Chapter 465 - Or Is It Both

Just with one round of artillery strike, the psychological lines of defence built by the hard effort of Semseddin in the first fortress is on the brink of collapse. It just seems that the Ottoman commanders never understand one simple fact when they conscript a bunch of soldiers with low morales, that is the quantity of their army does not always turn into an advantage into battles, instead it is more likely to become a disadvantage considering the huge logistic wastage, and the fact that a huge conscript army without adequate training are very likely the first to collapse when they see blood, even before coming into contact with their enemies.

Or is it that the Ottoman commanders are too inefficient in their overall government structure in building an efficient full time regular army.                                                                     

Or is it that the Ottoman commanders have no money unlike Antonius owning a land that is flowing with probably no milk and honey, but at least fishes and olives.

Or is it both.

Anyways, screw the backwards policy of conscription.

Immediately after the first round of bombardment by the artilleries, the infantries started moving forward pushing their heavy siege equipment along the curvy mountain trails, but another group of people overtook them soon rushing forward under the cover of the shield wardens. They are the crossbow men under Julian here to practise the form of collaborated siege tactic they have practised for times in military exercises. The crossbow men and shield warden ran at the top of their speed, reached the measured effective field of fire of around fifty meters with a calculated angle of elevation, and flung out their bolts before their opponents could make any reactions.

The wave of bolts hit directly onto those foes still loitering around behind the walls, those who are still praying are straightaway pinned down onto the ground, the truth is supernatural being is unable to protect you when facing realistic physical threats from the real world, if not there would not be so many tragical death of believers around the world every single day. Howls and groans started showing up behind the walls as the hit Ottomans conscripts started rolling down the walls in agony trying to evade further shots, while some conscripts woke their idea up and started picking up their crossbows and begin returning fire.

However, there is still one problem for the Ottoman conscripts, the Roman crossbow formation has adopted a system of alternated firing whereby there shall be one man firing and two men reloading at the same time, making sure that there is only a less than seconds interval between each round of bolts suppressing the Ottoman conscripts on the walls pinning their heads behind the cover. While the conscripts on the other hand have already lost their mind, making them uncapable to properly take aim when firing their bolts leading to a pitiful low accuracy, many bolts are shot right into the ground due to poor aiming angle, while some bolts flew for their maximum firing range before losing their momentum and falling down into the Earth in a curve.

Nevertheless, they still managed to hit some enemies in the return fire, but the Romans seemed to be completely unaffected by it as there shall always be one man going over their fallen comrade's body replacing their firing position and maintain the entire process without letting it get disturbed with the demise with one or two men. It is not that they are uncompassionate towards the death of their pals, it is just that their heart has turned cold after seeing so many of these during their long span of military career as a regular soldier.

The infantries pushing the siege equipment successfully reached a close proximity to the wooden barricades and began plucking out the chartaque towers, Frisian horses and other kinds of fortifications one by one. The crossbow men slowly retreated back to their lines to make way for the infantries, their job here has been done today. The ram has started pounding that fragile metallic gate of the fortress which seems like it shall come down in no time, and ladders are now erected on the ground with one after another armoured Roman footman ascending to the top of the walls and began having close quarter combat with their opponents.

Most of the preparations done before the war by the Ottomans, like those boiling substances, wooden logs, rocks are totally unused for the entire time.

"Everything is going smoothly sir." A lieutenant of Julian exclaimed in excitement. "And we had not even suffered much lose! I am sure our regiment shall tear down this fortress in no time!"

Julian made no reply, instead he has a stern look on his face all the time as he knows from his past military experience that surely the opponents will not make things so easy for them. In fact this piece of wall and fortification is nothing but merely the first line of obstacle for his men, there shall be definitely more challenges coming up to him later.

The Roman troopers slowly gained their upper hand engaging in close quarter combat as more and more people starting leaping onto the walls and pushed back wave after wave of Ottoman counter offensive. Slowly bit by bit the Romans on the walls started building up channels of connections between various hotspots and even managed to encircle some groups of opponents. Facing this kind of desperate situation many Ottoman conscripts plainly surrendered, while the Ottoman commanders chose to jump down the three meter tall walls to evade Roman blades.

Only to find even more Romans beneath the walls.

The ram has finally blown open the metallic chamber gate, countless infantries started gushing in through the opening in their trained squadron formations with the shield warden and swordsmen again taking the initiative charging forward. The Ottoman defenders behind the gate are totally incapable of confronting their enemies when they only have nothing but bronze spears and simple crossbows. Just as they are still hesitating, the Roman infanteers have already charged into them and started chopping down anyone before them. It took no time before the guys at the back decide to drop the spears in their hands and evade to the side.

Within a mere thirty minutes, the first and most crucial defence for the first fortress is already fallen to the hands of Julian. Many have already started cheering back in the main formation about the grand new victory slipping into their hands, but Julian, as the main commander, is still not that positive on his looks as he stood there firmly in front of the longsword he sticked into the dirt a while ago. Irritated by the chains of roars and cheers behind him, Julian turned back and shouted. "Do not cheer before all the things are being settled! Never cheer for victory too early as changes can happen every single second in this damned place!"

The cheering died down, replaced back with the howling of the winter wind, and the sound of combat a hundred meters ahead of them.

Back in the fortress, that nobleman who is appointed here is already like an ant on a hot pan going around to take command over those missing in action petty officers. He, like many other Ottoman officers, have already expected the result when comparing the vast difference in professionalism, equipment and morale between their bunch of conscripts and the Rumelian infidels. That is why they emphasised more on the quality of manpower recruiting twenty thousand at once with more people on the way. However, the hard truth shows that they are seriously wrong in their strategic planning, their opponents have gave them a shock in what can a group of professional soldiers with adequate training and supply do against conscripts in warzone.

The shock came way too late though, and now this Ottoman nobleman must think of a way to at least rescue the situation, halt the Rumelian progress and bring the majority of his men out of this fortress safely. Out of plain desperation he ordered his signalmen to pass his message to various units still contactable, ordering them to stop trying to crash themselves onto the rocks by trying to reinforce the people still struggling by the walls, instead he wants them to form a second and third layer of defence taking advantage of the structures they have built in the camp, taking advantage of all those permeant buildings and covers they have built in the past half of a year under the order of their old Sanjek.

Apparently that old Sanjak-i Yanya, Hüseyin Çelik has already expected that such a situation shall definitely happen today.

The Ottomans fell back giving the Romans one third of the camp, the Ottoman nobleman is only left with six hundred people that still obeys his command within this fortress inclusive of commanders.. The nobleman could not care more or less regarding whether they are conscripts or not, and started issuing those highly valued standardised crossbows and bolts to everyone of them as they took their position behind various covers.