Bab 21: Siege of Pergamon 2
The Almogavars moved towards the enemy camp at night at the command of their King. Unlike the half-naked, battle-crazy units of the past, the Almogavars of the contemporary era were elite shock troops as well as a military caste. They still preferred lighter equipment, however, their javelins and swords got heavier to suit the era and the enemies they were facing at the expense of their ability to wage guerrilla warfare across the enemy territory. Yet they still retained their knowledge of terrains and warrior tradition. Even though they lived in farmlands now, hills, trees, and mountains were still familiar to them and would often be their homes during wars. That's why the King of Pergamon sent them to attack the enemy camp, hoping that an ambush at night may be enough to repel the enemy. until he gathers all his forces. In the worst case scenario, the Almogavars would simply retreat back to the hills and the castle, as they had always done.
The Almogavars approached the enemy camp without any contact with enemy scouts. It wasn't the first time for an invading army to trust their size and leave few guards to defend themselves at night. It seemed to be the same this time too. At first, Aelius' ever-rising fame spread a sense of danger in the ranks of the soldiers of Pergamon, but the defenseless sight of their camp eased the stress of the approaching Almogavars. Just when they were about to ridicule the rumors about the Crown Prince of Alta, they heard a thunderous sound. The shock made them stop in their tracks, a very common and natural mistake upon facing an inexplicable phenomenon for the first time, however, the soldiers of Alta were not kind enough to wait for their enemies' confusion to settle down. While the cannon shots were likely to miss their targets, the following musket volley fire took out a few enemies and sent the others into a retreat. The Almogavars stumbled and had to change their retreat routes so that they could escape the bombardment of bullets and cannon shots. The soldiers of Alta chased them one by one with the help of their wolves and hunting dogs and hunted them down in the hills. After a few hours, the chase ceased and the soldiers of Alta returned back to their camp in glory. Half of the Almogavars were killed that night, while the rest were either chased out of the vicinity of their capital or sought shelter in it. For a group of people who preferred to attack in open fields, rather than wait for a siege in a castle, this was as shameful as it could possibly be for a warrior.
While the Pergamon camp was shaking from fear and dread, the Alta camp was in high spirits. They would've celebrated their small victory if it hadn't been for their commanders holding them back. After all, there was still work to do.
...
We took our time in the morning for the soldiers who were active at night to rest while the rest placed the cannons on wagons and prepared to assault the castle. The army moved towards Pergamon in the late morning. Our scouts reported that Pergamon's camp was abandoned and the army entered the city. They risked being besieged and starved than to face me in a pitched battle, possibly due to the huge losses of the Almogavars. Nonetheless, I still sent emissaries to ask for surrender. They refused.
I approached the castle with my army and we began besieging the castle. The first line of defenses was built between our army and the castle to prevent any possible sally and cut the castle from the outside world. The second line of defenses was built behind our army to protect our rear in case enemy allies came to lift the siege. Both lines of defense consisted of earth banks and wooden palisades but were considerably smaller in size as I was planning on conquering the castle by midnight. The cannons were further elevated by placing the wagons that carried them on makeshift ramparts. By mid-afternoon, we started bombarding the walls. We had three 2kgs, two 4kgs, and a single 6kgs cannons. They were named and categorized by the weight of the cannonball they shot. We blasted a single portion of the walls with cannonballs for 4 hours until the walls crumbled. Our cannons were capable of firing around a shot per minute, a total of a little short of 1500 shots. While the city walls were bombarded by the cannons, I ordered the musketeers to shoot at the archers and the Almagovars on the walls.
Our cannon fire ceased after a portion of the walls crumbled. Then, I ordered an assault through the gap in the walls after the musketeers gathered and shot a volley fire to destroy the last of the enemy soldiers trying to defend the broken portion of the walls. After that, the enemy completely lost their morale and we captured the city by supper.
I ordered the volunteers to protect the camp and entered the city with my regular army as they were thoroughly disciplined and I could completely control them through both my secular and divine authority. After all, who would not obey a person who grew a mythical 300 meters tree out of the ground? The volunteers and the rest of the populace too were told of this "just war" idealism, but I didn't trust them yet, so I left them in the camp and strictly ordered them to not enter the city as they might've started looting and pillaging.
The city was naturally afraid of the army, but the lack of violence and the sight of me healing some of the ill and wounded civilians and captured soldiers made it easy for us to install the necessary institutions and facilities to annex the territory into our kingdom. I also didn't kill the existing royalty but ordered them to be sent to Alta. As against the authority of these greedy men, as I was, I was not violent enough to kill captured and defenseless enemies, and even the children. I was planning on conquering the world in order to establish a better order, not carry out massacres because of my greed. Each and every single person can be a fuel to sustain this... MY civilization. Plus, after they spend some time in Alta, I was certain that they would willingly contribute to Alta as compared to anywhere in the world as of now, Alta was at least seven centuries ahead.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
ryuutaurus
ryuutaurus Busy, busy, busy. I am overworking myself to meet the deadlines at work. I almost threw up today. I most likely will work until way after midnight today too, so I am afraid I will release the chapters less frequently, though I will continue to write the chapters bit by bit. By the way, the next chapter will be an auxiliary chapter where I talk about the world, MC, countries and their backgrounds, and my ideas and thought processes.
This has been bugging me for a while, I use a free indirect speech kinda style to write this novel, which is quite different from most original novels I have read here. Is there any problem with the fluidity of the text?
Hadiah
-- Hadiah diterima Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone