Chapter 167 Siege (2)

The Anglo-Saxons reached the bottom of the city wall under the rain of arrows, and the arrows struck their armor, causing a clattering sound between the armor plates.

In one go, the Anglo-Saxons who rushed out from behind the shield carts set up scaling ladders under the city wall.

Two armored warriors steadied the bottom of the scaling ladder, and two other armored warriors used ropes to guide it; the ladder hooked onto the battlements like a giant hand climbing a cliff.

The Britons tried to use iron forks to block the scaling ladders placed on the battlements.

And when the erected scaling ladder crossed the vertical line and turned toward the city wall due to gravity, the iron fork held against the crossbar of the ladder, and the Britons pushed it forward with force.

However, those impatient Anglo-Saxons in heavy armor had already started climbing before the hooks of the scaling ladder had even caught onto the battlements.

The weight of the scaling ladder, combined with the weight of the Anglo-Saxon armored warriors. The scaling ladder held up by the iron fork did not move at all; instead, the British Soldier holding the iron fork was pushed backward and fell.

Finally, the iron hooks of the scaling ladder were placed on the battlements.

“Woo——” That was the horn of the Anglo-Saxons.

Their main force began to march.

Hundreds of meters away, those Anglo-Saxons, wearing various types of armor and holding various types of weapons, formed a moving black line on the horizon.

The tidal wave of shouting reached the ears of the defenders.

The scaling ladders leaned against the city wall in a tilted posture, composed of logs thicker than an upper arm, reinforced with metal.

This allowed the armored warriors who were the first to ascend to raise their shields, climbing the scaling ladders as if they were climbing steep stairs.

The Anglo-Saxons stared tightly at the enemies on the city wall through the eye holes of their helmets.

On another scaling ladder, an arrow cleverly pierced through the chainmail neck guard of a helmet; the Anglo-Saxon’s eyes widened, and he fell off the scaling ladder without a sound.

The warriors behind him immediately grabbed the sides of the scaling ladder tightly, pressing their bodies against the ladder to avoid being hit by the falling guy and falling down together.

‘He’s a poor devil.’ The Anglo-Saxon warriors watched that heavy human body smash onto the ground.

Although the British archers were still shooting at the enemies below from the shooting slits of the towers, the armored warriors were now very close, and almost no one could find a suitable angle to shoot the arrows in their hands.

Seeing their compatriots die in front of them, not a single Anglo-Saxon felt unfortunate about it.

That was their belief; they were born to fight to the death.

For the Anglo-Saxons from the Jutland Peninsula, lying on a bed and closing their eyes peacefully surrounded by children and grandchildren was a great humiliation.

“Charge up the city wall!” An Anglo-Saxon with a helmet decorated with a golden wolf carving was shouting.

His voice drew countless resonances, as if those Anglo-Saxons thought that by howling, they could make the Britons behind the city wall give up their castle.

On the side of the city gate, the warriors dragging the iron-clad wooden ram had already reached the bottom of the city wall, where stones and javelins were thrown down like raindrops.

The first gate was shaking.

The Anglo-Saxons on the outside held huge shields comparable to Rome shields, used to cover the warriors among them who were holding the wooden ram and sprinting toward the gate.

Some people were knocked to the ground, and some had their shoulders pierced by javelins that penetrated their shields.

But there were always other armored warriors who could quickly fill these gaps from behind the shield carts.

There were six people; they held the wooden ram, retreated, swung it, and then sprinted toward the gate.

‘Boom——’ The gate trembled.

Almost nothing could pierce through this gate reinforced with metal.

However, its bolt was fragile compared to the gate itself.

The Anglo-Saxons could see the heavy infantry of the Britons moving, their helmets swaying back and forth behind the battlements.

In the past, whenever it reached this point, the scaling ladders they climbed would face stones and javelins falling like raindrops.

This time, it was different.

The Anglo-Saxons had already climbed one-third of the scaling ladder; they and those Britons could let their lines of sight pass through the battlements, through the shields and helmets, to see each other’s eyes.

Yet no javelins or stones were smashed down from above.

Were they not prepared at all?

Some Anglo-Saxons believed that their flaming-like invasion was effective.

No army would dare to launch an attack on the third day after the siege, and likewise, no army could have everything prepared on the third day of a siege.

This castle would be theirs, would be the Anglo-Saxons’.

The Anglo-Saxon warriors continued to climb upward.

A new change appeared on the city top.

They saw several British heavy infantrymen carrying a huge log onto the city wall.

That was a piece of wood as tall as a Soldier, covered with sharp blades.

“Watch out!” When seeing such a thing, the Anglo-Saxon immediately screamed.

He grabbed the sides of the ladder tightly.

Then, the Britons threw that huge log down.

The shadow fell from above, and the Anglo-Saxon held his breath, staring at that piece of wood with eyes widened to a terrifying degree.

On the straight-up-and-down scaling ladder, there was no way to dodge the things smashed down from above.

Fearing death is a human instinct.

Even for the Anglo-Saxons who believed in Valhalla, it was the same; when the log above their heads fell toward them, out of instinct, they would pray that it would not fall on them.

But unfortunately, this was impossible.

The ropes binding the log were obviously longer than the distance from the city tower to the location of the Anglo-Saxons.

The log first smashed onto the scaling ladder; several cross rungs were cut with notches by the blades on the log, the metal-reinforced wooden ladder body bent, and the log bounced once, continuing to fall downward.

The Anglo-Saxon raised his shield high, gripping one end of the scaling ladder tightly, forming an acute angle between the shield and the scaling ladder, hoping that the log could just bounce off from the angle of the shield.

The Anglo-Saxon really overestimated himself.

As soon as the heavy log smashed onto him, he let go.

Falling toward the bottom.

His body did achieve his previous expectation for the rolling log, bouncing off along the angle formed by the shield of the Soldier behind, he screamed, and fell to the ground with a thud.

The number of logs was quite large, and under Anthony’s instruction, almost all large round logs were remodeled into such logs.