Over the next few days, the situation in Fort Kalk became increasingly unfavorable. There were more and more sporadic enemy troops lingering in the villages around the castle. Every day, a group of enemy troops would come to the fort gate to call for battle. Although the soldiers in the city strictly abided by the military orders and stayed behind closed doors, the enemy soldiers continued to curse every day. It was really hateful, and the defenders in the fort were suffocating.
On the afternoon of the third day when the convoy arrived at Fort Kalk, as usual, dozens of enemy soldiers came outside the fort. This time they were not only the enemy soldiers calling for formation, they also detained a dozen old, weak, women and children kidnapped from surrounding villages.
A dozen innocent civilians were escorted to kneel more than 150 steps outside the fort gate. Behind them stood seven or eight bare-chested soldiers holding sharp knives. The soldiers had evil smiles on their faces. They put swords and axes on the civilians' necks, which only made the farmers kneeling on the ground shed tears of fear and scream in agony.
Several enemy cavalrymen rushed forward and showed off their power in front of the gate of Kalk Castle. They threw some stumps and severed arms around, and loudly pointed and cursed at the people on the wall. Seeing no response, they ran back to the civilians and slashed their throats one by one with short knives...
There was a desolate and desperate cry outside the castle. The shrill screams were heartbreaking and everyone on the wall looked ugly.
Baron Balian stood behind the wall, his hands making a banging sound.
"This group of animals! My lord, let me lead my men and charge them out!" A knight beside Baron Balian could no longer bear the humiliation in front of him.
The number of enemy troops coming today is less than thirty, none of them wearing heavy armor, and there are only five cavalry. It seems that it is easy to defeat them.
“Ivan, didn’t you notice anything was wrong today?” Baron Balian asked the knight beside him who was gnashing his teeth.
Knight Ivan was only angry that the enemy army slaughtered Provence civilians in front of them. He did not pay much attention to the changes in the enemy army today and looked up at the enemy soldiers.
"Sir, most of their cavalry is missing."
"Their cavalry must be hiding behind. Once you lead the troops to kill them, they will definitely rush out, so we have to continue to hold back."
Knight Ivan pointed at the civilians outside the city who were about to be killed, and then pointed at the red-eyed soldiers on the wall, and shouted: "Are we going to let those bastards slaughter our civilians in front of us? Sir, this is a great shame!!!"
Baron Balian glanced at the knights beside him and roared in a low voice: "It would be a great shame to lose Fort Kalk. If you are besieged by cavalry when you go out now, will I lead my troops out to rescue you? If I am also ambushed, who else will come? Guarding this castle? Aosta is besieged by enemy troops. If we cannot leave a way out for Aosta, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the city will be massacred. "
"Then we just watch?"< Baron Balian lowered his head and thought for a while, then said: "Go and quietly bring all the crossbowmen over, fire the crossbows and kill as many as you can..."
· ........................................
· In Kalk Castle, Art is training the soldiers of the patrol. Of course, he is also helping Baron Balian train the newly recruited soldiers.
These new soldiers were almost all citizens and farmers before. Ate and the Odos had to teach them step by step how to hold spears and swords, how to use shields, and how to avoid the swords, axes and spears that were thrust at them.
The day the convoy arrived at Fort Kalk to deliver the food, Baron Balian and the patrol team terminated their employment. However, enemy soldiers kept appearing in Fort Kalk in the past two days. The patrol team could not successfully pass through the war zone with more than a dozen carriages and drivers, so Art had to stay at Fort Kalk and wait for the opportunity. Baron Balian provided food and accommodation for the patrol team and the convoy free of charge. In return, Art agreed to train new recruits for the baron, so that the baron did not have to recruit personnel from the city wall for training.
Seeing Knight Ivan quietly climbing onto the city wall with seven or eight crossbowmen, Atal grabbed the knight who was hurriedly passing by: "Sir Ivan, what happened?"
"Art, Baron asked me to go up to the city with a crossbow and shoot the enemy soldiers outside the city."
Hash to Kalk Castle for a few days, Baron Balian has been turning a blind eye to the provocative enemy soldiers outside the city, but today he wants to shoot the enemy soldiers.
"Ron, put on your armor and follow me to the wall to have a look." Art decided to go up and have a look.
When we arrived at the crenellations of the city wall, the killing outside the city had stopped. The ground was covered with pools of brown blood, and more than a dozen corpses lay paralyzed on the ground.
Seven or eight crossbowmen quietly found their way under the crenellated wall and headed outside the city through the crenellated opening. The distance of one hundred and fifty steps and more than two hundred yards was not too far for the crossbow. The crossbowmen squatted in a row behind the wall, used the winch to wind the string, and placed the special round-headed short arrows in the arrow trough. Baron Balian, who was on the side, took a bullhorn bow and tied a red ribbon on the light arrow. He stretched the bowstring and threw it towards the sky in the direction of the enemy outside the city. The light arrow rushed into the sky and turned into a black dot. After a while, the light arrow with the red ribbon was nailed dozens of steps in front of the enemy. The enemy army saw a light arrow shot from the top of the city, which caused a burst of laughter.
Behind the wall, the crossbow captain stretched his head to look at the red ribbon fluttering in the wind outside the city. He squatted half-crouched and raised the crossbow slightly at an angle. The seven crossbowmen beside him followed the captain's action and raised their crossbows.
There was a banging sound behind the wall.
Eight heavy arrows from crossbows suddenly shot out from behind the stacked wall and shot up into the sky...
The enemy camp was still laughing.
But when seven or eight black dots fell from the sky, they could no longer laugh. Eight heavy arrows shot down three soldiers in an instant. A war horse was shot in the neck, and the knight on its back suddenly fell off.
The show is not over yet, the enemy soldiers are still looking around for the sneak attack of the crossbowmen. The crossbows behind the wall stacks have been stringed and are putting the crossbow arrows into the arrow slots.
Bengbengbeng~! ! !
Eight more heavy arrows flew out. This time the enemy soldiers scattered in all directions, and the crossbow arrow only hit one enemy soldier.
This time, it was the turn of the soldiers on the city wall to laugh. Their anger for many days was directed at the enemy with these heavy arrows.
"Alright, the crossbowmen stop shooting and save some arrows."
Matt knew that the crossbow was more powerful at a range, but it was rare to maintain such accuracy beyond two hundred yards.
"Baron Balian, your crossbowmen are really powerful." Art sincerely praised him.
Knight Ivan smiled and said to Art: "Brother Art, these crossbowmen were trained by our Lords ourselves. Just like our archers, they are all marksmen."
Att has seen Baron Balian’s shooting skills, and he laments that his own shooting skills are still not as good as Baron Balian’s.
Looking at the cavalry galloping out of the city a mile away, Baron Balian turned to Art and said: "Art, it's your time to leave tonight. If you miss tonight, I'm afraid you won't be able to run away so easily."
Seeing that Art didn't understand what he meant, Baron Balian pointed to the outside of the city and explained: "In the past two days, enemy troops have begun to gather around. I guess they were unlucky in the siege of Aosta the day before and planned to storm Fort Kalk. "
"You have to break out before the enemy forces surround Fort Kalk."
Att's face was full of sadness. Lombard infantry was stationed around and the cavalry was patrolling. How could Att with more than twenty soldiers allow a dozen carriages and many coachmen to break out safely.
"Don't worry, I won't let you break out alone. Yesterday I received an order from Aosta. Tonight we will attack the enemy's military camp outside the city to disrupt the enemy's deployment. At that time, you can take the opportunity to escape through the gap we opened."
Atli understood Bei Baron Lyon's meaning returned: "Thank you, Your Excellency!"
Baron Balian waved his hand, "Go down and prepare, we will take action before the full moon tonight."
..................
The humid heat of summer nights envelopes this small city in central Provence. On the commercial road outside the city, more than a dozen carriages carried dozens of black-clad soldiers and coachmen.
About a mile in front of the convoy, more than twenty cavalrymen were leading their horses quietly towards an open space next to the commercial road on the north side.
The army in Fort Kalk is mainly garrisoned with infantry, so it lacks cavalry. However, only this harassment can cause chaos to the enemy camp, and the patrol can take advantage of the chaos to break through the Lombard army's defense line. Therefore, Art, who knew that the defenders were short of cavalry, took Ron and Jason to join Baron Balian's cavalry team in attacking the camp.
This is the first time Ron and Jason participated in this kind of real battle. To him, the twenty cavalrymen were already a large-scale cavalry formation. Even though Ron was nervous, he was still quite excited.
He led the hoofed war horse and followed Art behind him without daring to make any sound. Before departure, Baron Balian repeatedly warned that the key to a night attack was to win by surprise. If the enemy was aware of it in advance and took precautions, his more than twenty cavalrymen would have to leave more than a dozen corpses in the enemy camp.
Jason was about the same as Ron. Sweat had soaked through the linen lining, and the sweat-stained leather armor made a slight creaking sound.
"Sir Ron, I will follow the adults and you in a moment~" Jason was a little too nervous. If he didn't say something, he felt like he would go crazy.
"Hush!! Silence!" Ron turned his head and shouted softly.
Jason swallowed, patted the horse he was leading, and gripped the battle ax fastened to his waist, striding to keep up with the team.
There were more than twenty military tents set up under a hillside five miles north of Fort Kalk. After inspection, it was found that there were more than 180 Lombard soldiers stationed here. The silence of Fort Kalk for several days made the enemy relax their vigilance. They did not expect that the defenders in the city would have the courage to leave the city for a night attack.
Knight Ivan personally led four soldiers to crawl forward, and quietly reached a dozen or so steps behind the sentries on the hillside. With a shout, several people jumped up from the ground, rushed to the two sentry posts and stabbed them to death with a sword.
There was a lot of moonlight in the sky and a few people were not quick enough with their actions. The sentry discovered the enemy attack and screamed before he died. The screams of the sentry were heard in the camp down the hillside~
"Everyone get on the horse and charge forward with me."
Baron Balian gave the order, and more than 20 cavalrymen got on their horses.
Matt got on his horse and took advantage of the hazy night to look back at the commercial road behind him. He saw a group of faint black figures rushing northward.