Medieval siege 中世纪攻城战-11

...one, fire in the hole!
Oh, yeah.

Renaud’s optimism is justified 1. The missile falls just a few yards short of the wall and a bit to the right. The team decides to give it one more day. But the next morning starts with snow, followed by a heavy downpour.

Well, basically, we are at the last day. We got, we got, between the rain and the mud, we got a rigger’s nightmare. It’s really taken its toll 2 on the ropes, the mud grinds in and it starts tearing out the fibers 3, the water helps make the rope stretch, and if you look around the place, there is ropes in the mud, and no rigger likes seeing that. So, we are doing the best we can to keep our ropes clean, but it’s an uphill battle.

Last night’s final shot was short of the wall because it was thrown too high. Reno believes the sling 4 is slipping off its prong too soon. So to delay release and lower the trajectory 5, the prong is bent 6 forward.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We’ve got the right amount of loft 7, we’ve got the right amount of range, we’re just missing the target off to the side.

For days, Renaud has suspected that his trebuchet is pointing just to the right of the wall. But the loaded machine is too heavy to shift. He faces the possibility that he may have to go home having achieved only a near miss. At the last minute, Markus offers a solution.

We had a preferences, we'd be able to move the machine over a little bit. But we are afraid of shattering the machine, particularly with all the weight in the basket. So we’re gonna move the channel of the ball a little bit to the side so we can change our angle of attack. The range is good but we just wanna shift it over to the left a bit.

By shifting the channel that holds the ball slightly to the left, they hope to redirect the missile. It works. Almost. Another 3 feet and Renaud would have had a direct hit. Unless shifting the channel was just a fluke, one more nudge to the left should bring the trebuchet right on target.

Go, baby.
Come on. Oh, that looks good. That’s right.
Oh, yeah.

After two throws which are slightly higher of the wall itself. Renaud orders a minute adjustment of the prong in order to lower the trajectory. With frayed ropes and a storm threatening to close down the siege,everything now hangs on Renaud’s ability to quickly get on target.

3, 2. 1. Fire in the hole.

And he does. A bull’s eye on the battlements.

Well done, well done.
Okay.
Hey he stays hot.
This whole wall, if you run your eyes down here, bellied 9 out. Just cracks all through it. Anybody standing 10 back here would have been mincemeat.

Hahaha. (French)

In a real siege, it will only be a matter of time before the wall is reduced to smithereens.


words to chew:

1/ prong: One of several claw-like wires used to hold a gem 11 or stone in place.

2/loft: propel through the air;
(n.)/(v.)"The rocket lofted 12 the space shuttle into the air"

3/fray:wear away by rubbing; "The friction 13 frayed 8 the sleeve"

4/a bull's eye: in target shooting: a score made by hitting the center of the target; "in repeated sets of five shots his numbers of bull's-eyes varied 14"

5/battlement: A narrow wall built along the outer edge of a castle's wall walk to protect the soldiers from attack.

6/smithereens: (pl.) a collection of small fragments considered as a whole; "Berlin was bombed to smithereens"; "his hopes were dashed to smithereens"; "I wanted to smash him to smithereens"; "the toilet bowl ws blown to smithereens"