Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

When the sentry on Tachi's city walls saw the Golden Lion Flag on the horizon in the dawn light, he could hardly believe his eyes.

The Tanilians clearly didn't expect the enemy to arrive so quickly. Red Sulfur Harbor had just fallen, and the Venetians, still in the midst of reorganizing, had forcibly marched thirty kilometers overnight, cutting through the countryside that was, in theory, still under the Federation's control, and headed straight for them.

Now, most of the foraging teams sent out by Captain Kidd had not yet returned, and the Saint Marco Legion had already reached the base of Tachi's walls.

Layton didn't rush to attack the city; instead, after cutting off Tachi from the outside world, he divided his forces to start purging the Federation's small units from behind.

After several minor skirmishes, the foraging teams sent out by Kidd were completely routed. The remnant soldiers scattered like birds and beasts, yet most of them were captured by farmers in the fields, wielding farm tools as weapons.

The Federation soldiers, horrified to discover that the farmers, who were once timid and subservient, begging for everything, now had the courage to resist.

The farmers, long harboring resentment, had some of the bolder ones slaughter the Federation soldiers and buried them quietly. Those less bold tied up the captured Federation soldiers and delivered them to the Venetians.

When Antonio saw the scattered prisoners brought to Red Sulfur Harbor by the island's farmers, he understood that everything went well for the Saint Marco Legion. The farmers received their reward money and went home delighted.

Meanwhile, on Layton's side, the Saint Marco Legion quickly compressed the Tanilians' range of activity to within Tachi's city walls.

However, the defenders did not surrender obediently, nor did they send emissaries to contact the Saint Marco Legion, creating an eerie silence on the battlefield. Seeing this, Layton still resorted to the old method—sending emissaries to persuade surrender.

The local gentry of Red Sulfur Island, coerced into delivering the letter of persuasion to the defenders, was shot dead by a volley of arrows before he could even speak.

The defenders expressed their resolve in this way—they would never surrender. They killed the envoy before he had a chance to speak, to avoid his words of persuasion weakening their morale.

Layton was furious, but also impotently enraged. If the Venetian commander attacked out of rage, it would have been more than ideal for Captain Kidd.

Expecting the defenders to surrender was nothing but a pipe dream. Layton ordered the construction of ramparts around Tachi, and the war fell into a deadlock.

——CUT——

"Give me some fatty pieces... Ah, man, don't give me the ones with bones, more fatty ones," a short soldier said, giggling as he stood in front of the cutting board with his pot.

Behind him, a long line of soldiers waited to receive their meat.

This was a corner of the camp, where the volcanic soil was turned into mud by the blood flowing everywhere, squelching underfoot.

"Everyone wants the fatty cuts, who wants the lean?" the man distributing the meat retorted unhappily, his hands moving quickly. He sliced off two large chunks of fat from the pork skin and threw them into the short soldier's pot: "Here's a bone-in piece for you and two more chunks of fat. Get going, there are others waiting behind you, don't hold up the line."

The short soldier, satisfied with his pot full, walked away, and the next soldier with his pot stepped forward: "Give me two pieces of fatty as well..."

The legions of the Ancient Empire were exceedingly good at building ramparts and roads; most of the hard-surfaced roads leading to Muro were built by the military, which were crucial to the prosperity of the Ancient Empire and remnants of which still exist today.

The military organization of the Republic was said to inherit from the ancients, although in reality, it was modernized under the guise of the "Legion" name, but it had also adopted the Ancient Empire's expertise in engineering and masonry.

On the third day after the Saint Marco Legion arrived at Tachi, the Da Veneta Legion joined forces with the Saint Marco Legion, also contributing to the construction of the fortifications.

Thin soil layers not conducive for digging? The Venetians gathered wicker and branches from the dense woods to make baskets, filling them with soil to form wall foundations. Tachi was flanked by mountains on two sides, narrowing the attack front. This also made things easier for the Venetians, as a narrow attack front meant a similarly narrow sortie front.

The two legions quickly erected two-meter-high earthen walls around Tachi, completely isolating the city from the outside—but without moats, for basalt was simply too difficult to dig through.

For soldiers who undertook heavy physical labor every day, bread alone was insufficient to sate them; they needed meat and salt.

Winters was now at what was quite literally a slaughterhouse. In front, soldiers were being distributed meat, and in the back, pigs were still being butchered. Such places, prone to breeding epidemics, were located in the corners of the camp, strictly isolated from the living quarters.

Winters watched with interest as the butchers worked: slaughtering the pigs, singeing off the hair with straw, gutting them to remove the organs, then using sharp knives to cut the whole pig into large pieces of pork.

The processed pork was carried to the cutting board, where another butcher cut and weighed it to distribute to the soldiers. Discover exclusive content at empire

In Veneta Legion organization, a ten-man squad had eight soldiers, sharing a pot and a large tent. Pork was distributed by squad, hence the soldiers came with pots to collect it.

The butcher responsible for splitting the pork was extremely efficient, turning a whole pig leg into a skeleton in the blink of an eye. Six butchers working behind him could barely keep up with his pace of meat distribution.

"I could watch this all day," Winters said to Andre by his side.

Andre, also fascinated, said, "So could I."

The two warrant officers were not idly wandering here; like distributing meat and wine, it was prone to fights. So, Winters and Andre were in charge of supervising the meat distribution process. With two officers present, the soldiers dared not disrupt the order.