"Sir Odo, we failed to catch up and let him run away."
By the commercial road to the north of the manor, Jason, who led a patrol team to chase the commander of the watchtower, reported the battle situation to the deputy captain of the patrol team, Odo.
"Trash! You can't catch up with someone who has been hit by an arrow. How do you train on a daily basis?" Odo's scolding sounded.
The ambush battle personally commanded by Baron Balian was victorious. When more than twenty patrol soldiers ambushing on both sides of the trade road rushed out, the greedy wolves chasing their prey turned into slaughtered rats. In less than half an hour, six corpses of enemy soldiers lay on the ground, while the patrol had only four minor injuries. But the commander who was shot in the left chest by Art was able to escape in the melee. Once this guy led a large group of enemy soldiers to pursue him, the huge convoy would be extremely dangerous.
"Odo, there is no need to blame him. Hurry up and let the convoy pass quickly and enter Kalk Castle as soon as possible. If we are caught by the pursuers soon, so many of us will not be able to escape." Skarzak, you two quickly clean up the battlefield and take away everything you can. The weapons, armor and valuables will be kept by you. "
"Jason, ride to the north and tell Tuba and they to bring the convoy over quickly..."
The three of them took orders and went about their business.
Spencer was also very busy. According to the custom of the patrol, all weapons, armor and valuables worth more than twenty pfennigs when cleaning up the battlefield after the battle must be turned over to the patrol for distribution at their discretion after the war. However, in order to encourage the soldiers to fight bravely, they were also allowed to keep some odds and ends and insignificant belongings.
Hence Spencer, as a veteran of the patrol and the important "first attack" in this ambush battle, certainly has the privilege of selecting the spoils first. At this time, he was rummaging around on an enemy soldier that had been poked into a sieve. He would not touch the weapons and armor at all. It was not because he abided by military discipline, but because he was really not interested in those things. The money bag has been rummaged through, and all the dozen copper plates have been collected; now he is looking for the holy cross that soldiers usually carry with them. Some wealthy soldiers' holy crosses are made of silver. But Spencer searched for a long time and found no sign of the Holy Cross.
“You bastard, you don’t even have a holy object on your body. No wonder God didn’t bless you and allowed you to die miserably here.” Spencer didn’t care that the enemy soldiers wearing holy crosses didn’t survive either.
Colin angrily walked over to Spencer and yelled: "Spencer, you bastard! When you are fighting, you are afraid of death, but when you are searching for property, you become a damn warrior."
< br/> "I told you not to throw away the grain bags, but you had to throw them away. Now it's okay. Lord Odo asked us to pick up all the goods thrown away on the road."
"Huh?" Spencer looked up in surprise.
"Let's go, what are you still looking at? You expect me to go alone"
"I~I still have to clean up the battlefield as ordered~"
Colin will be deceived by Spencer's excuse. He will pick up a stone on the ground and throw it at it. "Believe it or not, I will smash your dog's head?"
.........................
"It's a pity for this good thing."
Ron stood by the wall of the sentry tower, looking at a broken crossbow in his hand.
Ron was one of the three men in black who followed Art into the watch tower. After Spencer and Colin pretended to be a caravan to lure the enemy soldiers out of the watch tower, the three of them quietly entered the tower.
Perhaps no one dared to disturb this checkpoint for many days, and the people in the tower were very relaxed. When the three of them closed the tower door and climbed all the way up to the stacked wall at the top of the tower, the two soldiers who stayed behind were still standing by the stacked wall with a smile and watching their companions who were chasing the prey.
At first, he dived behind a soldier and pierced his throat with a sword. Ron, who was following behind, was a little behind, and the soldier in front of him was already on guard. When Ron slashed at him with his sword, the soldier blocked it with the crossbow in his hand. The bow was split by the broadsword. After joining forces with Art to kill the soldier, Ron picked up the broken crossbow on the ground and cried out in pain. This crossbow was a heavy weapon in the military and was usually controlled by the elite armies of some large castles and great lords. Even Tyniec only had six or seven such heavy crossbows in his arsenal.
"Okay Ron, you two stay here and observe the surroundings. If there is any enemy situation, call the police immediately. I'll go down first to see the situation over there." With that, Art went down the wooden ladder down the tower.
It was already dark, and an empty vehicle was parked in the manor. Seven or eight soldiers from the patrol were counting the war gains in the sentry tower. This sentry tower was probably set up temporarily. Everything in the manor had been plundered by the enemy soldiers. There were no other weapons or goods in the tower except for a small amount of grain storage. After a search, they only found a small half barrel of beer, a few bags of rye bread, and some scattered items belonging to the soldiers. In addition to what was seized from the killed enemy soldiers, there were only two thousand doupheni coins, eight sets of weapons and armor, and two war horses.
Looking at the weapons and armor stacked on the carriage, Baron Balian pulled Art aside and said: "Art, I want to discuss it with you. You know that I have recruited so many soldiers now, but there is a lack of weapons and armor in Fort Kalk. The weapons in our inventory cannot yet recruit all the newly recruited soldiers. Everything is ready. So I want you to sell me the weapons captured this time, especially the crossbow. I only have eight of these weapons. I am willing to pay one thousand pfenni for this crossbow. I will also buy the broken one. You can set the price, and I will not bargain."
"Lord Balian, it was your idea to pull out this checkpoint this time. You should have shared a share of the loot. As for the other weapons, I only left four pieces of leather armor and gave the rest to you. As a condition, all the two horses are mine, how about it?" Art also lacks weapons and equipment, but now Baron Balian needs these things more than Art.
In the end, Art got four sets of thick leather armor and two war horses. Of course, Baron Balian still paid Art a thousand pfennigs for the weapons.
Everyone did not stay at the manor for too long. After cleaning up, they immediately set off for Kalk Castle...
When they arrived at Kalk Castle, it was just daybreak.
In the past, this inconspicuous castle in the north of Aosta has turned into a real Shura battlefield. The city walls are full of signs of damage, and there are some damaged siege equipment under the city walls.
Groups of soldiers on the city wall were patrolling, and the archers on the arrow towers stared nervously into the distance. The brown background Pegasus flag fluttered in the wind at the top of the city, and many antlers were set up in front of the closed city gate. The soldier guarding the gate saw the convoy slowly approaching. After careful observation, he found that the leader of the convoy was carrying the flag of his baron, and quickly reported it to the commander guarding the city.
After a while, the door opened and several cavalrymen rushed out of the door.
The leading knight hurriedly jumped off his horse and came to Baron Balian, "Sir, you are back. Last week, more than a hundred enemy troops came to attack the city, and we almost lost Kalk Castle."
"Let's talk about entering the city. It's not safe outside the city." After Baron Balian said this, he led the convoy into Kalk Castle. Warm cheers rang out in the fort...
Matter struggled to get up from the straw bed regardless of the exhaustion from traveling all night, called up Ron and Jason who were sleeping in the house, and walked out the door.
"Ron, go and wake them up."
Hon, while putting on his armor and hanging his sword, he ran towards another hayloft~
Ate climbed up the city wall. A stone's throw away from the city wall, more than thirty cavalrymen lined up to confront each other. Thirty people are not too many, but thirty cavalry are not a small scene. Art was surprised by the reaction of the Lombard army. In just a few hours, the cavalry had already caught up with them. Fortunately, they did not stay longer at the manor, otherwise the consequences would be disastrous.
The thirty or so cavalry outside the city were led by a guy with a grizzly bear heraldry flag. Art was relatively familiar with the Lombard noble system, but he did not remember that there was a family in Lombardy that used the black bear heraldry. It was probably a new military honor that appeared in this war.
The leader of the cavalry drove his horse alone to a place more than fifty paces outside the fort gate and stopped. He shouted bitterly at the people on the wall: "When Kalk is captured, I will kill you all."
The leader's words contained an intimidating sense of courage and murderous intent. Jason couldn't help feeling a little sore in his feet, "Sir, how come these guys are even scarier than those gangsters?"
Really?" Art smiled and glanced at Jason beside him, and had to admit that these cavalrymen in the city did have a murderous spirit that had been through battle for a long time. This kind of murderous spirit could not be obtained by killing a few ruthless bandits, but could only be possessed by those who climbed out of the pile of dead people.
"Art, it seems you won't be able to leave in the next two days." At some point, Baron Balian was already standing behind Art.
"Lord Balian, should you send troops out to fight?" Jason asked weakly. In his memory, this occasion should be like what the bard said, when the brave guardian led the army to rush out and drive away the invaders.
Baron Balian and Art laughed at the same time, "Young man, I can't believe the boasts from the bard. It would be a fool to go out to fight at this time."
"Strengthen the defense and guard against sneak attacks." After giving the order to the people around him, Baron Balian climbed down the city wall.
"Att, let your people go back to sleep and be refreshed. I will hold a banquet in the inner castle tonight and invite you and your commanders to attend."
The cavalry outside the city kept cursing and provoking in the wind, and the soldiers on the wall remained unmoved despite the cursing outside the city.
At looked around at the young and strong soldiers in armor on the city wall, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart - it seems that Provence still has elite soldiers, and Lombardy's ambition to occupy Provence in one fell swoop may not be so easy to realize...
In the evening, There was a burst of jubilation in Fort Kalk. Baron Balian brought back scarce food to Fort Kalk this time and recruited more than seventy soldiers. Although these temporarily recruited soldiers were not elite, there was no problem with veterans who had spent more than a hundred battles leading the defense of the city.
Kalkeburg can hold on for a few more months.