Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Again, cannons roared, as William Kidd had prepared the artillery on the city walls earlier to fire at Field's troops, attempting to cover his own cavalry.

But Field's troops ignored the flying cannonballs and resolutely cut into the escape route of the coalition cavalry.

The fleeing coalition cavalry had already lost command, with each person only thinking of getting back into town as quickly as possible; in this situation, officers could not get orders to every man's ears.

Seeing a large number of pikemen blockading ahead, a portion of the cavalry, in panic, wheeled their horses, heading east and west to escape. Stay connected via empire

This was exactly the outcome Field wanted. His own troops had become totally disengaged; he was in the vanguard, and the last of his soldiers were still three hundred meters behind. He did not wish to annihilate the cavalry here but to drive these disheartened riders to flee in a scattered fashion east and west.

This kind of disorganized infantry actually posed no threat to cavalry, if the coalition cavalry's command system had not broken down, they could've just taken a turn to bypass Field's troops, and might have even directly crushed Field's team.

But it was too late for that now. The riders only intent on getting back to the city had lost their reason, leaving only the instinct to survive, which was driving them to flee where there were fewer people.

The majority of the riders turned their horses towards the east or west, and the further they ran, the farther away from the city gates they became. The Venetians had Tachi under tight siege, and they would soon realize they had nowhere to flee to, as other infantry units of the Da Weineta Legion and the Saint Marco Legion were waiting for them.

Not knowing whether it was out of cunning or folly, there remained some who neither dodged nor evaded, and charged straight towards the gates of Tachi.

As the two forces clashed head-on, Field lay low on his horse, stretching his cavalry sword straight ahead with all his might.

In the fleeting moment of their crossing, he struck an oncoming rider, nearly unhorsing him, while agilely dodging another swung scimitar.

However, after the collision, apart from the enemies Field had taken down, the majority of the fleeing riders still managed to break through Field's blockades.

Since Field's formation had broken down in the running, without coordination, few on two legs could stop a four-legged horse.

Field only ordered a retreat when they were within firing range of the musketeers in the triangular fortress, watching the enemy's retreating figures. Field couldn't help thinking regretfully, "If only I had a cavalry unit..."

The fighting continued elsewhere, as the coalition cavalry fleeing east and west encountered more Venetian soldiers. Except for five or six who escaped to the outskirts of the city moat and made their way back to Tachi along it, the other scattered coalition cavalry were either captured or killed on the spot.

The result of the night's chaotic battle was that the Venetian soldiers had horse meat to eat the next day, and incidentally took a few prisoners.

After interrogating the prisoners, Antonio and Layton confirmed that the highest commander of the city's defenders was the former captain William Kidd — now General William Kidd (Layton snickered disdainfully at this title).

There were now about four thousand Tanilia soldiers in the city, a number that surprised both Antonio and Layton. They had originally thought there were no more than three thousand defenders in the city, but according to the prisoners, a group of coalition mercenaries had already been stationed in Tachi three weeks before the Venetians arrived.

Layton was skeptical of this intelligence, but after questioning several prisoners separately, their stories were all roughly consistent.

Antonio summarized at the officers' intelligence meeting, "That means either they're telling the truth, or they also don't know the real situation."

As for how much food was left in the city, the prisoners had no idea. They only knew that William Kidd had confiscated all the food reserves in the city to the Earl's Tower, guarded by his most trusted soldiers, forbidding any unauthorized persons from approaching.

A strict food rationing system was being implemented in Tachi, and the morale of the soldiers was generally somewhat low.

"Without the warhorses, there will be food in the city for a few more days." At the intelligence meeting, Layton stroked the stubble on his chin and said jokingly, "The fools have had some unexpected gains; it's just a pity that horse meat tastes so bad."

In the following days, Volbon began supervising the construction of more tunnels, with earthen pathways extending towards the city walls from the siege embankments like tendrils.

The fastest progressing tunnel had even reached about two hundred meters from the city wall, where the defenders' beards could be clearly seen from inside the tunnel.

But the defenders were not idle either. Though their first large-scale nocturnal sortie ended in painful failure, the Tanilia people seemed not to be discouraged but instead began to frequently send out smaller assault teams to sabotage the tunnels.

As the tunnels gradually approached the city walls — even closer to the walls than to the Venetians' embankments — the difficulty of defending these tunnels also increased.

The defenders of Tachi tried various methods: first, they sent small groups of soldiers with gunpowder to blast the tunnels, but Antonio was quite willing to exchange the earthen walls for the defenders' gunpowder, as walls could be rebuilt, but the defenders' gunpowder would diminish with use.

The defenders' blasting operations only lasted a few times; then, they started to install rudimentary catapults on the bastions, using the catapults to toss burning sulfur into the tunnels.

Sulfur mining was a pillar industry of Tachi, so it was not hard to imagine that William Kidd now possessed a large quantity of sulfur ore.