Chapter 463: The power of Vilhelm's troops
Chapter 463: The power of Vilhelm’s troops
Vilhelm who was listening to some reports from his assistants was surprised when his guards let a messenger pass.
The messenger knelt before Vilhelm and handed him a letter. Vilhelm took it and realized that it was one of Einar’s assistants.
As he read her a smile formed on his face, for at last he had a good pretext to show that his warriors and soldiers could take at least one enemy barony.
When he finished reading the letter, he looked at the messenger seriously. “I want you to tell Ansgar that I will personally take care of conquering the barony of Cavan.
As far as you can calmly advance through the Athlone kingdom in order to conquer it, I will also send newly trained soldiers to oversee the conquered territories.
But messenger, I have a doubt why there is a warning towards the barony of Adragh. “
The messenger swallowed hard and told everything that had lived in that place and the strange things that happened in it.
Vilhelm got quite curious about it, so he decided that he would send a group of soldiers to take care of the security of the barony.
This with the intention of being able to corroborate if what the messenger was telling him was true.
After this, Vilhelm formed an army near Dublin and personally took charge of leading them, as the barony they would attack was too close to Dublin.
So it would only be a quick trip of a few days before being able to return. The army was made up of about 4000 soldiers and warriors.
Which had crossbows and traditional weapons, however for the attack they would use 5 onagers to launch sulfuric acid on the defenders.
This is because Vilhelm liked to watch enemies suffer from the burns of that lethal weapon.
The army advanced on the roads that had been built during the last months and which were kept free of snow by the slaves.
Who used bitter salt on the roads to prevent snow from forming, not to mention that special shovels were used to remove snow.
After 2 days of travel, the army reached the border with the kingdom of Breifne, so Vilhelm raised his ax and looked at the army from him.
“Today we are going to enter this barony and we will completely destroy the defenders. My son Einar has been hard conquering the Christian kingdoms.
That is why we are going to support you by conquering this small barony with which we can have full access to the northwestern part of the island that has already been conquered.
Remember that we must show those Christians that we Nordics can win these minor battles. “
After that speech, the army entered the kingdom of Breifne, where they began their way to the castle of Cavan.
The road was not at all uncomfortable since in the past there had been commercial exchanges between the Norse and the kingdom of Breifne.
So there was a main road which could be traveled without any inconvenience except for the delay caused by the snow in some places.
After three days of travel and after having passed a few abandoned villages, they reached the castle.
Which had a small wall of just 4 meters high in a circular shape, with an order the army besieged the city.
Unlike Einar or Ansgar, Vilhelm’s army took almost 4 days to fully assemble the onagers which were once assembled.
The soldiers who had received training in Iceland calibrated the firing of the siege weapons, for that they used vases with sand.
Because they would be using sulfuric acid, the onagers could only point towards the walls because, unlike the Nordic army, they did not have small sticks of dynamite.
By which the glass containers with sulfuric acid could be exploded, meanwhile the castle the 362 defenders of the castle could only tremble with fear.
Because food was in short supply and the enemy had them completely surrounded so they had lost their chance to escape long ago.
The leader of the defenders, an illegitimate son of the baron looked at the army as they threw sand vases at the walls. This made him furious.
Because some of his vases had killed a warrior who was distracted.
‘Those damned pagans don’t respect my warriors. How dare they kill one of them using a simple vase with sand.
This is the worst humiliation I’ve ever received in my life. I will order that nobody has mercy when those bastards are climbing over the walls.’
For a few more minutes, the vases with sand continued to fall on the walls, when they had fully calibrated the onagers.
Vilhelm smiled aggressively and ordered the acidic glass jars to be fired.
They flew off and in just seconds crashed into the ramparts, where the defenders suffered burns from the acid that had splashed them.
The sulfuric acid bombardment lasted only a few minutes before the acid containers ran out.
However, it had wreaked a great deal of chaos on the defenders as many of them had died and others were heavily wounded.
Seeing this Vilhelm ordered his soldiers with crossbows to advance, he also approached his archers as he planned to fill the defenders with arrows and steel bolts.
The defenders who remained in chaos could not establish an effective defense when the crossbow soldiers and archers arrived and a massacre began.
The bastard son of the baron who was screaming in pain from the acid that had fallen on his face did not notice when a dozen arrows fell from his body.
So his life came to an end without being able to defend the castle from his family, the few defenders who had survived when they realized that the baron’s bastard son was dead.
They ran towards the battlement tower, with the intention of being able to use the secret passageway to escape.
Vilhelm, seeing that there were no defenders alive, ordered his soldiers to climb using siege stairs. The soldiers climbed, ignoring the corpses, and went to the castle door to open it.
Once it was opened, the soldiers and warriors entered to take whatever rewards there might be.
Vilhelm smiled proudly as the conquest of the little barony had been too simple