Chương 71: Desperate retreat
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287 AC third moon
Victarion Greyjoy POV
To the shock of everyone present on the ramparts, the defenders locked out a group of their comrades from the tower defenses.
''Shit, keep pushing, we can't let them lock themselves in the towers'' I shouted as loud as I could to my men.
With renewed vigor, we charged back at the defenders, whom to our surprise accepted their fate in a brave manner and continued to fight like cornered lions, it only took a few seconds until the last of the defenders was already dead on the ground.
I quickly went to look at the steel door that secured the mechanism of the naval chain.
I tried to push and hit but nothing happened it was solid as a rock without any siege machinery, making this mission impossible and that meant that the tower would have to be completely destroyed in order to destroy the mechanism protecting the arsenal.
While I was thinking, I saw how a defender almost hit me with a stone in the head as I stood thoughtfully at the entrance to the tower.
I looked around me that it was not necessary to depend on the fleet to burn the arsenal, we can get to where they build their ships and also have the rest of the galleons anchored.
Quickly take control of the gates, and we will burn the ships ourselves'' I said as I turned to my men.
We changed our course and headed for the gates.
Upon arrival, I thanked the drowned god that the defenders did not destroy the mechanism that opens the gates of the walled complex.
We quickly opened the gates to make way for the rest of our army that was still waiting to enter to help in the fight.
Walking down the stairs and reaching the floor of the walled complex, I realized that a large group of my men were missing.
''What the hell is going on why are there men missing in our assault'' I said annoyed to one of the ship captains
''Dustan Drumm convinced some of the captains and other lords to raid the outskirts of neu danzig in order to get prisoners, many followed him as they were getting impatient to fight and get booty'' said the captain, very nervous.
Hearing what happened, I grabbed the captain by the neck and his leather armor and lifted him off the ground.
''AND YOU TELL ME NOW, HOW MANY MEN DID HE TAKE? DAMN IT, THE ASSAULT IS NOT GOING AS IT SHOULD AND THE IMBECILE WENT TO TRY TO GET A SALT WIFE'' I shouted furiously at the captain.
''Captain.... he took 4000 men.... I couldn't...stop them.... Dustan didn't want to listen...he wanted to get prisoners and he got bored.... of waiting...I couldn't...I swear I really couldn't''said with great difficulty the captain who is hanging with my hands
I finally released him from my grip.
We must at least burn this place down and kill as many as we can so that the Prussians will feel the blow'' I said to the rest of the men who were watching me in fear.
We turned back to our mission and began to move through the streets of the compound encountering small groups of resistance among the defenders of the military complex.
But they lacked the numbers to prevent our advance to the port, but they were managing to cause many casualties among my men for lack of good protection against the Prussian crossbows.
When we seemed to be about to reach the port we heard the metallic sounds of armor followed by drums and a large group of men... singing.
Mit Schwertern und Spießen
Das Fähnlein rückt ins Feld;
Das rote Blut muss fließ' -
Drum zahlt der König Geld.
Der Kaplan und Feldscher,
Die sind dann gleich zur Stell:
Mit Salben und Sermon
Scharrn sie uns in die Höll'.
Down the narrow street that led us to the port was among us the prestigious Prussian tercios that had been the destruction of the Targaryen.
Unlike the defenders of the walls whose armor was far superior to what an Iron born would wear, it was still incomplete, but this tercio were all wearing full plate armor and presented before us a wall of pikes through which we were forced to pass to reach the harbor.
From the Prussian group came out a man whose only difference was that his armor had a gold eagle plated on the breastplate.
''Pirate scum, your cowardly attempt to attack us has failed, the Prussian armies are already here to expel you, but our king is magnanimous if you lay down your arms and plead for your lives he promises them a quick and painless death'' said the Prussian officer.
I spat on the ground at the arrogant Prussian's request.
''let's test the invincibility of the Prussian tercios the drowned god protects us and always needs strong rowers at his side'' I shouted to my men.
We started to advance against the wall of pikes, no one had the slightest idea of what we had to do to fight against this.
We tried to dodge the pikes and enter the formation, but some were quickly overwhelmed, almost engulfed by the number of pikes they had to dodge.
Some Prussians started to crawl into the pike formation and were stabbing those who got caught in the pikes of their comrades.
Some of our men began to do the same and another kind of conflict started where men were trying to stab each other under the pikes.
In all the time we had been fighting, not one Prussian had been killed, while a small pile of bodies of our soldiers was beginning to form.
We tried again to enter the formation with pure brute force, and this time I led the vanguard to motivate our men.
This time we had been more successful because the Prussians advanced a little, and they were complicated when they passed over the corpses of our men, interfering with the discipline of their formation.
I had managed to get through the most difficult part of the pike formation and had managed to get a couple of hits on the Prussians who were crawling under the pikes, but they quickly escaped if they suffered any damage.
I had gotten close enough that I was preparing to strike a blow at the first of the tercio soldiers when I saw a giant covered in steel swinging a giant sword at me.
I received a powerful blow to the head, the helmet had saved me, but I was dazed and saw everything blurry, I felt how they took me from behind and began to carry me out of the combat.
After a few minutes, I felt them slap me in the face.
''Captain Victarion, are you with us?'' one of my captains said to me as he slapped me in the face.
I gestured for him to let me go
''Yes, what happened?'' I said as I looked at my surroundings.
''we can't get through the tercio formation, we have been forced to retreat slowly, but we are very close to the walls, if this keeps up we will be expelled from the fortification'' said the captain, pointing to a group of iron born who were still fighting against the Prussian tercio.
''what happened to the rest of the captains who went other ways'' I said while touching my face.
''the same thing there are Prussian soldiers on all the roads of the military complex we can't get any further than we are now'' said the captain, a bit nervous
I looked at the hand with which I had touched my face and saw that there was a lot of blood, the wound I received was quite serious.
Damn it all seemed to be going well, but the execution of the plan has been horrible, we didn't achieve anything in this attack, and we only lost good men attacking the arsenal.
We failed, we retreated, we hope Maron's attack was more successful'' I said as I got up from the floor, took off my helmet and put on my helmet.
I took off my helmet and put my hand on the wound to avoid losing too much blood.
''give the order to retreat the faster, the better, the tercios can't chase us so fast without compromising their formation I think, let's go back to the walls of the complex.
The captain obeyed and began to give orders to retreat, and another group went to visit the rest of the captains who were separated from us.
We quickly retreated to where everything had started, the arsenal walls.
I said to my soldiers: ''Everyone go out the door and then close it and destroy the mechanism so we can gain time and get to our ships and escape from here'' I said to my soldiers.
Everyone obeyed as it was very evident that this plan had been a mistake and quite a few iron born had died, and we had nothing to show for it but wounds.
When we all came out of the walled compound, a group of soldiers destroyed the mechanism of the arsenal door and went down the stairs that we had placed for siege.
The Prussians appeared a few minutes later and tried to open the door with no luck.
At least we gained time.
We got back as fast as we could do where we had the ships docked, with all the difficulties that wounded soldiers could present.
But we reached the boats and to our luck they were still here, we quickly began to try to throw them into the sea, but we saw a small boat approaching.
But we saw a small group approaching us, we formed a line to resist.
We formed a line to put up resistance and give the rest time to continue pushing boats into the water, but when they got closer, we saw that they were still here.
But when they came closer, we saw that they were iron born covered in blood and wounds.
I went out to talk to these iron born who must have been the idiots that followed Drumm.
''It seems that my orders were very misunderstood since I ordered you to raid the arsenal, NOT GO LOOK FOR SALT WIVES'' I shouted angrily to the leader of the iron born.
''Lord Dustan Drumm said it was a waste of time waiting to climb the walls that we could go and get loot on the outskirts of the city'' said the fearful captain.
''Where is Dustan Drumm I have to talk to that idiot'' I said to the captain.
''Probably dead, everything had gone well, we reached a residential sector and there was little or no resistance from the defenders, we had already started to take loot and salt wives until we came across a large group of Prussian soldiers, we tried to resist but we could do nothing against their formation, we were starting to retreat when the Prussian cavalry appreciated and flanked and surrounded us, the people you see are the ones we managed to flee, Captain Victorion'' said the captain looking at the ground.
When I heard this, I was perplexed
It means that if it wasn't for Dustan Drumm they would have attacked us and burned our ships or even worse, been trapped fighting in the arsenal.
''Get back to the boats, we have to get out of here before the Prussians catch up with us'' I said to the survivors.
We went back to push the boats.
My group was composed of 200 ships, 14000 men, now we only had enough to fill 120 ships completely we almost lost half of my men in this damned attack and I still don't know what happened to Maron.
The first rays of the sun had already begun to rise, and we could see clearly again.
We had returned our ships to the sea and were preparing to go after Maron when we saw 3 Prussian war galleys approaching our formation.
The ships that were in the vanguard were preparing to attack, eager for revenge against the Prussians, but the ship's crew was not visible.
With my spyglass, I could see how the few sailors who were on the ships jumped off the boats and began to swim as far away from the ships as possible.
''OH NO, BEWARE OF THE WAR GALLEYS'' I shouted and tried to signal the ships in the vanguard
when a galley crashed into one of our ships, it turned into a fireball, generating a chain reaction with the other 2 Prussian galleys
affecting many of our ships and covering them with fire.
The explosion and fire would have affected almost 40 of our ships, destroying them at once or covering them with fire.
The screams of my men were heart-rending those who were not lucky enough to die immediately were burning alive.
We all watched in horror at what was happening, but the fear was absolute when we saw how the sailors threw themselves into the water hoping to put out the fire, but it was still burning anyway.
When the sailors threw water to try to extinguish the fire, it burned even more intensely.
''May the drowned god protect us, what is that'' said one of my sailors.
''Some kind of Prussian witchcraft maybe'' said another sailor.
''STOP TALKING STUPIDITY AND HELP YOUR MATES'' I shouted to the sailors.
We tried to do what we could to help those affected, but there was little we could do, some had horrible burns all over their bodies, they could not stop screaming from the pain.
We continued to sail to find Maron, this time with everyone watching for more Prussian galleys in case they tried the same trick again.
When we arrived near the walls of neu danzig I could see how all our ships were burning, all those who had followed Maron were dead or captured, I prayed to the drowned god to give Maron a quick and glorious death and that he would not be forced to experience a humiliating capture.
We watched as many Prussian ships began to pursue us, we had to get out of here, or we would suffer the same fate as Maron's men.
We had failed horribly, out of 300 ships only 82 ships were returning, out of 21000 iron born only about 6000 were returning and many wounded who may not be able to fight again, the hard part will come now that we will have to fight the Prussians with the fire that burns under the water.
While I was healing my head wound, I started to think about how I am going to explain this to Balon, about my defeat and what could happen to his son.
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