Building a Viking Empire with Modern Industry-Chapter 267: Surprising Response

Strategist Sun walked briskly into the central command center of the citadel. He wanted to issue clear military orders to resolve the localized problem outside his walls.

He presented a clear logical plan in his own mind: first, he would mobilize his army; second, his army would engage and route the enemy forces; third, he would return to balancing the city’s taxation ledgers.

However, as he looked down into the main courtyards, he observed that his officers were completely failing to execute the very first step of his plan...

"Huh? Get the troops ready! Why aren’t you moving?!" Strategist Sun demanded.

His lead infantry commander stepped forward to answer the strategist. The commander was experiencing high levels of stress and felt a deep sense of self-preservation.

"Strategist, do you expect us to send our infantry out and run until we reach their cavalry, only to be killed halfway there before we’ve even taken two meters?" the commander asked.

The commander had internally deduced a very basic reality regarding medieval warfare. A human soldier running on foot possesses a maximum velocity that is severely inferior to the galloping velocity of an armored warhorse.

If the Tang infantry followed orders and left the safety of the Zaragoza stone walls, they would be forced to cross a massive expanse of flat, open plain.

During this transit time, the Arab cavalry would easily utilize their superior mobility to close the distance.

The Tang infantry would suffer unacceptable casualties from archer fire and lance charges before they could even get close enough to utilize their own melee weapons.

Therefore, standing completely still inside the city felt safer than moving outside the city.

Strategist Sun entirely rejected this cowardly logic.

"Nonsense! This is utter nonsense!" Strategist Sun shouted. He felt the immediate need to remind his military staff of the kingdom’s current, highly diverse inventory levels.

"There are hundreds of horses in the city! Not to mention our own! And we have gunpowder! And thousands of archers! Why are you all sitting around doing nothing? Are you trying to drive me crazy?"

After securing the city of Zaragoza two months prior, he had immediately initiated a highly successful requisition program. He had gathered hundreds of local Andalusian horses from the surrounding farmlands and added them to the surviving Tang cavalry mounts, greatly increasing his mobile assets.

Furthermore, he had carefully stockpiled early gunpowder munitions. While these weapons were primitive compared to the artillery, they were highly useful for area-denial operations.

Finally, he possessed thousands of highly trained archers who were fully capable of providing sustained ranged cover fire from elevated positions.

Strategist Sun concluded that his military possessed the exact necessary diversity of unit types to initiate a highly successful counter-attack.

The Tang soldiers were not refusing their orders out of laziness or a desire to rebel, which was a great relief from a strictly administrative standpoint.

The Arab knights had positioned themselves very strategically. They were standing entirely out of standard bow range, meaning the Tang soldiers could not hit them. Furthermore, the enemy cavalry was standing directly next to massive wooden catapults.

Catapults are inherently frightening because they are massive machines explicitly designed to throw destructive boulders and highly flammable incendiaries over tall defensive walls.

The Tang soldiers knew with absolute certainty that moving toward the catapults would immediately result in them being crushed to death by falling rocks or burned alive by liquid fire.

Therefore, their basic human fear of death was successfully overriding their strict imperial military discipline.

"Come on! Move!" Strategist Sun ordered.

He needed the archers to establish a defensive perimeter on the walls immediately.

The soldiers finally obeyed the supreme command. However, they executed the defensive order with stupidity. The thousands of Tang archers rushed out of the courtyards, took up positions on the high walls, and began to lay down their arrows.

By rushing to the top of the walls in a highly dense formation, they created a tightly packed target for the enemy.

They did not utilize the stone crenellations to shield their bodies from incoming fire. They simply stood entirely in the open and rapidly fired their bows.

Their arrows traveled through the air toward the distant Arab cavalry. Because the Tang archers were firing while experiencing extreme fear, their aim was entirely inaccurate.

As a direct result, their arrows landed harmlessly in the dirt, falling far short of the enemy lines.

The troops were actively wasting valuable kingdom resources by depleting the fletching stockpiles without securing any confirmed enemy casualties to balance the ledger.

The Arab cavalry started charging at incredible speed. They covered the open ground much faster than the panicked Tang archers had anticipated.

As they executed their rapid charge, the Arab horsemen unleashed their own arrows. They fired in a coordinated volley, executing a bombardment upon the exposed defenders.

The sky literally turned red with the number of arrows flying through the air.

There were so many projectiles in the air simultaneously that they completely obscured the natural blue color of the sky.

The Tang archers began to die on the walls, one after another...

Whenever an arrow successfully struck a Tang soldier in a vital organ, that soldier experienced immediate trauma and ceased to be a functional unit of Strategist Sun’s army.

Dead bodies began to fall from the high walls, landing on the courtyards below.

After securing several hundred confirmed kills, the Arab cavalry continued their incredible speed toward the base of the walls.

They intended to ride right up to the gates and utilize their momentum to overwhelm the remaining defenders.

While the archers were foolishly dying on the walls due to their own incompetence, the charging Arab cavalry was completely unaware of the extensive defensive infrastructure Sun had actively installed during his two months of peaceful municipal planning. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"There are fires near the city walls! Run, horsemen!"

Strategist Sun had logically deduced weeks ago that any enemy cavalry charge would eventually reach the physical base of his fortifications. Therefore, he had executed a highly lethal engineering solution.

He had previously ordered his labor units to dig hundreds of hidden trenches and deep pits in the grassy plains immediately surrounding the city walls.

He had then filled these concealed pits with highly flammable pitch, dry wood, and sharpened stakes, covering them carefully with a thin layer of dirt and grass to hide them from the naked eye.

"There are fires and traps near the walls!"

As the front lines of the charging Arab cavalry reached the designated defensive kill zone, Strategist Sun’s hidden traps were fully activated.

Hidden Tang engineers stationed in secure bunkers at the base of the wall thrust lit torches into the concealed trenches. The pitch ignited instantly.

Massive walls of roaring fire suddenly erupted from the ground directly in the path of the charging horses.

The Arab horsemen needed to run away immediately to avoid being burned alive. However, because they had been charging at incredible speed, their massive forward momentum made it physically impossible for them to stop or change direction in time...