Chapter 51: Medieval Bulldozer (3)
Chapter 51: Medieval Bulldozer (3)
Eugene returned along the path the mercenaries had opened for him. Voices praising him rang out from every direction, but he remained unfazed.
"You worked hard. That was truly remarkable, you know? With that much martial strength, it's no wonder the knights of Gord were shattered one after another."
Roxane paused as she reached out to wipe his face with a handkerchief. There wasn't a single drop of sweat on Eugene's forehead or cheeks; his body was only slightly warm.
It wasn't surprising. He had cut the knights down one-sidedly without any prolonged exchanges.
"In the end, we gained nothing. All we did was kill a few knights, and we still have to conduct the siege properly."
"That's why you were so unenthusiastic? Any other knight would have swaggered about as if the whole world were his."
Smiling brightly, Roxane tapped Eugene's chest with her index finger.
"Even if the war situation remains unchanged, that doesn't mean we gained nothing."
"Pardon?"
"Your fame has grown even greater, hasn't it?"
Eugene felt that along with his rising fame, the grudges he'd incur would grow as well, but he decided to take it in a positive light.
"Then what should I do now?"
"From now on, it's work for others. Grubby, sweaty work. You've done more than enough, so stand by."
A short while later, at Roxane's command, the full-scale siege commenced.
"Those crazy bastards! When did they prepare something like that?"
The mercenaries atop the wall cursed at the sight of the imposing battering ram.
Its very chassis was massive, and it had been fitted with iron plate armor without any gaps. The crew inside was barely visible below the shins.
That made it tremendously intimidating. A long, massive log projected from the center, and when Eugene first saw it, it reminded him of a tank.
"Won't it be too heavy like that? Whether pulling it or striking with it, in the end, it has to be done with human arm strength."
"No problem. It's a structure that uses gears and chains to turn the wheels with less force."
'Something like a bicycle gear shifter?'
Eugene was impressed by a technology he had never expected to appear here. Dwarves weren't called masters of engineering for nothing.
"We improved the internal mechanism so everyone inside can work the ram. That lets us swing something this heavy into the gate with full force."
"With that level of technology, that kind of scale makes sense."
Eugene had once imagined a battering ram as something you dragged forward—boom!—slammed into the gate, pulled back, and repeated.
But that was the primitive method. Apparently, the standard design separated movement from striking: park it in front of the gate, then bang, bang, bang! away at it like ringing a New Year bell.
Ordinarily, half the crew pulled the chassis while the other half worked the ram, but this new model allowed everyone to help with both movement and striking.
"We move out! No arrow or bolt shall ever harm you, so be at ease and use all your strength!"
At the words of the dwarf ram-commander Torim, the men powerfully pushed the movement handles.
They were all miners hired for high wages. Their sheer strength and stamina were greater than the mercenaries'.
Roxane's deployed troops halted at the edge of the wall's arrow range. Only the archer unit escorting the battering ram followed it beyond.
'Please let it breach! Please!'
The attacking side's mercenaries watched the gate and prayed fervently.
It was because, even though they were at an advantage, they didn't want the siege to drag on until winter. Depending on the situation afterward, they might have to scale ladders and fight a perilous frontal assault.
Conversely, the defenders had to stop it at all costs.
"Shoot! Don't let that thing get close, no matter what!"
At the garrison commander's order, bolts and arrows poured from the wall, but it was useless. They all bounced off the iron plate covering.
"Where are you bastards shooting? Show them some real sting!"
At the attacking mercenary captain's order, bolts and arrows flew up toward the wall from below.
"Gah!"
"Aagh!"
Only after some of the marksmen on the wall toppled over did counterfire return. The attackers' numbers were double, but once the exchange began, they started to be pushed back little by little.
The wall gave them cover, and shooting downward added force to their shots. A castle itself amplified a marksman's defense and firepower.
Some crossbowmen leaned against the wall with their feet braced, repeating the cycle of loading and shooting. A luxury the besiegers could not imitate.
RRRRUMBLE.
The problem was that even while this was happening, the battering ram was steadily advancing.
"Halt!"
At Torim's shout, the miners repeated the order back. Torim adjusted the gears appropriately, matching the ground conditions and incline ahead.
"Adjustment complete! Three. Two. One. Forward!"
"Forward!"
Because they had to move in unison from a standstill to shift gears, perfectly coordinated movement was required.
"Damn it! At this rate, it'll reach the gate! What the hell are you all doing?"
To the garrison commander, the approaching battering ram looked like a beast of steel. A monster that would smash the gate with its massive head and tear him apart with its fearsome teeth.
"There are no gaps! I'm telling you, there's absolutely nowhere to aim!"
"If they were going to build a castle, why couldn't they have built it by a river instead of in a place like this?"
While the mercenary captains grumbled, the monster finally reached the gate.
"You've done well getting here! Now it's finally showtime!"
At Torim's excited shout, the miners let go of the movement handles and gripped the handles connected to the ram. All of them pulled back simultaneously, then thrust forward with force.
"Hooooo!"
BANG!
Their lives as miners had taught them to work in perfect coordination. Matching their breathing, they drove the ram forward as one.
"Hooooo!"
BANG!
The massive hammer, reinforced with steel at the front, pounded the gate again and again. With every deafening blow, the gate shuddered as though it might break apart.
"The gate is far sturdier than expected!"
"Keep striking! Don't stop! Just a little more and it's sure to collapse!"
Even under blows stronger than usual, the reinforced gate with its embedded iron core barely held out.
This was another reason battering rams had fallen out of favor. Reaching the gate was hard enough, and then it still had to be broken by human strength—one obstacle after another.
"Pour it!"
At the garrison commander's order, boiling oil was poured down from above the gate.
"Pull back, now!"
At Torim's command, the lead miners hastily retreated. It was a post that received triple wages, precisely because it was dangerous.
HISSSSS!
"Graaaagh!"
Even solid armor plates couldn't stop liquid. A few miners suffered burns to their arms and legs. They avoided serious injury because only a little oil splashed inside, and they had retreated quickly.
"Shoot!"
The next problem was the volley of fire arrows. As luck would have it, the wind picked up at just the wrong moment and spread the flames. The heat and smoke forced the miners to pull back farther.
"Urgh!"
"Agh!"
The auxiliaries who ran forward with water to douse the flames were felled by the arrows and bolts pouring from the wall.
"Damn it all!"
Torim groaned. They had barely been making progress even with everyone striking together; like this, breaching the gate was impossible.
The defenders cheered as the burning battering ram slowly withdrew. With so many conditions working against them, even this small victory gave them hope.
"Codon Castle shall not fall! Look! Are they not retreating?"
Encouraged by the garrison commander, the marksmen on the wall, their morale soaring, loosed bolts and arrows even more fiercely.
The archer unit that had been fighting at the fore with the battering ram also began to be pushed back by that momentum.
"So breaching the gate is impossible after all? There's no choice but to go for a tedious siege."
Roxane hadn't expected much from it either. If it worked, good; if not, there was nothing to be done.
"Please wait a moment. I will step forward."
"No matter who you are, Sir, in the current situation..."
Eugene ran out without hearing Roxane's answer. It was because his warrior's instinct had shown him a scene from the future.
'I don't know if it'll work, but I have to try.'
By now, Eugene had come to trust the voice of his instinct. Watching from behind, the gate had looked as though it would shatter if struck just a little harder.
"We follow the knight!"
Eugene's own mercenaries raced after him with large shields. No order was needed; respect for and trust in their employer drove them forward.
SPLASH!
HISSSSS!
As the retreating battering ram halted, water was sprayed from all directions, suppressing the fire.
"Sir Knight! My apologies, but breaching the gate seems impossible!"
Torim told Eugene with a grim expression when he arrived.
"I will judge that after trying."
"In the current situation, there is simply no way..."
The dwarf's attempt to stop him died in his throat. The moment Eugene and his men leaned into the battering ram, its wheels began rolling at tremendous speed.
VRRROOOM! It was less a charge than a launch, with enough momentum to deserve an engine-like roar.
'They've used up all their oil and don't have the capacity to refill it.'
Eugene confirmed that the danger on the wall had vanished. Boiling oil was a powerful weapon, but once used, it couldn't be replenished quickly during battle.
"What in the world is that now?!"
The garrison commander screamed as the battering ram, which he thought had retreated, came charging back as if running wild.
BAAAANG!!!
An impact far greater than the previous one hammered the gate. The garrison commander and his adjutants shuddered as the vibration traveled up through the soles of their feet.
"Block the gate!"
The garrison commander assembled his treasured elite infantry in front of the gate. They carried a log above their heads and braced it behind the gate.
BAAANG!!!
But with a terrifying crash, the log and the soldiers trying to support it were sent flying.
BAAAANG!!!
CRACK!
CRUNCH!
With each blow, the thick wooden gate split and cracked, and the steel core bent like taffy.
"Block it! Block it, I said!"
"No, how are we supposed to block something like that?"
A mercenary captain looked at the garrison commander, who was shouting hysterically, with a dumbfounded expression.
Most castle battles were tedious sieges. When siege weapons were deployed, they were mostly ladders, and rarely, siege towers or trebuchets appeared. That was the common sense of this era.
BAAAANG!!!
CRRRAACK!
That common sense and the gate were shattering together.
"Henry!"
"Maluda!"
The two infantrymen at the very front were struck by the ram that burst through, and went to a better place.
"It's all over..."
The defenders on the wall lowered their weapons without even realizing it. Exhausted, outmatched, and now facing a breached gate, they had lost the will to fight.
"Don't fall back! If you retreat, you will be summarily executed!"
The garrison commander drew his sword, came down from the wall, and leveled it at the elite soldiers lined up behind the gate.
Having broken the sacred promise of the duel, he knew that if the castle fell, he would meet the most terrible of deaths.
"Damn it! If I'd known this would happen, I never would have volunteered for this!"
The mercenaries who had come expecting easy castle-defense duty seethed with resentment.
BAAAANG!
At last, everything that had been maintaining the gate's seal was destroyed, and the gate swung wide open.
"Hold them! No matter what, hold..."
"Aaaaaaagh!"
RRRRUMBLE!
The ironclad battering ram that had breached the gate was charging straight in.
"G-get out of the way!"
The steel beast rammed directly into the infantry formation packed in a square. Soldiers scattering in all directions brought to mind the image of popcorn popping.
It wasn't only the defenders who were thrown into panic by this grotesque situation.
"Huh?"
"Captain, is it alright for us to just keep going in like this?"
As the interior of the castle became visible through the observation slit, Eugene's mercenaries were flustered as well. Smashing the gate had been good, but going deeper inside looked dangerous.
"How should I know, you bastards! Are you going to fall back here? The knight is advancing, so just shut up and follow!"
"Ah, to hell with it!"
The mercenaries busily moved their feet, shields raised, to protect Eugene.
They prepared for enemy soldiers who might come from the rear of the battering ram. Thanks to that, Eugene could focus comfortably on driving.
However, in reality, it wasn't a dangerous situation at all.
THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!
The sound of something striking the armor plates kept coming like falling hail.
"Run away!"
Through the observation slit, he saw only the backs of fleeing men and soldiers being hurled through the air. No one dared rush the ram to attack it.
Moreover, from right behind, the sound of countless horse hooves and the battle cries of heavy infantry could be heard pouring in.
"Charge! Charge!"
"The All-Conquering Knight has breached the gate—no, the castle itself!"
Through the wide-open passage, knights and heavy infantry surged in like a tidal wave. As soon as the battering ram had struck the gate with a thunderous roar, Roxane had immediately ordered the entire army to attack.
Now, neither bolts nor arrows flew from atop the wall. The archers, torn between whether to shoot outside or inside, were all running away.
"Find the commander! To dare profane a knight's honor and the oaths of the gods! I shall tear him apart alive and grind his bones to drink!"
The knights who stormed into the castle shouted, their eyes blazing. Faced with such murderous intent, the adjutants also abandoned the garrison commander and fled in all directions.