Unless the city is divided by a natural barrier, any army is going to envelop a walled city. Why start a siege or assault with a back door open?
@Hmt321 - the women and children flee when the enemy is still about am hour away. So far I have written that the enemy sent horses around the other side to intercept the retreating rebels who'd stayed to fight. My MC and the archers leave through a different gate on still another side. They are all already retreating before the enemy has physically reached the city. The fight kinda finished before it began because the enemy sent in mud monsters (this is a fantasy novel) to break open the gate to start and in the process killed a couple dozen men and demoralised them. If this doesn't make sense, could you tell me how i could make sense of it?? @Thundair - this is actually the beginning of the book, chapters 1 and 2
