The Crossing Was Taken

Kadok looked down at the moat below the city. Two-thirds of the front side had been filled in, and about half of the east and west sides had been filled in, rendering it practically useless for defense.

There were burn marks from incendiary bombs hitting both sides of the moat, and many corpses were on it, clearly showing that the Sixth Legion's laborers had forcibly filled in the moat despite interference from the city walls.

Kadok, seeing so many corpses, at least several hundred people, angrily slammed his fist on the city wall a few times. These were all citizens of the Ironvine Territory, who had been forced by the Sixth Legion to fill the river.

"Damn it!" Kadok was furious, but he really had no way to retaliate.

In this situation, with insufficient troops already defending the city, he dared not lead his men out of the city to fight.

"I just hope the Count will return with his troops as soon as possible. I wonder how things are going on their end?"

Inside the Sixth Legion's camp, Turas was summoning Dirac, the Battalion Commander of the Cavalry battalion.

"Dirac, as you already know, our siege is not going well, and it is no longer likely that we will be able to take the city in a short time."

I need to confirm whether Wen De can reach the ferry in time. I want you to lead the Cavalry brigade directly to the ferry to meet up with Wen De!

"But Lord Turas, we already have a shortage of troops for the siege. Is it alright to send us out again?"

"The troop strength is not as tight as you think, and besides, I can't possibly let my precious Cavalry abandon their horses and go to the city to fight."

So Dirac, you should take your troops and join up with Wen and the others. If they fail to stop Count Lloyd's main force in time, you can help them.

"Yes, sir."

Dirac left after receiving orders from Turas, as he needed to return as soon as possible to organize his troops to continue marching southeast to join forces with Wen's forces.

On the Green Forest River, the fleet led by Gaba finally made it to the ferry crossing in the middle of the Green Forest River after a long journey.

Rather than calling this an inland river ferry crossing, it's more accurate to describe it as a transportation hub located in the middle reaches of the Green Forest River.

In addition to several ferry crossings on both sides of the river, there is also a huge suspension bridge. When it is open to navigation, it can be retracted, and when a large group of people needs to pass, it can be lowered to become a huge wooden bridge.

This place can be described as the most important transportation hub within the Ironvine Territory.

In the early days of the principality, the terrain here provided an advantage, allowing it to repeatedly repel invasions by the East Sea Alliance Forces.

Unexpectedly, this strategic pass in the Ironvine Territory was captured by the army of the Duchy marching south.

Gaba stood at the bridgehead, watching the fleet unload its troops in an orderly fashion, and breathed a sigh of relief. They had finally caught up.

At this moment, an officer ran over and said, "Sir, according to our interrogation of the garrison at the ferry, no Ironvine troops have passed through here in the past few days, and they have not received any other notifications."

It is certain that the traitor did not lead his troops back in time.

Gaba nodded. This was good news. They had seized the crossing point as the vanguard, giving them an early advantage in the battle.

"Go and inform the fleet that after they finish unloading, they will have to return along the same route to pick up Lord Wen's follow-up troops."

"Yes!"

Red Mountain City, Count Lloyd was in a rage. Viscount Ferry and Count Lloyd's troops had arrived in Red Mountain City the day before.

But Count Lloyd waited there all night and did not see Baron Eamon's troops.

"Ferry, we can't count on that good-for-nothing Eamon. We don't have that much time to waste."

"Alright then, you hand over the troops you've recruited from those two territories to me. You lead your main force to garrison Red Mountain City and await Eamon's army. I will lead my troops back first."

"Count Lord, please don't worry. There may be something holding Eamon back. With Kadok and the eldest prince in Ironwire City, it won't be so easy to take it down."

"I hope so."

Count Lloyd was so worried because he had not received any new information from Ironwire City two days since he last received news of the enemy's attack.

Under normal circumstances, Ironwire City would not be so easily besieged. Count Lloyd was unaware that the Ironwire City cavalry had been wiped out by the Sixth Legion's Cavalry battalion.

Turas also used his Cavalry to block the Ironwire City's channels for sending information outwards.

Lloyd couldn't assess the situation in Ironwire City, nor did he know the size of the enemy. He didn't want to wait any longer.

In the end Viscount Ferry could not dissuade Count Lloyd and had to agree to Count Lloyd's order, handing over two battalions of troops to Count Lloyd.

Thus, Count Lloyd led a force of 12,000 men from Red Mountain City to Ironwire City.

Starting at 10:00 AM, Turas led his troops in multiple attacks on Ironwire City.

Taking advantage of the partially filled-in moat, the Sixth Legion launched a three-pronged attack.

This time, the First Regiment served as the Reserve Force, while the Third Regiment launched the attack, along with the cannon fodder battalion under Shanno's command.

Turas gave the attacking troops a strict order to advance without retreat. He personally led his guards as the supervisory force, killing deserters and officers of the retreating troops.

At this moment, the Regimental Commander of the Third Regiment dared not refuse Turas's orders. After all, Turas's trusted First Regiment and Guards had launched two attacks yesterday. If he disobeyed, Turas might make an example of him.

As a result of the two rounds of attacks, the five battalions of the Third Regiment suffered heavy losses, with more than a thousand casualties.

However, nearly half of the casualties were not caused by the Ironwire City garrison, but by the Turas's supervisory team killing deserters.

In the third round, Turas ordered Ivand of the First Regiment to be in charge of attacking the front wall, while the Third Regiment continued to attack the east and west flanks.

On the city wall, Kadok reported to Lenster, "Young Master, the enemy is even more determined than yesterday. Our weapons are being used up very quickly. We only have three boxes of incendiary bombs left, less than 80 bombs, which we bought from Two Rivers Territory."

Half of our arrows are used up. At this rate, we'll run out of arrows before tonight!

Lenster frowned. "Didn't we already start producing arrows in our workshops?"

Kadok said with a wry smile, "We've hastily produced 4,000 units since yesterday, but that's far too few; it's simply not enough to meet demand."

Adding to our existing stock, we've already fired [number] arrows this morning.

"How come it's being consumed so quickly?"

Lenster knew that their Garrison Regiment's crossbowmen unit only had a little over 700 men, which meant that each of them would have to shoot 20 arrows.

That's impossible. An archer who can shoot a dozen arrows in a single battle is considered a master archer.