Chapter 243
“What"s happening?” The leader of the bandit group was a mighty warrior and used the shield to block the arrows. However, he was at a loss as he looked at the defensive walls. Why their allies were attacking them?
“Ballistas! Ready! Shooot!” Xiao Yu roared up. The ballistas were adjusted towards the direction of the bandits and were shot.
Puff~ Puchi~ Puff~
The leader did his best to dodge but he could hardly hide from the spears thrown from the ballista. He tried to block with the shield but the penetrative strength of the spears were much stronger than the shield"s. As a result, one of the spears plunged through his body and killed him on spot.
Xiao Yu"s usage of the heavy ballistas to attack the enemy was a time-tested method. It was wasteful but an effective method.
Touba Hong had gooseb.u.mps when he saw the fate of the leader of the bandits. It would be very hard for him to get out of such situation too.
“Open the gates! ATTACK!” Xiao Yu commanded.
The gates were opened immediately. 400 knights were the first to rush out led by Touba Hong while the adventurers and escorts charged on after them.
Boom~
The bandits didn"t know what was happening when they were swept away by the knights. They had been running without a rest for two consecutive days and were extremely tired. Moreover, they didn"t have any formations when they tried to get back to the lair. As a result, the knights trampled everyone that was on their way.
Xiao Yu knew that these bandits were elite units of Red Beard. He overpowered them with the usage of arrows and spears by relying on the defensive walls and then used the heavy cavalry and light cavalry to rain them using the confusion of the moment.
The heavy cavalry (knights) were trampling through the bandits and opening a path for the light cavalry to follow. The bandits didn"t even have a chance to counterattack. They were dispersed in all directions. It would be very hard to catch up with the bandits with less troops so Xiao Yu had ordered them in advance to return after the first wave of attacks.
“Aren"t those the people who decimated our troops in the Ratchet town?" One of the bandits that had partic.i.p.ated in the battle at the Ratchet town recognized the 400 knights. He shouted out loudly.
There were no heavy cavalry units in Western Cloud Empire so the surviving bandits immediately recognized Xiao Yu"s troops.
“What? They have attacked our nest while we were out! But how could we have lost the lair? We had so many troops and solid defense walls! How can they break through so many layers of defense?”
The bandits had almost gone crazy. They were frustrated and furious as they rushed from their camp to the Ratchet town to save their boss to find that the city was empty. Afterwards, they rushed back to their camp but found out that it was conquered by the outsiders. Moreover, thousands of their peers were killed within moments.
“What will we be doing now?” The bandits looked towards another leader. They didn"t have their camp and there was nowhere that they could go back to. The base was their foundation which meant that they didn"t have any extra place to even stay for the night.
The leader replied: “They immediately returned after the attack… It means they don"t have much people by their side.. Otherwise, they would just use the confusion and kill all of us in one move.. They have captured the base but must have a lot of casualties…”
“We don"t have equipment for siege.. What are we going to do?” Another bandit asked.
“We will retrieve trees from nearby mountains and make ladders. We must recapture the base or we will die like dogs.” The bandit leader said in a bitter tone. Actually, he wasn"t a high-rank leader. He didn"t even know the ident.i.ty of the real Red Beard or the power that supported them. As a result, he didn"t know that they could wait or go to find their real boss to counterattack at a later time.
The bandits went to search for trees and make ladders. Most of the mountains in this range were bald. However, there were trees here and there that could be made into ladders.
More than 10,000 bandits search throughout the night and made more than dozens of ladders for the siege.
Xiao Yu smiled as he looked at the bandits who were making ladders: “Hide! They won"t come for a siege if they saw so many people on our side."
Xiao Yu had more than 10,000 people by his side too thanks to adventurers and escorts. They weren"t elite but quant.i.ty of the troops made for the quality at this point. They had killed bandits the last night so the number of bandits had decreased a lot. The bandits were elite troops but they would face lots of casualties if they went for siege warfare. Xiao Yu didn"t want to scare the bandits at this point by showing the real number of troops he had.
Xiao Yu ordered some of the adventurers and escorts to stay on the wall while the rest waited behind the wall for the perfect opportunity to attack.
The bandits saw that there weren"t many people on the walls. They were pumped and shouted loudly in desperate manner to attack and retrieve their base.
Xiao Yu commanded the archers behind the walls to attack in rows so not to scare the bandits.
“These people aren"t opponents for bandits but we have killed a lot of bandits.. and now we have the advantage…quant.i.ty wise.. Why are we going through these if we can defeat them by attacking them face on?” Touba Hong asked.
Xiao Yu smiled: “You may be right.. But don"t forget that these bandits are like furious mad dogs right now.. We can opt out to fight them head on but it is like 10,000 people choosing to commit suicide.. There is a better way to deal with the bandits such as this one.. Why would I choose my men to die if they can survive?"
Touba Hong didn"t reply as he silently looked at Xiao Yu. He understood that there were many things that he had to learn from Xiao Yu. He was a good commander but Touba Hong wasn"t a qualified commander in comparison to Xiao Yu. His tactical and strategic thinking was poor in comparison to Xiao Yu.
In addition, from aside it seemed that Xiao Yu wasn"t a rigorous commander. Sometimes it seemed like Xiao Yu was a kid who was playing war games. But Touba Hong saw that every move and every step was calculated to the details. Xiao Yu always used the most effective means to damage the morale of the enemy. These things were very difficult to learn as they could be described as natural talent.
The bandits knew that they had to recapture the base at all costs.
They charged on in a brave manner without a thought about their lives. They faced a lot of casualties but desperately tried to get on top of the walls. Xiao Yu and Grom went back and forth towards the sides of the wall to support the people who were overwhelmed by the bandits.
Antonidas was doing his best too. Cone of the Cold was killing dozens of the bandits in one move.
The battle was finishing in stalemate each time. The bandits had already charged for several times but weren"t successful in breaking through the defense. The casualties that bandits had was far more than Xiao Yu"s side.
At the end, bandits had charged more than 6 times but had left less than 10,000 people by the end of the day.
“Are we going to charge now?” Touba Hong looked at the bandits that had mental and physical fatigue. They could win if they attacked now.
Xiao Yu shook his head: “They don"t have enough rations.. Their combat effectiveness will fall down by tomorrow. We will get rid of them for good when they charge once again.”
The light cavalry of the Western Cloud Empire didn"t carry much rations with themselves because of the weight. Xiao Yu was aware of it and was using it to his advantage. His troops were eating and living well behind the walls. So he didn"t see any urgency to attack the bandits.
“There won"t be much suspense in this battle.. What you need to now is thinking about the usurper…When would be the best time for the coup?” Xiao Yu was aware that there was much bigger problem in front of them. The Western Cloud empire would plunge into chaos if the coup was made. At that time, Xiao Yu had to help touba Hong to get troops to fight against that usurper.
“I don"t think they will make a coup now.. They have been conspiring for long time so they shouldn"t be in hurry.” Touba Hong replied
Xiao Yu shook his head: “It will be soon.”
Touba Hong was surprised: “Why do you think so?”
Xiao Yu smiled: “I can feel.”
In fact, Xiao Yu wasn"t a person to rely on his emotions and feelings. He knew that this mysterious force tried to back Solomon to control the whole northwest which meant that the coup in Western Cloud Empire wasn"t that far away…