When Kiss reached the top of the city wall, he saw the professionals who had already started foaming at the mouth.
“My Lord, there’s not a single drop left, really not a single drop.”
A professional with some energy crawled over to Kiss, as if completely drained.
The magic stones on the city wall no longer emitted a faint glow, becoming indistinguishable from ordinary stones.
Meanwhile, the magic barrier flickered in and out of existence, and Kiss could already feel the vibrations from the explosive fireballs passing through the barrier beneath his feet.
At the top of Black Iron City, the tremors were evident.
“General?”
A soldier waved his hand in front of the seemingly dazed Kiss, but Kiss grabbed the soldier’s hand and moved it away, staring at the magic barrier that was about to collapse and said, “I feel like I can see my great-grandmother; when the barrier disappears, she will be smiling at me. What do you say? Am I still drunk?”
“Calm down, General, the barrier can hold for a while longer!”
After saying this, the soldier pulled out a piece of white cloth from his armor and said, “We can still surrender!”
Kiss slapped the soldier’s face in anger, berating him, “Do you have any respect for the Lord Governor? Think about how Governor Doug has treated us!”
Then Kiss went blank for a moment and said, “Forget it, don’t think about this.”
After adjusting his emotions, Kiss once again shouted angrily, “Think about the common people and merchants in the city, think about your loved ones and friends, think about yourselves. Can you live up to the armor you wear? Can you live up to the glory of the Northern Border? Surrendering at the first sign of trouble, is that how you serve as soldiers?”
Listening to Kiss’s reprimand, the soldiers on the city wall lowered their heads, and even the professionals on the ground began to crawl back up again.
“Can you bear the cost of surrendering? Each of you stands on the city wall, do you think you’re that clean?”
After hearing this, the soldiers were filled with shame and indignation.
Finally, Kiss roared, “If you want to surrender, it must be after I discuss it with the nobles and merchants in the city. If we surrender directly, how will we face Governor Doug in the future? So listen to me, hold on a little longer, and I’ll have the nobles in the city surrender with us!”
As he turned to walk away, Kiss suddenly remembered something and told the soldiers on the wall, “Right, put up the white flag first. We must surrender with dignity; we can’t let the enemy look down on us.”
“Yes!”
After Kiss spoke, the morale on the wall was united, everyone was united in wanting to surrender. How much money could Governor Doug offer? What was the point of risking their lives?
However, these soldiers were truly wronging Doug this time; the investment for the Beitang Defensive Line was significant, including the reinforcements, so why did Black Iron City, as part of the reinforcements, end up receiving so little?
It was likely that the nobles under Governor Doug had all learned the spirit of self-enrichment. After listening to Governor Doug talk about how the Graywhite Territory’s army was embezzling funds, they probably tried their hand at it themselves.
Kiss understood very well that if the walls collapsed, it didn’t matter. Black Iron City was so large, and they had a numbers advantage, while the enemy had just over a thousand men. As long as Kiss was willing to fight again, they could still take the city.
Street fighting was the most exhausting, especially for the side at a numerical disadvantage.
The merchants and nobles in the city would definitely be unwilling.
Because once the enemy truly broke into the city, the lords and their residences would surely be the primary targets for attack and occupation. At that time, even if Kiss bravely led the soldiers in street combat and delayed until reinforcements arrived, those noble lords would just grab Kiss by the collar and ask, “What have you protected?”
Even if Kiss won in the end, it would still be a loss.
For Kiss, this was the true meaning of war. Thus, although he had never fought before, he was still supported by the nobles and became a general.
Meanwhile, outside the city, White was spiritedly getting up, or rather, he hadn’t slept at all last night.
That magic barrier was sturdier than he had imagined. However, after a day and night of bombardment, the barrier finally began to flicker.
It was likely that no one in this era could have imagined an army bombarding a city wall for a whole day and night without stopping.
Unless that army had organized professionals, but if there were truly organized professionals, they probably wouldn’t use such simple methods.
Observing the flickering magic barrier, White began to think about what to do after breaking the city.
After all, if the enemy wanted to fight in the streets, it could greatly slow down White’s control over Black Iron City, as the number of soldiers was still too few.
The headquarters had actually provided a plan; the remaining troops of the Third Army Group were estimated to be on their way, and they would send people to assist White in controlling Black Iron City.
Governor Doug still thought too highly of these northern nobles; White felt that these nobles might surrender even faster than Governor Doug had anticipated.
But as it was, the scouts reported that the other comrades of the Third Army Group could already be seen nearby.
While waiting for the barrier on the wall to completely collapse, White spotted the reinforcements coming to support him.
“Lord Sean.”
White wanted to kneel and pay his respects but was helped up by Sean.
“I’m just a staff officer, you’re the commander. How can someone in command kneel to a staff officer?”
“But…”
“There are no ‘buts.’ General White, this is an army.”
Under Sean’s firm attitude, White suppressed the urge to kneel, and in the end, a handshake replaced the formalities.
Although he knew that Governor Doug attached great importance to this first battle, he didn’t expect the supporters to be so high-profile.
“Lord Sean, why did the support arrive one or two days earlier than expected?”
“The Beitang Defensive Line is much more fragile than I imagined. After a little contact, they didn’t dare to stick their heads out at all, and they didn’t launch any obstruction against us, so we set off early.”
“Moreover, this time I brought along alchemists, oh, my brother said they were engineer troops, but whatever, it’s all the same. Once the city falls, we can take over the city’s defenses immediately.”
While they were talking, the flag on the wall was already raised.
Sean frowned. Most of Doug’s troops were originally part of the Northern Army, and the speed of surrender was too fast. Neither side had even truly fought, had the Northern Army declined to such a degree?
Although the enemy was now an adversary, Sean still felt somewhat uncomfortable at the Northern Army’s rapid decline; these could have once been soldiers of the Lars Family.
Seeing the enemy raise the white flag, White also stopped the bombardment, took the loudspeaker handed to him by a soldier, and shouted, “Northerners do not fight Northerners. Graythorn Territory offers favorable treatment for prisoners. Quickly lay down your weapons and come out to surrender.”
Other soldiers followed White’s lead and shouted.
Upon seeing this, Kiss also quickly brought his troops to remove all their weapons and armor, opening the city gate to surrender.
Thus, the vital reinforcements of the Beitang Defensive Line had surrendered.
After confirming that the enemy wasn’t faking their surrender, Sean, surrounded by his guards, stepped into the barely damaged city.
“This algorithm is so outdated.”
Sean arrived at the tower on the city wall and inspected the magic barrier device here.
It could only be controlled by professionals, and even the magic stone’s power supply needed professionals to connect, while the sigils were arranged with no regularity. The efficiency of the magic circle was also extremely low.
The alchemists dressed in military uniforms and carrying toolboxes followed Sean into the tower, cursing at the control device of the barrier.
“Who the hell wrote this algorithm? It’s worse than my son’s homework.”
“Let’s reprogram it; this old magic formation can’t be used at all.”
“No wonder it didn’t hold for even a day. The waste of magic power is too serious; it’s a crime.”
White also came to Sean’s side. There was no way; although White was the overall commander of the Third Army Group, Sean’s actual status was significantly higher than White’s, so the crowd still subconsciously regarded Sean as the mainstay.
Sean shook his head and sighed; it seemed that the brother’s reform still had a long way to go. But precisely because of his special identity, Sean thought his brother would have handed this burden to him.
There must be a reason for his brother to do this, and he needed to learn more from him.
“Lord Sean, should we have these professionals help out?”
Soldiers pushed out those professionals who were exhausted, their eyes somewhat unfocused, and their mouths still spewing foam.
These professionals watched the Graythorn Territory’s alchemists, or rather, the engineers, as they cursed and began making drastic alterations to the proud magic barrier.
“No need; their abilities are worse than my friend’s younger sister who teaches elementary school.”
In the past, Sean might have treated these professionals well, even if they were enemies, but now, he couldn’t even be bothered to look at them.
However, these people weren’t entirely devoid of value, but before that, he needed to crush their so-called professional pride to pieces.
“What about the nobles and merchants in the city?”
“I’ll handle them. I guarantee they won’t interfere with our work in defending the city.”
Sean, originally a top young noble, could be said to have a handle on the nobles in a commercial city. He knew what they needed and could even guess why these nobles surrendered.
The Third Army Group was about to fully take over Black Iron City, while the so-called reinforcements for Black Iron City still hadn’t shown a shadow.
White estimated that the other nobles must have already received the plea for help, after all, he hadn’t completely blockaded Black Iron City.
And the progress had reached the stage of arguing about whether to launch reinforcements, and it would probably still take some time to actually get started.
