However, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the Hafdans who managed to scale the city walls was a last resort, and the current situation was far from that desperate. Through simple observation, Gwenis realized that the Hafdan archers below the city walls were almost ineffective against the defenders on the walls.
The poor accuracy of the Hafdans, combined with the good cover provided by the city walls and shields, meant that after several rounds of arrow exchanges, only one of Gwenis's men was lightly injured, with the rest unscathed.
Seeing this, Gwenis immediately directed his archers to shift their focus and continue shooting at the rapidly moving Hafdan siege team in the distance. The archers put down their short bows, switched to longbows, nocked their arrows, aimed, and shot in one fluid motion, becoming more skilled with each volley.
Within ten seconds, a rain of heavy arrows poured down on the Hafdan men carrying ladders. This time, the siege team, still without shield-bearer protection, suffered losses with three groups of ladder carriers falling after a single volley.
Gwenis immediately commanded his archers to target the remaining ladder groups. With the considerable weight of the ladders, once a certain number of Hafdans fell, it became impossible to continue moving them.
Watching more and more siege groups come to a halt, Brock gritted his teeth in frustration. Several times, he wanted to order an all-out charge, thousands of men rushing forward, but he forcibly suppressed such reckless thoughts. While a massive, unthinking charge could potentially break through the city's defenses, the casualties would be immense, and without certainty of success, he was reluctant to try.
After all, attacking this particular castle was just a side objective for him, not the main goal. Wasting too much manpower here and significantly weakening his own forces could jeopardize subsequent raids and plundering efforts.
Nevertheless, Brock was unwilling to admit defeat. He hesitated, biting his teeth in indecision.
Suddenly, "White Beard" Erik, who had been silent, said something to him. Brock's eyes widened in realization, and he pounded his fists in excitement, a triumphant smile spreading across his face.
Brock made a quick decision. He sent messengers shielded by shields through the arrow rain to call back everyone, including the siege teams, shield-bearers, and archers.
He ordered a halt to the attack, and everyone was to immediately return to the camp for rest and reorganization.
...
Watching the Hafdans suddenly retreat en masse, Gwenis's archers continued to shoot a few more volleys, causing the Hafdans to leave behind dozens more bodies before ceasing fire. Why had the Hafdans given up so quickly this time? There was no hesitation; they simply fled.
Gwenis was puzzled, sensing an ominous foreboding. Since noon, there had been no movement in the Hafdan camp. They ate and drank, showing no signs of the earlier tension for battle preparation.
Were they giving up the attack, perhaps planning a siege instead? Gwenis wasn't sure.
After some hesitation, he ordered his men to rotate back for rest in batches. Regardless of the enemy's intentions, it was essential to eat and maintain strength.
This sudden ceasefire left the people in the castle somewhat confused. Some even thought the war had ended and wanted to go out to see, only to be scolded back by Gwenis.
However, for the next period, there was no movement from the Hafdans.
Gwenis could only have his troops rest in rotation. Maintaining high tension all the time was pointless. He used this time to reflect on the issues faced in the previous two battles.
Firstly, even though he had his archers switch to shortbows to shoot at the Hafdans who reached the base of the walls, it was still awkward. The reason was that the city walls lacked battlements. The five-meter-high, one-meter-wide walls were initially bare, and wooden barricades were added later for people to stand on.
The wooden barricades atop the castle walls, extending about 1.4 meters above them, served not only to prevent the defenders from accidentally falling off but also offered some protection against incoming arrows from the enemy. However, these hastily installed barricades, being flat-topped and lacking the merlons typically found in castle walls, posed a challenge for the archers. To shoot at the Hafdan forces at the base of the wall, the archers had to expose a significant part of their bodies, making it both dangerous and inconvenient.
To address this, Gwenis instructed the carpenters and civilians to saw notches at regular intervals into the barricades, creating rudimentary battlements. At the same time, he recalled ancient methods of defending a castle and, after some thought, began collecting various types of dung.
This task, though somewhat disgusting, was not difficult. With over three thousand people residing in the castle, there was an ample supply of waste. All of it was directed to the moat outside the castle, accumulating over time and emitting a strong odor.
Taking advantage of the lull in Hafdan activity, Gwenis had idle civilians collect this waste in buckets from the moat and bring it back to the castle for boiling. Initially, people in the castle, including Rosalyn, were baffled and even thought Gwenis had lost his mind. Cooking pots were used to boil such a thing?!
But Gwenis, with a resigned smile, insisted on his orders. The castle defenders often used molten iron or boiling dung as a defensive measure. Lacking the luxury to melt iron, Gwenis resorted to a more primitive and natural alternative.
In addition to this, he also gathered a stockpile of logs. Previously used for making deer traps and sharpened for embedding in the moat, these logs were now brought into the castle and gradually moved to the walls. They would prove useful when the Hafdans attempted to scale the walls using ladders.
Other assorted items like large stones and broken pottery were also collected for potential use.
Gwenis didn't forget to make long poles for pushing ladders away. If the Hafdans managed to place their ladders against the walls and began climbing, it would be impossible to push them away by hand. The poles would be necessary for this purpose.
Furthermore, Gwenis attempted to create fire arrows by tying oil-soaked rags to the heads of heavy arrows, aiming to render the Hafdan shields useless. However, despite several attempts, the fire arrows failed to ignite the shields, leaving Gwenis puzzled over what went wrong.
As time passed and the castle bustled with activity, night fell. It was then that the Hafdan camp sounded the horn again.
"Wooo——"