There are no trenches to the southwest of Stone Bridge Town, but the Warren River flows with a swift current, so the vanguard force of the Orcs chose a direct frontal assault on the town's east gate.
On the eastern horizon, the sound of war drums rolled like muffled thunder.
Orc Warriors clad in heavy armor formed a skirmish line, each carrying two bulging sacks filled with dirt. Their thick muscles glistened with oil in the sunlight, and even with a load exceeding three hundred pounds, their pace remained as steady as ever.
"Load demolition shells!" Hodgson Major's roar echoed along the town walls. Artillerymen quickly shoved shells into the gun bores, the fuses gleaming with a dangerous light in the sunlight.
When the Orc trench-filling team charged to within five hundred yards of the wall, the first six-pound cannon emitted a deafening roar. The shell traced a perfect parabola through the air, exploding with a crash above the Orcs' heads, turning into fragments that poured down like a rain of death, and a section of the Orcs below immediately collapsed. A soldier carrying a dirt bag had a blossom of blood burst from his chest, and the heavy sack weighed him down into a pool of blood.
After paying a heavy toll in casualties, the first batch of Orc soldiers advancing through the artillery fire successfully stuffed the sacks into the trench.
"Keep loading! Don't stop!" the One-Eyed Commander roared from the rear, waving his battle axe.
The second wave of Orcs advanced over the corpses of their comrades, tossing dirt bags into the trench. The artillery on the wall fired in succession, the smoke soon obscuring the embrasures.
Having conducted previous test firings and based their work on experimental data, the defending artillerymen had pre-compiled firing tables, recording