Chapter 1145 Change of Tactics

Chapter 1145 Change of Tactics

"Ladder! Enemy ladders against the walls!"

"Push! Push them off! Don't let them stay there!"

"Use your hands men! Use all your body! Help your brothers to push these damned things off!"

"Enemy up the ladders! Bastards are starting to come up the ladders!"

"Quickly! Shoot your arrows! Don't let a single one get up! Throw anything you got!"

It was like this that Alexander's legionaries greeted the brave Margraves troops who were willing to brave extreme perils to come and meet them, thus denying them any sort of a chance for a spot on the walls.

Thus the legionaries aimed their shots as much as they could at the ascending soldiers, the crossbow bolts piercing many of the shields, and some even going through the enemy's hands and arms, causing the injured men to cry out in absolute pain and agony.

Complementing the attacks from the crossbows were also small stones and even bits of wood picked up from around the bridge thrown at the men, peppering the attackers with a shower of deadly projectiles, stoning them like they were in a grim version of a parade.

Facing such an immense onslaught naturally caused many of the men to be unable to keep their balance

Thus some of their grips slipped, falling off the ladder and either into the deep sea below or the wooden deck underneath.

It was not known what was worse. NewW novels updates at novelhall.com

Now, why falling onto the deck was bad really did not need any explanation.

Hitting the solid, rock hard wood from those heights would crack the back of their head like an egg, and snap the spine like steeping on a dry twig, covering the golden, burnished surface in a slimly, macabre red, grey, and white fluid.

No matter how many times the veteran crew saw this dreadful sight, it would still make their hearts palpate, glad that they were not the ones to have such a thing done to them.

Because imagine seeing a man falling onto the floor from such a great height that they appeared like a wingless bird against the blue drop, then crashing onto the deck with a dull, squelching, almost wet thud.

It was not a pleasant sound to have ringing beside your ears, and certainly not a pleasant sight to behold- seeing the body become twisted and mangled in all sorts of unnatural and surreal ways.

Just looking at the disjointed bones, broken and the jagged edges sticking out of the flesh that it broke through was very hard to see.

And as if that was not enough, which it should have been, it was made all the more terrible by how sometimes these men would fall on top of another extremely unlucky being, crushing him along the way, thus producing two corpses twitching and groaning their last death throes.

The sight was made twice as worse and twice as revolting.

How many men had the guts to stomach this?

There were even times when the crossbowmen targetted the man at the base of the ladders- the ones who were helping keep the entire thing steady, trying to take them out.

And every time a bolt hit around the vicinity there, even if it did not connect, it would cause the ladder to shake and shift a bit, showing clearly that the ones holding the ladder were still human, no matter how brave and fearless they might appear to me.

While a direct hit would sometimes cause the entire vibrate dangerously, if not topple it all together, taking all the ten or so men that might be on there with it to their graves.

The battle of the bridge was undoubtedly bloody yet very one sided, with Alexander's forces having suffered literally not a single casualty.

The Margraves' death toll on the other hand was in the large tens- an extremely high number.

It was to the point even if they were the enemy, seeing the state of the battle, Alexander could not help but feel a bit sad.

These were brave men, very brave men indeed, no doubt about that.

In fact, Alexander himself did not think he could be this brave.

He swore to himself that there was not enough amount of money in the world that would be enough to get him to scale those rickety ladders while fighting the constant hail of missiles as well as the fear of vertigo from climbing up so high.

Even if he was threatened with death and then promptly executed, he would gladly take that offer than risk his life over such a suicidal attack- one in which he would undoubtedly fail and then fall, thus slowly die over the span of several minutes in agonizing pain, or worse survive but be in a paralyzed state, able to sense everything but unable to do anything about it- a prisoner of his own body.

There were far worse things in life than simple death.

However, few men in this time period thought like Alexander.

Most were instead simple folks who just obeyed their master without much thought or questions.

Hence even with the staggering amount of mounting losses, the Margraves kept on trying and trying, despite all their failures.

But at the end of the day, wars cannot be won with bravery alone.

And soon Ser Robert began to understand that, as morale among the men started to collapse.

The initial zeal of the charge was gone, and his threats were starting to run dry as many of the officers were coming running to him to plead,

"The enemy is too strong here. We cannot keep going like this. The men are refusing to go up! Please help us, ser!"

Ser Robert pursed his lips in both annoyance and anger at such difficulty, which trying to rack his brain for a solution.

Until one of his subordinates proposed, "Ser, let some of us sail behind the enemy and board the bridge from behind. Catch them in a pincher!"