Chapter 251: The Gate Falls
"Fire!"
The third reloaded round flew toward the gate.
They’d already used half the cannonballs they could fire. Schneider, his face drenched in sweat, seemed to be praying that the gate would shatter before all the cannonballs ran out.
No, he really was praying.
He gave the order to fire and clasped both hands together.
But this time there was considerable progress.
Crash-crash!
Rumble!
One of the chains anchoring the raised drawbridge, which blocked access across the moat, snapped. As the drawbridge swayed and lurched wildly, the defenders clung to it for dear life.
"Verdammt! One better-placed hit and it would have snapped completely!"
"Dammit, Commander! Water got into the fuse of cannon four and it’s unusable!"
"What?! Damn it all! Verflucht nochmal!"
One cannon dropped out in the end. While cooling the cannon, water had accidentally gotten into the fuse hole and soaked the interior. It was a common mistake, but in real combat it was fatal.
"Is one cannon completely ruined?"
"It can be used again once the moisture inside dries! Fick dich! The problem is it can’t be used right now! Marco! Shove those bastards’ heads in instead of cannonballs!"
"Artillery commander Gerdelhansen, don’t get flustered, stay calm!"
"Does it look like I’m in any state to calm down right now?!"
I broke into a sweat calming down the artillery commander, whose face was flushed to the point of bursting from the shame of the mistake. As a last resort I considered clubbing him with the pommel of my cavalry sword, but fortunately Schneider regained his composure.
"Phew, my apologies. I got too worked up."
"It’s not that I don’t understand the desperation of someone who’s finally gotten a chance, but on the battlefield you must always maintain composure. Don’t blame your men; soothe and encourage them well. That’s the heart of leadership."
"...You truly are a knight of great renown. I’ll keep it in mind."
Schneider apologized to his men and admitted his impatience. The tightly tensed faces of the men relaxed. Marco seemed relieved too. They were inexperienced in many ways, and it showed.
They were only now going through their first real combat, so I could only hope this incident would forge strong bonds within the artillery corps. The crown prince praised me for how well I’d handled the situation.
Schneider, composure regained, gathered the artillerymen and said:
"Men, now there are two cannonballs left for each of us. Our worth rests on those two shots. So let’s show those damned knight bastards clearly! That the Royal Artillery Corps is the best!"
"Commander! Does the Gale Knight count among those damned knight bastards?"
"He’s an obvious exception, you damned pig!"
Having regained their composure, the artillery members laughed heartily.
I was probably the only one belonging to the knight class in this spot. Everyone else had gone over to form the breaching force. The crown prince laughed at their behavior and Fried clicked his tongue.
"Amusing fellows. I like them."
"Watching closely, it seems you favor peculiar sorts, Your Highness."
"Oh dear, do you not know that among those peculiar fellows, you’re the best?"
Am I that peculiar a guy?
The crown prince seemed firmly convinced of it.
"Fire!"
Bang! Crash!
The fourth bombardment began. The drawback of stone cannonballs was that they were fragile, so they couldn’t inflict heavy damage on the wall. The advantage was that the shattered fragments rained down on the defenders.
And the last chain that had been barely supporting the drawbridge snapped too.
Bang!
The drawbridge came all the way down, but Baschurten’s final bastion still hadn’t collapsed. Yet the gate had clearly taken considerable damage. Now only one shot per cannon remained.
"The drawbridge is down, but what’ll we do if the gate doesn’t fall?"
"The stonemasons are busy carving cannonballs right now."
It was a job that took a long time, but when complete, thirty cannonballs would be produced all at once, so there was no need to rush and we could afford to wait.
Now the ones in a hurry weren’t us, but the enemy.
"If time passes like this, the wall is bound to fall eventually. The enemy will have realized that too. They’ll either surrender, or they might attempt a night raid to break the deadlock."
"Hmph, just what I want. If those damned bastards crawl out, I’ll deliver them to purgatory."
Fried, who’d been grinding his teeth at the enemy holding out behind the wall, was hoping they’d venture beyond it. He acknowledged the Royal Artillery Corps’s splendid achievement, but as expected he seemed to want to finish things with a field battle.
The reload time came around.
The faces of the artillerymen preparing the last remaining stone cannonballs were deeply resolute. Since this was the final attack, they were filled with the determination to bring down the gate no matter what.
"All batteries, reload!"
Unlike his men, our foul-mouthed artillery commander’s face was half-dead, though. The plan was to attack again once more cannonballs were produced, but Schneider himself seemed to be banking on this one shot.
"Fire!"
Bang! Crash!
Their aim was poor, so many cannonballs struck the wall rather than the gate. That alone delivered terror to the Baschurten defenders, but the gate still wouldn’t fall.
But then one cannonball, fired a moment behind the rest, struck the gate dead on.
Crash-rumble!
"I-it’s down!"
"Wow! It really fell!"
"Long live the Royal Artillery Corps!"
The artillery members burst into cheers and flung their caps high into the sky.
They’d finally brought down the gate. It was a brilliant feat by the Royal Artillery Corps, and it was surely the moment the Duchy of Beren’s existing prejudices crumbled along with that solid gate.
Schneider and Marco shed tears and cheered until their voices went hoarse—wasn’t that proof enough of the joy of blowing away all the bitterness of those years, and finally earning their place on the battlefield?
"Hahaha, they brought it down in the end. Royal Artillery Corps, you are the victors of this battle."
The crown prince laughed and clapped. But the knights’ expressions weren’t very good. The dazzling debut of gunpowder weapons meant the end of the age of knights.
And no one knew that better than I did.
From here on, knights must change. That was also why I was cultivating a light cavalry corps.
"All forces, attack Baschurten!"
Whoaaaaa!
With the drawbridge down and the gate and walls collapsing, there was effectively nothing that could stop the breaching force. All the enemy on top of the walls had fled.
The moment the gate fell, they sensed defeat, and now only uncontrollable chaos remained. The infantry breached in earnest, but I didn’t move.
Glancing back, I could see the Essenbach dragoons fidgeting restlessly. They seemed to want to grab something for themselves too, before the breaching force devoured everything.
They must have grabbed plenty while seizing the whole of Baschurten, yet such greed, tsk tsk.
"If there are cavalry who want to join in over there, you may breach along with the follow-up force."
The moment permission was granted, the cavalry went charging off. The sight of them rampaging like unbridled colts was so absurd it made me laugh. The Belfort and Euz cavalry, who’d restrained themselves all this time, joined in too.
Only the Gale Knights were heeding my orders.
"We breach too."
"What? But didn’t you forbid plundering?"
Anton asked, but what I was after wasn’t anything so base.
If I were the Geerhilt family, I’d be preparing to flee about now.
I had the Commander Scouter that could find them.
