Chapter 690: Defending the City (VII)

On the ninth day of the siege, Henwell has just reached the south bank of the Yundu River and is fighting for the bridgehead. After the mercenary guard regiment is crippled, Arius has his personal warband take over the defense of the northern wall.

The rear-right and rear-left walls are taken over by Taitlant's warband.

In this way, three walls can each be assigned a thousand-man battalion, and each wall still has several thousand-man battalions as reserve forces.

The front-right and front-left walls, which have been under constant attack, are now taken over by the Freedmen Guard Army.

After the bloody battle with the mercenary guard regiment, Jonathan gives Cellarwine City no time to breathe. The very next day, he launches another attack.

This attack still begins with garrison legion soldiers wearing down the defenders. Then, in the afternoon, he sends in the Twentieth Legion's elites.

Arius and the others had originally been worried about whether the Freedmen Guard Army, trained for only ten days, could withstand the assault.

Although Commander Archie said that these men were already qualified city-defense soldiers, Arius still mobilized two thousand-man teams and kept them ready to support the wall at any moment.

In fact, the Freedmen Guard Army itself is also very nervous.

But the battle that follows shocks everyone.

The Freedmen Guard Army performs extremely well. For an entire day, not even the elites of the Twentieth Legion manage to climb onto the wall.

Compared with the previous mercenary guard regiment, the Freedmen Guard Army fears death more and is far more timid.

So why did this happen?

Because the serf soldiers are more obedient. In other words, they have more discipline.

After they are selected for the demonstration zone, they are required to carry out all kinds of commands and learn what each command means.

Every morning and evening, they line up and run. Their lives are managed completely under a militarized system.

As long as they complete their tasks each day, they can eat their fill, stay warm, and avoid the whip.

Each day, the best-performing serf is selected and given material rewards.

If someone remains the best for an entire month, he will be promoted into management, and his living conditions improve dramatically.

Among the serf managers, if anyone earns an excellent evaluation at the end of the year, Peace Haven pays to grant him his freedom.

This trains obedience into the slave guard soldiers. Meanwhile, the one hour of reading and writing instruction each night in the demonstration zone makes this obedience different from blind servility.

Perhaps one word explains it more accurately: discipline.

The strength of an army depends, in large part, on the strength of its discipline.

An army is organized violence. If one wants to control that beast, one must have good enough reins and a strong enough saddle.

Whether to prevent it from running out of control or to make it unleash tremendous killing power, this is an essential element.

In his previous life, Henwell often heard one argument online.

If a modern army were placed in ancient times and fought with the same cold weapons, it would be defeated by famous armies recorded in history.

But after coming here, after Henwell truly comes into contact with cold-weapon warfare, especially after he begins building his own army, he understands one thing.

If the professional disciplined armies of the age of technology were placed here, even if they used only cold weapons, they could easily shatter feudal troops of the same number.

That is why Henwell has always placed such emphasis on his army's discipline.

Although he can't equip his army with cannons and heavy machine guns, Henwell can still bring the quality of his soldiers as close as possible to that of modern professional soldiers.

The demonstration zone is one of Henwell's important arrangements.

Aside from martial training being changed into farming work, the daily schedule and lifestyle of these serfs are completely modeled on Peace Haven's military camps.

Yesterday, after the Freedmen Guard Army held long spears, formed neat ranks, and stabbed one royal soldier after another down from the top of the wall, everyone from Peace Haven finally understood the purpose of the militarized demonstration-zone life Henwell had designed.

The serf soldiers are killing on the battlefield for the first time. They are terrified.

But that fear is bound by strict discipline. Their minds go blank, and they mechanically repeat the thrusting techniques they have learned.

To the enemy, this army seems cold and emotionless. They show no outward reaction to the casualties of their comrades around them.

In reality, the serfs are merely frightened senseless.

Habitual behavior supports their actions.

Yet this frightened, stunned state, reinforced by discipline, becomes an efficient and cold method of slaughter.

This battle isn't as intense as the one from the day before yesterday, but it shakes people more deeply.

One elite royal regular soldier after another is cut down on the wall like weeds.

On the archery platforms, soldiers of the Freedmen Guard Army mechanically shoot crossbow bolts downward without even making evasive or defensive movements.

They stand face-to-face against the archers below and keep firing arrows. Some don't even realize they have been struck by arrows themselves.

This head-on contest causes enormous casualties among the royal archers and crossbowmen below.

Before the assault troops collapse, the archers and crossbowmen below are the first to break.

When the royal army sounds the retreat horn, the serf soldiers on the wall look at the tide of retreating attackers as if none of it is real.

Some weep bitterly. Some throw down their weapons and try to run. Even more simply stand there in a daze.

Peace Haven's officers blow their whistles. Amid the curses and commands of the centurions, the serf soldiers instinctively obey orders and begin reorganizing the wall's defenses.

A day of battle leaves the serf soldiers on the wall with twenty percent casualties, but that is already the best possible result.

Administrator Hobson asks whether they should pull the serf soldiers on the wall down to rest.

Archie shakes his head. "We can't pull them back! Their minds are still numb."

"Once they leave this highly dangerous environment, many of them will react to what happened."

"They may develop a post-traumatic stress reaction and break down."

"At a time like this, we have to keep them busy. We have to keep them moving."

"We have to keep them in constant danger, so they have neither the time nor the energy to think about anything else."

"Death and blood will temper their minds and make them stronger."

"Whether it is the enemy's death and blood or their own, they need to maintain combat readiness right now."

"And the serf army lacks confidence. They need an example."

"People follow the crowd. When people they know can accomplish something unbelievable, they will believe they can do it too."

"I need these soldiers to serve as examples, so the soldiers of the other battalions understand that the royal army isn't terrifying and that they themselves aren't weak."

"More importantly, they have to know that killing people isn't that difficult."

Archie is now the chief military officer. Although Hobson has doubts about this view, he still respects Archie's decision.

That night, Archie has a large amount of liquor brought in. Every serf soldier defending the city drinks a bowl.

Soldiers shouldn't drink during war, but that rule applies to other armies.

Right now, only alcohol can let the serf soldiers fall asleep. Otherwise, they will stare wide-eyed until daybreak.

As for whether the alcohol still in their bodies tomorrow will affect their combat strength?

Henwell once said that at a time like this, one must trust the power of adrenaline under the threat of death.