Drawing Cards in the Middle Ages to Rise in Ranks-Chapter 467 - 247: The Battle for Gaza City

Underneath the city of Gaza.

The sounds of battle were deafening.

Soldiers bearing shields pushed siege towers and siege hammers, slowly approaching the city walls.

From time to time, someone would be hit by arrows fired from the cityhead, falling headlong to the ground.

But the number of the enemy was simply too overwhelming.

Though Gaza City was a crucial defense point, Baron Robert in charge hadn’t dispatched many troops to join the Crusaders in Jerusalem, the total strength of Gaza City was only three thousand, most of which were temporarily recruited militia.

The comparison of forces between the enemy and us reached a terrifying one-to-ten.

Baron Robert stood atop the city walls, his hand resting on his sword: "Aim for the enemy’s siege tower, ignite fire arrows — release!"

The Crusader archers at the cityhead began to light fire arrows, the specially crafted arrowheads were hollowed, containing sulfur, asphalt, and oil-soaked hemp, a lethal fire attack weapon, though sacrificing range and accuracy.

Boom—

A clanging sound rang out.

The vast majority of arrows hit the siege tower, only to be bounced off by the iron plating, only a scant dozen penetrated, but could not ignite the already watered siege tower.

The siege towers were nearly upon the city walls.

Baron Robert ordered loudly again: "Throw the fire pots!"

Crusader-used fire pots weren’t as flammable as the Eastern Empire’s Greek Fire, the flames covering the siege tower couldn’t burn the massive structure enough.

Finally, the siege tower reached the city walls.

The Saracen armored warriors who had been ready immediately kicked open the blocking board, placed it between the city wall and the siege tower, and swarmed towards the cityhead.

But the narrow plank of the siege tower limited the forces deployed simultaneously.

Along with the Saracen forces coming from Egypt being somewhat unprepared, after these four siege towers approached the city walls, they instead fell into a hard fight, many armoured warriors climbing the walls were pushed and fell heavily to the ground.

Some who hadn’t been killed from the fall couldn’t be treated in the chaotic battlefield, only waiting for death to come with agonizing cries.

"Be careful, young master!"

A red-cloaked attendant pushed a knight away and took a nail head hammer blow himself, his helmet was cracked open, blood flowed from his seven orifices, he fell lifelessly on the ground.

The surviving knight stabbed his sword into the enemy, but then immediately noticed something was wrong.

The sword had only pierced the enemy’s scale armor but was blocked by the chain armor liner beneath, the tall Mamluk soldier, grinned under his chain armor helmet, clutched the knight’s sword with his gloved left hand, and swung the nail head hammer towards the knight’s head with his right.

Crack—

A flying spear nearly brushed past the knight’s shoulder, directly piercing the Mamluk soldier’s head, the strong force driving him back several steps.

The knight turned to look.

Only then realizing it was his father, Baron Robert, who found time amidst chaos to throw that spear.

But soon, footsteps sounded again from the ramp in front.

From the dark siege tower, a giant beast seemed to slowly appear.

The soldiers fighting alongside him were dwindling in number, despite the limited number of siege towers, they outnumbered us, with many well-trained elites, once they got on the cityhead, many recruited militia guarding the city couldn’t withstand them.

The unknown enemy finally showed themselves.

A group of Mamluk soldiers in heavy armor, wielding nail head hammers, straight swords, and round shields, their bodies encased in iron armor, chanting pagan prayers, came at young Robert like released tigers.

Young Robert shouted with a fierce "Ah."

He picked up a Crusader kite shield and moved towards the enemy.

Bang—

The hammer hit the barrel helmet, making a heavy dull sound.

His vision instantly went dark, what he could see through the gaps in his armor turned blurred.

Thud—

He fell into the pile of corpses on the cityhead.

Uncertain how long had passed.

When young Robert came to, he crawled out from among the corpses, heavy, armored bodies pressed on him making it hard to breathe, the strong smell of blood becoming even more pungent under the scorching sun.

Rising up, he found the battle had stabilized.

A siege tower had already toppled nearby.

The section of the city wall where he was had no enemy left, most of the defending troops had gone to support other places.

His father still stood prominently on the cityhead, loudly ordering: "Fire!"

Bang!

The crossbow cannon at the cityhead rang piercing through the siege tower, the iron plating covering the siege tower was no match for this powerful crossbow, like a paper easily torn apart.

The crossbow arrow tail was connected to a rope, the rope connected to a suspended boulder, with another order from Baron Robert, the rope holding the boulder was cut with a Crusader axe.

The suddenly falling boulder drove the crossbow arrow tail rope, causing the entire siege tower to be shifted.

With a rumbling sound.

Dozens of Mamluk elites within the siege tower, poised to attack, shouted in shock and panic.

Soon, the siege tower fell with a crash.

The soldiers inside either plunged into chaos or were crushed alive.

Perhaps this was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The enemy sounded the urgent horn for retreat.

The Saracen soldiers began fleeing in disarray, some still trapped on the city wall didn’t hear the retreat horn, realizing only later that they were surrounded by enemy forces.

The Crusader soldiers defending the city showed a sense of relief surviving the ordeal as they watched the Saracen soldiers flee in disorder and panic.

Young Robert took off his helmet, his beautiful golden curls were drenched in sweat, sticking to his cheeks and forehead, he panted heavily, took a nearby water jug and drank heavily.

"I wonder where Ms. Chelina has gone."

He still recalled the scene when Chelina left that day, the sky filled with yellow sand, pursuing cavalry, and the "witch" who used unknown magic causing arrows to lodge in the Saracen scout’s neck.

"If she were here, with her witchcraft, how could the attacking enemies achieve anything even in large numbers?"

Young Robert showed deep regret and envy, wondering what kind of charisma Marquis Losa, whom he’d never met, had to win Ms. Chelina’s service.

...

In the camp under the city.

Adil’s face was gloomy: "Master Salman, will you still not intervene?"

Beside him, a caster wrapped in black robe, headdress, and veil, spoke coldly: "I promised your lord not to deal with ordinary people—that’s the only reason I agreed to cooperate with him."

"If you truly are merciful, you shouldn’t watch my soldiers die in the hundreds, thousands on the enemy’s walls!"

Adil angrily said: "My siege engines are utterly destroyed, if we want to capture Gaza quickly, we must have the soldiers carry rudimentary ladders to climb the Crusaders’ walls, do you know how many would die?"

Building siege engines requires both skill and time.

Though there are craftsmen skilled in building siege engines in his army, where could he find enough materials nearby to build them quickly, and how could he afford to stay under Gaza City for long?