.
Clark agreed to his request, and Bartlet fled from the Maple Leaf Territory at a speed as if he was running for his life. Sure enough, not long after, the bad news came that the imperial army was besieged and he was urgently needed to rescue it.
When he hurried back to the border, he did not rush to rescue but inquired about the situation. He finally recovered some of the circumstances from the escaped soldiers.
When they captured the last sentry tower city, Clark himself went a little crazy. The wealth of Maple Leaf Territory was well-known in the Sharpnero Empire.
And he will be the first person to taste this piece of fat meat. How can he bear the madness in his heart? From the high-spirited expedition at the beginning to the embarrassing march and finally the division of troops to come to Maple Leaf Territory, his emotions are like a roller coaster, sliding from the highest point to the lowest point and then climbing to the peak again.
Seeing that he was about to succeed, how could he not go crazy? Just when he gave a death order to capture the last city outpost before dark today, a shocking explosion sobered him up.
Soon a magician came flying in quickly to inform him that the first and second outermost sentry tower cities had been blown up and their retreat was blocked.
As soon as he finished speaking, the third sentry tower city responded. Even if Clark was slow to react, he knew he had fallen into a trap.
One sentry tower after another was detonated, and countless imperial soldiers were either killed on the spot or buried alive under the rocks. The riot was suddenly out of control, and countless armies rushed out from both sides of the mountain range, holding bows and arrows and aiming at the imperial soldiers on the road.
The voice of Luke, the supreme commander of Maple Leaf Territory, reached the ears of everyone on the battlefield: "Duke Clark, I allow you to surrender. I will only give you ten minutes. If I don't see any intention of surrender by then, I will order an attack."
Clark felt that he should commit suicide by slitting his throat, but he couldn't bring himself to do it after raising his hand with the sword several times.
He took a deep breath and exhaled longly: "Pass my order to lay down your weapons and surrender."
Clark led several leaders, one of whom carried a white bed sheet as a white flag of surrender. Luke accepted the sword handed over by Clark, who represented surrender.
According to the rules of warfare on the continent, if the surrendering party is a noble, they will be treated preferentially, but other soldiers will not be treated so well.
After finding out that Clark had surrendered, Bartlet led the army and turned around and ran away. He didn't want to stay as a prisoner.
He ran back to Harry's large army stationed on the grassland as quickly as possible and brought back the intelligence.
Marquis Harry is also a veteran marquis, but he has never experienced war. Although he has always been the backbone of the army, he has climbed to his current position by being cautious and stable.
After hearing Bartlet's intelligence, the person who now holds the highest position in the Imperial Expeditionary Force was a little confused. After being confused, he issued an order to withdraw the entire army. At the same time, he sent Bartlet back to the Empire to report Clark's capture and wait for the Empire's highest instructions.
A grand expedition ended here with a whimper. Bartley did not dare to delay for a moment and returned to the empire as quickly as possible.
Gustav was so angry that he almost fainted when he received the news. He always believed that although Clark was a boastful guy, he at least had basic military qualities. Now he was deceived by the enemy's simple strategy of luring the enemy deep into his territory. He didn't know how to scold him.
It would have been fine if only Clark was captured, but the fact that there were also imperial soldiers under his command forced Gustav to face this problem.