Capítulo 1984: Chapter 635: A Bloody Incident Triggered by an Artifact (Part 2)

The crossbow cannon with its ten bolts may not kill many infantrymen, but the explosive impact when the massive arrows strike flesh has significantly shaken the morale of the Mulanese; these bandits from the desert neither have archers nor bed crossbows, not to mention stone throwers, even the archmage they rely on as a fortification hasn’t fired yet. Due to the isolation of the moat, their spears can’t reach the top of Witherspoon City, and anyone would find the experience of being beaten without being able to retaliate unbearable.

The Beamon warriors, unrestricted, mostly leaned out from the battlements and walls, firing at the densest crowds possible. Even the most cowardly hedgehog henchmen and skunk henchmen boldly used the axle of a pulley well to slam huge logs tied with iron chains down the city walls. Every time the logs hit the ground and were pulled up again, these henchmen would scream and laugh, as the round logs were slippery, covered in blood.

The advantages of high morale reveal themselves fully, as General Reyes, commanding the defense of the city, secretly admired the recklessness of the Shaman of Divine Songs.

“Add charcoal! Fan the flames!” Hundreds of Fawkes officers, with their gold-uniformed suits already covered in black ash, stood by massive iron cauldrons set upon stone platforms. The blazing charcoal emitted intense heat, while the sturdy Piegel warriors lay on the ground, desperately pulling bellows, rapidly melting solid pitch into thick liquid.

As Piegel warriors ladled the smoking black liquid down the city gate, the Mulanese strongmen pounding the gate with large wooden mallets would scream and fall, clutching their faces; large chunks of pitch would cool and solidify on their skin, cracking like dry fields. {PS: This also shows Beamon’s poverty; humans defending a city would surely pour boiling oil.}

Catapults positioned on elevated platforms behind the city wall swing in a pendulum motion, using the leverage of weights to launch large wicker baskets through the air, tracing beautiful arcs and crashing onto the heads of the Mulanese.

The most interesting scene unfolded.

Due to the severe shortage of stone on the Donau Wasteland, since last year, the kingdom’s various provinces learned from Florence to establish large kilns for firing bricks from clay, providing both military and civilian supplies.

Baskets woven from wild grapevines are filled with bricks, equaling the weight of the stone projectiles used by catapults — the soil of Primitive Ancient Origin is rich in metallic elements. Although it is not as outstanding as Florence’s red earth, the fired bricks are still very hard and heavy.

Since they were made as “casket shots,” the shape of the bricks did not matter, as they weren’t for building walls anyway.

With this guiding philosophy, various Beamon military regiments effortlessly stockpiled a significant amount of “casket shots.”

But the Beamon had overlooked a crucial detail: although “casket shots” were as heavy as stone projectiles, each was an open basket!

Of course they had to be open; how else would the baskets hold bricks?

Yet it wasn’t sensible to ignore the open lid. So, all Beamon logistics departments tied ropes and lids to cover the openings of the “casket shots” — now when these “casket shots” are launched by catapults, most burst open mid-air as the ropes snapped under pressure.

This was when the spectacular scene began!

Massive amounts of bricks would rain down from the sky, creating a comprehensive brick shower!

Each “casket shot” contained at least a hundred bricks, imagine a sudden fan-shaped downpour from above with no safety corners — what does a brick shower mean to the flesh and blood on the ground?

Now at the bottom of Witherspoon’s city wall, only a few of the “casket shots” launched by catapults crushed into horrifying flesh explosions; most burst into a frenzy of flying bricks!

Numerous two-pound bricks falling from over a hundred meters high rained down like meteor showers, knocking clusters of Mulanese to the ground; where the bricks flew rampant, that place was full of unfortunate souls rolling and clutching their heads.

Soldiers from the era of firearms know the ferocity of “non-lethal weaponry,” and the most typical representative of “non-lethal weaponry” is the landmine, which excels at blasting off legs and creating countless disabled individuals in enemy ranks; historically, it is the favorite of military strategists and cane workshops — simply put, for an army, wounded soldiers are at least a hundred times more troublesome than the same number of dead soldiers! A corpse only needs to be buried on the spot, but a wounded soldier, who cannot fight anymore, negatively affects morale, requires treatment, dedicated care, and during long-distance transfers, significantly delays the movement of troops, posing a huge burden on the logistics system.

By sheer unconscious error, the Beamon’s catapults relying on “casket shots” unleashed a rain of bricks, causing the Mulanese innumerable concussions and fractures — and to heal tendons and bones takes a hundred days, these wounded warriors shouldn’t expect to fight again for three months.

This achievement caused far more trouble for the Mulanese than a few patches of flesh smashed by stone projectiles, and the sight of lamentation everywhere had an immeasurably powerful deterrent and intimidation on the sound-limbed Mulan warfighters; after this battle, the human military observer group assisting in Witherspoon’s city defense unanimously bestowed the honorific title of “Battlefield Sweeper” upon the glorious Beamon catapult units!