Enlightened Empire

Chapter 325: A Search for Meaning

Several days had passed between the first time they had spotted the wall on Yua Island and the landing on the beach. During that time, their enemies hadn't been idle and continued their building project. If anything, they had even sped up their construction, considering how much had changed in such a short amount of time. By now, the short length of wall had expanded along most of the southern coast.

At the same time, the wall had grown in height, from a mere two meters to at least seven at its highest point. From a distance, half a dozen towers with cannons could be spotted, dotted along its length in even intervals.

While the wall was intended to defend from seaborne attacks and was open from the land, their enemies hadn't wasted the time Saniya's army had taken to set up its own camp. Throughout the day, they had moved logs they hadn't used for construction yet and created makeshift barriers in front of the stairways up their walls, while they had entirely removed the additional ladders up to the walkways. On top of that, they had also turned the cannons in their turrets inland, towards the direction of Saniya's army.

At the same time, the enemy ships had also prepared for combat. While they couldn't get close to Atau's defensive position, they could at least control the southern coast and cover their new fortifications from naval attacks while the cannons were otherwise occupied. Thus, the defenders could fully concentrate on the land attack and nothing else. In the end, Saniya's camp in the north was done and the men well-rested, so the defenders ran out of time to prepare further.

As evening drew closer, with around two hours of daylight left, Saniya's army lined up for a preliminary attack, to test the strength of the defenders. Since the defenders were mostly made up of traditional warrior forces from the Verdant Isles, they expected to overpower them with constant fire from a distance as they closed in.

Despite their defensive advantage, the enemies would still have to cower in the face of constant volleys. If the defense proved weak enough, Saniya's army could take the wall before nightfall. Otherwise, they would easily be able to retreat back under the cover of their muskets.

Thus, their drums began to sound without hesitation, which caused the lineup to advance in an orderly fashion, to the rhythm of the music. In General Paec's plans, the slow-moving infantry line in front would draw some of the sparse cannon fire from the enemy towers, while their own cannons would be pushed up in behind to respond in kind.

With their overwhelming number of artillery pieces and their advanced training in loading and aiming the weapons, they should have an easy time suppressing the last bit of resistance from the defenders. By then, they were free to do whatever they wanted, either move up for a melee or stay far away and pelt them from a distance until they surrendered. It would only be a matter of time until they took the island. At least that was the plan.

Reality, however, was an entirely different beast. While their army was still marching, with the soldiers focused only on the music that led them, the first cannons began to fire from atop the wall. That much, they had expected. What they hadn't expected was the range and fierceness of the enemy attack, with far more cannons than they had spotted before.

Most of the towers had more than one cannon hidden inside them, and there were even further cannons half-buried in he ground in front of the wall, possibly transported over from the enemy ships throughout the day. At the same time, the enemy cannons seemed to be of much larger caliber than they had expected, covering a large area within their range.

Still, the effect on the attackers was minimal at first. What the fire had in fierceness, it lacked in accuracy. One by one, the cannonballs came down and punched shallow holes into the earth, but their spread was so large that barely anyone was even hit by flying dirt, let alone by the dangerous projectiles themselves.

So Saniya's experienced troops pushed through the fear and continued to step forward. Not even the music skipped a beat. However, their real shock came some hundred meters from the wall, when they first heard the familiar bang of the muskets.

From behind the makeshift barricades, countless weapons were poking out and unleashed a hail of bullets that pelted the front line of the marching army. As soon as the fire sounded, the ordered formation began to lose its shape. Some soldiers would hesitate and halt their steps, some would duck to find cover behind the front line, others would speed up to span the distance. Luckily, at least Saniya's officers had enough training to keep the army together.

Since a blind charge looked like poison for the morale now, the officers ordered the line to halt and return fire. After years of targeted development and with the help of modern machinery, Saniya had the greatest rifles on the planet, unmatched by their opponents in range, accuracy and rate of fire. However, their effect was very poor. The great weapons didn't do them any good when their shots only hit the cover of their enemies, and their small calibers were hardly enough to chip away at the thick logs.

At least they could use staggered fire to suppress the attacks on their own ranks, and after they began their return fire, the fierceness of the enemy attack was reduced right away. However, not everyone was affected by the cover fire.

High up on the walls and too far back for Saniya's muskets to reach, the cannons of the enemies finally showed their true potential. Out in the open and now stationary in a packed formation, Saniya's army made for easy target practice, as the cannonballs of the enemy became more and more accurate.

After only a few volleys, the first cannonball hit right in front of the front line, and jumped up again, carried by its momentum. In panic, the soldiers tried to dodge, but the men to their sides left them no room to get away. The cannon ball simply smashed through the first four rows of soldiers before it veered off course and exited out the back of the formation, covered in blood.

At this point, their options were slim. A melee would be risky considering their lack of cover and lack of knowledge about the enemy's exact strength. Meanwhile, their own cannons were nowhere near ready to shoot back and would be subject to the same kind of indiscriminate fire once they entered into range.

Thus, with no better options left, the officers ordered a retreat. Their attack was only supposed to gauge the strength of the defenders anyways, and now they knew what to expect. Under the cover fire of their own rifles, Saniya's troops quickly retreated back out of the war zone before their morale could collapse.

As Atau watched their retreat from the ship, he realized that the war would last much longer than they had anticipated.

“Send a message back to Saniya, tell them what happened here today,” he said to his first mate. “Seems like we'll need some reinforcements.”

__________________

Inside Rapra Castle, Fadelio walked through the corridors with a worried expression, a piece of paper clutched in his hands. A peculiar sight greeted him on his path, though one that everyone in the castle had become familiar with over the past few days.

On the large balcony that led all along the upper castle's front sat a lonely figure and stared out into the city. In his hand, he held a mug, presumably filled with alcohol of some kind, as had always been the case these days. Now however, there was also a pistol in his lap, one that Fadelio was familiar with. As he recognized the weapon, the attendant slowed down, fearful of what the man might do. When the lonely man heard the slowing footsteps, he turned his head and looked at the approaching Fadelio.

“Oh hey, mountain troll,” Dedrick said. “What's up? You look like someone stole your sister.”

Despite his jokey tone, and his obvious provocation, Dedrick looked lethargic compared to his usual self, with dark rings under his eyes. Concerned, Fadelio stopped to talk to the mercenary. Although he had just received important news, it wasn't anything that could be solved with urgency, so he could spare some time to deal with one of Saniya's oldest servants.

“Not that it's any of my business, but what are you doing in this place all the time? You've been sitting in this spot for days.”

Although Fadelio didn't mention the pistol, his eyes never left the weapon. For a moment, Dedrick looked caught, before he returned to his previous lack of expression.

“Watching the city,” he replied and turned back to the cityscape below them. He searched around for a while, before his finger pointed in the vague direction of the southern district. “See that house back there? When I started watching a few days ago, that was just a piece of raw earth. Now a whole family can live in it.”

Although Fadelio didn't see what house he was talking about, he wasn't surprised. Over the years, Saniya's workers had built many great things and had become extremely efficient. It filled the city's servant with pride, but Dedrick just sighed and sipped at his drink.

“Those guys down there sure are something, huh?” he continued.“The city is growing like mushrooms after rain.”

“You don't seem too happy about it.”

Rather than reply, Dedrick stared at Fadelio up and down, before his eyes fell onto the message he still held in his hand.

“You didn't answer my question earlier, by the way,” he said. “What's the bad news?”

Fadelio only frowned, so Dedrick waved his hand and added, “If you can't tell me, you don't need to. No worries, I don't offend easily.”

Since it was classified information, Fadelio was unsure what to do for a moment. However, he soon made up his mind. At least for now, Dedrick was still Saniya's highest ranking general. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to get the opinion of an expert on this issue.

“Take a look,” he thus said and held out the paper.

Dedrick took the offered message and read with raised brows.

“They can't take the island? Not even with Paec in charge? But I taught that kid so well,” he said in the end.

“Resistance is stronger than we thought. It looks like they already had part of their fortifications done when we launched our attack, and our soldiers had to charge without any cover. It might turn into a protracted battle now, so we need to provide reinforcements and supplies,” Fadelio summed up the contents, before he added, “But I don't even know where to take any more reinforcements from, considering how many soldiers we have already sent. I'm not sure how many more men we would need to take the island. To be honest, I don't know if more soldiers would even make a difference in this case.”

Although the mercenary looked like he was about to say something, he stopped himself with a bitter smile.

“That's not something you should be saying to an outsider, is it?”

“Well, you're still hired as this country's general. Your work includes military consultation.” Fadelio looked at Dedrick's uneasy face before he continued in a less formal tone. “Also, Laqhis trusts you. That's enough.”

“That's right, isn't it?”

Again, the mercenary looked out into the city, which seemed to change so much every day. He picked up the pistol in his hand and held it up to his eyes. With a focused expression, he twisted the weapon back and forth, as if he was weighing his options. In the end, his eyes fell on the distant buildings again.

“You can leave this to me,” he finally said.

“Yes. That's why I'm asking for your advice,” a bemused Fadelio replied.

“No, you don't get it. I'm taking command of the entire battle. Let Paec defend Rasacopa or whatever, I'll take the island. I'm Saniya's most decorated general after all, and that little Paec looks like he still can't do it without me.”

“You want to go yourself?” Fadelio realized. “But what can you actually do there? You've read the message, I don't think a single general would make a difference.”

“A good commander will always make a difference, in a siege more than anywhere,” Dedrick replied. By now, his usual, cocky expression had returned.

“And how many of your men do you need? We still need to retain enough soldiers to defend our borders.”

While Fadelio spoke, Dedrick still stared out into the city, a grin slowly forming on his face.

“Don't worry. I think I already have an idea how to break your deadlock, and I won't need too many men for it either. But first, I should pay a visit to your sister. We might need her men's help this time.”