Volume Two: The Iron and Blood Baron - Chapter 151: The Battle of Nordenburg (Part 25)

While Berillon and his men were eating, drinking, and discussing the night's upcoming battle, Acedan and his subordinate chieftains were gathered in the lord's manor of the old Norland Timber Keep to plan their next moves.

From last night until tonight, they had already lost over seventy men, reducing their effective force by nearly a fifth. And this was only the opening phase of the campaign. The mounting pressure weighed heavily upon Acedan and his minor chieftains, leaving them sitting in silence, utterly motionless, with deep frowns etched across their faces.

They remained in quiet contemplation for a long time until Acedan finally swept his gaze across the room and spoke. "Stop hanging your heads. The initial setback has already happened, and we cannot change the past. The most crucial task now is figuring out how to defeat these cunning Brick dogs and avenge our fallen brothers."

Seeing that his words had lifted their gloomy expressions and restored a measure of composure, Acedan continued. "Although we failed to wipe out the Brick raiders who harassed us tonight, we managed to blunt their edge. You can be certain they won't dare to disturb us again anytime soon, which is a blessing.

"Furthermore, we never anticipated that their cavalry would dare to sortie in the dead of night, which caught us off guard. But they will never dare to use cavalry to ambush us again; such a trick only works once.

"All in all, tonight's ambush was still quite well executed. I have noted the contributions of the three chieftains who led the sortie tonight, and once we capture Norland Keep, each of you will receive a reward of five hundred silver coins!"

Upon hearing this, the three chieftains who had led the night ambush quickly stood up to express their gratitude, their faces beaming with joy. They had feared punishment from Acedan for failing to annihilate the enemy entirely and suffering casualties from the cavalry surprise attack. To receive a reward instead was an unexpected and delightful surprise.

In truth, it was not that Acedan had no desire to punish them. After all, he had arranged everything meticulously, even deploying the Twin Wolves. Yet a hundred fully armed warriors surrounding thirty Bricks who lacked even shields had not only failed to eliminate them entirely, but had also suffered eight or nine casualties of their own. It was a thoroughly humiliating outcome.

However, Acedan understood that after three consecutive defeats, morale had plummeted to rock bottom. If he were to punish the chieftains who fought tonight, whatever shreds of morale remained would surely vanish entirely.

Therefore, Acedan decided to frame the ambush as a victory—a pyrrhic victory is still a victory, after all. Moreover, this engagement guaranteed that the Bricks would not dare to come and harass them for the next few nights, which in itself was a significant achievement.

Aside from boosting morale with the illusion of victory, Acedan also had personal motives tied to protecting his own prestige. After all, tonight's ambush was his idea and his overall plan, yet he had completely failed to account for a cavalry counter-attack. As the commander, he shared the blame.

If Acedan were to single out the three chieftains for punishment while absolving himself, his subordinates and soldiers would surely feel resentment. Shifting blame onto subordinates while escaping responsibility always invites contempt and betrayal from below. Conversely, if he punished himself, his men would conclude that even the Wolf Lord could not handle the Bricks, destroying any remaining hope of victory and shattering morale even further.

Thus, after much deliberation, Acedan chose to classify the night's ambush as the first victory of the campaign and rewarded the three chieftains with empty promises. This masterstroke simultaneously boosted morale and validated his own generalship, creating a win-win situation.

As expected, once Acedan finished his praise, the oppressive silence in the room dissipated, and faint smiles returned to the men's faces. The bitter despair was gone, though a lingering discomfort remained; after all, as proud warriors, they had never endured such a frustrating campaign since taking to the field.

Seeing that his men were no longer dejected, Acedan opened the floor for a brainstorming session, asking the chieftains to take turns sharing their strategies for breaching Norland Keep. Although a few suggestions were utterly absurd and unusable, several chieftains offered genuinely sound ideas.

After having these lords elaborate on their concepts, the gathered leaders debated the proposals together. They formulated several siege strategies and selected the two most viable ones to deploy in the upcoming two days of assaults.

In addition to finalizing the siege plans, Acedan heeded the advice of his men and transferred fifty of the hundred pirates guarding the forest lake encampment to reinforce the army and make up for the casualties of the past two days.

Siege warfare always involved heavy losses; without sufficient troop strength, an assault would not only fail to breach the walls, but the besieging force might also fall victim to a pincer attack from both inside and outside, leading to total annihilation.

As for the dock encampment, it required no garrison for the time being. The vital supplies would be moved onto the ships, and the remaining men stationed there would simply need to secure the vessels out on the lake.

The following day, the pirates scheduled their assault for the afternoon. This was not because they feared missing lunch, but because they had been up until the early hours of the morning and desperately needed rest. Without it, the warriors would likely doze off during the siege.

Although these pirates were capable of fighting through exhaustion, the previous two days of operations had gone poorly. Today's battle was meant to turn the tide, and they could not risk sending weary troops into the fray. Therefore, Acedan and his men slept soundly, enjoyed a simple lunch, and officially commenced the day's siege.

Standing atop the ramparts, Barrett frowned as he looked down at the pirates gathered below the mountain. Early that morning, he had received a message from Berillon detailing the fate of his brother Barin's reconnaissance squad the previous night. Berillon had also explicitly warned him to exercise extreme caution during the defense over the next couple of days, particularly regarding fire.

Berillon had observed that the pirates possessed a strong capacity for learning. Just as the defenders of Norland Keep had ambushed them, the pirates had quickly learned to ambush the defenders in return. Consequently, there was a high probability that the pirates would replicate the fire attacks the defenders had used on several occasions. In a siege, fire was a devastatingly effective tool capable of inflicting massive casualties among the garrison, while the thick smoke would obscure the defenders' vision, causing them to miss critical weak points and creating opportunities for the attacking force.

Warned of this danger, Barrett had immediately shared Berillon's letter with Gamling and ordered his men to position water buckets at the castle gates, inside the courtyard buildings, and along the battlements. They also prepared numerous leather bags filled with water; should small fires break out, the bags could be punctured and hurled at the flames to extinguish them. Furthermore, they completely dismantled the castle's only wooden shed, which had already caught fire once the day before.