With one thrust, he felled a Night Guard, pulled out the long spear, and Juer Dan stepped back, with Long Spearmen immediately filling the gap on both sides.

"Once we finish off this wave, we'll switch shifts!" Juer Dan shouted to the surrounding War Cultivators, "Just hold on for another five minutes."

Standing aside to rest, Juer Dan watched the flood of farm soldiers surge forward and retreat like the tide.

Most of them were peasants from the south, scattering each time seven or eight were stabbed to death, then being driven back by the Knights.

But there were just too many of them, attacking in batches of hundreds, one after another.

The Salvation Army Long Spearmen clearly routed them but couldn't pursue to expand the victory.

They could only watch as the routed farm soldiers were regrouped by the Night Guards, pressed by Armored Soldiers and Knights into battle once more.

Later, as the bodies under the short wall piled up, the farm soldiers' goal shifted from breaching the fortress to filling the area below the short wall with soil buckets.

After completing this, they would run off with their buckets.

If they managed to pour three buckets of soil at the base of the wall, they wouldn't need to attack the fortress today.

This was a trick Knights often used in sieges, as farm soldiers were not fit for direct combat but could carry soil.

The soil and bodies gradually formed a slope, making further assaults easier, eliminating the need for human ladders.

Breathing heavily, Juer Dan wiped the blood off his face and shouted to Bernardo, "Scribe, what's the current casualty count?"

"Fifteen wounded, three dead, but we've killed over thirty Night Guards and captured twenty or so wounded prisoners."

In the Salvation Army's statistics, farm soldiers didn't count as achievements, so even if they had taken down hundreds of farm soldiers, it only counted as "defending the wall" under collective merit.

Juer Dan pinched his weary brow, those damned Night Guards, even Armored Soldiers hid among the farm soldiers, occasionally charging out and, if not careful, scaling the walls.

Although the Night Guards couldn't break through the Long Spearmen's line, they still managed to inflict some casualties.

Essentially, the Night Guards used farm soldiers as shields, while the Knights used Night Guards and farm soldiers to deplete the Holy Guns.

But if the War Cultivators didn't use the Holy Guns, and accidentally allowed the Night Guards and Armored Soldiers to breach, more holy energy might be needed to push them back.

Juer Dan wasn't certain when reinforcements would arrive, so he had to prepare for the worst and conserve holy energy as much as possible while preserving strength.

He took a couple of swigs from his canteen and saw Lauren approaching, quickly setting it down: "Did Night Guards assault your side just now?"

"Yes, two Armored Soldiers and about ten Night Guards came up." Lauren took the canteen from Juer Dan's hand, drank from it, "But I had the Long Spearmen and Holy Guns take care of them, no injuries at all."

"Good." Juer Dan straightened his crooked helmet, "Get ready, fire a gun on the second level soon, and we'll start changing shifts."

A Brigade Commander inquired, "Aren't we supposed to be conserving holy energy? Why summon the second level to disperse the farm soldiers?"

Lauren handed the canteen back to Juer Dan: "Dummy, once we switch shifts, the Knights will charge. At that time, with the farm soldiers shielding the Knights, they'll press forward.

Have the Gunners release Holy Wind when the enemy farm soldiers are dense, it's to push them back, reducing pressure on our Long Spearmen, preventing the Knights from using them to advance.

If we wait for the Knights to charge before firing, the first shot disperses the farm soldiers, and before the second shot, the Knights are upon us."

Though Lauren's words were tactless, the reasoning caused a flicker of displeasure on the Brigade Commander's face.

Juer Dan immediately smoothed things over: "Okay, discuss it during the shift change, we can hold on for another two hours with one more defense. I refuse to believe they're invincible."

As the guns echoed uniformly, the surrounding farm soldiers immediately scattered, and the Night Guards using them as cover naturally retreated following them.

After a brief respite, the 400 Holy Gunners of the two corps immediately began switching shifts, leaving only the Long Spearmen at the forefront.

This obvious maneuvering naturally didn't escape Harvin's eyes.

He shouted to the sergeant of the Armored Soldiers: "Send fifty Armored Soldiers, and twenty more companion Knights for dismounted combat, to march with the next batch of farm soldiers. The first up is rewarded with 2 gold pounds!"

Seventy stout soldiers wearing breastplates or chainmail, immediately donned their robes and mingled with the next attacking wave of farm soldiers.

......

"Ah! The chevaux-de-frise on the road has been moved away!" Decrama, already near the slope to the second level, saw the chevaux-de-frise moved aside and leapt out of the pit immediately.

Running towards the passage, stumbling down the slope, other headmen followed suit in a rush.

Seeing the open passage weren't just Decrama, over a hundred local peasants and sappers saw it too.

Seeing Decrama leading the way, they naturally refused to linger on the frontlines, following into the passage.

Amidst the noisy shouts and whistles, rows of Holy Gunmen on the second level formed a neat queue, ready to move down to the first level.

Before they could take a step, a dozen stewards and landowners jumped out of the passageway entrance, hunched over, and darted forward.

Mormul frowned but didn't pay them any mind, as there were only a few of them, and they weren't blocking the way.

He ordered on his own, "When I whistle, we'll head down the left passageway."

From the back of the line to the front, upon hearing Juer Dan whistle, he led the first fifty Holy Gun Masters in a jog toward the first level.

As Mormul stepped through the gap in the low walls on either side of the sloped ground, a cacophony of human voices erupted ahead of him.

Looking up, he saw over a hundred laborers and villagers clumped together like a massive gray cloud, the turbulent crowd pushing and shoving toward the passageway entrance.

Mormul instantly took a sharp breath, drew the armed sword from his waist, and quickly ran toward the laborers and villagers.

"Don't block the road, make way, make way!" Shouting at them with his armed sword, Mormul yelled at the approaching villagers and laborers.

"Sir, just let us through, it won't cause any harm."

"Decrama just came through, please let us pass."

Mormul did not respond to the villagers' requests but instead shouted at the laborers, "Why are you crowding up here, trying to desert?"

The laborers who had followed the crowd immediately grew hesitant; they shrank their necks, fearful of being seen by Mormul, and quietly moved backward.

Villagers saw the Black Hat Army Cultivators in full armor running neatly towards them, so they prepared to leave with the laborers.

But the crowd was already chaotic, with some moving forward and others backward, and some even trying to slip past Mormul unnoticed.

It's unclear who tripped whom first, but with a scream of "Ah," two or three people fell, causing the laborers and villagers to topple like dominoes.

The slope was already hard to stand on, not to mention today's overcast weather was making it hard to see, turning the path where Mormul was changing guard into a crowded mess of screams and chaos.

"Ouch, my leg!"

"I told you not to run, don't run!"

"Who? Who stepped on my hand?"

The crowd struggled, the lying and standing intertwined, crying out like a mire blocking the road.

The Black Hat Army Cultivators looked at the villagers blocking the road, exchanging glances.

Mormul gritted his teeth, "Go back, we'll take the passage on the other side, tell the Long Spearmen to clear this path. Anyone blocking the way will be executed!"

......

"What's going on?" Lauren spat out a few grains of sand that blew into his throat, "Isn't this a rotation? The infantrymen are practically swarming up again!"

After the initial gunfire, each Holy Gun Master was supposed to replace the second level, but Lauren waited on the left and waited on the right, yet no one came.

It wasn't just his line of defense, the same situation was happening on his left.

"I don't know!" The captain of the Long Spear Masters, defending the same wall with Lauren, also complained loudly, "Our Holy Gunmen went up, but where are theirs?"

Lauren gritted his teeth, "I'll go ask, you…"

Before he could finish speaking, he saw an iron-helmeted head pop up behind the captain of the Long Spear Masters.

"Watch out! Behind you!"

Before his voice fell, the sound of something slicing through the air accompanied by shouts rose up, beneath the dark clouds, a dim sword light swept across the neck of the captain of the Long Spear Masters, where the neck's flesh squirmed as a fountain of blood spurted out.

The head rolled to Lauren's feet, and he instinctively dove to the left as the armored soldier's longsword crashed into the spot where he had just been standing.

Flipping over, Lauren lay on the ground, raised his spring gun, and made a gesture of pressing the trigger at the armored soldier.

The soldier was so startled he recoiled, rolled, then bumped into the wall with his elbow to change direction, standing up in shock.

Realizing Lauren had bluffed him, the soldier's face flushed red like a pig's liver.

"You tricked me?!"

Seven or eight armored soldiers climbed over, supporting themselves on the wall, and with the deafening shouts and clashes, they landed heavily on the ground.

The stiflingly hot wind blew across Lauren's face, but he felt a chill.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.