Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

As a training ground for siege tactics, Maple Fort endured the ravages of the Iron Peak County Military for a whole month.

The carefully leveled land surrounding the fortress is now dug up and ragged, filled with trenches of varying widths, twisting and turning.

From a bird's eye view, the trenches, radiating outward, look less like tentacles extending from the Siege Camp toward the fortress and more like roots spreading from the fortress itself into the Siege Camp.

Although the main structure of Maple Fort, with its "packed earth and stone" construction, is extremely solid, the most skilled six-pound long guns of the Iron Peak County Military—with the largest stockpile of shells—hit the fortress as if merely tickling it, except for the captured Thirty-Two Pound Cannon.

However, this couldn't prevent the artillery of the Iron Peak County Military from dismantling the defenses of Maple Fort.

Summing up and learning from the experiences and lessons of past sieges, from the first day of the siege, the artillery commander Richard Mason assigned different tasks to light and heavy artillery:

The hard-to-move and slow-reloading heavy artillery were set up in sturdy fortifications, focusing fire on specific weak sections of the walls;

The lightweight and flexible six-pound long guns were not stationed in fixed positions, but instead were moved wherever needed, firing at close range, targeting the transverse walls, battlements, and shooting platforms on the fortress' main structure.

Senior Mason, putting his all into this, also mixed the old and new artillery soldiers, reorganizing them into gun crews several times the number of artillery pieces, with veterans guiding recruits, taking turns to operate the artillery.

After nearly a month of prolonged bombardment, most of the structures on top of Maple Fort's walls were destroyed, leaving bare walls that sent up choking dust whenever the wind blew.

The triangular forts to the northwest and southwest were also breached in several places by the Thirty-Two Pound Cannon.

Having lost the defensive cover on top of the fortress, the garrison could not dare to climb the walls to shoot at the enemies outside during the day—doing so would be tantamount to presenting themselves as targets.

Even when the warriors of the Iron Peak County Military carried small baskets to the foot of the fort walls to nonchalantly pick up fired shells, the garrison could only watch them leave helplessly.

Moreover, the garrison couldn't even manage repairs—every time they managed to restore part of the wall top's cover under the cover of night, a more intense bombardment would follow the next day, continuing until the wood buckets and soil baskets painstakingly brought up by the garrison soldiers were all destroyed.

Doing nothing, in contrast, didn't attract cannon fire.

After a few rounds of this, the garrison inside Maple Fort and the attackers outside reached a one-sided agreement: "I won't repair the walls, you don't bombard me, and we'll live in peace and make the best of each day."

Just as the garrison inside Maple Fort was gradually giving up, on the other side, the novice artillerymen of the Iron Peak County Military were getting their fill, to the point they were starting to get a bit bored.

No exaggeration, past artillerymen of some standing army corps, after ten years of service, wouldn't have fired as many rounds as they had in this single month.

After such a bout of practical training, the artillery squad of the Iron Peak County Military was ready to receive more artillery—just waiting for the Revodan Foundry to successfully cast the cannons.

When both attackers and defenders were entering a period of fatigue, Colonel Gessa, Colonel Skool, and Lieutenant Colonel Magash also dispatched some officers and soldiers to the siege site at Maple Fort, ostensibly to "assist in combat," but actually to "observe and learn."

Anyone could see that Maple Fort at present was like a rickety old house.

Just needing someone to kick it over.

And the two people deciding when to kick it over were at this moment watching it from within an artillery emplacement close to Maple Fort.

"I'm thinking about something."

Senior Mason cupped one hand into a tube shape, placing it in front of his eyes, aiming at the distant Maple Fort. This is a little trick of the artillerymen, helping them see distant things more clearly.

"Hmm?"

Winters was peeling the grass root in his hand, responding absentmindedly.

"Did you…" Senior Mason asked casually, "never plan to use my allocation plan from the start?"

Winters continued to reply nonchalantly, "Hmm."

Before Winters realized what he had uttered, Senior Mason lunged at him, grabbing his throat with both hands, gritting his teeth and shaking him side to side: "Then why did you have me do it? Do you know how much time I spent, how many nights I stayed up, how much hair I lost?!"

"Ugh." Winters shut his eyes tightly: "I'm dead."

Senior Mason let go of Winters, brushed the dust off his clothes, and kicked Winters: "Play dead a bit more convincingly."

"Don't be mad, senior." Winters offered the peeled, clean grass root to the senior, trying to appease him: "Have some sweet grass."

Mason took the grass root and put it into his mouth.

"Ptooey, it's bitter."

"Seems it's not the season yet."

In this place far from subordinates and outsiders, Winters and Mason no longer needed to maintain the image expected of them by others, naturally regaining some of the lively nature that people of this age should have.

The garrison soldiers inside the triangular fort heard the sounds outside and discreetly crawled out of the Armament Cave, sneaking a peek outside.

Winters picked up a pebble and tossed it next to the garrison soldier, scaring them back inside.

"Two battalions will feint, one battalion will launch the main attack." Winters turned over, leaned against the basket wall of the artillery emplacement, and offered a relatively conservative estimate: "The assault at dawn, we should capture it before full daylight."

"That's exaggerated." Seeing that Winters was getting to business, Senior Mason also put away his anger and shook his head seriously: "Half a battalion is enough. The breach is only so big; too many troops, and they won't fit."