Regardless of the new recruits' astonishment, the leaders of both sides were engaged in a different conversation.
"What are the casualties like?" Grand Duke Andrei asked Kailar's disciple, who was in charge of statistics, standing beside him. The disciple calmly nodded in response to Grand Duke Andrei's question. "Twenty-five casualties, ten dead. They were killed by the flying axes of the Anglo-Saxons standing on the ladders. Additionally, five are severely wounded and ten are lightly wounded. They have all been sent to rest."
"New recruits are just new recruits," Grand Duke Andrei sighed, shaking his head. "If they were experienced warriors, these twenty-five wouldn't have died."
"You can't say that, Grand Duke," Haibu Weier, Kailar's disciple of statistics, shook his head and chuckled. "Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of training warriors?"
"Haha, I was too serious," Grand Duke Andrei laughed heartily, shaking his head.
"I need more siege equipment than just flimsy ladders!!" Brown roared. "More! Otherwise, we can't scale walls at this angle!"
The sixty-degree walls presented a steep incline. More importantly, unlike ancient Chinese city walls, which were built by water, surrounded on all four sides, and had barbicans to defend against enemies (that thing often seen in TV dramas where you pretend to surrender, lure a general into the city, then close the gates and trap them), Chinese cities had walls on all four sides. In other words, not only did the attacking force have to disperse its troops across four gates and four walls, but the defending force also needed a certain amount of troops to hold them. The characteristic of such cities was that as long as there were enough troops, high walls, and ample provisions, even a god couldn't breach them!
And because the terrain was flat, China developed a series of defensive methods: flooding, burning, smoke, oil, moats, and wall-corner tunnels, all considered a series of creations and arts.
However, in the West since the Middle Ages, cities were always built against mountains. The advantage of this was that only one side needed to be defended, without worrying about others. Relying on the natural defenses of one side allowed for the concentration of troops, effectively dispersing the enemy's numerical advantage in a siege and allowing for concentrated slaughter.
Both approaches had their own advantages. China emphasized room for maneuver. This Western-style city, from another perspective, also put itself in a precarious position; if the city fell, there was no chance of survival. Chinese cities were the opposite; if the city fell, one could even gather troops to break out or conduct decapitation strikes.
This was also due to the differences in culture between the two regions.
So when Constantinople, a fortress known as an "impenetrable stronghold," was breached, the West fell into another extreme of development: the star fort.
In fact, this cultural difference was not only reflected in fortresses.
However, Red Leaf Ridge, a fortress-like structure, was built with bluestone, with gaps filled with stone powder mixed with fish glue, and finally coated with a layer of whitewash. From a distance, Red Leaf Ridge looked like a giant white board, a rather beautiful and proud city in this era.
But now, after more than five thousand Anglo-Saxons warriors lay dead beneath the city walls, the white walls of the city were adorned with splashes of fresh red. Now, Red Leaf Ridge truly resembled red leaves, with fiery red maple leaves blooming in dots on the city walls, but these maple leaves were painted with fresh blood.
"Build me more siege equipment, give me more ladders and ropes! I'm going to kill everyone in the city!!" Brown yelled, but his subordinates looked troubled. In this area, let alone craftsmen, even the straw stalks in the fields had been harvested along the way, and there wasn't even a rabbit. If they hadn't brought enough provisions to last seven or eight days, they probably would have had to return dejectedly before even reaching Camelot Royal City.
There were no craftsmen, and how would Barbarians like the Anglo-Saxons, Gauls, and Vikings, who lived by plunder, understand the power of technology?
When they killed all the carpenters and blacksmiths, they would have no ships, no weapons. When they killed all the stonemasons, they would have no shelter (houses in this era still relied on stonemasons). When they killed all the merchants, no one would trade grain overseas anymore. When they killed all the travelers, they would be isolated from civilization.
They didn't understand these things.
So when they faced the Camelot people, with their high walls, sharp spears, thick armor, and strong horses, their leather armor would be pierced by sharp long spears, their large ships would be sunk by crossbow bolts, and their escape would be overtaken and cut down by knights.
In the eyes of the discerning, this battle had no suspense whatsoever. Perhaps savagery could conquer civilization with knives and slaughter, but that was an extremely unequal situation. When both sides' consciousness and concepts are similar, savagery cannot defeat civilization, just as swords cannot defeat guns, guns cannot defeat missiles, and missiles carry nuclear warheads... Just as Brown was agitated and furious, an Anglo-Saxon man, his head streaming with blood, stumbled over, crying out in a wailing tone: "General! General! It's bad! The Gauls and Vikings stole our things! Several of our brothers were even killed by them."
Brown exploded.
I'm here besieging the city, and you're stealing our things in the back? Is there any law?! Is there any justice?!
Furious, Brown led a group of Anglo-Saxons to the scene, which was the Red Leaf Ridge urban area.
They saw the Gauls and Vikings moving like ants, and their two leaders were arguing fiercely, as there was a problem with the division of loot.
"What's going on! What's going on!" Brown shouted angrily. As the General of the Anglo-Saxons, his status was certainly much higher than these captains, so he immediately asserted his authority by shouting.
Unfortunately, he misunderstood one thing: what did the Anglo-Saxons have to do with the Gauls and Vikings? The two captains, belonging to the Gauls and Vikings respectively, showed no respect for their ally. The Gaul captain burped and chuckled, asking, "What's going on? Your little brats dared to steal our things, and we've already taken care of them." The Gauls and Vikings were addicted to alcohol. Today, they found an underground winery, a cellar of wine that the Camelot people couldn't move but hadn't hidden well. However, Anglo-Saxons were staying in this cellar, and a dispute naturally arose between the three parties over the loot. Barbarians inherently had no concept of nation or civilization; drawing swords at the slightest disagreement was commonplace. These two captains, relying on their numbers, directly cut down the Anglo-Saxons and began to loot, and were now moving things out.
"You're looking for death!!" Brown, already enraged by Camelot, stared at the other party with
bloodshot eyes, only three syllables bursting from the roots of his teeth...