Near the Ashen Valley, there are twelve cities, large and small.
The smallest one, covering an area of only three or four acres, is located at the entrance of Ashen Valley. It is a militarized fortress with almost no living facilities.
Of course, the castle, which occupies such a small area of only 2,000 square meters, cannot accommodate too many troops.
It’s just that this small fortress is quite solidly built. Not only are there steep hillsides on both sides, but the city walls and arrow towers are also reinforced models.
In addition, the city walls of this fortress called Little Gray Castle are completely enclosed.
After building the wall with the heart of the castle, find a stonemason to add a spire to the wall.
Because of the Castle Heart, building according to the buildings provided by the Castle Heart will not only greatly save materials, but more importantly, require very little time.
Before Xu came, the wall of Qingfeng City could be built in one day. After it was demolished and rebuilt, it took more than half a year even with the help of Castle Heart.
This is after recruiting a large number of farmers and even upgrading them to builders and builders.
Ordinary fortresses would never cost so much effort and money.
But Little Gray Castle is different. Little Gray Castle blocks the only way in and out of Gray Valley.
The terrain of the Ashen Valley is narrow, and only 5 or 6 riders can pass side by side at the widest position.
The Little Gray Castle is located at the entrance, with high slopes on both sides, and it has now been transformed into a lava terrain.
Ashenvale is a place that Kerrigan has personally been eyeing. Even if it has not yet been completely renovated, most of it has been completed.
No one knows, there are lava volcanoes everywhere and magma traps on both sides of the hillsides, and how many demons are ambushed on them.
Xu Lai was certain that there must be demonic ambushes on both sides.
Even if Jian Yuan had reconnaissance skills, it was hard to say whether he could find the ambush. Even if he found it, there would be more than one ambush.
Xu Lai has to wait for Reina to gather anyway, so he is in no hurry to occupy Little Gray Castle, let alone send troops from both sides of the valley.
Little Gray Castle is not big, and there is no big formation in front of it. It is obviously not possible to rush over in a swarm.
There are not many siege equipment such as ballistas and catapults, but the quality is still good. They were seized from Kasai City before.
Unfortunately, Lightning Storm is only interested in moving and living things, and has no response to mechanical things such as houses and equipment.
Besides, the devil is not stupid enough to think that he can rely on these devices to block the damage of lightning. He must at least find a roofed place.
Unfortunately, Kasai City was still severely damaged. Many instruments were accidentally damaged, and some instruments still need to be repaired before they can be transported.
But these are enough.
The structure and size of Little Gray Castle meant that it could not deploy many city defense equipment.
The demon inside could only watch Xu Lai use his trebuchet to smash down the arrow tower and city wall of Little Gray Castle bit by bit.
But Little Gray Castle is extremely strong, especially the strong roof on the city wall. It takes an average of three hits to the same part to break through.
The durability of the arrow tower is higher. If you want to destroy an arrow tower, you need to hit it more than ten times.
Obviously, the standard arrow tower in the fortress city is not so durable and defensive.
This level can be compared with castle cities.
Of course, that means castle cities in general.
Not to mention a capital-level city like Qingfeng City, even the reinforced arrow tower of Stone City is stronger than this.
While sieging the city, the crossbowmen controlling the catapults and the catapults themselves were also attacked by the lava trolls in the arrow towers.
Fortunately, these arrow towers have not been transformed into fire demon towers. They only increase the range of the lava trolls, and the power increase is not as terrifying as the fire demon towers.
Even so, under the constant treatment of the priest, crossbowmen continued to fall to the ground and die.
In fact, the death of some crossbowmen is nothing. After all, there are a large number of priests dedicated to healing, and a group of crossbowmen can last for a long time.
And after they died, they could be resurrected immediately by the Angel Legion. For Xu Lai, there was no loss at all.
It was just that the catapults were damaged one by one under the constant destruction of the flames, which made Xu Lai feel heartbroken.
As a mechanical unit, this thing cannot be resurrected.
But fortunately, the materials can be reused. As long as there are enough craftsmen, not to mention 100% recovery, at least 70% or 80% can be recovered.
Even now when we are fighting abroad, there is no stable and reliable city in the rear.
Let alone recruiting craftsmen, even if there are craftsmen, there is no suitable place for production and repair.
In other words, the existing catapults are using one less one, and they will not be replenished in a short period of time.
Therefore, after smashing all the arrow towers, Xu Lai ordered the catapults to be packed up and made way for the infantry.
Many gaps were made in the city wall.
Using a long ladder with a hook at the top to reach in is enough to support the infantry.
Although the top of Little Gray Castle's city wall is a repaired spire, there is still a small square frame left every few meters apart, which is a reserved shooting hole.
Human beings, whether archers or crossbowmen, are not very big, and one shooting hole is enough for several people.
There are not many large crossbows, catapults, and small gray castles at all, so there is no need to make special holes.
Little Gray Castle is not a fortress built entirely according to the heart of the castle. There are traces of re-construction and processing everywhere.
Therefore, the demons cannot completely transform this fortress by polluting the heart of the castle.
This is also the reason why the Arrow Tower was not changed into the Fire Demon Tower.
The devil cannot forcibly change the same city wall unless it is torn down and rebuilt.
But obviously, the demons were not willing to do this.
As for the devil's archers, Magog is quite small, and one shooting hole can accommodate two or three.
But like the flame trolls and lava trolls, they have to stoop their bodies when walking in this capped city wall, and the shooting holes are simply not enough for them to use.
But even so, Xu Lai was not willing to waste the catapult, and would rather let the infantry who got to the camp first launch the charge.
In addition to the infantry, Xu Lai also dispatched a group of priests to cover.
The defense of priests is higher than that of priests. The person guarding Little Gray Castle is only a demon general, and the attribute bonus given to soldiers is not high.
Of course the demons are not without heroes. Even if Mendis who fled back is not counted, there is still a demon hero sitting in the Ashen Valley.
It's just that this little Gray Castle is too small and can't hold too many defensive soldiers.
Whether it is Mendis or another demon hero who has not shown up, they all know that this little Gray Castle cannot be defended.
Besides, Xu Lai also has an air force advantage, even if he cannot easily advance from both sides of the valley.
If General Keshou escapes, Xu Lai will never let him go. It won't take much trouble to send a few masters to fly over and kill him.
Considering this situation, the two demons certainly refused to stay and wait to die.
The bonuses are not much, and the priest and high priest are level 5 and level 6 professionals. They have set buffs and have Xu Lai's fire-bending magic for body protection.
The key is that behind the priests, there are priests who are responsible for adding blood. Even the warriors in the front row who set up camp first have priests and high priests who can heal them.
This circular and stepped layout can take care of everything, and can also allow the priests that Xu Lai needs most now, the high priests, to gain the most experience.
The priests use magic attacks. Although the attack range of this attack is not as good as that of the shooter, the hit rate is much higher than that of the shooter.
Although the shooting hole is not big, the priests stand far away, but it can accommodate several light balls at the same time.
Behind the shooting hole are the flame trolls. The huge bodies of the lava trolls have no place to hide even if they want to.
The small city wall was filled with such strong demons that it was extremely difficult for the charging warriors from the first camp to squeeze into the city wall for street fighting.
It would also be a loss to these soldiers who first arrived at the camp, if Xu Lai had sent the infantry of the Qingfeng Legion.
Lucky for the spearmen, they can poke their spears at the top of the ladder.
If it were a sword and shield soldier, I am afraid that even if it takes a year of cutting, there would not be a gap that can fit in.
Even with the addition of god-level offensive skills, the basic attack is not high, and it is still difficult to break through the defense of high-level demons.
The only demonic building in this small Gray Castle is the Demonic Birth Pool.
The birth pool has two functions for demons.
The first is to hatch little demons. Whether they are food for higher demons or slaves, little demons play a great role.
Another function is that it can be used to heal injured demons.
Now there are only a few openings that can be attacked. If these were not well-equipped and basically have skills at hand, the situation would really not be able to open up for a while.
But the warriors who get to the camp first can grab a place on the city wall by relying on warrior skills such as charge, shield attack, powerful attack, and sweeping thousands of armies.
Due to the narrow terrain and crowded demons above, the soldiers of the first camp were unable to perform effective rotations.
More importantly, although the priests know simple healing techniques, they can only use them when the soldiers who first enter the camp appear in sight.
In other words, either those who climbed the ladder outside or those who reached the shooting port could not receive effective treatment.
Of course, except for Xu Lai's use of healing spells.
Xu Lai's mental value is not low, and a single healing session can restore a lot of health.
And because of the size of Little Gray Castle, the scale of the war was not huge. Xu Lai had many opportunities to cast spells, and he could basically cast a round of spells in about five minutes.
It’s a pity that the health points can be easily restored, but the physical strength is really useless.
Especially the warriors who are the first to enter the camp have all kinds of skills. They are fierce but not lasting.
The mana value of the warrior profession is not high, so most of the skills actually consume physical strength.
Charging, charging, slamming, etc. all consume exponentially more physical energy.
After fighting for an afternoon, the soldiers at the forefront of the first camp were exhausted, and Xu Lai had to order a withdrawal.
Fortunately, their side has the upper hand. Even if they retreat, they can easily take away their own bodies.
This is a mandatory requirement, after all, you can live with a corpse.
If you don’t take away your companion’s body, your former companion will become the devil’s food in an instant.
If it is a real siege, although the first camp will not be able to capture the city wall.
But Xu Lai can still securely occupy a section of the city wall as long as he fills in the soldiers of the Qingfeng Legion in time.
However, Xu Lai is not in a hurry, and after nightfall, human vision is blocked, and the devil will inevitably launch a counterattack.
Xu Lai was originally going to wait for Reina to come over and make peace, so he was not in such a hurry.
The next day, after eating and drinking, we repeated our old tricks.
However, the section of the city wall that was captured yesterday has been reoccupied by demons.
They even repaired the city wall and repaired the holes in the wall.
The devil can't do it, there must be human craftsmen in the city.
But as long as the city wall is still being destroyed, these craftsmen should be fine for the time being.
After all, there is enough food stored in Little Gray Castle, so the devil does not need to rush to eat people.
After the first campers seized a section of the city wall in the morning, they rotated into the Qingfeng Legion's gun and shield soldiers in the afternoon.
Although the attack power of the heavy shield infantry is not that good, with the heavy shield, the defensive power is extremely strong.
Although the demon level is higher, firstly, it has no offensive skills, and secondly, the large shield has strong defensive power, as well as ultimate defense skills and angel alliance body protection.
In this case, as long as the heavy shield soldiers can protect their bodies and prevent their bodies from being exposed outside the shield, it is impossible for the devil to break through the defense.
Heavy shield infantry can even put away their single swords and concentrate on defending with shields in both hands.
The pikemen behind them were able to use the advantage of their spears to attack the demons in front of the heavy shield soldiers.
There is a 5-point strength and physical bonus provided by the God of War statue, as well as the resistance of the spearmen brothers behind him.
Even if the power of demons is generally higher than that of humans, they will not be able to defeat the human spear and shield array for a while.
With Xu Lai in charge, and without him participating in the battle, the tactics also provide a large number of additional attributes.
This bought a lot of time for the human infantry regiment to continuously expand its territory on the city wall.
As night fell, the gun and shield soldiers actually occupied half of the territory on the city wall without any long-range support.
On the third day, the catapult had completely lost its threat.
The enemy's limited long-range troops have all been wiped out by the priests, and many of their effective forces have also been destroyed.
Although they still failed to take down all the city walls today, they killed thousands of high-level demons.
In the end, the demons couldn't even send out troops like the warlords, which were no longer very dominant at the same level.
The only way to fight is with the horned demons summoned by the evil gods.
The horned devil has no advantage over humans at any level.
Had it not been late for Xu to watch, he should have been able to capture all the city walls that day.
By the fourth day, the demons on the city wall had begun to thin out, and there was no need to even send an advance camp to seize the breakthrough.
Xu Lai did indeed do this. Compared with entering the camp first, the recruits of Qingfeng Legion need to upgrade their level more.
The demons received a death order, so no one dared to escape even if they knew there was no chance of winning.
With others not competing for experience, Xu Lai spent four days and finally captured this small Gray Castle.
And successfully liberated more than 300 human craftsmen imprisoned in Little Gray Castle.
At the same time, the average level of Qingfeng Legion infantry was finally raised to level 5, and more high priests and a small number of little angels appeared.
After occupying Little Gray Castle, Xu Lai planned to use it as a stronghold to clear the upper slopes on both sides. (End of this chapter)