Siege of Herewealth Manor (1)

"So, this is the Herewealth manor?" James asked while they were approaching the towering gates of the Herewealth property.

The others next to him also had a surprised look on their face when they were getting closer. Excluding the gate that surrounded the building, even the building walls were not short of that from castles that populated the surrounding areas. To be able to amass such a wealth was beyond their imagination. If this would to be continued, they might even surpass the royal treasury.

This thought also scared James, as they had no proper information about the amount of soldiers that would be fielded by Jake. Even if the Herewealth family did not have a lot of retainers, they might have the wealth to hire a lot of mercenaries.

Luckily for them, a report that they received a few days back mentioned that Jake did not expect the king to decline his plea and still offer James the validation to attack. Because of this, Jake started late with acquiring mercenaries.

As the Jake had no intention to sally out, the group of James started to follow the second option that they had planned. Arriving at a proper distance, it was time to divide the army into the smaller groups as required. James and Edward would be commanding the soldiers at the main gate. Francis moved to the opposite side. Christopher took the east and Warren the west side of the building.

"Excited kid?" Edward asked as he got next to James.

As he was looking into the distance, James was lost in thought about how he would be handling the upcoming battle. During the fight in Hermes, he had been the one defending the walls. However, he has never been the one that would actually siege one.

Even though James did not answer, Edward understood the situation that James was in. it was clear that he was nervous about the event that was going to unfold.

"The troops are ready sir." A soldier rushed over towards James.

Hearing, he closed his eyes and started to recap what Edward had said. Initially it was costumed to send in some of archers to fire off some arrows. With that they could understand the capacity of the defending side. If they were suppressed by the archers, they would have a big advantage.

Slowly opening his eyes, James finally made his first move. "Archers!" James ordered.

With that, the archers slowly started to move forward. With every step that was being set, the ground shook slightly.

Looking over at his sights, he noticed that both Warren and Christopher were also doing the same.

Slowly the archers were approaching a proper shooting range. Time felt as it was starting to slow, as excitement and anticipation started to build up. Before the archers arrived at a proper shooting range, a shout was heard from the inside of the walls. "Loose!"

Right after the shout, dozens of arrows covered the skies in darkness. Before the archers could actually react, the arrows were raining down on them. In the initial volley, around three hit a target. The remaining archers decided to run at a faster pace to reach the shooting range.

Before they reached their destination, another volley rained down on them. This time five arrows hit. They had already lost eight men due to the arrows hitting them, before even being able to shoot. However, now they were in shooting range. "Archers! Knock your arrow! Aim! Loose!" The orders of the lieutenant that accompanied the archers shouted out in quick succession.

This time, they were the ones that were delivering a punch instead of receiving. Shouts of pain could be heard behind the fortifications. Clearly some of the arrows had hit their target. Hearing this, the lieutenant ordered, "Fire at will! Keep on shooting until you have no more arrows left!"

In the next minute, the two sides were exchanging arrow fire. Slowly the numbers started to dwindle. The initial group of archers, which numbered 25, had only 12 left. They had lost more than half of their troops. Some were on the ground shouting for help. Even the morale of the troops started to drop. However, this was not in vain, as the arrows from behind the wall seized to exist.

With the archers out of the way, a path started to appear for the soldiers to march forward and climb the walls. Noticing this, James looked around and shouted out, "First and second platoon, move out!"

Receiving the orders, the lieutenants started to shout as well, "Move! Assault the walls! Bring the ladders and grapples!" Makeshift ladders as well as grappling hooks were brought to the front, as the soldiers slowly were making their way towards the manor.

As the soldiers were approaching the walls, James gave an order to the support squad, "Get the wounded back to the infirmary, and make way for the infantry."

Soldiers rushed over to the field to gather the injured and bring them back. In the meanwhile, the infantry finally arrived at the walls and were about to assault them.

With that, the second stage of the siege battle was about to begin.

…