Chapter 105: Battle of Attrition

The battle of Falcon's 2nd Division started on the second day of the siege.

2nd Division had a total of more than ten thousand soldiers, and it was divided into two groups to attack the west and north gates of Audis. It seemed like neither Marmen nor Kenzir intended to give the Shalorians a respite.

Locke's battalion was assigned to the team at the west gate. There wasn't a specific goal; they just had to harass and create as much chaos as possible.

The rulers of Faustian also knew that Audis was a city that was heavily garrisoned by the Shalorians, and it'd been built into a stronghold a long time ago.

All they needed to do now was to make an opening in this impregnable stronghold.

To be more specific, Locke and the others who were the third batch of troops were responsible for feints. 3rd Division had already done enough yesterday. The Shalorians should've seen their power and they wouldn't dare to leave the city to start a battle.

So, this meant that the initiative was in the hands of the Faustian army. Kenzir, who'd led the troops for more than five years, was obviously better at making adjustments to their strategies compared to Margrave Felippe and the Shalorian king.

Locke, who still had Glace's request stuck in his mind, was now battling in the siege of Audis.

"Egon! Billy! Go, go, go!" shouted Locke as he waved his arm at his soldiers.

Their battalion had been fighting at this corner of the west gate for almost half a day. At least five assaults were launched against the Shalorians behind the city walls, but they'd all been driven off. The countless amounts of boiling oil and tumbling logs had made the Faustian's soldiers suffer miserably.

The cavalry platoon was Cardoj's trump card, and he definitely wouldn't let the soldiers wear out in vain here. Wyr's presence coupled with a safer offensive position allowed the cavalry platoon to suffer only small losses throughout these continuous battles.

Locke, who'd become a low-rank Knecht, didn't even suffer from any flesh wounds. The speed at which the rocks and logs fell was very slow in his eyes, and it was very easy for him to avoid them. But, he had to pay attention to the rain of arrows.

Although the arrows couldn't pierce through his armour, he could still feel the pain if they went through the gaps of the armour.

There were no real tactics to use in a siege. They all just fought relentlessly. Both Faustian and Shalor were trading the lives of their own soldiers for those of the others'.

It was difficult for Locke to take care of Caen and Hans as they no longer belonged to the same platoon. Luckily, Hans had just learned impetus and had some ability of self-preservation.

It wasn't the same for Caen. He was a scout and it was extremely disadvantageous for him to fight in this kind of siege where heads bashed against heads. "I hope the both of them can take care of themselves," Locke voiced under a sigh.

But he didn't have to worry too much. Hans was now a platoon jarl and Caen was currently a squad jarl as well. Both of them had their comrades alongside them and they were not fighting in the most intense locales.

Audis' resistance wasn't surprising to the Faustian's elites. If Audis, the capital of a kingdom, could be captured by them so easily, it wouldn't be the royal capital.

Kenzir, Marmen, and the Faustians were all not in a hurry. They were very patient in facing the Shalorians in the final battle, facing a foe who fought desperately like cornered beasts.

Were they really not in a hurry? Based on the Faustian's crop production report from last month, the amount of wheat that had been planted in winter was reduced by another twenty percent compared to last year's due to factors such as lack of manpower. If there wasn't enough imported food, famine would definitely break out in Faustian in the coming summer, and at least one-tenth of the population would die from starvation.

However, in fact, the Kingdom of Faustian had been mainly relying on imported food from the Ligia Union for two consecutive years.

The Faustian elites couldn't even imagine what unpredictable consequences there would be if the Ligia Union ceased to export food to Faustian one day.

But that was how things would go. The Faustian elites had decided to approach the Shalorians who held fast to Audis by slowly simmering them in hot water like boiling frogs.

It wasn't until the evening that Marmen transferred Locke and 2nd Division back. On their way back, Locke realized that 1st Division was already prepared and ready to go. They then began to head towards Audis' gate.

1st Division was the elite backbone of the entire Falcon corps. There was a huge difference in combat ability between 1st Division and the other three divisions. Locke believed that the Shalorians would be taken aback by their might after tonight's battle.

After tinkering around the edges for two days and one night, Marmen finally decided to use his trump card on the second night.

Locke, who'd returned to the camp, was munching on the wheat cakes that had just been passed around with the other soldiers. They had used up a lot of energy after fighting for a whole day, and the warm wheat cakes were perfect for them.

Everyone ate quietly. They'd just gone through a battle and didn't have the mood to joke around. Today's battle wasn't too intense for Cardoj's camp and it wasn't alarmingly dangerous for the cavalry platoon, but everyone was just as quiet.

There were casualties in the cavalry platoon today. The unmounted cavalrymen were not as agile as the professional infantrymen. Locke and Wyr had tried their best to reduce casualties, but it was a platoon of more than 100 men after all, and the two Knechts couldn't attend to each and every thing.

Four soldiers had left the unit today. Two of them got hit by the logs that fell from the walls and died on the spot. The other two had been shot by arrows and got burnt by boiling oil, and they had to be treated at the rear.

Overall, Wyr and Locke were satisfied with the outcome today. They'd suffered relatively small losses compared to the other four platoons.

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Other than the 1st and 2nd Platoon, led by Mond and Yoshk, that also had small losses, Hans and the others in a platoon mostly composed of recruits performed lacklustrely in their first battle today.

One-fifth of the platoon had suffered varying degrees of injuries and needed treatment, which was unexpected in the eyes of the other platoons.

The soldiers of Cardoj's battalion were very impressed with 4th Platoon that was composed of mercenaries. They were the first to rush forward, but their losses made everyone's jaws drop.

With zero casualties, the soldiers of Cardoj's camp had realised the capabilities of the mercenaries that fought for various other countries neighbouring Faustian.

Aside from the soldiers who still were amazed by them, Cardoj, who'd been watching the battle at the rear, knew the unit the best as he'd been paying attention to the movements of the frontlines from the beginning to the end.

Cardoj felt that they were worth the money. He'd taken out half of the gold coins from the cart that he'd seized from Farlans in order to hire a team of nearly a hundred mercenaries.

The outcome was also pleasing. Cardoj was confident that he'd get enough compensation from the spoils of war later on with this powerful team of mercenaries.

When Locke had done eating, he went to look for Hans and Caen.

Both of them were fine. Only Hans' younger brother, Hank, had been shot in his right arm by an arrow. Fortunately, the wound wasn't deep and he could still wave his arm after bandaging it.

The baron wouldn't normally allow injuries that were this minor to be treated at the rear. But because he was Hans' younger brother, everyone turned a blind eye and asked the doctor to carry him away.

Hans was also clever. He knew what to do and what not to at appropriate times and just followed the group of wounded soldiers to the rear.

At night, the notes of battle continued to play outside Audis. Both Falcon's 1st Platoon and the newly added platoon of Lion had given the Sharlorians who were defending their city a huge surprise.

Mueller was transporting the logs at the west gate of Audis with sore eyes. He'd been transporting supplies for the city ever since he'd been dragged out of his home by the soldiers forcibly last night.

The logs were so huge that it needed to be carried by two people, and Mueller had to drag them to the walls all by himself. He couldn't even take a break halfway. Mueller had been transporting the logs for a full day, and all this while, he'd only taken a few bites of the potato that he'd brought from his home secretly.

Luckily, his wife was smart and had stuffed a potato into his shirt before he was taken away.

Audis' garrison would normally give out food for the workers at the walls, but because the Faustian attacks were continuous and hadn't stopped for a moment, even the soldiers who were defending the city didn't get the chance to eat, let alone the workers.

After dragging another log to the walls, Mueller bent over and walked down the stairs carefully. Arrows were being shot and boulders were being thrown from time to time, and this made Mueller feel very unsafe being there.

Whoosh! An arrow accurately hit the eye of a Shalorian soldier next to Mueller. The arrow pierced through the soldier's left eye and went through his head, causing it to ooze and splatter red-white matter all over.

Some even got on Mueller's face.

He held the urge to vomit and quickened his pace. But things didn't go as he wished. "You! Come here! Yes, you!" A person who seemed to be a Shalorian officer pointed at Mueller and asked him to come over.

Mueller, a normal civilian, stooped down and ran over. "Take this!" The man handed him a spear and said, "Go and guard the arrow stack!"

He was so shocked by this sudden encounter that he couldn't even speak properly. "Sir... I... I'm just here to transport supplies..."

"Stop blabbering! Go!" interrupted the officer. He then turned around and ran towards another place. There were still many intense battles going on in the city.

Mueller, who was holding the spear in his hands, ran towards the location that the sergeant had pointed with trembling legs. He dared not sneak off, as there were many dead bodies of Shalorian soldiers on the ground that surrounded the walls. They'd not been shot by the Faustians; they'd been executed by Colonel Luca for deserting.

He'd just taken two steps forward. But he then turned around suddenly and walked away.

Not far away, an archer behind a pile of arrows aimed at Mueller. He'd shot many deserters dead in the past two days.

But he didn't fire in the end, because he saw that this 'deserter' had stopped running.

Mueller walked towards the unlucky soldier who'd just died. He then took the armour off from the dead soldier and put it on himself, despite how the sticky blood made him uncomfortable. He also took the soldier's longsword and a dozen copper coins from his pocket along with him.

After that, he went back to his ad-hoc post.

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