Free Web NovelChapter 189: Open the Gates!
If it were possible, Oliver Hughes would have preferred to secure Herald City completely with his own soldiers. Even the militia from Redwood Town were better organized than the local garrison in his opinion, but when Captain Max and a few other officers began showing some initiative, his temper simmered down somewhat.
Looks like not all of them are hopeless, Commander Hughes took a breath, reminding himself that right now, the priority was to get as many soldiers and guards from Herald City into fighting order as possible.
Establishing a defence line to hold back the approaching Beast Tide wouldn’t have been easy even if the local garrison was an elite fighting force, much less the current mess, but in a battle for survival, every able body counted.
On top of that, as much as Oliver hated to admit it, having the native soldiers’ cooperation would be essential in the coming hours.
General Balfour had the strength and status necessary to force all the locals to obey her orders, but she and everyone under her command were still strangers to Herald City.
Even if the locals weren’t the best fighters, they knew the layout of the city, the surrounding geography, the weak points in the walls, where the weapons and armour were kept, and many other critical pieces of information.
Oliver knew that with the time they had left until the beasts arrived, there was no way he could figure out all of this vital knowledge without local assistance. Even being able to assemble and organize the necessary troops would be difficult, so he needed to rely on the residents of Herald City to ease that burden as much as possible.
Sweeping his gaze over the still somewhat disorganized soldiers, Oliver choked down his frustrations and called out, "I need 50 soldiers to come with me immediately to the main north-western gate!"
Before this new order could create any further confusion, Oliver simply pointed to a group of soldiers and shouted, "You lot, come with me!"
Having done all he could inside the garrison grounds, Oliver left Captain Max in charge of gathering the rest of the troops while leading his small party to the stables.
Hopping onto whatever mounts were available, they then galloped out of the compound, heading towards the walls.
.....
Most of Herald City was located on a vast plain on the western shores of the Belton River. This meant that the bulk of the city, and its population, was exposed on its north, west, and south sides. As such, to defend against beast attacks, a large, sturdy wall had been constructed over the years.
Standing about 10 metres tall, and being nearly 3 metres thick, this city wall formed a semi-circular perimeter nearly 15 km long around three sides of the settlement.
8 entrances were evenly spaced along this wall, with each featuring a thick, Silver Steel reinforced wooden gate that was wide enough to allow 2 carriages to pass through side by side with room to spare.
In regular times, perhaps a dozen guards would be standing-by at each of these entrances and the gates would remain open even in the middle of the night, allowing people to come and go freely from the city whenever they pleased.
However, for the past 8 days, these gates had almost constantly remained shut, refusing access to all but the most powerful and influential. The guard had also been tripled to ensure that the swarms of refugees stayed back from the entrances.
This cruel and brutal policy had incensed many, if not all of the desperate people who had fled to Herald City seeking safety, but when the armed guards pointed bows and spears at them, most obediently retreated.
As for those who refused to back down, they were beaten black and blue and then thrown out, if they were lucky.
8 days of cold, hunger, fear, and desperation had fostered enormous amounts of resentment and anger amongst the population outside the city walls, so when news of the approaching Beast Tide began to spread, panic and riots almost immediately broke out.
The refugees, who had been too frightened to challenge the city guards and garrison soldiers previously, could no longer afford to worry about a few dozen swords and axes when thousands of sharp claws and fangs were closing in on them.
When Oliver Hughes arrived at the north-western gate, the scene he was greeted with could only be described as mayhem. Some 50 soldiers were up on the walls, their weapons drawn as they continued to shout out at a crowd of what looked like at least 1,000 civilians who were all pushing up against the closed gate.
The refugees were screaming to let them in, while the soldiers were shouting for them to get back.
The civilians were all desperate, while the soldiers were equally flustered.
Looking at this debacle, Oliver suddenly became worried, wondering if he could even regain control of the situation. Still, there was no time to hesitate, and nothing would change if he didn’t even try.
With one great leap, Oliver mounted the wall above the gate and fully released his aura while unleashing a massive pulse of Spirit Qi. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
This kind of reckless release of Spirit Qi couldn’t be considered a technique as there was no focus or refinement to it at all, but it was effective in creating a kind of shockwave that spread out in all directions, one powerful enough to knock back everyone in Oliver’s surroundings.
While this cost Commander Hughes 10% of his entire reserve of Spirit Qi and strained both his body and meridians, it achieved his goal of stunning both the soldiers and civilians at the gate.
Having cracked open a small window of opportunity, Oliver infused Spirit and Soul Qi into his voice and shouted as loudly as he could, "I am Commander Hughes of the Kingdom’s Army! I have been granted authority to open the gates and allow everyone inside!"
Oliver’s words sent another shockwave through the crowd, but the civilians soon began to cry out even louder than before. Some of them began chanting Oliver’s name, praising him as a wise and merciful leader; most, however, were simply calling for the gates to be opened quickly, fear apparent in their voices.
The intensity of this burst of noise, a mix of adulation and urgings, caught Oliver a bit off-guard, making him miss the best chance he had to explain the conditions he wanted to impose.
Even if he was at odds with the local forces for locking all the refugees out of the city, Oliver still understood that just opening the gates and letting everyone in without any thought wouldn’t be a good idea. It would be even more troublesome to do so now when the civilians were essentially rioting.
Seeing the situation once again slipping out of his control, Oliver frowned and repeated his earlier actions, unleashing a second burst of Spirit Qi.
Doing his best to ignore the throbbing pain in his meridians, Oliver shouted again, "The gates will be opened in 50 breaths, and all will be allowed to enter! But! Everyone must walk in! Anyone who is caught running or pushing will be beaten and thrown back out!"
This time, the crowd’s response wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic.
With their lives in danger, who had time to leisurely stroll forward? If anything, most people wished they could run inside right now. However, after Oliver displayed his strength twice, and facing the pressure of his aura, most of the civilians were begrudgingly willing to listen.
For now.
Having settled the crowd outside, Oliver next turned to the nearby soldiers and ordered, "10 of you remain up here and monitor the situation from above, the rest of you get down and begin clearing out the surrounding area behind the gates. Once the refugees start pouring in, you are to guide them further into the city, towards open areas where they can wait until we have time to deal with them."
The soldiers, who were either part of the city watch or the local garrison, were still trying to recover from the sudden turn of events and were hesitant to obey this unfamiliar man. They had all received orders from Commander Manning or Count Baker to keep the rabble out of the city; but now, this man, who was clearly a powerful Spirit Initiate, was declaring that the gates were to be opened.
For a moment, the guards didn’t know what to do.
Oliver had anticipated this situation though, which was why he took out the Command Token he had ’borrowed’ from Leonard Manning’s office and held it up so the guards could all see it and signaled to the soldiers he had brought with him to explain.
A few breaths later, after some information was exchanged, the gate guards no longer hesitated to comply
Who were they kidding? The Garrison Commander had fled, and now Marquess Balfour had arrived to assume command of the city. Anyone who dared to resist would be unceremoniously executed for disobeying orders! freēwebnovel.com
Understanding that they had no option to refuse, the gate guards got to work, although in quite a flustered and disorderly manner, slowing down the process quite a bit.
Oliver Hughes was again frustrated by this display of incompetence, but he had not expected any better from the City Watch after seeing the state of the garrison, so he simply did his best to ignore the fumbling idiots around him.
After confirming that everything was at least proceeding in the right direction, Oliver got down from the wall and ordered 40 of the soldiers who had accompanied him to split up and head to the two adjacent city gates so they could repeat this process while he remained behind to coordinate the overall situation.
