Unknown Knight

"Whoosh, whoosh" Dozens of burning torches were quickly thrown onto the siege tower. The black oil attached to the tower was still steaming. The torches would ignite a piece of it as soon as they touched it. In just a moment, the siege tower was engulfed in flames from top to bottom.

Although the iron-clad tower body could protect against crossbow arrows, the hot oil attached to the surface quickly seeped into the tower through the gaps, and some of it even dripped onto the Kugit soldiers who were climbing up, scalding them and making them scream and cry. Some of them even couldn't bear the pain and rolled down the high stairs.

Then the burning flames followed the oil marks and burned into the tower. The wooden tower body, leather, robes, leather-covered wooden shields, hair and all other combustible materials inside quickly burned. The entire square cylindrical siege tower turned into a burning furnace, and in an instant the furnace became a purgatory for the Kugit people.

The sounds of ghosts crying and wolves howling frightened the Kugits under the tower and they retreated one after another. Several firemen who rushed out of Purgatory frightened some of the Kugits so much that they retreated directly.

The Kugits on the bridge deck should all be veterans. They were straightforward and jumped down from it. A distance of six meters would at most break their legs, which was better than being burned to death. If they were lucky, they could even evacuate unscathed.

Just like that, the first wave of attack launched by the Kugits using their proud siege weapon - the well curb - ended abruptly and ended in failure with heavy casualties.

Aix estimated that this wave of burns, crossbow shootings, and subsequent falls caused at least fifty casualties among the Kugit people. It is no exaggeration to say that the losses were heavy.

It turned out that when Aix discovered that the Kugits were assembling a siege tower, he knew something was wrong and hurriedly gathered everyone to discuss a solution.

Resarit immediately proposed three ways to stop the siege tower:

One is to set up catapults on the city walls to attack the siege towers;

The second is to use a capstan lasso fixed to the city wall to pull down the siege tower;

The third is to use kerosene to burn the siege tower.

The first two types need to be set up and produced in advance, which is obviously too late now, but Aix has not prepared for the third type in advance.

Now Aix only regretted that he had not sent Resarit to Schulersburg earlier. If he had been aware of this, he might have prepared these countermeasures in advance.

Unlike himself, although he had seen many war scenes in movies and TV shows in the original world, and had fought many battles here, he was really a novice in the attack and defense of cities. There were many things that you would not be aware of unless you experienced them.

The third option was the only one that could be implemented at the moment. However, after a search, everyone only found two small cans of olive oil in the kitchen, which were used by the chef to prepare food.

Only Aix, the only lord in the entire continent who is so kind to his subordinates, gave them olive oil that only nobles could afford in order to add flavor to their food.

But these two small cans of olive oil are useless. They certainly can't ignite the siege tower covered with iron sheets. Aix complained:

"These two small cans of oil are definitely not enough!"

His words fell into the ears of the chef who came to watch the fun. He thought that the lord had confiscated his olive oil for seasoning in order to prepare some kind of feast. When he heard that the lord needed oil, he raised his hand and said:

"My Lord, if you want oil, yes, there is plenty."

Everyone followed him to the storeroom and opened a covered vat. Inside was a vat of solidified lard that was as white as jade, weighing as much as two to three hundred kilograms.

It turned out that a while ago, Ran Hu and his men hunted hundreds of wild boars in order to increase food for the territory. Wild boars have little fat, but it is now the autumn fattening season, and each wild boar weighs several or even more than ten kilograms.

The chef also refined all the fat into lard and saved up this full jar. Unexpectedly, it would come in handy at the critical moment today.

Aix was immediately overjoyed and ordered people to bring the lard to the foot of the city wall and set up a large pot to refine the oil.

Not only that, in order to increase the adhesion and combustion value, Aix also had people grind the black charcoal into powder, then pour it into the pot and stir it. The final product was a black, viscous liquid that could be hung on a spoon and drawn into a thread.

This led to the scene where more than a dozen soldiers attacked the siege tower with smoking pottery jars. Fortunately, the Kugits only had this one siege tower, otherwise Schulersburg would have been in danger because all the black oil had been used up.

This made Aix cry out in his heart that God would not let him go. If the well-equipped and experienced Kugits were allowed to attack the city wall, the consequences would be unimaginable.

The defeated Kugits stayed quiet for the whole afternoon and did not launch any more attacks. However, the sound of knocking on wood coming from the opposite camp made Aix anxious, because the enemy was making siege equipment.

That night, harassment was inevitable, but in order to avoid casualties, Aix did not send out Ran Hu's light cavalry, but only let Desevi and his men fire a few rounds of rockets.

However, the enemy was obviously well prepared, and it didn't have much effect, it was just a nuisance.

The next morning, Aix, who was watching from the watchtower, became nervous again. Three skinned ramming cars that the Kugits had hastily made overnight were pushed out by them.

But Aix soon felt relieved. There was a drawbridge at the gate of Schulersburg and a trench more than three meters high in front of the city wall. The ramming car should be able to reach the city wall.

Then he tightened his heart again, thinking that the Kugit people would not have failed to think of this, and they must have a countermeasure, otherwise they would not have gone to so much trouble to do so much useless work.

Sure enough, Aix soon saw the enemy's strategy. More than 200 people who looked like slaves, carrying bags full of sand, risked their lives to come and fill the trenches.

After several people were shot dead or injured from the city wall, Aix hurriedly stopped the shooting. It turned out that the howlings of the injured slaves were in the Chinese language he was familiar with.

Axel looked carefully and found that those who were carrying sandbags were basically black-haired Asians. He was so angry that he gritted his teeth and cursed Tuoju Nayan as a sinister and cunning villain.

Aix immediately asked Resarit if he had any way to rescue the tribesmen who were carrying sandbags outside the city.

The deputy commander shook his head and said:

"My lord, unless you let the array infantry form a formation outside the suspension bridge and let these tribesmen run over by themselves, they will have to fight the enemy cavalry in the wild, and the losses will definitely be heavy..., my lord! You can't do this, my lord!"

While he was distracted, Aix had already turned around, went down the city wall and organized the infantry formation to assemble.

Soon, a hundred array infantrymen had gathered, led by Aix himself. These people were enough to surround the suspension bridge and form a two-layer thick square formation.

Before leaving the fortress, Aix also instructed Desevi and Robin Hood to gather archers on the city wall at the city gate and provide timely fire support.

As the drawbridge was lowered, more than a hundred infantrymen quickly rushed out of the city and formed a dense infantry array outside the drawbridge.

Several loud-voiced tribesmen shouted in Chinese to their compatriots who came to carry sandbags:

"Hometown people, if you want to live, run here. If you don't come over here, we will shoot you with arrows!"

But everyone's thinking was still naive. These Tang slaves were just stunned for a moment and continued to run back.

Seeing this, Aix had no choice but to grit his teeth and wave to the archers on the city wall.

A rain of arrows rained down from the city wall, and five or six unlucky people were shot and turned into hedgehogs.

At this time, the louder ones, including the clansmen on the city wall, shouted to the slaves in Chinese:

"Listen carefully, fellow countrymen, if you want to live, run here. If you don't come over here, we will shoot you all with arrows!"

Then there was a man who wanted to live. With the determination to die anyway, he ran towards this side half-believing and half-doubting. As expected, he was not attacked by the crossbow.

He ran closer and saw that they were indeed all black-haired and black-eyed people of the same tribe. He also had a sense of brotherhood. He stood in the formation and shouted to the tribesmen who were still carrying sandbags:

"Li Si, Wang Laoliu, here, over here, we are all from the same hometown, you can save your life if you come here! Come here quickly!"

The power of example soon took effect. Upon hearing the shouting, the compatriots threw their sandbags out of the trench and ran over. Soon there were more than ten tribesmen in the formation.

Aix asked a few of these people with loud voices to continue shouting, and the others quickly returned to the castle to hide.

Seeing this, Tuoju Nayan on the opposite side showed a sneer of contempt on his face. He never thought that the people in the fortress would care about the lives of these lowly Tang slaves in his eyes.

His original plan was very cold-blooded. He did not care about the lives of the more than 200 Tang slaves at all and made them risk their lives to carry sandbags to fill the trenches under the city wall.

Even if all these slaves died, he would not be too sad. As long as the trench was filled and the fortress was breached, wouldn't the number of slaves increase again?

Seeing the open city gate opposite, he knew that the opportunity was not to be missed, and with a wave of his hand, more than a hundred cavalrymen rushed towards the formation.

Looking at the surging cavalry, Aix knew that his thin two-layer formation could not stop the cavalry charging at full speed. He shouted and asked everyone to retreat to the castle quickly.

The distance from the formation outside the suspension bridge to the city gate was only more than ten meters. By the time more than a hundred soldiers and slaves retreated to the middle of the suspension bridge, the Kugit cavalry more than a hundred meters away had already rushed to the front.

However, the suspension bridge, which was only two meters wide, was too narrow, which slowed down their horses' speed. However, it did not affect the power of the cavalry. The two heavy cavalrymen in the front pulled the reins and raised their horses, letting their horses' hooves step heavily on the broad shields of the shield-bearers who remained in the back rows for protection.

There were only muffled groans heard, and someone was shocked to the point of spitting blood. Two shieldmen could not hold on and fell into a trench full of sharp wooden stakes. They were pierced through by the sharp stakes and were obviously dead.

The terrified crowd pushed and shoved their way into the fortress, squeezing out two slaves and a soldier among them.

Everyone finally retreated to the city gate, but the Kugit cavalry followed and broke into the fortress.

Tuoju Nayan, who was watching the battle from a distance, was very excited when he saw this. He waved his hand and the remaining two hundred or so cavalrymen whipped their mounts and galloped towards the city gate at full speed.