Chapter 1067 - 304: Taking the Initiative (1W)_2
Chapter 1067: Chapter 304: Taking the Initiative (1W)_2
Lynn had already been turning it over in his mind.
Obviously.
At present, there were only these two ways to deal with Jon Zuck and the great host of Manor Lord soldiers backing him.
Rose answered again, "Please rest assured, Master. Once the crowd disperses, Rose will make inquiries at the first possible moment."
Lynn nodded. "If there is nothing else, the three Commanders may withdraw."
The three of them, Rose included, bent at the waist in salute, then backed away a few steps before turning to leave.
Only when the three of them had left the Manor Castle and their footsteps had faded into the distance
did the audience hall fall once more into silence.
Only Lynn remained, seated upon the Manor Lord’s throne.
Red stood by his side, waiting in attendance.
At the main gate of the Manor Castle, armored soldiers kept their watch.
And on the walls, the lamplight, swaying and flickering in the night wind.
In stark contrast to the quiet within Lynn’s Manor Castle,
on the other side under the night sky,
Knight Commander Godfrey stood atop the city wall, his gaze sweeping over Spirit Reef Port, which was now nearly laid to waste.
The tall, majestic walls that had once loomed so high were now riddled with gaping wounds after the savage Attack of Marquis Polk’s siege engines.
The wall was caved in, stone blocks scattered and loose.
Great cracks ran across it in jagged lines, a sight that made the heart lurch!
There was even a section where the wall had been blasted into a breach several meters high.
The city gate—iron plates riveted with huge nails onto heavy planks—was on the verge of collapse.
The iron-plated gate was covered with dents left by the pounding of the siege engines.
Above the gate, the towers on either side had been struck by stones from Marquis Polk’s Catapults.
The towers had fallen in, leaving only broken walls and shattered ruins.
Godfrey’s brow was knitted tight. He shifted his gaze, looking down into Spirit Reef Port within the walls.
Building after building of wood and stone had collapsed beneath stone shot and fire shot from the Catapults, turning into fields of rubble.
The ruins, ignited by the fire shot, burned in patches of flame while clouds of choking smoke billowed upward into the night sky.
Wails and cries of grief echoed again and again within Spirit Reef Port, rising and falling without cease.
Fortunately, squads of figures were racing through the streets within the city, fighting the fires.
They had effectively halted the further spread of the flames.
Godfrey’s nostrils twitched faintly.
The stench of charred flesh like roasted meat and the rusty, rotten reek of dried blood rushed straight into his nose.
Godfrey turned his eyes outward, beyond the walls.
Layer upon layer of corpses carpeted the ground outside the city wall.
Those bodies were all soldiers summoned by Marquis Polk to launch the Attack!
Though a detail from the Sword and Shield Corps was out cleaning the battlefield and clearing away the corpses,
there were simply too many bodies!
Even with soldiers hauling them off, it would be impossible to finish in a short time!
The rusty, fetid tang in his nose came from those soldiers’ corpses lying beyond the wall.
Godfrey’s gaze passed over the battlefield, looking toward the farther distance.
In the darkness beyond, clusters of torchlight flickered clearly.
That was where Marquis Polk, having failed to take Spirit Reef Port after repeated assaults, had chosen to pull back for the moment and erect his army’s camp!
From the height of the wall, Godfrey could see clearly.
The camp sprawled over an area of at least a hundred thousand square meters!
Under the glow of brazier fires, tents stood packed thick as a forest, stretching into the farther darkness beyond sight.
Godfrey’s heart was weighed down and heavy.
He knew that Marquis Polk intended to wage a war of attrition against the Sword and Shield Corps inside Spirit Reef Port.
For the Sword and Shield Corps soldiers garrisoned within Spirit Reef Port, this was a dire prospect.
Spirit Reef Port was, after all, a city on the lands of the Marquisate of Polk.
Marquis Polk could fully exploit the advantage of terrain, continuing to summon the various great and lesser Vassal Lords of his domain, and even the Manor Lords.
Armed men would converge on him in an unending stream.
Whereas, even if reinforcements came for the Sword and Shield Corps, they would be forced to march for a long time.
On the road, they would be all too likely to run into blocking positions and ambushes laid by other Great Lords!
Put simply,
the Sword and Shield Corps who had marched long and hard to take Spirit Reef Port and occupy it were now in a state of complete isolation.
They could only wait for Marquis Polk to gather enough soldiers to launch another assault on Spirit Reef Port.
When that time came,
the Sword and Shield Corps soldiers, having already repelled two waves of Attacks, would have no strength left to defend!
As these thoughts churned through Godfrey’s mind,
heavy footsteps, accompanied by the clatter of Armor plates grinding and knocking together, sounded on the stairway behind him.
They drew nearer from a distance and finally stopped a few meters at his back.
Danke looked at Godfrey’s slightly bowed back and spoke in reminder.
"My lord, the personnel tally for this round of the city’s defense has been completed..."
Godfrey did not turn his head. He answered, "Speak."
Danke did not hesitate and began his report at once.
"My lord, in this defensive battle, all fifteen Sword and Shield Corps echelons suffered grievous casualties!"
"The total number of dead soldiers is close to eight thousand!"
"When the wall was blasted down and a breach opened, a great many of Marquis Polk’s soldiers flooded into Spirit Reef Port."
"Once the Sword and Shield Corps lost the advantage of holding the walls and were forced into close combat with Marquis Polk’s men,"
"the casualty rate began to climb in a straight line!"
"Especially the Ninth Echelon—after two engagements, that echelon of two thousand has now been reduced to fewer than eight hundred..."
Listening to Danke’s account, Godfrey’s furrowed brows drew tighter still.
Danke continued his report. "Aside from the dead, the number of soldiers suffering various wounds is at least over three thousand."