The City Was About to Fall

Alex stood still, knowing his superior was in a bad mood, and the guards wisely kept quiet.

A dozen seconds later, Alex let out a long breath. "Bring me my spare horse, let's continue!"

The guards exchanged glances, and soon one of them went to fetch a spare horse for Alex.

Alex personally removed the tack from his own horse and attached it to the spare horse.

Alex then closed the eyes of his beloved horse, Black Cloud, with his hand, and turned to mount his spare horse.

"Keep going, we're almost there!"

Alex spurred the horse's belly, and the warhorse reared up instantly. After Alex pulled hard on the reins, it began to accelerate southward.

It was a little past one in the afternoon, the warmest time of day. Although it was only in the teens, Hawk, wearing three layers of armor, felt extremely hot.

They had just defeated the besieging enemy forces once again, but the whole process was extremely dangerous.

If the Reserve Force hadn't been brought in, and if he hadn't led his guards as a fire brigade, the city walls really wouldn't have been able to withstand the attack.

Driven by strict military discipline and lured by generous rewards, the Seventh Legion's siege forces were exceptionally frenzied, especially after scaling the walls, where they consistently outnumbered the defending troops.

When Hawk and his guards launched their attack, some of the duchy's soldiers, who were already seriously wounded, simply grabbed Hawk's guards and threw them off the city wall.

For a time, more and more ducal soldiers successfully stormed the city, almost making Hawk think that defeat was imminent.

Fortunately, Baron Lukaku had always had reinforcements ready, and they immediately launched a volley of fire at the fallen city walls from below, severely damaging the enemy troops who had scaled the walls.

Finally Lukaku promptly dispatched a fresh force, and through sheer numbers, drove the Duchy Army off the city walls.

Just as Hawk and Lukaku were worrying about running out of Reserve Force at the city walls, the enemy forces below the city made a new move.

Hawk, alerted by his subordinates, went directly to the crenellations of the city wall to look down.

It was the same group of soldiers with black cloth strips wrapped around their arms that we had seen before, and they began to execute the fleeing soldiers.

Hawk and Lukaku had learned from the surrendered prisoners of war about the discipline the enemy troops were enforcing.

Upon seeing this scene again, both men wore grim expressions. This time, the supervisory team had executed at least two hundred fleeing soldiers.

It should be noted that before these soldiers fled, they fought a fierce battle with them on the city walls.

Even such a force was executed by the enemy based on military discipline, which shows how determined they were to take White Earth City.

"My lord, why don't you go down from the city wall and rest first? I'll take care of the rest."

Baron Lukaku again tried to persuade Hawk to abandon the defense of the city, but Hawk refused again.

"If I'm on the city wall, I can still rally everyone's will. If I leave, the fighting spirit that everyone has worked so hard to maintain will dissipate."

Just then, a group of soldiers arrived at the north city wall from inside the city.

Hawk and Lukaku were overjoyed to see the team.

The two sides immediately learned the origin of the team upon contact; it was reinforcements sent by Ricardo. Unfortunately, the city's military strength was currently limited, so Ricardo forcibly conscripted some able-bodied men from the city's Freemen. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to provide so many men to support the north city wall.

"What's the situation on the south city wall?"

Hawk questioned the officer who had brought back the unit.

"My lord, this is very bad. The Legion Commander of the enemy's Fifth Legion is stationed in the south, and their main force has been attacking continuously. Lord Ricardo has not been able to leave the city walls."

This support force was also formed by Lord Ricardo in advance from recovered soldiers in the wounded soldiers' camp and able-bodied men from within the city. Originally intended to remain on the south city wall as Reserve Force, they have all been dispatched to the north.

After hearing the officer's account, Hawk was also very worried about the other two walls and immediately took advantage of the gap to send messengers to find out the situation on the east and west sides.

Fortunately, the messengers brought back good news. The east and west sides were indeed under fierce attack from the enemy, but the intensity was slightly lower than that of the north and south sides, and there were fewer siege weapons. So things were relatively stable for the time being.

Just as Hawk breathed a slight sigh of relief, the sound of horns suddenly rang out again outside the city.

When Hawk heard the bugle call, he immediately stood up. He looked down at the city and saw the Seventh Legion troops regrouping and advancing towards the north city wall.

This time, the Seventh Legion was larger than the previous two. Hawk saw at least two regimental flags, and the army size was estimated to be over 8,000 men.

"This could be the end of us!"

Hawk glanced at Baron Lukaku was also looking solemnly at the enemy below the city.

"Your Excellency, I am so sorry!"

Baron Lukaku's sudden remark left Hawk somewhat bewildered.

Before he could ask any specific questions, Baron Lukaku continued.

"I always thought you were a good-for-nothing, and that you would never have been able to serve as Legion Commander if it weren't for your family's strength."

Your acting was superb when you were luring the mole to expose you; I originally thought you genuinely wanted to negotiate with the enemy and surrender.

But I never imagined that it was all a ruse. If it weren't for your bravery and heroic fighting, the northern section of the city wall that I was responsible for might have fallen long ago.

"My lord, please take your guards and return to the city lord's mansion. I will keep watch here!"

Hawk looked at Baron Lukaku's earnest words and felt a mixture of joy and sadness. He was happy that he had finally gained recognition, but sad that Baron Lukaku was urging him to leave while he stayed.

Hawk finally shook his head. "Everyone is fighting a bloody battle. If I leave, I will have to give up even the honor of the nobility!"

Besides, White Earth City is surrounded on all sides. Even if I temporarily leave the city walls, where can I run to?"

"But sir?"

Lukaku was about to say something when Hawk raised his hand to stop him, looking down at the city walls. "The enemy is coming!"

Lukaku gritted his teeth in anger, but he couldn't say anything. He just grunted and began to direct his troops to defend.

"What are you all standing there for? Get into your positions quickly. Those new recruits, move all the stones over here."

The reinforcements included a large number of new recruits, some of whom were too frightened to move by the horrific scene of the battlefield. Lukaku called out to them one by one, giving them tasks, so that they wouldn't have any distracting thoughts once they were busy.

Soon the enemy continued their assault on the city walls. This time, the enemy only had four siege ladders left, and half of their siege towers were also lost.

However, the defenders had no good way to deal with them, since they had run out of arrows and could not launch rockets. They could only prioritize dealing with the siege ladders set up on the city walls.

However, as the siege ladders approached the city wall, the enemy's assault troops began to engage the defenders, and the defending troops could no longer deal with the siege ladders.

This time, the enemy's attack was even more resolute. Hawk knew that this was the enemy's strongest offensive yet. As long as they could repel the enemy, they would still have a chance to defend the city walls.

But just as he and his guards had fought their way through a small enemy squad coming down a ladder, he looked up and saw that on the other side, the enemy had already occupied a large section of the city wall.

"What is Lukaku doing?"

But when he looked closer, he found that Lukaku was lying on the ground not far away, his life hanging in the balance.

Hawk stomped his foot hard, then yelled at his men behind him, "Let's get these sons of bitches out of here!"

After saying that, he charged forward. At this moment, he no longer cared about defending the city wall; killing any enemy he could was an option.

They had done their best, and Hawk was still very proud, having led this understrength Noble Legions to hold out against the two Duchy's Direct Legion for so long.

Looking at the corpses on and off the city walls, there were still quite a few from the Duchy's Direct Legion, which was already quite good. Hawk felt that even if he died in battle now, it would be worth it to have so many of the Duchy's elite troops in exchange.

Just then, Hawk faintly heard a horn sound!

"What, has the enemy launched another attack?"