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But these fellows didn’t complain about the long journey; on the contrary, they were quite cheerful.
The lord had clearly taken great care of their morale, from theabundant food to the handfuls of gold coins. Those who did well could be promoted in rank, earning the admiration and respect of the others.
Though she was a young beauty, no one dared to have improper thoughts— even when the two Zino gentlemen had left one after the other, it hadn’t affected anything.
Many of the former members of the Flame Legion had long been tamed by Luris Zino, who was fiercer than a lone wolf, and had become thoroughly obedient. They had also grown accustomed to respecting and fearing women.
Rough men, when there's money to be made and meat to be eaten, are not hard to deal with. Those who broke military discipline were dealt with according to the law, and even when they exchanged formalities, they never spared old friendships.
Now, with only five thousand men left in the small legion, it seemed impossible to capture La Spezia, a city with a population of over ten thousand, based on past experience.
However, everyone remained optimistic, for they had become accustomed to certain things—
When the defenders of La Spezia finally waited for the legendary enemy to arrive, they found that these people had no intention of even setting up a trebuchet.
The city's walls stood twenty to thirty feet high, and attempting to scale them by hand was nothing short of a joke.
When Massa fell, the unfortunate lord who had been captured instructed his men to crawl through a dog hole to send a message seeking help from this distant neighbor.
Genoa was not foolish enough to send reinforcements. Instead, they deployed all their forces to defend the walls.
The general and countless archers, seeing the large army approaching from the walls, were on high alert, ready to take down those foolish enough to challenge them.
However, the people below began to set up camp at a distance,and soon tents were rising like dunes.
— Wasn't this supposed to be a battle?
Why were there no siege ladders or siege engines being built?
What were they unloading?
When the massive crossbow mounted on four carts was finally assembled, both the general and the lord turned pale—
What in the world was that?!
They understood the logic, but why was this crossbow so huge?!
Not only that, but the cannons were also assembled within a single day, positioned at a range completely out of reach of the archers.
The general breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the small, stone-like cannon.
He had seen these before; they had little power, and from such a distance, they probably wouldn’t even hit a sparrow—
Then, from afar, the artillerymen lit the fuse, and after a short moment, a fireball was suddenly shot high into the sky, and to their shock, it actually hit the city wall!
Before the defenders could react, the cannonball exploded, and the centuries-old stone wall collapsed with a massive hole!
The smoke quickly dispersed, and the acrid white fumes stung their throats.
The area around the destroyed section of the wall began to crumble, and some of the more timid defenders screamed and ran away.
— What the hell was that?!
— No other army's cannon could ever break through a stone wall like that!
Da Vinci, who was observing through binoculars, clearly noticed this as well. He waved his hand, signaling the artillery of the other two units to practice as well.
"Just treat it like practicing on targets and adjusting aim," he instructed. "Don't get too nervous."
