The war broke out in a strange and rapid manner.
When Philby saw the firelight burning beneath the city walls, he initially thought his troops had succeeded. His initial doubt quickly turned to joy, but this joy was short-lived, quickly turning to worry, for he saw behind the raiding party a dense array of torches.
The enemy had clearly followed suit. But Philby was now in a dilemma, because he could no longer open the city gates to let the soldiers in; that would be too dangerous, and the enemy might break through in one fell swoop.
Two waves of soldiers, totaling a hundred men, rushed to the city walls in a chaotic manner, but instead of being greeted by open gates, they were met with cold arrows.
Indeed, Philby closed the city gates and cut the ropes, completely isolating these hundred men outside the city.
Donald and McLean exchanged glances and instantly understood the situation. However, their panic was mixed with helplessness. Donald initially blamed McLean for causing trouble, while McLean wanted to blame Donald for not handling things properly and allowing the enemy to discover them beforehand. But when the two met at the foot of the city, they realized they were both in a difficult situation. They hadn't even reached the vicinity of the enemy camp when a large number of soldiers began to rush towards them, so they had no choice but to retreat.
So, who exactly alerted the other party, and who set the fire?
But the current situation didn't allow the two to discuss this issue. There wasn't even time to blame Philby or calm the soldiers down.
Fifty human soldiers and fifty Aruru mercenaries stood close to the city wall, staring intently at the enemy before them.
Leon looked at the hundred men before him with surprise. He hadn't expected the enemy to send such a small force for a sneak attack. Moreover, these men were even divided into two groups. This made him suspicious of their motives and intentions.
Looking at the soldiers' weapons, they had short crossbows, short swords, and not even shields.
But Leon did not overlook the soldiers atop the castle, bows drawn and ready to fire. Leon dismounted, walked to the front lines, and, looking at the scene before him, suddenly hesitated.
"This...is it a trap?" Tonight's events were too numerous and bizarre, causing Leon to have some extraneous thoughts.
At this moment, a tall, thin man appeared beside him. The man had a gaunt face, small eyes, a long, thin mustache, and wore blue cloth armor. He gestured respectfully to Leon and then asked with a hint of doubt, "Lord Lunlang, are you not planning to attack?"
Leon nodded in response. He was Humphrey, the vice-captain of the Golden Horseshoe Mercenary Group. This time, they brought six hundred cavalrymen and two hundred archers, making them the strongest force in terms of support, and also the only mercenary leader who had come with them tonight.
“I’m worried this is a trap. Look, they’re standing under the city walls; we can’t get close at all.”
The tall, thin man looked down from the city wall. "At this distance, the enemy definitely can't shoot us, right?"
Leon nodded, completely baffled as to what Humphrey meant by asking that question.
"Can we get any closer?"
Leon frowned slightly. "Do you have any plans?"
Humphrey smiled slightly. "Don't misunderstand. You must know that I brought two hundred archers. Actually, they are not ordinary archers. They use a special longbow that can be fired straight at a distance of 240 meters and can be launched at a distance of 360 meters while still being lethal. The range is almost twice that of an ordinary bow. I think it's time to show them their strength to you, sir."
Leon was overjoyed to hear this. This was the first time he had ever heard of such a powerful archer. With such range and distance, he could indeed handle the current tricky situation perfectly.
Humphrey smiled slightly, "If you think it's appropriate, then please give me a chance to demonstrate."
Leon nodded repeatedly; he was also eager to see the longbowman's skill.
"However, I have a small request. I hope that Your Excellency can send two hundred shield soldiers to provide some cover. These soldiers and their bows and arrows are very valuable, and I hope that they can have some level of security."
“No problem at all!” Leon waved his hand, and two rows of soldiers raised their shields and began to slowly approach the distant city wall.
Seeing that the other side was making a move, Philby became nervous. "Shoot arrows, shoot arrows! Tell them where they should stop!"
Several arrows whistled out, but the opponent was still some distance away from the arrows.
Philby didn't ask to shoot again, but his heart was pounding. For some reason, he felt incredibly panicked. He sensed something ominous, but he was powerless to do anything about it. He could only watch helplessly as the enemy shield bearers approached step by step, and he couldn't do anything about it.
The shield bearers stopped twenty or thirty meters from the arrows. Immediately afterwards, Philby saw a group of men emerge from behind the shield bearers and begin to draw their bows and fire.
Philby was stunned. He found the scene utterly absurd. Arrows thrown from the city wall would travel a much greater distance. Who were they trying to hit by shooting arrows from that distance?
But with the whistling of arrows, Philby quickly realized who they were going to attack.
The first volley of arrows was fired at the base of the city wall, targeting the hundred soldiers.
However, the arrows were obviously fired at too far a distance, and many arrows hit the city walls directly. Even so, they still caused huge casualties to the soldiers below the city.
Hearing the screams coming from below the castle, Philby suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of unreality. How could this be?!
But before Philby could recover from the shock, a second wave of arrows swept in. This time, the enemy had clearly adjusted their distance, and the dense barrage of arrows landed on the ground below the city walls and into the bodies of the soldiers.
"Shield! Shield! Throw the shield down!" Philby, hearing the screams from below the castle, almost bit his teeth until they bled. "Shield! Throw the shield down!!"
"Sir, throwing shields now would just be throwing them at us!"
"Throw! Throw!" Philby snatched a soldier's shield and hurled it off the city wall. Seeing this, the soldiers dared not resist and threw their shields down from the castle.
However, at the same time, the third and fourth waves of arrows had already arrived.
By the time the fifth wave of arrows arrived, Philby could no longer hear even a single scream.
Philby pushed the city wall hard, fell to the ground, and tears instantly streamed down his face.
He couldn't bear to look down, he dared not look down. He couldn't understand how arrows could travel so far. But he knew that in just five volleys of arrows, he had lost a hundred men, a complete and utter loss of a hundred men.
At this moment, he was just annoyed, annoyed that he didn't have three or four thousand men under his command to fight his way out and take revenge, annoyed by his supposedly clever decision, and annoyed that he had to continue to cower in this damned castle in order to defend it!
The Lunlang family's troops slowly retreated. Philby watched all this, gritted his teeth, stared intently at the receding wisps of fire, and clenched his fists.
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