Viking: Master of the Icy Sea

Chapter 283: A Sudden Escalation of Conflict

The urgent tolling of bells shattered the afternoon's dead silence. Helgi scrambled to organize the defenses. Amidst the chaos and rising panic, the lateen sails of the pirate ships billowed with the wind. Gaining speed, they lunged ferociously toward the disorganized docks.

Crash!

Suddenly, the foremost ship was struck by a stone projectile, causing a few cracks to appear on its starboard side.

As an experienced retired pirate, Helgi had always been on guard against his former peers. He had invested his dividends from the West Sea Fur Company and the Sugarcane Company into the castle's construction. Furthermore, he had built ten ballistas and six counterweight trebuchets.

The ballistas fired in a flat trajectory, offering a higher hit rate, but their drawback lay in the lighter weight of their stones, which lacked sufficient destructive power.

The counterweight trebuchets could launch much larger stones, but their high-arcing trajectories resulted in a lower hit rate. It wasn't until the fifth volley that they struck their first target. A stone projectile weighing fifty kilograms plummeted with massive kinetic energy, smashing straight down through the mid-deck of a pirate ship.

Crash!

The immense impact caused the hull to list violently. The mast groaned under the unbearable strain before snapping with a loud crack, crashing heavily onto the deck. Immediately after, seawater poured madly into the breach on the side. The ship tilted sharply and began to sink at a visible rate.

With the situation beyond saving, the captain immediately leapt over the rail, swimming away as fast as he could to avoid being sucked under by the whirlpool of the sinking vessel. The surviving crew members quickly followed suit. Staring at the shattered wood and corpses floating on the surface, the originally high morale of the fleet began to waver.

Observing the castle standing tall on the northern hillside, the pirate chieftain felt a surge of dread. Even if they managed to seize the port, their ships would all eventually be sunk. They had no choice but to find another place to land.Soon, the remaining pirate ships aggressively turned their rudders, adjusting the angles of their massive lateen sails. No longer attempting to ram the port, they darted toward the south like a school of startled fish, fleeing from those dangerous trebuchets at top speed.

Driven by the wind, the ships recklessly charged toward a desolate, gravelly beach several hundred meters away. Their keels ground against the sand and rocks with a piercing screech. Waving their scimitars and round shields, the pirates howled as they leapt into the calf-deep water, stumbling and splashing their way toward the shore.

Utilizing this precious time, Helgi and his guards stabilized the order at the port. He arranged for the residents to be issued spears and crossbows, organizing a defense along the palisade.

"The Moors are obsessed with the slave trade! For the sake of your own futures, you absolutely must not retreat!"

Gripping a longsword, Helgi paced along the palisade, shouting to boost the residents' morale, but his efforts yielded little result. The majority of the residents were exiles, forced far from their homelands to toil away their days on this hot, desolate island. Their loyalty was generally questionable at best.

Hearing the Earl's words, quite a few people grumbled inwardly, feeling that their current lives were barely better than those of slaves. Others silently prayed for the Earl and the pirates to take each other down, allowing the masses to regain their freedom. That would be the best possible outcome!

Half an hour passed, and the two thousand eight hundred pirates launched their assault. Raising their round shields, they surged forward like a tidal wave, arriving at the moat outside the palisade.

"Don't hold back! First come, first served!"

Urged on by their respective chieftains, the pirates carefully avoided the spikes at the bottom of the moat and began scaling the palisade. Lacking long ladders, siege towers, and other equipment, their offensive efficiency was abysmal. After losing over a hundred men, they scattered and retreated of their own accord.

Having weathered the first wave of attacks, the most dangerous moment had passed. Helgi began to ponder his subsequent plans.

There were three locations that required defense: the castle, the port, and the inland areas.

The castle was tall and sturdy, situated on treacherous terrain. It was absolutely impossible for the pirates to breach, so it required no extra worry.

The port possessed a palisade and a moat. If the enemy were to attack from the eastern sea or the north, they would face long-range bombardment from the castle. Therefore, the port only needed to hold its southern and western palisade sections, making the defense relatively manageable.

What truly warranted his attention were the inland plantations. Sun Island was home to three thousand immigrants, with over two thousand scattered across the interior. Whether it was the labor force or the crops, he absolutely could not afford the slightest mishap.

"Diego Garos," Helgi said, finding one of his subordinate Barons and granting him full authority over the port's defense. Helgi himself mounted a horse and departed the port, galloping westward at top speed. Seeing the black columns of smoke rising in the east, the plantation workers hurried back to the camp with their farming tools, where they were urged by managers and overseers to arm themselves.

Soon, the watchtower spotted a small squad of riders approaching rapidly. Recognizing the Earl's face, they swung the gates open to let him inside.

Helgi found the manager. "Are all the workers here?"

The manager pointed at the crowd resting in the shade. "A total of one thousand three hundred men. They are all here, ready to defend at a moment's notice."

"Send someone to notify the farmers! Tell them to pack their belongings and take shelter inside immediately!"

In addition to the thirteen hundred plantation workers, the interior also housed over seven hundred free farmers. These were commoners who had migrated voluntarily, as well as laborers who had survived their work contracts to earn a free plot of farmland. Helgi dispatched his knights to urge them along, going through tremendous effort to finally gather these free farmers at the camp.

At sunset, the dinner bell rang rhythmically. The crowd formed into four long lines, holding their mess tins to receive their food. Dinner at the plantation typically consisted of salted fish, sweet bread (sweetened with molasses), and a small cup of sugarcane rum.

In Britain or Northern Europe, sweet bread was undoubtedly a symbol of the upper-middle class. As Sun Island was a producer of sugarcane, even the lowest tier of residents had the privilege of enjoying this luxury from their homeland. Feeling the lingering sweetness between their lips and teeth allowed people to unknowingly forget the hardships of life.

After eating dinner, a group of farmers sought out the Earl, asking exactly how long they were expected to stay here.

The Earl answered truthfully, "Until the pirates withdraw."

"Suppose they stubbornly refuse to leave. Are we supposed to huddle in this camp forever?" someone shouted loudly, drawing a chorus of agreement from the villagers.

"That's right! I need to tend to my wheat fields back home."

"If we don't go back for a long time, the belongings in our homes will likely be stolen by the natives. Those people love petty theft; they won't even spare a woman's comb or bronze mirror."

The next day, a small number of farmers began leaving without saying goodbye, slipping away one after another to return to their villages and tend to their crops.

On the third day, the enemy was still laying siege to the port town with no apparent intention of heading inland, prompting even more farmers to leave.

Early on the morning of the fourth day, the enemy carried ladders and launched a fresh wave of attacks. Baron Garos led the guards in a desperate resistance, killing or wounding over three hundred pirates.

With their assault thwarted and the fleet's supplies running critically low, the pirates tentatively dispatched search parties inland. Realizing that the villages possessed practically zero defenses, they simply abandoned their attack on the port and swarmed the interior to plunder grain and capture laborers.

"Sigh. You're on your own now."

At the camp, Helgi climbed up the watchtower. Gazing at the massive plumes of thick smoke rising in the southeast, he muttered complaints about the thickheadedness and wishful thinking of those farmers.