Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

The artillery bombardment of the city walls had not ceased since the deployment of the heavy cannons. It goes without saying that this occurred during daytime, but even at night, the eight artillery units outside the city would sporadically fire a few rounds at the walls.

This relentless pounding day and night was not only destroying the walls but also intended to break the spirit of the defenders, preventing the Tanilians from resting.

The walls were on the verge of collapse; each bombardment could signal the beginning of Vineta's general assault, leaving everyone inside Tachi, civilians and soldiers alike, on edge.

However, there was a side effect to this tactic: almost all of Vineta's Spellcaster officers were also suffering from nervous exhaustion due to the nighttime bombings.

Because their brains were more active than the average person, Spellcasters were more sensitive to their environment. Poor sleep quality was not just Winters's personal problem; it afflicted all the Spellcasters.

The intermittent booming of the cannons at night was torturing the Spellcasters in the camp. It was easy now to identify which officers were Spellcasters in Vineta Camp, looking for those with dark circles under their eyes and bloodshot whites.

Only the Provost Marshal Moritz was unaffected by the bombardment. Major Moritz van Nassau could sleep like the dead every night after consuming his fixed cocktail of strong spirits and herbs, and wouldn't awaken even if shots were fired next to him.

Antonio would shake his head at the mention of Moritz, telling Winters, "If Van Nassau could quit drinking, he'd have been a lieutenant colonel by now. For him, achieving the rank of general in the future wouldn't be difficult... What a shame, such a waste of talent…"

Yet, Moritz van Nassau was not under Antonio's command; he was a fully capable adult making his own life choices, and Antonio had no reason, nor any intention, to interfere with Moritz's lifestyle.

The unceasing bombardment was painful for the Vinetian Spellcasters, and even more agonizing for the defenders and civilians inside Tachi.

At the start of the campaign, both sides still maintained some virtue and grace. But now, all that had dissipated, and the war plummeted towards its worst, bloodiest, and cruelest depths.

The night when Montani's guard made a sally and was annihilated,

William Kidd sent a messenger with a handwritten letter, hoping for a day of truce like before, so that both sides could send out teams to collect and bury the dead.

But this time, Antonio rejected the defenders' request. His cold reply to the messenger was, "If William Kidd truly cared for the dignity of the dead, he could surrender the city. Then, you would no longer have to worry about this problem."

The defenders' messenger left dejectedly, and the siege continued.

During the day, Venetians bombarded the walls, filled in the ditches, and extended the trench works towards the moat, launching probing attacks against weakened points.

At night, William Kidd led the defenders in desperately repairing the shattered walls: pouring mortar into cracks in the wall, using whatever was available—stones, shrubs, dirt—to fill in minor breaches that had appeared.

They learned from the Venetians, bringing buckets of soil to the ramparts, using them as a substitute for the parapets, which had been bombarded to rubble.'
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The Vinetian army was not idle at night, either; the eight artillery groups would suddenly bombard the walls, using light cannons to target those Tanilians desperately fixing the walls.

Volbon also dispatched small groups of soldiers through the bastion to the ditch, using hook nets to recover precious cannonballs scattered around the ditch and wall base—continuous bombardment was rapidly depleting Vineta's ammunition reserves, and even the cannonballs under the enemy's eyes had to be retrieved.

After being woken up by heavy artillery booming nine times in a half-asleep, half-awake state through the night, Winters simply volunteered for the night guard duty on the big cannons.

He wasn't currently assigned an official position and was considered a "utility officer" in the legion—wherever needed, that's where he would be sent, making this sort of menial task perfect for him.

So, the day after the massive bombardment began, Winters became the duty officer for the "West-4" artillery unit.

The legion command assigned two ten-man teams to each artillery unit for night watch, which was the front line and couldn't spare too many troops.

But stationed behind the old siege ramparts, 300 meters away, was a full-strength company, ready to rapidly respond if an alarm was raised. The main forces in the camp could also arrive quickly.

The night watch's task was actually simple: spot the enemy, sound the alarm bell, wait for reinforcements to arrive, and job done.

Especially now, with the current state of the war making the night watch's task incredibly easy: with the bastion captured, the Tanilians couldn't quietly use the city gates for a sortie. To counterattack would mean sharing the fate of the Montani Guard.

And Tachi was a small city, not a massive one like Constantinople with many side gates and secret doors—it only had this one gate next to the bastion.

The Tanilians would have to be incredibly foolish to repeat the Montani Guard's downfall.

Therefore, the night watch, with no chance of earning distinction, was unanimously considered the most miserable task by Venetian junior officers. Doing a good job wouldn't be considered meritorious, but mistakes would lead to a military court.

When Lieutenant Charles of the West-4 artillery unit heard that Winters was volunteering to replace him, he practically wanted to pick up Winters and call him dad, happily completing the handover.

Although it was a hard task, since he was there, he had to do it well.

After taking up his post, Winters did three things.

First, he issued whistles to all the soldiers under him. Normally, whistles were only given to officers, so providing them to soldiers could lead to confusion on the battlefield.